Loverboy

"this huge bite of sandwich"

Olivia, a nice-looking girl, and one of her best female friends, Lily, ducked into the portrait hole, entering the Gryffindor common room. Two third year boys, bumped into them. The girls were too wrapped up in their talk to notice, and Olivia laughed at something Lily said, not realizing a much younger and smaller boy had bonked his round head into her shoulder.

"And then this guy- this guy! - takes this - this huge bite of a sandwich - a sandwich - and says, mouth full, 'Next weekend in Hogsmeade, you wanna go on a date or summ? I dunno, maybe snog a bit? Maybe do more, if you know what I me-' And then I slapped his face and said 'Get lost, weirdo,'" Lily was saying, retelling the story of the creepy guy who asked her out with ridiculously stupid tactics. Needless to say, he was unsuccessful.

"That- that guy is ridiculous," Olivia said, "he can't even put his fucking sandwich down to ask you out? He should know how high your standards are. You won't even go out with James! And he's great! And relentless," she pointed out, wanting two of her closest friends to date.

The girls dumped their Potions and Transfiguration homework on their bedspreads. "That Potter boy. He really is smitten with me, isn't he?" Lily said, an underlying tone of disgust evident.

"I think if you'd just give him a chance-"

"He can be a real prick sometimes, you know? And he's so mean to Sev. But I guess you know him better than I do. Still," Lily cut her friend off. Gathering her Herbology textbook and her Care of Magical Creatures textbook, Lily walked out. "I'm gonna go hang out with Marlene, okay? You can join us if you'd like...?"

Olivia shook her head, a few black strands falling onto her face. "I'm gonna go hang out with Remus and the guys." Lily nodded, and Olivia slipped out of the dorms, bag on shoulder, and down to the common room.

On the couch, two boys sat, one doing his homework and the other playing Exploding snap with another boy sitting on the floor. A fourth boy sat on the arm of the sofa, giving the others bad advice about getting girls.

"James, you've been hopelessly in love with the same girl for two years and she won't look at you twice. You probably shouldn't be dishing out advice," Remus Lupin, the boy doing his Charms work during the break period, pointed out. Next to him, Sirius Black, easily the prettiest boy in the school, laughed.

"Correction: she'll only look at you with disgust. I've seen her turn around in Potions to glare at you," Olivia added, plonking herself next to Sirius. James rolled his eyes, his cheeks slightly pink from embarrassment from his friends. On the floor, meek little Peter Pettigrew stayed silent.

"Well, I could easily get any other girl in the school-" James began.

"Wrong," Sirius said. "You couldn't get Ollie."

"Is that a challenge?" James replied.

"Don't place your stupid guy bets on me-" Olivia warned her friends.

"We're kidding, Ollie. Don't worry. James would've failed anyway," Sirius answered, with a slight teasing tone. He just talked like that around his friends.

"Awh, poor baby," Olivia said, pouting her lip at James. "Can't get a girl. I bet Peter would fu-"

"I think that's enough of that for now!" Remus said, somewhat scoldingly. Peter looked somewhat ashamed, and Olivia laughed.

"I'm only teasing, Peter. Of course you wouldn't fuck James. That's nasty," she said.

All five laughed a bit at that, and Remus said, "Wanna go out on the grounds, Ollie?" Olivia nodded, standing up. The two of them began walking to the common room door, when James stepped in front of them. He had Main Character syndrome, and Sirius picked up next to Ollie. Peter trailed behind them quietly.

Once the group arrived in front of the lake, Remus sat under the large beech tree. Ollie sat next to him, and Sirius and James followed suit. Peter sat - just outside of the shade's reach - near the other four.

The group talked about Severus Snape, or as James had nicknamed him, Snivellus, and Mary McDonald, who everyone knew was infatuated with Remus, and Marlene McKinnon, who James thought might be a lesbian.

After a while, Olivia checked James's watch, which he rarely ever checked himself, and saw that the next class was in ten minutes. "Shit, we have Herbology in ten minutes. I hate Herbology," she added. "I suppose we ought to head to class."

All five got up and began walking to their class. All Gryffindor fifth years had Herbology, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, and Potions together. Remus and Ollie put their arms around each other's shoulders, showing the world how close their friendship was. Sirius and James walked on either side of the duo, and Peter stood on James's left.

And they walked, like that, all the way to Greenhouse Three, where they were to work with Mandrakes. Those disgusting, earthy, baby-like things.

---

oh wow would you look at that painfully obvious bit of foreshadowing-

ik im kinda hating on Peter here, but like, honestly- can you blame me? also i had a grammar lesson in my language arts class the other day so i'm using some of that here bc idk its grammar and its a story and its better. this chapter was just to get an idea of the characters and their personalities.

see ya later < 3