The rest of the school week passed by without incident, and Lily was ready for a nice, relaxing Saturday. She was certainly not ready for the commotion in the Gryffindor common room Saturday morning. Still bleary eyed from sleep,
"What is going on down here?" she asked, flopping down in between Eli and Rudy. She yawned. "It's too loud down here."
"Good morning, grumpy," Eli said.
"It looks like someone's not ready for Valentine's Day," Rudy said, laughing with Eli.
The hubbub in the Gryffindor common room then made sense to Lily. All of her fellow Gryffindors were celebrating Valentine's Day with their friends and significant others.
"It's still too early in the morning for love," Lily said, shaking her head and wiping the sleep out of her eyes.
"Sounds like something Hugo would say," Eli said. "Speaking of Hugo, where is that bloke?"
"What do you mean you don't know where he is?" Lily asked.
"So you don't know where he went either?" Rudy asked, looking to Lily.
"You're the ones that share a room with him," Lily said. "Don't you two know where he is?"
The boys made eye contact before shrugging and turning back to Lily. Lily decided to take that as a no. The three sat in silence for a moment.
"So he was gone when you two woke up this morning?" Lily asked, reiterating what had already been said.
"Yeah," Rudy said. "His bed was slept in, but he was gone. His pajamas were on the floor."
"Yeah, along with the rest of his dirty laundry," Eli said, rolling his eyes.
"As much as I'd like to hear about your dorm, which probably looks like a tornado's gone through it, I'm more concerned about where Hugo's gone."
"Knowing Hugo, he might have gone down to get breakfast early," Rudy said.
"He doesn't go down to meals without us though," Lily said.
"You don't think..."
Lily looked over to Eli, "What are you thinking, Eli?"
"Never mind," he said, shaking his head of curls. "It's stupid. Ridiculous, even. I don't know why I thought it."
"Eli, what?" Rudy asked.
"Look, Hugo's disappeared a few times so far this school year. I mean, we'd look up, and he'd be gone. What if..."
"What if what, Eli?" Lily asked, her voice rose. She had a feeling that she knew where he was going, and she wasn't too thrilled about it. "Eli McGonagall, you spit it out right now."
"What if Hugo's the one that's been stealing from Professor McGonagall," he said.
Lily shook her head, "Absolutely not. Have you met Hugo? He would never steal anything."
"That's why I said it was a ridiculous idea in the first place, Lil," Eli said.
"Why would you think that about Hugo in the first place?" Lily asked, feeling her face get hot. She had to defend her cousin. "You're one of his best friends, Eli."
"Lily, calm down," Rudy said from her other side. "It was just a dumb thought."
Lily closed her eyes and took a deep breath, "I know. I'm sorry, Eli; I get a little hotheaded when it comes to family."
"Maybe it's the hair," Eli said with a smile, standing from the sofa.
"Was that a ginger joke, Mr. McGonagall?" Lily asked, getting up and crossing her arms. She felt a look of amused disbelief cross her face.
"Well it certainly wasn't a joke about milk," Rudy said, standing up.
"Salty, Rudy," Lily said.
"I thought the word "salty" was one of Hugo's many shticks," Eli said. "You might not want to say that in front of him, or he might get mad."
"Because of the hair?" Lily asked, trying to hold in a laugh.
"Because of the hair," Eli said, breaking out into a laugh. "But we all know how possessive Hugo gets over his shticks."
"Hey, I'm his cousin, and in his absence, I can take over his numerous shticks," Lily said. "Now enough of this, let's just get out of this lovefest common room and go get some breakfast."
"Aren't we going to wait for Hugo?" Rudy asked as Lily led the way to the portrait hole.
"Wherever he went, he obviously didn't wait for us," Lily said. "Plus, I'm pretty hungry right now."
"Such a very Hugo thing to say," Eli said, ducking out of the portrait hole. "In all seriousness, where do you think he actually went?"
Lily shrugged, "No clue. Maybe he did go down for breakfast early like Rudy said."
"It's a possibility," Eli said as the three started down the stairs.
"Hugo's a strange kid," Lily said, shaking her head, her orange bob swaying above her shoulders.
The three continued to hypothesize about Hugo's possible whereabouts on their way down to the Great Hall.
"Young ladies and gentlemen, I have an announcement to make."
As the three young Gryffindors entered the Great Hall, they quickly took seats at the end of the Gryffindor table as Professor Slughorn had taken to the podium at the front of the hall. All of the students in the hall stopped talking and turned toward Slughorn.
"What's going on?" Eli asked, his voice quiet as he slipped into his seat.
"Don't know," Lily said, looking up to Slughorn.
"It has come to my attention that some of my very expensive and very rare potion ingredients have gone missing," Slughorn said.
"Not again," Rudy said, shaking his head. "Who would steal from Slughorn?"
"I don't have the slightest," Lily said, still paying attention to the potion professor.
"Whomever stole my ingredients will be found out, and I will make sure that you are punished accordingly," he said, nodding and stepping down from the podium.
"What if it's Neoma's Trance?" Rudy asked.
"Relax, Rudy, it's not Neoma's Trance," Eli said.
"But what if it is?" he insisted.
"Like Eli said, relax," Lily said. "It isn't. I haven't seen a light out of my window, and no one's gone missing, Rudy. There's no way it's Neoma's Trance."
"Guys!"
Lily looked up from her panicked friends to see Cassie raced through the open Great Hall doors. She stopped, putting her hands down on the wooden table as she tried to catch her breath.
"Cassie, what's wrong?" Lily asked, putting her hand on her friend's shoulder.
"You have got to see this," she said.
"What are you talking about?" Eli asked. "We haven't even eaten yet."
"Breakfast can wait. You seriously have to see this, you guys," Cassie said.
"See what?" Rudy asked.
"Get up, and I will show you," Cassie said. "I'm not going to spoil the surprise because you won't believe it until you see it."
"Okay, we'll come," Lily said, swinging her legs over the bench and standing.
"I guess breakfast will unfortunately have to wait," Eli said with a sigh.
Before Lily could even steady herself, Cassie was out the Great Hall doors, and Lily, Eli, and Rudy had to run to catch up with their Ravenclaw friend. Cassie led the three Gryffindors out of the castle's main doors into the snowy February morning. As soon as they were outside, Cassie hunched down and started hurrying along the side of the castle.
"Where are we going?" Lily asked.
"Get down," Cassie said, motioning with her hand. "We can't let them see us."
Lily looked back at the boys behind her, shrugged and followed Cassie, crouching close to the ground as she was led around the castle's corner. Suddenly, Cassie stopped, flattening up her body to the castle's stone. Lily did the same thing, and Eli and Rudy followed.
"Aren't we being a little theatrical, Cassie?" Eli asked, leaning forward to see her from around Lily.
"Get back up against the wall, McGonagall," Cassie said. "Now, you all have to follow my lead as quietly as possible."
Lily was about to question, but before she could, Cassie quickly dove from the wall to behind a large shrub, snow flying around her after impact.
"What is she doing?" Eli asked.
"No clue," Lily said before following Cassie's lead and diving as silently as possible into the mound of snow behind the shrug.
Eli jumped next, followed by Rudy, who landed on top of Eli. The two started bickering.
"Would you lot shut up?" Cassie whispered, her voice harsh even in her low tone.
The boys stopped their fighting.
"So what are we supposed to be looking at?" Lily asked Cassie, making sure her voice was quiet enough to keep Cassie from telling her to shut it.
"This," Cassie said, grabbing a branch before stopping. "You guys have to promise not to say anything."
"Alright," Lily said, desperate to know what Cassie had dragged them out of the Great Hall for. "Just show us."
"Boys?" Cassie asked, looking beyond Lily and raising an eyebrow.
"Fine," Eli said, shrugging.
"We promise," Rudy added.
Cassie nodded, "Okay. I'll show you now."
With that, Cassie pulled back a few branches of the shrub. Lily huddled with Eli and Rudy, so they could all see through the openings between the branches. When Lily got a good view, she felt her jaw drop at what was before her.
Hugo and Nora were sitting together on a bench, talking. For one of the first times in her life, Lily swore that she watched her cousin blush.
"Oh my Merlin," Eli said. "Hugo and Nora?"
"Never would have guessed," Rudy said.
Suddenly, it all made sense to Lily. Hugo disappearing. Hugo seeming a slight bit bashful when around Nora. What he had said at Christmas. Lily was disappointed that she hadn't figured it out sooner. She had considered herself perceptive after all. Hugo had had a crush on Nora all along.
"How did you find out about them, Cassie?" Rudy asked.
"I was coming down for breakfast when I saw Nora. I called after her, but she didn't listen. I followed her and found her sitting with Hugo out here."
"Look, look, look, look," Eli said, pointing through the opening.
Lily looked away from Cassie and watched, wide-eyed, as Hugo leaned in, kissing Nora quickly on the cheek before pulling away. Lily's jaw dropped.
From beside Lily, Eli let out a loud wolf whistle, causing everyone, including Hugo and Nora, to jump.
Cassie smacked Eli, "I thought I told you guys to stay quiet."
"MCGONAGALL!"
Hugo's yell rang through the outdoors, and Lily watched as Hugo stood from the bench and marched over to the shrub, tearing branches on the other side of the shrub open.
Lily only saw her cousin's frustrated face for a moment before Cassie let the branches on their side fling shut.
"And we're caught," Cassie said. "Thanks a lot, McGonagall."
Lily smacked Eli on the arm as Hugo walked around the corner, followed by a blushing Nora.
"Thanks for ruining the moment, Eli," Hugo said, crossing his arms.
Eli shook his head, "It was a joke, Hugo. I couldn't help myself."
Hugo crossed his arms a second time, and Lily shook her head, "It was a joke, Hugo. You would've made the same noise if it were Eli and some girl."
Hugo exhaled, "I guess that you're right. I probably would've wolf whistled at Eli and a girl."
"What are friends for?" Eli asked, sticking out his hand.
Hugo shook it.
"Boys are weird," Nora said, shaking her head.
"Says the girl who just got kissed by one," Cassie said, smiling at her friend.
Lily smiled as her she and her friends took in Hugo and Nora's relationships. She couldn't be happier for Hugo and Nora's young, puppy love. With the mystery of Hugo's disappearances and strange behavior solved, it was time to solve more pressing matters, and Lily couldn't wait to get to the bottom of them.
-+-
Here we are! A nice Valentine's Day chapter albeit a little late! I've been really excited for this chapter because I really like the idea of Hugo and Nora together. #Norgo
Thank you all so much for reading! This was a little bit of a filler chapter, but I like to look at it as character development, I suppose! I hope you all enjoyed it! Thanks for reading, voting, commenting, and sharing! You guys are thee best!
-aquaseahorse