"You know, I'm really gonna miss this," sighed Giselle sadly, gazing at the girls around her.
Fed up of not being able to find the right book in the library, a few of the seventh year girls decided to band together once a week to study for their upcoming NEWTs in order to share their resources, advanced copies of books were becoming scarce and pressures concerning final grades continued to grow. The study group idea came about after Lily spotted Dorcas Meadowes carrying three out of the four books she so desperately needed, and instead of being patient and jotting her name down on the waiting list, she pitched the idea of starting an all-girls study session ("No offence love but I can't waste another evening messing around again, start your own study group," Lily defended herself when her boyfriend asked for an invitation) to gain access to the desired texts. The fifth floor study rooms seemed to be their most popular spot as the rooms were renowned for having the cosiest chairs in all of Hogwarts.
"Yeah, we should have started this sooner," complained Hufflepuff Emmeline, popping a few jelly beans into her mouth as she ignored her Muggle Studies revision notes.
"You come to these just for the food," laughed Mary, snatching her sweets out of Emmeline's reach who smirked, chewing as obnoxiously as she could.
"There's nothing wrong with that," Giselle backed her up, winking at Emmeline, "I only come to these so I can tease you and Meadowes-,"
"Personally I don't mind the teasing," interrupted Dorcas to save her girlfriend from exploding, and she grinned when Mary flushed bolder than her tie as she scowled at Giselle, "but you might need to calm it before she has a meltdown."
"But she turns such a cute shade of red, I can't help it," pouted Giselle, dodging Mary's swatting arm.
"I know, isn't she precious?" Dorcas pinched Mary's burning cheek, causing the girls to laugh.
"How was your meeting with the healer, Lily?" piped up Ravenclaw Michelle Davies, thanking Giselle for her copy of Encyclopedia of Rare Potions Ingredients, and Lily immediately gushed, dying to spill the beans on her latest apprenticeship update. With their final ever career's meeting approaching, the seventh years had been busy corresponding to potential employers and organising apprenticeships in their free time, it was all anyone could think of. Giselle and James had been waiting for responses from two premier Quidditch teams who had expressed interest in seeing them try out (especially after their humble and definitely not show-boaty article concerning the giant's attack was printed in the Daily Prophet) but neither of them had received a reply yet, they watched the great hall's ceiling every morning and sulked together when they left the hall empty-handed. They did, however, receive a huge 'We're so proud of you!' gift basket full of baked goods and rich chocolates from the Potters which cheered them up immensely, Giselle didn't expect any praise and she thought she hid her tears rather well when James showered her in his parents' affection.
"It went better than last time, I still don't know how I mistook squid ink for actual ink though... but I guess I was just nervous since it was a timed event," Lily babbled on, scrawling as she spoke, "The head healer was still impressed, he seems enthusiastic about me joining the team."
"As he should!" complimented Giselle, "he'd be crazy to turn you down. Your potions are always faultless and I bet your squid ink predicament humanised you, it gave you that vulnerability factor that every candidate needs and no offence, Lils, but you can't be a goddess every day of your life. At least this shows that you're not perfect and that you're willing to learn from the guy, it is an apprenticeship after all!"
"That certainly is one way of putting it," mused Lily, recalculating her odds of gaining the apprenticeship, and Michelle nodded furiously.
"Elle's right though, you're the best potioneer in our year - you've got this job already," she encouraged, and Giselle patted Lily on the shoulder when she rolled her eyes.
"Stop acting humble, you know you got the job," she muttered, and Lily eventually agreed.
"The pay is more than the usual apprentice rate as well, it's almost too good to be true," she said excitedly, giving into temptation. "What about you guys? How are your searches coming along? Emmeline?"
Emmeline caught Giselle's eye and immediately blushed, shuffling uncomfortably in her chair. "Elle, don't judge me-,"
Giselle's face dropped, expecting the worst. Wait, what was the worst?
"What?" she spat.
"I may or may not have a meeting with your dad next week-," she started and Giselle's scoffs of contempt were drowned out by the other girls' congratulating Emmeline on her achievement. Unfortunately for Giselle, Bartemius had given the faculty permission to use him as a point of contact for any seventh year looking for a job within the government and she tried her hardest not to dissuade any of her classmates from choosing a path that led to the Ministry… but it was incredibly hard because her friends were extremely talented - the Ministry would be lucky to have any of them.
"That's amazing, Em!" cheered Michelle.
"How d'ya manage that?! He's totally booked up, I can't see him until June!" scoffed Mary dubiously, and she quickly hid her face as she curled up in her armchair when Giselle gawked at her, feeling rather betrayed. Her own roommate!
"Not you too! Mary?! You're way too smart for a boring Ministry job!" she urged, trying not to look too disappointed.
"Actually I'm only thinking of doing a part-time gig working as an Obliviator while I help Dorcas out with the farm," Mary rushed to explain, "The meeting with your dad is a back-up meeting just in case the old guy running the Magical Catastrophes office drops dead, he's on his last legs and I can't risk his death standing in the way of me joining that department."
"That's not morbid at all," scoffed Emmeline, pausing her hair braiding to gawk at her, "how very considerate of you, Mary."
"I thought so too," said Mary naively, and Dorcus giggled at her lack of attention to sarcasm.
"The farm, Dorcus? Are you definitely inheriting it? Is it set in stone?" wondered Lily, and Dorcas suddenly dropped her cheerful smile and fidgeted with her quill. The other girls shared a look, nervous for her answer, and Lily went to apologise for bringing up a sensitive subject when Mary mouthed at her to stop - "She needs to talk about it, give her a second!"
"Well, at this point I think I have to take it," said Dorcus slowly, opening up about her tumultuous family problems. Giselle knew very little before she left for Beauxbatons due to Dorcas' prior shyness but thanks to their girly get-togethers and her link to Mary, she found out that Dorcas' family had been torn apart when her mother's muggle side found out her father was a wizard. They left Dorcas' mother to run the entire family farm, utterly repulsed that she had married a circus freak ("He used to work as a clown for a magical beast fair, please don't ask!" Dorcas always groaned whenever it was brought up) but everything fell apart recently when her father ran off to find her uncle who had allegedly been seen conspiring with Death Eaters. The exhaustion of running a farm that was now more magical than muggle had worn Margeret Meadowes through and she was barely looking after herself, which left Dorcas with a horrible decision to make - if her mum couldn't look after the farm then it was all up to her.
"You don't have to though," reminded Mary, "if we stay there for a year or so and give the place a makeover, teach your Mum how to handle the animals properly... maybe give the rest of your family a kick up the bum too for neglecting Margie... then you can do whatever you like!" It was painfully obvious that Mary had given her girlfriend's problems a lot of thought and Giselle tried not to verbally coo at the pair, obsessed by their little display of adoration.
"Stop it," shushed Dorcas, hiding her smile with her long black hair, "it's not that simple-,"
"With me there it's very simple! And, in case you've forgotten, Edgar will only be a few fields away from us! He's still seeing that barmaid in the village nearby, I'm pretty sure he's moving in with her so we can bug him to come help too!" Mary babbled, her brown eyes wide with wonder, and Lily scoffed in disbelief.
"That sounds fantastic!" she tried to console Dorcas as she reached over and grabbed her hands, "you don't have to worry about your Mum. I showed mine how to deal with magical plants and she can handle them perfectly fine so Margeret can sell those instead if you're worried about leaving her with the Chizpurfles-,"
"As you should be, by the way," interjected Giselle, unable to help herself, "they attract Crups and the Crups will attack Margeret, they hate muggles."
Dorcas gasped, genuinely thankful for the advice, "No more Chizpurfles, got it!"
"See? Margie will be fine with the farm, we'll show her what to do," assured Mary, and Dorcas sniffled, using her hands as a shield momentarily whilst she pulled herself together.
"Thanks gals," she moaned, massaging the sadness out of her pores, "I didn't mean to bring down the mood. Families, am I right?"
Giselle cackled, swinging her feet up onto her armchair as she chewed on her taffy. "Oh boy, tell me about it!"
The table of girls exchanged small glances and Lily zipped her mouth shut, sitting back in her chair to physically withdraw from the oncoming questions. The Daily Prophet article casted a peculiar light on the Crouch family, the press described the giant's attack very positively and the journalists praised Giselle for her involvements, but there was absolutely no mention of the hostility between Bartemius and his eldest. Not a single word. The lack of gossip in the papers had, yet again, driven Junior up the wall and he continued to remind everyone of the flare-up in the changing rooms that shed light on their real family relationship.
"Did you girls read the papers?" Giselle wondered, intrigued to hear their opinions, and Emmeline snickered into the book she was using as a face shield, confirming her stance.
"I heard a dramatic reading of the article from your brother during one of our prefect meetings," she confessed, catching Giselle's eye over the top of her Muggle Studies book, "I didn't realise Barty was a full-fledged racist now?"
"Pffft, like he was hiding his opinion before all of this?" doubted Giselle, but she couldn't move past her comment without adding, "what was he saying, while we're on the subject…?"
Emmeline licked her lips and shot Lily a sympathetic look before sharing. "It was something along the lines of 'pruning the traitor's deadweight from the family tree' and then I think he mentioned something about 'needing to take drastic action if your father doesn't stick to his bargain'... there were a lot more slurs thrown in there too but I won't dare repeat them," she said firmly, disgusted by Junior's words, and Giselle rolled her eyes. That sounded about right.
"Lovely boy, our Junior," she spat bitterly.
"And your father doesn't care that he's talking about this so openly?" blurted out Dorcas, somewhat freaked out by the prestigious Ministry head disregarding his son's blatant hate crime. Her lips glued together when the anxiety hit Giselle in the chest, blindsiding her - she still hadn't spoken to anyone about what was really going down in the Crouch household and the automatic response to hearing anyone edge towards the touchy subject was to bite her tongue. But this time she pried her jaw open and spilled the beans, she didn't have the time nor the energy to stay silent and she wanted to talk about it. Maybe Junior will shut up if I fight back? Let's give him a taste of his own medicine.
"Dickhead doesn't care that his son is a Death Eater, no," Giselle blurted out, taking the girls by surprise, and she felt Lily's glare on the side of her face.
"He's what?!" she gasped, horrified. "Elle, what the-,"
"It's not confirmed, I don't know if he has already but he will be joining the second he leaves school," interjected Giselle, rationalising her thoughts in the hopes of calming the worried expressions surrounding her, " I've caught him countless times meeting up with Death Eaters over the summer and he surrounds himself with the rest of the Death Eater wannabes, it is so fucking obvious and yet Dickhead comes up with an excuse every time! 'Protecting traditional values is not the same as joining You-Know-Who' and 'he has never been in trouble unlike you, I've never seen him do anything bad' - blah blah blah…"
"I'll never understand the inner workings of old pureblood families," huffed Lily, revolted by Barty's ignorance, "is he really that thick? How does 'behaving in class' automatically mean 'would never join You-Know-Who'?!"
"It doesn't! He's the worst!" Giselle laughed, relaxing into the sounds of someone voicing her own opinion. "He's old-fashioned and extremely single-minded, he thinks I'm going to end up in prison or wind up joining You-Know-Who because I have a little bit of fun now and then, he doesn't understand how the world truly works and, Merlin forbid, if he ever becomes Minister then our whole world will go to shit and You-Know-Who will win this war! He doesn't know Junior and he certainly doesn't know me, he is the world's worst dad and I'm done with him."
"Now that's what the Prophet should have printed instead of that fluff interview you gave last year," suggested Emmeline, smiling at her friend proudly, "how come the papers aren't writing about this? Surely they've seen you guys argue?"
Giselle snorted and picked up her notebook again, feeling a tad lighter now she had gotten that off her chest. "Father pays them, I'm pretty sure he uses my share of the inheritance to fund it…" she guessed, "plus he's the guy in charge of Magical Law, he can whip up a gag order like that," and she clicked her fingers.
"Damn," shivered Michelle after a few moments, breaking the tense silence, "and you wanna go for a meeting with this man?" she asked Emmeline and Mary, causing Giselle to giggle.
"That's what I've been trying to say! Thank you Michelle!" she sighed, winking at her Ravenclaw chum.
"But you don't have to deal with him anymore, right?" prompted Lily, keen to hear her best friend re-affirm her promise. "You're never going back to that place ever again?"
"Not if I can help it, I may pop back to cause a scene and throw wine in their faces, but I have officially moved out, I don't live there anymore," Giselle said with a confident nod, and Lily beamed.
"Great! You don't have to worry about finding somewhere to stay, by the way, that's already sorted," she told her matter-of-factly, and Giselle froze as the girls shared another look of intrigue. No… I haven't thought about him all day! I was doing so well! The giant incident and its aftermath had turned her crush on Sirius into something worse, she had reverted back to the lovesick school girl she was almost three years ago and she hated how quickly she had fallen. Her acting skills were being put to the test every single day and she hoped her severe bouts of lust and affection for him looked somewhat neutral, she was trying her best not to interfere with his relationship.
"...Why?" Giselle muttered, sitting up straight in her armchair to ask Lily the dreaded question that would set the table off. From the curve of her smile, Giselle could tell that Lily knew what she was doing, she was unabashedly shoving her into the deep end.
"Because you're moving in with us!" Lily explained as though it were obvious, and Dorcas opened her mouth to start the conversation they really wanted to have.
"Is Sirius going to be living there too?" Dorcas gossiped, but Giselle immediately shook her head as the sound of his name sent a shiver through her navel.
"Nope! No boy talk allowed! This is a male-free zone, we all agreed that we wouldn't chat about the other sex so don't start now, Meadowes!" she objected quickly, spitting out the rules of the all-girls study sessions. She used the group as an escape, a safe place where she could forget all about boys and focus on her studies, but sometimes the rules were ignored when someone had a juicy piece of gossip or if Marlene joined them - she tended to babble on about relationships like a force of nature, there was no stopping her.
"Aw c'mon!" pouted Mary, slumped on her elbow, "Marls isn't here so we can actually talk about Black without her piping up all the time! I heard about the letters…?"
Giselle swore her heart dropped out of her arse, mortified at the thought of Sirius blabbing about the contents of her letters. He never spoke about them with her, let alone Mary? "Uuuh, how do you know about them?"
"Remus," confessed Mary coolly, "I caught him and Sirius trying to stuff them in a trunk before Marlene found them and he let slip they were all from you. Did you know that he hasn't told her about them?"
Fighting the urge to look at Lily who was concentrating a little too hard on her essay, Giselle shook her head, attempting to physically shake the scandalous thoughts away. She wanted to know if anyone else (besides the now pink-faced Lily) had a particular opinion on the Gryffindor couple but she didn't want to seem too enthusiastic or passionate. "I, uh, did not know that," she said calmly.
"They must have been some letters, you two hated each other before Christmas," commented Dorcas, and Emmeline agreed wholeheartedly.
"Remember the try-outs? Yikes," she shuddered.
"What letters, sorry?" asked Michelle, a little behind on the tale, and Giselle rushed to catch her up.
"I found the letters we had sent each other in my attic on Christmas Day, it was a whole year's worth of correspondence since we both gave up after the first summer apart," she murmured, cautious of her volume in case Marlene suddenly appeared from behind one of the bookcases surrounding them, "Dickhead stole them, I stole them back - it was a whole thing."
"Ahh," winced Michelle, tussling a blonde wave out of her eyes and she flashed Giselle an awkward smile, "now I can see why he kept them hidden."
Giselle blinked and waited for her to explain, hooked on the hidden meaning. "What does that mean?" she asked when she didn't continue.
"It's not exactly a secret that Marlene takes things rather personally. I love her to bits, there's nothing wrong with being an emotional mess and I would say that to her face… but," Mary piped up finally, and Lily had no trouble catching Giselle's bewildered gaze as the girls started to share their takes.
"She would take one look at those letters and have a panic attack," voiced Emmeline, sadly agreeing.
"She takes his harmless jokes to heart, could you imagine how she'd react if she found your old love letters? She'd assume you guys were back together and she'll have a breakdown-," finished Mary, but Giselle couldn't let that comment slip past her.
"Again, Sirius and I were never together," she droned on, bored of repeating herself, but Lily snickered.
"Don't make me laugh, Elle! You can't sit here and tell us that you two weren't an item," she spat as though she were speaking cold hard facts, and Giselle spluttered, almost tongue-tied by her sudden attack. Where was this coming from?! They didn't need to talk about this in front of others, in front of people who were just as close to them as they were to Marlene?!
"We weren't?!" Giselle managed to say, but Lily was clearly on a roll tonight.
"So the boy that jizzed on your skirt in that cupboard down in the kitchens wasn't your boyfriend?" She wondered, and Giselle slammed her face into her book as the girls around the table burst into fits of giggles. I can't… another pulse of forbidden arousal teased her and she flushed at the burning memory of Sirius dragging her into that tiny cupboard. It was so dark and hot in there, she could still feel his hands slipping under her skirt yearning to tear her underwear off and touch her in a place she had never been touched before.
"No he wasn't, that happened on my last day of school… and you already know this, you're just showing off in front of this lot," grumbled Giselle, muffled by the book smashed into her face.
Lily didn't hide her smug smile, "No I'm not."
"So that explains the kitchen obsession," murmured Michelle thoughtfully, mulling over the new information, and Giselle finally looked up. Mary's lips were quivering, fighting a laugh as she locked eyes with Michelle, and Giselle couldn't help but stare gormlessly at them. Huh?
"Obsession?" she questioned, and Michelle settled back into her armchair, assuming a more relaxed position to share her own thoughts on the subject.
"I thought it was obvious? She's fancied Sirius for years but he's always been chasing you around, so when you were shipped off to France Marlene tried to channel her 'inner Giselle' so she could seduce him," she explained, and Mary guffawed, throwing her head back as she laughed but luckily the cushioned bookshelves around them absorbed her echoes before they disturbed others in the study rooms.
"Oh man, don't start! It didn't work until last year though, our fifth year was a mess," she sighed, "although, in my opinion, I thought Sirius and Remus were going to last longer than they did."
Furiously ignoring Michelle's words to prevent her shivers of arousal from getting stronger, Giselle encouraged them to talk more about the years she missed to distract her from her own panic attack. "I wish I was here for that, I would have loved to have seen them together," she agreed, finishing the rest of her sticky sweet in one big bite. She knew the pair would one day end up in bed together, she vividly remembered comforting both boys separately during their second year when they started to come to terms with their sexuality but they swore her to secrecy, desperate to keep it from each other out of fear of scaring the other off. She never got to see the big reveal and she pouted at the wasted coming out party she had planned.
"They were very cute but very chaotic," voiced Lily before grimacing quickly, "it was during our OWLs though… ugh, you're so lucky you weren't here for that. No one could concentrate at all, it was hell!"
"It would have been worth it," Giselle countered, reliving the old days in her head and she laughed at the emergence of a past bet, "but I guess I owe Remus a few galleons, I once bet him that I'd sleep with Sirius before he did and I think I lost that one… I wonder if he remembers that bet?" Lily and Mary shivered, their faces dropping in horror.
"You lost that bet a lot," hinted Lily, still scarred from her fifth year.
"Do you still fancy Sirius?" asked Emmeline suddenly, and Giselle choked on thin air, startled by her bluntness. Merlin, what do I say?!
"Uh-," Giselle hesitated, the answer dancing on the tip of her tongue, but the mere sound of uncertainty seemed to answer her question sufficiently and the girls sat up straight in their chairs, mouths agape as they stared. This was new gossip. Lily watched in glee, relishing the fact she already knew all of this.
"Fuck off!" cackled Mary, clutching Dorcas' arm incredibly tightly, "ha ha ha!"
"Stop! I don't want to talk about this," groaned Giselle, covering her scarlet freckled face with her hands as she avoided their follow-up questions, but the sound of approaching footsteps rounding the corner killed their excited hisses. The girls looked up to see who had come to join their little study session and Giselle thought she had been electrocuted when Marlene appeared out of the blue, grinning at the sight of her friends. She looked out of breath and a little ruffled but happy nevertheless.
"Sorry I'm late!" she said brightly, dumping her bag on the table as she squished herself in between Emmeline and Michelle, "boy drama again, I'm sure you're not surprised."
Giselle felt as though she was on her broom, utterly windswept by the sudden appearance of the very girl the group had been talking about and by the looks on the other girls' faces she knew they were feeling equally as stunned. Dwelling on Michelle's confessions wasn't healthy for her, Giselle knew she shouldn't focus on them but the whispers in the back of her mind were persistent, energised by the previous conversation. It's good that she's here, maybe you can find out whats going on between them, she's admitting her and Sirius' relationship isn't perfect anymore…?
"Yeah?" Lily managed to say softly, keeping her voice steady as she fought her face to stay neutral. "Everything ok, Marls?"
Marlene pursed her lips and abandoned her Gryffindor robes, shoving them on the back of her chair before collapsing properly. "Lily don't, please," she said exasperatedly, rolling her eyes. "You already know what it was about."
"Now now, Marlene, you know how we feel about talking in code," warned Mary, itching to find out what the lovers were arguing about this time, but Giselle kept her eyes on her textbook. Just read, focus on your book! Don't think about him-
"The living situation again?" moaned Lily disapprovingly.
"Yes again," murmured Marlene, tugging on her handbag harshly to remove her Defence Against the Dark Arts notebook, "he point blank refuses to talk about it now, which makes me feel like utter shit."
"What happened?" pried Dorcas quietly, and Giselle tensed, hoping her eardrums would spontaneously combust so she wouldn't have to listen. She had re-read the same line three times now, her eyes blurred as Marlene started her spiel.
"I asked Sirius to move in with me and my sister," explained Marlene, diving straight into her problems, "Monica has a spare room and her house is pretty big, we would have loads of space for ourselves, but he keeps harping on about James… no offence, Lils." Giselle dared to look at Lily from beneath her lashes and she watched her nostrils flare.
"None taken, I'm my own person after all," she said through her teeth.
"I know he's living with James now, and don't get me wrong the Potter house is wonderful and it has more than enough room for all of us, but I thought he might want to take things a little more seriously once we leave school. He's more concerned about what his best friend is doing rather than what we could be doing, he's treating the future like it's some sort of joke!" babbled Marlene, letting it all spew out. "I feel like his last choice, he's favouring James over me."
Lily closed her book and took a deep breath, giving the blonde her full attention. Giselle shifted in her chair and lifted her knees, sitting back so she could watch the girls as she pretended to read her advanced Potions book. She couldn't bring herself to get involved, her words had failed her and Emmeline kept wiggling her eyebrows whenever she caught her eye. If they bring me into this then I'm gonna kill them!
"Marls, I understand where you're coming from and I know how amazing Monica's house is, but you've got to understand that Sirius is still getting over being disowned," Lily said as gently as possible, she was using her Head Girl's voice and Giselle felt strangely comforted by her tone - it was very soothing. "You know how, for a lack of a better word, traumatised he is and the Potters' house is his safe haven. If he's not ready to move out of there then he's not ready. James is only trying to help!"
Hearing how passionate Lily was about Sirius' wellbeing was terribly heartwarming and Giselle hid her pout with her book, trying not to linger on her own situation. She wanted to move in with them, of course she did, but she knew she shouldn't… the temptation would be too much for her. At least he was safe, that was all that mattered.
"Yes, you've said this to me before but I don't think anyone cares that I can help him too!" moaned Marlene, slumping forwards in a small strop. "I don't think following James around is good for him, he needs a break from everything to discover himself and start his own life, away from the others! He's not giving me the chance to prove my word, he's shooting me down at every opportunity!"
The tone of the conversation sharpened when Lily's brows furrowed and she straightened her spine. Giselle and the other onlookers froze.
"What do you mean 'following James around isn't good for him'?" questioned Lily, sounding less than friendly. Marlene's defences shot up immediately.
"Don't get touchy, Lils, I don't know why you're defending him. You hated them last year, don't act like they're a good influence on each other-," spat Marlene, narrowing her bright eyes, and Lily scoffed.
"I didn't hate them-,"
"Yes you did! You couldn't stand them! You-,"
"Don't start an argument with me, Marlene!" Lily was beyond pissed, the tops of her ears were crimson, betraying her bubbling rage and Giselle couldn't tear her eyes away from sheer fascination. She never lost control and it was rare to see her fired up like this. "Firstly, I won't deny that I wasn't their biggest fan but I never hated them. Secondly, James and I are helping Sirius, we're not forcing him to stay with us and it's not our fault that he doesn't want to move in with you! You can't force him to do something he doesn't want to do, especially after the shit he's been through! If your boyfriend's decision is hurting you this much then maybe its time you think about whether all of this is worth the fucking hassle because its doing my head in!"
Marlene didn't dare respond, the tears in her eyes were an indication of how she was feeling and Giselle held her breath, holding herself back from piping up. The wicked hiss in the back of her mind was encouraging her to suggest that she should break up with Sirius, the clown in her was begging her to make the situation worse but the butterflies in her stomach kept her grounded and nervous - of course she shouldn't say that out loud! Mary and Dorcas were watching the girls without shame, yearning for them to continue, whilst the others diverted their gaze.
"I really thought you would be on my side for this, I'm trying to give you and Potter some privacy. It's not hurting me, I'm just pissed off that he's not listening," Marlene eventually muttered, struggling to pull the conversation back from rock bottom. Emmeline tried to join her attempt in making the moment less awkward by offering her one of Mary's Fizzing Whizzbees and Marlene mumbled her thanks as she popped one in her mouth.
Lily smoothed back her glossy hair, trying her best not to look at Giselle, "I mean, the sentiment is lovely but we wouldn't be alone, even if Sirius did move out. Remus will be there all the time like last summer, and we'll have Elle in the next room-,"
Marlene snapped her head towards Giselle and blinked, rather taken aback. "Wait, Elle, you're moving in with them too?" The wound in her voice was painful and Giselle winced, feeling like a bug trapped under a magnifying glass. Ah, fuck!
"Uh, actually I haven't said yes yet-," she stuttered, her voice raspy from her worry of being called out, "I was thinking about staying with my cousins for a bit, Fabian and Gideon have a spare room… well, an office but that's the same thing." Her hurried ramblings were shaky but she clung onto her lies with all her might, praying that some of it stuck. Truthfully she hadn't thought about asking the Prewetts if they would let her stay for a few weeks while she came up with a plan because she wanted to live with her friends, she knew voicing that particular desire would set Marlene off again. The prospect of her and Sirius living in the same house with another couple would be just as explosive as Marlene finding the love letters, she'd assume the worst and that they were back together.
"Oh…" Marlene faltered slightly, "you're not going back to your parents house?"
"Merlin no!" Giselle laughed humourlessly, "never again! My disowning is due in a couple of weeks, I can't ruin all my hard work by returning back to Dickhead."
"I'm sorry," muttered Marlene soberly, chewing her bottom lip as she offered her a sympathetic smile, "I didn't realise… you should move in with them. You can't sofa surf for weeks on end, that's not your style." That was unexpected!
"Mhmm," was all Giselle could say, "maybe."
"Is Potter turning his house into a home for runaways?" joked Mary, hoping to break the awkwardness that was suffocating the group, and their light giggles softened the tense expressions around the table.
"Can we please stop talking about boys? I can feel my brain cells dying," whined Giselle, eager to move the conversation away from discussions that made her loins burn. Sirius didn't want to live with his girlfriend… her hope grew stronger. "This is an all-girls study session for a reason."
"Elle shush!" teased Dorcas, lazily flicking through her revision notes as she sent her a mischievous smile, "we still haven't asked you about your boy trouble! How are things between you and Walters?"
Blood gushed into her cheeks and she glowed, effervescent with shame. Come on! I can't catch a break! Lily failed to stifle her snort and she cackled, highly entertained by her illustrious flasher story, and rallied behind Dorcas to keep asking questions.
"Non-existent," Giselle bit back, growling at her past self for resorting to drastic measures, "our incident was a one-time thing, I can't look him in the eye anymore. There is no thing between me and Eric."
"What's this? Eric Walters?" gasped Marlene, thirsty for the news, and Lily finally brightened up as she spilled the beans on Giselle's encounter with the Slytherin chaser. The girls chuckled along as Giselle groaned, hiding her face when Lily reached the climax of the story, but she forced her hands away from her eyes when she heard Marlene's loud giggle.
"Wow! You actually showed him your tits?!" she gasped, shocked by Giselle's nerve, "not your bra?"
"Yup," sighed Giselle, fiddling with the tatty corner of her book just to do something with her shaky hands, "the girls were on full display, nipples and everything… I'm so stupid…"
"This stays between us," interjected Lily, rushing to cover her tracks as she realised she had snitched on her boyfriend. "Remember, Potter didn't kidnap those boys!"
"Your secret is safe with us," promised Michelle, sharing a laugh with Dorcas, "They were so angry, it was hilarious!"
"We can't ruin the mystery, Fenwick is still convinced it was the Slytherins," agreed Dorcas, "but Edgar is adamant it was James."
"I don't think I could have flashed Walters," whistled Marlene, arching a brow as she brought the topic back to Giselle, "every time I look at him all I would think is 'this guy saw my boobs' and I'd die of shame!"
"Cheers Marls! I really needed to hear that!" Giselle said falsely, collapsing on the table once more at the gut-wrenching humiliation that pumped through her whenever she ran into Walters. He was hungry for more, he didn't hide his leers anymore and the cruel whispers that spread throughout the older Slytherins threatened only inflamed her shame. They all knew what she had done, she knew Walters wouldn't keep it a secret. But there was a tiny glimmer of satisfaction whenever she passed the Slytherins - she knew Junior knew about her naughty display and he hated it.
"Would you ever date him for real?" wondered Marlene, hoping to continue the conversation, and Giselle silently thanked the round of laughter that drowned out her spiteful scoffs. Is she for real?!
"Not in a million years! Ew! I'd rather let father continue with his arranged marriage idea than go out with that brute," spat Giselle, irked that this was still a thing, and she scowled at the girls when they went to ask her to repeat herself, "don't ask."
"Let's move away from boys please, I mean it," suggested Lily loudly, taking charge of the study session again to save Giselle from bursting in flames. "I've been waiting to pinch your duelling manual, hand it over Marls!" The conversation switched back to their upcoming exams and Giselle shook away the creeping guilty feeling that had sneakily settled in her stomach, battling with her heart to stay focused on her Potions work, but she felt Marlene's flickering gaze on her face for the rest of the night. She knew Giselle liked Sirius, she could feel it...
I had to snip this chapter in half, I hope you enjoyed! :) xoxo im so bad at small talk ffs