You belong with me- Chap. 13

     The redhead decided to skip lunch and walk near the lake for a while, until her anger went away, but she wasn't aware of the time and when she arrived at the Ancient Runes' classroom, almost every seat was taken, which didn't help to improve her mood.  She could see Eli and Becca sitting together on the fifth row, but didn't go closer to say hi to them, she just gave them a smile that turned out more like a grimace. She didn't want to be asked about the detention. Anyway, her friends understood: they had run into the Gryffindors at the Great Hall and they had put them in the picture about the recent incident. She crossed the corridor among the desks at a quick pace without paying much attention, heading to the last rows where there still were some seats left, but before she could pick one, she heard a soft voice calling her and turned around.
    "Lily! There's a seat here if you want it" The pale boy ended the sentence with a hint of a doubt, as if he had regreted offering it, or as if he thought the firl would rather sit with someone else. However, Lily hurried to take the place next to the boy in the second row and smiled warmly at him. A pair of shy honey eyes stared back at her.
      "Thanks, Remus.  Of all the clases, I arrive late at the only one in which the first seats to be taken are the ones in the front row" The redhead thanked him while she took her book and parchment out of her rucksack. The boy gave a hint of a half smile.
"That's because the percentage of nerds' attendance to this class is of a 100%" Lily laughed
"I guess you're right"
"Did Slughorn give you a detention?" The boy asked. Oddly, she didn't mind that he asked her about it. She sighed, placing her chin on the palms of her hands and leaning over the desk.
"Yep. I've earned a detention. My first detention" she answered, slightly frowning and pursing her lips.
"This has been quite a busy beginning of the year for you, huh? Don't worry, I've had some detentions (of which I'm not completely responsable) and they're not that bad. At least Slughorn likes you" the lycanthrope reassured her, smiling once again. "Do you want some?" He offered, showing her a chocolate bar that he had taken out of his pocket when the girl's stomach complained about the lack of lunch.  She accepted it, thankful. When she looked at him, Lily thought that the boy was pretty tired, even sick, judging for his paleness and the dark rings under his eyes, even darker than usual.
"You ok, Remus?" she asked, straightening in her seat and staring at him carefully. Lupin looked away with a lightly shaky smile.
"Don't worry, I'm fine. Just tired."
"Oh, I figure, with those friends you have" the lycanthrope laughed.
"Even if you don't want to believe it, they're good people, really. Pretty mischievous and a bit self-centered. They'll grow out of it."
"If you say so… I'd just like that as long as their loooong maturing process lasts, they ignored me" The honey-eyed boy laughed again. The redhead liked to see him laugh, as she sensed that his life hadn't always been too happy. The same happened to her with Severus, who was unsociable and unpleasant for most people, but Lily knew that it was because of his childhood, and that's why she enjoyed when she saw him happy and smiling. She beamed and the boy looked at her curiously, knowing that the girl was an exceptional and understanding person. God forbid James from screwing it up before she got to know her, he thought. Despite not believing in Divination, our young lycanthrope was quite a perceptive person.
"They have it in with you this year" he commented, knowing that actually the problema ad begun years ago, the day that it had ocurred to James to burst into the wagon of the temperamental redhead.
"Look, if you mention this, I'll painfully kill you, but I know they must have a nice side. After all, I see you're so loyal to them and that you love them; there has to be a reason for it." Remus smiled to the death threat, pretending to close a zip on his mouth with his index and thumb.
"Your mates seem like good people too, even though some of them have quite a temper" he added, thoughtfull "Though, well, you have it too" he clarified. Lily half closed her eyes but smiled too.
"Yeah, they're great. Bree reminds me a little of you, because she's so patient and quiet. Sam has a completely acid humour, and she has the craziest ideas! Becca is terribly funny,  it's impossible not to like her, even though sometimes her energy provokes disasters. And Eli is very special, though he can be quite excentric sometimes. You two would get along." Remus listened to her speak about their friends nodding at every piece of information. The way she talked about them confirmed to him one more time that Lily would do anything for the ones she loved.
     Shortly afterwats, all the chitchat was interrupted by the arrival of the imposing Prefessor Babbling.
    After an hout, while all the students  put their stuff away, Lily kissed his friend goodbye on the cheek.
"See you, Remus" she said, and walked away in a better modd than she was when she had arrived to meet Moon and Rivers.
   The lycanthrope put his things away and headed to the grounds, where the first Care of Magical Creatures class would take place.  While he went through the crowded corridors, the honey-eyed boy thought with resignation about the day he had ahead tomorrow.  He observed the faces of the students that walked on the opposite direction, some of them where known and some of them weren't, and he wondered how would they reacy if they knew that a werewolf walked among them. He could almost see how all the faces transformed into expressions of fear, and he hated himself for who he was.  But then he thought of Dumbledore, and that if it wasn't for him, who knows where Remus would be now… The Headmaster wouldn't want him to go crying in the corners,  aking pity of himself. The best way of paying him for all he had done for him was being happy at Hogwarts; a diligent and responsible student. But he couldn't help thinking about what would other people think, and his face darkened again. He opened the heavy, wooden door and walked, lost in his thoughts, towards the group of students who were already waiting for the professor.  When he got closer, he could see his friends, and all his worries went away. James  messed out his untamable, dark hair in a gesture more than familiar, laughing with his glasses slightly crooked, while Sirius let out one of his lound laughs, mischievousness shining in his deep grey eyes. Peter laughed to, with that nervousness characteristic of the boy. Remus couldn't help smiling. He was happy at Hogwarts and he owed that to his friends. That was the only thing that mattered.
"Hey, Remus!" called him Sirius when he saw him. "Did you enjoy the boring Runes class while we rested at the Common Room?" The boy in question rolled his eyes.
"It was actually really interesting"
"Suuure" the dark-haired boy commented absent-mindedly, waving his wand and making a clueless Ravenclaw  trip. The honey-eyed boy threw him a reproachful look.
"Come on, Remus, admit that you missed us so much that you're considering leaving the subject" James added in a dramatic tone that made Peter laugh.
"Oh, yeah, whatever, James. Anyway I wasn't alone. Lily is an excellent classmate; she doesn't spend her time trying to set students around us on fire, you know?"
"We have never set anything on…!" It took James a few seconds to process what his friend had said, and he stopped before finishing the sentence. "Did you say Lily?"
     Sirius decided to intervene before his friend started to behave like before.
"And because of that class you missed what a show Petey was, falling asleep in the sofá and yelling that the fairies wanted to take him away." The sandy-haired boy went completely red, and even though James frowned he didn't try to change the subject again.
   Later than he should have,  the jovial Professor Kettleburn arrived, and after a brief explanation about Crups (a creature similar to Jack Russel terriers but with a forked tail, completely loyal to wizards but fierce to muggles) he asked them to get into groups of three to proceed  to de-worming the animals.  The Marauders looked at each other and decided to Split into two groups of two (James and Sirius on one side and Remus and pete ron the other) and to wait until the students who were alone joined them. When almost everybody was ready, Professor Kettleburn saw them and said to everybody:
"Anybody free to join Messrs. Black, Potter, Lupin and Pettigrew?"
They heard a  squeak of exciment followed by a whispered discussion, and in less than a second two girls, a Ravenclaw and one of their Gryffindor mates rushed to get to their side with a smile of triumph. At first, the marauders were a bit surprised; after all, they were brats but their egos hadn't had time to fully develop. The dilemma came when it was time to decide which of them joined which group, as the main attractive of spending a whole hour with the marauders were James and Sirius. The girls argued a little in a low voice, and the Professor ended up getting fed up with waiting and made the groups himself. The boys didn't mind, honestly, so they didn't complain. Finally, the groups ended up being formed by Barker (the ravenclaw), Potter and Pettingrew, and by Mulroney, Lupin and Black.
"Very well" Kettleburn said calling everyone's attention "Each group will br assigned with one Crup: don't treat him badly and don't waste the De-worming Potion." After saying this, he distributed the creatures and the class begun.
"Hey! I'm Rachel Barker" their group mate introduced herself with a smile. She was really pretty: she had a long, wavy, light brown hair; light blue eyes and a pink mouth. Her face was quite round and her complexion had a really pleasant peach tone. James didn't bother in introducing himself; after all, the whole school knew him, and Peter wasn'r expected to do it either, but the girl didn't seem to mind at all. She seemed to be radiant to be accompanying them.  "They are so cute! Don't you think?" she said, stroking their Crup. Peter nodded, but James just messed up his hair, reading unselfishly the instructions written on the De-worming Potion's jar. His apparent lack of interest didn't seem to  discourage the girl, who approached to the dark-haired boy with the animal in her arms, and leaned towards him to pretend she was reading the bottle too. A soft, citrus smell invaded this nose, and the boy in glasses looked at her mate out of the corner of his eye. Peter just sat there, staring at the space. He didn't care much that no one paid attention to him as long as they didn't make him touch the creature.
"Well, it doesn't seem that difficult. If you want I hold it while you take care of the hard work" Barker said with a giggle, still really close to James, who was beginning to enjoy the attention and smirked smugly.
"Sounds fine, Barker" he answered
"Call me Rachel" She asked, again with that stupid giggle that would have irritated anyone. However, James didn't mind, and messed up his hair one more time pretty arrogantly.
"Rachel, then." He said with a charming smile. The girl sat there staring at him, spellbound for a second, and then laughed and tucked her hair behind her ear.
"Fine, James" She said, bitting her lower lip after pronouncing his name and looking at him in the eye. When he stared her back, she blushed and looked down, settling the Crup between her legs. "Don't you think we should name it?" she asked. James thought it was a stupid idea, as it wasn't their pet and the animal probably had a name already, but decided to indulge the girl, and they named it Terrence.  While they worked, the girl wouldn't stop prattling, looking out of the corner of her eye atthe dark-haired boy, who quickly got bored and stop paying attention, but she didn't seem to notice.
Anyway, despite he didn't hear a Word of what she was saying, James loved the attention she dedicated to him, and that's probably how his ego begun to grow, feeding back with Sirius', whose situation wasn't too different.

"Hi Black, Lupin" the Gryffindor greeted them as son as her friend left smiling to join her group mates. She had a deep, seductive voice, and a pair of heavy and appealing eye-lids, though her hazel eyes weren't that pretty. She used her blond hair short and straight, and she had a thin nose, like her lips. She wasn't tradicionally gorgeous, but she was attractive. Sirius removed the dark hair from his eyes and gave her a captivating smile.
"What's up, Mulroney, love" He greeted her with a cheeky wink, sitting carelessly on the grass. Lupin, who didn't like the girl that much,  just smiled briefly at her and nodded as a way of saying hi, sitting down too. She smiled satisfied and kneeled between the two boys, placing herself there as if she had rehearsed every single movement.
"You can call me Lara." Despite she referred to both of them, she stared at Sirius, and Remus sighed, relieved by the fact that the girl  didn't expect him to participate in the conversation, but resigned too, knowing that he would have to take care of the Crup on his own.
"Then I am Sirius to you" The dark-haired boy answered, smiling once again and getting Lara to blush. She was a lot cheekier than her friend Rachel, and Sirius, just as James, was enjoying quite much the attention. When Kettleb urn approached them with the animal, the blonde wrinkled her nose with disgust and  held her robes away from it. Sirius laughed and stroked the animal, but Remus was the one who finally took it in his arms and got ready to start with the work.
"How come we hadn't spoke that much before?" Sirius was asking his interested interlocutor, while the honey-eyed boy examined the Crup.
"Oh, maybe that's cause you hadn't noticed me before" Lara answered pretending to be a bit ofended, staring at him intensely.
"What do you mean?  You're very pretty, of course I had noticed you" he answered, falsely outraged, and the blonde smiled pleased. Remus sighed: Sirius was a shameless liar.
"We got one totally infested by Chizpurfles" he murmured when he finished the inspection. "Would you hand me the bottles? We're supposed to measure how much magic the parasites have inside in order to see which potion we should use" His mates, immerse in the conversation, didn't pay attention to him, and the boy took the jars himself. The talk wasn't too intelligent it merely consiste don Sirius making smart comments, followed by an irritating giggle, oddly high-pitched, considering the girl's tone of voice. Remus looked at her out of the corner of his eye and saw that everything in her posture looked to attract Sirius, from her intense eyes and half-opened mouth to the studied shrugging of her shoulders. The luycanthrope noticed that his friend was delighted and rolled his eyes. At that moment, he heard another giggle, though a bit different, and he turned around to see Barker looking at James and laughing while he smiled seductively, applying the potion to the animal. He sighed and concentrated on his own Crup, fearing that this would happen in manu other classes.

The hour passed by without major incidents; just one Crup ended up slightly hurt cause a group of Slytherins had accidentally applied a potion that was too strong; and Peter's wand had ended uo destroyed, cause even though James and Rachel had de-wormed the animal quite well, they were so distracted that they didn't notice that a group of Chizpurfles had escpaed and gotten into the chubby boy's pocket,  nibbling it up to the core, looking for the source of magical power. Finally, Slytherin and Gryffindor had lost 10 points each, though they were recovered by Remus, who earned º5 for being one of the ones that had done it better, like a group of Hufflepuffs who had earned the same amount.
When the bell rang, the Marauders headed at a turtle pace towards the History of Magic classroom, and Remus had  a hard time trying not to roll his eyes at his friends' conversation.
"She was almost throwing herself over me" James was saying so arrogantly that anyone who would have heard him would have run away in order to avoid being squashed by his giant head.
"Oh, James, that's cause you're a Marauder. You'll see, it won't be long until all of them threw themselves over us. Lara insisted me until I promised that we should see each other at Hogsmeade sometime… I'll see if I feel like it." Said Sirius.
"We won't be missing company" his friend answered,
We're here" Remus announced relieved, pushing the two dark-haired boys into the classroom.