･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. .**.☽ .*
"Sixth year!" Eloise sang happily as they all settled into their compartment on the Hogwarts express.
"Godric, just think about it, we only have two more years left!" Archie shook his head in disbelief.
"Ty, remember we've got the Prefects meeting at half eleven," Caroline reminded Tyler quietly.
"Yep," he nodded.
"Oh yeah, you two are prefects now," Jane said with a small laugh, "better not be giving any of us a detention."
"I'm not making any promises," Tyler joked, and Caroline laughed along.
But her mind was elsewhere. Julian hadn't written her the whole of the last week of the holiday, despite the fact she had written him twice. Was he avoiding her? And why? Was it because of what had happened between them when they saw each other over the holidays? She had never wanted to disappoint him...sometimes she thought that it would be better for their relationship if she just ignored her anxieties and just did whatever he wanted...but she knew that wasn't right.
"I'm going to see Julian," she murmured to those of the group not invested in conversation.
"Okay," Tyler nodded, shooting her a small smile of reassurance since he knew what had been happening between the couple.
She got up and left the apartment, holding onto the wall of the corridor as the train shuddered along. She saw some Gryffindor boys walking her way, but it wasn't Julian's lot. She looked down at her feet as she kept walking, hoping and praying they would just ignore her.
"Oh hey, Caroline?"
She groaned internally, but lifted her head and smiled politely at the tall boy who had stopped to talk to her.
"Hi Remus," she said softly, her brown eyes focusing on him and not on his boisterous friends who were with him.
"I heard you got Ravenclaw prefect, right?" He asked, smiling kindly at her.
"Oh, yes I did," she nodded, feeling relief settle on her shoulders, "and you got Gryffindor right? Congratulations for that."
"Cheers," he grinned, before looking at her slyly, "hopefully we'll get patrol duty together, eh?"
"Fuckin' 'ell, Remus," she heard one of his friends mutter behind him, but she took no notice.
"Sure," she felt her face heat up slightly at the charming look in his blue eyes, before clearing her throat, "uh, I'll see you at the meeting then?"
"Sure, see you then," he sent her another friendly smile before walking away with his friends who began to tease him as soon as they thought Caroline was out of earshot.
"Mate, you do realise she has a boyfriend?" She heard one of them say loudly.
"So? It's Hughes...he's an ass anyway."
"What has gotten into you today? You've flirted with about five girls since we got on this train and we've been here for about two minutes."
"It's not flirting, I'm just being friendly."
"I bet it's the prefect stuff, it's going to his head."
"I think some other things are going to his head..."
She smiled softly and rolled her eyes at them. They were the boys who did all the pranks. The immature ones. Oh well, she thought, they seemed nice enough (and really bloody good-looking too). She didn't catch the look that Sirius Black boy sent her as she began to walk away, his mind whirring about her too, but her mind was now set on finding Julian again.
She got to his compartment and knocked gingerly on the door before sliding it open.
"Hey, Julian?"
"Yeah babe?" He said lazily, looking up from his conversation with Will.
"Can we talk?"
"Sure," he sighed, getting up, "be right back, boys."
"Yeah yeah, I miss you already," Finlay sarcastically drawled.
The door shut behind the couple and they began to walk down the corridor, Caroline trying to look for an empty compartment they could go to, but found everywhere full.
"What's up?" He asked, putting his hands into his pockets.
"I just wanted to see if you were alright," Caroline said carefully, "you didn't write me back last week."
"Ah yeah, sorry about that, I just got busy," he said casually.
"Doing what?" Caroline laughed slightly.
"Just stuff, okay? I don't know why you're grilling me all of a sudden, you don't need to know everything you know, Caroline?" He said.
"Right, I know that," she said quietly, before stopping, "here's an empty compartment."
"Why are we going in there?" He asked.
"Because I want to talk to you..."
"We don't have anything to talk about, Carrie, don't make a bigger deal out of this then it is," he said, raising an eyebrow.
And suddenly she felt very stupid.
"I'm not making it into a big deal...I just...are you upset? I feel like I've done something-"
"Merlin, no, you haven't, don't be stupid, Caroline," he rolled his eyes, "everything's fine, okay?"
"Okay," she nodded slowly, before shooting him an apologetic smile, "I'm sorry."
"It's okay, love," he squeezed her shoulder, "now, are we done here?"
"Yeah, you can go," she smiled at him.
"Brill, love you," he kissed her on the cheek before walking off, leaving her standing there alone.
She swallowed. Her stomach was twisting uncomfortably and she felt a familiar sinking feeling, but she tried to ignore it. She felt hopeless at this relationship stuff, now he was probably all annoyed about his stupid, over-thinker of a girlfriend. He probably saw other girls and thought they would be loads better than her. How could she have been so dumb?
She made her way back to the compartment silently, a bitter taste on her tongue. This was her fault, he had done nothing wrong.
"What's wrong?" Archie asked when she got back to their compartment.
"Nothing," she sat beside him and leaned into his side.
He sighed and put an arm round her, rubbing her shoulder, "what did Hughes do now?"
"Nothing."
"He's such a dickhead, Carrie, you should really dump him," Jane said.
"I second that," Tyler murmured.
"I don't even know why you still go out with him if he-"
"Shut up," she said in a small voice, not shifting away from Archie's hug, "I love him and he's good to me, I'm not breaking up with him. Stop pestering me about it, it's not nice."
They all looked at her for a moment as she continued to stare at her lap, before Tyler spoke up, "you're right. I'm sorry, Carrie."
"We just care about you," Archie told her quietly, "but if you're happy, then we're happy."
"Exactly," Jane nodded, "I didn't mean to push you, that wasn't right. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Caroline looked up and smiled softly, "thanks for looking out for me."
"Aww we love you," Tyler sang in a stupid voice, coming over to Caroline's other side and hugging her to him.
"I love you too," she laughed, hugging him back, "and trust me, if I was ever unhappy, I would give you all full reign to beat him up."
"Yes," Archie fist-pumped the air.
"If he hurt you, we'd kill him," Jane said solemnly.
"I'm a pacifist, but I'd say some pretty hurtful things to him on the sidelines," Tyler said, making her giggle.
She was making a big deal out of nothing of course, just as Julian said, but it was nice to know she had friends who would take care of her if things got shit.
But it was a big shame that, no matter how smart she was, she couldn't tell that things with Julian were already shit.
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. .**.☽ .*