"Caroline, what's wrong?" Tessa asked, looking sideways at her friend while she pulled on her boots.
"Nothing." Caroline grumbled, impatiently shoving her long curly hair out of her face and finishing tying the laces.
"Don't give me that. You only wear those boots when something's wrong."
"Fine." Caroline straightened up. "Yes, I'm grumpy. But there's no reason why. I just woke up and felt like punching something."
"Does this have anything to do with the fact you're failing potions?"
Caroline looked sharply at her friend. "Maybe."
Tessa sighed and stood up. "Well, being late for class isn't going to help."
"Easy for you to say."
"At least you're doing well in divination."
"Nobody cares about divination. All the teachers are all like 'Blahblahblah you need potions or you'll fail in life.Blahblahblah.'"
"You won't fail in life." Tessa sighed, grabbing Caroline by the arm and dragging her to her feet. "Now come on, we're going to be late."
"If I do I'll just live off of you." Caroline muttered, allowing Tessa to lead her out of their dorm room. "And we're not that late. Breakfast has hardly started."
"Yes, but you take forever to eat. Come on."
"Tessa?"
"What?" Tessa continued to drag Caroline down the hall.
"If I do fail in life can I live off your fortune?"
"What fortune?"
"The one you'll make doing some fabulously, highly difficult and qualified job using potions and arithmacy."
"Fine." Tessa said. "Come on."
Caroline, seeming to have perked up a little, followed willingly into the great hall where she and Tessa found a place to sit at the Ravenclaw table.
"You know, I really have to agree with your mother." Tessa said while Caroline shoved an overly-large spoonful of porridge into her mouth. "Those boots have had it. You should throw them out."
"Nu-huh." Caroline said, her mouth full. She swallowed her porridge and tried again. "No way. You know what these boots mean to me. Their my babies, my darlings, they are Sonny to my Cher."
"You've really got to stop hanging around with muggles." Tessa tried not to laugh. "Besides, a quick reparo and they'd be good as new."
"I don't want them new! They have character, comfort. If you fixed them then all of my aura would go out of them."
"Does the mud and wet dog smell also hold your aura?"
"They don't smell that bad!"
"Maybe, if you don't mind foot smell."
"I thought you said it smelled like wet dog."
"Wet dog smells sort of like feet."
"Maybe your feet do." Caroline muttered, ducking her head to hide a grin. "I like my boots."
Tessa rolled her eyes. "Fine. Are you done? Good, let's go."
"Blech."
"We've got it with Griffendor today." Tessa cajoled.
"We do? We do! Come on, hurry up, lets see if we can sit beside Sirius." Caroline's eyes gleamed with scheming.
"Ug." Tessa muttered. "I shouldn't have said anything."
"Tee hee." Caroline grabbed Tessa's hand and jogged the rest of the way to class and managed to claim a seat at the table to the left of the one where Sirius and his friends were sitting and pulled Tessa in a chair beside her.
"You know," Tessa murmured as she took out her books and set up her cauldron. "If you paid as much attention to Slughorn as you did to boys you'd be passing this class."
"I don't pay attention to boys." Caroline hissed back. "A boy. One. Singular. That one." She nodded at Sirius who had stolen his friend's glasses and was holding them just out of reach. "And it's not like I'm the one. What's that boy's name, the Slytherine? Serversomething?"
"Serverus." Tessa said through gritted teeth just as a balled up piece of parchment landed in her frizzy dark blond hair.
Caroline looked back to see Sirius and James staring at them, and Caroline carefully fished the parchment out of Tessa's hair. "Is this yours?" She whispered- Professor Slughorn was shuffling his papers into order and was about to start the class.
Sirius nodded and Caroline carefully chucked it back in his direction. Sirius grinned a thank- you at Caroline and she nearly had a dither attack right there in the middle of potions class.
Later that class another ball of parchment came flying over to Caroline and Tessa's table and almost landed in Caroline's cauldron, which was smoking ominously. Caroline looked up questioningly but Sirius was bent right over his cauldron and didn't seem to be paying attention to anything else.
Carefully unfolding the paper so that no one except maybe Tessa could see, Caroline smoothed out the note.
Hi.
"That's it?" Tessa asked quietly while she tried to help Caroline fix her potion. Tessa had already finished hers.
Caroline flipped the note over and nodded, scribbling 'Hi' and throwing it back.
Sirius read it, smiled, then wrote a reply, tossing it back to Caroline. It bounced off the desk and hit the floor so Caroline bent to retrieve it. When she went to straighten up her head nearly collided with Professor Slughorn's rather impressive belly.
"And how is your potion going?" He asked, peering into the putrid mess bubbling dejectedly in Caroline's cauldren. "Not good, I see." He plucked the note from Caroline's hand and read it quickly. "I see, I see," He glanced at Tessa, who looked down and fiddled with her perfect, completed potion. "You're sitting beside one of the most gifted potionists in the class, and yet you can't get it right. It seems," Slughorn said, rounding on Sirius who attempting to look studious. "The same is true for Mr. Black, here. Both of you really need to start paying attention, what with N.E.W.T.S coming up. I hate to do this, but both of you in my office after dinner tonight for a detention."
Caroline opened her mouth to protest and Tessa stepped on her foot.
"But sir," Sirius said. "I already have a detention with Professor McGonagall tonight."
"I will speak to her." Slughorn rumbled. "We'll work something out." He tottered on, continuing his examination of potions.
"I should just drop this class." Caroline muttered, staring sadly at the mess in her caldron. "I'm going to fail it anyway."
Tessa grunted non-committaly, pulling a bit of parchment out of her hair and handing it to Caroline. "What're you worried about? You're getting time alone with him."
"That's true!" Caroline brightened up and cast a cleaning charm on her cauldron so enthusiastically that it still several inches along the desk. The note said See you tonight.
"He's flirting," Caroline babbled as she and Tessa walked to supper than evening. "I think- I mean, he does seem like the flirtatious type, but I'm pretty sure he's flirting with me, specifically. Do you think he likes me? See you tonight. Does he mean he'll see me tonight, or just, you know, he'll SEE me because I'll be there to see? But if that's the case then why would he write a note pointing out the obvious. I think he means he'll see me. Me! He wants to see me! Maybe. What if-"
"Will you shut up already? If he'd have known that it would have thrown you into a tizzy for the whole afternoon he probably wouldn't have written that note." Tessa grumbled, rubbing her aching forehead.
"Is he seeing anyone else? I mean, does he, like, already have a girl? Because I thought I saw him last week with a girl, although I don't know if he was with her, or just, you know, with her. Tessa, are you listening?"
"No." Tessa took a seat at the table.
"Why not!"
"Because you haven't shut up about Sirius all day and it's getting boring. If you want to talk about something intelligent then by all means go ahead."
"Do you think I should drop potions?"
"You know, if you just concentrated on them and worked at it a bit-"
"I do work at it!" Caroline exclaimed. "I try really hard, but my brain just isn't built for it. It's like- it's like all the numbers and ingredients come into my mind and bounce around and get all mixed up and I don't understand any of it. I'm soooooo going to fail my NEWTs" Caroline moaned. "Hey- look! Pudding!"
When supper was finished Caroline had to remind herself not to skip to Slughorn's office. Detention was a punishment, she reminded herself. She ought to act like it or Sirius might think she liked him, and that would never do.
She came to a stop at Slughorn's door, took a deep breath and knocked.
"Ah, hello, dear," Slughorn swung the door open. "Do come inside. Have a seat."
Caroline nervously sat in one of the overstuffed chairs in front of Slughorn's desk. Sirius was already there, flopped into a chair and looking bored.
"Now, since you both seem to have so much trouble in potions I think this will help you."
He motioned to the back corner of his room where a squashed table sat in the table, covered in books, old and new. "Those are a selection of books from the potions section of the library. Most of them have been written in and your job is to erase any notes or doodles you find in there. And you must look through each page, I want those books spotless." Slughorn looked at them severely. "No I will just be next door if you need me for anything. I will come and tell you when you may leave." He hauled his considerable bulk out of his chair and waddled out of the room.
Caroline started to rise from her seat. Sirius stayed where he was, staring off into space. Grabbing a book from the stack Caroline sat back down in the chair, holding her wand loosely in one hand and started to flip through the pages of Advanced Potion Making. This copy was full of writing, it would take forever to erase it all. She skimmed through the book, pausing on the potion that she had failed to make that afternoon. Written in messy, cramped writing between the lines were what looked like... suggestions? Caroline peered closer, trying to decipher the writing.
"Hey, Ravenclaw, what's so interesting?"
He knows I'm in Ravenclaw! Caroline thought to herself gleefully. "I, err, well, look at this," She turned the book towards Sirius, who leaned in close to see.
"What's this say?" He pointed at a margin full of notes, which didn't seem to have anything to do with the potion. "Levi.."
"Levicorpus." Caroline said and suddenly Sirius shouted. She dropped her book and stared at Sirius, hanging upside-down in mid air as is a giant was holding onto his ankles.
"OhmyGodI'msosorry!" Caroline stared up at him.
"What the Hell did you do!" Sirius shouted, struggling against he invisible hold. "Get me down, you crazy wench!"
"Right! Sorry!" Caroline picked up the book with shaking hands and frantically searched for the right page. She found it released Sirius, who fell heavily from the floor. Caroline ran over and kneeled beside him. "Are you all right? I'm so sorry, I forgot I was holding my want and I didn't know what it would do and..."
Sirius started laughing. "That was bloody brilliant!" He cried. "I never knew a spell like that existed!" He clapped her on the back. "Caroline, right?"
She nodded mutely.
"Come on then, let's see what else this book has to teach us."
"Shouldn't we get some work done first?" She asked hesitantly. "I mean, if he comes back and found we haven't done anything."
"You can work if you like." Sirius waved his hand at her. "I'm looking at the book here. I wonder if those changes in the potions would actually work?" He mused, flipping through the pages, still sitting on the floor.
Caroline crowded beside him, studying the pages intently.
When Slughorn returned neither Caroline nor Sirius had done any work at all.
"What are you doing there on the floor?" He asked them and Sirius quickly shoved the book under Caroline's robe.
"Er, just working." Caroline said, manoeuvre the book between her knees so Slughorn wouldn't see it.
"Right then, let's see what you've done."
Caroline and Sirius glanced at each other. "I told you so!" She mouthed.
"I see." Slughorn nodded his head and smiled meaningfully. "Well, next time I guess I'd better supervise you two. Out with you now." He winked at Sirius, who got to his feet.
It took Caroline a little longer to get up and waddle out, being careful not to dislodge the book from its hiding place. When they were in the hall and a safe distance from Slughorn's office Caroline stopped and took the book in her arms.
"Well, give it here." Sirius said, tugging at the book.
"No way," Caroline took a step back. Sirius may be good looking and devilish and funny and all around a perfect example of male goodness, but if this book could help her pass potions there was no way she was going to give it up. "I found it."
"Yeah, but I had the sense to hid it."
"Well, you should have hidden it under your own robe then." Caroline said. "I have to get my potions homework done, still."
"And you think I don't? Besides, my copy is all wrecked because Peter threw it down the stairs."
Caroline rolled her eyes, a plan starting to form in her devious little mind. "We can share it." She said. "I'll meet you in the library." And with that she turned on her heel and walked away, leaving Sirius staring after her.
"How was detention?" Tessa didn't bother to look up from her book when Caroline entered the dorm room.
"Fabulous!" Caroline replied. "Sirius and I are, like, study-buddies now!"
"Since when do you study?" This time Tessa did bother to look up.
"Since I found this."
"A potions text book?"
"Not just any potions text book- here, watch- levicorpus!"
Tessa screamed and struggled in midair.
"Isn't that brilliant?"
"Let me down... you wanker." Tessa grunted, grabbing hold of her bedpost and trying to pull herself towards the ground.
Caroline giggled, but eventually she did let Tessa down. "Anyway, I told him to meet me in the library. See ya." She flapped her hand at Tessa, grabbed her bag and flounced out of the room. When Caroline got to the library she didn't see Sirius anywhere. Feeling a little dejected but still hopeful she took sat down at a table and started pulling out her books.
"Psst!"
Startled, Caroline looked around and saw Sirius peering out from behind a book shelf. "What?"
"Over here."
Frowning, Caroline went to join him. Behind the bookshelf Sirius seemed to have made himself a little nest- his discarded outer robe lay crumpled on the floor which was littered with pieces of parchment and books.
"You know, they have these really clever devices called tables." She said, surveying the mess.
"I know about tables!" Sirius said in a hushed tone. "But I have a reputation to keep up. If people thought I was studying..." He shuddered.
"Er, so why're you studying then?"
"I'm not studying, I'm looking through that book for anything else that might be useful. I've already used that levicorpus thing eight times!"
"In what, ten minutes since I left?"
Sirius nodded vigorously. "So let me see the book."
"Fine. Let me go get my bag." She dashed out from between the shelves and collected her things. On the way back she glanced at the spines of a few of the books littering the shelves. They all had to do with muggle studies. But muggle studies... people called it the snogging section for a reason. Did Sirius want to snog her? Or had he chosen this spot because no one ever went here except for couples who would be too distracted to notice that Sirius Black was actually studying?
When Caroline returned to his nest, her hopes blown higher than the astronomy tower they were quickly shot down again when she found Sirius bent over the book and writing notes intently. Caroline had seen that studious expression on Tessa's face often enough to know that he not only didn't want to be bothered, but might throw something at her if she distracted him.
Caroline resigned herself to doing her homework, which had been her plan all along- really, it had. She had had no intention of trapping Sirius in the library and snogging him stupid. No sir. She wanted nothing more than to finish her potions homework and memorize plant names for herbology. That's why, when there was a gentle touch on her shoulder, she continued to read. She wasn't playing hard to get, she was just really interested in the many uses of frog spleens in potions.
"Caroline?"
"Huh?" She looked up from her- very engrossing- dusty old potions book.
"We're breaking the rules, y'know."
"How?" She frowned, setting the book in her lap and looking into Sirius' deep blue eyes. Why couldn't she have pretty eyes like that? He probably thought her eyes were incredibly boring. Stupid brown eyes. She really needed to find a spell or something to change them, because if Sirius had such nice eyes he might want someone else who had nice eyes, though if she changed them now surely he'd notice, because he was looking right into her eyes and if they suddenly changed colour-
"This is the snogging section." Sirius broke into her rambling, runaway thoughts. "And we're not snogging."
"No," Caroline agreed. "We're not." Oh, clever, very good. He'll be leaping into your arms any minute if you keep this up. Why don't you say something else equally irresistible? "Er." Yes, like that. Great.
And then, suddenly, they were kissing. It was wet, it was messy and it was unbelievably excellent. Sirius dragged the very compliant Caroline into his lap and wove his fingers through her hair, holding her head at exactly the right angle.
Caroline thought she would die. Literally. She had been so concerned with the snogging that she forgot to breath and now she was faced with a serious dilemma: pull away and catch her breath before she passed out, or stay attached to Sirius' mouth for the rest of her life. Her life, admittedly, would be short if she didn't pull away to breath, but then she could think of worse ways to die.
Like of embarrassment when someone pointedly cleared their throat.
Sirius and Caroline untangled their tongues with some difficulty and Sirius twisted to see who had so rudely interrupted them.
"Remus!" Sirius growled. "Sod off, we're busy."
The slight, light-haired boy flinched slightly at Sirius' harsh tone, but he stood his ground. "The librarian is making her rounds, so I suggest you find someplace else to be 'busy.'" His tone was like ice as he glared down at Sirius. "And I need to get a book."
"Fine." Sirius grumbled, disentangling himself. "We'll finish this later, love." He nodded to Caroline, scooped up his things and strode straight past Remus giving him a Look.
"Sorry," Remus said to Caroline, then hurried after his friend.
Caroline sat there for a few minutes, trying to process everything that had happened. After a while she heard someone nearby and she peered between the books to see the librarian on the other side shelving. She hurriedly grabbed her things and rushed out of the library. Tessa had seriously better be in the dorm, Caroline would burst if she didn't tell someone soon.
As she sped down the hall the sound of Sirius' voice stopped her in her tracks. "I swear it didn't mean anything, Remy. And look- I got the book."
"So the fact that you prostituted yourself for a book is suppose to make me happy?" That was the boy who had interrupted Caroline and Sirius' snogging session. Caroline felt a heated dislike for him boiling through her chest.
"Well, no," Sirius said quietly. Caroline took a quiet step toward the door to the empty class room where the voices were coming from. "But you don't have to be so angry."
"Angry! Sirius, what would you do if you saw me kissing someone else?"
There was silence, the thick kind that settled into the floor, the walls, the folds of your clothes. The kind of silence where the sound of a heartbeat is magnified a hundred fold, where you think everyone should be able to hear it because it's so loud. The type of silence that can only be broken by two words:
"I'm sorry." Sirius said, his voice so low, so quiet it hardly sounded like him at all.
"I know you are." Remus sighed and Caroline risked a look through the partly opened door. Remus was standing close to Sirius, his hand on the taller boy's shoulder. "If you ever even think about doing that again I won't forgive you."
Sirius sighed, then swept Remus up into a tight hug. No, hug wasn't the right word. It couldn't begin to describe the tenderness, the reverence of the embrace.
Remus also sighed, but it was more in resignation than happiness. "I don't know how you manage to get away with this." He muttered into Sirius' neck.
"Because I'm so handsome?" Sirius asked, his hand lacing through Remus' short hair.
Caroline wanted to burst into the room and kick Remus out of the way. What was Sirius doing? Touching his friend- his male friend- like he had touched her?
When they started kissing Caroline couldn't stand to watch. She stumbled away from the door and careened down the hall towards the Ravenclaw dormitories.
Sirius didn't want her- he just wanted the book that she'd found. He was only playing with her and... and... and he was gay! Sirius, the biggest womanizer at school was an enormous poof and no body had noticed.
We'll see how long that lasts, she thought savagely. It seemed appropriate payback for his treatment of her.
Caroline ducked into a washroom and bathed her face with cold water so her eyes wouldn't look so red and puffy, then continued towards her dormitory. Tessa was sitting by the fire and was, predictably, reading.
"Guess what I just saw!" Caroline said, somewhat louder than necessary.
"Oh, you're back already." Tessa didn't look up.
"Sirius Black and his friend Remus were snogging each others shirts off in an empty classroom by the library!" She forged on. "I saw it myself!"
"Caroline, what're you going on about?" Tessa demanded.
"It's true!"
"Look, just because Sirius turned you down is no reason to say things like that!" Tessa sounded truly irritated.
"I'm not- he didn't- look, he snogged me, too, to distract me so he could steal that potions book and then he went off with Remus and I saw them going at it!" Caroline sputtered. "I'm so not making this up."
"Whatever." Tessa turned decisively towards her book.
"Hey, if you don't believe me why don't you go check then?"
"Because I don't care." Tessa muttered.
Her sentiment didn't seem to be a popular one, however. Half of the common room was leaning in, listening in on their conversation which is exactly what Caroline had wanted. At least one of her plans was working she thought with a touch of satisfaction. It didn't escape her attention that people were starting to drift out of the common room, undoubtably to try and catch Sirius and Remus red handed. Or lipped. Or whatever.
"Ha." Caroline settled back in her arm chair.
"You know," Tessa glanced around the now empty common room. "Is it really so bad that he's gay?"
Caroline shrugged. "It would have been nice for him to mention it before he stuck his tongue down my throat."
Tessa winced at the lewd comment, but forged ahead. "I mean, it must be nice to have a friend that, you know, is also a..."
"Fuckbunny?" Caroline supplied.
"I was going to say lover." Tessa's face was a light shade of pink. "But yes, that is the point. I mean, it would be simple. And they could spend the night together and no body would be the wiser as long as they put a silencing charm around their bed."
"Tessa," Caroline said, studying the other girl's face. "Are you... I mean, it sounds like you want this."
She shrugged, her face now burning scarlet.
"You know," Caroline said, leaning forwards and tugging Tessa's book away. "I'm not repulsed by the idea of going at it with a girl."
Tessa, though still clearly embarrassed, managed a fairly decent eye roll at Caroline. "Not repulsed?"
"Sure," Caroline shrugged. "I mean, why not? Snogging is snogging, right? Why should it matter who its with. Like the ancient Greeks- we were talking about them in muggle studies. Brilliant lot, those Greeks. Snogged just about anything that moved."
"Er." Tessa said.
"So really, if you tried to put the moves on me I wouldn't be mad or anything. I think it'd be interesting to see what it's like, actually."
"Are you saying." Tessa asked, her face darkening even further, "That you want to snog me?"
"Sure, why not?"
"Why not!" Tessa suddenly yelled. "Why not? Because, you just sent the entire common room off to go spy on Sirius and Remus as if they're side show freaks and now you want to do the same thing?"
"Hey, I only said that because I thought you wanted to."
"Why would you think that?" Tessa demanded, gathering up her things and slinging her bag onto her back. "I'm going to bed. Don't even think about following me."
Caroline did, of course, though she waited a few seconds until she was sure Tessa had reached the dorm already.
"Tessa?" Caroline asked quietly, addressing the closed curtains on Tessa's bed.
"Go away." Came the muttered reply.
Caroline sighed, tugged the curtains open and sat on the edge of Tessa's bed. "No. Look, I'm sorry about the whole Sirius and Remus thing. Yes, I guess it was childish but I was mad- I mean, Sirius was kissing me- just using me to get a stupid book. I was upset. I still am upset, actually, and now you're yelling at me and it's not helping at all." A tear or two leaked out of Caroline's eyes and she turned away.
"Caroline, are you- are you crying?"
Caroline shrugged, if she talked Tessa would know for sure that she was.
There was a tentative touch on her shoulder and Caroline tried to pull away, but Tessa tightened her grip. "I'm sorry." Tessa murmured. "Don't be angry. Come here." She tugged Caroline up beside her so that they were both leaning against the headboard of Tessa's bed.
Caroline stared miserably at her toes and noticed that one of her socks needed mending. She kept her gaze on the corner of her big toe that was peeking out of the hole and didn't talk.
"Look on the bright side. At least you can say that you have snogged Sirius Black. Who else can make that claim?"
"Remus." Caroline muttered.
"Yes, but," Tessa struggled to come up with something to say. "But Sirius cheated on Remus with you, that's got to mean something, right?"
"All he wanted was the bloody book."
"So? No one else needs to know that. You can always say that he kissed you because of your feminine whiles."
"Yeah," Caroline perked up a little. "Yeah, I can. Y'know, I bet hardly any girls have actually kissed him, and the guys wouldn't admit to it because then they'd be poofs."
"That's right." Tessa said, satisfied at her cheering up.
"So would you snog me?" Caroline asked curiously.
Tessa sighed and glanced at Caroline sideways.
"Mmmph!" Suddenly Caroline found herself pinned under Tessa with the stronger girl's lips on hers.
Tessa stayed there a moment, gently caressing Caroline's lips with hers, then, just as suddenly as she started she pulled away, her face again burning a very sexy shade of over-ripe tomato. "Does that answer your question?"
"Err." Caroline was still laying where Tessa had pinned her.
Tessa immediately disappeared behind her enormous Arithmacy book.
"Uh, Tessa?"
"What?" Tessa grunted curtly.
"Nothing." Caroline said and slipped off the bed and crawled into her own head spinning. If it had just been Tessa kissing Caroline she might have been able to deal with that. The fact that she had enjoyed it- enjoyed it even more than kissing Sirius, was distressing, to say the least. And what had made Tessa do that in the first place? She definitely wasn't the type to randomly kiss people. Tessa, in fact, hadn't ever kissed anyone, to Caroline's knowledge anyway. Caroline had always regarded Tessa as asexual, like an amoeba. If she ever wanted to reproduce she'd just split herself in half.
She must be drunk, or so stressed out she's acting like she's drunk. Yes, that made sense. More sense than the alternative, that is.
There's no way Tessa's a lesbian, Caroline thought to herself. She's just stressed about NEWTs or something. Besides, she does fancy Sever-what's-his-name Slytherine. Caroline doubted Tessa would ever make a move on him, though. Then again Caroline hadn't thought Tessa would make a move on her, either.
Caroline continued to tell herself that until she fell into a restless sleep in the whee hours of the morning. By the time Caroline dragged herself out of bed the next day Tessa had already left. When Caroline got to the great hall she sat at the nearest seat, which, coincidentally was really far away from where Tessa was sitting.
I'm not avoiding her, Caroline said to herself. She had gotten a lot of practise at lying to herself the previous night. She continued to not avoid Tessa all day, but when classes were over for the afternoon Tessa finally caught up to her in the dormitory.
"Caroline, about last night..." Tessa started.
"Er, no worries, I know it was just a spur of the moment thing." Because Tessa was such an impulsive person.
Not.
Neither of them spoke for a moment, but then Tessa broke the silence. "Serverus asked me out today."
"Oh," Caroline said, speaking- with difficulty- around the lump in her throat. "Congratulations."
"I said no."
"Errr," Caroline looked down at her feet. "Why?"
"Because," Tessa said impatiently, using the same voice that she did when she thought she was explaining something completely obvious. "I have you, dumbass."
"Oh." Caroline said again. "Uh, ok. Wait- does this make me a lesbian?"
"You're still allowed to lust after Sirius." Tessa sighed, stepping towards Caroline. "Just as long as you don't act on it."
"Oh, all right then." Is what Caroline would have said if her lips hadn't suddenly found themselves very occupied.
So Tessa wasn't asexual after all.
Huh.
Well, that's nice then, Caroline thought.
THE END