Disclaimer: I would have to say… let me think about it… um… no?

Sorry, it's been a while.

Suzie woke up to the shrill sound of Sarah's alarm clock. She slowly opened her eyes, taking in the blurry curtains and the light streaming onto her bed through the small gap where they met. There was an angry grunt, courtesy of Lily, and the ringing stopped. She sat up, rubbed some of the sleepy dust out of her eyes, and opened the curtains.

'Hey,' she said sleepily.

'Hey, Suzie,' Sarah croaked. She coughed, and, with no change in her voice, repeated, 'Hey, Suzie.'

'I hate morning voice,' groaned Caroline, having heard Sarah, from behind her curtains.

'I hate mornings,' grumbled Lily, also from behind her curtains. Sarah pulled herself up and off the bed, and started rummaging in her trunk for her clothes. Eventually she took out some crumpled garments and went into the bathroom, yawning. Suzie followed her example and got changed behind her curtains.

When she emerged, Caroline was up; she was standing in the middle of the room, and looking around, blinking, in a confused way.

'Caroline?' said Suzie.

'What?' she grunted in reply.

'Lily!' yelled Sarah, coming out of the bathroom, and no longer croaking, 'Get up this instant!'

There was no response, so Sarah yanked opened the curtains to reveal Lily, fast asleep. Sarah sighed, and yanked Lily's duvet off of her. Lily groaned.

'Gowaysstoeuhi…'

'At least you're awake now,' said Sarah, 'Honestly, Lily, you're so dreadful in the mornings.'

'Mmph,' replied Lily, sitting up, seeing as she didn't really have much of a choice. Sarah smiled, satisfied, told Lily that if she wasn't down within half-an-hour she would regret it, and went down to breakfast. Suzie followed.

They sat down at the table. Sarah was buttering her bread and Suzie was digging into her usual bowl of cornflakes when the Marauders came down. Well, Remus, Peter and Sirius came down, but not James.

'Hey!' Sarah shouted, 'Where's Potter?'

'In bed still,' said Remus, sitting next to her, 'He's taking it badly.'

'I thought you guys made up?'

'Well, we didn't,' said Sirius, looking forlorn.

'Oh, Black! I'm so sorry! I –'

'Please, don't be,' cut in Sirius, before Sarah could give a gushing speech. Sarah stopped and looked down at her bread again.

'Gibson?' came Peter's voice. Suzie turned her head to him. He appeared to be blushing.

'Um…' he mumbled, before letting out in one breath, 'what happened to your braids?'

Suzie felt her hair. She slapped her hand to her mouth, and gasped.

'I completely forgot this morning! Oh, I haven't even brushed it properly. Thanks for reminding me, Pettigrew!'

Peter muttered something in reply, but Suzie was already up and running to the stairs, her cornflakes forgotten. He watched her for a while, until a sudden voice snapped him out of his reverie.

'Wormtail!' Peter looked at Remus, and he continued, 'Something wrong?'

'No, no, nothing's wrong,' said Peter quickly, and he joined in Sirius, Remus and Sarah's conversation.

Suzie arrived in the girls' dorm to find Lily and Caroline arguing about something trivial, as per usual.

'Hey,' she said quietly as she slipped in. Lily and Caroline didn't seem to notice.

'Caroline, that was my shampoo!' snapped Lily, while Caroline blow-dried her hair with her wand in front of the mirror.

'Oh, but it wasn't.'

'Oh, but it was.'

'I know it was mine, Lily, because mine was the one with the white cap, and yours was the one with the blue cap.'

'Caroline, it was the other way round!'

'I remember because I said to myself, "mine is the one with the white cap".'

'Why would anyone normal say that to themselves? You're making it up.'

'Yes, but since when was I normal?'

'Lily! Caroline!' said Suzie, 'Could I use the mirror please?'

Caroline rolled her eyes and stepped away from the mirror. Suzie sat down, Summoned her brush and started brushing away at some tangles on the left side of her hair. Lily was about to make a retort to what Caroline had said, when Suzie interrupted,

'And why does it matter which one you used? They're both the same anyway, just with different caps. Next time, you, Lily, can use the one you think is Caroline's, and you'll be even.'

Lily and Caroline opened their mouths and closed them again. They were rarely told off by Suzie, and so it was very effective whenever it happened. Meekly, Lily sat down on her bed, and started looking through her bag, while Caroline left the room.

'Lily?' said Suzie after a while, when Lily got up and went to the door.

'Yes?'

'Could you please wait for me?'

'Sure,' said Lily, going over to her, 'Do you want help with your braids?'

'Yes, thanks.'

'No problem.'

Lily sat down next to Suzie and started braiding her hair on the right side, while Suzie did the now-brushed left.

'Did you do your Herbology, Lily?'

'Yeah, I did it last night.'

'How did you find it?'

'Oh, it was fine, I wrote three inches more than needed.'

'Typical Lily!'

Lily laughed, and the two sat in companionable silence for a while, until Suzie's hair was finished.

'Et voila!' exclaimed Lily, grinning and looking at the finished braids admiringly.

Suzie smiled. She knew that Lily liked Sarah more than her, and was probably closer to Caroline, for all their arguing, but speaking in foreign languages was something Lily only did with her.

'Danke schön,' said Suzie. She got up, and stood by the door for a while, waiting for Lily, who was now sitting on her bed, rummaging in her bag.

'What are you looking for?'

'Looking for?'

'In your bag?'

'Oh, um… um…'

'What are you doing if you're not looking for something?'

Lily sighed and looked at her feet, before saying, 'I just… don't want to go down yet.'

'Why not?'

'I don't know what to say to Black.' Suzie went over to sit by her. Lily sighed again, and added, 'If I say yes to him, I'll be accepting a date with… Black! And if I say no, I'll invoke Caroline's wrath! Suzie, what should I do?'

Suzie swallowed.

'I think you should… I don't know. It's your choice, Lily.'

'Please… do you think I should go out with Black?'

'Look, really, it's your choice!'

'Suzie, please give me some sort of opinion! I can't choose on my own!'

'I don't really have an opinion though.'

'Suzie!'

'I think maybe it would do you some good to have a boyfriend, but I don't want you to get hurt, Lily. As I said, it's your choice.'

Lily sighed for a third time, and thought about it for a while. Suzie watched her until finally she got up.

'Come on, Suzie. Let's go.'

'What are you going to do about it?'

'I'm going to go to breakfast and eat. I'm too hungry to sit around thinking.'

'But –'

'I'll see how I feel on the spur of the moment, OK?'

'OK.'

Lily strode out of the dorm, and Suzie followed warily. When they arrived in the Great Hall, Lily, as she had predicted, was instantly faced with the Sirius Black dilemma.

'Evans? Will you go out with me?' he yelled, much to the amusement of the other students, a lot of whom began sniggering.

'Um…'

Behind Sirius, Lily could see Caroline nodding her head violently. She wetted her lips to stall for time, and, once Caroline started getting tired of nodding as she'd been doing it for so long, waiting, Suzie whispered, 'Why not? It can't hurt too much…'

Lily considered these words briefly, and yelled back, 'Sure, Black, whatever!'

Sirius leapt to his feet and did a little dance, which also made the students laugh. Lily sighed, and mumbled, 'I'm going to regret this, aren't I?' before joining the others at the table.

If you don't know:

Et voila, in this case, basically means 'there you go!' or 'and finished!' in French.

Danke schön is 'Thank you very much' in German.

Your topic is 'Common Sense' by Thomas Paine. It's some book that's lying around in the school library, where I am writing this. If you have read it, or have even heard of it, please say so.

Hepsa