Author's Note: This was my last update before I left for college O.o
This story is slowly winding down; the end is nearly in sight.
There is a scene of a sexual nature in this chapter, just so you know.
-SQ
Disclaimer: The story is mine but the world (& several of the characters) isn't
Chapter Forty-Nine: The Merry Month of May
"Could there be a lovelier day to go to Hogsmeade?" said Aaron, opening his arms and spinning in dizzy circles, breathing in the warm spring air around them. The older girls laughed. It was a beautiful day; just warm enough to go without their heavy cloaks, the sunshine dousing the village in a buttery-yellow glow.
"You are such a romantic, Aaron," laughed Marica.
Aaron shrugged. "So is Bryan, and he doesn't even have the excuse of being gay to justify it."
Bryan made a face at his friend and, laughing and joking, the group continued down the main street of Hogsmeade and toward the Three Broomsticks.
"Who're we meeting again?" asked Aaron.
"My boyfriend, Louis," said Marica.
"My cousin Louis," said Lily. "The tall blonde who's like an older, straight version of you."
"Oh, him? I like him!"
"Fancy that," said Bryan.
"As long as you don't like him too much," said Marica.
"Please," said Aaron. "Not that way."
Cassiopeia and Trinity giggled.
The seven of them entered the pub and looked around for Louis.
"Dawn, you're tall," said Lily. "See if you can't find—"
"Looking for me, Mademoiselles?"
"Louis!"
Louis greeted Lily with a kiss on each cheek, Cassiopeia, Dawn, and Trinity each with kisses on the hands, Marica with one on the mouth, and the two boys with elegant bows.
"The Illustrious Louis Weasley, at your service."
Lily, Cassiopeia, Marica, and Dawn all snorted. Trinity raised an eyebrow. Bryan looked like he didn't know quite what to do.
"Enchanted to meet you again," said Aaron.
"Oh, I like this kid," said Louis, rubbing his hands together. "We are going to have great fun together."
"Don't go corrupting young children, Louis," scolded Marica.
Bryan gave her an incredulous look.
"Too late," said Dawn and Aaron at the same time.
Lily just rolled her eyes.
"Let's get some butterbeers," said Trinity, leading the way up to the bar and then to a table once they had ordered their drinks.
"Where's H-H-H-Hatchoo! Hugo? Atchoo!" said Louis.
Bryan jumped. Aaron looked concerned.
"What you don't know about my 'illustrious' cousin," said Lily "is that he suffers from debilitating allergies during the spring. A condition which would keep any sensible person indoors and away from the pollen."
Louis ruffled her hair fondly. "We all doe I'm dot sensible." He blew his nose. "So, where is Hugo?"
Lily, Cassiopeia, Dawn, and Marica exchanged uncomfortable looks.
"He's, er, busy," said Lily. "How have you been? Tell us more about the internship!"
Louis chatted happily about his internship as they sipped their butterbeers, then they left the Three Broomsticks for the sunshine outside, Louis now quizzing them about the goings on at Hogwarts in between sneezes and blowing his nose.
"Where's Dawn?" said Cassiopeia suddenly, looking around.
The others stopped and looked around as well.
"She was right here a minute ago," said Lily, frowning, "she made that comment about Louis being the only one stupid enough to piss Marica off and the only one who could actually get away with it."
"You did't see where she wedt, Cassie?" Louis asked, following up the question with a harsh sneeze.
Cassiopeia shook her head, absentmindedly patting him on the shoulder. "She must have slipped off while I was talking to Bryan."
They looked around at each other and shrugged. It wasn't unheard of for Dawn to randomly disappear, and they assumed she would just as randomly pop up some time later.
They continued on their stroll, Marica fussing over Louis and Louis trying, and failing, to maintain his dignity.
"Lily, please tell her that I ab fide," he said appealingly. "It's odly whed I start to—Atchoo! Atchoo!—wh-wh-wh—Atchoo! wheeze that you deed to start worrying."
"I could tell her," said Lily, "but it would do about as much good as me telling you that you really ought not to be outside during pollen season."
Louis gave a long-suffering sigh as both his cousin and his girlfriend hugged him around the waist.
Aaron giggled.
"You wod't fide it so fuddy whed it's you," said Louis.
"Not gonna happen," said Aaron.
"You say that dow…"
"No, really, not gonna happen," said Aaron, smirking.
"Oh," said Louis wiping his red, watery eyes and clearing his scratchy throat, "right." He scowled at the younger boy. Aaron just smirked and blew him a kiss.
*****BWST*****
Dawn did not reappear for the entire rest of the day, and eventually the rest of the Hogwarts group and Louis parted company and the girls and Bryan and Aaron headed back up toward the castle and dinner, which was sounding like a very inviting prospect at that point.
After dropping off their things in the Gryffindor common room, the five Gryffindors hurried quickly through the corridors to the Great Hall. In a little-used wing of the fourth floor, which Lily and Cassiopeia happened to know contained a convenient shortcut to the Great Hall, they were surprised to hear the sounds of a heated argument coming from somewhere nearby.
"IF YOU THINK THAT DUMPING HER IS GOING TO GET YOU INTO MY PANTS YOU'VE GOT ANOTHER THING COMING!"
"I DIDN'T DUMP HER TO GET INTO YOUR PANTS!"
"OH, JUST TO GET INTO EVERY OTHER GIRL AT HOGWART'S PANTS THEN?"
"NO! I DUMPED HER BECAUSE NEITHER OF US LOVED THE OTHER; NEITHER OF US EVEN LIKED THE OTHER!"
"OH, SO IT HAD NOTHING AT ALL TO DO WITH ME?"
"OF COURSE IT HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH YOU! I BLOODY CHEATED ON HER WITH YOU, DIDN'T I? !"
"I WASN'T THE ONLY ONE YOU CHEATED ON HER WITH!"
"NO, BUT YOU WERE THE FIRST!"
"SO? WE WERE DRUNK!"
"THAT'S NOT AN EXCUSE!"
"REALLY? BECAUSE YOU THOUGHT IT WAS THE LAST TIME I CHECKED!"
"I WAS WRONG, OKAY?"
"ALERT THE DAILY PROPHET, THE KING OF SLYTHERIN ADMITS HE'S WRONG!"
"YES! YES, I WAS WRONG, ARE YOU SATISFIED? !"Hugo's voice dropped so that they could barely hear it over the ringing left in their ears. "I was wrong to date her, I was wrong to cheat on her, I was wrong to do it with you."
"What about the other girls?" demanded Dawn.
"You're different."
"How so?"
There was a pause.
"Why didn't you have sex with me on Halloween?" asked Dawn. "I know you had sex with some of the other girls."
"It wouldn't have been right."
Dawn let out a snort of laughter. "And shagging all those other girls was 'right'?"
"Not to Paige, I don't give a damn about Paige. To you."
"And why would you care if it was right to me?"
There was a soft thump, as though Hugo had let himself fall against the wall. "Isn't it bloody obvious?" There was a silence, as though Hugo was waiting for Dawn to say something. When she didn't oblige he continued, "I haven't been able to stop thinking about you since Halloween."
"You mean you haven't stopped want to do me since Halloween."
"Well, that too—no." Hugo groaned. "Must you always make things so bloody frustrating?"
"If you'd just come out and say what you mean I wouldn't have to," retorted Dawn.
"I think I'm dangerously close to being in love with you!" shouted Hugo. "There, are you happy?"
"Well why didn't you say so in the first place," said Dawn, and the others looked at each other and then tiptoed away, fairly confident that this wasn't the kind of scene the two Quidditch captains would want them to walk in on.
*****BWST*****
Lily didn't pay much attention to Quidditch, but even she couldn't fail to be aware that the Hogwarts Quidditch final would be played in two days' time. First of all the whole school was abuzz about it, second of all her girlfriend was the Seeker on one of the competing teams, and third one of her best friends and her cousin, who also happened to be dating, were the respective teams' captains.
"You're going down Hartly!"
"Ha! In your dreams, Weasley!"
"We are going to beat you so hard into the ground you won't find your way out until next Christmas!"
"You'll find that difficult to do after we've kicked your butts all the way to Timbuktu!"
The bell rang signaling the end of break.
"Give me a kiss?"
Hugo obliged before hurrying off toward his next class.
Lily and Marica shook their heads at each other.
"Weirdest couple ever," said Lily.
"Says the Potter dating a Malfoy."
"Touché."
*****BWST*****
Lily sat in the Quidditch stands between Marica and Bryan, Aaron seated on Bryan's other side. The two teams had just entered the field and were now being told to shake hands by the referee. Lily let her eyes wander to her girlfriend, looking better than anyone had any right to look in a set of Quidditch robes.
There was a sudden volley of exclamations around her and Lily looked at Bryan beside her; his eyes had gone wide as saucers.
"Why's everyone—?"
"Look," said Marica, dragging Lily around to look down at the pitch again. Below them Lily could just make out Dawn and Hugo, who appeared to be locking a lot more than fingers.
"Alright, alright, that is enough!" said the referee, blowing her whistle. "This is a Quidditch match! Everyone mount your brooms please!"
Giggling, Lily, Marica, Bryan, and Aaron watched the two teams take to the air. The Quaffle, Bludgers, and Snitch were released, and the game began.
Lily soon gave up trying to actually follow the game and merely followed Cassiopeia, marveling at the lithe, graceful way she darted over the heads of the other players, her long pale braid whipping after her in the wind. Vaguely, Lily registered that Slytherin was pulling steadily ahead; Hugo obviously hadn't been joking when he said he had put together a formidable team. Still, Dawn's team was good too and the game was still young; the Golden Snitch yet to be sighted.
The day was warm, the breeze cool, the sport, in Lily's opinion if not in many others, quite boring, and Lily was exhausted from the homework her teachers had been piling on her in preparation for their NEWTs next month; in spite of her best intentions she began to drift off, the cheers and groans of the rest of the school fading to a dull roar in the back of her consciousness. Some time later she was jerked out of her doze by Bryan's sudden grip on her arm.
"Wha—what is it?" she said groggily, blinking in the sunshine.
"Cassie!" he said, pointing.
Lily looked, and her heart leapt into her mouth. Cassiopeia was rocketing at breakneck speed toward the ground, braided hair whipping behind her like some sort of gleaming snake. Her knees were all that held her onto her hurtling broom as she reached both arms over her head toward something which glittered near the muddy grass of the pitch. Bryan, however, had seen what Cassiopeia had not; the Slytherin Seeker, a wiry-muscled boy named Ignatius Higgs, was coming at her from the side, obviously intent on knocking her off-course, and perhaps off her broom.
Even though Lily knew that the other girl could not possibly hear her from so far away and with so much noise around them, she screamed a warning, willing her girlfriend to look up and see the impending danger. She did nothing of the kind; rather, she tucked and rolled neatly off her broom and into the mud of the pitch half a second before Higgs would have slammed into her. Higgs, deprived of his intended target, careened into the ground and lay there, dazed, while Cassiopeia got daintily to her feet, brushed herself off, and held the fluttering Golden Snitch above her head. Gryffindor had won the match 210 points to 100.
*****BWST*****
"How did you do that?" asked Bryan, wide-eyed, when the Gryffindors (minus Dawn, who was off somewhere consoling the loser in a way that did not bear Lily's imaginings) were back in their common room. "Did you know he was coming?"
"Of course I knew he was coming," said Cassiopiea. "He made more noise than Peeves around first years."
"Then why didn't you get out of the way sooner?" Lily demanded.
"I hadn't caught the Snitch yet," was Cassiopeia's composed answer. "And I still had time to do so."
Marica shook her head. "You cut if awfully close."
"Higgs is going to have to do a lot better than that if he wants to beat me," said the fifth year smugly.
"Hey, Cassie," said Aaron, a considering look on his face, "d'you think you could give me and Bry a few flying lessons? Once you're done with you OWLs of course."
"Sure," said Cassiopeia. "And, for the record, it would be 'Bry and me'. Thinking of going out for the Quidditch team next year?"
"Whatever," said Aaron. "And yep. Think we have a chance?"
"Well I won't know until I see you fly," said Cassiopeia, "but I don't see why not if you're any good."
"Well of course I'm good," said Aaron, giving her a look Lily knew he must have learned from Louis. "I just have to make sure I'm the best."
*****BWST*****
"Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday dear Lily, happy birthday to you!"
Lily groaned and pulled her pillow over her head.
"Guys, I'm sleeping!"
"Obviously not, or you wouldn't be talking to us," said Dawn cheerfully, pulling the covers unceremoniously off of her redheaded friend. "Rise and shine and greet the special day!"
"Since when are you so perky in the morning?" asked Lily, sitting up and rubbing her eyes.
"Since Cassie and Aaron pumped her full of several cups of highly caffeinated tea," said Marica, laughing. "Come on, Bry and Aaron are waiting down in the common room."
"Aaron tried to come up here with us," said Cassiopeia, smiling. "He was very annoyed that his being gay didn't except him from the 'no boys in the girls' dormitories' rule."
Lily laughed. "I don't think the staircase can tell one's sexual orientation. Let me just get dressed."
She quickly changed out of her pajamas and followed the other girls down the stairs.
"Happy birthday, Lily!" shouted Aaron excitedly as soon as she entered the common room.
Lily grinned. "Alright, what do you guys have planned?"
Aaron and Bryan gave her their most innocent looks; Bryan did it a lot better than Aaron.
"Who, us?" said Bryan.
"I grew up with Albus, James, Hugo, Louis, and Fred; I can tell when people have things planned."
"Just follow us," said Aaron.
"Follow you where, exactly?" asked Lily as she was herded toward the portrait hole.
"You'll see," said Marica, grinning.
"We wanted to do it outside," said Aaron, "but it's raining so we had to move it indoors."
"I suppose my birthday can't fall on a sunny day every year," said Lily.
The group continued down through the castle toward the Great Hall, but when they bypassed it and turned instead to a door to the side Lily got a pretty good idea of where they were headed.
"Alright," she said when they had arrived in front of a large painting of a bowl of fruit, "who told them how to get into the kitchens?"
All eyes turned to Cassiopeia.
She shrugged. "They asked."
Dawn stepped forward and tickled the pear in the painting with her index finger; it transformed itself into a doorknob and the group of Gryffindors was immediately enveloped in a cloud of delicious smelling steam.
"Good morning, masters and mistresses!" squeaked a house elf, running up to them and bowing low. "Everything is as you ordered it. We have not touched Master Aaron's decorations."
"Requested," said Marica. "And thank you."
Lily looked around. The kitchens had been decorated with artfully placed banners in bright, sunny colors which sparkled with variations of "Happy Birthday, Lily!" There was an immaculately set table which bore all sorts of breakfast items.
"I asked Cassie, Marica, and Dawn which were your favorites," said Aaron.
Just as Lily and the others were taking their seats at the table Trinity arrived, followed soon after by Hugo.
"Sorry I'm late," he said, running a hand over his artfully mussed hair. "Head Boy business."
"Sure," said Dawn with a snort. "Just sit down, you're holding up your cousin's birthday party."
It was a wonderful party, worthy of Louis Weasley, except that he would have insisted on inviting half the school along as well. Lily preferred it this way, with just her closest friends. After they had eaten as much as they possibly could, even Dawn and Hugo, and the house elves had whisked away the dishes, the guests melted away in ones and two until it was only Lily and Cassiopeia who remained.
"They did that on purpose, didn't they?" said Lily, watching the door swing shut after Dawn and Hugo.
"You're becoming more observant," said Cassiopeia. "Glad to see I'm a good influence on you."
Lily chuckled. "Fancy a walk around the grounds?"
Cassiopeia lifted an elegant eyebrow. "It's pouring down rain."
"That never stopped you before."
*****BWST*****
Hand in hand the two girls strolled across the deserted grounds, periodically stealing dripping kisses which got progressively more passionate as the time wore on. At the edge of the Forbidden Forest they stopped, bodies now thoroughly awake and hungry for more. Lily pushed Cassiopeia gently up against the trunk of a tree, locking her mouth to the blonde's while her hands sought refuge underneath the fabric of her shirt and bra. Cassiopeia let out an almost keening whine as Lily moved her mouth down the younger girl's neck, stripping off her outer layers of clothes as she did so. Cassiopeia did the same for her, and soon they were both standing there, soaking wet, in their t-shirts. Cassiopeia took control then, steering them around to the other side of the tree where they were completely out of sight of any onlookers. Off came trousers, skirt, and shirts, rain and hands both caressing smooth expanses of skin. Lily sank to her knees, bringing Cassiopeia with her; the younger girl's back scraped roughly against the bark of the tree, but she didn't care, hardly even noticed. Somehow one of Lily's breasts had escaped from her bra. Cassiopeia took it in her mouth now, lapping and suckling gently. Lily gave a guttural moan, arching into the contact, and buried her face in Cassiopeia's flaxen hair. Her fingers reached down and found her girlfriend's downy lower locks, stroking them as Cassiopeia dragged her mouth back up to Lily's lips, biting down on the lower one as she felt herself pushed more firmly back against the tree. Her own hand mirrored Lily's briefly before dragging down the curves of her inner thighs.
Lily opened her eyes, which she didn't remember closing, and saw Cassiopeia's silvery blue orbs wide in front of her.
"Not yet," she said.
"Not yet," Cassiopeia agreed, her voice barely a whisper. "Not now. Not here."
"Not yet," said Lily, pressing her palms hard into the other girl's cheeks, while simultaneously pinning her against the tree behind her, feeling the bark sharp against the backs of her own hands through the thin material of Cassiopeia's pants. "But soon."
Cassiopeia nodded her agreement, raking her fingernails up Lily's exposed sides.
Both sets of hands came back to rest on shoulders and hips and the two girls slowly let the tension ease out of their bodies, kisses becoming sweet and gentle once more.
"We're wet," Lily said finally, sitting up and shaking a cascade of water from her fiery hair.
"Yes," said Cassiopeia, brushing leaves and dirt from between her legs, "we are."
The smaller girl stood, still wearing only her underclothes, and leaned against the tree, a faraway look in her eyes, as though she were considering something.
"Cassie? What is it?"
"Mmm?" said Cassiopeia. "Oh…nothing…yet. We should get dressed and go back up to the castle. I'm thinking a nice long bath sounds like a good idea after this."
"A very good idea," agreed Lily, pulling her wet shirt over her head.
The two finished dressing and then walked back to the castle and up to Gryffindor Tower hand in hand, ignoring the strange looks they received from the other students they passed in the halls.
AN: *Grin* Dawn, the 1st to have a boyfriend, the first to have sex, the last to get with the person I've actually chosen for her.
Please do tell me what you think. I know you must be thinking something.
-SQ
