LUNAR (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

Thirty. Hogsmeade Again.

Caiti almost didn't believe her eyes when she arrived at the edge of Hogsmeade village on Valentine's Day weekend. In the last two weeks, she had thought of little else but her plant (which she had started the very nerve wracking process of propagating) and her proposal, which she had yet to hear back about and probably wouldn't for another week or two. It was highly possible that she was so disconnected from reality, she was hallucinating.

But Sean was standing there beside Evelyn. Solid and real and looking considerably less surly than the last time she had seen him. He and Evelyn were standing oddly far apart, especially given the fact that it was quite chilly out and Evelyn would, under normal circumstances, have taken the liberty of using Sean as an extra layer of warmth.

Still, he was there, and they didn't look too terribly uncomfortable around each other.

"I didn't know you were coming," she said to Sean.

"Hello to you, too," he said.

He gave her a sideways hug — which was also very unexpected — and then let her go so Evelyn could have her turn.

"How are you?" Evelyn asked, pulling Caiti into a tight hug.

"Fine. Ready for the year to be over so I can come home."

She couldn't give the real answer. She couldn't say that she was a complete a total basket case one minute wondering if anyone had seen her application yet, if it had even arrived as planned, and then the very next moment, completely resigned to the fact that she had absolutely no chance of winning and it had been a reckless and naive thing to even consider entering.

Just thinking about it made her feel the need to take a deep breath like she'd run here all the way from the castle.

"It'll start going really fast soon," Evelyn said. "Faster than you want it, too."

"There's no such thing," said Caiti. "What about you? How've you been?"

Evelyn twisted her lips to one side and looked down like she wasn't quite sure she could give her real answer in present company either. "Alright," she said.

Caiti paused, waited for one of them to say something else, but when neither did, she said, "Well, come on. Let's get inside. I'm freezing."

They tucked their heads down against the cold and headed into the Three Broomsticks. A cold gust of wind followed them through the door, slamming it shut behind them, but then the warmth of the fireplaces around the room slipped through Caiti's cloak and her cheeks began to unfreeze.

Sean pointed to an open table on the opposite side of the room and they hurried their way over before it could get snatched up.

"I'll go order us drinks," Evelyn said, dropping her cloak on one of the open chairs.

And with that, Sean and Caiti were left alone together.

"So you got your act together," she said.

Sean had a guilty look on his face like he'd known this conversation was coming but had really hoped he could avoid it.

"I know I screwed up," he said, looking up at the ceiling. "We're working it out and I've apologized like eight hundred times. So, can we just not talk about it right now? I'm trying."

Caiti considered him. She glanced at Evelyn to gauge how much time they had before she returned to the table. The line was quite long. Clearly, no one wanted to walk around much on a day like this, because it appeared the entire Hogwarts student body, sans the first and second years, were currently trying to get a Butterbeer.