Disclaimer: I do not own any of J.K. Rowling's characters, plot lines, etc., only my own. I simply write out of admiration of the books.
"Alright! Come on ladies, up and at em!" Lily's shrill tone was enough to make Clara groan. She was never too fond of mornings and she wanted nothing more than curl back under her covers.
"But mom..." Clara fake whined.
"Let's go." This time Clara pulled herself up and made her way to the restroom. She only half tried to make her face presentable and straightened her very unflattering robes and made her way to the dorm door. Lily looked bright-eyed and pristine as she always did, and it was enough to make Clara a bit jealous. She was short and a bit frumpy, and her hair still grew pink for she had long given up on trying to dye it a natural color. She grumpily sat at the table as she stared at her oatmeal.
"Oh come on cheer up. At least we'll be in N.E.W.T classes and won't be with people who don't care about classes." Lily had endless energy and endless talent. However she was looking forward to learning more but mainly to be prepared. The world was getting scarier everyday and she wanted to feel confident in her abilities to protect herself. She finished whatever she could at breakfast and grabbed her timetables for the day. Her morning was her harder classes including charms, astronomy, and history of magic which were all before lunch and it was going to be an exhausting morning. She had Charms with Alice first thing in the morning which wasn't an awful way to start the day. Professor Flitwick was always clear and concise, it helped that Clara had a knack for charms and that she was allowed to work with Alice.
"By Friday I would like 12 inches of parchment on a review of your O.W.L. level charms and you'll each have to chose one to demonstrate. Class dismissed." He said releasing the students.
"What do you have next? Please say Astronomy" Clara said hopefully.
Alice frowned. "Sorry Clar, it's my free period" Clara sighed
"Alright, see you at lunch."
Clara had to cross all the way to the other side of the school just to make it on time to the Astronomy tower. She always preferred to sit in the back during Astronomy but apparently all the other students had the idea before she did. Clara slipped into a seat near the window and sighed. She saw a couple of younger students sit on the lawn, it was a beautiful day.
"Is this seat taken?" Clara looked next to her. It was Remus.
"No, go ahead." she said gesturing towards the seat. Clara, who was normally quite interested in star charts and patterns, mindlessly did her work without much thought.
"Psst." Remus whispered. "Clara"
"Hmm" she said looking at him.
"I have to visit my mum on Friday, she's uh sick. Is there anyway you could copy notes for me. If not it's alright." he said nervously.
"Of course." she said, she felt bad for him. They made their way out of the classroom eagerly, in order to make it to their next class on time.
"Oh and Remus!" she called to him.
"Yeah?"
"I hope she feels better."
"Huh?" he questioned.
"Your mum I mean." She was worried that she made a trip up.
"Oh yeah, thank you." he said shyly.
History of Magic was her slowest class as usual but it was all worth it when her free period before lunch came up. Clara gladly sat underneath a tree at the Black Lake. She was making serious headway on this charms essay and was quite content with herself. At this rate if she worked through lunch she wouldn't even have to worry about it till Friday. Unfortunately, everyone was extremely chatty after their first classes of the day and her charms essay stayed tucked away in her bag. There would be plenty of times this year when everyone would be rushing to study or work during lunch and Clara was in no hurry to already start on the first day.
"Okay so Mar we have astronomy together last." Alice said stretching across the table looking over Marlene's time table.
"Lily, I think we have Defense together and Potions!" Clara said excitedly.
"Oh thank goodness! I've barely had any classes with anyone I know today!" she cried with relief.
"Shoot. I better get going so I can get a good seat in McGonagall's!" Clara hurriedly finished her food and gathered up her belongings. Transfiguration was her favorite class and whether she'd admit or not McGonagall was her favorite professor. She was stern but caring and had always seemed to take a shining to Clara. She had made it fairly early and was able to grab a seat in the front but before she could get situated McGonagall approached her.
"Miss Merden." she said.
"Yes Professor?"
"I'm afraid I'm assigning seats this year in order to match students who have different strengths to work together." She began "Your seat..." she said looking down at her clipboard." is over there" she finished pointing at seat in the center of the second to last row.
Clara nodded in understanding, quietly moving her things. She could only hope her seat mates were hardworking students. It was a higher class so she assumed that at least the students she would be working with would be willing to work. Just then two people slid in to the seat on either side of her and needless to say she was not feeling lucky.
"Listen Prongs all I'm saying is that if we go tonight then no one will expect-"
"But Filch is always more on edge the first night and you know that but -"
Clara looked at James and Sirius sit down next to her as if their whispering was actually fooling everyone. They went on for several more minutes like that. She spoke up as a last ditch effort that her table partners were some kind of mistake.
"She's assigning seats this year." she said opening her textbook.
"And you're looking at your assigned seat partners." Sirius quipped. Great. she thought. Just dandy.
Luckily her first day wasn't too bad, Sirius had fallen asleep and James actually looked intrigued in the lesson. She was hopeful that these would not be their seating arrangements all year as she sank into her seat because if so it was gonna be such along year.
The first few weeks of school were hectic as always. Routines were all out of shape, students were still rowdy from summer and people were all trying to throw together their best Qudditch teams. Clara barely had time to catch her breath, between her course load, Qudditch practice starting, and her mother's sister had started her yearly letters. Ever since Clara had resurfaced in the magical world her pureblood aunt had been trying to collect her into the family way. She would talk about the protection her family could offer and the comfort she could provide Clara after school. She had no idea Clara knew of her parent's radical nature and perhaps saw her as an asset to the upcoming war. She had never actually met her aunt but her cousin was in Slytherin and often would add subtle reminders of her aunt's offers. However Clara was not that stupid, she was not going to willingly walk into the arms of the Dark Lord's supporters no matter how many times she hated her living situation. No one knew of their relation or her connection to that world and ishe was thankful for using her muggle parents last name. As far as anyone knew, she was a muggle-born. However, none of that mattered right now, because all anyone could talk about was Hogsmede and who was going with who. There were even not mentions of muggle attacks that Friday before the first Hogsmede trip.
"Look at her Prongs, she's ignoring our presence. I don't think she likes working with us very much." Clara had about had it up to here with Sirius Black's and James Potter's snarky remarks about their seat partners.
"Well she might but it's hard to tell." James said.
"Well," she said without looking up. "She has a name, and She can speak for her self. Crazy. I know." They both cracked a smirk at her,
"Well Merden? What's the answer? Do you like working with us?" Sirius asked.
"You know to have an opinion on working with you, you actually have to you know, work?" she remarked at their lack of help.
"You misspelled that word." James teased to which she just sent him daggers.
"Just finish off the report." she exasperated. "Correctly" she added.
"Woman of little faith." he acted hurt.
"I wonder why" she rolled her eyes.
"So, who are you going to Hogsmede with this weekend?" James angled, she knew what he was getting at. She played along.
"Hmm, and why are you curious?"
"I'm hurt. I can't inquire about my best friends' plans?" James joked.
"Oi! What about me?" Sirius protested.
" Don't even think about it! For your information, Lily already has a date this weekend and I'm going to let you know that you two pretending to be my friend won't get Potter a date with her." Clara said exasperated and stormed out of the classroom. She didn't know why it got to her, she knew these were their personalities but she hated the thought of being used. So maybe it was her hot temper that got her involved in what had happened when she stormed out of Transfiguration that day. She saw a group of Slytherins in the hallway enchanting a first year Ravenclaw's books and Clara stormed towards them with no plan in mind.
"If your so clever then get them back from us" one of them called to the boy.
"Hey!What's the big idea?" Clara shouted at them, crossing her arms. " Just leave him alone!"
"Oooh and what's a high and mighty Gryffindor Prefect gonna do?" Idiots she thought. That's all they could come up with.
"Listen." she said unenchanting his books. But it was obvious they weren't as they pushed him to the floor.
"It's obvious your kind can't stick up for themselves" he spat. Clara rushed over to the muggle-born boy as he looked petrified.
"And what exactly is my kind? Good and decent people?" she retorted to him. She didn't realize the situation caught James and Sirius' attention.
"What are you suggesting you filthy -" he began but was interrupted when a cocky Sirius Black interrupted.
"What's going on here?" he smirked.
"Well if it isn't the infamous blood traitor. It doesn't surprise me that you're standing up for this mudblood." the words rolled off Clara's back.
"Hey! I'm pretty sure we could wipe those grins off you face!" James shouted as he protested reaching for his wand.
"Hey! Hey! Unless you both would like to explain to your houses why you lost points then I suggest you get to class." she stood in-between the boys. She saw the Slytherins scowl and mutter "mudblood" one more time before running off as Professor McGongall poked her head out of her classroom.
"Are you okay? Do you need to go to Madam Pomfrey?" she asked the Ravenclaw boy
"No."he looked like he was going to cry but obviously didn't want to in front of some older students. "Hey. It's okay. You're a lot braver than me." this made him smile.
"Yeah, don't listen to them they don't know what they're talking about." Sirius called to the boy. She was surprised at his attempt to comfort him. "They're just angry because you have cooler house colors than them." he added. After the boy laughed Clara sent him on his way.
"Good kid" Sirius said but Clara was upset.
"What was that?" she asked. They looked at her confused.
"Huh?" James questioned.
"We just stood up for you?" Sirius retorted.
"And almost made us lose house points and start a full out duel in the hallway." she was not in the mood
"The proper response would be "thank you" Merden." Sirius said annoyed.
"I can stand up for myself." and she turned on her heels and stormed away from them the second time that day.
Breakfast Saturday morning didn't do much to make her feel better.
"You mean you ALL have dates today." Clara whined.
"We're sorry Clar, I didn't realize this would happen. Please tell me you're still going?" Marlene said squeezing her shoulders. The realization had just hit Clara that all her friends had dates for the first trip to Hogsmede and she was left with no one to go with.
"Maybe, I don't know, I'm sure I can find someone." Clara reassured.
"I mean I'm sure Frank would understand if I canceled." Alice said
"No. Absolutely not." Clara protested."Listen, I'm fine. You guys have fun." she felt like a mother.
"We'll make it up to you."
"Promise."
Clara sat at the table by herself to finish her breakfast. There were people she could move to sit with but she didn't bother mid-meal. She enjoyed the silence for the 5 minutes it lasted.
"Do you mind if we join you?" it was Remus, with James, Peter, and Sirius in tow. She nodded her head slowly.
"Are you going to Hogsmede today?" he asked trying to avoid what was coming.
"No. I don't think so." she said quietly.
"Well your in luck then." James piped up in his usual cocky manner that caught her off-guard.
"We've decided to forgive you." Sirius smirked.
"Oh? and what did I need to apologize for?" she said agitated.
"It's not important. Because we've decided to invite you to come hang out in Hogsmede with us today." Sirius said. She rolled her eyes.
"Hmm let me think. No thanks." she said getting ready to leave.
"Oh come on. You'll have fun." Remus spoke up now. They couldn't be serious. Her going to Hogsmede with people she was barely friends with?with the Marauders?
"I'm fine." she said but as she spoke the group of Slytherins that made fun of her yesterday sent her a dirty look, it made her a little worked up. "Besides I got a lot of work to do and..."
"It's Saturday. Look Clara, I'm sorry about yesterday. I really am but I didn't do it because you're friends with Lily. They were being jerks, now you can lay around all day moping or you can join us and have some fun. But either way it's not us you should be mad at." she was taken back by James' serious tone.
"As I recall we were on your side." Sirius said, surprisingly without an ounce of sarcasm in his tone for once.
"Yeah!" Peter added, speaking for the first time.
"I'm only sorry I didn't get to sock him in the nose. But James is right Merden, I think we're the better option." Sirius said with a full mouth.
"I think what he means is.." Remus began. "Is what do you say?"
Clara took in the group for a moment, looking from boy to boy. She really didn't want to spend her day alone but she was a bit skeptical. Maybe this was some ploy to get in with Lily but for some reason Clara wanted to trust that James and Sirius were trying to help her yesterday, especially when Sirius tried to comfort that boy. She couldn't believe what came out of her mouth next.
"Alright. What's the plan?" They all looked at her with grins.
Thanks for reading the second chapter! I hope you guys like it! As always I love hearing from you guys in reviews and I'm having fun writing it so let me know! Thanks again!