February Night

Chapter 43

When Lucy came out of the shower, the smell of freshly made popcorn greeted her and she took a deep breath. That was a smell she absolutely loved. Spencer had asked Lucy if she liked to have a Harry Potter marathon on his free weekend and she had squealed excitedly. Spencer had laughed and asked, if they should invite Penelope and Luke as well and Lucy had agreed. She loved the thought of spending a weekend with the three people she enjoyed time together the most. Yes, Penelope had become such a great friend to her during those last weeks after Tessa's death and Lucy didn't want to miss her in her life anymore.

Lucy had decided to take a quick shower before Penelope and Luke would show up and now went to the kitchen where Spencer was making popcorn. Two huge bowls were already full of the delicious food and Lucy couldn't resist to pick and try one. "Hmmm, you're good in making popcorn", she said.

Spencer chuckled. "I'm just putting it into the microwave, that's nothing difficult." But Lucy didn't care. She had once managed to burn her popcorn in the microwave and Luke had laughed at her for at least two weeks. Lucy wrapped her arms around his waist and looked up to Spencer.

"You're wonderful", she simply said and smirked when she saw his cheeks turn a slight red.

"I'm not", he murmured, but couldn't say anything else, because Lucy had stood on her tiptoes and kissed him dearly.

When the doorbell rang, she let out a groan. As much as she was excited for her brother and her friend to come over, they could have just come some minutes later. When it rang a second time, Spencer gently pulled Lucy away. "We should open", he grinned. Sighing, Lucy nodded and went to the front door.

"Finally!", Penelope exclaimed the second Lucy opened the door. "Did we interrupt you two lovebirds?", she grinned and winked at Lucy.

"Noooo, you didn't. Why you think so?", she replied and rolled her eyes; a smile on her lips.

"Because it took you so long to open", Penelope replied; still a huge grin on her face. Lucy didn't say anything to that. Instead, she went to hug her brother. It had been more than a week since they'd seen each other. Way too long, Lucy thought.

"Genius boy just blushed, I tell you Luke, we've been disturbing them!", Penelope teased and Lucy could just grin at her. She truly was a ray of sunshine. "Oh, I brought some cookies, is that okay?" The blonde woman held up a box that was filled with delicious looking cookies.

"And I brought beer", Luke grinned.

"Well, then we've got everything for that DVD night", Lucy beamed and led them into the living room. Spencer brought the huge bowls of popcorn and some coke and soon the four of them were gathered on and in front of the couch.

They had planned to watch as many Harry Potter movies as possible and Lucy secretly hoped they'd be able to watch them all. Although she couldn't imagine that – at some point they'd all fall asleep.

It happened, that they decided to skip the first two movies and go straight to the third one since they all had recently seen the first two movies; they had been on TV not so long ago. And while they watched and munched away on all the delicious snacks, they had a lot of fun. Spencer tried to spit out facts sometimes but Lucy always covered his mouth with her hand, chuckling and telling him that they all knew every fact of the movies. Even Luke had seen those movies at least three times in his life, although he hadn't read one book so far. And no matter how much Lucy tried to convince him to finally read them, he refused. He wasn't the big reader. And he'd never be, he'd always explained.

It was way past midnight and Luke had already dozed off, when they arrived at the very last DVD – the second part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Penelope leaned her head against Lucy's shoulder and Lucy was snuggled up in Spencer's arms. All three of them were trying to keep their eyes open.

And then, the most heartbreaking scene in the movies and the books, in Lucy's opinion, started: When Harry watched Snape's memories and he could see how Snape entered his parents' house and found Lily, the love of his life – dead in Harry's nursery. When Snape held Lily's death body in his arms and cried out all his pain, Lucy bit her bottom lip. But she couldn't hold back any tears. They started to run down her cheeks. "Lucy? Oh doll, what's the matter? Why you're crying?" Penelope sat up straight again as soon as she saw her friend cry. Now Spencer looked at her too, as well as Luke, who had been woken up by Penelope's loud and worried voice.

"It's...it's just because of that scene...", Lucy sobbed and let her hands run over her cheeks to get rid of the tears.

"Oh...", Penelope quietly said and Spencer immediately wrapped his arms around Lucy.

"It's okay, it's okay, I just tear up easily", Lucy assured them and even smiled.

"That's true", Luke said with a smirk. "She cries at most movies." They chuckled and now, the others obviously felt relived. They turned their attention back to the movie and Lucy did too.

~

Groaning, Lucy woke up hours later. It seemed as if her whole body was hurting and she was confused of where she even was. It wasn't the bed, obviously. Frowning, she looked around. She was lying on the couch, next to Spencer while Penelope and Luke were spread out on the ground right next to the couch. All three of them were still asleep and Luke's sleeping position didn't look comfortable at all.

Lucy got up slowly and woke up Spencer. He didn't look comfortable as well. "Spence, wake up." She gently shook his shoulder and when he finally opened his eyes, Lucy grinned at his facial expression. He looked as confused as she had in the first seconds.

"What the...", he murmured as he started to rub his eyes.

"Looks like we all fell asleep right after the end of the movie. I guess Luke even earlier", Lucy chuckled and then took a step over Luke's body to get to the kitchen. She'd make coffee now.

When she came back to the living room with the first two cups of the steamy beverage, Spencer was still laying on the couch. He looked sleepy and was about to fall asleep again. Smiling, Lucy handed him a cup. The other she waved in front of Luke's face until the smell woke him up. He murmured something Lucy couldn't understand and she smiled as she put the coffee in her brother's hands.

Five minutes later Lucy had brought another two cups of coffee. One for Penelope and one for herself. She sat down on the couch and handed one to her blonde friend. Penelope had woken up due to Spencer's and Luke's talks. "What the hell...why did we fell asleep here?", she wondered, looking rather confused.

Lucy shrugged. "We must have been reeeally tired", she assumed before she took a sip of her coffee. Although her neck was hurting from laying on the couch all night long, she had enjoyed that evening with the people she most loved here. And when she looked at their tired but happy faces, she knew they felt the same. She leaned against Spencer's shoulder. "We should do that again at some point", she sighed.

"Oh yes, oh yes!", Penelope squealed and almost spilled her coffee. Everyone laughed.

"Don't you dare ruining my carpet!", Lucy exclaimed, laughing, before she gave her friend a tight hug. This had been just what she had needed after all those weeks of her thoughts circling around Tessa almost all the time. But now Lucy felt as if she started to finally get over her best friend's death. At least a bit.