delphinium - remus lupin ¹

twenty-six | girls night

Dear diary,

The last day of term came around really fast his year. It must have been all the busy time I had spent revising, finding time for harmless pranks and time to relax, even my... newest commitment with Snape was keeping me busier than expected.

Though, I was never too busy for my girls. We're all gathered in our dorm for our annual last day girls' night, and it's taking my mind off everything.

They had played truth or dare to kick off the night, making Penelope and Lily blush with all of the questions about their new relationship developments. Unlike Lily, Penelope could have talked for hours about Remus and how much she wanted to go on another date with him. A sort of redo date considering their first one never officially happened.

Eventually, after all their traditional games had been played (including a rather interesting session of 'kiss, marry, hex'), the girls split off into their own groups. Penelope was painting Lily and Lara's nails on the floor of the dorm. Sophie was on Penelope's bed chatting to them aimlessly, running her fingers over the diary's chunky design. Alice was still yet to arrive, probably loitering around the castle with Frank on one of their cute walk arounds, but she promised to make an appearance before the night was over.

"Hey, Penny?" Sophie asked, face down and looking at the childish design of the diary in front of her. The girl in question hummed as she focused on painting the varnish on the other girl's nails. "Why do you like this thing so much?"

Penelope turned around to see she was talking about the diary that she wrote in every day. It had been special to her ever since she received it on her birthday way back when she was just about to start her firs year of Hogwarts.

"It's my diary." Penelope shrugged. "I mean when I first got it, it was my first year here and I didn't really have many people to talk to about my feelings I guess." She turned back around to keep doing Lily's nails, deciding it would be better to distract herself from any emotions being brought up. "It was a birthday present so I like it for that, obviously, but I also thought I was going to become this troublemaker prankster than everyone looked up to when I first came here."

"Well, you got half of what you wished for." Lara laughed.

"I guess so." Penny smiled back at her. "But I've since realised that's not what I want anymore. The only thing that hasn't really changed over the past four years is my diary being there. Plus, I think it's cute to look back on how much I've changed." She took a deep breath and looked up at the three girls, all smiling straight back at her.

"Aw, Penny!" Lily started.

"That's so cute!" Sophie added.

"I love it!" Lara finished the flush of comments about the diary, reaching over to hug the Pettigrew girl tightly.

"Watch your nails, Lara." Penelope warned jokingly. "I worked hard on those." Sophie had sat up from her position on Penelope's bed coming down to sit next to the other girls. "But all that sweet talk about my diary doesn't mean I don't want to throw it in the fire place sometimes."

The girls laughed but Penelope carried on in complete seriousness. "Seriously, my first diary got burnt to a crisp because I was angry about what I was writing."

"Oh! Oh!" Sophie called out, grabbing the book back off the bed and picking up her wand with it. "I learnt this fire protection charm in my Auror training the other day! Can I use it on your diary, please?" She dragged out the please for as long as she could, putting on a sad face for Penelope to fall right into her trap.

Penny sighed at the begging girl, quietly nodding her head with a little bit of amusement. While the two had had their differences throughout the year, she trusted in Sophie's magic abilities more than most. If anyone could pull of an advanced spell we've never been taught in school, it would be the youngest training and best future Auror the magic world has ever seen.

Sophie placed the book on the ground as the three other girls moved to surround the book. She raised her wand and took in a deep breath, flicking it with a faint whisper of the word "niardere" before a small light encased the diary.

As soon as the light was gone, Lara was reaching under her bed for a lighter to test the spell. Lily looked startled by the contraption, wondering why a magic user who doesn't smoke (or even light candles) would need a lighter.

"What?" Lara shrugged, diverting her eyes to the floor as she admitted to the lighter's true owner. "It's Sirius'."

Before any of the three girls could make a comment on Lara's blushing cheeks and uncharacteristically shy actions, she was reaching for the diary and lighting the lighter. She held the flame to the corner of the book, waiting for it to catch fire - but it never did.

"Cool!" Sophie shouted.

"That's insane." Penelope laughed, looking at her diary and it was partially engulfed in flames but stayed untouched by the fire.

A knock sounded on their door as the girls jumped back, dropping the lighter an the diary down onto the floor. They weren't expecting anyone to be joining them, with the exception of Alice, but it was unlike her to knock on the door considering this was her dorm too.

"Hello?" Lily called out.

"Lily Pad?" A voice called back, using the all too well known nickname for his forever crush, Lily Evans."

Lara reached up to the door handle and pulled, opening the door to reveal James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus all stood with sheepish smiles.

"We heard there was a girls night." Sirius smiled.

"Why weren't we invited?" Remus joked, faking a frown as Lara and Lily rushed the boys into the room reluctantly, trying not to get caught by any teachers or prefects.

"Take a guess, geniuses." Sophie blurted bluntly. She rolled her eyes as all the boys frowned in faux hurt, jumping back up on to her bed to lay down. "Alright, I'm bowing out. Dont be too loud, I'm too tired to be missing more sleep."

Lily sent her a soft smile. "Of course, Soph."

The night continued as it usually would for a girls night. More games were played. More secrets were shared. More horrifically bad decisions were made in 'kiss, marry, hex' (seriously who came up with that game?). And more importantly, more conversations were started.

Including a conversation over nail varnish and quiet whispers between Remus and Penelope.

"You know, I didn't want to ditch our date the other day, right?" Penelope started.

Remus gave her a smile. "That's what the boys said, but I wasn't so sure." Penny's head tilted to the side in confusion. "I thought for a second you were trying to get rid of me. You did trick me into the Room of Requirement, after all."

Penelope giggled at the memory. "I'm sorry about that still. The group just needed you two back to normal."

"Well, I wouldn't say we're back to normal quite yet." Remus glanced at Sirius from across the room. He was talking quietly with Lara as he played with the bracelets on her right wrist. "But we're getting there."

Penelope sighed as she finished uo painting the last of Remus' nails. He had specifically requested matching nails to Penny's so that what he got - a vibrant teal identical to hers, even with the white love heart on the pinky finger.

Remus smiled at them as Penny moved to sit next to him. Her head rested on his shoulder while he continued the conversation.

"If Sirius and I aren't fully back to normal, does that mean we can't go on an actual date yet? A you gonna send me back to the Room of Requirement if I ask you out?" Remus joked, pushing the girl lightly with his shoulder.

"I guess you'd just have to take your chances to find out." Penelope shrugged with a laugh too.

Remus dropped his head to look at her in the eyes. "Penelope Pettigrew. Will you go on another date with me?"

Penny grabbed his hand closest to her with a bright smile, nodding her head, and leaning into him for a kiss.

"Remus Lupin, of course I will go on another date with you."