shooting star [s. black]

iii.

"Oh, look who's up bright and early!" Mary exclaims happily as she sits down across from Cassiopeia, who looks up from her book. "What are you up to?"

"Oh, nothing. How about you?" Cassiopeia asks softly, making Mary shrug. Before either can say anything else, four people slide next to them on one side, while another three slide on the other side.

"Good morning, beautiful people. And by beautiful people, I mean Lily." James says, making Lily blush and shake her head as Dorcas playfully glares at him.

"Way to make us feel special, Potter." Dorcas says pointedly, making him grin sheepishly. Cassiopeia, is confused as to why all of a sudden so many people are sitting with her. Normally she's had have breakfast with all the girls or just one or two, it had never gotten to the point of sitting with eight people.

"Good morning, darling. How are you?" Sirius leans a little closer to her, as he happened to have sat right next to her. Once again a blush rises to her cheeks, feeling absolutely flustered in his presence.

"I'm okay, and you?" She says softly as she turns to look at him, with slightly wide eyes. He chuckles softly and straightens up.

"I'm doing well. Thank you." He beams, and she smiles softly.

"Has anyone here done their potions homework?" Peter asks, making Sirius and Cassiopeia look away from each other towards Peter. Cassiopeia looks down at the book she was reading, which happens to be for potions. She turns around and pulls out two parchments, before handing it to Peter.

"It's a little messy. I'm sorry." She says nervously, making him smile happily at her.

"No. No. You're the best! Thank you!" He says happily as he takes it from her and starts writing on his own parchment.

"You always have a solution don't you." Marlene says teasingly as she nudges her softly. Cassiopeia shrugs as she looks down.

"It's cute! It's kind of like a little fairy godmother." Sirius says excitedly, making Cassiopeia blush once again and James look at his best friend in amusement.

"At this point, Padfoot, her just breathing is cute to you." James says teasingly, making Sirius shrug innocently as Cassiopeia blushes even more.

"At least he isn't as bad as Marlene is when it comes to Dorcas." Remus says casually, making Cassiopeia bite her lip to stop herself from laughing as Marlene glares at Remus and Dorcas blushes slightly.

"Say that again, Remus. I dare you." Marlene says tauntingly, making Remus raise his hands up defensively, his eyes gleaming in amusement. Everyone knew that Marlene and Dorcas liked each other, but no one knew why they weren't together yet.

"Anyway, who's excited for the Quidditch match tomorrow?" James asks with a wide grin, making everyone but Cassiopeia raise their hand. James notices it and looks at her in pure betrayal. "Cassiopeia? Are you not excited?"

"Oh. I'm not going." She says shyly, feeling uncomfortable with all the attention on her and James gapes at her.

"What? What do you mean you're not going? You can't miss this!" James exclaims, making her look down in embarrassment. She hasn't been to a Quidditch match in nearly four years, she'd usually take advantage of the empty halls to walk around.

"I just haven't gone in a long time." She admits, making James gape at her in shock.

"Bloody hell, I think I'm going to faint." James gasps out and she shifts uncomfortably, feeling bad for having made James feel hurt about not going to the matches.

"Don't mind him. But you should come if you can." Lily suggests, making Cassiopeia look up at her.

"I don't know. It's not my kind of scene." Cassiopeia muses as she shakes her head softly.

"Darling, you can't miss this out. You have to come." Sirius says and she turns to look at him, to see him looking at her excitedly. Marlene shakes her head with a soft smile, perhaps she had been wrong to assume that Cassiopeia would end up closest to Remus, when evidently Sirius seemed much too interested in the shy girl.

"I really don't know." Cassiopeia says barely above a whisper, making Sirius pout.

"Come on. Pleaseee." He begs and she can't help but smile softly. She lets out a sigh and nods, making him grin happily. "Great! This will be awesome. Just try not to have a heart attack every time James nearly falls."

"What?" Her eyes widen in shock, making Remus shake his head.

"Don't worry. It's not that bad. James has only fallen a few times." Remus says, trying to reassure the girl, but it doesn't seem to help.

"You guys, stop before she has a heart attack. It'll be fun. Can't believe it took Sirius only a few seconds to do something I've been trying for four years." Marlene huffs, making Cassiopeia smile sheepishly and Sirius smirk victoriously.