Cherry Lips // s. black

-JANUARY. 3.-

Carmilla had complained about her classes and teacher's numerous times to anyone who would listen [no one] because they were mind numbing and she gained no knowledge she actually wanted from them.

She learnt more from reading books with June and Remus, who would sit in the library for hours with her reading and spelling out the longest words with far too many silent letters for her [he hadn't teased her when she'd let it slip that she was learning to read and write, for which she was eternally grateful], and experimenting with different charms when she was pretending to pay attention in Care of Magical Creatures with Charlie. He was happy to do all the work.

Creatures, magical or not, hated her.

She was just hoping that he would be in her classes until she graduated. Not likely, but maybe she could file somewhere that he was her emotional support Charlie. That he stopped her from turning the entire year three student body into blood sucking vampires.

Three weeks into the second term and Carmilla was ready for the next holidays.

Unfortunately, they were coming up.

Valentine's day had never been a thing at the girls home, all it meant was that the day afterwards, the chocolates at the sweet shop were cheaper and the church got leftover pink heart decorations they could stick to their mirrors and around the faded photos by their beds until the thin paper peeled away.

Apparently, it was a big deal at Hogwarts. As everything seemed to be.

The day of romance was over three weeks away, but cupid decorations had replaced the green and red tinsel and baubles overnight, and pink confetti would explode from lanterns that burned random colours at random intervals.

Charlie used this to his advantage when he crept up behind Carmilla and tried to jump scare her into turning into a fluffy bat.

There was a Hogsmeade trip on the fourteenth of February, and though Carmilla couldn't imagine why a third year would go on a date, there was already love poems being sung in class [James] and secret notes slipped into bags and pockets as people ran up and down the halls [everyone except for James. He threw the paper aeroplanes directly at Lily].

Carmilla herself didn't really care about it, she had no desire to go on a date with anyone, and nobody had asked her out, so it wasn't her problem.

Despite that, at the moment it did seem to be her problem, because two students were aggressively whispering and touching each other in the seats behind her as she tried to concentrate on the new charm they were supposed to be learning.

Carmilla picked up her wand and pretended she was trying to make bubbles come from her wand every time Professor Flitwick walked past. Then she would put it back down and keep drawing a skeleton hand over her own real hand with quill ink.

She used normal pens when she was writing, like most other Ravenclaws who realised how much more practical they were, but for drawing she used quills.

They were prettier when the ink was scratchy and smudged in parts

Her chair shook when the couple behind her became nearly horizontal on their chairs, and Professor Flitwick finally built up the courage to approach them. As soon as the clock struck the hour, she picked up her satchel and quill, which was losing a lot of its tufts, and was out the door before the minute hand moved once more.

Vampires were supposed to be nocturnal. She should get an exception for going to classes.

She bumped into a taller student heading up the staircase she was moving down, muttered a sorry, and kept going. She turned around with an internal scream when whoever it was decided to stop and chat.