My Marauders // J.P. , R.L. , S.B x OC

Ch. 23, Liar

Her footsteps barely skimmed the worn wooden stairs as she hurried down, each step carefully placed to avoid an incriminating creak.

Her feet pattered against the rough stone floor of the base level, the crackling of the fireplace becoming her background noise as she rushed to the door. Her hand shuddered slightly as she grasped the cold handle to the outside corridor.

"Young lady!" The portrait yelled, obviously forgetting it was four in the morning.

Calliope held her breath, facing the portrait, which she knew would be a mistake.

The Fat Lady rubbed the tiredness out of her eyes, had Calliope woken her up, or had she ever gone to bed? Calliope thought it had most likely been the former.

"It is hardly ladylike to be prancing around with a boy, and not one boy but three!" She had crossed her arms, giving Calliope a pointed look. "You are more than lucky if I do not inform Headmaster Dumbledore!"

"Please, Lady," Calliope began, grasping for the right words before frustration took over. "Will you just be quiet?"

The Fat Lady gasped, affronted. "Quiet? Quiet? Oh, the nerve! You barge out at this ungodly hour, disrupting my peace, and now you dare to—"

"I have to go." She looked around the empty corridor nervously, straining to see if anyone had heard the ruckus the painting was making.

Before the Fat Lady could shatter the morning's fragile silence any further, Calliope turned on her heel and strode away, her footsteps quick. She would have been expelled if she had stayed a minute longer because the portrait would have been ripped into shreds.

She dragged her hands down her face, the warmth of her skin grounding her. The dream had unsettled her so completely that reality felt distant.

After countless steps, a mind-bending riddle, and several towering staircases, she finally reached the entrance to the Ravenclaw dorms. A part of her hoped Cassandra wouldn't be there, but another part of her needed her best friend.

She turned the nob, entering the dimly lit room.

She sighed. No Cass.

"Gotcha!" a voice yelled as the curtains to Cassandra's bed were yanked open.

"Cass!" Calliope jumped back.

"Where were you? I was worried sick!" Cassandra demanded, arms crossed.

Calliope's shoulders slumped, and a sudden look of grief graced her face. She shuffled toward Cass, tossing over onto her bed.

"Cali?" Cassandra asked, confusion washing over her, "What's going on?" Cass put her hands in Calliope's hair, rubbing her scalp gently.

She took a deep breath as she rushed the words out of her mouth, "I'm being targeted. Gideon Prewett got slipped a potion and tried to seduce me in the library... but, of course, the boys were there– when aren't they!?" She whined. "And I didn't come back to the dorm because I had a sleepover with them, and, well... well, I had a sex dream! A sex dream about all three of them!" Her face grew bright red as she gabbled out the words.

Cassandra's hands paused in Calliope's hair, processing all that her friend had just rambled on about. "What the fuck?"

"Yeah," Calliope muttered, squeezing her eyes shut tight as she sunk deeper into Cassandra's mattress.

"Do you want to get some sleep? Or, uhm... talk about it?" Cassandra asked gently, trying to get a feel for the situation.

"Talk, please. I can't sleep right now."