Too Little Too Late

Chapter 11 | Edited

"Please let me get you ready to go out!" Marlene whined for the seven hundredth time.

"Fine, I don't care. Just try to not burn my face off with that thing." Layla reluctantly replied, wary of the hot curling iron. Why Marlene couldn't just cast charms, she wasn't sure. It definitely seemed like the easier option. Not to mention the safer one.

Besides, it's not like Layla cared what Sirius thought of her or her appearance. He could think she looked like the ugliest troll in the world for all she cared.

Absentmindedly, Layla fingered the parchment laying on her desk. The person who had left her cherry blossom had left other notes. She knew it was the same person because of the handwriting (it was in cursive, something which Layla had never had the time to learn, even though it was beautiful), and a single picture of a cherry blossom on the bottom right corner of the notes.

Layla had never experienced something so romantic before in her life and then notes made her heart flutter. They turned up in the most unexpected places. Her room was where they turned up most often, appearing on her pillow, mirror, books, once even tucked inside her slippers. She had once had a note turn up in the morning owl mail, another time one had been sitting on her seat when she arrived in potions, she'd even had one waiting for her when she tore open a bread roll... how it'd gotten there she didn't know. Usually they were sweet messages about Layla, observations from her 'secret admirer'. However, once or twice they were love poems for prestigious and well known muggle poets. Shakespeare's 'Sonnet 116' had been the note inside the bread roll. Her heart fluttered just thinking about it.

"Why does your face look like that? You look... lovestruck... ARE YOU STARTING TO LIKE SIRIUS BLACK?" Marlene exclaimed loudly, making Layla snap out of her thoughts immediately.

"NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY!" Layla shouted back, her face turning pink from the very suggestion. She dutifully ignored the irony of having liked him for the past six years. "I was just thinking about things. Things that are very, very unrelated to that sod."

"Mhm I'm sure." Alice muttered from the corner.

"Traitor!" Layla exclaimed, whipping around to look at the girl (and almost burning her scalp on the hot curling iron in the process. Making Marlene shout "hey, what are you doing?")

Eventually Marlene decided that Layla looked 'just perfect' and she moved on to making Lily look 'absolutely gorgeous', once again ignoring the fact that both girls didn't care what they looked like as they didn't care about their dates. Once they were both fixed up and ready to go, Layla and Lily left their dorm quickly, not sure who they didn't want to be around more; Marlene or the boys.

They made their way slowly to the entrance way, neither particularly excited for their half of the date, but both wanting the other girl's date to be perfect. Arriving at the entrance way, the girls were immediately spotted by the two marauders. Both James and Sirius could be seen to obviously relax, as if they had been worried that the girls wouldn't show. Both would later deny this.

Huge grins graced the boys' faces as they looked at their dates. James, having waited for this moment for the last six and a bit years, looked awestruck. Anyone who looked at his face in that moment could see how much love he held for Lily Evans, even Lily. Perhaps that was why she started to soften to James Potter, perhaps it was just because they were always meant to be.

A few hours later James and Lily looked up from their conversation, intending to try and include the other couple who they may or may not have been ignoring for the last few hours. They were surprised to see that neither Layla or Sirius were there.

"Oh! When did they leave? I didn't notice." Lily exclaimed, surprised.

"I'm not sure... but they left us to pay for their drinks."

It turn d out that Layla and Sirius had bailed after half an hour of being ignored by the two, agreeing that they should be left alone to (hopefully) begin a beautiful romance.

"So do you want to go in here?" Sirius asked tentatively, trying not to let himself stare at the girl opposite him too much. But damn, she is beautiful.

Layla's laughter rang out loud and clear, making Sirius panic that he had said that last bit out loud. His eyes bulged as he tried to think of a joking way to make up for it when Layla said, "Madame Pudifoot's? No thank you. It's way too stuffy and pink in there."

"Oh! Yeah... usually girls like it in there, I just thought..." he trailed off, unable to explain why exactly he asked whether she wanted to go in when he himself hated the coffee shop.

Layla looked over to him and smiled, unwilling to give him too hard of a time when he was obviously trying his hardest to impress her. "Wanna go to honeydukes?" She suggested.

"Hell yeah."

And off they went to spend another three quarters of an hour surrounded by the delicious, sugary sensations packed into the sweetshop.

As much as she hated to admit it, Layla had to concede that this date was not as bad as she thought it was going to be. Maybe there is some hope for Sirius Black.