No Expectations
Sirius and Peter were looking down from the Astronomy tower, wide grins across their faces as they tried their hardest not to laugh. Remus was several steps behind them, not at all keen on the idea of being so close to the edge of the high tower, and was trying to figure out what was going on below without seeing it for himself. Sirius's commentary attempt was anything but useful, and Peter couldn't help but burst into a fit of laughter every time he tried to say something.
"She's noticed him…" Sirius said, his grin becoming exponentially wider. "You idiot! No! Moron! Oh, wow… oh, wow…"
"What's going on?" Remus pressed, becoming slightly irritated by Sirius's half-assed effort to commentate on the situation below.
Peter looked back at Remus and opened his mouth. It seemed as though he was just about to try and give him a summary of what was happening on the ground below, but his attempt was in vain when, instead of a helpful explanation, a shriek of laughter escaped his mouth. Shaking with amusement, Peter put his hands on his stomach and turned to look at the scene below again, realizing that he was entirely incapable of elucidation when he was this entertained. Remus sighed.
"This is hysterical," Sirius managed to bark out through laughter. "I don't even get what's so great about her…"
"If you're still talking about Lily, Padfoot," Remus cut in, grinning roguishly. "I should probably remind you of the time you broke up with Rebecca Boot because you'd had a vision in Divination which convinced you that Lily was dying to have sex with you."
Peter, who'd clearly forgotten about this, looked at Sirius and howled with laughter, earning himself a dark glare. Sirius looked at Remus, frowning.
"But I never fancied her, did I? Mate, I wasn't getting any action from Becca, so I thought I'd go for it."
"You'd been going out with Becca for a week, mate, no girl puts out that quickly," Peter managed to say through his laughter.
"They do for me," Sirius boasted, causing his friends to sigh in frustration. He paused for a moment, looking surprisingly thoughtful. "You should've seen the vision I had of Evans in that crystal ball, it was divine."
Remus rolled his eyes. "OK, I really don't need to know the details."
"If she's that good in bed…" Sirius looked over the edge again and grinned at the thought of it. "I can completely understand why so many guys are after her." He winked at Remus. "Man, I fucking love Divination."
Peter laughed, finally getting his words back. "I bet you're glad that Evie decided to go to the library instead of up here with us, Moony."
"Yeah," Remus said, grimacing. The thought of his girlfriend hearing any of Sirius's bizarre sex prophecies was horrifying – especially since Lily and Evie were best friends.
"The library's boring," Sirius said, now straining his head to follow the scene that had been amusing him and Peter a moment ago. When he could no longer see anything, he looked back at Remus and leaned against the wall. "Your girlfriend's boring."
"Good one, mate," Peter snorted. "Aspen's in there too, does that make her boring?"
Sirius scowled. "Fuck off, Wormtail, Aspen's not my girlfriend. And even if she was, I wouldn't care if she was in the library. It wouldn't make her boring."
"So why is Evie boring because she's in the library?"
"Because." Sirius smirked knowingly. "Evie's in the library during this free period because she wants to expand her essay on the Haiti Hag. Aspen, on the other hand, is in the library because, one: she has to make up for lost time when she tried to escape from school two weeks ago. Two: because she's got detention all month as a result of trying to escape from school two weeks ago and this is the only time she has to get her work done. And three: well, because she's probably putting a shitload of sexual innuendo in her essay and finding it really funny."
Peter frowned, confused. "Why would she put loads of innuendo in her essay?"
"Because she fancies Professor Harrison and wants to sleep with him," Remus said, rolling his eyes. "Apparently," he added accusingly, looking at Sirius.
Sirius shrugged. "She clearly wants to. Ever since he took the Defence position she's been making a real effort and getting better grades. And it's only November!"
"Maybe he's just a really good teacher," Remus said, though he wasn't entirely sure. He just preferred to think that one of his best friends wasn't trying to sleep with their new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher. However, knowing Aspen, she probably had ulterior motives…
"Or maybe Aspen Bennett's decided she finally wants to act like a sixteen-year-old for once and has decided it's time for a good old shag," Sirius said, smirking when Peter cringed at the idea.
Remus crossed his arms, grinning at Sirius. "Jealous then, Padfoot?"
An angry glower swept over Sirius's face and he gave Remus a filthy look. "Fuck off, Lupin, I don't fucking fancy her!"
"Alright, I'm sorry," Remus said, though slightly defiantly.
"Good," Sirius huffed. After a moment, he raised his eyebrow. "Wait, what the hell were we even just talking about?"
"Something about Evie being boring," Peter said. "And Aspen's punishment. I don't know if you'd made your point yet or not."
"Evie being boring?" Sirius thought back to a few minutes earlier and remembered the point he was trying to make. "Oh, right. Yeah, what I was saying was that Evie's boring because she never does anything but schoolwork, and Aspen's not boring because she does some really weird shit."
"Careful," Peter grinned. "Remember, you accused Aspen of being boring back in third year. Just look at her now!"
"Something tells me Evie won't ever go as far as Aspen's gone," Remus said. "I think it takes someone a bit crazy to skip school to see… what band she was trying to see?"
"I don't know, Think Floyd?" Sirius suggested.
"Pink Floyd," Peter corrected.
"Yeah, it takes someone a bit crazy to skip school to see Pink Floyd, a Muggle band, and convince Prongs to come along too," Remus said. He laughed and shook his head at the thought of his friends' idiocy.
Following an argument with Sirius and her best friend Zoë, Aspen had decided it would be a good idea to skip school for a day or two and go down to London; Pink Floyd, a favourite band of hers, was playing the Brixton Academy, and she figured it was about time she finally went to go see them play live. Her plan failed almost instantly, however, when a third-year Care of Magical Creatures class were having their lesson in the Forbidden Forest and a freckly Hufflepuff girl saw her making a run for it.
She'd been getting the piss taken out of her as a result of her failure, and if that weren't enough to rub salt in the already-glaring wound, she'd managed to earn herself a month's detention with Professor McGonagall doing clean-up jobs around the castle. Worse still, she'd somehow gotten James involved with her escapade, and he'd been subjected to the same punishment, creating an argument between the two of them too. Aspen blamed Sirius for everything that happened – he just found it funny.
"Hmm." Sirius sighed. "Yeah, Aspen's ridiculous."
"And becoming more so every day," Peter added.
Remus chuckled. "Still think it's a bad thing that Evie's 'boring', Padfoot?"
"Yes." Sirius shot his friend a teasing look. "However, she's sweet and doesn't get Prongs into useless detentions, so I won't hold her library love against her."
"What time is it?" Peter asked.
Sirius grabbed Remus's wrist and looked at his watch. "Just gone past four. Why?"
Peter looked at Sirius as though he were stupid. "Uh, Quidditch practice? Don't you have to be there?"
"Yes, but I don't feel like going."
"Mate, you're the new keeper, if you don't show up you'll be in big trouble," Remus pointed out. "There's only one keeper, it's not like they can make do without you."
Sirius shrugged. "So?"
"Zoë will be angry," Peter said.
"Zoë will get over it."
Remus sniggered when he saw the worried look on Peter's face. "Careful, Padfoot, I think you just hurt Wormtail's heart with your words. You can't talk about Zoë like that!"
"No," Peter said defensively. "I just don't think it's a good idea for you to not show up to your fourth Quidditch practice, especially when you've got a game soon."
"You just wanted a fair excuse to watch the team practise, mate," Sirius said. When Peter blushed, he smiled. "OK, I'll go – but only because I know how much you love the Zoë view. I can appreciate a great arse too."
Aspen was painfully aware of Evie's watchful stare, and it was beginning to put her off her essay. Evie had finished her essay twenty minutes ago, and though she'd insisted that she didn't mind waiting for Aspen to finish hers, she was getting impatient.
"Evie, darling," Aspen said finally, looking up from her parchment. "Yeah… I can't concentrate when you're staring at me like that."
Evie blinked. "Hm?"
"You're staring at me. It's throwing me off."
"No, I'm not."
Aspen raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "What? Yes, you were, Evie, you were giving me that menacing stare of yours and it was putting me off."
"Oh, sorry."
"You don't have to stay, you know."
"I have nothing better to do," Evie said truthfully.
Aspen chuckled. "Wow, I'm a riot, aren't I?"
"No," Evie said, realizing that what she'd said hadn't been particularly thoughtful. "It's just… I've finished all the work I had to do and I don't know where Remus is, and Zoë's getting really intense now that she's our Quidditch captain…" She trailed off, grimacing. "For fuck's sake." Aspen couldn't help but giggle every time Evie swore; it was a rare occurrence. "I have Quidditch practice."
Aspen sniggered. "Lucky you."
"Be quiet."
"D'you think I should talk to Zoë about it?" Aspen suggested. "I mean, she probably doesn't even realize how dictatorial she's being."
"I wouldn't compare her to a dictator, Aspen, I think she just takes the game a bit too seriously."
"That reminds me – can you ask Sirius to meet me in the common room just before dinner tonight?" Aspen asked. "I should probably patch things up with him before we all go down to Hogsmeade tomorrow."
Evie nodded. "Sure, but that's if he even shows up to practice this time. I'm amazed McGonagall's letting you go to Hogsmeade, actually. What charm did you use this time?"
Aspen smiled. "The Bennett charm. Works every time."
Evie chuckled, remembering the first time she watched Aspen charm her way out of a detention with Slughorn, and also thinking of Aspen's cousin Russell. Now he definitely had charisma. He was the most charming guy Evie ever had met in her life – though, Remus didn't know that, of course.
"Yes," she agreed. "The Bennett charm is nothing less than lethal."
"Exactly," Aspen grinned, packing her quill and unfinished essay into her shoulder bag. She could write the conclusion before she went to bed. "Now, you should really go to Quidditch practice – I'd rather not be kept up all night listening to Zoë bang on about your duties as a… er, what position are you?"
"Chaser," Evie scowled. "Nice to know how attentive you are."
Aspen ignored her jibe. "Yeah, I'd rather not be kept up all night listening to Zoë bang on about your duties as a chaser."
"OK. What are you doing now?"
Aspen shrugged. "Lily was meant to meet me in here five minutes ago, but she must be late. Oh well, I'll find her, she must be around somewhere."
The girls left the library, just about to go their separate ways, when they saw James and Lily standing at the foot of the stairs beneath them. They were clearly arguing about something. Aspen looked at Evie and rolled her eyes, preparing herself for involvement; it often took a mediator to calm these kinds of situations down.
"Look, Evans, in my defence – "
Lily clapped a hand to her forehead in frustration. "Potter, all I told you was that it was a bit creepy to find out that you'd been following me!"
"I wasn't following you, I was pursuing you!"
The two girls began to snigger at the top of the stairs – Aspen almost didn't want to break up the argument, but for the sake of Lily's sanity, she thought it was probably a good idea to help her out. She folded her arms across her chest and walked down the stairs, Evie close behind her.
"Alright," Aspen started, trying her hardest not to laugh at the argument. "James, I believe you have Quidditch practice where you can voice your opinions on how Evans is a difficult bitch to Sirius. And Lily, you have a non-so-romantic tryst planned with me, where you're welcome to vent about how Potter is a conceited fool who can't take a hint. It's time to stop today's argument."
James and Lily looked at her, their reactions mixed about Aspen's intervention. Lily looked grateful, relieved that James would finally have to get the hell away from her, while James seemed to be annoyed by the interruption – but then again, he might have still been annoyed at Aspen for the trouble she'd gotten him into.
Lily reached for Aspen's hand, inching away from James hurriedly. "I've never been more glad to see you," she said.
James held his hands up in self-defence. "What was I doing that was so heinous?"
Evie cleared her throat. "I think you were following her, by the sounds of it…" she said quietly, trying not to laugh.
Aspen burst out laughing.
James gawped at the girls. "I wasn't following her, I was – "
"Pursuing her?" Aspen offered.
Having nothing left to say, or defend himself with, James's shoulders fell, and he turned around to go to Quidditch practice – which, by now, he, Evie and Sirius were all late for. Aspen nudged Evie, motioning for her to go with James to practice, and then squeezed Lily's hand. When Evie and James had left, Lily looked at her friend.
"Thanks for the interception, I really appreciate it."
"No problem," Aspen said, smiling. Her smile turned into a wide grin. "But I've seen the future, my dear, and I've got to tell you: you're going to marry that guy."
Lily smacked her friend's arm. "Oi," she said, blushing. "That's a vile thought. And you're crap at Divination, Evie's the expert."
Aspen shrugged. "Touché, I'm sorry."
Lily forgave her for the comment, and as the pair carried on walking, Aspen had a thought. James was clearly still mad at her for getting him detention for a month; she had to make it up to him somehow.
"Why are you staring at me?" Lily asked.
"Oh." Aspen looked away from her friend and carried on walking towards the Great Hall. "Don't worry, it's nothing."
Inwardly, Aspen was grinning triumphantly. Yeah, she had to make it up to him somehow. And she knew exactly how she was going to do it.
