'And you say sorry, like an angel.' - Timbaland feat One Republic, Apologise
"We fucked up." Ria says.
"Agreed." Scor bangs the gavel.
"What do we do?" Rose asks.
"Question raised." Scor bangs the gavel.
"We need to make it up to him." Emma says firmly.
"Course of action decided." Scor bangs the gavel.
"I don't even know why Scor and I are at your emergency damage control meeting in a bloody broom cupboard at six o'fucking clock in the morning when it's not us whom Lysander's not speaking to. Come on; is it really that big of a deal?" I complain.
"Objection raised." Scor bangs the gavel.
"Yes, because a fight like this affects all of us! And we all woke up early to fix this. Even Ria." Emma cries passionately, her lip wobbling. She gestures to Ria, who is nodding off again against the wall.
"Agreed." Scor bangs the gavel. Ria starts awake again and groans.
There's a moment of silence.
"Mate, why the hell do you have a gavel?"
Scor shrugs. "Found it in the bottom of my trunk this morning. Thought I might as well put it to good use."
I raise a disbelieving eyebrow. "You just found it in your trunk?"
Scor nods.
"Well I can think of plenty of different ways you can put it to better use." Rose says 'seductively', running her hands under Scor's shirt as his eyes darken.
Emma groans and pulls Rose away from him. "You and Al both think about sex too much. This is supposed to be a serious meeting."
"Whatever." Rose sits back in her corner, looking sulky.
"Right. Let's get to it." Ria slaps herself awake and taps the white-board.
I groan. "Remind me again why we have a – what was it called? - white-board?"
"To plan!" Ria says, eyes wide. "I borrowed it from Lila on the condition that I return it looking like brand new." She pulls out a pen and draws a dramatic line across the top of the board.
"Ooo, is that what grandpa calls a Shippie?" Rose says excitedly.
Ria frowns at the pen. "I think it's called a Sharpie."
"Okay," Emma cuts in on the pen discussion swiftly, "I think we should each do something individual."
"Come on Ems, do I really - "
"No Al, you and Scor don't have to do anything since Sander's not annoyed with you. You're just here to help us come up with plans."
"Why did you draw that line?" My pedantic cousin moans at Ria, who is looking vaguely angelic with the light swirling in from the tiny window in a halo around her face, "It makes it look like we've finished planning."
"Agreed." Scor bangs the gavel.
"Shut up mate."
"Fucking hell, I didn't realise it was such an issue. I'll rub it out if it bothers you that much, okay?" Ria rolls her eyes.
"I'm not saying I have an issue, it's just annoying." Rose says, getting irritated.
"Hey, it's my gavel, not yours, and I can bang it when I want." Scor says to me firmly.
"Well chill, 'cos I said I'd rub it out! I don't get why it's such a big deal anyway." Ria mutters, looking decidedly less angelic as she glares at Rose.
"Not when it's making me go deaf!" I snark at Scor.
"GUYS!" Emma suddenly yells.
We all turn to face her, silent at her uncharacteristic outburst.
"This is why we need Lysander okay? Like he said, he's the peacekeeper in our group, so we need to focus on a plan to get him to listen to us so we can apologise to him."
"Agreed." Scor bangs the gavel.
"Godric, Scor, just throw that stupid gavel out of the window already!" I yell at him.
"Erm, guys?" Ria says quietly, rubbing at the board frantically and cutting off Scor's angry reply. "The pen's not coming off."
After a quick sneak out of the castle and Apparition to London, we buy a new white-board for Prof Penny and get back to the castle so the girls can set up their plans.
When Lysander walks into the Great Hall at breakfast he marches straight up to where we are waiting for him and brandishes a slip of card at the girls. "What is this?" He sweeps on without waiting for an answer. "Just leave me alone, okay? Just for one day!" He slams the card down and goes to sit at the other end of the table. I snatch the slip up and read it quickly. On it is printed neatly 'We think we are invincible because we are'. – John Green, Looking for Alaska. And underneath it is scrawled 'But Sander, we're only invincible together.'
"You're going to have to try harder than that, Rosie. Time to see if you can do better, Ri." I pull Scor to his feet to join Lysander.
Lysander is silent and fuming the whole time he spreads butter on his toast. He doesn't even look at Scor and me as we sit down beside him. I glance at Scor and he shrugs. Best to stay silent. Clearly, Ria doesn't get the memo, as she walks over and slides onto the bench opposite Lysander. "'Sup honey."
"What part of 'leave me alone' don't you understand?" Lysander practically growls at her.
"All of it." She grins, and springs up again. "Look, Lysander, we - "
"I don't want to hear it."
"Babe - "
"No."
"What have I got to do to be heard?"
Ria's clear voice floats around the Hall, and the students around go silent. She steps up on the table and kneels in front of Sander. As she continues singing, she trails her wand above her in a pattern, bringing soft deep pink roses and gold sparkles floating down around her and Lysander, creating a pretty magical effect, though Lysander's just looking incredibly embarrassed.
"What have I got to do when sorry seems to be the hardest word?"
Her steely gaze holds Lysander's as she whispers her apology. "I'm sorry."
And then she's striding out of the Hall, leaving Lysander gaping after her with roses and sparkles in his lap.
Never said my girl wasn't a total drama queen.
"Sweet Merlin, I - " Lysander brings his hand to his face tiredly, then stops abruptly, focusing on his palm.
I lean over his shoulder to read the neat white printing. 'I've always felt that the best place to hide a body is in the trunk of a cop car, with a note affixed to the body that reads, "I'm sorry."'
Lysander laughs bitterly. "It's a great book." He stands up and swings his bag over his shoulder, leaving the hall slowly.
I blow out a breath. "How is it my cousin always finds the weirdest quotes?"
Scor snorts. "I'm just wondering how the hell she managed to spell it onto his palm."
I laugh and help him up to make our way to Transfiguration. When we get there, Scor bounds over to sit next to Ria, while I slouch into the seat next to the man of the day. He offers me an open chocolate box. "Want one?"
I take a truffle and he shrugs at my questioning glance. "Found it in my bag with this note attached to it."
This quote reads 'Chocolate says "I'm sorry" so much better than words.' – Rachel Vincent, My Soul to Save.
"Good chocs." I mumble.
"Mr Potter, are you eating in my class?" McGonagall screeches. I swallow quickly. "And what is that on your desk?"
She sweeps over and picks up the enchanted paper aeroplane which was clearly meant to land on the desk next to mine. The bitch opens her mouth to read it out loud, probably hoping it's a love note so that she can embarrass me, but then stops and gives it back to me, peering at me through her spectacles. "Mr Potter, if someone's gone to the care and effort of finding a book quote to apologise to you, then I suggest you forgive them."
"Sure thing, Prof." I nod, and then nudge Lysander when she turns her back.
"Shut up, Al." he whispers, opening the aeroplane.
When he just smiles slightly, I nudge him until he rolls his eyes and shows it to me. 'Dexter, I love you so much. So, so much, and I probably always will. I just don't like you anymore.I'm sorry.' – David Nicholls, One Day.
However crazy my cousin is, you sure can't deny her humour.
The paper aeroplanes arrive every ten minutes through the whole class, and Lysander opens every one. I admire my cousin's dedication in finding quotes.
When double Transfig finally draws to a close, we find Rose barring Lysander's way to the door. She looks determined, similar to how Ria looked this morning.
"You know what sucks about sorry?" she says, looking almost angry. "It's the worst word in the world. Because it always happens after you fuck up something good."
She twirls a strand of ginger hair around her finger unconsciously. "I shouldn't have followed you on Saturday. And I am fucking sorry." And then she twirls and stalks out of the classroom.
I roll my eyes at all the unnecessary drama, but Lysander almost looks impressed.
I know the girls don't have anything planned for lunch, which is why I slip away to find James. One tense discussion later and we're ready.
"LET GO OF ME, YOU FREAKS!" Lily screams as I whip a blindfold around her and James holds her hands together after blessing our luck when we find her alone in a quiet corridor.
"OW, YOU BITCH." I yell, when my demon sister knees me between the legs.
Lily goes still. "Al?"
"No," I growl, making my voice deeper and huskier than it already is, "My name is Septimus. I know not who this 'Al' person is."
"Who else is there?" Lily asks, deciding not to comment on my deception.
"Just me, Penelope, Septimus' darling girlfriend." James squeals in a falsetto.
I raise an eyebrow at him, impressed, but he just shrugs.
"James, Al, not that I don't appreciate you both finally working together, but you had both better let me go now."
So much for our amazing acting.
"No can do, Lils." I say, and push her into a broom cupboard, stepping in after her and pulling off her blindfold as James locks the door behind us.
She rubs her eyes at the sudden light and squints at us, somehow still managing to look furious. "Well? What do you two want?"
James holds out a large purple daisy to her. "We want to apologise, Lils. We were idiots and we're sorry."
"Fuck off." She looks away from us.
James looks heartbroken.
I roll my eyes. "Come on sis, you're really upset about Gerard? All that greasy git wanted to do was get into your pants and you know it. You're better off without him."
Lily scoffs. "Oh trust me, I know. He came to me this morning, begging for a second chance, and I told him where to shove it."
James grasps my arm, patting his eyes with a handkerchief he pulled from somewhere. "Oh look at our little baby, Ally-wally. She's already telling boys where to shove it."
I pull my arm away quickly. I'm surrounded by freaks. "Don't ever call me Ally-wally again."
James bursts into noisy fake tears.
"Look," Lily continues, wisely ignoring James' theatrics, "It's not about Gerard. It's about the fact that I'm sixteen years old, and you two just won't accept that! I'm old enough to make my own decisions about who I want to spend my time with, and I don't need you idiots being stupidly over-protective!"
There's a moment of silence (as James has stopped fake-crying).
"We know it was a bit stupid of us to follow you on your date and try to interfere, and we're sorry about that. But look at me, sis, I'm the guy who dates girls in their dad's nightmares. I know what bastards guys can be, from being one myself, and I just don't want you to get hurt. And yeah, okay, maybe we took it a bit too far on Saturday, but make an allowance for us?" It all tumbles out in a rush, and I can't help feeling that I'm getting soppier and soppier this year, and it's probably all that emotional git Scorpius Malfoy's influence.
"Yeah," James agrees, holding the daisy back out to her hopefully, "You'll always be our baby sister, Lily-flower, no matter how old you are. The only day we'll accept that you're old enough to be dating is the day you get married. It's only cos we love you to pieces, you know that."
Lily sighs, and when she looks back at us, her eyes are glossy. She shakes her head, smiling, then grabs the daisy from James and throws her arms around us.
I wrap my arms around her waist as James encloses both of us in his embrace.
"You're still over-protective idiots, but I love you both." She mumbles into my jacket.
I keep hugging her. Sometimes words just aren't necessary.
However, when I get back to Lysander, it's clear things still aren't back to normal between him and the girls.
He's muttering under his breath about melodramatic people who won't stick around long enough for him to accept their apologies, as he clambers through the portrait hole in our free period, with me and Scor just behind him.
"What the fuck, mate?" Scor hisses, as we crash into his back when he stops dead just inside the common room.
Lysander doesn't answer, so Scor and I slip out from behind him to see what he's staring at.
Ria, Rose and Emma are standing in the otherwise empty common room, clearly having been waiting for Lysander. Rose is fiddling with her skirt, bored, while Ria is staring into space, singing softly under her breath. I'm embarrassed to say that my stomach swoops when she spots me and beams, then winks at Scor.
Emma is standing in between her two best friends, clutching a package nervously. She steps forward when Lysander's gaze falls on her.
"Lysander, I'm sorry. It was stupid idea to follow you on your date." She delivers the package into his arms and bites her lip as she waits for him to open it.
And so he does, letting out a soft breath when he sees what's inside. "You guys got me the Iliad?"
"Nah mate, just from Emma." Ria grins.
He flips through it, noting the annotations all the way through and the name inside the front cover. "It's the translator's own copy of my favourite translation!"
Emma blushes, watching as Lysander notices a letter tucked into the pages of his new book. His eyes widen as he reads it. "You got the shopkeeper to invite me back to Tomes and Scrolls?"
I supress a smirk. Emma really went all out.
"We shouldn't have invaded your privacy, and I guess you know by now that we're just so sorry!" Emma's voice breaks at the end.
Lysander smiles. "I just can't get rid of you guys, can I? Come here, you loons." He holds his arms out and the girls rush into them, beaming.
"GROUP HUG!" Scor yells, rushing over to join in, and pulling me along with him, even though I'm pretty sure I've endured enough group hugs to last me at least another week.