Later on that morning, Kayla, Josie, Lily, and Maggie walked to their first class of the day, Potions. Kayla was all right at potions, but her favorite subject was Transfiguration. The four girls walked in and found seats at two tables across from each other. Lily and Kayla sat together behind Josie and Maggie. Soon after they were seated, they heard the familiar laughing and chatting of the Marauders. The girls all exchanged glances as the four boys came in and sat at tables beside the girls.
"Want to be my partner?" Sirius asked Josie really loudly. Many heads turned to look at Josie, who began to blush and sank down in her seat.
"No, I don't." she whispered back to him.
"What was that?" he asked.
"I don't want to be your partner." Josie said back, a little louder.
"I'm sorry, I didn't catch that. Say it again." Sirius said with a grin.
"I… don't… want… you… to be ...my …partner!" Josie said slowly and clearly.
"You don't want me to what?" he asked.
"BE MY PARNTER! BE MY PARNTER! How many times do I have to say it!?" Josie yelled. Sirius grinned and shrugged.
"All you had to do was ask." He said, getting up and sitting next to Josie. Josie realized what she had done and put her head down on the table. Kayla and Lily giggled. The door to the potions classroom closed as the last students entered and took their seats and the professor walked to the front of the class.
"Welcome to the first Potions lesson of the year. I am Professor McDung and this is my first year teaching." Sirius and James sniggered at the professor's name. Remus looked as if he were trying to hide a smile. The girls just shook their heads and Josie smacked Sirius in the arm. "I will be assigning partners for each of you." There were several groans of disapproval from the students as their hopes of choosing their own partner were crushed before them. Professor McDung pulled out a roster and started calling out names. When all the names had been called and each student had moved to sit next to their partner, the seating arrangement was slightly less than what was desired. Sirius was still next to Josie, much to her dismay. Lily was fighting to keep James off of her from the moment he sat down next to her. Maggie slid her chair uncomfortably to the left, eyeballing Peter to her right as he sat with his hands in his lap, twiddling his thumbs. Kayla sat with her chin in her hand looking away from Remus who sat beside her, leaning back in his chair with his arms crossed, a scowl painted on his face. Professor McDung put up an easy potion on the board, just to give the students something to work on and to see at what level each student was. Remus set to work on chopping and measuring ingredients while Kayla monitored the cauldron; stirring when necessary, adding ingredients, adjusting the flame.
"Remus, watch the cauldron for a minute. I'm going to see if Professor McDung has any stewed horn slugs." Kayla said, getting up and walking to the teacher's desk. Remus eyed the cauldron and looked at the board to see what the next ingredient was. He carefully added it, but, despite his care, the cauldron emitted a billow of smoke and the potion erupted from the cauldron. Kayla spun around and found Remus standing, dumbfounded, next to their empty cauldron, covered in a bright orange potion. Kayla sighed and grabbed a flask and a stirring stick. She walked up to Remus and scraped some of the potion off of him and into the bottle with the stirring stick, corked it and labeled it. After submitting their potion to the professor, Kayla went back and stood next to a still drenched and dumbfounded (not to mention embarrassed) Remus, and broke down laughing.
The girls didn't have another class with the Marauders that day. Later that evening at dinner, the four girls were sitting, eating, and discussing their classes when the Marauders walked in. All four of them still sported their badly sewn shirts, one, however, was turned a nasty shade of orange that resembled iodine. Remus still looked very upset and put out. Kayla began to feel sorry for him and excused herself from the girls and followed the Marauders to their seat. She sat down next to Remus, who had his back turned to her, and tapped him on the shoulder. Remus turned around and gave her a look that suggested that he was curious as to what she wanted but couldn't care less at the same time.
"Do you still want your shirts fixed?" Kayla asked.
"I think we managed just fine thanks." Remus said indignantly. Kayla sighed.
"Well at least let me change that one back to its normal color." She offered. Remus thought about it for a moment and then shrugged.
"Fine." He said. Kayla smiled and pulled out her wand. She flicked her wrist and muttered a spell and his shirt was back to normal, even the sewn patch was gone. Remus looked down at his shirt and smiled. "Thanks." He said. James and Sirius watched the two interact with mild amusement. Kayla smiled back.
"No problem…by the way…. what happened in potions today?" she asked. Remus blushed slightly.
"I added the last ingredient." He said. Kayla looked confused.
"That's it?" she asked. Remus shrugged. "Wow…you must be really bad at potions then." She said with a chuckle.
"Oh shut up. I'm not that good at it. So what?" he asked defensively. Kayla smiled apologetically.
"Sorry, didn't mean to laugh. Since we're going to be partners, maybe I could help you out with it a bit." She offered. Remus shrugged.
"Whatever." He said.
"You know, I'm making an attempt to be nice here. You could at least pretend to be decent." Kayla said. Remus put on a fake smile.
"Better?" he asked in mock cheer.
"Much." Kayla said, clearly angry. She got up and returned to her seat with the girls.
"What was that all about?" Josie asked Kayla.
"Nothing, just a little heart to heart." Kayla said through gritted teeth. Lily and Josie exchanged glances, but didn't press the subject. A little later, just as the girls had finished eating, James sat down next to Lily.
"You know, Lily. The first Hogsmeade trip is coming up in October. Would you-" James started, but was cut off by Lily.
"I'm not going to Hogsmeade with you, Potter. I'm not going out with you either, so don't ask." She said.
"Did I say that? I just wanted to know if you knew anyone I could go with. But since we're on the subject…" James said, wrapping his arm around Lily's waist. Lily laughed, but tried to hide it and stay angry.
"James, let go of me! I'm not your girlfriend nor will I ever be!" she said, removing his hand from her side.
"What was that? Did-did you just call me…. James?" he asked in fake shock. Lily sighed.
"Yes, I guess I did." James smiled.
"Well that's an improvement. Just wait, Lily Evans. By the end of the year, you'll be my date to Hogsmeade." James said, getting up and returning to his seat next to Sirius.
"Yeah, that'll be the day. He said the same thing to me the beginning of last year. Maybe he thinks the more he says it, the more likely it is to become true." Lily said. The girls laughed and got up to leave the Great Hall.
"I'm going to go to the library for a bit. I'll see you guys back in the dorm later." Kayla said, splitting from the group. She entered the library and scanned the shelves for books, not looking for anything in particular. She found one that struck her interest and pulled it off the shelf and sat down at a table to read. Kayla had gotten a few pages into the book when someone else sat down at the table. She put the book down to see who it was. She raised an eyebrow when she saw Remus grinning at her from the other side of the table.
"Read that one first year." He said, pointing to the book.
"Fascinating." Kayla said with little interest.
"Listen…I wanted to apologize about what happened in the Great Hall. It hasn't been a very good day for me." Remus apologized. He sounds sincere. Kayla thought, but she didn't care.
"So you took it out on me? Glad to know I'm good for something." She said. Remus sighed.
"Look, I said I was sorry. What else do you want from me? You expected me to be cheery with you during dinner, you're coming off as a bit of a hypocrite by not doing me the same decency of at least pretending." Remus said, starting to get annoyed.
"As I recall, after I said that you plastered on a fake smile that greatly resembled the face one makes when being examined by a dentist. Not exactly something that would merit much treatment at a higher level." Remus sighed.
"Alright, again I'm sorry. I want to start over. We had a good run for about five minutes when we met. Maybe we can try at that again." Kayla was sure that he was sincere this time. She sighed and put down her book.
"Alright. Let's start over." She reached out her hand, which Remus took and shook. "I'm Kayla Baxter." She said with a smile. Remus smiled back.
"Nice to meet you Kayla. I'm Remus Lupin." Kayla giggled and let go of his hand.
"I let go this time." She said. Remus laughed. "Remus…why did you offer to show me where my trunk was?" she asked. Remus sat back in his chair and thought for a moment.
"Honestly…I wanted to get to know you without my friends around. Get some time with you by myself." He said. Kayla grinned.
"So you showed me the way to the end of the hallway. Could have found that one myself." She said with a grin.
"It was an uncharacteristically stupid moment for me. At least I help you carry the trunk. Could have just let you struggle." He said, leaning on his arms over the table.
"I would have popped a vein in my head before we got the trunk out of the room. Wouldn't have been very gentlemanly of you. And besides, I would have gotten blood on the floor. Then where would we be?" she asked with a giggle. Remus chuckled.
"On our hands and knees with a bucket and rags." Kayla laughed.
"Honest labor builds a good character. Might have done us some good." She said. Remus grinned.
"Wouldn't have done you any good." He said.
"Excuse me? Why do you have to do that? We were having a perfectly good moment and then you had to go and-" Kayla began to argue in a loud whisper, but was cut off by Remus.
"You didn't let me finish. I was going to say that it wouldn't have done you any good. You have a fine character as it is, I don't think it can get any better." He said with a grin. Kayla leaned back in her chair and looked down, trying to hide her blushing face.
"Oh…sorry…that's not how it sounded, just so you know." She said softly. Remus shrugged. There was a moment of awkward silence. I'm sure he's trying to hit on me now. This is just what Lily and Josie were trying to tell me. I've had guys hit on me before…I'm full of smart comments to throw out whenever a guy hits on me…and Remus hasn't been the kindest to me since we've been at school…so why am I having so much trouble getting one out? Kayla thought to herself. "Just say it!" she scolded herself out loud.
"Say what?" Remus asked. Kayla realized that she had actually said that rather than just thinking it and blushed again.
"Nothing…I was talking to myself." She said.
"Oh and what were you telling yourself to say?" Remus asked. Without thinking, Kayla opened her mouth and said the first thing that came to mind.
"The problem with guys like you is you think with your dicks and not your hearts. Go find some other piece of ass to drool over." She said with an American accent. Remus looked taken aback and Ani slapped her hand over her mouth in utter shock that she had said that.
"Ouch." Remus said, sitting back in his chair.
"I'm so sorry…" she said weakly.
"Wow…well then…I guess I'll be leaving. See you in the common room I guess." Remus had a mixture of shock and confusion written on his face. He got up and walked out of the library, glancing back at Kayla who stared after him with her mouth still covered. You didn't have to say that! Her mind scolded her. Kayla got up and ran after Remus. She hadn't meant to say that. She caught up with him just as he was climbing one of the moving stairwells.
"Remus! Wait!" Kayla called. Remus stopped and turned around.
"What?" he asked.
"I'm sorry." Kayla said simply. Remus nodded.
"Apology accepted." He said and turned around and started walking again.
"Wait! I want to talk to you." Remus reluctantly stopped and turned around.
"Talk then." He said. Kayla sighed.
"I didn't mean to say that. It's just…you hit on me and when guys back home used to do it I would throw out a remark like that without any hesitation…I was yelling at myself for not being able to say something like that to you. For some reason I couldn't do it." Kayla apologized.
"You didn't seem to have too much trouble with it." Remus said. Kayla shook her head.
"I shouldn't have said it. I didn't mean it…it just sort of came out. I'm really sorry. Please don't be upset with me. I really want to try again. You seem like a really nice guy. I want the chance to get to know you better." Remus sighed.
"Alright…insult me again, though, and I'm going to have to hex you." Remus warned with a hint of playfulness to his voice. Kayla smiled.
"I'll keep that in mind." Kayla said. She climbed the stairs the rest of the way to catch up with Remus and the two walked the rest of the way together. The two received a common room full of strange looks when they walked in talking and laughing together. After one day the two had already managed to have a reputation of hating each other. Kayla tried to pay the looks no mind, though, and joined Lily and Josie on the couch.
"Are you alright?" Josie asked. Kayla nodded.
"Yeah why?" she asked.
"Were you not just talking with Remus a moment ago?" Lily questioned. Kayla chuckled.
"Yeah I was. So what?" she asked.
"I thought you hated him." Josie said. Kayla shrugged.
"We had a talk and talked some things out and decide to start over." She said. Josie and Lily shrugged.
"Whatever." They both said.
"So when's the wedding?" Sirius asked Remus as he walked up to join them at the table he and James were playing Wizard's Chess. Peter took his eyes off the chessboard for the first time when Remus walked up.
"What are you talking about?" Remus asked, pulling up a chair and sitting opposite Peter.
"You and Baxter. You two seemed pretty chatty a moment ago. I was just wondering when the wedding was going to be." Sirius continued. Remus laughed.
"When pigs fly." He said.
"I can make that happen." James said calmly.
"Not a chance. I'm not in love with the girl." Remus said with a laugh.
"But you like her. I can tell. I remember that look, the one you give Kayla whenever she's not making your life hell. I remember it from when you dated-" James started. Remus cut him off.
"I don't give her any look. I don't like her like that. Stop pushing. If I want to ask her out, I will." Remus said. James and Sirius shrugged.
"Whatever, mate." Sirius said. The two went back to their game as Remus looked on.
"I think she's pretty." Peter said after a few moments of silence. The three looked up at him.
"Do you?" Remus asked. Peter nodded. Remus shrugged. "She's alright I guess. Doesn't mean I'm gonna ask her out, though." Remus said. Sirius and James finished their game in silence except to call out the moves, and the sounds of game pieces being crushed (and the occasional curse from either James or Sirius).