(A/N): I think this is my first chapter with absolutely no PoV! No pov... but I feel like it could very easily be turned into Elaine's pov.
Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise.
The time before the end of term went by quickly and uneventfully, and soon enough, there was only one week left. The group gathered in the boys dormitory, some air freshener having been sprayed in advance for the girls. "Once you get past the stench of month old dirty laundry, it isn't so bad in here," Elaine teased, but Leo rolled his eyes at her from his bed.
"None of that is me, nor is it Remus. Blame the Hardy Boys over there," He said, gesturing to Sirius, James, and Peter, who were playing cards between Peter and Sirius's beds.
"Oh, we are," Lily said empathically, nodding sharply, her eyes wide.
James, too engrossed in losing at cards to really care, objected weakly with a rather mild, "Hey!"
"The one time he isn't hanging on my every word," Lily muttered, and Remus raised an eyebrow at her from his bed.
"Jealous, Lils?"
She glared at him. "Of course not!" She said, but it wasn't very convincing.
"I think someone misses the attention of a certain misfit," Peter sang, slightly off-key, shooting her a timid smile to show that he didn't actually mean it, but he brought up a good, and true, point nonetheless.
"Who wouldn't?" Sirius joked, nudging James with his shoulder.
"What?" James said, looking up for the first time. "Huh?"
Leo shook his head, smiling fondly. "Don't worry about it, Prongs." James glanced at the others before shrugging, and returning his attention to the game at hand.
"Only a week until the end of term, I can't believe it!" Lily exclaimed, probably trying to change the subject, and Remus, not looking up from his book, shot back, "I can. This was a long arse year."
Leo grinned. "I love it when you swear." Remus looked at him from over the book, one eyebrow raised, but Leo only batted his eyelashes at him.
"Okay... If we're done with the flirting-"
Peter cut Elaine off. "You just wish he was flirting with you." She gaped at him, while Leo pretended like he hadn't heard either of them by continuing to compliment Remus.
"You swear so rarely, it's funny when you do." Lily rolled her eyes at the trio's antics, Elaine's face now beet red.
"Yes!" Sirius cried as he lay down his winning hand, and the other boys groaned.
"I hate this game," James muttered, and Lily raised an eyebrow.
"What's it even called?"
Sirius, still wearing a smirk, turned to face her and proudly announced, "Double-whats-its-on-Tuesday-basketball-round-about." Remus put his book down to stare at them.
"Do I even want to know?" All three boys shook their heads.
"Yeah, I wouldn't risk it," Elaine told Lily, resting her hand on her forearm before removing it as she turned to look at Leo.
"I've never heard it, but they have a different game every few days."
Lily gave a nod of understanding, and Remus gave a moan of despair. "I think I've depleted my snack stash..." He said in a breathless, desperate voice, his eyes wide and his hands clutching one another, clearly mourning, and all at once, there was a flurry of activity around the room.
"Here."
Sirius, James, Peter, and Leo all tossed him various foodstuffs- biscuits, sweets, chocolate, crisps, you name it. Remus was bombarded, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the whole ordeal. "I love you guys," He mumbled, his mouth already full of... something.
"Love you too," Leo called back, before throwing his pillow off the end of the bed to land harmlessly on Elaine's legs. "I thought you could use more pillow."
Elaine leant up, glancing purposefully at the pillows surrounding her. "Nope, we're doing pretty okay on plushness over here." Lily nodded in agreement, and laid down completely atop the mound of pillows. "Are there more pillows here than usual?" Elaine asked, poking at them and squinting as if expecting them to burst open to reveal swarms of killer bees.
"Yeah, we got them from the room of Requirement," Peter said, the only one of the three 'Double-what's-its-on-Tuesday-basketball-round-about' boys to be actually paying attention to the conversation going on around them.
Lily beamed. "Aw, that's nice of you!" She told them, seeming genuinely surprised, before Leo snorted quietly.
"Oh please, we've all been sleeping with like, five pillows."
Remus nodded in agreement. "Trust me, they weren't for you dames." Leo arched an eyebrow in his direction.
"'Dames'? You're so swanky, Remus."
Remus rolled his eyes at him, although he wore an amused smirk. "You know the rules." Leo rolled his eyes, throwing him another miscellaneous snack that seemed to be from his own personal stash, considering that he'd fetched it from the middle drawer of his bedside table. "I only tolerate the sweet talk if I get snacks," He explained to the girls, who grimaced.
"You eat so much junk food, how are you not like, the size of the Quidditch pitch by now?" Lily asked- most likely rhetorically- and Remus shrugged.
"If directed at me, it's because werewolves consume calories more rapidly. If directed at all of us, it's because we're growing teenage boys." Leo nodded in agreement.
"We're like bears hibernating for the winter."
Sirius rolled his eyes with more than a small amount of exasperation. "Not the Bear Analogy again."
Lily and Elaine shared an extremely dry- albeit fond- look, and both murmured, "The Bear Analogy." Leo glared at them, crossing his arms over his chest.
"It's a perfectly fine analogy, especially when it comes to describing Sirius, due to his major case of back hair." Sirius pouted at him, but Leo just stared back, completely unmoved. "No dissing the Bear Analogy." Sirius held up his hands in surrender.
"Alright, alright!"
Elaine shuddered, covering her face with a pillow. "I have seen things I cannot unsee." Lily smothered her laughter, but Leo didn't bother. "I can hear you Leo- and I'll kill you." Leo scoffed softly.
"Like you could." She pulled the pillow away from her face to glare at him intensely, but he merely shot her a smile, before letting it slide straight into an entirely calculated pout. "Please, Damsel?" She stared at him for a minute before shaking her head in defeat.
"Damn you," She muttered, dropping her eyes to the pillows surrounding her as if she couldn't bear to face his pout any longer.
"Love you too, Damsel."
What she didn't know was that he actually meant it in reply to her confession of having a crush on him, way back on their first Hogsmeade trip. Hell, she didn't even know he knew! "Aw, look at her, she's all red again!" Peter pointed out, and Leo hid his own blush with his book- keeping tabs on each of his friends using his blood sense to make sure they were all okay in their own way... especially Elaine, and her flushed cheeks.
(A/N): So, what did you think?
Please review and/or check out my other stories!
This chapter has had edits made to it on 4/5/24 - formatting and reconfiguring of sentences so they make more sense. Changed 'month old gym shorts' to 'month old dirty laundry', because I thought that fit a little better. Also, I know the house-elves do the laundry, but I think James, Sirius, and Peter would hide certain items in drawers so the house-elves can't/won't get to them. Then again, I also think if there's a smell to the boys dormitory, it isn't dirty laundry, I think it's just 'teenage boy' smell. Changed Elaine saying 'the odd flirting' to just saying 'the flirting' since it's kind of a big thing for Leo later on that Elaine doesn't care that Leo likes/flirts with boys. When she originally said that, she just meant that the method was odd, not the motivations, but I didn't want the ambiguity of that. Changed Remus's chocolate stash to his snack stash (since the Remus luvs chocolate trope is overused and I'm trying to minimise it), and changed all of the boys throwing him chocolate into them throwing him various snacks. Added, 'Remus was bombarded, and seemed to thoroughly enjoy the whole ordeal'. Of course, I changed Remus's mouth from being full of chocolate, to being full of '...something', because I think even if what it was was known, it was probably more than one thing. Specified that Leo's pillow landed 'harmlessly' on Elaine's legs, because originally I just said it landed on her, which could've been more of a thing than it is now that I've specified. He made sure to aim for her legs and throw lightly, is what I'm saying. Changed Leo's 'candy bar' bribe into a 'miscellaneous snack', and added that it seemed to be from his own personal stash, because as mentioned, Leo is also a snackhole (a black whole, but for snacks). Added Sirius exasperation at the bear analogy, rather than just having him roll his eyes. Added that Lily and Elaine's shared look was 'dry but fond'. Added that Leo's pout is entirely calculated, because he ABSOLUTELY knows what he's doing. Added Leo keeping tabs on each of his friends with blood sense at the end, which includes the 'especially Elaine, and her flushed cheeks' part. Because both the vampire, and Leo himself, are highly interested in that.