Serendipity (S. Black)

EIGHT

"wisdom in your teens would be a lot less fun"

*

"You did it!" Lily threw her arms around Eva the moment she entered the common room with such force that both of the girls tumbled backward, only being saved by Marlene. "That was amazing! You were amazing! You didn't let a single goal in the entire match!"

Secretly, Lily loved Quidditch but never learned how to play. She always claimed it was because she was a Muggleborn, but so was Eva. In reality, she had a crippling fear of heights and almost fainted the one time Eva took her for a ride on her broomstick around the grounds. Even though she never tried to play the game, she supported it with all of her heart.

"That's what I do," Eva joked before getting an identical hug from Marlene. The girls settled down on a couch in front of the window and passed around mugs of hot cocoa Marlene somehow managed to grab from the kitchen. "Where are the guys? James disappeared as soon as it was over. I barely even got a chance to congratulate him."

Marlene rolled her eyes at the question. "Merlin knows. After the match, they kept rambling on about how tired they were and then they ran off. Remus looked dead on his feet, it was awful. He shouldn't have come to the match, everyone told him so, but of course he didn't listen. He's a boy. The others were fine, though."

"He needs to start taking care of himself," Eva grumbled in regards to Remus. She worried about him often. He seemed to get sick frequently, and even if he wasn't sick, he still missed meals to study or lost sleep when he desperately needed it. "But the other two were fine?"

"Absolutely," Lily said. "I'm sure they ran off for some sort of prank. It's been too quiet around here. Sirius was acting like a hyper puppy after announcing."

"Speaking of that, did you actually say you'd go on a date with James if he scored that many points?"

Lily laughed so hard that she had to stop drinking her hot chocolate. "He's never gonna do it. You should have seen their faces, though!"

"We need to celebrate!" Marlene said, her slate-blue eyes sparkling with mischief. "I know where James hides their secret stash of firewhiskey."

"I'll grab my Beatles CD," Eva added, hopping up from the couch.

"And I'll find some cards!"

The three girls dashed off to retrieve their respective celebration materials. After a few minutes of intense searching, Eva found a copy of Abbey Road under her bed and scooped up some blankets before heading back down to the couch.

"All right, let's go," Marlene said once she emerged with the bottle and a bag. She winked. "I also found Remus' chocolate stash! We'll replenish it later."

Eva led the way down a set of winding side hallways until they found their usual hiding spot: a large closet that everyone, including Filch, seemed to have forgotten existed. In their six years at Hogwarts, they'd never been caught having sleepovers outside of the common room.

"Lumos," Eva whispered before setting her wand on the floor. Her friends replicated the action, and the room filled with light. "Oh! Muffliato." There. No one would hear them, either.

Throughout the night, Lily and Eva lost too many Knuts and Sickles to Marlene, the master of poker despite being the only one not brought up by Muggles. The Muffliato spell allowed no one in the area to hear them, so karaoke followed. All throughout the night, the firewhiskey bottle was passed around, only making everything ten times funnier to the girls. Secrets were spilled, jokes were told, and happiness filled each of their hearts with warmth (it could have just been the firewhiskey, but they didn't think so).