"How's the migraine?" Lily Evans asked with a worried look as she and Flora walked towards Flourish and Blots.
"It's fine, like I've told you before, I can tolerate it during the day but once the moon comes out its unbearable."
Lily didn't respond, only showing an apologetic look to her friend so that James, Remus, and Peter would not hear her as they approached them. The only people who are aware of Flora Lynch's ability were her parents, Dumbledore, Sirius Black, and just recently Lily. Sirius and Flora grew up together, with their fathers being fairly close friends. Although recently their fathers have grown to hate each other, she and Sirius have kept their friendship.
"Hey guys." Flora tried to sound cheerful, even though anything above a whisper made her head pound.
"Hey, what took you two so long?" James Potter walked over hugging Flora, and attempted to hug Lily, but she backed away.
"Hello Potter." She said sternly and James winked as he moved out of the way as Sirius reached out to hug Flora.
"Feeling okay?" he whispered in her ear.
"It's been worse."
He rubbed her shoulder and showed an apologetic grin before quickly hugging Lily as to which James rolled his eyes. Despite knowing Lily and Flora for six years now, Peter was still too shy around them and did not hug them but simply gave a small wave and a smile.
"Feeling okay Remus?" said Lily. Remus Lupin stood between James and Peter Pettigrew, and to be honest, he looked horrible. Dark circles were under his eyes and he looked as if any second he was going to lose his lunch, he had his arms folded over his chest and his shoulders were hunched over slightly.
He shrugged, "Woke up with a cold this morning that's all… no big deal."
"You sure you're gonna be okay, 'cus we can come back with you tomorrow or once you're feeling better."
"He's fine Lily; he gets these nasty colds all the time." Said Sirius put his arm across Remus' shoulders, shaking him slightly. By the look on Remus' face, it did not make him feel any better.
"So James, how are you parents able to handle you and Sirius together?" Flora again tried to sound like she wasn't in pain, but her plan failed as her head began to throb again.
Sirius had recently moved in with James over the summer to escape his parents who had become supporters of He-who-must-not-be-named.
"Ha, they don't mind, we're actually fine during the summer," said James.
"Yeah, that's when we plan out all the stuff we're going to do once we get back to school. Oh, and my mom blew my face off the family tree, along with my uncle."
"Why you're uncle?" asked Flora.
"Because he gave me money and my mother did not agree with that at all." Sirius showed a toothy smile and laughed.
"Well I don't know about the rest of you but I have school supplies to buy," said James, as he began walking towards the cauldron shop.
Peter and James led the way through Diagon Alley, Sirius and Lily both became entranced in a charms book that Sirius had with him, while Flora and Remus straggling behind them.
"Have a good summer?" asked Remus.
"It was alright- yours?"
"It could have been better."
When Flora said nothing more Remus suddenly felt sad, he felt like he needed to continue talking with her, and hear her voice. For some reason her voice made Remus feel suddenly calm, the thought of the full moon that night was cleared from his mind and all his worries seemed to drift away.
A few hours later, when they had all gotten their supplies James and Sirius decided that they should stop at the ice cream parlor before they all headed home. At this point, Flora's migraine was getting worse as the sun was soon going to begin its descent. Remus too began to feel worse.
Neither Flora nor Remus got any ice cream and almost ten minutes after they had sat down and Lily had finished her cone, Flora's mom showed up, and was ready to take the girls home. They said their goodbyes and Lily shouted back to them before entering the Leaky Cauldron, "See you guys in a few days!"
Then the boys were alone.
"Alright Moony speak up. We know you don't feel good because of tonight, but something else is on your mind."
Remus could feel his cheeks warm as the blood rushed to them, he had tried to hide it all day but he could help but stare at her and occasionally accidentally bump into her, "It's nothing, there's no use talking about it."
"I bet it's a girl," and James thought to himself for a second, "Yup, it is definitely a girl."
"So what if it is," Remus shrugged, "Nothing can happen between us anyway…"
"Moony just because you're a…" Sirius lowered his voice, "you know what… doesn't mean you can't have a girlfriend."
"Yea but what if I really fell in love and she finds out what I am and then leaves me because she doesn't want to be with a monster. There's no point in making anything happen when I already know how it's going to end."
"You know if you tell us who this girl is, we might be able to help you better," said James, and Peter nodded in agreement as he sipped his milkshake.
"It's Flora." Huge grins appeared on the Marauders faces.
"So tell us why you like her," said Sirius as he leaned out of his chair to toss the rest of his cone into the trash bin, which belched loudly as it swallowed the remainder of his cone.
"She's pretty, smart, funny, nice, understanding, and I don't know why but today I noticed that whenever I'm close to her or hear her voice… I just feel really calm…"
"Key word," Peter finally spoke, "Understanding."
"Yeah Peter's right, she's very understanding person; she's not the kind of person to judge or desert someone for who they are."
"Yeah, she was friends with Snivellus during our first year." Said Sirius, "that's gotta say something about the kind of person she is -although I don't see how anyone could be friends with him," he mumbled under his breath.
"So what do you expect me to do then?" yelled Remus.
"Well first off, talk to her, maybe sit next to her on the train Sunday, maybe help her with homework once we start classes, you know she's terrible at writing essays, and just talk." James said.
"Yea," agreed Sirius, "just starts talking then gradually move in the direction of a relationship, like start holding her hand or something. Then once you two get comfortable with each other maybe you could tell her you're secret. If you want to that is…"
"And what do I do if she doesn't want to be in a relationship and rejects me?"
"Exhibit A…" Peter held out his arm, motioning to James.
"Hey!" shouted James as Sirius began to laugh, "Wait Peter is right, just do what James does!"
Remus rolled his eyes at his friends' immaturity, "I'll think about it, but I have to get home now," he said, while pointing to the sky, "Bye."
"Potter, stop staring at Lilly and help me with my trunk." Flora spat as she entered the compartment to join the marauders. James looked away from Lily, who was still on the platform saying goodbye to her parents, and shot a smile back at Flora, "What's wrong Lynch, jealous that I don't give you enough attention?"
Flora tugged at her trunk again, getting it onto the seat, "No, I am not strong enough to lift my trunk." She placed her hands on her hips and shifted her weight to one side, "can you please help?"
"With the attention problem, sure!" James grabbed Flora by her waist and pulled her onto his lap, "Oh Flora I love you!" he yelled jokingly.
"Potter let me go!" she slapped at his arms and tried to wiggle her way out of his grasp, hoping he would release her but it was no use.
"Prongs let her go before she hex's you or something." Remus appeared in the doorway smiling, "would you like me to put your trunk up for you Flora?" Good start, let her know you're strong and willing to help, Remus thought to himself.
"Yes, thank you Remus now let me go James."
James rested his head on Flora's back and sighed, "I might just keep you here, I actually like this."
"Well I can certainly feel that you like it," Flora said, referring to James' now hardened anatomy, "now let me go." Remus bit his lip in an attempt to hold back his laughter, if it was anyone other than James he would have been jealous, but he knew his friend meant well, James often joked around with Flora in similar ways. Remus then broke into hysterics when Flora reached for her wand and put a charm on James' pants, causing them to get remarkably small, and finally let her go.
"I told you she would do something." Remus said through his laughter. James furiously began trying to pull his pants off of him as they continued to shrink.
"The more you fight, the tighter they'll get." Flora smiled to herself as she sat back into the opposite seat next to the window.
"Whoa!" Sirius entered the compartment, clearly being able to see his best friend through his pants, "Watch out Prongs, don't want to go poking anyone's eyes out." He laughed.
Remus took the seat next to Flora and Sirius took the other window seat both of them still laughing. James almost looked as if he was going to cry, "Flora please make it stop…"
Flora grinned and flicked her wand and James gasped as he pants grew back to their original size. He held his hands between his legs and doubled over in pain, "That was worse than getting hit there… oh god…"
Sirius let out a quick laugh, "What did he do to her?"
"Pulled her onto his lap and well… you could clearly see what happened to him." Remus smiled.
"Well I'll remember to never pull you onto my lap, but I would love to use that charm on Snivellus..." Sirius grinned to himself before slapping James on the back, "alright there mate?"
"Just peachy…" he groaned.
Flora leaned back against the window and rested her legs across Remus' lap, "Do you mind?"
"No not at all." He said, as he took his book out of his bag, "I get a book holder." He smiled at Flora as he opened the book and set it down on her shins. Dammit Remus, how lame can you be? I get a book holder, what kind of line is that? Remus had figured that the best way to start out was to become better friends and make small jokes, although he had thought this one had failed until he saw a small smile appear on Flora's face from the corner of his eye.
"Be careful Mooney, you don't want to end up like James." Sirius said as he took another look at James who was finally recovering.
"I think I'll be fine." Remus said, looking up from his book at Sirius and then to Flora. She had gotten her book out and had it resting on her lap; her long soft chestnut waves framed her face perfectly. Remus found himself staring at her crystal blue eyes as they darted from one side of the page to the other.
Sirius elbowed James and quickly pointed at Remus and Flora.
"What about them?" James whispered.
"Don't you remember what Remus told us when we went to Diagon Alley?"
"Yea he told us that he liked—oh." James realized what Sirius was getting at, and took another glance at his two friends, "Looks like he's taking our advice and hopefully this year will be very good for Moony." Both James and Sirius smiled, and the last whistle of the Hogwarts Express finally blew.
A thunderous pair of feet came storming down the hallway and poor Peter Pettigrew ran in with his trunk dragging behind, throwing it up top and taking the seat between Sirius and James. Everyone looked up at him as he sat there trying to breathe.
"Rough morning Wormtail?" said Sirius.
"Yea-Severus decided to mess with my trunk and everything fell out."
"Damn Snivellus," cursed James, "don't worry Peter we'll get him back as soon as we get to Hogwarts."
Lilly appeared in the doorway and smiled at Flora, "Hey, I'm going to go sit with Andrea today, but I'll catch up with you once we get to Hogwarts- Remus why aren't you doing your Prefect duties?"
"Because the new ones kept shooing me out of the way, so I let them handle it all."
"Well I'll see you all later then."
"Oh Evans wait!" James yelled as he grabbed the sleeve of her sweater.
She rolled her eyes, "What do you want Potter?"
"Will you go out with me?" he smiled.
"In your dreams."
Lily left and James sat back into his seat smiling to himself, "She wants me." James really was full of himself. Flora rolled her eyes and went back to reading her book.
"You might want to stop sometime soon. I'm afraid your head might explode." Flora looked up to see Remus standing in on the other side of the table with an arm full of books.
"So you're telling me to stop writing my potions essay, when I'm almost done, and here you stand with a tower of books and you're afraid my head will explode?" these small joking sessions had been happening quite often in the first few weeks of school, and almost always Remus came and joined Flora in the library while she was studying.
"Okay so maybe I didn't plan that out very well." He laughed as set his books down before taking the seat across from Flora. Flora noticed his cheeks had turned red and suddenly felt guilty for embarrassing him, but then she realized that he often blushed when they talked.
"So what's the mountain of books for?" she asked.
"Homework."
"Goodness Remus, we've been here for a little over a month and you have that much? What classes are you taking?"
"The same as yours, I just like to get all my work done when I get it assigned so I don't have to worry about it later… unlike you Miss Procrastination."
"Hey it's not Miss, its Queen Procrastination." They both laughed. Flora did have a habit of waiting till the very last minute to finish her work. "I really have to work on that this year though… it definitely showed on my OWLS…"
"You couldn't have done that bad, you got all of your NEWTS classes."
"I still got nearly all Os and some Es. But for the Os I had just barely made it… but at least I still got all the classes I wanted."
"Well then you have nothing to worry about. Hey, I'll even help you if you need me." Remus smiled slightly before burying his nose into his homework. He suddenly became nervous that she would want his help.
"Well, I'm all done, so I'll see you at dinner." Flora gathered her things and stuck the potions book back on the shelf and left. A pit formed in Remus' stomach, she didn't decline or accept so don't worry, he told himself over and over.
As Flora was walking out of the library she saw Professor Slughorn, "Professor, can I ask you for a small favor?"
"Yes, what it is?"
"Well I just finished my essay, and I was wondering if you could read over it and see if it was alright."
"Okay then let's have a look." He groaned several times as he read through the two feet of parchment, "Well, I'm afraid that you should work on it… a lot. Good day Miss. Lynch."
Flora groaned as she walked back into the library to her previous table. "Remus…" she whined.
He turned around and laughed, Flora was pouting her bottom lip and her cheeks were red, "Help me." She said.
"Come here." He said, pulling out the chair next to him so she could sit. As he read over her essay, making several changes, he noticed himself going slower and slower, and even stopping completely to stare at Flora as she rested her chin on her arm while leaning on the table and flicked tiny pieces of parchment off. He shook his head and got back to work, with a small smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
Flora groaned as she leaned back in the chair to stretch, "Oh come on, it can't be that bad that it's taking this long."
"Do you want a good grade?" he put his quill down and raised his eyebrow.
"Yes…" she leaned back in her chair, balancing it on two legs and folder her arms across her chest. Remus could instantly see it coming as she tilted her head back. The look of shock on her face and her gasp told him that she had lost her balance and he reached out just in time to catch the back of her chair.
Her face turned bright red as Remus slid his hand onto her shoulder, "you okay Clumsy?"
"Yeah I'm fine." She looked at his hand which was still on her shoulder and Remus quickly pulled it away his face now turning red.
"It's okay." She said, "You didn't have to pull away like that."
Remus suddenly felt like he had hurt her feelings, "I thought that when you looked you were telling me to… never mind, here's your essay." He handed the essay to her, suddenly feeling very stupid, and she groaned as she saw all of the corrections he had made, "That bad?"
"Not really, just wanted to make sure it got the grade it deserves." He grinned slightly and began to gather his books.
"Aren't you going to do your homework?"
Remus shrugged, "Later, I'm getting hungry and dinner is in a ten minutes so I thought we could just go early."
"Alright, fine by me. Plus I was a little worried that if you did anymore work your head would explode."
"Oh ha ha." Remus said sarcastically while looking at her over his shoulder as he placed the books back on the shelf.
As they walked out of the library together, side by side, Remus was busy arguing with himself inside of his head, contemplating his next move. Should I do it now? Kiss her? No that would only scare her away. An arm around her waist maybe? No that's too much for right now. He finally settled on just simply holding her hand just like James had told him. But he didn't know how to go about it, should he ask her or just do it?
They were stopped on the stair case as they waited for the stairs to move when he could hear voices coming from not that far away, "Do it Moony!" said a loud whisper.
"Come on mate you know you want to…"
"Yeah and if she slaps you just try again tomorrow."
Remus looked up to see Sirius and James leaning over the railing a few floors up and he mouthed to them to shut up and looked over at Flora, who was still waiting patiently for the stairs and had not heard James or Sirius.
Remus stepped a little closer to Flora, making sure the backs of their hands touched and when they did he quickly laced his fingers with hers. Flora looked up at him with a coy smile and her cheeks began to turn red.
"WOOHOO-oh shit." Remus looked up in time to see James and Sirius duck out of sight.
Flora let out a small laugh as they began walking down the stairs, "they're never going to grow up are they?"
"Give them a few more years."
As Sirius and James entered the great hall they could see Remus and Flora sitting next to each other, waiting for their friends to arrive, and Remus giving them both a death stare.
"Think he will say something to us?" whispered Sirius.
"No not here, but he might mention it back in the common room later tonight."
They took their seats across from Flora and Remus, and soon Lily came and sat next to James and Peter was next to Remus.
"So Remus did you hear about those two elves that got out of the kitchen?" Said Flora.
"No I did not. What were they doing?" Replied Remus.
"Walking around the grand staircase, shouting at couples from-"
"COUPLES!" shouted Sirius, chocking on his bread. Sirius and James sat with large smiles on their faces as Flora and Remus' cheeks turned a bright red that neither of them could hide.
"Way to go Moony!" cheered James as he high-fived Remus over the table, "always knew you could do it."
"Wait a minute!" yelled Lily, "You two knew about this and didn't tell me?" she slapped James on the shoulder, "And you!" now pointing her finger and Flora, "I'm your best friend and you told these two buffoons and not me."
"Lily, I never really knew I like Remus, it just sort of happen," said Flora while trying to hide her face as she began blushing again.
"So then how did they know?"
"I told them I liked Flora," said Remus, "before school even started…"
"Well I'm happy for you two," Said Sirius as he lifted up his goblet of pumpkin juice, "To Remus and Flora."
"To Remus and Flora," echoed the others.
The others continued to talk while Remus and Flora exchanged shy glances every few moments. Both felt slightly awkward knowing that the others had their eyes on them the entire time.
Flora and Remus held hands as they walked back to the Gryffindor common room after dinner, ignoring the whispers and stares as other people noticed their hands together.
The common room was crowded that night. Remus and Flora took up half the couch as they sat their reading. James and Sirius sat at a table in the corner playing chess. Lily sat with Peter trying to help him turn his book into a mouse for Transfiguration. Other students drifted in, out, and around the room, and soon Flora looked up from her book and noticed that she and Remus were alone.
"Got lost in our books, again." She said as she put her book back into her bag and got up from the couch.
"Yeah, we seem to do that a lot, so I guess you're going to bed?" Remus closed his book and stood up.
"Yeah, I figured I'd get up early and go to the library to finish that charms essay, or maybe just take a walk…"
"Need help with the essay?" He said as he handed Flora her bag.
"No, I think I got this one. Well, good night."
Remus reached out for her hand and she stopped. He moved closer to her, but then second guessed himself, what if she doesn't want to do it now, maybe it is too soon. He shook his head as to say never mind but Flora took his face in his hand and softly kissed him. Both of them began blushing and Remus could feel his heart pounding within his chest.
Flora smiled sweetly before climbing the stairs to the girl's dormitories. Remus stood for a moment in complete shock; he had not expected her to go for it that quickly, but was glad she did. He smiled to himself as he remembered the feeling of their kiss as climbed the stairs to his dorm and was glad to find James, Sirius, and Peter asleep.