A/n: Uh, so… uhmmmm… I, think, I have to explain myself to you, considering there is any of 'you' left. I…
I really have nothing, I don't know why I was gone for so long. For some time I think considered abandoning the story. Because, without any sign of likes, or follows, or reviews, I didn't know if anyone was even reading this anymore. So, this is gonna be a trial chapter, and if I get any response, I might just continue it.
*fingers crossed* Be kind to me? *pWEaSe*
On with the show *if there is any audience left*
XXX
Chapter 10
She followed them both through the halls and stairs, only to find Cecilia drag him back to the Grand living room they left earlier. She didn't allow herself to walk 8 feet away from them, only to sit next to them on the lounge tall chairs. The room was still buzzing with excitement, and nothing looked out of the ordinary, yet Cecilia didn't let Harry steal his gaze away from the centre of the room. At one point, after 5 minutes, Harry pulled Cecilia onto his lap, to which she happily obliged.
Harry's left hand wasn't such a stranger to her either, it lay dangerously close to Cecilia's arse, and god help her, if it moves a single centimetre below, she is gonna flee the Potter manor like a madman.
After about 10 minutes, Hermione was getting bored, she almost contemplated going and sitting with the twins, when suddenly Cecilia's head snapped up and she dragged Harry's head for 180 degrees to the far corner of the room. In the corner, stood Sirius, his head dipped low and walking with determination. Soon, she exactly where he was headed. Her, along with almost everyone's head snapped in the opposite direction, to look at his destination. In the opposite corner of the room, near the bar sat Remus Lupin, oblivious to the sudden silence of the occupants' of the room.
Remus, who was talking to Tonks suddenly closed his mouth when he sensed someone standing behind him. He turned his head a bit to the left, to notice his black-haired boyfriend towering him with a neutral look on his face. He stood up tentatively, only now noticing the eerie silence in the room. He stood completely face to face with Sirius.
His feral senses took over. He smelled nothing but alcohol on his boyfriend, and yet he didn't sense any danger. The stoic look on Sirius' face slowly morphed into one of a smile, not a smug one, just that of complete happiness, and with a slow cat-like movement, he procured a small black velvet box from his trousers.
Time slowed down, or at least it seemed like it. Remus' eyes followed the tiny box, returning to his boyfriend's face and back to the box. It was as if the box was being opened in slow motion. His vision was fading out, he raised his eyes back to Sirius, only to notice his smile being turned to that of a smug one.
Sirius' lips moved, but no voice reached his ears, and without a single thought, he said 'yes.
Sirius' eyes were almost going to leek, through his bleary eyes he could notice the tears also forming in the other man's eyes too. And with a deep kiss on his lips, Sirius turned to the room and said with a tear running down his cheek, "He said 'yes', everybody."
The room came back to life, with cheers and jeers flying around the room. Harry along with his father jogged up to Sirius and Remus to congratulate them on the good news.
Along with Harry's birthday, the night finally went out after 3 in the morning, when they had practically set the sky on fire with fireworks.
XXX
The train was about to come to a stop, and they had almost changed into their school robes. The trip to the school was mostly silent, as Harry was dreading going back to the school, Ron mostly slept, and Cecilia was creeped out by the way Hermione kept peeking glances at her from the edge of her book that she had been pretending to read for the entirety of the trip.
She wasn't an idiot, she knew, of course, she knew. Hermione didn't like her. The entire summer break, or the time that Hermione stayed at the Potter's. Most of the time she was hesitant to talk, and other times she was just icy cold. Harry talked quite highly of her. Now, she didn't know much about Hermione, so she wasn't in any way ready to judge her. But, it was getting harder and harder.
She doubted that Harry had his feelings involved and they were down on him, so instead she asked Ron. He didn't praise her as Harry did, but he definitely didn't have anything negative to say about her.
From Ron's narration, it sounded like they were supposed to be attached to the hip (chest, legs, arms, lips. Everywhere basically), but she seemed quite distant to her. She entertained the idea that it may be because of her, but then quickly dismissed it as stupid, she must know they were just friends. Right?
Anyway, she was desperately trying to keep the conversation going. While Harry didn't talk, Ron was snoring, Hermione was her only hope, but that was hard too, as to any question, she only had single syllable answers. And now that the school was getting closer, Harry was closing off even more, and instead of using words, Hermione chose to glare at her.
But as Harry started to tap his foot on the floor, something changed. Professionally avoiding Cecilia's eyes, Hermione swiftly switched seats with Cecilia and tentatively and softly placed her hands on Harry's knee and arm. She was barely able to hear what Hermione was saying, but whatever she was doing, definitely soothed Harry down. And almost instantly, Harry was back to being his cheery and confident self.
Whatever she did, Hermione knew what she was doing. And maybe, just maybe, Cecilia was e bit jealous of that.
All of them did get off the train in a way better mood from when they boarded the train.
XXX
Along with the sorting ceremony of the first years', Cecilia was also supposed to get her sorting done, and frankly, Harry was more worried about it than her. He didn't want to be separated from her, just when he got her back after 7 years.
Before any of the first years, she was called upon the chair. She walked with an air of confidence and surety, all the eyes in the hall were on her. It was quite rare for any student to join mid-years and the population of Hogwarts was excited to see if the sorting was going to be any different.
She sat herself on the 4 legged stool and waited for the hat to be kept on her head. She wasn't in any sort of doubt, since the very beginning, she and Harry had promised each other to be in the same house when they went to Hogwarts. And the house had to be Gryffindor. As soon as the hat touched her head, a loud voice boomed inside her mind, which she doubted would be heard to the rest of the occupants of the hall.
"What do we have here? Not a first year, eh? Yes, young, yet such a mature mind. You can do good in Ravenclaw, Slytherin could be a goo-"
Before the hat could go any further, Cecilia cut him off, "Not Slytherin."
"Not Slytherin, eh? Why not, with a brain like yours, you'd thrive in the house of the cunning."
"Well, I don't know what made you think that, but I want Gryffindor. If you will?"
"Hmm, well the sorting hat is nothing but not just, if you want, Gryffindor you shall get.", after completing its sentence, the hat boomed aloud to the entire hall, "GRYFFINDOR!"
As soon as the word left the old hat's.. whatever it was supposed to be, Harry let go of a breath he didn't know was holding and welcomed her with a goofy smile as she made her way to the Gryffindor table.
On his other side, however, he completely missed the sad/disappointed expression that had dawned over Hermione's face. If Ron had noticed something, he didn't say anything.
XXX
Cecilia sat sprawled over her four-poster bed, looking around with a curious eye as the rest of the occupants of the room mucked around the room for their nightly routine.
The blonde, which she remembered as Lavender, approached her bed and sat at the corner, with a glint in her eyes, "Hey, I'm Lavender."
Cecilia extended her arm initiate a shake, "Yeah, I remember, Harry told me your name."
With a light giggle, Lavender continued, "So I heard you are from America?"
"Yeah, no. I am British, at least my father is, I was born here. We went to America for a few years."
As if completely ignoring her statement, she continued on to something Cecilia doubted was originally her main concern, "I also heard, that you are the best friend of Harry Potter."
Cecilia heard a light cough from behind her, which was no doubt from Hermione.
Hermione's ears turned red and the unsaid truth that was worrying her finally came out in the open. Cecilia didn't answer immediately, but rather pondered over it, "Uh, I guess you could say that."
Just when Cecilia thought that Lavender was a decent person, she said, "So is Harry a virgin?'
Cecilia's eyes widened and she heard Hermione choke on air from where she was on her own bed, "I don't kn-", just when she began to talk, getting past her shock, Hermione spoke up from behind her.
"That's very inappropriate. What happens in Harry's or anyone's life should not be of your concern.", she said with a stern voice.
Lavender looked past Cecilia to see Hermione seething in silent anger, "Oh, yeah? Who asked you, Granger? Just because you don't have a love life, to begin with, doesn't mean others don't.'
Before Hermione could come back with a retort or a logical answer, Cecilia stood up in her defence, "Don't talk to her like that."
Lavender scoffed, and rolled her eyes a bit, "Why not?"
Cecilia really wanted to come back with a mean retort, but she wasn't about to ruin her relations with her dorm mate who she had to live with for 3 years, instead, she turned on a smile and leaned forward to whisper in Lavender's ear, "Because, love, want it or not, she is one of Harry's best friend, so I don't know if you'd wanna do that."
With a little giggle, Lavender backed off to her bed and went on to continue talking to Parvati. Cecilia turned around to see that Hermione was looking anywhere in the room but at her. She slowly approached her bed and stood a foot away from the foot of her bed.
Deciding on what to say, she started with something she thought to be a safe topic, "I heard from Harry that you must be already ahead on your studies, right?"
"That is correct."
"So, I was wondering if maybe you and I could study together, sometimes.", Cecilia took a step forward and now her knees were touching the mattress of Hermione's bed. "I mean, I too usually study ahead of the syllabus during the summer vacation, but you know, this summer had been crazy."
Hermione replied with a single nod of her head. "So is it a yes?"
Honestly, it was hard to hate someone, when they were talking about studying, so keeping her prejudice aside, she raised her head to look her in the eye, "Sure, I would love to."
Cecilia gave her one of her most heart-winning smiles and looked around her bed. Unlike herself, Hermione had tried her best to make herself comfortable in her little four-poster. She had a non-magical photograph of her parents, and a little magical portrait of Harry, Ron and herself. But what caught her eyes was the tiny heap of Shakespeare plays by her bedside.
She tentatively sat herself on the corner of Hermione's bed, "You like Shakespeare?"
Hermione again nodded her head and picked up a hardbound version of Macbeth.
"Macbeth! The second favourite on my list. Have you read it?"
"No, I just started this one, but I have read Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet and The Tempest."
Cecilia let her feet up on Hermione's bed and folded them under her completely facing Hermione now. If Hermione was irritated she didn't let it on. "Well, then you are going to love this."
She took out her wand, from some.. odd place to keep one's wand, and with a flick of her wrist, her trunk, slightly smaller than her clothes' trunk, Hermione noticed, came floating from under her bed, and dropped it between them on Hermione's bed. Hermione gave her an odd look, to which Cecilia just winked at her in response. With an overdramatic wave of her arm, Cecilia opened up the trunk.
To say that Hermione was almost about to pass out would be an understatement, inside the small trunk, in a shrunken size, were over a thousand neatly arranged books in all colours and sizes. It was like a large book shelf, only smaller. The last time she remembered being this blown away was when Harry introduced her to the Potter Library in their second year.
Also, to say that Cecilia was more than satisfied with herself would be an understatement, she should have done this the first day that they met, this would have been a lot easier. She let her fingers roam the spines of the books, finally stopping at the book she wished for.
She pulled the tiny book, almost the size of a matchbox, and with a wandless command returned the book back to its original size. On the cover of the large bulky book were written 'Macbeth' in a golden beautiful font.
She raised the book towards Hermione, "Here. It's… uh, it's the original version. From the 1600s, you can take it."
Hermione's jaw almost dropped, "I can't take this!"
"Why not?"
"Be- because, it must be really expensive if it's one of the original print. I can't take something so expensive from you. I mean we don't know each other that much."
Cecilia allowed a small smile on her face, "Well, then consider it a token of friendship."
Hermione tentatively took the book out of her hand. It was heavy, the leather of the cover was old, no doubt, and almost too sensitive. As she slowly opened the cover of the book, she noticed the print wasn't mechanical, obviously, it was hand-written. She was about to cry, this time of the month was too hard, but she held back, and instead gave her a small smile.
Cecilia returned her tiny shy smile with a huge grin of her own. She magically put her trunk away and went to her bed. Bidding good night to her dormmates, she went to sleep.
XXX
A/n: This chapter was a bit smaller, I know, if anyone was waiting for it, that is. Well, let me know, if there are any of you. And according to the response, I will decide to continue or not.
Peace out
Love and cookies
Cece