Author's Note: Okay, I know you probably just want to read the damn chapter, especially after how the last chapter ended. You might be a bit disappointed on that front, but another plot line progresses nicely, so...yeah. Read on!

-SQ

Disclaimer: Although this story contains a good number of OCs whom I've made up, the world they live in, and the other characters they interact with are STILL not mine.

Chapter Thirty-Six: Observation

Lily found that it was easier for a sixth year to avoid a fourth year than it had been for a third year to avoid a first year. Maybe it was because fourth years had busier schedules than first years, maybe it was because sixth years were cleverer than third years, or maybe it was because, this time, Cassiopeia didn't mind being avoided.

Lily hadn't intentionally set out to avoid her best friend after the...incident. But when she saw her the next day she found she couldn't talk to her, couldn't meet her eyes, couldn't act like nothing had happened. And the only thing worse than having to pretend that nothing had happened would be talking about what had happened. So Lily had chosen a seat in between Paloma and her Alondra at breakfast, and then hurried off to her first class, claiming that she had to clarify something with the professor.

Lily expected to find Cassiopeia waiting outside of her classroom door after class, but she didn't. She didn't know whether to be relived or hurt.

Lily hated the fact that she had lost her best friend, and it hurt even more knowing that it was her own fault. It hurt as much as it had when she thought she had lost her big brother, and this time she didn't have anyone to blame but herself. And the worst part was, those blasted feelings were still there.

*****BWST*****

"Lily," said Marica one evening as they were getting ready for bed in their dormitory. "Is something wrong? You've seemed kind of distant lately."

"No," said Lily, shaking her head and pulling on her nightgown. "Nothing's wrong, I'm just really busy with my classes and everything."

"Has something happened?" said Dawn. "With the baby?"

"What?" said Lily. "With Aurore? No! Aurore's doing fine. The healers say she should be able to go home by the end of the month."

"Oh, that's wonderful," said Marica, beaming, "you and Louis must be so relieved."

"We are," said Lily, smiling back, both at the thought of little Aurore and with relief at the change of topic.

*****BWST*****

Cassiopeia's natural reservedness was an asset to the situation as well. While Lily had effectively nullified the time she spent with Cassiopeia one-on-one and outside of the common room or the Great Hall, the fact remained that the younger girl was friends with Dawn, Marica, and Louis as well. This had, as Marica had noticed, the unintentional effect of distancing herself from her other friends as well.

Their usual study group, consisting of Lily, Cassiopeia, Marica, Dawn, and often Louis, had not changed. Lily did her best to keep up normal conversation with her other friends while not interacting directly with Cassiopeia. This often ended up in her doing more listening and observing than talking, and as she did so she began to notice things that had slipped past her before.

*****BWST*****

Lily, Dawn, Marica, and Cassiopeia were all gathered around their usual table with their books open in front of them. Someone settled themselves into the vacant space on the couch next to Marica and the girls looked up.

"Well it's about time," snapped Marica irritably. "You were supposed to be here half an hour ago."

"Sorry," said Louis in a hoarse voice. "I got held up."

Marica's irritated scowl slipped for a moment and a look of concern passed over her face.

"Where have you been?" she asked suspiciously.

"Nowhere important."

"If it's nowhere important then why are you late?" she demanded.

"'Cause I'm an idiot," said Louis.

Lily had called her cousin an idiot dozens of times, but something about the way he said it now made her bite her lip. Obviously it had a similar effect on Marica, because her tone softened slightly and she said, "Don't be silly. Would I have asked an idiot to help me with my Transfiguration homework? Now if you haven't got any other dimwitted remarks to make let's get going."

Lily turned her attention back to her Care of Magical Creatures essay. It was a very interesting assignment in which students had to argue for or against private ownership of creatures classified as XXXX. She became completely absorbed in the work and was only brought back to reality by a harsh coughing from the other side of the table.

"Louis?" With instincts born of almost seventeen years as Louis Weasley's cousin Lily shot out of her chair and to her cousin's side.

But someone else had made it there first. Marica had one arm around Louis's shoulders, the other hand rubbing firm circles on his back, instructing him to "breath, Merlin damn it!"

After a minute Louis's coughing subsided, though he was now ghostly pale, and Marica conjured a goblet of water for him to drink.

"Thanks," he croaked.

"You're wheezing," said Marica softly, pressing a surprisingly gentle hand to Louis's chest.

Color rose to Louis's cheeks and he looked at the floor.

"Louis..." said Marica warningly.

"I was late because I was in the hospital wing," said Louis, still staring at the floor. "I was outside for Care of Magical Creatures and I had an asthma attack."

"Louis!" exclaimed all three girls at the same time.

Marica shook him gently. "You fool! What are you doing here?"

"I promised you I'd come," said Louis.

"Who are you, Cyrano de Bergerac?"

Everyone looked at Dawn.

"Who?"

"A character in a play. He ends up dying at the end because he goes to meet the girl he loves even though he's been severely wounded."

"No one is going to be dying around here any time soon," said Lily firmly.

Marica closed her eyes. "Merlin grant me patience, Louis Weasley. Your health is more important than our study session!"

A smile crept onto Louis's face. "Yeah?"

Marica smacked him softly on the head. "Idiot," she said almost fondly. "If you're sure you're not going to keel over on us, let's get back to work."

The two bent their heads, one dark, one light, over their work once more and Lily watched them curiously for a few more seconds. Could it be? Louis and Marica...? Well, stranger things had happened.

*****BWST*****

Cassiopeia gazed down at her textbook without seeing it. Next to her Louis and Marica were engaged in yet another unconscious display of their affection for each other, but for perhaps the first time in her life Cassiopeia couldn't interest herself in the observation of others. Lily was avoiding her, that much was obvious, and the reason had something to do with the kiss, you didn't have to be a genius to figure that out either, but what Cassiopeia wanted to know was why? She wasn't used to being confused about other peoples' feelings and it frustrated her not to be able to deduce what was going on inside the other girl's head. There were several possibilities, she thought logically: Lily could be appalled at what she had done, not attracted to Cassiopeia in the least and disgusted with herself. Or she could be afraid that Cassiopeia would read something more into an action that hadn't been anything more than a spur-of-the-moment mistake. Or she could have thought she liked Cassiopeia like that, only to find that kissing her wasn't at all what she expected; or, on the flip side, she could have not thought she liked her like that, and then found that she enjoyed kissing her. Or Lily could have liked her all along, but was afraid that Cassiopeia didn't return her feelings and so now wouldn't want to be friends with her anymore. The last one was absurd of course, not because Lily couldn't feel that way, because she very well might, but because Cassiopeia would never feel that way.

Of course, that was the other problem, perhaps even more frustrating and confusing that the first, how did Cassiopeia feel? Yes, she had always known she had no preference of boys over girls or vice versa, but she had never given romance much thought in the first place. No, that wasn't true; she had given it plenty of thought in the abstract sense, but in the personal sense, very little. And though she had noticed that the vibes she had been picking up from Lily lately had changed slightly, she had never expected the older girl to do something like kiss her out of the blue like that. Another option for why Lily was avoiding her occurred to her; perhaps Lily simply didn't know how to react. Well, Cassiopeia could certainly relate.

*****BWST*****

"Hogsmeade tomorrow!" sang Dawn happily, nearly skipping as they left their last class on Friday afternoon and headed toward the Great Hall for dinner.

Lily rolled her eyes and resisted the automatic urge to exchange a look with Cassiopeia, who was walking on the other side of the group, having joined them on her own way to dinner.

"Yes Dawn, very good, we do go to Hogsmeade tomorrow," said Marica.

Dawn stuck out her tongue at her friend. "Aren't you excited?"

"I suppose," said Marica with a shrug. "It's not like it's anything we haven't seen before."

"I hear Honeydukes has come out with a new line of sweets," said Dawn.

Marica snorted. "That hardly counts."

To tell the truth Lily was rather looking forward to this month's Hogsmeade weekend. The weather was gorgeous and she was itching to get out of the castle. Dawn, River, Marica, Louis, and Cassiopeia were all planning on spending the day together as usual, but Lily had accepted Hugo's invitation to go with him and his friends. Usually Lily wouldn't relish the idea of spending time with her cousin when he was acting his role of reigning King of Slytherin, but today she had jumped at the excuse not to spend the day in awkward silence with Cassiopeia. She still couldn't bring herself to speak to her (ex?)best friend, and a Hogsmeade outing with Dawn and River, Marica and Louis, and Lily and Cassiopeia felt a little too close to a triple date for Lily's comfort.

*****BWST*****

"Are you sure you don't want to come with us?" asked River as the six of them left the Great Hall after breakfast.

"I'm sure," said Lily. "I promised Hugo I'd go with him today. Maybe I'll meet up with you guys later."

River shrugged and wrapped his arm around Dawn's waist. "Suit yourself."

"Bye, Lily!" said Dawn, waving.

Lily waved back and the five others disappeared into the crowd, River and Dawn still attached at the hip, Louis and Marica arguing about something or other, Cassiopeia apparently deep in her own little world.

Lily felt a tap on her shoulder.

"Ready to go?"

Lily turned around and nodded at her cousin. His red hair was slicked back in a style reminiscent of Scorpius Malfoy and he wore an open-necked button-up with stripes in various shades of green and silver, the sleeves rolled up to the elbows. He was a far cry from the over-eager, awkward boy who had followed Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy around like a little lost puppy dog, and Lily had to admit the change wasn't all bad.

"Then let's go!"

Lily joined the group of mostly Slytherins and they headed out to the streets of Hogsmeade. Lily, as Hugo's cousin and guest in the group, found herself sharing the place of honor at the head of the entourage with Hugo and his new girlfriend, a pretty, petite fourth year with black braids named Paige Zabini.

"Where should we go?" Hugo asked, turning back to get the opinions of his group of friends (or followers, depending on how you looked at it, though strangely this thought didn't bother Lily as much as it used to with Albus and Scorpius).

"The Hogshead!" someone shouted, and the chant was taken up. "Hogshead, Hogshead, Hogshead!"

Hugo looked at Paige, who nodded, and Lily, who shrugged, and then said, "The Hogshead it is!"

And so it was that Lily found herself heading toward the one place in Hogsmeade where she had been before and had vowed never to go again.

*****BWST*****

Cassiopeia followed along behind the couple and the should-be-couple, present in body but not in mind or spirit. River and Dawn were exchanging cuddles and kisses, while Louis and Marica were exchanging glares and sharp words. Cassiopeia set her feet on auto-pilot and let her mind wander.

I suppose it's true that you should be careful what you wish for, she mused. I've fallen into the trap of having wisdom without knowledge.

So caught up in her own thoughts was she that she nearly walked right into her friends, who had stopped walking in front of her.

"Let's go into the Three Broomsticks for a drink," said Louis.

"I'm not thirsty," said Marica, probably just to be obstinate.

"I feel like going inside to sit down," said Louis.

"Well I don't," said Marica stubbornly.

"I'm tired and thirsty and I feel a little—"

"Whine, whine, whine," cut in Marica.

"Alright, fine, have it your way!" said Louis throwing up his hands.

The two glared at each other for a moment and then kept on walking. Dawn and River, belatedly realizing that the group was moving again, trotted to catch up.

*****BWST*****

Lily was pretty sure that the Hogshead had never been this crowded before, at least not in living memory. Lily, Hugo, Paige, and the six other Hogwarts students made up the entire clientèle except for a wizened old witch in the corner, but with only the ancient Aberforth to wait on them, it promised to be a day-long venture.

The little pub was no cleaner or better-kempt than the last time Lily had been here, and she was still a little creeped out by old Aberforth Dumbledore, but somehow she managed to enjoy herself even so.

Paige, with her high, twittery voice and fluttering hand gestures, got on her nerves, but there were a brother and sister, from Slytherin and Ravenclaw respectively, with whom she found she got on quite well. She even tried to interest herself more than platonically in the sister, but gave the idea up quickly as a lost cause when the girl mentioned her long-distance boyfriend of three years. Still, the afternoon was more enjoyable than it might have been, and Lily found that she was much more relaxed by the end of it than she had been at the start.

*****BWST*****

Up ahead Louis and Marica had stopped again.

"Marica, can we sit down for a minute?"

"You're the one who wanted to come all the way to Scrivenshaft's."

"Marica, I need to sit down."

Louis swayed and Marica caught him around the waist, an alarmed look on her face.

"Louis! Are you alright?"

He shook his head. "I can't—I can't breathe—"

"Dear Merlin..." she lowered him onto a nearby bench. "Cassie," she said, throwing the younger girl Louis's bag, "find his medicine! Oh, where's Lily when you need her?"

"Focus, Louis," she said, catching his eyes and pressing a hand to his heaving chest. "Don't pass out on me. Why didn't you tell me you were feeling bad?"

"I—tried—" said Louis feebly. "You didn't—listen."

Marica bit her lip. "Oh Louis...you did, didn't you? I'm so sorry..."

Cassiopeia succeeded in locating the potion and handed it to her, watching Louis in concern. He really didn't look good, something she should have noticed before now. She was the observant one, that was her job! What was with her lately?

Marica unscrewed the cap and tilted the potion to Louis's lips, forcing him to swallow it. He spluttered and sneezed forcefully, his eyes watering profusely, but his breath came a bit easier and he grinned weakly at Marica. "Never a dull moment with me, eh?"

"Louis Weasley, you bastard!" she nearly shouted, tears springing into her eyes. And to his utter surprise she hugged him fiercely, knocking the wind out of him once more.

"Marica—can't—breathe—"

She drew back quickly and offered him her hand. "I'm taking you to the hospital wing, no arguments," she said sternly.

"Yes, m'am," he said with a resigned sigh, earning him a half-hearted glare.

Marica helped him to his feet and he leaned on her as they made their way back up to the school, perhaps a bit more than was strictly necessary, reflected Cassiopeia with a small, knowing smile.

*****BWST*****

River and Dawn caught Lily and Hugo in the entrance hall when they came back from the Hogshead.

"Lily, I thought you might want to know that Louis is the hospital wing. He had an asthma attack when we were in Hogsmeade."

Lily and Hugo both groaned.

"Cela imbécile!" said Lily. "Is he okay?"

"Well, it was pretty bad, but I think he's alright now. Marica and Cassiopeia are with him and he's probably already driving them crazy again."

Hugo grinned. "Sounds like our Louis alright. Will he ever learn?"

"Probably not," said Lily. "Weasleys generally don't."

And before Hugo could respond she trotted off toward the hospital wing, the protesting Slytherin on her heals.

*****BWST*****

When Lily and Hugo arrived at the hospital wing Marica was kneeling beside Louis's bed, stroking his hair back from his forehead.

"How do you feel?" she asked softly.

"A little dizzy, but okay."

"Louis?"

Both of them looked up as Lily and Hugo crossed the threshold.

Louis smiled at them. "Hi."

"What happened?"

"We in Hogsmeade and Louis started feeling bad because of his allergies," said Marica. "And he tried to tell me, but I wouldn't listen. Lily, I'm sorry."

"Rica, hush," said Louis. Rica? "I didn't do a very good job of trying to tell you. It isn't your fault. I'm a big boy, I can take care of myself."

"Obviously not," said Lily, raising her eyebrows at her cousin's prone form in the hospital bed.

Louis chuckled. "Touché."

"How did you convince Mr. Stubborn to let you bring him to the hospital wing?" asked Hugo.

"She wouldn't take no for an answer," said Louis ruefully.

"That and you fainted halfway here," pointed out Marica.

Lily frowned and knelt on the other side of the bed. "Really?"

"Yep," said Louis cheerfully. "And Marica carried me all the way here."

"Don't be ridiculous," said Marica. "River helped me."

Louis shrugged. "Either way I woke up here with Rica leaning over me looking like the world was about to end."

There it was again, that nickname.

"I thought there was something seriously wrong with you!" said Marica. And to Lily's surprise her eyes filled with tears. "Do you know what can happen when the brain doesn't get enough oxygen for extended periods of time?"

"Shhhh," said Louis soothingly, reaching up a hand to stroke her cheek. "No harm done to my beautiful self," he added with a cocky grin.

He sat up against his pillows and Marica hugged him tightly, burying her dark head in his chest. "You horrible, infuriating boy. I ought to punch you."

Louis chuckled and wrapped his arms around her. "And ruin this perfection?" He brought his lips to her hair. "Stop it, Rica. I'm fine."

"You don't know how scary that was," said Marica. "I've never seen you that bad before. Usually you're sneezing and coughing and wheezing all over the place. This time you were just...still."

Lily moved to sit beside them on the bed and Louis pulled her into his embrace as well. "Fret not, fair damsels, it's going to take a lot more than a bit of pollen to take me away from my two favorite girls."

He kissed them both on the cheeks and then pushed them away. "Now run along, you three, before Madam Pomfrey comes in and has a conniption fit."

Lily looked around and started when Cassiopeia rose out of a chair nearby. She hadn't even noticed the girl sitting there. Cassiopeia crossed to Louis's bed, kissed him on the cheek and then followed the other two girls out of the hospital wing.

*****BWST*****

Marica was positively glowing. The day after the Hogsmeade incident Louis had come up to her in the common room and asked her out in front of everybody. Privately he admitted to Lily and Cassiopeia that it was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life, but also possibly one of the most worth it.

"Told you so," said Cassiopeia smugly.

"Have you really liked her all this time?" asked Lily incredulously.

"Well, since the beginning of this year," he told her.

"And it took you this long to ask her out?" said Lily. "You're supposed to be a pro with girls!"

"I know, I know." said Louis. "It's different when you really like them, okay?"

"People can be so clueless sometimes," said Cassiopeia, shaking her blond head.

"Er—yeah, I gotta go," said Lily.

*****BWST*****

Lily and Dawn had a similar conversation with Marica.

"You and Louis?" said Dawn.

"Yeah," said Marica a bit defensively. "What about it?"

"I just never would have thought you and Louis. When did you start being interested in him?"

"Well, actually, I've always been kind of interested in him. I even told you guys once back in our third year, remember? Only we all kind of blew it off as a joke. It always seemed like one of those silly kid crushes that you have on your friend's older brother, or, in this case, your friend's older cousin. But it never really went away, and over the past year...I don't know..."

"You felt something back from him," said Lily. "You just didn't realize it."

Her two friends looked at her.

"That's very intuitive coming from you, Lily," said Dawn.

"Maybe Cassie is rubbing off on her."

"It's amazing what you can see when you pay attention," mumbled Lily.

"Yep, definitely Cassie," said Marica.

"What about me?" said Cassiopeia, coming up.

"We were just saying that you've been rubbing off on Lily," said Dawn. "She's actually noticing things."

"Although, come to think of it," said Marica thoughtfully, "Lily and Cassie haven't been spending so much time together recently..."

"Er—I've gotta go—Kat—potions study session," mumbled Lily, and she grabbed her things haphazardly and fumbled out of the portrait hole, her friends giving her very strange looks as she went.

AN: Cassie finally gave us her sexual preference (or lack thereof)! In fact, I'm pretty sure there was actually more of what Cassie is thinking and feeling about the whole thing than what Lily is in this chapter. That's because I saved Lily's explanation for her behavior for the next chapter, never fear. But even thought that part's not resolved yet, Louis & Marica are finally together, yeah? At least that's something :) I actually enjoyed the excuse to follow other characters a bit that the distance between Lily and Cassie gave me. And if some of what Cassie was thinking left you a bit confused, well...she tends to do that ;)

And Cyrano de Bergerac is an awesome story, by the way. If you've ever seen the movie Roxanne (which actually I haven't, but whatever) that's an adaptation of Cyrano de Bergerac, as is the musical Cyrano (which I also haven't seen. I've only seen and read the straight play so far, which I love, even though my mom says it's "too long", but now I'm rambling... If you haven't noticed I tend to used Dawn to throw in random references to theatre *grin*)

And I will be giving Dawn some more of the plot in future chapters. And Hugo too.

Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear what you have to say about the chapter!

-SQ