after dark || James Potter

A.D. 1:3

Before they knew it, Halloween Feast was already right around the corner. Two days!, the boys reminded her the night prior, and they seemed appalled at her obvious indifference to the event.

They were right. Lucy didn't really care much for Halloween, it was just another day for her. There were more important things to worry about.

The past few weeks were spent getting used to the new routine she found herself in. She spent most of her mealtimes with Millie, except for Wednesday and Saturday night dinners which were reserved for the group of four Gryffindor boys.

She hates to admit it, but it wasn't as bad as she thought it would be. They don't pressure her to join in on their pranks; they only ask for her help sometimes when they can't seem to figure out the perfect spell to use or so. Lucy only helped them when she was sure that they weren't doing anything too bad. Mostly, she gave her input in the more mundane and harmless pranks they did.

It's a good thing that they respected that, as Lucy absolutely hated bullying. She tried real hard to try and persuade the boys to stop, but they wouldn't budge. "It's harmless fun," they'd say, "just to make people laugh." And when Lucy would look at them with skeptical eyes, they would always assure her that their victims always did something to deserve it.

As they were teenage boys, she never really quite believed them. She kept quiet, though, and just pretended to be clueless about their troublesome plans.

Aside from those, she found that she really enjoyed their company. They were full of jokes and laughter, and Lucy could admit that she needed it most times. She certainly saw what Sirius was talking about when he said that nobody quite makes him laugh like his brothers did. Oftentimes, Lucy is left wondering how they have so many stories, as it seems like each of them have stories to tell every time they were together. She was always tempted to ask how that happens, as she was pretty sure that they spent about 90% of their time together. She decided to just keep quiet though, and just enjoy the stories and the laughter each boy brought to the table.

Despite her enjoying the boys' company, though, it's still a struggle for her to truly warm up to them. She thinks that it's just something she has to get past, since she really wasn't used to opening up to people. When she hangs out with them, it's usually just them doing the talking. She just laughs along sometimes, and she was okay with that.

As for her classes, Lucy could confidently say that she was going at the right pace. She did her homework as soon as they were assigned, and most of her free time was spent doing some advanced reading or revisions for her subjects. Aside from her core subjects, she chose to take Care of Magical Creatures and Study of Ancient Runes this year, as she had dropped Divination as soon as she realized it was a waste of time.

Lucy didn't really see herself as anything aside from a healer. So that's why she chose to continue on with Care for Magical Creatures as she was sure that was a required subject for the profession. Study of Ancient Runes seemed interesting enough, and a plus point was that she had Remus in that class as well so they often found themselves doing their homework together.

Another thing that happened the past few weeks was that she found herself closer to Remus. It was nice, he's always been the kinder one of the group of boys, and he often studies with her and Millie when he could. Sometimes, his red-headed friend would join them - that Gryffindor named Lily she often caught James staring at, but she never really talked to the girl aside from the occasional nod of greeting when they sat with each other at the library or when they passed each other in the halls.

The only other boy that joined them - on very rare occasions, might she add - was Peter, since Sirius and James often said that they'd rather die than enter the 'wretched place filled with nerds.' Remus and Lucy always rolled their eyes when they'd see both boys' dramatics, as they often acted like them going in the library would make them catch fire on the spot or something. She would be lying if she said that she didn't expect that from the two, though, as those boys rarely did any of their homework and were more interested in quidditch and pranking than their actual schoolwork.