I heard rapid footfalls and figured it was Slughorn rushing over to the two of us. A second later, he instructed Remus to take me to the Infirmary Wing. He lifted me easily into his arms and rushed to Madam Pomfrey, calling for her after I heard the whoosh of the double doors opening. I never realized how much I depended on my sight until it was gone, I was lost.

Just as I thought that, I registered the excruciating burning sensation all over my face. It felt like I'd submerged myself into hot coals or something. I'd gotten a really bad sunburn when I was twelve and my family went to Italy, and it was only a fraction of what I was feeling now. A whimper of pain escaped my lips before I could stop it and I felt Remus give me a comforting squeeze.

"Remus! What happened?" she asked in a rushed voice. "Lay her here!"

"We were brewing Draught of the Living Dead and it exploded on her face," he explained quickly. "Professor Slughorn said something about her adding the wrong ingredient, but I watched and that wasn't what happened."

"I can't see," I added during a lull in conversation. "And my face is on fire."

She tutted under her breath but didn't say anything to me. I had no idea what was happening until I felt the burning on my face ease. Then she opened my eyes and I felt liquid drop into them, instructing me to close them again after she was finished. Once she told me to keep them that way until she told me to open them, she left me to relax back against the cool cot under me.

When it was quiet and I was pretty sure I was alone, I felt hot tears of embarrassment burning my eyes. I'd been so concerned with showing off that I possibly blinded myself. I also made Remus fail the assignment. I was a total asshole.

"Thea?" Remus asked, his hand finding mine on the bed and holding it in both of his. "Are you okay? Are you in pain?"

Even more embarrassment flooded me when I realized I'd been caught crying. I was literally crying over spilled potion. There was some sort of irony in there, I was just too ashamed to find it.

"No, I'm just overwhelmed by how stupid I was," I replied, figuring lying was out of the question as I wiped the tears from my face. "I was so focused on making those damn Slytherin look bad I wasn't paying enough attention to our potion. I probably made us both fail and I'm so sorry."

He laughed and said, "That's not important. You did it completely right; I don't know why it exploded like that. Actually, you were kind of badass when you were making it. I wish I could be that focused on something."

That made me laugh and reached up with my free hand to touch my face timidly. "At least there aren't any blisters on my face anymore. That would've been painful."

"No, Pomfrey healed them," he told me, his hands retracting from mine. "Facial scars are the worst, right?"

"Don't be a self-depreciative asshole, okay? I'm literally lying blind in a hospital bed right now and we're talking about your issues," I told him drying. "If I could see, I would hit you, you prat."

"There will be no striking anyone, Miss Hathaway," Madam Pomfrey chided, her quick footsteps entering the room with us. "Can you open your eyes for me?"

I slowly forced them open and the light burned so I hissed and closed them again quickly. I reopened them and forced myself to keep them that way as everything slowly came into focus. Remus was a little blurry around the edges, but it was a lot better than earlier.

"I can see, it's blurry though," I told her, looking at her instead of my savior.

"The boiling potion burned your retinas, but I mended them pretty easily. I also healed all your burns and blisters," she told me as she slowly lost her blurriness. "You can return to your classes, the both you."

I nodded and sat up, moving slow so I didn't fall over when I was dizzy. Remus handed me my bag and offered me his arm to help me up. Once I was steady on my feet, I dropped it and we walked back into the castle together after she gave us notes for class.

"I'm heading to transfigurations," he told me. "What about you?"

"Ancient runes," I replied. "Thanks for helping me and I'm apologizing again for making you fail that potion. You probably want to go back to Pryce now."

He shook his head and said, "No way. Whatever grade we got, it had to be better than any marks we ever gotten together."

That made me snort and grip the strap of my bag nervously. Before I could talk myself out of it, I stood on my tiptoes and pressed a kiss to his cheek. His face flamed and it made me smirk, I went from being nervous to being completely in my element.

"Don't pass out on me now, Lupin. I don't think McGonagall will take that as a valid excuse for an absence," I smirked before turning and heading toward my class.


Lacey was all over me the second I told her about my potions' mishap. She brought up something I'd never even thought of –those Slytherin imbeciles messing with my ingredients so they backfired. There was obviously no way to prove this and Slughorn wouldn't believe me if I didn't have any proof, but it made me feel an ounce better. It wasn't necessarily my mistake.

"Those vile, loathsome, little pricks!" she shrieked the second I walked into our common room before launching into her theory.

Word had traveled around the castle about my explosion pretty fast. She warned me it would be the talk of dinner, but I would hold my head up high regardless. Whatever progress I'd made with Sirius and getting him to shag me was probably all undone now, but he couldn't see if faze me.

"I'm in total agreement, but there's no way to get proof," I sighed, flopping onto the couch beside her. "And without proof, none of the professors will believe me, much less Dumbledore."

She knew I was right and sighed along with me, propping her feet up on the table. "Well, have you made any progress with Sirius?"

I sighed dramatically, pinching the bridge of my nose. "No, and I'm sure whatever progress I'd previously made is dashed now. No one wants to shag the school laughing stock."

Lacey shook her head and got up, extending her hands to me. When I took them, she pulled me to my feet and let me go upstairs to sit my bag down before heading to the Great Hall. Not nearly as many eyes flashed to me as I figured, only ones from the Slytherin table. Even if I was a bit put off by their attention, I kept my head held high and held their eye contact -daring the spineless twits to do something.

"You're my hero, Dorothea Renee Hathaway," Lacey told me after we sat down. "That was so badass! You didn't even flinch as they stared you down and laughed! I am so bloody impressed!"

I was going to reply sassily when someone placed their hand on my shoulder from behind. My entire body tensed as I slowly turned to see Remus standing behind me with a sheepish smile on his face. For a moment, I'd feared one of the Slytherins had gotten up and come to hex me or something.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to scare you," he told me. "I was just checking to see how you are."

"Moony, what're you doing?" James asked, coming over to Remus with Sirius and Peter in tow. Then he looked and us and said, "Ladies."

"Good to know you can still see my good-looking face, Hathaway! It would've been a national tragedy if you couldn't," Sirius joked, eyes twinkling at me.

I think if anyone else had said that I would have been very upset, but I was smirking whenever he said it. "Of course, that would be the worst possible outcome, wouldn't it? Not losing my vision forever, just missing out on your mug. I'd just have to feel my way around, wouldn't I?"

That made him and Potter laugh. "You losing your vision is looking more and more promising, if you'll forgive my pun."

"Oh, I didn't even notice the pun," I replied, flipping my curls over my shoulder. "I'd love to give you some private time to teach you how to properly construct one."

"See? I always knew you were more than just a pretty face," he smirked before he and his friends went over to their table.

Sirius had a nice bum to go with everything else nice on his body. I was looking at it and biting my bottom lip when Lacey snorted. I cut my eyes over to her and raised my brows in question.

"I thought only blokes checked out bums…?" she teased, sipping her pumpkin juice to prove her point.

"Did you see how nice his was?" I asked. When she nodded, I continued, "Then I rest my case."

She rolled her eyes but didn't disagree. Thus proving my point that his bum was a treasure for all of us. His puns, however, were not.


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