Loquacious\\ Harry Potter Marauders

Twenty Four\\ No Pressure

"The kindest words my father said to me- women like you drown oceans."
- Rupi Kaur

It was Tuesday afternoon and Adelaide was exhausted. With Christmas so soon, the school was an excited buzz every day, but every seventh year longed for their bed after every school day. The Great Hall held its usual decor, with twelve Christmas trees adorned with bells and baubles lining the walls. Dinner and breakfast automatically became more cheerful, and the likes of homework Adelaide recorded didn't seem so bad with the Christmas holidays approaching. Even the Slytherin common room brightened up- someone had put a tree in the corner of the room and the paintings began to sing ancient Christmas songs.

Not that Adelaide had a problem with the usual common room- there was always something calming and stress relieving about the room. Maybe it was the fact that they were all under the Black Lake.

And it wasn't too far from the library, which was where Adelaide found herself after school that Tuesday, wandering aimlessly through the age old books. Her shoulders slumped, her eyelids drooped heavily, she was wearing her uniform- which was very out of character for Adelaide; she usually changed after school hours each day. Her hair was tied up on a sloppy bun from the night before and her face was drawn and pale. She hadn't been sleeping well recently.

Her fingers drifted over the old leather spine of each book, manicured nails searching for a particular title, a name. She was so engrossed in the finding of her book that she didn't hear the plodding footsteps of someone approaching to her right. It wasn't until he cleared his throat that Adelaide took notice of his presence, jumping at the sound. When she saw who the person was, however, her expressions changed.

Her face blanked. Her eyes dropped. She sighed.
"Potter," she greeted blankly, turning back to the shelves. James looked uncomfortable, blinking behind his glasses. Adelaide siting patiently for him to start speaking, her emerald eyes fixed on the dusty leather spines.

James cleared his throat again and Adelaide looked sharply at him, finger still resting on the books. He began to say something, then stopped. Finally Adelaide sighed, rolling her eyes.
"Potter, did Lily send you? I know how close you guys have been getting recently, did she send you here?"

"Lily? Lily Evans, my Lily? No!"
He exclaimed in surprise. Adelaide raised her eyebrows and nodded slowly. James seemed to realise what he said and slowly he flushed a deep shade of red.

"Your Lily?"
"Well.. Not my Lily, exactly.." He seemed to find his voice again, quite suddenly. He straightened his shoulders and rolled up his sleeves, took a deep breath and looked Adelaide in the eye.
"It's not as if she belongs to me. Or anyone.. It's just.. We seem to be getting on a lot better recently."

"I wish you the best of luck in that," Adelaide told him nonchalantly. Never, not ever, would she admit that she meant it. James shrugged.

"Anyway er.. Ugh I'm such an arse."
Suddenly James seemed to admit out loud that he was making a fool of himself. Adelaide decided to end his suffering. Smiling graciously, she turned to him and dropped her hand from the shelf, relaxing.

"James," she began, causing his head to snap up immediately and look her in the eye. "Is everything okay?"

"Okay? Yeah it's.. It's fine, great, actually. I came to find you. I just wanted.." He shrugged. "Just wanted to say thanks, you know, for the other day. I couldn't find you until now but I needed to tell you that Pad- Sirius apologised. Afterwards, when you left. He came back over and apologised and he's been acting much better since then. It's only been a few days, but.. I just wanted to let you know. Whatever way you have with him, Tanner, it works. Your charm did it for him."