build me up buttercup [s.black]

[45] Engagements

When Aisling woke up the next day, she screamed. Five pairs of eyes were staring at her from the other side of the dormitory.

"What? What?!" Sirius asked thickly, sitting bolt upright and casting an arm out protectively in front of Aisling.

"What are you all doing?!" Aisling demanded, as their friends doubled over with laughter.

"We're smoking." Remus said.

He was standing nearest to the window, and held up the joint that was sitting between his fingers. Aisling now registered that they all looked rather red-eyed and giggly.

"Why are our hangings open?!" Sirius asked, looking much more awake now than he had a few seconds ago.

"We wanted to know when you woke up." Alice said, taking the spliff out of Remus' hand. "I didn't know you snored, Sirius."

"Piss off." Sirius retorted, pulling on a pair of trousers and standing up. "Bagsy next turn."

"Why did you want to know when we were awake?" Aisling asked. "Did you miss us that much?"

"No, idiot." Lily said from her spot on the end of James' bed. "We wanted to know if you said yes."

"You all knew?!" Aisling glanced accusatorily around the group.

"Only the lads." James said. "We didn't tell Lily and Alice until he'd dragged you off. Couldn't risk them telling you."

"As if we would have, you prick." Lily said, punching James lightly on the arm.

"So..." Peter said, eyeing Aisling's left hand.

"Do you geniuses honestly think that we would have been sleeping in the same bed if she had said no?" Sirius deadpanned, snatching the joint off Alice and taking a drag.

"Yeah well, from what I heard there wasn't much sleeping involved." Remus said, screwing up his face in apparent disgust. "You'd think two seventh years would have at least been able to master a silencing charm by now."

"Sorry Moony, it's called being spontaneous." Sirius shrugged.

"It, called being drunk." Remus retorted.

"Well you're the ones who opened up our curtains while we were sleeping, you pervs." Aisling joked, slipping on one of Sirius' t-shirts and a pair of shorts.

"You want this?" Sirius asked, waving the joint at her. "It helps with the hangover."

"Mhm." Aisling agreed, taking it from him. "So, only two weeks left in this place."

She gazed around the dormitory with mixed feelings. She was excited to start the next chapter of her life, sure. But she would miss Hogwarts, and all of the memories it held. She had met her best friends here, not to mention the love of her life. She had had her first kiss in the lake, her first exam in The Great Hall. She had even gotten her first piercing in the girls' dormitories, perched on the end of Lily's bed while the redhead pressed a safety pin into her earlobe. She'd had all of her firsts here, and never stopped to think about all of her lasts.

When she boarded The Hogwarts Express in two week's time, it could very well be for the very last time. She might never walk through the marble halls again, or laze around in the sun by the lake. She would never again perch on the windowsill of Sirius' dormitory while all of her best friends in the world sat around her, giggling dreamily.

"Anyway!" Alice's voice cut through her daydreaming. "Congratulations!"

She balanced a fresh joint between her teeth and lit it with the tip of her wand. Holding it in the air, she grinned.

"To the future Mr and Mrs Black!" She shouted.

"Here, here!" The rest of the group all chorused.

"Ooh, not sure I like the sound of that." Sirius grimaced. "We sound like my parents."

"Don't worry." Aisling said, grinning. "I'll be McCawley-Black."

"Ah, much better."

And as she sat there, curled up against the cold pane of glass, she thought to herself that she had perhaps never been so happy as she was in that moment. She looked long and hard around the group, trying to commit the moment to memory. She squeezed her eyes shut and sighed, absolutely sure that she would remember that feeling until the day she died. The feeling of love, of belonging.

Of home.