(A/N): So this is being a posted a little later today, because I actually left the house today. I spent most of the day out with my mother, looking for a silicone cake pan and an aux cord. Safe to say we got A LOT more than that, and our two little backpacks couldn't handle the burden.

Elaine

By the time I'd finished reading Leo's letter, then carefully censoring it and my recount of the dream- plus given Charlie a treat and shown her to her rental perch for the time being- the other girls were just starting to get up. Alice was the first one out of bed, predictably- followed by Lily, also predictably. Mary reluctantly got up next, but I suspected her decision had more to do with the fact that I was still holding Leo's letter, than anything else. Marlene was clearly awake by now but refusing to get out of bed, and I didn't blame her- this was one of the few days so far this Christmas that James hadn't scheduled an early practice for, so I suppose she deserved the opportunity to at least lounge around a bit, if she couldn't sleep in. Once I thought Lily seemed awake enough to handle it, I practically bounced over to show her my favorite parts of the letter, and she eyed me somewhat apprehensively.

"You seem... better," She commented tentatively, and I shrugged- even if I did sober a bit at the implication.

"I- pending the outcome of my current conspiracy theory-" AKA, whether or not Jerremyah was actively doing something to Leo to make him like him. "-I'm... fine. Leo... said some things." All of the girls visibly perked up at this, even Marlene, but Lily was the only one that made no attempt to hide it. "He was sweet," That didn't come anywhere close to describing it. "More than usual, I mean. And extraordinarily... forthright." Her eyebrows rose like she was shocked- as though she hadn't thought he could get more 'forthright'. I felt my cheeks heat as I pressed the letter into her hands, and said the only thing I really could: "There are love hearts and everything."

Her gasp was extremely gratifying- as was the way she immediately hunched over the letter, to be able to read it better. To be able to absorb the words quicker. It- a lot of the letter had made it through this time. All of the things surrounded by love hearts, even if they didn't particularly make sense without context, plus his greeting and sign off- how could I not- and all of the... well, apparently, the parts he thought were 'too much'. I even left in the part about what he thought would happen if I could hear his heartbeat, because I felt it was normal enough not to raise any suspicion. By the end of it, Lily lifted her wide eyes from the parchment and gaped at me with a kind of awe I was pretty sure I'd never seen from her before.

"Elaine..." She breathed, and I couldn't help but agree with that sentiment. Her eyes darted back to the letter, and she read aloud from what I knew was the first line. "'You cut straight to the core of me, rendering me transparent with my love for you'?" I could practically feel the shock rolling off of the other girls, even if they were doing their best not to draw my attention, and I suddenly felt incredibly defensive. If they tried to make fun of him for this-

"What in the Mr Darcy?" Marlene grumbled from her bed, and honestly, yeah- I had also briefly questioned whether I'd fallen into a romance novel, or maybe accidentally time-turner-ed back to the regency period, where writing incredibly poetic love letters was more of a thing.

Lily's eyes scanned the letter again, and I knew where she was heading next before she even opened her mouth. "If you could hear my heartbeat, every time we made eye contact, you wouldn't be able to hear yourself think over the rhythm my heart pounds out. I won't bore you with a poetic comparison about what would happen every time you kissed me." Mary snorted, and when I turned to look at her, she crossed her arms over her chest and unabashedly grinned that Cheshire cat grin.

"So you do snog a lot, then?" Ugh... I wanted to blame Leo for the inevitable teasing I would have to endure for this, but found myself unable. In reality, it was my fault for showing anyone, and to be honest... I liked kissing Leo too much to ever feel bad about it.

I turned back to Lily without so much as a word, and she continued. "If I had the words enough to convey the depths of my feelings for you- well, the parchment would probably combust when I tried to write them down." She giggled in a way that was only slightly unhinged sounding, and kicked her feet like an overexcited child. "Elaine, don't you see what you've done?" I blinked, and when Lily saw the burgeoning alarm on my face, she rolled her eyes and elaborated. "You've opened the floodgates!" Oh. And that was a... good thing? "This is only the second letter after-" She blanched slightly and got that guilty look on her face, but managed to push onward after I gave her my most reassuring smile. "-that, and he's- Elaine, this is groundbreaking!" Well, since I was already eagerly awaiting his next letter, I couldn't exactly argue.

"And knicker dropping, if you ask me." The glare I shot Mary was incredibly weak, and she grinned at me again. "In all seriousness, though, Leo could make some good money teaching the boys of this school how to write a letter to a girl that isn't just, 'Prefect's Bathroom, after curfew'." Three guesses who that one was from.

I couldn't help my snappy comeback, if only because the thought of Leo writing to other girls the way he wrote to me, even Brooke- maybe especially Brooke- made me want to break something. "And yet, I bet that still worked on you." She merely winked at me in response, completely unfazed.

"Wait, what did he mean when he said you were talking to Lisbet behind his back? And when he said 'words like that need to be displayed'? Or is that just-" She cut herself off, seeing the look on my face- unfortunately, I had a feeling the damage was done, and things were about to get messy.

As I watched Mary's eyebrows furrow, I knew I was right about us being caught out, but surprisingly, it was Alice that piped up first to ask the inevitable question. "Who's Lisbet?" Luckily for me, I already had an answer I could give, courtesy of Leo himself.

"Leo's aunt," I said- at the same time Lily said, "A friend of Leo's dad." The other girls cocked an eyebrow each as Lily and I shared a look.

"Lisbet is a friend of Leo's dad, which is why he calls her his aunt. They're not related, but they are family." I was trying to cover all my bases, in case Leo somehow miraculously sorted out his obliviousness problem before he got back- while also making it believable for Alice, Mary, and Marlene, and not revealing too much to Lily. It was a thin line to walk, and honestly, even I didn't think I'd pulled it off.

The other girls seemed inclined to let me have this one, though, because Mary waved for me to continue- probably just so they could get more information out of me. "Well," I started, still slightly flustered after being put on the spot like that. "You remember when I let you pass that letter around at breakfast? The one where she said he hung my- uh, confession-" I practically coughed the word. "-on the wall above his bed? Well, he found out she told me, and was defending it- as well as the fact that he didn't tell me himself."

Lily's eye roll was still exceptionally fond, even if it was a little frustrated. "Let me guess- now he's mad at her for 'giving away' his secrets." I wasn't sure if that was something they did nowadays, just based off of the way he tended to speak about her recently.

"Actually-" I said, and she already look surprised. "So, I asked him a favor, to be able to thank her. I thought long and hard about what she might appreciate the most, and in the end, I decided a hug from Leo would be my best bet."

Her eyebrows furrowed, but she nodded slowly in tentative agreement. "Leo does give good hugs... when he wants to. What- what did you have to promise him, to get him to agree to that?" Mary's suggestively arched eyebrows spoke of truly indecent things, and I did my best to ignore it- while also hoping they ignored my tremendous blush in the mean time.

"Well, that's just it- I didn't promise him anything." I told her honestly, and she blinked as though she was desperately trying to recalibrate. "Apparently, it wasn't nearly as big of a deal as I thought it would be- in fact, I suspect they've even done it before, and Leo just never mentioned it."

Now, it was Marlene's turn to speak up, clearly too confused to let this slide. "I don't get it. Why're you both acting like this is something shocking? Do they not have that kind of relationship, or- I mean, I see him hug you guys all the time, especially Elaine-" Seeing the grin on my face, she groaned.

"I'm afraid you've fallen for the oldest trick in the book," Lily consoled her, even if she did seem rather smug about the whole thing. "Elaine is always the exception when it comes to Leo- not the rule."

(A/N): Elaine ALWAYS being the exception, IS the rule... mind blown.

Also, Marlene not wanting to get out of bed because it was the one day James hadn't scheduled Quidditch practice was supposed to be because it was the one SUNDAY James hadn't scheduled practice- I should say EARLY MORNING practice, because he's definitely got like, night practice scheduled or something- but then I realised that YESTERDAY was Sunday, which means that today is Monday- I think?- so it didn't really work. I kept it as one of the few days in general that he hadn't scheduled practice.

Lily asking about what Leo was talking about in his letter was brought on by me forgetting that Elaine showed everyone Lisbet's letter, so it turned into Lily assuming that they were talking about something else- because let's face it, Elaine and Leo have kept enough secrets from her for her to never assume she knows what they're talking about.

Also yes, Mary's note was from Sirius- because he's the only one (of her beau's) to be able to use James's invisibility cloak to sneak into the Prefect's Bathroom. He cannot (or will not) sneak Mary in or out, however, which is how they ended up getting caught. Let's call it... twenty points each and two weeks detention?