XXXXV. CONFUSION AND BUTTERBEER

     Sirene Black was often told that the reason she felt so cold most of the times was because she was cold blooded bitch with a frozen heart, most of the times as a joke but still. She was honestly starting to believe that as winter approached Hogwarts, the weather was chilly as ever — the black lake freezing to the point that if you threw a big rock on it, it wouldn't even crack a little bit.

The layers of snow formed a bed that would probably protect you if you were to fall, but Sirene wasn't keen on trying it out anytime soon.

     She gave filch her forged permission slip that she did herself by tracing it on the paper and then shoved her hands back into her pocket.

     "Looks forged" Filch said with a nasty scowl on his face.

     "Really?" Sirene gave him an unimpressed glance, "It's the same as my brother's"

      Filch eyed her weirdly and then looked at his cat as if for some sort of reaction, Mrs Norris purred quietly making Filch let Sirene leave with the same scowl on his face.

      Sirene walked ahead with her hands in her pocket muttering, "Bitch" under her breath. Marlene waved her over to where the rest of the girls were, Sirene joined them with a small frown on her flushed face.

      "Did he say it was forged again?" Alice asked Sirene who seemed to be in a pissy mood.

      "I mean it is" Sirene said with a shrug, "but I'm really good at forging signatures, so he's just being a cunt"

      "Sirene" Alice scolded her friend, "Don't use that kind of language"

      "Alright" Sirene rolled her eyes at the girl, "Are you meeting up with Frank today?"

"Yes, we're meeting up at Madam Puddifoot's" Alice said with a smile on her face that was always there whenever she talked about her boyfriend. Sirene thought it was disgustingly cute.

"And you Marlene?" Sirene asked the blonde who grinned widely, "Your smile says all, you don't even need to answer, I suppose you'll be with Lyra"

"At least you'll have me" Lily said throwing an arm around Sirene, "I'm as alone as you are today"

"Thanks a lot, Lils" Sirene said sarcastically, "Thanks a lot for reminding me"

"You're welcome" Lily winked at her friend who only scowled in return, "What's up with you today?"

"I don't know" Sirene said grumpily, "I just feel angry"

"It's not your period day is it?" Lily asked turning her voice into a hushed whisper.

"I don't know" Sirene said with her eyebrows furrowed, "Am I supposed to keep track of the days?"

"Yes" Lily said, "That's exactly what you're supposed to do!"

"Oh" Sirene said but then shrugged shortly after waving it off.

The girls made her way to Hogsmeade and there they met up with Frank who had come to visit Alice like he does every two months, Lyra then went with Marlene to a secluded corner in the village because they couldn't be out as a couple yet.

Lily and Sirene got inside The Three Broomsticks the cold immediately leaving their bodies and the warmth spreading across their faces. A small smile formed on their features as they looked around at the pub, but this time it wasn't as crowded as it used to be. The death reports being printed everyday had caused a fear among the people, most of the muggleborns were scared to get out.

"Evans!" Sirene heard James call out to Lily waving at her with a huge grin on his face, Sirene rolled her eyes at the two hopeless romantics.

Lily walked there with a smile on her face sitting down next to James, "Potter" she said to him but this time it wasn't in a tone of disgust, it hadn't been said with a tone of disgust in a long time.

"Ugh, love" Sirene gagged at her friends giving each other the goo goo eyes.

"Ugh, a pessimist" James retorted back with the same tone as her making her flip him off.

"Where are the rest of your marauders?" Sirene said looking around the bar for the rest of her friends.

"You're one of my marauders too" James rolled his eyes, "And they're on a date at" he released a shiver, "Madam Puddifoot's"

"What's wrong with Madam Puddifoot's?" Lily frowned at James, "I like it there, it's warm and the tea is amazing"

"Oh- well I- I it's not that bad" James said stammering over his words.

"Lovesick" Sirene spoke between coughs, "This is worse than third wheeling, it's like even you guys have no idea you're one a date and I'm just there"

"We're not on a date" Lily said to Sirene who rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, sure" Sirene said with a monotonous voice, "I'm going to Zonko's"

✨

     Sirene wandered around the joke shop trying to find some interesting stuff, but she already had most of it. She walked over to the next section and her gaze fell upon the notebooks that had a sign over them, 'miss your friends? Not anymore, all you need is two of these to talk!'

     "They work" Sirene heard someone behind her say, she turned around to find Andrew there with a grin on his face as always, "Bought one for my sister and myself, works like magic"

     "No shit" Sirene snorted at his little pun before grabbing two of those notebooks, "What are you doing here?"

     "Looking for the love of my life" Andrew said to Sirene who chuckled in return.

     "Sure" She shrugged, "Why wouldn't you find the love of your life in a joke shop?"

     "The tone of sarcasm is not appreciated" Andrew said shaking his head, "And you never know, I could be looking at her right now" he leaned against the shelf.

     Sirene turned to find him looking at her and for a moment she thought he was talking about her, she hated having a stupid crush on someone. It made her overthink about every small detail, she shook the thought out of her head.

     Of course she'd thought about asking him out, she'd dreamed of walking down the bloody isle, it was a stupid schoolgirl crush, at least that's what she told herself. It had been almost two years since they'd been back on speaking terms and been friends. She didn't want to lose that over a stupid crush.

     That and she didn't have the courage to ask him out.

     Andrew looked at her as she went through the racks of stuff trying to find something to buy, but nothing seemed interesting enough for her. She pushed a strand of her hair behind her ears as she furrowed her eyebrows to look at the potion in her hand.

     Andrew had had a crush on her for almost two years now, ever since that night at Slughorn's party, and believe it or not he had been dropping hints all along, but Sirene simply didn't get it. He didn't know whether it was because she didn't like him back or if she was simply being dense.

     He knew he wanted to ask her out, but he just didn't know if he should — would it really be worth losing a strong friendship?

     "Do you want to get some butterbeer?" Sirene blurted out before she could stop herself and Andrew's eyes widened.

     "Y-yes, of course!" He said to her hurriedly and then mentally scolded himself for acting like a dumb fuck.

     "Great." She smiled at him, "Should we go then?"

     UGH I LITERALLY HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO WRITE ABOUR RELATIONSHIPS FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK