Homonculous |Marauders Era

Chapter Forty-Eight

[Chapter Forty-Eight]

Reconciling with Lily on the train seemed to work in Elspeth's favour as she actually felt the weight that she had been carrying around all summer lift off her shoulders. It wasn't like the two were best friends, but they were on friendly terms and that's what Elspeth needed at the time. She needed someone to be friends with and while she thought about approaching the boys, she figured she had done enough for one day. Approaching all four of them was going to be overwhelming, she was sure of it, and while they had all sent her numerous apologies, she just hoped that they actually meant something. Of course, one could argue that if they truly didn't care they couldn't have gone through all the trouble, especially with Sirius and his foreign language ballad howlers.

It would probably be easier for her to approach Remus and Peter because she didn't hold as much anger towards them initially during the entire fiasco. In fact, if she thought about it, Peter experienced the least of her wrath. She had been angry with Sirius and James the most, and her anger with Remus had mostly stemmed from him not intervening as a Prefect at the time. But what was there really to hold against all of them at that point? She and Lily were on better terms, finally able to see where the other was coming from with their point of views. And while Elspeth didn't like what the boys had done to Severus in the past, he was just a greasy git in general, so maybe it wasn't all such a bad thing either.

Sitting in the compartment with Lily and Marlene, it felt odd to be in the company of the girls that were actually her dormmates but Elspeth hardly knew much about them except for several basic things. She truly had kept to herself for so long that just sitting with them and listening to them converse, she realised how anti-social she had truly been over the years. Normally, Elspeth felt quite confident in the company of strangers or at least, that was the air she gave off. But as she sat there, listening to the two girls go back and forth, she felt incredibly awkward for the first time in a long time.

It brought her back to some of her first times at Hogwarts when she didn't have any friends and she felt the need to just sit there and listen to the conversations around her. She never dared to interject or asked to join and once the people up and left, she wouldn't follow. She would just find herself alone, sitting there, feeling like a complete dunce. It was probably why she was so thankful for people like Frank and Alice that had found her and stayed by her side for as long as she needed them to until she was capable of walking on her own with her head held high.

Still, shifting awkwardly in her seat, Elspeth continued to listen, silently praying that she had remained with the tiny first years where she didn't feel so small.

Currently, Marlene and Lily were discussing Tucker Gooding, a ravishing Ravenclaw with a tight jawline and an arse to match it. Apparently, Lily had captured Tucker's eye during the previous year and over the summer had written her a letter, hoping to take her out on a date. Elspeth could just see James' face if he had heard such a thing, he probably would have thrown himself into the Black Lake after weighing himself down, or perhaps buried himself in the Forbidden Forest.