Claire's own mood wasn't particuarly as gloomy as her friends, though it wasn't quite as chipper as normal either. She told herself that she was simply irritated at Sirius, but in truth she was more irritated with herself but she couldn't, for the life of her, figure out why.

She refued to admit, even to herself, that it was because she'd been doing nothing but thinking about their shortlived kiss and just how much she wanted to feel his lips again.

She'd been deftly avoiding questions from Jo about just what had taken her so long to get back that day she'd been accousted by the blackhaired wizard and she'd decided to spend the day in the company of other than those in her house. Afterall, if there was one thing that the fifth year Gryffindors were good at, it was getting secrets out of each other. Thus far Claire had managed to avoid any of those prying questions simply by spending more time out of her dorm and coming up only to sleep.

OWLs. That had been her excuse.

But the thought of a day in Hogsmeade with the girls didn't sit well with her in her current state, and so, though she'd headed out with the gang, she'd dropped off quietly and now she ran into Anjali. It only took a moment for her to guess that the other wasn't doing much better than herself, really, but Claire knew precisely that questioning her wouldn't do any good.

Instead, she acknowledged her friend with a friendly smile. "Makes you want to go back to Madam Malkin's, doesn't it?" she asked, keeping her voice low as she glanced over at the shopkeeper.


I'm up for anything!