Loverboy

"They'll come around, mate."

"So, Ollie," Mary said at breakfast Saturday morning. "Mind to tell us why your eyes are all puffy and red?"

"Mary!" Lily scolded, nudging her friend and shoving a bite of egg in her mouth. "Insensitive, much."

"Oh, well," Ollie said, taking another gulp of her pumpkin juice, "funny story, actually, haha it's not funny at all. Victoria broke up with me."

Alice choked on her toast. "Why?" she coughed.

"Well, she said she would rather not break up over a fight, and that it'd be better to just end it now and have happy memories of each other than to, like, not be sure if we're still dating when we come back, or to end up hating each other. And I can't say I disagree with her, really," Ollie explained. "She's right about that."

"Oh my God, Ollie, I'm so sorry," Lily said, her hand flying up over her mouth. Marlene's reaction, however, was not one of sympathy but of anger.

She shot up, almost knocking over a glass of juice in her rage. "I'm gonna go give her a piece of my mind-"

"Marlene!" Alice whispered, tugging on her wrist. "Sit back down. It's fine. We can go talk to her later."

Marlene sat back down, still fuming. "Well, she's gonna have a piece of my mind. Maybe a piece of my hands, too-"

"No, Marlene, it's okay. You don't have to talk to her. She's right," Ollie said. "Anyway, we have a whole day to ourselves today."

"True," Dorcas said, fiddling with the end of her braids. "It's also the last Hogsmeade weekend of the year."

"Ooh... Honeydukes day?" Alice suggested, taking a sip of her pumpkin juice. "Come on, we should maybe clean up a little before we go."

And right she was- Ollie's hair was in a half-fallen out braid, Lily's was sticking up all over the place, and Alice's own looked like a bird's nest. Not to mention that they'd all come down in clothes appropriate for lounging around, not for going to Honeydukes. Everyone finished what little was left on their plates before going up to their dorms.

"Hey, which skirt should I go with?" Lily asked, holding up two denim skirts.

Ollie looked over. "That one. It's cute with that shirt."

"Thanks," Lily replied, kicking away her pajama pants and putting on the vibrant blue skirt. "Ooh, Mary, you should totally go with the red. It's so your color."

After a little while, all six girls were back in the common room, dressed and ready to go out to the town. As they passed the platform and were cleared by Filch, a shout was heard behind the girls.

"Ollie! Wait up," Sirius was calling, jogging to catch up with the girls. Ollie looked over her shoulder, her brows furrowed. "It's the last Hogsmeade weekend of the year."

"We're well aware, Black," Lily snapped, taking up Ollie's arm in hers. "What do you want?"

James caught up to Sirius, Remus and Peter walking a little slower behind them, knowing the girls weren't going to give them passage. "We want to hang out with our friend, Evans," he said, pouting slightly.

"I have other friends," Ollie said stiffly, turning her head away as they continued forward. "And I'm hanging out with them today."

"But- we were going to go to the Three Broomsticks to celebrate the end of exams," Sirius said, coming to a stop as he watched his friend keep walking away. "We wanted you to come."

"And we're going out on the town to have fun and spend quality time together," Marlene quipped.

"Alright, then," James said dejectedly. "Oh, and Evans?"

Lily groaned turning around. "No, I won't go out with you, Potter. Don't even try. Especially after what you did yesterday."

"Actually, I wanted to say sorry about yesterday. I was being an immature and pretentious asshole," James explained, looking guilty and apologetic. All the girls stopped and looked at him in surprise. James Potter, apologizing and taking responsibility for his actions?

"That much is obvious," Dorcas said, crossing her arms.

"Do you know if Sni- Snape is here? I should say sorry to him too," James added. "I may not like him, but that was uncalled for."

Lily looked skeptically at James for a minute. "I don't know," she said shortly, turning back around. The girls started forward again.

"If there's anything I can do to make it up to you-" James called, sighing when none of them turned back around.

"They'll come around, mate," Sirius said, putting a hand on James's shoulder. "I think a good way to get them to like you again would be to stop being a jerk."

"I know. And- I just feel awful," James said, sinking down to the ground, burying his face in his hands.

Sirius sat down next to him, wrapping an arm around his shoulder. Remus and Peter caught up to them and sat next to him, too.

"I'm hopeless," James groaned. "I'll never deserve Evans. I don't deserve Ollie either, or you guys. I'm awful."

"You're not awful," Remus said. "You've done some bad things, but if you were really awful you wouldn't be a Gryffindor. There's more to you than just that."

"Ollie's right, I could've killed Snivellous," James went on. "It's probably better that Evans hates me. I should just- Give up."

"No. Don't give up on this," Peter said, gently taking James's hands away from his face. James looked at him while Peter fixed his glasses. "Grow up."

"G- Grow up?"

"Be more mature. Going around, pulling pranks and hexing people, slacking off all the time," Peter explained. "That's obviously not working for you."

"You're right," James said, his hazel eyes flitting away from Peter's light blue ones. "On Godric Gryffindor, you're right, Peter!" He suddenly threw himself on Peter, his arms around his neck, his face buried in his shoulder.

Peter awkwardly patted James's back. "Come on, we're going to the Three Broomsticks."

The boys stood up and went into town.