Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter :(
Author's Note: Here you go! Chapter Four! Enjoy!
Chapter Four
Thursday, April 7th 2022
Ravenclaw Common Room, Hogwarts, Scotland
Lorcan is there first this time. Grace spots him almost instantly when she returns from her trip to the library with Louisa and she wonders when she started checking the couch in front of the fireplace for a shock of blonde hair that is so easily mistaken for Lysander's but to her is most distinctly Lorcan.
"Lou?" she turns to the tall blonde whose arm is linked with hers. "Do you mind finding Carla on your own?" Her eyes flicker over to the couch, and Louisa's grin tells her that she caught that, but Grace doesn't really care.
"Not at all, go ahead." She can feel Louisa's eyes on her as she walks over to where Lorcan is sitting and leans over the back of the couch to see what he's doing. He's reading. She smiles at the familiar story.
"Babbitty Rabbitty?" she asks fondly as she turns so she can see the side of his face. His head whips around so fast, she swears she can hear his neck make a cracking noise, and she wants to ask if he's okay, but the words get stuck in her throat. Instead she stares at him, her mouth opened slightly, because he's so close that their noses are almost touching.
"Grace," his breath tickles her face. It smells of mint and citrus. She swallows and forces herself to smile a bit too widely and climb over the back of the couch so she's sitting next to him and he's no longer that close.
"Hey," she smooths her uniform skirt out slightly. "So which one's your favorite?"
"Babbitty Rabbitty," he closes the book, marking his page with a scrap of parchment. "Yours?"
"I've always liked the Fountain of Fair Fortune," she tells him. "I love that the fountain isn't magical at all."
He smiles at her enthusiasm. "It's kind of poetic, isn't it?" A strand of hair falls into her face when she nods and he raises his hand as if to brush it away, but doesn't. Instead he waves it about awkwardly. "I like that Babbitty is an animagus," he admits quietly. "That's my favorite part."
She smiles at him and ignores the strange feeling of disappointment that coils in her stomach. She shouldn't be disappointed, she tells herself. She leaves the strand of hair where it is.
"Ashlyn and Timothy are both weirdly fascinated by the Wizard's Hairy Heart," she shudders at the thought.
He pulls a face. "Grace, you're awesome and all, but I swear I will never understand your siblings."
She laughs. "Just like I will never understand Scorpius and Leigh. And sometimes Lysander."
Lorcan grins at her and he looks so happy with her words that she'd never dare tell him he can be confusing sometimes. Except on Thursday evenings, it would seem, because they are surprisingly comfortable still, despite her invasion of his personal space earlier.
"Will you read to me?" she asks quietly. She has to look up at him even when they're sitting because he's honestly ridiculously tall (or maybe she's just really, really short), but it doesn't bother her.
He blinks, slowly and for a moment she can see his mother in him. "Of course," he says finally and she smiles a bit too widely again. This time it's not on purpose. She just can't help herself.
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