Roses All The Way Down【Sirius Black】

Ⅳ. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐇𝐞'𝐬 𝐀𝐧 𝐀𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐠𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐓𝐨𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐠

When they entered the Entrance Hall, Virginia looked up. She wondered if the sight of the room would ever cease to amaze. It was tall with massive double doors and scatters of little hallways off the main room. A huge staircase stretched across much of the room, it was this that the five headed up. The four in front, chattering about some homework assignment due the next day, and Virginia behind silently contemplating everything. When they got to the top of the stairs and she looked up once more she was amazed at the wealth of moving paintings and staircases that trailed up up up.

As she was led along winding corridors, she tried to remember where they were going. She thought they walked up about seven staircases but she wasn't entirely sure. They continued down more and more hallways before finally coming to a stop. There, planted in the wall, was a massive portrait.

James turned around with a little smirk, "time for formal introductions, Fat Lady this is Virginia. Virginia, Fat Lady."

Her brows furrowed and she waved. Maybe she had misjudged the boys, it seemed awfully rude to insult a painting. Wasn't there better things to do with their time? She looked down and saw a little plaque stating the name of the painting which was, indeed, the Fat Lady. She shrugged, wondering instead why they had stopped.

"Peter, will you do the honors?" Sirius said, waving one hand gracefully to the portrait. His voice was annoyingly enchanting. Sure, Virginia knew she had to kiss a boy but she wanted it to be a friendly thing. Where both people involved were well aware of the situation. She had a lot of catching up to do and there was no room on her plate for a crush. She knew she was getting ahead of herself. She brought herself out of overthinking and back to the matter at hand.

"Uh..." Peter said awkwardly, scratching behind one of his ears.

James snickered, "don't tell me you've already managed to forget. Oh well, it is rather long. Quid sit vita sine aliquo fingunt."

The portrait swung open to reveal a large tubelike hole. Virginia eyed it warily but climbed in nonetheless. She was met with the coziest little space she'd ever been in. A fire burned steadily in the hearth, plushly red armchairs were in great abundance and friendly faces dotted every corner. She felt oddly at home. She at least welcomed the steady source of warmth.

In the back there were two winding staircases. Presumably to the dormitories.

"Girls are on the left," Remus instructed, "do you have any other questions Virginia?"

"Thank you for the information and... not at the moment but I probably will in the morning," she said decisively with a little nod. She marched away, up the stairs. She paused, wondering what year's dorm she ought to enter. Deciding to ask Dorcas who had mentioned being a fourth year, she continued up the stairs. She knocked and opened the door slowly.

She was met with a scene of complete and utter chaos. The girls must have left much sooner because they were already all in their pajamas. Two of the girls were engaging in a pillow fight. One girl was sitting on the ground, sobbing into a pillow, occasionally coming up for air to be fed ice cream by a girl sitting next to her. She found Dorcas making her own bed. She walked over.

"Oh hey Virginia, thought I'd help you out." Most of her stuff was already unpacked and organized.

"You work incredibly fast, Dorcas," was the only thing she could think to say, utterly startled. Especially when she saw Click set up on the nightstand.

"Thank you, alright well bathroom is back there. Also, there's your schedule tacked to the wall." Virginia looked around the room to see six four poster beds with red curtains all accompanied by a side table and two shelves above that. The floor was made of flagstones but had a few red and gold carpets. At the end of each girl's bed was a massive trunk.

Virginia opened hers and found her pajamas, she padded over to the bathroom and quickly donned them. When she emerged she found Dorcas involved in the pillow fight. She made her way through the battle zone and crouched down next to the crying girl.

"Will she be okay?" she asked the girl feeding her ice cream. She was fair with a long nose and glittering eyes.

"Yeah, Lily's just having an off day. James was bothering her a lot today. Said he just wanted to talk. We all know he was just trying to get homework answers off her. Oh and I'm Alice by the way."

"Oh is that a... crush thing?" she asked with slight unease. She didn't bother to introduce herself, knowing Alice already knew her.

Alice blinked and fed Lily another scoop of ice cream when she resurfaced. Lily was passably pretty with a sprinkle of freckles across her face, flaming red hair and delightful green eyes. Virginia assumed she was beautiful without puffy eyes and a red, tear stained face. She disappeared beneath her pillow again. Alice tittered and gave Virginia a look that seemed to say 'not that she'll admit...'

"All I know is that James has been in love with her since halfway through first year. But he's an arrogant toerag."

Virginia refrained from speaking and slowly stood up. Alice could obviously handle the situation better than she could. The pillow fight seemed to have died down, Dorcas and the other two girls had flopped back onto their bed.

"Al, turn off the light when she's good and ready," one of the girls called out. She was pretty in an obvious sort of way. With flowing locks of brown hair and the air of someone who always knew exactly what she was doing.

Virginia closed the curtains around her bed and found they acted like noise cancellers. She slowly got onto her knees and clasped her hands together...

"In the name of Jesus Christ, our lord, Amen," she finished a few moments later before tucking herself into bed. The day felt entirely surreal and she stayed awake, staying at the plain ceiling for hours before drifting off.