Dandelions

WANDERING AROUND AN AWFUL LOT FOR NOT GETTING A SINGLE THING DONE

"The cool kids don't dress up," Fred shook his head, "Everyone knows that. Only little kids dress up, Rory."

"Well, maybe you're wrong," he replied defensively, "What's so wrong about dressing up?"

"It's not fitting of someone our age," George said, puffing up his chest like he was grown, "We're men, after all, and men don't dress up on Halloween."

The holiday was nearing close, everyone abuzz with Hallow's Eve cheer as parties were planned and costumes were bought. With autumn fast approaching, the weather quickly followed along with the program as the leaves turned crunchy and fell to the ground quietly outside of the castle. Rory could only look outside his bedroom window, gnawing on his lip as anxiety around Halloween bloomed inside of him.

Yes, last year had gone off without a hitch, simply because there was a Gryffindor party he was practically guaranteed access to. After a few busts last year, students were having to be a little more secretive with their partying. Now, he had no idea what he was planning on doing.

Fred and George were confident they'd get an invite somewhere, and they'd just drag Rory and Lee along in with them. Who would really care anyhow? The whole point of a party was to get as many people shoved into one room as possible anyways, right?

Rory was twelve now, and he'd be thirteen before Halloween even got here--perhaps he had finally gotten to the age where going trick or treating and dressing up just wasn't cool anymore. He definitely thought he had more time, hearing the other boys talk about dressing up like it was the worst thing he could do made him feel like he wasn't quite done growing up.

"Where's his room?" Came from the hallway, Charlie quickly popping his head into the boy's room as he leant his hand on the door. "Rory, there's a girl here for you."

"Huh?" Was the first thing he sputtered out, "Who?"

"Mm, painting didn't say," he shrugged, "But she's a Hufflepuff, if that helps."

"Oh," the tension left his body, and he stood to move toward the door, "Yeah, that helps."

"Ditching us to see Church," Fred sighed, tossing a hand over his forehead, "We're losing him!"

"Piss off," Rory giggled as he left the room, hearing them immediately break out into conversation after.

He hadn't been expecting Maggie to stop by at all, today--after all, she had been pretty worried about the practical exam in potions later that week. Rory had thought she'd be reserved to some empty classroom, or perhaps pouring over her textbooks.

"Rory!" An almost obnoxiously cheerful voice chimed as soon as his foot left the threshold of the Gryffindor common room.

"To what do I owe the pleasure?" He asked, unable to keep himself from smiling.

Maggie had clearly been taking advantage of the lack of snow before winter, and she was all layered up to protect against the chilled wind outside. Rory couldn't help but give her a once over to try and count how many clothes she'd put on, how many layers was she wearing? Two, maybe three?

"I wanted to ask if we could go to the library on Saturday," she looked up at him with a somewhat worried glance--what for, he couldn't say.

"Sure," Rory agreed quickly, "Just to study, or what?"

"Study, hang out," Maggie shrugged, sending her scarf shifting, "We rarely actually do work nowadays, do we?"

"I can't help it, you're so talkative," he rolled his eyes, breaking into a grin when Maggie smacked his arm with a punch.