First Day
The following morning I had to practically drag Paige out of bed.
“Nooo, let me sleep. Kiraaaa, lay off” I simply threw my pillow at her. “Didn’t you say classes weren’t until AFTER lunch?” she protested, still half asleep. “If I leave for breakfast and let you sleep til lunch, will you come willingly then?” Paige just tucked her blanket around her “Mhmm”.
When I got to the great hall it seemed like Paige wasn’t the only one who had taken the opportunity to get a couple more hours of sleep. I found a seat by the Hufflepuff table, and started to fill my plate with all kinds of delicious breakfast items. I took out my book from my book bag and ate peacefully while reading, or at least I tried to. As always I struggled to keep the food on my fork and had to remove food from my book several times. Unfortunately, some of the stains seemed to refuse to leave the pages of my dear book. I knew I should have expected it, but that didn't make it any less irritating. I closed the book, and like a balloon deflating, it gave a little "Huff" as the air slipped out from in between the pages. I was about to leave the great hall, but a familiar voice called and caught my attention.
"Kira!" I stopped and looked for the source. Oliver was waving at me to join him. "Morning" I said while approaching him. " Wanna join me for a walk?" he asked quietly. "Oh sure, I'll just have to go find my-" before I could finish, a knitted sweater hit me in the face, "guess I'm ready then".
As we walked towards the castle grounds I slipped Oliver's sweater over my head. The brown striped sweater was already oversized for Oliver, so I ended up looking like a walking tent, since Oliver was at least a whole head taller than me. I didn’t mind tho. The bigger the sweater the cozier, which why I had taken over some of Remus’s old sweaters and jumpers over the years. It was still relatively early, and a gentle fog lingered on the castle grounds. As we walked, the sleeves on the sweater flapped satisfyingly. We briefly talked about the fact that there would be no quidditch this year, and what we expected the Tournament to be, before we ended up just sitting comfortably in silence while looking out on the Black lake. I loved these moments of silence just as much as the moments full of laughter. I propped myself against a tree, before gently tapping my thighs. “Do you want head scratches?” I love doing things like that, it keeps my hands busy, while it’s also a nice gesture to show my appreciation for my friends. “Ohmygosh yes please” Oliver adjusted himself so he could lay his head in my lap, before closing his eyes. We stayed like that for a while, chatting about all sorts of random things.
“Hm, I wonder what they are up to?” I pondered as three Gryffindor figures sat down on a bench on the opposite side of the lake, laying out a piece of parchment and talking frantically with each other, before one of them started to take notes.
“Who?” Asked Oliver, eyes still closed.
“Georgia, Fred and Lee, they’re over on the other side, apparently discussing something” Oliver's eyes shot open and he hastily sat up, fixing his hair. I didn't say anything, just observed him wondering what caused the sudden change of behavior. I didn’t have to wait long. Lee eventually noticed Oliver and I, and offered a wave and a smile in Oliver's direction, before quickly turning back to whatever they were doing.
“Let’s go” Oliver was already on his feet, suddenly fidgety.
“Oh, alright” I stood, and dusted some leaves off my pants. Oliver began to walk quickly towards the castle.
“Oy, Oliver, not so fast” I was half running beside him to keep up. “What was that about?” I laughed at him. “I didn’t know you knew Lee?” Oliver turned to face me, completely red, but he couldn’t hide his growing smile. “Not so loud” He whisper shouted as he frantically gestured to the students around, now that we were close to the courtyard by the great hall. “Spill the tea, I wanna know!” I tugged at his arm to come sit down on the short stone wall at the edge of the courtyard. He sat down, and I looked at him expectantly. “Fine” he sighed. “I mean, I’ve known who he was right, but we properly “met” at the world cup. I don’t know, we just kinda hung out.” I waited expectantly for details “What? That’s literally it. We talked, spent some time walking around, you know. And I hung out with the twins too, they’re quite cool you know”,
“Yeah, I know” I muttered,
“Well, and then the whole dark mark situation happened, and we, uh… Haven’t really spoken since” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.
“But did anything, you know… happen?” I leaned forward.
“Kira! No, of course not!” He sighed “It’s not like that, alright?”
“But you wish it was?” I teased
“What? No! He’s just a fun person, and we hung out a bit, alright?”
“Alright” I grinned at him
“... Just don’t tell Paige, or i’ll curse you, so watch out” He said half jokingly half threateningly, pointing a finger at me.
“Alright alright, but if you act like that every time you see him, there won’t be much left for me to tell” Oliver jokingly hit my shoulder.
“Okay, let’s get back inside, it’s freezing out here”
Okay, attempt number two at waking up Paige. This time, no mercy. I flung my pillow at my friend. “Paige! Time to get up”, she just took my pillow and stuffed it under her own. Hmm, that didn’t work. I tried shaking her awake, making up gossip about people we knew - this usually works, the words “Don’t tell anyone this but…” normally had her up in a matter of seconds-, before deciding on the last possible attempt. I grabbed a glass from the bathroom sink, and filled it with a little water. Once I was beside the sleeping Paige again I prepared myself to duck out of the way once she woke. I carefully let a tiny bit of water land on her face, before ducking down at the bedside. As expected Paige flared with her arms, before sitting up
“WHAT THE ACTUAL FU-” She rubbed her eyes “Lunchtime already?”
“Yup, and bloody hell, you could sleep through the end of the world!”
She yawned “It’s my superpower”
——————————————————————————
During lunch Professor Sprout handed out our timetables for the year, greeting every single student on her way. “Good morning, ladies” she said gently and laid a motherly arm on my shoulder as she leaned over me to hand Paige her timetable. “Good to see you Professor” I smiled at her.
“Hm, looks like we have charms, transfiguration and history of magic with Oliver this year! That’s more than last year.”
A simple “Mhmph” came from Paige, mouth full of scrambled eggs.
“Have you thought of what supplementary subjects you’re gonna take?” I asked, not taking my eyes off the schedule. Paige simply pointed at Divination and Muggle study. She finished chewing before elaborating.
“Divination is just professional bullshitting, and Muggle studies is an easy O” Paige was, just like me, a muggleborn, which did make the muggle studies rather easy.
Once lunch was over they met up with Oliver in the Middle Courtyard
"It really sucks, that we always have to meet somewhere, why couldn't you just have gotten sorted into hufflepuff Oliver? Then we could just hang out in the common room!" complained Paige
"There is no way the sorting hat would have put me in hufflepuff"
"Oh and I know why, you are too evil, that is" I stated matter-of-factly before biting down on the cookie I brought from lunch. "Well then it would just be in my nature to do this" Oliver snapped the cookie out of my hand, shoved it into his mouth and then showed us his now empty hands. Paige high-fived the cookie stealing boy
"Touché… Well what subjects did you choose?” We didn’t have much time before our first classes started, but this was important information.
“Ended up with Divination and Study of ancient Runes” He shrugged, apparently not super enthusiastic about any of them. Oliver would then have Divination with Paige, and Runes with me, and Care of magical creatures I would have solo.
Paige and I said goodbye to Oliver, as he found some of his fellow slytherin friends, and we started walking towards our first class, transfiguration. The class touched on the topics of mastering a Vanishing spell, mostly in theory, before practicing the actual spell the last 20 minutes of the class. At the end of class McGonagall announced the expected homework.
"Remember to practice the Vanishing spell, I expect you all to be able to make your assigned buttons disappear - Miss Tally, do remember to take your set of buttons with you!" Paige, turned around in the doorway and unmotivated picked up her bag of buttons, she had had no luck at mastering the spell that hour.
" Oh, Miss Lupin, may I have a word?"
I nodded to Paige "I'll catch you later", but couldn't help the nervousness from rising. Had I done anything wrong without noticing? Had I said anything out of order?
"Tell me, how is Remus doing?" Professor McGonagall halfway sat on her desk, leaning her weight against it. I allowed myself to relax a little.
"Oh, he's, you know, a bit up and down. But generally he's quite alright. Was a rough summer tho, with all the letters and such" over the last months tons of letters were sent to our door, from parents, furious that a werewolf had been so close to their kids. And how ashamed Remus should have been of himself.
"Hm, yes I can imagine. And you?"
"Me?"
"Yes, how are people treating you, after the incident?" There was a slight warmth under the matter of factly tone in her voice. The question caught me a little off guard.
"Oh! Well, students don't really care, most saw him as a great teacher. And the parents don't really recognize me" I gave a little shrug, implying it hadn't caused much trouble.
"That's good to hear, send him my regards… And to Padfoot as well." She gave the faintest of smiles. "Alright, you're dismissed Miss Lupin" I simply nodded before picking up my book bag. I made a mental note of sending the professor's regards in my next letter. Both to Remus, and to Padfoot. He had stayed with us for a short while, before heading off to who knows where. Remus had been lighter the days Sirius had been there, smiling more, laughing more, even dancing a little.
——————————————————————————
That evening Paige and I sat in front of the Hufflepuff common room fireplace, with a mug of steaming tea.
"I know I complain a lot, but it really is nice to be back here. You and Oliver make it all worth it" She smiled at me.
“I know” I took a sip of my tea before continuing “I’m glad I have the two of you.” We sat in silence for a while, focusing on the flames in front of us. “Wait, what happened with that Ravenclaw guy that you kept talking about before the summer?” Paige nearly snorted out her tea.
”Oh William?”, I nodded “Apparently I’m too much of a distraction for the “future head boy”, he said he needed all the time he could spare for his prefect duties. Which supposedly also included snogging that black haired Slytherin girl in the year below us” She tossed the hair that sat on her shoulder back, with a frustrated flick. “Noo he did not!”
Paige quickly sat up, nearly spilling her tea “You bet he did!”
“What a dimwitted dingus” I shook my head, “Right!” She forcefully sat her mug down and this time definitely spilled some tea. “It’s his loss though… he kinda smelled of flobberworm puss anyway” she shivered at the thought and leaned back into the sofa again. “Anyhow, I’ve decided to make you my new project” it was my turn to almost snort out my tea.
”Excuse me, wha-“
”Well, I figured you could need the help, and who better to help you than me? Remember, I’m the reason you ever talked with Oliver.” She stated with a proud look on her face. “Besides, you’ve never even approached a guy or been on a date! Which is a shame, you’re such a pretty little thing”
“Oh I don’t know -“
”Come on! It could be fun, and maybe you would actually enjoy yourself. Plus, I would mend my very broken little heart” How could anyone refuse Paige’s professional puppy eyes. Besides, she was right, I could need a little push. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to experience love or at least young affection, I just had no idea how to approach it all.
”Well alright then. But! I’m not gonna go on a date just to go on a date, I must have the right to veto! And-and I might not find anyone I’d wanna date so don’t get your hopes up!”
”yeah yeah, don’t worry it’s not like I’m gonna have you date Nasty Noah!” “Paige!-“
“No!” She sat back up again “Don’t tell me you fancy Nasty Noah! He eats his boog-“
“What!? No no no!”
“Ah thank Merlin” she plopped back down “I was worried I had to get you checked into Saint Mungo’s!”
Merlins beard, what had I gotten myself into. I smiled and shook my head. Paige flashed me a teasing wink.