Maiara often wondered if she had been sorted into the wrong house, having not been able to find a correlation between herself and Gryffindor's qualities. In the six years she'd attended Hogwarts, the young witch had yet to discover her inner courage and justice — she believed herself to be rather the opposite. But, on the evening of Monday the fourteenth of February, Maiara truly embodied the elements of determination and chivalry, as she did everything in her willpower not to hex everybody that stood in her way.

Maiara was perpetually early to everything; she was born two weeks early on July 21st, unfortunately having made her mother unbelievably uncomfortable, she always woke up the earliest amongst her roommates and never missed an assignment deadline. The witch despised the feeling of being rushed and absolutely loathed the idea of arriving late. That wasn't any different, as she faced the blocked corridors of Hogwarts. Unfortunately for Maira, she had been held back from arriving to the Gryffindor Common Room straight after Dinner for two reasons. Firstly, it was physically impossible to make a way through the crowd of students and secondly, Maiara was a good friend, meaning she had to stay behind as James Potter publicly declared his love for Lily Evans for the nth time. To be completely frank, Maiara found it charming. James had truly devoted his love and time to Lily for the entirety of their school years, never once faltering, but it could be highly agreed that his methods of displaying affection weren't the most sagacious —sickeningly sweet, nonetheless. Over the course of their Valentine's days at Hogwarts, James has outdone himself multitudinous times, but Maiara had decided that this had most definitely become her favourite.

    The bright sun shone onto James' figure, as he sat with his legs spread out, softly strumming a guitar. He twisted his fingers in all sorts of odd shapes to form chords, and a couple times he would slide his hand up across the higher frets. The sweet refrain of the acoustic guitar had a hypnotic soothing quality, that had all the surrounding students entranced. James' voice was smooth and clear, as he powerfully sung the lyrics of "A Teenager's Romance", by the Muggle artist, Ricky Nelson. His voice was promising and endearing, he was effortlessly able to perform the song, with the biggest smirk spread across his face. As James sung the love song, he looked directly at Lily, pouring love from his voice and eyes. A blush seared through Lily's cheeks, unlike her usual reaction to James' extravagant love confessions and displays of affection, the blooming colour against her freckles skin only adding to her aura of elegance and beauty. James averted his gaze, allowing her time to compose herself, fighting back the urge to smile. But, he wasn't able to keep his eyes away for too long, as he wanted to remember this moment for a long time, and out of fear of regret, he didn't lower his gaze for the rest of the melodious number.

As the love song neared it's end, Maiara had found that her anger had diminished along with its sweet melody. Her heart swelled at the sight, but sadly she was struck out of her trance of endearment as the Clock Tower chimed its small bell, signalling that students had thirty minutes left before curfew. Maiara's eyes widened comically, before dashing towards the Common Room, in hopes of starting her Potions essay and complete it before midnight. The portrait of the Fat Lady swung open, revealing the round hole in the wall, which Maiara scrambled through carelessly. She found herself a seat at one of the many vacant tables in the mostly deserted Gryffindor common room, as the hour was late. The arched windows allowed for a spectacular view onto the grounds of the school. Beside her rested Marlene, Lily and Alice, who had forced themselves to stay awake, even after they had finished the work of their own.

The front of Maiara's hair had long fallen out of her ponytail, as it framed her face, but she made no attempt to move the loose wisps. Her eyes skimmed across the words of her essay, which had been proofread and edited multiple times. She unconsciously fingered the ink lettering, as she traced her own words, as an act of self reassurance whilst finalising her work. Her eyes had been shadowed with a dark purple, as a sign of exhaustion formed by the lack of sleep that had piled up in the past weeks of school. Her knuckles had turned white, as she gripped on her quill, concentrating onto her final paragraphs for her Potions essay. But, as she tried to focus on her work, the sounds of loud arguing and table slamming kept distracting her. Maiara whipped around to face her roommates, as she sighed in full defeat. Marlene giggled at the sight of her exasperated friend, as Alice quickly waved Maiara to join their conversation.

     "What in Merlin's name is going on?" Maiara questioned, furrowing her brows, as her redhead friend dramatically clung onto her arm, having moved to hide behind her.

    "We were merely discussing," the blonde haired witch responded, nonchalantly. Alice Fortescue, who had had recently decided to prove she had moved on from her previous break up by "fake" dating a fellow Gryffindor, Frank Longbottom—but, Maiara often liked to argue that Alice had caught genuine feelings for Frank.

    "In no means was that conversation considered a discussion, you two were really just attacking me! They threatened me, said that if I don't fess up to the fact that I fancy James they'd boil my teeth and then—" Lily was cut off by the loud laugh that erupted from Maiara, as she failed to detain her chortles. Her loud laughs only increased in volume as Lily glared at her, once again going red in the face. Maiara stuck out her hand, only to have both Marlene and Alice each begrudgingly pay her 5 Galleons each. She had bet that Lily would finally admit (even if it wasn't exactly verbal) to reciprocating James' feelings before the end of sixth year, whereas the other two witches had agreed on either the summer before or during seventh year. 

"Gosh, that does sound like quite the horrific threat," Maiara responded, as she let out a faux sympathetic sound. She mockingly went to scratch her chin, and hummed softly, as to implicate she was pondering. "So why bother putting yourself through all that hassle, and just admit it. You see, if you don't verbally do so I have to return their money, meaning I wouldn't be able to treat myself with discounted Valentine's sweets from Honeydukes, this Saturday."

Lily's face morphed from pure offence into confusion, as she came to the realisation that her roommates had genuinely figured out her hidden feelings. She knew that nothing would convince them otherwise, especially not after the incident that took place after Dinner. She warmed at the thought of having friends who were truly able to understand her, but any sense of adoration was quickly replaced with an immense urge of paranoia.

    "How could you tell? Do you imagine he knows? Because, that would mean I don't have an excuse to run away from his proposals anymore, and I don't think I'm ready to go throu—" Lily questioned worriedly, her eyes growing wide in panic, as she interrupted herself by chugging a large amount of water. Maiara internally danced in joy, as Marlene and Alice both dramatically stumped onto the table in defeat. The latter huffed, however it was at the fact that she had lost money, rather than the fact that their best friend hadn't told them about her secret feelings earlier. As Lily looked up at her roommates, she immediately rolled her eyes and groaned, as she packed up her things before rushing up to their dormitory. Maiara wiped at her eyes, in attempts to clear her face of pretence tears, whilst Alice pretended to faint, having put a hand to her head as she fell into Marlene's arms.

"Oh my, they grow up so fast! Just let us love you a little more, before you're not ours anymore!" Marlene called out behind Lily, as she plopped onto one of the many couches inside the Gryffindor Common Room. It took only a couple moments of silence, before she turned to Maiara and began chasing her in hopes of retrieving her money.

    Lily Evans would have had to be an absolute fool in order to ever even consider the idea that her friends would have dropped the subject of her flourishing crush on James Potter. But, from what Maiara had grown to learn, love made people do and believe foolish, unordinary and indescribable things. And so, Lily was sat at Lunch the following afternoon, left with no choice but to take in the wrathful teasing of her fellow roommates. Marlene spared the rattled redhead no mercy, as she picked at even the smallest of glances that looked in the direction of the James and Sirius (and undoubtedly, amongst the duo, James had already been ogling the Prefect herself). Admittedly, Maiara felt a drop of guilt, as she feared her friend would faint from all the blood that had rushed up to her head in the span of mere minutes, but she couldn't deny the glee that Lily's embarrassment brought her.

    "If you lot don't quiet down, I'll slip some of that Pink Blended Poison we wrote our essay about into your tea!" The feverous redhead shrieked, though cautious in attempts of hiding her words from James Potter. She'd grown as red as she was physically capable, leaving Marlene to snort loudly at the sight, as Lily's cheeks were comically puffed-out and her nostrils were flared with annoyance. Alice, despite her giggling, kindly attempted to ease her friend's worries and disturbances, but provided more fuel to Lily's anger with her discreet chortles.

    "I'd be damned before I date the blasted boy," Lily continued, ignorant of the disbelieving and mocking looks all three of her roommates had been giving her. "Just because he has a way with his flattering words and a charming face does not mean I have time to give him, the only thing Potter's good at is causing ruckus and distraction."

"My, Evans," A new voice spoke up, only momentarily causing a shock to surge throughout Maiara's body, as she curiously peered at the newcomer. Behind Lily, Sirius Blacks stood proudly, a devilish smirk playing on his lips. His eyes sparkled with mischief, and his tone held a sense of teasing, as he theatrically tutted at her confession. "It hurts me to hear you speak so lowly of my mate, but I suppose he'd be thrilled to hear you find his face 'charming'."

"To what do we owe you this absolute pleasure?" Marlene enquired, though some remnants of annoyance were evident in her voice. It was no secret that the two had been "affiliated" in the past, both having agreed on non-permanent terms publicly and willingly, but Maiara could tell that their closing declaration a few months prior didn't put an end to all their activities. Despite having ended her dalliance in the early weeks of the school year, Marlene still grew irked at his presence, as she found herself unable to resist his charms and casual flirtatious mannerisms — though, Maiara doubted her friend truly disliked her occasional, late-night rendezvous.

"Rather piqued this morning, 'Lene?" Sirius quizzed, though no signs of offence or hurt were shown on his features, rather he still held an expression of devilment. "If my memory hasn't failed me, you were rather fond of me, merely two nights ago. Though, I suppose physical aching would leave anybody miffed,"

   "Sirius," Alice intervened, placing her hand on Marlene's, who'd been grumbling ever since the Gryffindor Beater started talking. She knew of her roomate's temper and of Sirius' liking towards mischief, and preferred to not have to be a witness of the wrath that would have been bestowed upon the students at Lunch. "Why are you here?"

"Right, of course. I have a message from Remus for Lily," Sirius began, switching his gaze to the redhead, only after sending Marlene a mocking wink. "He's helping Peter out in the Library, right now, but wants you to know that he'll meet you by the Grand Staircase ten minutes before your Prefect meeting next period."

"Thank you, Sirius — "

"And, you should most definitely consider accompanying charming-faced James on a date this weekend — "

" — I'll buy you all the books and Butterbeer you'd like!" James called out, having neared the group of Gryffindor witches. Skilfully dodging the empty goblet Lily threw at him, the Potter wizard blew his favourite girl dozens of kisses, as he dramatically exited the Great Hall with Sirius Black hooked through his free arm.

NOTE
i think i'm going crazy bc i'm looking for this fic that i think got taken down, but i cant remember its name and i cant remember the author and i vaguely remember some scenes and it's eating me alive i want to cry.