(A/N): A fairly short chapter, only just over 950 words, but we're back with Elaine in the girls dorm, after showing Lily Leo's letter.

Elaine

After I had written my letter back to Leo, I got ready for the day ahead- feeling as if nothing life could throw at me today would bring me down from my rightful place on cloud nine.

Lily, Alice, Mary and even Marlene made it clear that they were amused by my obvious good mood, even if Lily was the only one who knew exactly why I was so happy.

"I wouldn't have thought that I would ever see you so chipper about a boy, Elaine- even if that boy is Leo." Mary said, and I whirled around, my incessant grin still on my face. I had tried to quell it, just so I looked a little less dopey, but I hadn't succeeded for more than about three seconds.

"Boys are dumb. My boy-" Lily grinned at me calling Leo, 'my' boy, and Marlene and Mary shared a delighted look. "My boy is also dumb- but he's mine." Lily and Alice laughed out loud, and Marlene gave a quiet snort, but even as she smiled at this, Mary's eyebrows furrowed.

"So, are you two dating now- finally?" I saw Lily sober a bit, looking like she wanted to scold Mary for asking, but it honestly didn't bother me in the slightest.

"Nope!" I chirped, and started humming quietly as I packed my books into my school bag. When I turned back around to look at them, I saw Lily had her hand over Mary's mouth, and the other girl looked both offended and annoyed. "Lily," She angled her body towards me. "It's okay. I really don't care." She seemed a bit shocked by this for a second, before her face morphed into one of disgust and outrage, and she whipped her hand away from Mary's face.

"Ewwww! Did you seriously just lick me?!" Clearly, Mary had picked up a thing or two during her occasional trysts with Sirius- hopefully that was all she'd picked up- and she smirked at Lily, crossing her arms over her chest smugly as she watched the other girl try to wipe her hand clean on her skirt.

"You're the one that put your hand over my mouth. It's a mouth- would you have preferred it if I bit you?" By the way Lily looked, I was assuming the answer was 'yes'.

"Mary, if you have questions, go ahead and ask them. If it's something I can answer, I will." Mary appeared vaguely embarrassed that she had been so conspicuous about it, but she quickly cast that off, shrugging and grinning.

"So, you and Leo aren't dating?" I shook my head at the repeated question.

"No. No, not in the slightest." Now it was Lily who was giving me a pointedly skeptical look.

"Well, I wouldn't say, 'the slightest'..." Alice, Mary and Marlene shot her a questioning look, but Lily ignored them, so they turned their attention back to me. It was clear Lily was referring to the fact that we regularly told each other we loved each other, but I wasn't getting into that with the other girls unless I absolutely had to. There was a difference between clearing the air and spilling my guts, after all.

"Leo and Brooke broke up a few weeks ago, right?" About three weeks ago, in fact. What was Mary getting at?

"Yeah, why?" Mary shrugged again.

"I don't know. I kind of just figured that if you two were to pull your heads out of your arses and get to the point where you were calling each other things like, 'my boy', that the only thing that would be keeping you apart was a certain raven haired sixth year." Oh, if only Brooke had been the only thing keeping us apart- instead of Leo's insistence that he would slaughter me the second we let our respective guards down.

"Oh. No! There's a lot more than that- it's complicated, I can't tell you any more about it than that." Marlene and Alice shared a look behind Mary's back that was half confused, and half concerned. "Long story short, we know how we feel about each other, and we don't need anything more than that out of our relationship." It would be nice, though.

Now all the other girls looked skeptical, not just Lily.

"So, the only thing that's changed is that now you're both aware of the mutual pining that we've all been enduring for the past four and half-ish years?" I blushed slightly, and shrugged weakly.

"Something like that." Mary gave me a look I could only describe as goading- which didn't bode well for anyone involved.

"So you and Leo aren't dating?" This was the third time she had asked that particular question, and it was starting to get old.

"No, Mary. Once again- Leo and I are just friends." The collective scoff brought a flush to my face that I refused to acknowledge.

"And Leo and Brooke broke up?" I had just answered that- was Mary okay? Had she hit her head in her sleep, and was experiencing short term memory loss?

"Mary- yes! What are you-?" She cut me off, smirking wryly.

"So Leo's single?"...Why did I feel like my foot was hovering over a bear trap, in the middle of an earthquake?

"...Yes? I really don't understand what-" She cut me off again, and the other girls looked alarmed, clearly having already guessed what Mary was heading towards, long before me.

"So, you wouldn't mind if I tried to make a pass at him?"

Oh, that's what she was getting at? I opened my mouth to say something, anything, but all that came out was a bark of incredulous laughter.

"Oh- Please! Please do, I would love to see that!"

(A/N): Mary: 'So, can I hit on Leo, or would that make me a bitch?'

Elaine: '...Oh my god, this is going to be hilarious. Please, please do!'

INFO

'Making a pass' at someone means to try to get them to go out with you, or to have sex with you. Mary's just trying to get her groove on, but doesn't want to hurt Elaine in the process. Elaine knows that Leo most likely isn't going to say yes, but is going to have an absolutely hilariously awkward reaction to Mary hitting on him- if he even realizes that that's what she's trying to do.