.

One Shot 3: Fights, Realizations and Magical Creatures

November 1974

"You're staring at Gamp again aren't you, mate?" Sirius whispered to Remus as the two of them gathered outside near a large blue fire for another Care of Magical Creatures class.

"Her hair looks nice today," Remus shrugged, but his cheeks were red. Eve's hair was in the ponytail that it always was, but it was the only excuse he could think of. James and Peter soon joined them with the former heartily squeezing the light haired wizard's shoulder.

"Need some help?" Before Remus could object, James cupped his hands over his mouth. "Oi, Gamp! Remus says your hair looks nice and that he wouldn't mind snogging you!"

Remus was mortified and wanted desperately to crawl underneath the biggest rock he could find. James' shouting earned a couple of snickers from a few of the other students. "I-I didn't say that, Eve! I mean...I like it...your hair I mean...not snogging. I mean...snogging is nice, but not with you! Crap! I didn't mean it like that!"

James, Sirius, and Peter were trying to hold back laughter at the fact that their friend was getting flustered.

Eve's cheeks turned a very light pink for a brief moment before she regained her composure, her lips forming a grin. "You guys stop teasing him, eh?"

Sirius stopped laughing long enough to speak. "Eh, sorry, mate. It's just pretty funny the way you get so flustered whenever we even mention her." He nodded towards Eve who was now talking to Marlene, unaware that she kept glancing over whenever the Marauders weren't looking her way.

"She's all right," James shrugged, but not as pretty as Evan."

"Speaking of which…" Peter muttered, nodding towards a pair of students approaching and James' face turned sour when he noticed it was Lily approaching with Snape.

"What does ol' greasy Snivellus have that I don't?" James muttered as he ruffled his hair to make it look messier than it usually did.

Sirius lifted a finger, pretending to think for a moment. "I got nothing." He then drew his wand. "How about we have a little fun before old Kettleburn gets here?"

James smirked and drew his own mahogany wand. "You read my mind."

"You guys really shouldn't," Remus warned them. "You'll get points taken away from Gryffindor again. Remember what happened last time with the toads?"

But Sirius had already flicked his wand. "Melofors!" A large pumpkin encased Snape's head, which made the two darker haired Marauders collapse with laughter.

"Black, you unbelievable git!" She muttered the counter-spell and flicked her wand, freeing Snape. Once freed, Snape stepped in front of Lily and shot a Stinging Jinx at Sirius, but he deflected it and James followed through with a Colloshoo Hex, which forced Snape's feet to become stuck to the ground.

Lily's green eyes flared with anger as she pointed her wand at James. "Engorgio Skullus!" James' head began to inflate to twice the size it normally was.

"You've always had such a big head, Potter. Let's see how you like carrying one around for real!" she said haughtily, her hands on her hips.

Eve had been watching the exchange with Marlene and couldn't take it anymore. With Kettleburn not there at the moment, she felt like someone had to step in. The two glanced at each other, communicating with one another using only looks, although Marlene seemed more reluctant. "Can't believe we're actually helping that slimy git. He deserves what he's getting in my opinion."

"Still, we should put a stop to it before it gets really bad and before Kettleburn finds them in the middle of it." Eve first used the counter-jinx and returned James' head to normal, then quickly disarmed him and Sirius with two quick Expelliarmus spells back to back. Defensive spells were something she had picked up rather quickly in her Defense Against The Dark Arts Classes, mastering a few of them after a bit of practicing.

Marlene muttered a few curses and freed Snape from the Colloshoo Jinx before also disarming Lily and him with the same two spells.

Snape shot a disgusted look towards the two girls. "You two stay out of this! Especially you, Gamp! You're just a pathetic Hufflepuff! And you!" He glared at Marlene. "You're supposed to be on my side! Where's your Slytherin pride?"

Marlene held her head up high. "I don't side with those who give Slytherin its bad reputation, Snape! I side myself with those who have much better things to do than constantly get into fights with someone just because they were insulted a few times!"

Before Marlene could return with another insult, everyone fell silent as Kettleburn approached, hobbling on his two false legs. No one had ever thought to ask how he'd lost his real ones and often came up with their own stories as to how it happened. Other students felt it might have been too rude to ask.

"Regardless of what animosity you hold towards each other, you lot are here to learn, not throw spells at each other. Ten points from Gryffindor, Hufflepuff and Slytherin and all six of you will receive detention! Yes, Miss McKinnon, even you and Miss Gamp. Even though the two of you did try to put a stop to it, you still raised your wands against your fell wizard and were involved. You're not omitted. All six of you will be serving detention with me this evening and helping me out with a nasty Doxy infestation that has invaded one of the empty classrooms on the fifth floor."

James and Sirius smirked at one another. They got detention just about every other week, so this was nothing new to them, but Lily shot them both dirty looks and picked up hers and Snape's wand. "Thanks a lot you two," she muttered to James and Sirius. "If you two hadn't been so adamant about attacking Severus for no reason, this wouldn't have happened. Now we all have detention."

James winked at her. "You love it, really."

Eve was relieved when Kettleburn cleared his throat and began the lesson because it looked like Lily would have set James' head on fire if he said one more thing to her. If he was trying to impress her, that wasn't the way to go about it. Then again, it was impossible to tell him that as he often failed to hear his own flaws.

"Now, I'm sure you're all wondering what this fire is for," Kettleburn said as he stoked the fire with a long fire poker. "Today we'll be learning about Salamanders. Who can tell me what exactly these are?"

Eve, who had read about these creatures in her Fantastic Beasts book immediately raised her hand. "Salamanders are small fire dwelling lizards that feed on flames. They're born out of special fires called Salamander fires and usually appear red or blue based on the heat of the flames. They only live as long as the fires that breed them, but can survive for up to six hours outside of their flames if they're fed pepper."

Kettleburn rubbed his chin with his good arm. "A little more than I asked for, but still correct nonetheless. Good job, Miss Gamp. Five point to Hufflepuff."

Eve was hoping it would've been ten points so that she could earn back what she'd lost a few minutes ago. But even if she did, there was still the detention.

"The amount of time it takes these little fellows to be born depends on how hot the fire is. Salamander blood is also quite special as it has very useful healing properties. Although, extracting the blood from a Salamander should only be attempted by a professional wizard with knowledge in the field of magical creatures. Now! For today's lesson, you're all going to be breaking off into groups of two and feeding pepper to the Salamanders as they emerge from the fire." He waved his wand and conjured a crate of pepper grinders. "There's enough for everyone to each have one grinder."

Everyone scrambled to get a pepper grinder from the crate with James discreetly using a jinx to make Snape trip over his own two feet as he attempted to follow Lily.

With a sigh, Eve approached and walked up to Snape, holding out a hand to help him up. He roughly slapped her hand out of the way. "I don't want your help, filthy blood-traitor!" he hissed as he stood up, brushing off his robes and stormed off towards the crate.

Marlene stepped forward and put a comforting hand on Eve's shoulder, her wand drawn. "Want me to hex him? Kettleburn's back is turned. I could remove his fingers for you or give him a nice set of pimples to go with that greasy look he's got going on." She smirked.

"Huh? Don't be silly! You'll get into trouble again."

Marlene shook her head, but pocketed her wand. "I swear, sometimes you Hufflepuffs are too nice."

"We're not nice, we just like to avoid confrontation when possible." She picked up two pepper grinders and handed one to Marlene.

"Well, whatever. But listen, why don't you partner up with Lupin for this." Marlene gave her friend a knowing smile. "You know you want to."

"Actually, I don't. Besides, you know I always partner with you during our Care of Magical Creatures lessons."

Marlene rolled her eyes and gave Eve a light shove towards Remus. "Stop arguing and go do it. I'll partner with Pettigrew." She had that commanding tone that made it hard for Eve to say no.

"All right, all right." Still, she couldn't help smiling as she approached Remus. He'd grown considerably over the past few years that Eve had been friends with him at Hogwarts. She always thought him to be very cute when they were eleven to thirteen. But now, in their fourth year and at the age of fourteen, he had grown considerably more handsome as he began the process of crossing the threshold from a boy into a young man.

Eve couldn't help staring at his features, memorizing them. While he was still thin and she felt the urge to feed him and take care of him, he had filled out considerably, his shoulders a little more broad than they'd been last year. His hair might not have been as long and shaggy as Sirius', but it still often fell into his eyes, and sometimes Eve had to stop herself from reaching over and brushing away the fringe.

"Hey, you." Eve grinned once she was close enough to him. "Think you'd want to be my partner for this lesson?" she asked. "Marlene said she wouldn't mind partnering with Peter."

Peter looked both shocked and confused. Marlene was one of the prettiest girls in the entire school and rarely noticed pudgy uninteresting boys like him. Remus rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

"I usually partner with Peter, but I guess...if it's all right with him."

But Peter was already making his way towards Marlene. He was not about to waste this opportunity. Remus and Eve shared a laugh together while watching the short mousy boy practically jog over to Marlene.

The two of them stood at one side of the fire waiting for a Salamander to emerge, their pepper grinders clutched tightly in their hands. Standing this close to Eve, Remus could smell her mint and tea leaves shampoo along with the scent of earth and grass that was always around her. She smelled like the outdoors, which wasn't surprising since that's where she spent most of her time.

"Been reading or studying outside again?" He indicated the bits of grass on her blouse and skirt.

Eve smiled sheepishly, blushing. "Well it's better than a stuffy library. You know I can't concentrate with Madame Pince breathing down my neck the entire time to make sure I don't burn a hole into the books by just looking at them. Plus the fresh air helps me think better and I like listening to the sound that the wind makes through the trees and watching the sun shine down on the lake and making the water shimmer like diamonds."

Remus chuckled. "I get it, I get it. What about sleeping outside? Didn't you say you always wanted to do that?"

Eve tugged at her dark brown ponytail, looking a little embarrassed for a moment. "Well, I tried that not too long ago. I managed to make it past the prefects with my invisibility cloak, but I ended up knocking over one of the statues that was beside the oak door and was caught by the Head Boy who was passing along. Had to clean out the chamber pots in the Hospital Wing for a week just for that. I about never got the smell off."

"It sounds like a shitty job." Remus grinned at his own joke, making Eve laugh.

"Right? Still, those chamber pots never looked shinier," Eve said proudly, able to find the silver line in even the most disgusting task.

She had a pretty smile, Remus noticed before looking away again. They were just friends. There was no way he could let himself get that close to her, considering what he was. His other friends may no what he was, but he couldn't put her through that. He didn't want to even imagine her reaction if she were to find out. He took a deep breath, pushing the emerging feelings deep down to the pit of his stomach. Just as he did that, the Salamanders began emerging from the fire and Remus was glad for the distraction.

"They're really kind of cute, aren't they?" Eve said as a Salamander wandered away from the flames and began approaching her. She used the pepper to distract it, watching as it enjoyed the small feast. Remus did the same with another Salamander before stoking the fire to make sure it was kept strong.

"They would make good pets, aside from having to worry about your house burning down and you bursting into flames if they touch you."

"Well, I know they're not practical as pets. You'd have to be insane to try and have just one in your house. Still, they're so interesting the way they're born from fire like that and how they rely on that same fire to stay alive as long as possible. But it's also kind of sad…." She frowned.

Remus tilted his head. "Sad?"

"Well, yeah. You can keep the fire going for a long time, but not forever, and especially not for a set number of years. They have to live such short lives and it's terrible."

"Maybe they have such short lifespans in order to prevent overpopulation," Remus explained. "If not for the set lifespan they have, there would be so many of them and they would become even more dangerous than they already are with fires starting everywhere all over the country."

Eve frowned. "Well, maybe. But I still think they deserve better than what they get so far. It's not fair."

"Life is never fair for both creatures and humans," Remus muttered darkly, his smile dropping.

"What is it, Remy?"

Remus cleared his throat, his smile returning, but it didn't quite reach his eyes. "Nothing, Eve. Just me overthinking again like usual."

Eve looked at him, bewildered for a few moments and seemed like she wanted to say something else, but Remus was saved when a Salamander came a bit too close and set the hem of Eve's robes on fire. She managed to extinguish the flames with an Aqua Eructo charm before they spread and caused any real damage.

"Reparo!" Remus used the repairing spell to fix her robes returning them to good as new.

"Thanks!" Eve smiled, making Remus' heart do an involuntary flipflop. He couldn't swallow due to his mouth being dry and couldn't wait for the class to be over. Fortunately, that time came soon enough and Eve and Remus parted ways with Eve heading to History of Magic and Remus going straight to Charms.

James threw an arm around Remus' shoulder and Sirius ruffled his hair. "I bet you enjoyed that lesson, eh Remy?" James teased, calling Remus by the affectionate nickname that Eve used for him.

Remus pushed him away. "Come off it, you two. Eve and I are just good friends, that's all."

"Right, mate, and Snivellus actually washes his hair," Sirius joked. Remus found himself laughing along with his three friends as they made their way to Charms class.

Author's Note: I have a few more one-shot highlights planned out, but I'm also going to be starting on the main story quite soon, which I'm excited about as I've been planning it out for quite a while now. I'm hoping it turns out well as it's been a good while since I've written a Marauders based story.