Ten Things We Do (When We Fancy Someone)
1. You smile when you see him.
To say that Moira Potter was angry was an understatement. Her head felt like a hundred tiny daggers were stabbing it, her eyelids were drooping as she had only gotten three hours' worth of sleep - she had to scrape the potion she'd blown up off the floor in detention and finish four feet of parchment on the dangers of human transfiguration – and on top of all that, Sirius sodding Black accidentally destroyed – no demolished - the Charms notes she had painstakingly taken.
So there she sat at the Great Hall, face as gloomy as the weather outside with a few strands of hair that escaped her ponytail (yet another reason to be angry; why in Merlin's name did she have to inherit the infamous Potter hair?) enjoying an early morning dip in a steaming bowl of oatmeal and bits of berries. She spooned the mush into her mouth slowly; shoulders slumped and head resting on her left hand. She was definitely not looking forward to surviving the rest of the day. In fact, she was already thinking fondly of her soft, comfortable bed even though she'd just stumbled out of it and entertained herself by counting down the hours to when she could proclaim her love to her favourite inanimate object for hopefully twelve hours straight.
She felt a hand tap her lightly on her shoulder and groaned as her eyelids shut in exasperation. "Leave me alone, James," she said to her twin, the corners of her lips forming a scowl as he ruffled her jet black hair playfully, a low chuckle rumbling out of his throat from somewhere above her head. Her eyes snapped open.
"A very good morning to you too, little sister," he replied cheerily, plopping himself on the bench rather carelessly with a thump while his dark haired friend threw his leg over the bench in a fluid motion, a smirk gracing his sharp features.
"Five minutes, James," Moira said briskly and spooned a blueberry into her mouth. "You're older by five minutes. That's hardly anything to be proud of."
"Younger by three hundred seconds, yet you're acting like you've just hit your sixtieth birthday," Sirius Black quipped as he piled bacon on his toast and recoiled slightly when he met Moira's glare. James let out yet another chuckle as he spread butter onto his toast.
"You've got the brains of a five year old, Sirius," she snapped, reaching over the table to prod Sirius's shoulder. "How in the world did you manage to cut up in notes, huh?"
Colour seemed to drain from his face and he lifted up his toast and bacon combination in an attempt to hide his face with his breakfast. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said quickly. "I didn't see it, honestly."
"Why were you doing it anyway, cutting up paper?" James asked before taking a humongous bite out of his toast.
"I'll tell you what he was doing!" Moira suddenly exclaimed, her head snapping to face her brother. "He was cutting up paper to make tiny little crows-"
"-sparrows-" Sirius corrected meekly.
"-And charmed them to fly around in circles above Lily's head-"
"Oh, you did the thing I asked you to?" James beamed. "I asked for heart shapes, though, but thanks anyway, mate!"
Moira stopped mid rant, gaping at her brother.
"I know." Sirius let out a sigh and smiled fondly. "It was a brilliant piece of magic."
Her head slowly turned to Sirius, then to James, and back to Sirius. They both suddenly paused, as if they just remembered that she was there.
"It was Sirius's fault," the words rushed out of James's mouth. He turned away, avoiding the glare Sirius sent his way.
Sirius gave Moira an insincere grin. "Sorry," he whispered loudly and proceeded to stuff his entire portion of breakfast into his mouth.
"Unbelievable. Incorrigible," Moira sputtered and then exclaimed rather dramatically, "I'll never forgive you two, I'll never be happy ever agai-"
The doors of the Great Halls opened with a loud creak and her head whipped to face the source of the sound. Her gaze fell on a boy with light, almost golden, brown hair, his forest green eyes scanning the room for his friends. His gaze fell on Moira, Sirius and James and he ambled over to them.
"Morning," Remus greeted them and cracked a small grin at Moira. "Hello, Moira."
"Hey, Rem," she replied casually, unconsciously sitting up straighter. The strands of hair previously in the bowl slipped out, dripping clumps of oatmeal on her uniform. She quickly but inconspicuously brushed them out of sight.
"I'm just here to grab some food, and then I've got to run off to Arithmancy," he said and gave a little shudder. "Arithmancy's fascinating but in the morning, ugh."
"Don't know why you even chose that, Moony," James stretched his arms over his head and ran his fingers through his hair. "It's such a bore."
"Prongs, you seem to be forgetting that we're talking about smarty pants Moony here," Sirius rolled his eyes and James gave a little shrug, as if to say 'oh, yeah'.
"Hey, I happen to find Arithmancy interesting too." Moira gave them a mock glare. Her features softened into a sheepish half smile as she looked at Remus, who tossed an apple into his bag, "But sorry, only Ancient Runes for me."
He returned the smile and they stared at each other, basking in the comfortable but uncharacteristic silence that was nearly never present in a place where even half of the Marauders were present.
"Oh, yeah, before I forget," Remus broke the silence, his eye brows furrowed in concentration as he rummaged through his sling bag. He fished out some parchment after a few moments and handed them over to Moira.
Her eyes widened. "What's this?" she asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.
"I heard someone cut up your Charms notes," he added emphasis to the word 'someone' and continued hesitantly. "It isn't much but I figured that a copy of my notes would be better than not having notes at all."
Moira's heart melted and her eyes crinkled as the corner of her lips turned upwards. "Thank you so much, Rem, I owe you one."
"No problem," he responded, slowly letting his gaze fall on his watch. "Merlin, I'm late, sorry, gotta rush off." He looked around helplessly with a panicked expression on his face. "I'll see you all in Defense!"
"Yeah," Sirius and James answered in unison and Moira waved her hand at him. She watched as Remus darted out of the Great Hall, heard him groan in annoyance ("Peter, where are you?") and clutched her new Charms notes to her chest. She turned back to her bowl of oatmeal and joyfully dumped more berries into them as her mouth quirked into a full blown goofy, toothy grin. She looked up with a spoonful of fruit and oatmeal in her mouth looking at her brother and his best friend who were still uncharacteristically quiet.
"Wha-?" she asked, opening her mouth to reveal a disgusting looking, slightly tinted pink and blue mush.
James and Sirius shared an amused look before focusing their attention back to her.
"Oh, angst, angst," James moaned dramatically, his voice a few pitches higher than normal, placing a hand on his head as if swooning. "I'll never be happy ever again, ever!"
"I wonder what's gotten her to show so many teeth now, huh, Prongs?" Sirius nudged James playfully, sending a wink towards Moira's way. "Why're you so smile-y, Moir-ey?"
"I'll hex you," she teased, looking at the parchment as if they were a new born puppy. Honestly, she thought, if the destruction of her notes always resulted in this situation, she would gladly hand over her notes to Sirius to make more paper sparrows even though it would also make her best friend and dorm mate give ten minute rants about that 'idiotic Sirius Black' and that 'arrogant toerag' who also happened to be her twin brother.