Harmony clomped up the stairs to Sirius' dorm in a tired trance. It was just after ten in the morning and she was already looking forward to sleeping again that night. When she arrived to the door, she had barely raised her arm to knock when it swung open and she was being swept inside by a warm, cologne-smelling set of arms.
"Good morning." Sirius kissed her cheek swiftly, then leaned around her to shut the door. The room was empty, except for them. "The others left a little while ago." Sirius explained. "James couldn't handle the hunger."
Harmony yawned. "Why am I always tired?"
"Because with school and all this drama going on lately, you've had no sleep." Sirius replied, then continued. "Want to go down to the common room after?" He made his way over to the bathroom and she heard him start to brush his teeth so she followed.
"Sure." Harmony told him, leaning against the door frame. "But first let me tell you all about what happened with Liven."
"That's 'ight!" Sirius said, toothpaste dripping down his chin unattractively. "Wut 'appened?"
"Classy." Harmony commented. "Okay, so she finally came in at five, and she was completely hammered. Completely, Sirius. Like, she didn't know what she was doing. She eventually sobered up a little bit and she told me what happened."
Sirius was listening with his wide eyes trained on Harmony. He quickly spat and rinsed his mouth out, then looked back up at her.
Harmony continued. "Turns out she shagged him. In the Room of Requirement."
Sirius just looked at her for a moment in a combination of shock and rapt attention. "While she was drunk?"
"No, no. She told me they were sober and then got drunk afterwards." Harmony said. "At least the guy had the decency to get her wasted after." Harmony was inexplicably furious at Jack for a moment.
"Wow." Sirius said, leaning against the counter with his arms crossed. "And she just showed up out of nowhere? At five?"
"Yeah. I was and kinda still am pissed but she kept saying how it was the best night of her life and how it was amazing and I just…I didn't want to be that one bad stain when she thinks back on it."
Sirius nodded. "You do have a right to be angry, though. She kept you up until five and then to top it all off you had to take care of her, too."
Harmony sighed. "She's still asleep. I haven't told anyone else. Should I?"
"No, let her do that. She might not even tell anyone, though, depending on how she feels about everything now that she's sober." Sirius said, then pushed himself up. "You should be there for when she wakes up. She's going to need you." Sirius said wisely.
"Yeah, that's a good idea." Harmony looked at him, something tugging at her. "Sirius…"
"Yeah?"
"You're relating to her, aren't you?" Harmony felt flustered all over. They never talked about his first and only time. They only spoke about it once, and they weren't even together then.
"Yeah." was all he said.
Awkward silence followed. It was a new sensation. They never had awkward silences.
"Sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up." Harmony was preparing to leave or something when he stopped her.
"It's okay. We're together - you have a right to know." Sirius put his hand on the back of his neck and Harmony noticed how red his cheeks were.
It was quiet and then Harmony asked tentatively, "You were drunk?"
"So much so that I couldn't remember the day of week." Sirius sighed.
"Did you…did you, like, enjoy it?" Harmony's heart pounded. "I mean - just don't answer that. I'm sorry. This is weird."
He laughed and it was quiet. Then Sirius looked up at her and said, "I did regret it though. It was in a broom cupboard, for fuck's sake. I woke up in my own bed, no memory of how I got there, with a strange sensation that something happened and within ten minutes bits and pieces just sort of…started coming back to me and…yeah. She doesn't go here, anymore. I know you're wondering."
"Do James and them know?" Harmony asked.
"Yeah, I told them like a week after it happened." Sirius answered.
Harmony was quiet, thinking about the things she had promised to herself. She thought about how he must've felt after shagging some girl, completely hammered, in a broom closet. Then Harmony sighed in frustration, a little too loudly, because Sirius made her re-evaluate everything.
Harmony pushed herself up off the door frame. "I'm sorry that I intruded your privacy and stuff." her cheeks were red, and so was Sirius'.
Sirius pushed himself up, too. "You didn't Harms. We're a constellation so you should know this stuff."
Harmony smiled and just said, "Well, I should go see Liven…"
Sirius nodded, but before she could turn around, he spoke up. "You've never…you're a…" he swallowed awkwardly. "a virgin, right?"
Harmony nodded, feeling a weight on her. "I'm…yeah."
He looked up at her for a second, and with a moment's hesitation he said, "That's…good."
She was uncomfortable. Extremely. "This is weird."
"Yeah it is."
It was quiet.
"Okay, let's just talk about something else." Harmony suggested.
"Good idea! Liven. You should see Liven."
"You're right." Harmony walked out into the room and turned around. "I'll see you in a little bit, okay?"
"Sure. I'll be waiting downstairs." Sirius pecked her on the lips and then Harmony disappeared down the stairs.
When Harmony got back to her dorm, Liven wasn't in her bed. However, the distinct sounds of retching were coming from the washroom.
"Oh, Liv." Harmony pushed open the door to find her best friend hugging the toilet.
"Cheers," she said weakly, before throwing up again. The whole place smelled like vomit.
"Geez. Hold on." Harmony dashed back out to the bedroom, where she found her emergency vial of hangover potion that Sirius had given her. She brought it back to Liven and said, "Drink this."
Liven swiftly took the potion, without a word, and drank it all before she could throw up again. It was quiet for a moment, then Liven just sat back against the wall with her eyes closed.
"It's working." she smiled in relief. "I don't know how muggles do it."
Harmony laughed. "C'mon. You need to either lay back down or get dressed."
"I didn't feel this drunk last night." Liven complained, then she stopped herself. "Wholy fuck in a bucket, Harmony. I shagged Jack."
Harmony nodded, pulling Liven out of the reeking bathroom. "You did."
Liven was quiet while she pieced together the fragments of last night's memory. Harmony patiently waited for Liven to either be upset or overjoyed at the fact that she slept with someone.
"There was the ball…and then I shagged Jack." Liven repeated.
"Are you…happy about it?" Harmony asked tentatively.
Liven thought about it, then a smile clouded her features. "Yes."
"Good." Harmony was relieved. She didn't want to have to deal with any crushing regret.
"It was…oh, Harmony. It was amazing. All slow and stuff at first and then-"
"Alright!" Harmony cut her off. "I don't want to hear about your inner sex animal."
Liven laughed loudly, the potion clearly taking effect. Then she started screaming. "Oh my god, Harmony! I-"
Harmony laughed, genuinely happy for Liven. "You're a woman now!"
Liven laughed too and said, her voice happy, "I should get dressed. Jack said he'd meet me at eleven!" She squinted at the clock to see that it was twenty to.
"Okay." Harmony said, and she helped, upon Liven's request, choose out an outfit that said - 'I had sex with you and I like you.'
Harmony snorted so loudly at that that it hurt her nose.
Finally, Liven was dressed and ready to go. It was a couple minutes after eleven as Liven bounced out of the common room and Harmony kept her eyes on her retreating back as she made her way over to Sirius.
"She was happy about it, then?"
"Thankfully." Harmony plopped down right onto his lap and he wrapped his arms around her. They people-watched for a little while in a comfortable silence and pretty soon Harmony was struggling to keep her eyes open.
"I'm going to fall asleep, Sirius." Harmony sighed, nuzzling his neck slightly.
"Do you want to sleep?" Sirius asked, his throat buzzing as he spoke.
"I want to because I'm tired but I probably shouldn't." Harmony mumbled. "Screw it, I'm sleeping." She was so warm and comfy.
"Nope. C'mon, let's do something." Sirius said, unmoving.
"No, let's stay right here. Let's cuddle all day." Harmony whined.
"We did that yesterday."
"Huh." Harmony said, then continued. "We should cuddle everyday."
Sirius laughed. "What about coffee? Let's get coffee."
"Okay." Harmony climbed off him without hesitation and Sirius started laughing harder. "I'm sorry but caffeine is my top priority."
"Addiction, much?" Sirius rolled off the couch ungracefully.
"Don't be my mother." Harmony scrunched up her face. "Ew. I'm mentally listing all the similarities between you and my mother now."
"Any good ones?"
"Plenty." Harmony said. "But I also snog you a lot so…"
"Plus you gave me a hickey yesterday." Sirius interjected helpfully.
"How did you deal with that, by the way?" Harmony peered around him to see his neck as they left the busy common room behind for the warm school corridors. "Wait - why didn't you heal it?"
"Because I'm going to pull a Harmony."
"What?"
"Remember that one time while we were at your house and you didn't heal yours? Well, for those same reasons."
"And what were they?" Harmony was grinning because she just wanted to hear him get all sappy.
"Because it's a physical reminder of a memory." Sirius said, chuckling as he threw his arms up.
"Good answer!" She laughed and they turned the corner.
"I have a proposal, which, by the way, is way out of character for me."
"Our relationship is out of character for you." Harmony commented. "Actually, it was, but you've changed. You're not a, no offence to your past self, man-whore anymore."
Sirius snorted loudly. "No offence taken. It was kinda true."
"What were you going to say?" Harmony asked.
"Right, well it's more of a dare actually. So I guess it's not that out of character for me."
Harmony grinned. "Go on."
"Okay, so I dare you to not heal any of your hickeys and I'll do the same and basically whoever lasts the longest without healing any of their hickeys wins. The loser has to be pushed into the Black Lake, in their underwear, in December." Sirius said.
Harmony considered this. She couldn't back down, no matter how much she wanted to. "You little shit. You know I can't resist a dare like that."
Sirius grinned even wider than he already was and snuck a glance at her. "So are you in?"
"I just…fine. Deal." They shook on it.
"But wait!" Harmony said, realizing something. "I'm allowed to conceal it, right?'
"Not with magic." Sirius replied.
"Alriiiiight." Harmony sighed. "Be prepared to freeze in that water."
Sirius scoffed."Yeah. Right. I don't care if people see my hickeys. You will."
"Ah, but I know how to use makeup." Harmony countered. "You don't."
"True." Sirius granted, nodding his head. "I have a feeling that this dare is going to last a long time."
"That's what happens when two stubborn people are together." Harmony told him.
Sirius smiled and he grabbed her hand, intertwining their fingers. "Now you're stuck with all my hickeys."
Harmony turned her lips up, considering this. "I can live with that. Maybe can you try to leave them in spots that aren't super visible, though?"
"Darling, you won't complain where they are afterwards." Sirius said this comment so nonchalantly that Harmony's brain was confused as she blushed furiously.
"Yep, I think I need a coffee. Right now." Harmony could feel the smile on Sirius' face as she pulled him faster down the hall to the kitchens.
Harmony was slowly dragging her feet back to her dorm after lunch, without Sirius because he was caught up in chatting Quidditch with James, when she spotted Jack leaving the Great Hall. Harmony ran up and called, "Jack!"
He turned around and was surprised to find Harmony calling him. "Hey," he said, confused. He adjusted his book in his hand and Harmony flicked her eyes down to read the title - The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. An excellent book by an amazing and long-dead muggle author; one of Harmony's favourites.
"That's an amazing book." she commented automatically, then she said, "I need a word." Harmony wasn't planning on this but, hey, now was a good moment.
"O-kay." he followed Harmony away from the massive doors of the buzzing Great Hall.
"I know that you shagged Liven last night." There was no point in beating around the bush. She needed to study and she wasn't in the mood for games, to be quite blunt.
"Oh-" he blushed to his sandy brown-coloured roots. He was kinda cute, Harmony figured; he had that well put-together look working for him. Liven did well.
"Listen. You seem like a really good guy."
"You seem like a really nice girl."
"Not when my best friend's heart gets broken. So, don't break hers. Understood?"
Jack nodded, looking taken aback. "I won't."
"Seriously, Jack. You were her first. She really, really likes you. Treat her well, okay?"
"I will, Harmony. She's an amazing girl and I'm not going to hurt her." he seemed to be speaking genuinely, so Harmony stopped glaring at him with a fierce kind of protection for Liven.
"Good. Also - I didn't appreciate dealing with her drunk at five in the morning."
He rubbed his neck sheepishly. "Uh, yeah, sorry about that. Liven said she had some firewhiskey and we were really happy already so-"
"Nope, I don't want to hear about what you did with firewhiskey in your systems." Harmony laughed.
Jack smiled. "I better be going, Liv's waiting-" He called her Liv. Harmony was trying not to smile at how cute the pair of them already were.
"Of course. Glad we had this chat, by the way. Also, I know how to remove a penis." Harmony strutted away from the Great Hall, not waiting around to see his reaction.
Suddenly, she spotted Sirius around the side of the wall where he was clearly listening in on the conversation. Guilty, he turned around. "You were doing well. And then you made him spoil himself."
She sighed, then let out a chuckle. "Let's go study. I have no idea how I'm going to live through exams."
"You threatened to remove his dick, Harmony?" Liven crashed into the girls' dorms to find Harmony curled up with Sirius on her bed as they studied.
"You're going to thank me if your heart gets broken. I don't think it will, though." Harmony added, unaffected by Liven's dramatic entrance. No one else was in the dorm - Lily went for a walk with Alice and Becca was with Remus.
"It won't!" Liven said, then she added. "But that's not nice, Harmony. That's not nice at all. Especially to me."
Sirius snorted in laughter, eyes still on the textbook page he was reading.
"I know you told him." Liven waved her arm away as Harmony went to confess to her friend that she let Sirius in on the secret. "You guys are like a pair of gossiping girls. The two of you can't keep a secret from each other if your life depended on it."
Harmony laughed. "So, you're not mad? That I threatened to de-penis your…boyfriend?" Harmony tested out the word.
It went unnoticed by Liven, which made Harmony start bouncing around on the bed as Liven was scolding her. Harmony wasn't listening to a word.
"Oh my gosh!" She cut Liven off, mid-sentence.
"What?" she asked in exasperation, arms folded over her fitted black t-shirt.
"He's officially your boyfriend! Liven, you have a boyfriend!" Harmony was joyously clapping, stereotypically true to her age.
Liven smiled, half annoyed. "Yes, I do." Then she couldn't help but add in an equally excited voice, "He asked me today."
The girls squealed together for a moment before a loud, drawn out screeching noise that resembled the sound of a tortured bird came from behind the jumping girls.
"What was that?" Liven asked, eyes wide with shock at Sirius.
"That's what the two of you sound like right now. And I'm trying to study." Sirius replied, then he continued reading as if he didn't just make an inhuman noise that was nothing like the sound of an excited Liven and Harmony.
"The fuck kind of potion are you on?" Harmony asked, and she started laughing. Laughing hard. Partly because Sirius triggered it with his teenage girl impression and partly because she was filled to the brim with happiness for Liven.
A couple of moments after the girls stopped laughing, Liven said breathlessly, "Well, I'm going to go see Jack. I just needed to come up here to change and yell at you. Half of it's completed!" She went over to her dresser and pulled something out.
Harmony shook her head and called to Liven, who was already in the washroom, "Change into what? Matching lingerie?"
There was no reply. "She's changing into matching lingerie, Sirius." Harmony said, laughter laced in her voice. "Shouldn't they like, slow down?"
He snorted. "They're not going to be able to walk tomorrow."
Harmony burst out laughing. "How will she pee?" she croaked out.
Pretty soon both Sirius and Harmony were rolling around in laughter, tears streaming down their faces. The stack of textbooks and parchment that made up their homework long forgotten. Just then, Liven came out of the bathroom carrying something in her palm that resembled a bra, where she then slipped it into the drawer of her nightstand. "What's so funny?"
"N-nothing." Harmony said, and that set the both of them off again.
"You two are something else. Go like, take a nap or something. You're feeding off each other's energy." Liven advised, then she disappeared down the stairs in a cloud of perfume.
It took ten whole more minutes, and quite a few more one-liners about Liven's sex life, for the pair to calm down again.
"I think this weekend has been a mixture of horrible and brilliant." Harmony declared, trying to catch her breath as her and Sirius both gazed up at the top of the canopy bed, the warm glow of the fire dimly illuminating the room.
"How so?" Sirius asked.
"Well, it was bad because of everything that happened with Regulus, but it was super amazing because of the ball and you and today. And Liv, too. Her being happy makes me happy."
Sirius was smiling as he said, "I'm glad I helped your weekend be good. But I'm sorry I made it kinda bad, too."
"It wasn't your fault whatsoever," Harmony said immediately.
It was quiet except for the cackling fireplace as they reflected on the weekend. Harmony said quietly, "Can I tell you something?"
"Go for it."
"I'm glad that you let me in." Harmony confessed.
Sirius picked up her hand and lifted it in the air. He played with her fingers for a moment before answering. "All this is new to me, too, you know."
"What do you mean?" Harmony asked as she watched their hands above them.
"I've never been with someone so seriously." Sirius said.
"Well, neither have I, so, we're even there." Harmony told him. They were quiet for a minute. "Everything's been very intense these past couple of days, I think."
Sirius nodded. "I don't mean for them to be."
"No, it's sort of nice. If we're silly all the time then we lose track of certain things so it's good to refresh ourselves, you know?"
"Yeah." Sirius agreed. "Sometimes I like the deep stuff."
Harmony's eyes shifted to outside the dark window. Dinner had finished a while before and everyone was now just starting to settle back into their respective houses. "Do you feel like talking about anything?" By anything she meant Regulus.
"Not really. I'm starting to let it go, now, because a part of me already knew. I don't know. It still hurts a lot to think about, though."
"I'm sorry about all that." Harmony sighed, then she yawned. "Want to stay here tonight?"
"Yeah, I do." Sirius answered gratefully, already yanking off his shirt. He reached over and started blindly shoving books off the bed and they hit the floor with loud thumping noises. Harmony didn't care in the slightest. All she could think about was finally getting some sleep. Hopefully nightmare-less.
Sirius dimmed the light sources with his wand, and pulled Harmony up and into the washroom. She brushed her teeth and Sirius pulled her hair out of its ponytail. He was purposely yanking on the strands, attempting to 'braid' it until Harmony reached back, tooth brush hanging out of her mouth, and reciprocated his movements in his own hair.
"Okay! I get it. I can't braid." Sirius laughed, grabbing her hands and placing them back in front of her. He watched as she wiped her face clean with a washcloth.
"Why don't you use magic?" Sirius asked as Harmony pulled her hair forward to rest on her shoulder, braiding it. This was something she didn't usually do but her hair was really setting her off today, for some reason.
"I don't know. Maybe it's a muggleborn thing. My mum always used to braid my hair by hand, every night, until I came to Hogwarts." Harmony said.
Sirius leaned down to rest his head on her shoulder as he watched her in the mirror. She stared right back.
"How do you do that without looking?" Sirius asked.
"Practise." she shrugged, wrapping an elastic around the end of her braid.
"Can you teach me?" Sirius asked.
Harmony smiled and said, "Sure. Why?"
Now Sirius shrugged, lifting his head off of her shoulder. "So I can braid your hair."
Harmony was touched by this, for some reason. Maybe it was because she was overtired, or maybe it was because of all the intense moments this weekend, but just that sentence alone made her feel all typical teenage-girly and warm.
"I'd like that very much." Harmony told him, and she turned around to give him a big, proper hug.
He smiled widely into her neck - not because he was going to braid her hair, but because he felt such a strong surge of affection for this girl that it made his insides squirm in happiness.
Exams were getting closer by the day, and her eyes were starting to ache from studying. It was only the Thursday after the ball, but the professors had already tripled the workload from the previous week in a last attempt to sharpen the students' focus as they all stampeded into the month of June. Harmony adjusted herself on the squishy, scarlet-coloured armchair as she scanned the common room for a familiar face. She had been doing so much work lately that spending time with any of her mates was becoming rare. Students everywhere were skipping out on parties and late night drinking sessions to memorize tables of stars and potions ingredients, a feat that was done reluctantly and grudgingly.
James popped through the portrait hole and spotted Harmony with a wave. She called him over. There were several things that she needed to discuss with this boy, because besides worrying about her school work, Harmony was fretting more about Sirius. Ever since she found out about Regulus, a weight of anxiety had been placed in her stomach at that fact that he was a Death Eater. What was she supposed to do? Ignore it? Confront him? Confront Sirius? She wanted to act in a way that was the least painful to Sirius, yet the most safe for the one thousand plus students in the walls of this remote school. Being the bearer of such information as this had its major downfalls. Added together, Harmony'd probably lost several nights sleep while brooding over this.
"Hey," he said. He was dressed in his Quidditch uniform and his black, messy hair was wet with sweat.
"Hey. Where's Sirius?" She asked.
"Still showering, I believe." he answered, placing his expensive and modern broom over his shoulder. Perks of having wealthy parents.
"Okay, good." Harmony stood up. "I have to talk to you. About him."
"You're not going to break up with him, are you?" James asked in genuine horror.
"No! No, James. Geez." Harmony said quickly. "It's about Regulus."
"Oh." James sat down, looking serious. "He's not doing as well as he's letting us all believe."
"I know." Harmony sighed, unzipping her jumper. It was the beginning of June and much too hot for it. "I'm just…" she huffed out a breath. "I'm worried about the fact that we know Regulus is a Death Eater and he's still living and breathing in this castle around everyone."
James' eyebrows furrowed as he sat back on the couch, processing this. "You're worried he's going to hurt someone."
Harmony nodded. "Yeah - and also about the fact that if it were to happen we knew about how dangerous he was the whole time."
"You want to tell Dumbledore." James said, then he sighed. "Can't say I haven't thought about the same thing."
Harmony was relieved it wasn't only her with these same thoughts. "The thing is…he didn't even suggest it when I found out my brother was working for the other side and I don't…I don't think I could do that to him. It would kill him, James."
"Maybe that's a sacrifice you're going to have to make."
Harmony shook her head. "I can't do that to him. It would kill me, too."
"We have to do something." James said. His eyes flicked around the vast common room again.
"I know - and that's the thing." Harmony agreed. "I was thinking that maybe you could talk to Regulus?" she asked tentatively.
"I…um." James was taken aback. He was quiet while he mulled this over. "What would I say?" his hazel eyes were on Harmony again.
"Tell him to leave."
"Leave the school?" James asked, surprised. "Isn't that a bit…huge?"
"James, if someone were to get hurt…" Harmony reasoned.
"That's true." James idly scratched an itch on his cheek.
"And I don't want Sirius running into him. Ever again. He can't handle that and I'm pretty sure he'd end up murdering his own brother."
"Okay. Okay fine - I'll talk to him." James blew air out of his mouth in worry. "When?"
"As soon as you can." Harmony replied, and they both stood up. "Go change, you smell." she added.
He grinned, his eyes wide behind his glasses. "Why thank you!" he said in a high, American accent.
Harmony laughed and he made his way up into his dorm, all the while dropping pieces of mud and grass from his sport uniform. She wandered over to the window and looked out, pondering about how rainy it had been lately, resulting in mud and quite a few ruined pairs of shoes. It was to be a full moon that night and the marauders were going to be absolutely filthy when they got in at their usual time of five or six in the morning.
She stood there, looking out the window for a solid ten minutes until she heard her name shouted from across the common room. Snapping out of her trance, Harmony turned around and blinked a couple of times until she spotted Sirius with her eyes on her and his hand held up in a half wave. As she walked closer, she noticed how dark his eyes looked. He was defiantly not 'sleeping just fine'. Little liar. She wasn't one to talk, however.
"How was practice?" she asked, stepping around a couch and meeting him in the middle of the room.
"Tiring. James is really pushing us like crazy - it being our last match in a couple of weeks before the cup." Sirius said.
She nodded. "You excited?"
"Yeah, I am actually. I think our chances against Ravenclaw are pretty good." Sirius told her.
"Ooooh. Ravenclaw. Isn't this going to be interesting."
"With you and Liven?" Sirius laughed. "I want to see a fight."
"I only fight when I'm drunk." Harmony replied, then involuntarily yawned widely.
Sirius pushed his curly hair out of his eyes and said, "I need to take a shower, so I'll meet you in the Great Hall, 'kay?"
"Sounds good." She smiled and left to go find Liven.
"It's the full moon tonight." Becca told Harmony worriedly. Harmony was about to reply that she already knew when she remembered that Becca only knew about Remus - not the other marauders.
"Poor Remus. Is he getting his potion now?" Harmony asked, linking her arm through her friend's.
Becca nodded. She seemed so worried that the vibe was adding to Harmony's own anxiety. They continued walking through the castle, back to the dorms, in silence. After a couple minutes, Becca spoke up. "He kept telling me not to wait up, but I want to."
Oh. This might cause some complications, as Harmony herself always waited up for them. Besides, Remus never came back to his room straight away; it was always to the hospital wing so he could heal up all of his many bruises sand cuts from the long night's happenings.
"He goes to the hospital wing, though." Harmony reminded. Then she added, "Sirius told me."
Becca just sighed. "I still worry."
"I know you do…we all do." Harmony sympathized. "But how about we go and read or something for a little while?"
"Yeah," Becca nodded. "okay."
They arrived to the Portrait Hole and told the Fat Lady the password in a distracted tone. She allowed them to enter without comment. Inside, the common room was swamped with students getting back from the feast, studying and socializing. It was noisy and crowed and hot, so the girls decided to go up to the dorm room instead.
They climbed the stairs and pushed open the door, where they both simultaneously flopped down on their respective beds and sighed. Harmony laughed, the sound filling the silence.
"I think I'm going to nap." Becca told her.
"Okay," Harmony replied and Becca's bed creaked as she moved on the mattress. Harmony sat up and looked around the room for something to do.
When the all girls had first arrived at Hogwarts, no one knew each other except for Becca and Harmony, as they were neighbours and best friends. However, they all got along fast and within one week of living together they all had planned out how they were going to decorate their dorm room. Six years later, it was much the same.
The tops of the walls had small, yellowy-white Christmas lights strung about - magically enchanted to glow. The walls were plastered with a variety of posters and pictures, ranging from a group shot of all of them together to a dark, dramatic poster of Liven's favourite band, the Weird Sisters.
The furniture was all provided by Hogwarts, so it was just plain, deep-brown coloured wood. On all of their beds, they had their names engraved in the wood - a tradition that everyone carried out in their first year, as the dorm they had now was theirs until they graduated. The desk was cluttered with books, lip glosses and the odd quill for homework, whereas the floor was mainly clean except for a couple lone shirts and a school kilt which Harmony guessed was Liven's.
Harmony rolled off the bed and made her way over to the tall wardrobe that stood at the other side of the room. She opened the large doors and rummaged around in her section for a couple minutes before pulling out her camera and taking a picture of the room at whole - capturing all the memories and teenage years spent in it. She already could imagine herself looking back on this photograph in ten years, smiling fondly at the memories from the school that changed her life forever.
Harmony set the camera down and slipped the newly developed photo inside the container of special potion that made the picture move. Humming to herself, she slipped out of her school uniform and put on a soft pair of black sleeping shorts and a dark jumper that she pulled out at random. Harmony noticed how it was too big in the shoulders and upon closer inspection, she realized that it was Sirius'. She had taken so many of his clothes that he often stopped by there in the midst of getting dressed to figure out where his jumpers and t-shirts were going. He never took them back though - he just wore them and left his scent all woven in the fabric, just because he knew how much she loved that. The night after he had taken the article, she would always find it folded neatly back on her pillow. She realized how girlish it was of her for loving the feel of wearing his clothing - but it was something that she just couldn't live without.
Harmony put on her biggest and fuzziest pair of socks that weren't very attractive at all, not giving two flying fucks. She then slipped out of the door, after shooting Becca's sleeping form one more glance.
Harmony awkwardly passed a fellow fifth year on her trek up to Sirius' room. He took one glance at her and hurried on, the poor kid already intimidated just because she was dating Sirius. She'd seen him before and always found him a bit nerdy, with his oversized uniform and glasses. He could be super cute if he tried, though. There was potential.
As the dorm room came into view, Harmony's thoughts were refocused on Sirius and the other marauders and how they were about to face, yet again, a fully grown werewolf. Harmony knew, of course, that Remus was much, much better at controlling himself with the aid of his best friends, but she still worried for all of their safety. Who wouldn't? Harmony knew that no matter how many times she warned James and Sirius, the two of them always pulled shit on poor Remus just to get him fired up. If Harmony and Sirius needed to take a nap because they 'feed off of each other's energy', then James and Sirius needed to be put into an induced coma.
"Hi." Harmony greeted as Sirius opened the door, even before she reached the top of the stairs.
"Hi," he smiled at her choice of clothing and gestured for her to enter the room.
James and Peter were sitting cross-legged on the floor, guzzling back large mugs of coffee. They mumbled out hellos. "You guys seem tired already."
"We are." James muttered, his voice echoing in the cup.
Sirius patted the bed that he was sitting on, and Harmony sat down beside him. The two friends seated on the floor started talking about something or another and Sirius turned to her. "Don't wait up."
Harmony closed her eyes and smiled. This was the dialogue they went through every single time. "You know I will."
"You don't have to." he pleaded.
"Well, I am, so." Harmony wrapped her arms around Sirius' neck and muttered quietly. "I worry about you."
He sighed. "We have it under control. We've been doing this for a while now."
"I know." Harmony replied. "I still worry. Be safe, okay? Don't fuck with him."
"Well, that's half the fun." Sirius was smiling, Harmony could feel it.
"You're such a little shit, you know that?" she chuckled, then her face was serious again. "But be safe, okay? Blood is hard to take out of clothing."
"Don't lecture me about having blood in my clothes. You're the queen of head injuries and Death Eater attacks." Sirius said, wagging a finger at her.
Harmony laughed, her eyes lighting up. She leaned up and gave him a kiss on the mouth, then pulled back.
"I'm going to need more than that." Sirius whined, leaning in again.
"Woah, there, sport." Harmony stopped him. "What's in it for me?"
"Why, a legendary Sirius Black snog, of course!" Sirius said, flicking his hair out of his eyes dramatically.
"Your poor head must get sore, with it being shoved up your arse all the time." Harmony told him, wrinkling her nose.
"OOOHHHHHH!" James yelled from the floor, leaping up to give Harmony a lopsided high-five. "Padfoot, you just got dissed by a girl!"
Harmony laughed, as Sirius hit James on the side of the head. "Guys!" she said, breaking up the brawl before it began. "You're going to be beat up enough without adding to it. Save your energy."
Sirius sized James up and said, "You're not worth breaking a nail for."
Harmony burst out in loud laughter, which was followed by James. She wrapped her arms around Sirius again and soon her laughter died away and was quickly replenished with the constant worry once again.
Sirius secretly loved how attached Harmony would get before the full moon - it was like she would never see him again. He smiled to himself as he laid back down on the bed, pulling Harmony with him. James had already struck up another conversation with Peter so they were alone in their own little bubble again.
"You do realize that we spend ninety percent of our time laying down, right?" Harmony commented, swinging her legs over so they rested on Sirius' toned torso.
"Are you complaining?" Sirius asked her in disbelief.
"No, I'm observing, Pup." she buried her face in his shoulder, breathing in his all-too-familiar scent. "I don't feel good." she added.
"What's up?" he asked in reply.
"I think I'm just coming down with something."
"You should go see the matron before it starts, then." Sirius advised.
"Maybe later. She has more important things to deal with." Harmony countered.
Sirius didn't reply. He just looked down at her for a moment, his fingers running idly through her hair. She closed her eyes and muttered, "That feels nice."
"You're so tired."
"I know. But stop convincing me to go to sleep. Because I won't. Voluntarily, that is. I just might take a short nap if I honestly can't keep my eyes open."
"How about you take a nap until eight tomorrow?" Sirius suggested.
"Stop trying. You're wasting your efforts." Harmony sighed just as James stood up again.
"Alright, lads. We should get going." he said, grabbing a jumper off the back of the desk chair.
Harmony sighed and pulled Sirius up. She noticed how he was watching her reactions very closely, grey eyes focused only on her. She looked back for a moment, before crashing into him in an embrace. His hands slid down her back, feeling the material of his own jumper, as she whispered into his ear, "Try not to get yourselves killed, alright?"
He nodded, then they broke away. Harmony gave both Peter and James quick hugs and too soon, they were leaving the dorm, their footsteps fading down the stairs.
She grabbed a book off of the table beside Sirius' bed, curling up in his soft blankets and preparing for another long night ahead of her.
A/N: Filler chapter. Sorry. I have the next chapter written so I'll upload it in a few days! Thank you all for your kind reviews.