The cases of butterbeer were stacked high, hidden behind them were the cases of firewhiskey that somebody had either snagged from Hogshead or the Three Broomsticks - the music was muggle: somebody had snagged a Queen 8-track and Bohemian Rhapsody was playing on replay in the Shrieking Shack. The place was cramped and Charlotte glanced around for her friends. Gwen was curled up on Remus lap - the two had started dating sometime over the summer when they had both been in Bath on holiday.
Lily was not here, or if she was here she was holed up in some corner being standoffish. Rose would be near the epicenter of the party - where she always was. Mary would be curled up probably near the drinks or trying to start a conversation with Peter and then Marlene and Kitty would be somewhere near Sirius.
Sirius - who was now standing in front of Charlotte grinning his broad smile, his black hair was pulled back into a bun. Charlotte raised her eyebrows visions of samurai soldiers going through her mind. She could have sworn she saw a piercing in his ear and his left arm was reaching out for her. She could barely make out the tattoo hidden underneath his watch. "Grey!" He bellowed as he pulled her towards him and into a drunk hug "How was your summer?!" He yelled into her ear. She pulled back a touch grimacing at Sirius.
"It was fine" She said - in any other circumstance one would have known that she was lying, but Sirius was already onto the next person, except his hand didn't release Charlotte's. "Come sit with us?" He asked as he pulled her towards a back corner. Charlotte begrudgingly went - knowing if she was with Sirius at some point she would run across either James trying to corral Lily into a dance or Rose dancing with someone.
Charlotte took a seat on an empty wooden crate across from Sirius who immediately had Kitty Nelson on his lap. The blonde Hufflepuff bombshell was a sweet, beautiful girl, she had always been kind to Charlotte and was a friend of Rose's. "Hello Charlotte!" Kitty bellowed out as she smiled at Charlotte.
"Hello Kitty" Charlotte said trying to plaster a smile on her face. All she wanted was to get back to the common room fairly quickly with either Lily or Gwen. She needed to talk to someone about her summer, hell she'd even take Severus right now if he would have been here or if she had any way to find him.
Marlene slide into the spot next to Sirius and smiled up at Charlotte. "Hello" she said clearly not wanting a response back and Charlotte didn't give her one. Marlene was only liked by the male population at Hogwarts, Kitty, and Lily - who gave everybody at least five chances before writing them off.
"How was your summer?" Kitty yelled as the music stopped for a second, she started giggling when she realized everyone in the room had probably heard her.
"It was great" Marlene said smiling "We went to the South of France" Charlotte snorted into her drink catching the attention of the trio. Marlene's death glare was enough to make Charlotte contemplate leaving right then.
"And how was your summer?" Marlene drawled her voice was full of venom "Read any good Dickens? About Fairy Godmothers and wealthy princes?" her comment must have thrown both Sirius and Kitty off, but Charlotte and Marlene were glaring at each other. Charlotte barely felt Lily push her a little bit off her crate as she chimed in "What's going on?" Lily could obviously tell the tension in this corner was a bit much.
"Oh Marlene was just talking about Dickens and fairytales again" Charlotte said smirking as she watched Marlene's face drop. Charlotte knew that Lily would have no clue what the connotation was, but Marlene didn't know that.
"Right" Lily said drawing out the word as she stared around, deciding whether she wanted to stay here and break up a duel or go somewhere else. "Hey Potter" Lily called out as she stood up "You said there was a really cool view of Hogsmeade?" Obviously, she was choosing Potter over a potential duel between two of her roommates. Lily had tried over the years to calm the tension between Gwen, Charlotte, and Marlene. It was common knowledge why Gwen and Marlene didn't get along - Marlene was McGonagall's favorite and Gwen, McGonagall's daughter, was always in and out of trouble with her mother. Lily had always thought that Charlotte had just taken a hatred to Marlene because Gwen hated her. When in reality, there hatred went deeper - and probably had more justification than Gwen's dislike that her mother seemed to always chastise her and applaud Marlene.
"Let's play Never have I ever!" Kitty said jumping up and down on Sirius lap like she was a five year old girl. Sirius smiled up at her with annoyance, how he dealt with Kitty on a daily basis had always baffled Charlotte.
"Well, we're all going to lose to the virgin Mary over here." Marlene snapped. Charlotte's smirk faltered she probably did deserve that jab. She all but let Marlene know that Lily knew her secret, which would mean that Charlotte had broken their unwritten promise. Even though the two hated each other - Charlotte couldn't help but know she had put herself in pretty hot water with her comment to Lily.
"Well then I'll excuse myself" Charlotte said as she jumped up and made her way to the door. She could see in the corner Remus' arm wrapped around Gwen's waist as they snogged. Charlotte didn't have the urge to go pull them apart even though she knew if she did Gwen would willing walk back to Hogwarts with her. She could barely hear Kitty vomit as Marlene squeaked and jumped up.
As she walked towards the door Charlotte felt a smaller set of hands pull her towards an empty corner. "Peter?" Charlotte said. Peter was about head shorter than the rest of the Marauders who all seemed to be about the same height, he was a little bit stockier than the others. But, he was a loyal friend, he was apparently smart albeit it took him a normal length of time to learn things. The rest of the group were fast learners: Remus studied well before hand, James was just a fast learner, and Sirius - well he surprised everybody and would barely pay attention, barely study, and then somehow be the first one to get the spell right. Charlotte had heard Remus once tell Peter that Sirius was a liar and he did actually study late at night when nobody would realize. His blonde hair was cut short and his blue eyes sparkled. He would be an attractive guy if he didn't have to stand next to Remus, James, and Sirius all the time. Charlotte felt guilt all of a sudden, she felt bad that Peter had to live in the shadows of his more popular, smarter, and well known friends.
"Hi Charlotte" Peter squeaked out "How was your summer?"
"It was okay" Charlotte said she couldn't help but glance past Peter at the door.
"Do you want to talk about it?" Peter asked sincerely "We could grab a butterbeer or something and go sit outside and talk?" Charlotte felt her stomach tighten. He truly was a sweetheart, for a moment she thought about it, but she could see Mary eyeing the two of them from the other corner.
"Not tonight Peter, I'm really tired." Charlotte said stepping past him, but before she left she turned around "Thank you Peter, really thank you. You're the first person who hasn't just run off as soon as I said fine or okay" Charlotte watched Peter smile weakly and then stare down at his feet.
"Good night Charlotte, by the way" Peter said looking up at Charlotte his face was bright red now "You look really beautiful tonight." Charlotte couldn't help but feel her face grow red and all she knew was she needed to get out of the Shrieking Shack.