"Save some face, you know you've only got one
Change your ways while you're young
Boy, one day you'll be a man
Oh girl, he'll help you understand."
-Smile Like You Mean it (The Killers)
After my complete and total freak out in the great hall I had been hiding out in my dorm for the weekend and living off the chocolate frogs I had stashed in my trunk for emergencies. My days of being the quiet invisible girl were over now I think, between blowing up the dungeons and having a go at Miss Perfect and the most sought after guy in school, Sirius. Thankfully, Lily lived in the heads' dorms so I didn't have to worry about encountering her. Mary MacDonald and Marlene McKinnon, the girls I shared the dorm with, would whisper when they thought I was asleep about how I was crazier than that Lovegood character who graduated last year and was always warning others about the dangers of Nargles.
That Sunday morning I awoke and from the lack of giggling I figured my dorm mates had left already for breakfast. Stretching my arms and yawning I decided to get up and take a shower; then possibly start working on tutoring plans for Regulus.
Taking my leisurely time in I let the hot water soak into me and felt the anxiety I'd been feeling lately disappear temporarily. When I stepped out of the shower the bathroom was so steamy I had a hard time finding my clothes. Sense I wasn't planning on leaving I just through on an old pair of sweats and an old Chudley Cannon's shirt on. Humming softly to myself I walked out of the bathroom drying my hair with my towel, and…
"OH! What the freaking hell Lupin are you doing here?" Sitting on my bed flipping through my notes was Remus. He really could be nosy git sometimes. He looked up at me startled. This was my dorm and he was startled by me? Like, I said git.
"Why have you been up here all weekend," he asked angrily, not even giving me a chance to respond he continued on. "You missed the Ravenclaw versus Hufflepuff match you had promised to go with me too. Then, you blew off our usual Saturday afternoon study session. Are you mad at me or something?" he finished breathing heavily, his brown eyes pouring into me. I suddenly felt terrible and selfish.
"I'm sorry Remus. I shouldn't have ditched you, it's just I wasn't sure how you would react after the uh incident." I told him earnestly. He ran a hand through his sandy blonde hair before responding.
"I'm proud of you Kay," Remus said in a raspy voice. Wait, what? "You're finally coming out of your shell, and as much as I like Lily I was glad you stood up to her. As for Sirius, he just doesn't want to see you hurt. He knows you're one of my best friends, but he does feel pretty bad for what happened." Remus finished. That surprised me. Not the fact that Sirius cared about me, because I was Remus' friend, but that he actually felt bad about what he said. Huh, who would have thought?
"I didn't have a say in the matter. You know how Minnie is!" I said exasperatedly. This earned a slight smile from Remus.
"I know, I know. Just be careful. Regulus is dangerous; you don't know what he's capable of. He continued." I snorted at this, causing Remus to scoff.
"Seriously Kay." He told me frowning.
"Remus I'll be fine. Regulus barely even spoke at the last meeting; he seems perfectly alright to me. I'm not going to go and treat him like he's a bloody death eater just, because he and his brother don't get along." Once I finished Remus had a slight crease in his forehead like he was thinking of what to say next carefully.
"You put a lot of trust into people who don't necessarily deserve it," Seeing that I was about to interrupt he held up a hand to silence me. "All I'm asking is you be careful please?" He said sincerely.
Rolling my eyes, "I will be dad, I promise. It's not like Regulus will even pay attention to me I'm just the quiet, invisible muggleborn girl he's forced to be tutored by." I said. Remus looked me in the eye and shook his head.
"Katherine Shayne, I don't think you realize how many people do notice you; guys for that matter. They're just put off by how quiet you are, you intimidate them. You're gorgeous, and can kick anyone's arse in a duel." He was blushing at this point. I had never really thought of myself as pretty. I was short, and curvy, with honey colored hair that had no style to it what-so-ever. The only thing I did like about me was my eyes. A muggle boy I dated the summer before fifth year told me he had never seen that color blue before, and that's why I liked them. They were unique. Remus was busying himself arranging my parchment, while I was lost in my thoughts.
"Remmy, trust me I'm a muggle-born. Regulus would never, and I repeat, NEVER be interested in me." My voice had a tone of finality in it, and I knew he wouldn't respond, but I did his brown eyes flash briefly.
After our little discussion in my dorm, we decided to head down to the library for the afternoon and make-up for our missed studying the previous day. Remus even agreed to go to the kitchens with me for supper so I wouldn't have to go into the great hall. It was nice to spend the day with him again.
"McEwen shut that damn thing off!" Marlene mumbled grumpily the next morning as my alarm continued to beep. Rolling over in my bed I smacked it off my nightstand causing a loud crash. Oops! At least it stopped beeping. Godric this was early. I rolled over and shut my eyes again what was supposed to be for only a minute…
"Bloody hell, I'm going to be late!" screamed a panicked Mary MacDonald. I bolted up and looked at my smashed alarm clock. Shit. I jumped out of bed and started pulling my uniform out of my trunk and used my wand to perform a spell to clean my teeth. "Potions' starts in five minutes!" Mary said as she continued to run around like a hippogriff with its head chopped off, and bolted out the door with Marlene fast on her heels. Packing my bag I was right behind them. Thankfully sense we were seventh years we at least knew some short-cuts to get to the dungeons quickly.
Marlene and Mary ran in right ahead of me as the bell rang. Of course they got the last open table. I quickly scanned the room praying that Remus had an open seat next to him. Of course not, a curly blonde-haired Hufflepuff snagged my usual seat next to him. I recognized her as one of the Marauders fan club members. Her name was Maggie or something of that sort. If it wasn't for the fact that I had no one to sit with I would have found the situation pretty funny, seeing as Remus was terrified of the fan girls. They were downright vicious sometimes!
I started to panic. I hated not knowing were to sit and I could feel my anxiety kicking in. Merlin, I really needed to see Madame Pomfrey about a calming draught or something. A booming voice interrupted my panic attack though.
"Miss McEwen, why aren't you sitting down?" I turned to see a walrus, also known as Professor Slughorn, scowling down at me. I wonder if he's still mad about the… "Perhaps if you didn't make others around you fear for their safety you might actually have someone who would allow you to sit with them." He continued in a clipped tone. Yep, definitely still mad. The Slytherins snickered, while Remus had his face scrunched up in outrage and looked like he was about to say something in my defense. He bloody well should too! Leaving me seat-less; thanks to some psycho stalker. In fact most of my Gryffindor classmates looked pretty pissed about Slughorn's snide little remark.
"Professor, she can sit next to me." A male voice said quietly. I whipped around not realizing there had been any open seats. I think everyone's jaws had dropped when they realized who had spoken. All of the Slytherin's looked dumfounded, including their head walrus. I looked at Remus who was glaring, and gave a slight smile as if to say see he really isn't that bad. I heard a slight growl from somewhere to my left. Yes, growl. Sirius was looking between his brother and me with a venomous glint in his eyes. Sometime he really reminded me of a dog for a strange reason.
"Are you sure Mr. Black? I know that's asking a lot of you." Slughorn said. What an arse, I'm not that terrible. Besides he should be thanking me. That stint in the hospital wing made it looked like he had dropped a few pounds. I glanced at Regulus nervously. He just nodded curtly in response to his head of house.
I made my way slowly over there. "Thank you." I said feeling grateful. On my way over I noticed the only other seat open was next to Snape and thinking the destruction of one dungeon had been enough I was counting my lucky stars.
"You're tutoring me it's the least I could do." He said quietly. He started setting up the cauldron and I took that as my key to go and get ingredients for the potion Slughorn had written on the board. The potion didn't seem too hard, but I was terrible at potions. Hopefully Regulus knew what he was doing.
While I was looking for snake fangs, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It was Sirius.
"Why would you willingly be partners with him?" He asked venomously his face extremely close to mine. I must have looked frightened, because his expression softened and his words were kinder the next time he spoke.
"I know I upset you last Friday, and trust me Remus chewed me out right after you left," Remus hadn't mentioned that. "You need to listen to me though. My brother is not someone you want to get involved with in any way shape or form. He's a prejudiced pureblood involved in dark stuff, and you're, well, muggleborn." He continued, I could tell he wasn't trying to offend me, but still.
"I can take care of myself thank you." I said and shrugged his hand off of me. Grabbing the snake fangs I made my way back over to the table, on my way I noticed Lily Evans watching me curiously. Great, that's all I needed. I slammed the ingredients down on the table and opened my book in a huff. Regulus eyed me curiously.
"What did my dear brother say to you?" Regulus asked. He was watching us? I shook my head to signify nothing, and began following the instructions. We worked wordlessly, and surprisingly pretty well together. Alternating the steps between us it was pretty easy. As the fumes from the potion began to drift throughout the dungeon, I mulled over what Sirius had said. Could Regulus really be that awful? It certainly wasn't my place to judge, and it's not like him and I were even friends. If only the stupid spell just would have it Snape I wouldn't even be in this situation. I could still be the quiet Gryffindor that no one knew and live my life in peace.
"Alright, class please hand in a vial of your potion to be graded." Professor Slughorn said. That went by really fast. Regulus automatically scooped up our potion and delivered it to the front of the class, and made his way back to the table.
"Are we still meeting tonight?" He asked.
"Why wouldn't we?" I snapped. These damn Black brothers really got on my nerves. He held up his hands in defense with a slight smile on his face.
"Look I'm sorry I shouldn't have snapped at you, but your brother is driving me insane." I was trying my best to sound apologetic. Regulus' jaw tightened at the mention of his brother. Clearly, there was some tension there.
"Don't listen to anything my dear brother says," he said while scowling at the back of Sirius' head. "Is it alright if we meet at a 7 from now on? I have Quidditch practice after lessons most days."
"Sure, I'll let McGonagall know." He nodded his head curtly and with one last scowl in his brother's direction he bolted out of the classroom. Just then Remus walked silently up to me.
"You want to head to the library with me to get some last minute transfiguration done?" He asked, I could tell he was trying to avoid the topic of my new potions' partner.
"Sure let's go." I said and began dragging him out of the dungeons. On our way James Potter fell into step with us outside of the library, his black hair as messy as ever. James was the only marauder who actually talked to me now and again even when I wasn't with Remus. He was actually a pretty nice guy.
"Hey Moony, Katherine don't mind if I join you do you?" He asked smiling good naturedly. I'm glad he wasn't mad about the Evans incident. Feeling quite happy for some reason I answered him before Remus had the chance.
"The more the merrier!" I began leading the way to my favorite table in the farthest back corner of the library. It was so peaceful. Remus sat next to me and James across from us. We all began pulling out our books and parchment when James broke the silence.
"There's going to be a big victory party in the common room this Saturday, are you going to come Katherine?" Ah the Quidditch match against Slytherin. James always was cocky when it came to sports, not that I could blame him. He was a great chaser, and captain for the Gryffindor house team.
"It's not like I have a choice in the matter. Someone has to supervise you and Sirius." Remus said.
"Sure, why not?" I said with a smile. This seemed to surprise them both.
"Seriously, you'll come?" James asked flabbergasted. I laughed; I really was anti-social; usually choosing to hide out in my dorm avoiding the chaos. Oh well, there's a first time for everything, and it was my last year at Hogwarts. Going to at least one Quidditch victory party seemed like something I should do before I graduated.
"Yes I think I will." Remus gave me a small one armed hug.
"If I would have known just having James ask you to go would have got you too, I would have had him do that a long time ago." Remus teased. I smacked him playfully on the shoulder, while James laughed.
"Oh shut up Remmy." I said knowing full well what would happen.
"I told you not go call me that in front of people!" Remus whined and threw a piece of crumpled up parchment at me.
"Don't worry your secret is safe with me. Remmy." James said with a smirk and picked up the parchment and threw it back at Remus or as he was now known as Remmy; which caused me to start laughing hysterically earning a dirty look from Madam Pince. The look then caused James and Remus to start laughing at me, which turned in to me throwing my quill at Remus; who retaliated by throwing a book at me (which did kind of hurt.) Soon parchment, quills, and James' red ink started flying through the air. It was an all-out war.
Then it happened.
"Out! Get OUT!" Madam Pince screeched swooping down on us like a bird, which made the situation even funnier, because her nose was very 'beak' like. James and Remus seemed to be thinking along the same lines, as they burst out laughing and we were chased out of the library with our possessions bewitched to hit us.
I fell down clutching my side from laughing. While Remus waved his wand and the book that was smacking James in the back of the head repeatedly along with the rest of our items fell to the ground with a clatter. Rubbing the side of his head James stared at me with a wide smile gracing his handsome features.
"I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship McEwen."
Author's Note: Let me know what you think of this chapter! I wanted to show Katherine's friendship with Remus, and the beginning of one with James. I know there wasn't much Regulus in this chapter, but the next one will center around him mainly. Please leave a review!