The noise was quickly dying as everybody made their way up to their common rooms for the night. It had been a quiet Halloween and Branwen preferred it this way, the quiet evenings spent with her friends.
She wished though, that Tad had been here; he never came up for Halloween. Said he liked to stay at home and give sweets out to the muggles that came knocking on the door. After all it was a wizarding holiday that one of the ministers had decided to share with muggles years ago.
There was a creepy feeling around the castle though something Branwen had never felt before and if she hadn't been preoccupied she may have noticed the Slytherin following her. Learning the ways a Gryffindor took to their common room, for his own purposes.
Branwen though noticed none of this her mind had wandered off. She had discovered that she had formed a crush. Oh and it couldn't be like Alice's where she fancied somebody good and decent like Frank, or Ginny who was after Joseph.
No she had fallen for one of the enemy, for a Marauder. She knew it was stupid, that there was more to the boy than that, but she shouldn't have fallen for him. He was of a different world to her; he was very rich for starters and his family were powerful.
Her mind was wondering so much that she didn't see the boy walk out of the classroom on the left and bumped right into him. She fell to the floor in a lump banging her head hard on the floor. Pain shot through her head and it was a minute before she could hear the boy.
"Branwen! Are you all right? I'm so sorry I didn't mean to…"
"It's alright Pete, I'm fine."
He reached his hand out to her and she stood with his help. A small blush had spread to her cheeks and she tried not to show it.
It was weird how Peter was considered the less admired of the Marauders. All right, he was shorter than them all. The other three had already reached their growth spurt and all stood at around six feet.
Branwen though, saw something in Peter that others hadn't. She saw the hurt that lay just under him, the sparkle of his eyes when he was happy. He wasn't the thinnest of people anymore but he wasn't fat; he was plump, only a little over weight.
Yes Branwen didn't know why and she didn't know when, she just knew that she had feelings for Peter. No matter how she looked at it, she wanted to kiss him, and being this close to him on her own was toxic.
She couldn't control herself for some reason and without thinking leaned into him. Her lips met his and a tingle ran up her spine. She heard a gasp from him and quickly pulled away. His eyes were wide and he looked completely confused.
Branwen didn't wait she spun around and ran up to the common room. It was packed with people all sitting around laughing and talking. Ginny and Alice were flirting with Joseph and Frank, as was normal and Lily was sat with them.
Without hesitating she ran over grabbed Lily's hand and dragged her up to the dorm room. It was silent in the room as nobody else had yet come up there.
Branwen dropped onto her bed scooping up her pillow into her hand and drawing it close to her chest. Looking at the bed cover she felt Lily sit beside her.
"So what's wrong?"
"I kissed him. I kissed him! What the hell was I thinking about?"
"You kissed who?"
Branwen looked up at her best friend. Biting her lip she looked on at Lily.
"Peter."
"Peter! Why?"
Lily was chuckling, her mouth had dropped and her eyes were wide as if she hadn't heard anything as funny in all her life.
"That's right Lily, you laugh when I brought you up here to talk about something seriously."
"Okay, calm. I'm calm… so you kissed Peter, but umm why? You don't fancy him do you?"
"Well…"
"Oh my God you do! You like Peter!"
"Don't yell it."
Branwen buried her head further into the pillow trying to hide the blush that had spread to her face. She was no good at these things; she didn't know how to act around boys, she had never really spent time with boys. Well except her Nhad and Tad and that didn't count.
The door to their room opened and she heard Lily laugh as somebody fell hard onto the floor. Peeking over the top of her pillow she saw Alice curled up in a ball on the floor. She was laughing hard trying to stop the tears in her eyes from spilling onto her face.
"Bran, Peter's down there he wants to speak to you."
"Ohh!"
Lily laughed hard and Branwen kicked her laughing slightly with the thump of her friend hitting the floor.
"Oh that's it girl, you're dead!"
A pillow hit Branwen on the head as she fired another at Lily. Alice still on the floor looked at the pair and tried to make out what was happening.
"Umm… Bran, Peter's still waiting for you."
"Do me a favour and tell him I'm in the shower, and I'll speak to him in the morning."
Alice shook her head a little at this looking questionably at her friends.
"Am I missing something?"
Lily smiled happily at her friend.
"Get Ginny and we'll have a girly meeting; I think we're going to need your help."
Alice ran down the stairs and within seconds she was back with Ginny in tow. The two girls jumped onto Lily's bed and looked at Branwen's where their two other friends were sat. Alice smiling began the integration.
"So what's happened then, why is Peter suddenly interested in you Bran?"
She mumbled an answer and Lily laughed.
"They couldn't understand that Bran! But she kissed Peter!"
The next five minutes were filled with laughter, but once it calmed down Branwen spoke up.
"Okay so I kissed him, but that's only half the problem. I fancy him and I just don't know how to act around him. Please help, you two are so good around boys."
Ginny dropped her pillow as Alice slipped from the side of the bed both looked completely stunned by the news but Ginny answered.
"Just be yourself that's all you have to do. If he tells a joke laugh but that's all there is to it."
"But it's so hard. You make it look easy. Look at you and Joseph. You flirt with him all the time. You bat your eyelashes you smile at him, laugh and your always touching his arm. I can't do that."
"Well don't. To be honest I think that would scare Peter more than your kiss must have."
The four girls sat together, long into the night just talking and laughing. And by the time the finally went to bed it was extremely late and yet one of their numbers was still absent.
First thanks to everyone who reviews chapter twelve yes Michael is a scumbag and I'm kinda glad he's gone because I'm enjoying the way her character is developing now. And yes Normal Mand is back and more or less for good (there is one regression, but you'll understand why when it happens)
And again thanks for reviewing chapter thirteen yes true friendship I like Ginny I think she's the kind of girl you'd want on your side.
Anyway thanks to my lovely beta Annie, and hope you enjoy