petunias -- jily

6

"attention, all hogwarts students!" professor mcgonagall's voice rang out through the corridors. "this weekend, there will be a hogsmeade trip, but the rest of them for the school year are officially cancelled." all the students in the hallway groaned and started complaining about it, but she wasn't finished. "because of the looming threat of a war, it is safer to keep all of you inside the castle, not wandering the village." and with that, her voice disappeared and everyone resumed what they had been doing. 

"aw, come on, how am i supposed to restock on zonko's products now?" sirius whined from where he was walking to charms with his friends. 

"sirius. would you rather be safe? or dead?" remus deadpanned, eyeing sirius. 

"hey, he's got a point, moony. there haven't been any attacks anywhere near here, we should be allowed to go to hogsmeade!" james protested. peter remained silent between them, not wanting to contradict either of them. 

remus sighed and walked in front of them, "you know, you two have really got to grow up. we are on the brink of a war, don't you read the paper? people are dying and you're going to end up just like them if you don't look around you and see what's going on." he left their group and got to the charms classroom first, taking a seat next to lily across the room from where they normally sat, forcing peter to sit by himself. 

"he's right, pads," james leaned over and whispered as professor flitwick began teaching. "at least we get one last trip. we'll have to make the most of it." sirius huffed at this and crossed his arms across his chest like a child. 

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when it came time for the hogsmeade trip, sirius had to drag the other boys out of bed, as he wanted to get an early start to the village, trying to make the most of the last trip. while the four of them went into zonko's, lily, marlene, and alice were making their way down to the village, having slept in. dorcas was off with emmeline already, as she was spending a lot more time with her recently. 

it was still fairly warm outside, but the wind had a bite to it, so the three girls were dressed in warm sweaters and flared jeans. alice had her dark hair pulled into a short braid, while marlene and lily wore theirs loose. marlene was planning on getting a haircut at the nearby hair salon, and lily had chosen to let her wild hair loose for a change. it was getting long, so it was always in her way, so she normally wore it in a ponytail to keep it out of her face. 

"should we head to the salon first, mar?" alice asked. 

"yes! i'm so excited to cut my hair!" she squealed. 

lily grinned and said to her, "do you know how short you want to go? i think it would look gorgeous at your shoulders!"

"nope, i'm going even shorter, a bob. i want it all off."

"it'll look great," alice and lily chorused. and sure enough, there they were in front of the hair salon, right across from honeydukes. they decided to get sweets after marlene had her hair cut, so alice opened the door into the warm shop. a vanilla scent flooded their nostrils and a cheery woman appeared at the ding of the bell. 

"good morning! how are you three lovely ladies?"

"we're all great! i'm here to get my hair cut," marlene said, resting her arms on the counter that the lady was behind. 

"are all of you getting your hair cut?"

"nope, just me."

"alright, come on back to the chair then! you two can wait here or you can come watch, if you'd like," she motioned to a salon station. "so, how short are we going? here?" 

"nope, here." marlene put her hand up to her chin, and the woman's eyes went wide. 

"that short? your hair is so beautiful long-"

"yes, i'd like it that short," marlene replied firmly, sitting down and moving her hair over the chair back to be cut. 

"okay, then." she began to expertly cut her hair, clearly not happy about the length marlene wanted. 

after thirty minutes, marlene's hair was finished and she looked in the mirror, admiring her new style. 

"i love it! thank you so much!" she hopped out of the chair, paid the woman a few galleons and they headed over to honeydukes. 

once at the candy shop, they each filled bags with their favorite treats. lily's had saltwater taffy and chocoballs, marlene's had crystallized pineapple and nougat, alice's had peppermint toads, treacle fudge, and they all had a bar or two of honeydukes' best chocolate. happy with their haul, they exited the shop, only to run into sirius and remus. 

"hi, remus! hi, sirius," lily greeted the two. "how long have you two been here? you weren't at breakfast."

"he insisted on dragging us all out here at the ass crack of dawn," remus jerked his thumb towards sirius standing beside them. 

"it's the last hogsmeade trip, what do you expect me to do?!" he replied indignantly and stomped off dramatically to find james. lily offered remus a kind smile in comfort. 

"you look tired," marlene commented. 

"thanks, and your hair looks great. did you just get that done?"

"did it myself," she responded proudly, fluffing her hair. 

"really?"

"absolutely not. do i look like i have that amount of skill? the most i've ever done is cut my sister's bangs, and even those turned out terrible!" this prompted giggles out of all four of them. 

adjusting his hat, remus said, "well, i'd better go find james and peter, they've probably got into something by now, and i've got to keep them in line." he waved goodbye to the girls. 

"want to go anywhere else or should we go back to the common room?" lily asked her friends. 

"common room," both marlene and alice said. 

"i just want to sit in front of the fire and eat candy," marlene confessed. and so the three girls made their way back up to the castle, where they spent the rest of the afternoon, talking and eating chocolate, free of the boys.