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The Great Hall was bustling with activity, with countless voices drifting out into the atrium. They merged into a buzzing sound reminding Orion of a beehive, making him feel increasingly restless. Next to him, Murphy's eyes were fixed on the stone staircase leading down from the castle's upper levels. He craned his head to better see the groups coming from the direction of Ravenclaw Tower, all of them dressed in colourful dress robes.
Orion took a deep breath to calm his rapidly beating heart, but it was to no avail. He felt like the wings of a thousand Golden Snitches were fluttering inside his stomach, the sensation quickly spreading into the rest of his body. He was reminded of the moments before the beginning of a Quidditch match. Time seemed to be moving slower, his thoughts wandering on an aimless hunt for a place of stillness and calm. Today, however, the one to usually ease his mind wasn't the remedy for his agitation - she was the cause of it.
"Our friendship has seen many things over the past seven years," Orion said quietly, his eyes following the steady stream of students passing them. "We shared an allegiance to the same house, a dormitory, a common passion. It's fitting that now, almost at the end of our path, we're fated to share a similar state of mind as well."
Murphy turned his attention away from the staircase and to Orion. A smile of his own was playing around his lips. "If I didn't know any better, I would say that you are quite nervous, my friend."
Orion bowed his head. He was well aware of his inner turmoil and didn't need Murphy to elaborate on it. To distract both of them from their waiting time, however, he proceeded to ask anyway.
"What makes you reach your conclusion?"
Murphy's face lit up. "About 87.4 % of my attention has been held by the students coming in, but I haven't failed to notice that you're shifting your - pardon the joke - balance from one foot to the other after an average of fourteen seconds. You keep brushing your hair - which really wouldn't have hurt you to sort out, by the way - from your face, which you generally only do when you're agitated."
He nodded sagely. "Your biggest giveaway, however, is how you keep fiddling with your collar, which tells me that - against my professional advice - you are still wearing your necklace, which of course I knew you would, and -"
He would have continued to the point of breathlessness, but Orion raised his hand to make him stop. He had heard enough.
"You read me like a book you have grown to know by heart. But let me tell you this, my friend - there is no shame in admitting to what is plain for everyone to see: I am indeed, as you put it, quite nervous."
Orion chuckled and let his eyes settle on the stairs again. "Matters of the heart may feel natural when we don't stop to think about them. But when they're lying in our future, as something to be anticipated rather than enjoyed, they can be as terrifying as a rogue Chimaera."
Murphy had to laugh at the comparison. "Don't tell me you're afraid of them."
"What, Chimaeras?"
"You know what I mean."
Orion shook his head. "Being afraid and being nervous are far from being the same. On the contrary, they…"
He trailed off as he spotted two familiar figures among the seemingly never-ending stream of students. Lizzie and Katriona were walking side by side, positively skipping down the steps and talking animatedly to each other. Murphy had seen them as well. He inhaled sharply but quickly caught himself again when Katriona, who was wearing a form-fitting black gown that sparkled as she moved, stepped towards them. Realising that he was staring, Murphy cleared his throat.
"It's about time you arrived. You're thirteen minutes late."
"Fashionably late," Katriona winked at Lizzie. "Transforming a Quidditch fanatic into a presentable witch took its due time. I'd say it was worth the wait, though."
"It was indeed," Orion smiled. "A star shining in the night sky is just as magnificent as a flower in full bloom, yet neither could ever compare to the other. The true beauty in each of them lies in the way they enhance everything around them, in how they make us stop to look and forget about everything else for a while."
Murphy and Katriona exchanged amused glances before lining up with the other students streaming into the Great Hall, Lizzie and Orion right behind them.
Now that Lizzie was walking by his side, Orion's mind slowly began to feel at ease again. The dark blue chiffon of her dress whispered quietly as she moved, and her hair was falling down her exposed back in soft curls. Noticing Orion's eyes on her, Lizzie smiled and linked arms with him.
"If that was meant to be a compliment, then thank you."
Orion smiled at her. "Nothing compares to you when you're in your element on the pitch, but even so, you do look beautiful tonight."
Lizzie blushed. "You're not too bad to look at either."
"Murphy would beg to disagree, but he was too committed to styling his own hair to do anything besides complaining about mine."
Lizzie stopped and reached up to run her fingers through Orion's tousled hair. "Don't listen to him. I wouldn't want it any other way."
They found some seats at one of the small, round tables. It wasn't long before the girls couldn't resist the lure of the dance floor any longer, while Orion chose to stay behind with Murphy.
"I'm surprised you're not in the mood for dancing," Murphy remarked and took a sip of his butterbeer.
"I prefer the company of one good friend to those of many who are less so."
"Are you telling me you're not ready to dance like a dragon, groove like a Griffin, moonwalk like a Moke?"
"Isn't it ever so fortunate that music can be enjoyed with the mind as much as with the body?" Orion responded wryly.
"You weren't as opposed to dancing the last time Lizzie asked you," Murphy continued. "In fact, it provided us with a year's worth of the finest gossip this school has seen since Bill Weasley got the push by Emily Tyler."
"There's a difference between stepping into action by your own wish or going with the chances bestowed on you. Once Lizzie sets her mind to something, it's impossible to stop her. All you can do is run along and hope not to stumble. I have learned when to step away rather than risk getting burned by the fire of her enthusiasm."
"Both our girls have their own kind of fire for sure," Murphy smirked to himself. When he noticed Orion's raised eyebrows, he audibly cleared his throat, and Orion could have sworn that his ears had reddened. "I want to say they do look pretty tonight, don't they?"
"They do. As different as they are, in the way they shine, Lizzie and Katriona are the same."
"Lizzie surprised me, actually," Murphy noted after a short pause. "Her choice of hairstyle has beaten all the odds."
Orion's eyes followed Lizzie as she jumped up and down to the music. Her hair was bouncing around her shoulders, and she kept sweeping it from her eyes with an impatient movement of her hand. Her curls were far from defined or orderly anymore, but if anything, it was making her look more like her usual self.
"What magic would there be in the world if not for the unexpected?" he mused. "And yet, the steadiness of the predictable is holding its own kind of comfort."
Murphy laughed out loud. "If you talk about Katriona, don't tell her you called her steady. Or predictable, for that matter."
Orion nodded at Katriona, whose fiery red hair trailed behind her as she was being twirled around by Lizzie.
"Katriona is confident in who she is. She has an inherent need to be free and not be held down, so much so that she refuses to restrain even her hair. It signifies her inner fire and irresistibly draws all eyes in a crowd. It represents her beauty as much as the power of her will."
"The odds of you philosophising over my girlfriend's hair were low, but here we are," Murphy muttered underneath his breath, but Orion was paying him no mind.
"Every choice we make reflects who we are, even when it comes down to how we present ourselves to others," he elaborated. "Maybe especially so."
"Some of us could take a little more care when it comes to presenting ourselves," Murphy said and gave Orion a quick sideways look. "Do you want to know why I think Lizzie favours her hair up rather than down?"
"Tell me, and I can die with a peaceful mind."
"Aren't you ever so funny?"
Orion chuckled. "Do go on."
"Lizzie chooses to invest her time in her score rather than her style, and I think that is showing her determination," Murphy explained. "She is focused on what she wants, and she won't be stopped by something as trivial as a hairstyle. Some would call it tenacious, but I prefer persistent. Persistence is what separates a good player from an exceptional one."
The corners of Murphy's mouth twitched as he glanced at Orion. "But according to my numbers, the occasions she's let her hair down have increased significantly over the last few months."
"Like Katriona, Lizzie has learned to let her light shine more freely."
"Tell that to yourself," Murphy grinned. "You like it when she wears it like this, don't you?"
"Look at the cauldron calling the kettle black."
Murphy was about to reply when their conversation was interrupted by Katriona and Lizzie returning from the dance floor.
"What were you two talking about? Fill us in on the latest gossip," Katriona laughed with flashing eyes. She didn't give Murphy a chance to answer but instead bent down and kissed him, whispering something into his ear that made him first blush and then chuckle.
Deciding to give them some space, Orion held his hand out to Lizzie. "Up for a second round, Chaser?"
Lizzie raised her eyebrows in surprise but followed him as he led her back to the middle of the room. "I thought you didn't want to dance. Why the sudden change of heart?"
Orion cast a pointed look over his shoulder. A grin formed on Lizzie's face as she saw Katriona sitting on Murphy's lap. They were engaged in what Katriona would call 'a heated discussion' - Lizzie had another word for it, though.
When they reached the edge of the dance floor, she suddenly let go of Orion's hand. "Wait a second."
She raked her fingers through her hair several times, gathering it into a ponytail. With a small laugh, Orion slipped off one of the hair ties he had come to keep among the woven bracelets on his wrist and held it out to her. She took it from him with an apologetic look.
"Sorry, but one moment longer, and I'm going to go insane."
"Don't apologise," Orion replied. "You're always beautiful to me, but never more than when you are yourself."
The colour rose to her cheeks, but Lizzie was spared an answer when a new song began to play. Her eyes flashing with excitement, she took hold of his hands and pulled him further into the crowd. Orion followed her without hesitation, smiling to himself.
Some things, he thought to himself, would probably never change. And that was just how it was supposed to be.