CHAPTER NINETEEN
dreams of a midsummer night
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COVE CAN'T STIFLE HER GASP WHEN she steps inside the Great Hall. The school dance committee has truly outdone themselves this year, for the festival of Litha has been brought to life before her very eyes.
Aureate motifs set the room alight in a warm summertime blaze and sunflowers coil around towering pillars, their enchanted vines slithering across furniture to embellish everything in a rich viridescence. Dried orange and lemon slices entwined with wheat make for gorgeous hanging decorations and wreaths dangled upon the ceiling beams, warmly coloured candles floating between these overhead obstacles. A golden disco ball dressed up as a sun even rotates overhead, casting polka dots that glimmer like citrine gemstones around the expanse of the grand room.
Professors cling to the walls with varying levels of enthusiasm, the chaperones for the night that have been elected to overlook the Seventh Years with a watchful eye. Students in her year crowd the dance floor with drinks and festive treats betwixt their fingertips, bobbing along to the magically amplified music from an unseen radio as they await the main event.
In that single snapshot of the evening, everyone looks so happy and so beautiful that Cove could cry. It dawns on her that this'll be the last time everyone in her year is together perhaps forever, which is a double eyed sword of pros and cons. She has to blink her lashes together harshly to avoid smudging her mascara, her cupped hands pressing over her mouth to smother her watery smile.
Cove is snapped from her vaguely teary stupor when she feels a tug on her wrist and she leans in to hear what Mary's trying to say. Eyebrows furrowed, Cove follows her jerky line of sight and somewhat erratic attempts at pointing. She eventually spots Lily Evans and Marlene McKinnon hanging about on the opposite side of the room with crystal glasses cradled in their hands. She thinks that it's sweet how their dates are practically glued to their sides.
"There are the girls," Mary shouts in her ear, her words just managing to breach the loud music. "Let's go over, yeah?"
"Sounds good!" Cove shouts back, allowing for her friends to shepherd her over to the opposite side of the rooom.
Her grip on Remus' hand never falters, her fingertips tracing the indents of his scars and the cool metal of her own borrowed ring upon his knuckle. He squeezes back reassuringly and she smiles at him from over her shoulder.
Marlene and Lily perk up when they notice their four friends approaching, waving and grinning wildly at the sight of them wriggling through the crowd. They're bracketed by James and Dorcas, the two dressed respectively in smart daffodil dress robes and a flowing, sparkly orange frock.
Lily's dress is a pretty sage green to contrast the auburn of her coiled hair and Marlene's dress is a shocking red that makes her bottle blonde pop. Alice and Frank are stood together as well, now unobscured by the tightly woven crowd, their outfits with pale yellow motifs perfectly complimentary of one another.
They exchange the typical hugs, exclamations and greetings before relaxing back into a semicircle on the outskirts of the dance floor. Apparently they had just managed to liberate themselves from the thriving crowd and have been recovering next to the refreshments table, sipping away at lemonade and various other sugary soft drinks that fizz upon their lips.
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SEA, SWALLOW ME, remus lupin
Fanfiction" To become like the sea - Vast, wise, an empire of royal blue quietness, rage tasting like salt That was her goal. " - Odyssey, The Cynical Idealist REMUS LUPIN / MARAUDERS ERA ©️ whimsywitchess
