little miss black

-132-

Cass felt like she was floating in air as she headed back to the common room, her hand intertwined with Noah's. She could not wipe the smile off of her face. In fact, she reckoned that if Avery was to show up there and then she would just fucking deck him, the pure serotonin coursing through her veins enough to get her through anything.

"Balderdash." Cass said to the fat lady, ignoring the dirty look she shot Noah. The two of them climbed through the portrait hole. As she had expected, the group seventh years were sitting in the common room. They seemed to always be the last to leave it.

"Bloody hell, what time do you call this?" James mumbled sleepily, checking his watch. "We should really report you, eh Lil?"

"Hmm?" Lily said, rubbing her eyes. "What?"

"Nothing love." James chuckled.

"Oh Cass, hi." Lily said. Sirius looked up from where his head was resting on Remus' chest, his eyes zeroing in on Cass' left hand.

"So did you do it then?" He asked. Noah nodded, grinning from ear to ear.

"Aw congratulations you guys!" He said, giving them each a hug. "I'm so happy for you."

"Good on you both, congrats." James said.

"Wait what's happening?" Lily said, atill not quite over her almost sleeping state. She glanced at Cass' hand and squealed. "About time!"

"Are we missing something?" Dorcas said, her hands on her hips as she looked between Noah and Cass.

"Er yeah." Noah muttered awkwardly.

"Well?" Marlene said. "Are you going to tell us what it is?"

"Noah and I are engaged." Cass blurted, holding up her hand to show off her ring. There was an eruption of squeals as Dorcas, Marlene and Alice leapt to their feet. The boys covered their ears, grimacing at the loudness of them. Noah ducked away from Cass, sitting down beside Frank.

"Sooo, how did he propose?" Alice said. "Oh I'll bet it was so cute." Cass smiled, nodding. She launched into a brief description, missing out the finer details — wanting time treasure them privately.

"I want someone to propose to me like that." Alice said wistfully. "That's so fricking adorable."

"Hear that Frank? You'd better take some notes." Marlene called. Alice and Frank both blushed.

"We're going to go to bed." Sirius said. "Night everybody." He gave Cass another hug, whispering in her ear, "I am so so happy for you."

"Congratulations Cass." Peter said, giving her a hug too.

"Can't believe he asked for James' permission and not mine." Remus grumbled. "Am I not good enough for you Rosenthal?"

"Hold on, he asked for people's permission?" Marlene said.

"Yeah." Sirius said. "He asked me, Lily and James during the Easter holidays."

"And my parents." James chimed in.

"Where the fuck was my question Rosenthal? Do you not care about my blessing?" Marlene said. Noah swallowed nervously.

"Of course I do, but I didn't want it getting back to a Cass that I was planning on proposing." He said. "And neither of you, none of the rest of you, were there when I was asking Sirius. If you were, I would have asked you all too."

"You'd better have." Marlene said, eyes narrowing.

"C'mon Marls, let's go to bed too." Dorcas said, placing her hand on Marlenes shoulder Marlene nodded, turning to give Cass another hug.