in which hollis rosier falls asleep in the wrong compartment
or the right one, depending on who you ask
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part one of two
editing closed, logged off wattpad (sorry only like half of it is edited, but its obviously still all good)
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#...
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song of the chapter - "young volcanoes" by fall out boy
"out! now!"
Hollis and Regulus broke apart in a flash as soon as they heard someone come in. Regulus quickly used the corner of his white sleeve to wipe off his face, while Hollis tapped her fingers tears that had run off her wet eyelashes. They both turned in unison after attempting to remove any sadness, a practice both purebloods did unnervingly well.
Remus had that odd feeling in his chest he felt around Hollis again. His grip tightened on the plate he had brought in to eat when he saw those two so close together, finding himself wanting to hurt Regulus even though he had done nothing to her.
Sirius's face twisted from surprise to irritation, the Black brothers staring at each other for a few moments, before Regulus clearly couldn't stand it anymore.
He got up off the edge of the bed, making the mattress spring back up from the dent he had caused from the pressure of sitting next to her. He ran his hand through his black hair, only looking at Hollis as he spoke.
"Please just think about it," Regulus said softly, and Hollis smiled as much as she could after that much of an intense conversation.
Which wasn't much.
Seven pairs of eyes followed Regulus as he exited the hospital wing with one last worried glance over his shoulder at Hollis.
Remus's head was spinning. What did he mean, 'Please just think about it?' he asked himself as he followed right behind James to the bed. About what? What did he know? God, how do all of those Slytherins still understand her life so much better than I do?
"What was that all about?" asked James, pulling a wooden stool underneath him.
"What does my You-Know-Who fanatic brother want to do with you?" Sirius questioned, tone much less kind than Potter's.
Hollis flushed with annoyance at Sirius's unnecessarily harsh words. "Regulus isn't a You-Know-Who fanatic," Hollis firmly stated, leaving no room for disagreement in her tone.
James raised an eyebrow at her defensiveness over the sixth year Slytherin. Remus got that tight feeling in his torso again. Marlene and Peter simultaneously coughed, both wanting to disrupt the tension as soon as possible.
"Anyways," started Marlene, pushing her fork into the stringy green beans. "When do you get out of this boring old room?"
Hollis grinned as she took the plate that Lily handed her.
"I managed to bargain for two days," she smiled, taking a sip of pumpkin juice that Peter had brought up for her.
Sirius winked at her slyly.
"I see you made the cut to the day before Valentine's Day," Sirius teased, then laughing as Marlene jokingly elbowed him in the side.
Hollis snorted slightly into her fork. "I didn't notice," she said truthfully, wiping the corner of her mouth with a light blue napkin that she had been putting her water glass under.
Now it was James's turn to start laughing. Hollis's eyes widened as he had to set down his spoon from the amount his shoulders were shaking, looking like a toddler watching a cartoon.
"What's so funny?" Hollis asked, now starting to laugh as well. James had the ability to do that to people.
Potter shook his head slightly and glanced at Remus. "I dunno, I just thought that maybe you would remember that date because, you know," James giggled, completely undone.
Hollis looked at Sirius and Lily with a high amount of amusement and concern. "Did one of you slip a Giggling Drought into his drink?" she asked, looking at James with slight bewilderment.
Peter grinned and shook his head as an answer.
"No, he's just been going a bit crazy because he's having to keep all the jokes he would normally tell you in his head," Peter explained while simultaneously shoving a small, golden apple tart into his mouth.
James nodded along with Peter's words, and Hollis smiled slightly at the delirious boy.
Remus couldn't help but only watch her reactions. The way that she concentrated on every aspect of a person's face and read them so quickly as they spoke, how her eyes were constantly reacting for every fraction of a second, their expression changing along with her opinions on what any of them said. How when the lanterns flickered slightly, the shadows hid different parts of her face and illuminated others. How her curly, dark hair bounced slightly when she laughed.
Hollis was in the middle of animatedly retelling a story about her, Lily, and Marlene at the beginning of her fourth year when she noticed the way Remus was looking at her. Their eyes caught for a second, and Remus quickly tore his gaze off her with slight embarrassment. The other five Gryffindors noticed this tiny interaction but didn't say anything.
The story continued to be told as Hollis kept talking after that pause, but none of them had forgotten it.
After another hour of sprinting through memories and laughing at how stupid they had been and still were, Madame Pomfrey came furiously around the corner, waving her hands at the Gryffindors like they were flies.
"You six have been in here for hours!" Pomfrey shouted scoldingly, and they all quickly clambered up from their seats. "Out! Now!"
Marlene bumped into Peter, who knocked into Sirius, who then dropped his plate. That plate hit Lily's shoe, making her pull it away, accidentally kicked James. James pulled away from his leg, backing it up into Remus, who then stumbled onto Hollis's bed.
Remus could feel Hollis's legs from under the sheets and quickly got up, and Hollis bit her inner cheek to keep from laughing.
Madame Pomfrey turned bright red at all the chaos.
"Out!" she repeated, pointing her finger at the doors angrily. "Now!"
The six Gryffindors half tripped half sprinted out of the hospital wing, Remus running backward to give Madame Pomfrey a sarcastic salute that made Hollis laugh.
Hollis watched as the door shut with a click of metal and wood. Madame Pomfrey was already gathering supplies, and Hollis sighed. She was in for a long night, but she didn't mind as much as she thought she would as that same phrase rung in her mind.
