Pay Attention Jauregui! (Harry Potter!AU)

Chapter 29

If you've been embarrassed for Lauren, just you wait.

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The morning after the party was a painful experience for three out of the four of the girls, which gave Dinah the unique opportunity to be righteously smug. Camila spent most of the day buried under the duvet trying to ignore a pounding head, rolling stomach and sore throat from so many emotional outbursts in one evening. Taking pity on her Gryffindor friend, Dinah made sure she had enough water to last the day and a suitable receptacle to empty her stomach into.

Normani and Lauren however were not as lucky, they woke up in the tangled wrestling position they had fallen asleep in, both of them too stubborn the previous evening to back down. As such they had fallen asleep still fighting and woken up not only with the inevitable hangover but various muscle pains that defied explanation. As well as a split lip, Normani spent the next couple of days unable to lift her right arm above her head while Lauren sported an impressive black eye and a pronounced limp. Both Camila and Dinah wisely decided it was best not to ask.

A week later and they were just finishing their last exam, well, Normani, Camila and Lauren were as it was the potion's practical section of the NEWT. Dinah had finished that morning with her care of magical creatures written exam and was waiting for them outside the lab. The test had actually gone fairly well, at least in Lauren's opinion, although she had heard several very colourful expletives coming from Normani's bench. Followed of course by Camila's instinctive admonishment for bad language right up until the point Professor Lovato very pointedly told them both to shut up.

When the bell rang to signal the end of the exam, they were all given permission to clean up after themselves and leave, Lauren had already cleaned her bench off as it was habitual really, given the fact she helped out Lovato so often with preparing the rooms for the Owl's students. Grinning happily, she went over to help Camila feeling lighter already at the thought of no more exams, at the prospect of her future with the gorgeous brunette currently blowing a strand of hair from her eyes in mild irritation.

"That was our last test...is it slightly tragic that I'm disappointed about that? I mean I know that no one is meant to enjoy lessons, especially tests but, I'm really gonna miss all this."

Across from them, Normani made a disgusted sound and Lauren spared a moment to flip her off while Camila giggled. The brunette shook her head as she carried on cleaning her bench with Lauren's help, actually help might be overstating it as the older Latina was actually just holding Camila's hips from behind and moving along with her, not that Camila minded that even one tiny bit! Gently disengaging herself from the Ravenclaw so she could answer her while actually looking at her, the brunette smiled softly.

"It's not tragic at all, you said yourself that this place has given you the best years of your life, it's a given that you're going to miss it...and, well, it is really going to be all change for you after this baby, don't try and downplay that. You're going to have a new home, a new way of living, you're bound to be nervous about that."

Lauren smiled shyly back at Camila and bumped her shoulder lightly with her own before picking up some flasks to rack away.

"You always seem to know the right thing to say, you know that right? that's a whole different kind of magic that is impossible to learn, Camila magic."

The little Gryffindor laughed and beamed proudly at her girlfriend's compliment, again they tried their best to ignore the gagging sound coming from a certain Slytherin's bench. Professor Lovato smiled ever so slightly at the two conversations going on between the three girls, firstly Camila trying her best to make Lauren feel secure, and then the wordless conversation between Normani and her partner in crime, obviously designed to keep the atmosphere light. She'd taught the two best friends for a long time and the dynamic that seemed to keep their friendship in motion had always fascinated her, especially when first Dinah and then Camila joined their family circle. She cleared her throat and Lauren looked up expectantly.