Change My Mind

An Unintentional Distraction

"Sirius, you three are my best mates, but you're entirely distracting and I refuse to sit with you," Remus sighed as he looked around the library, which was unusually full. He guessed it must have been due to the heavy workload that seemed to come across them that week; even he was overwhelmed. Remus knew he had a lot of work to do, and if he sat with his three best friends, he would accomplish nothing.

"But Moony," Sirius whined, drawing out his friend's name, "where else will you sit?"

Remus shrugged as he searched the large room for a place to take a seat. It seemed that every table in sight was occupied by at least one student. Though there were many unoccupied seats, he thought it would be strange to sit down between a few students he hadn't even talked to before. His eyes finally set on a table with a single, familiar student—Ariadne Golding. She didn't seem to mind that she was alone. She had a few books sprawled out on the table in front of her, and she appeared to be swinging her legs back and forth underneath her chair. Sitting with her wouldn't be quite so awkward, he thought. So with a goodbye to his friends, he made his way over to her table, and cautiously plopped down in the seat across from her.

"Hello, Remus," she said in her usual soft voice. The phrase was becoming all too familiar to his ears.

"Hello, Ariadne," he began, "I hope you don't mind."

"Not at all," she grinned, "I quite like the company, as a matter of fact. You look well, today."

Remus felt himself relax, "I feel much better."

Her eyes twinkled with happiness. "That's lovely. I can't imagine that there's very much that Madam Pomfrey can't fix, though."

He nodded, "I reckon you're right."

A comfortable silence fell upon them, and his eyes moved from hers to the table as he opened his book. Looking down at the work in front of him, he realized she had quite a few pieces of parchment spread out under her books—they were so large and plentiful that they overlapped and intertwined with each other, so intricately that he was afraid he'd rip one if he attempted to pull it out of the pile. So instead, he asked, "What are you working on?"

"Oh, I'm looking over some old astronomy notes that I expect will help me on an upcoming assessment."

So they were charts, he thought. "You're taking astronomy?" He didn't know why the thought seemed so weird to him—surely there had to be some N.E.W.T students in astronomy, but he had never really thought about it; the class didn't seem particularly useful.

"Of course," she said as if it were a silly question. Remus realized that it was. "I find it particularly interesting. Stars are quite fascinating, you know."

Remus looked at her with curiosity, and that was all she needed to continue.

"Well, a star is really nothing more than a massive luminous ball of gas. Still, people find meaning in them; as if they hold all the answers to the past, the present, even the future. They believe that what could be a totally random placement is filled with purpose: to form pictures, or constellations. It's interesting, really, that people have seen so many pictures by the stars. I'd think you'd have to have a pretty ingenious imagination to see them."

"I never thought of it that way," Remus admitted with a small smile.

"Well I'm glad I could enlighten you," she replied. There was a moment of still silence between the two, though it was soon broken by a low, rumbling growl. "Oh my," she said, then looked down at her stomach and patted it once with her left hand. "I believe I'm hungry."

Remus laughed, amused at her complete lack of embarrassment. "You should probably head down to dinner, then, before it's all gone."

"I'm afraid I must agree with you," she said, then carefully gathered her things—rolling the charts one by one—and placed them in her bag. "Good night, Remus," she smiled.

"Good night," he smiled in return and she headed out of the library, stopping to offer a very brief "hello" to a table that seated Xenophilius Lovegood and a few other Ravenclaws, before she left for good.

"Oi, Moony," Sirius called from a few tables back. Remus turned his head to see his three best friends looking at him incredulously. "What happened to no distractions?" Sirius wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, James winked, and Peter burst into laughter—earning the group a rough "Quiet!" from the librarian. Remus rolled his eyes but blushed nonetheless.

Emmeline took precious time away from her studying to glare at the rather noisy and distracting encounter. Leave it to Black to disrupt and infuriate her even in the library; she was fed up with him and his complete disregard of the feelings of those around him. She found herself growing increasingly angry the more she thought about him the past few days, and her only saving grace remained to be her delicious plan for revenge. The Halloween Feast was, luckily, drawing closer and closer, and she was all-too-excited to put her genius plan in action. She hadn't let anyone in on her joke, and she didn't plan to either.

That was why she was currently sitting alone at a small table in the corner of the library. She had a few charms books spread out in front of her, and she flipped through the pages eagerly and deliberately, growing more and more excited as the details fell into place in her head. There was no way it could go wrong, she had made sure of that. She would hit their pride just as hard as they had hit hers.

She glanced back over at the table where they sat. Sirius was leaning far back in his chair, balancing it on only two legs. His knees, pressed against the underside of the table, seemed to be all that kept him stable in the current moment. James was seated next to him, his elbows resting on the table as he leaned over it, whispering to Peter with a growing grin. Peter nodded from across the table, and smiled enthusiastically, obviously utterly impressed and intrigued by whatever The Great James Potter was including him in.

Emmeline huffed in annoyance. Just a few more days, she reminded herself as she glanced back down at her books, just a few more days. Then Sirius Black and James Potter would be just as repulsive on the outside as they were on the inside. She grinned.

I know this chapter was a little bit shorter than the rest, but I hope you liked it all the same :D Any type of feedback is welcomed and appreciated!