Lupin's Point of View
"Honestly," I said to Sirius as he, James, Lily and I exited the Defense Against the Dark Arts room. "I don't think your charm could do anything in this situation. That girl hates you."
Sirius shot me a dirty look before hurrying away from us.
James raised his eyebrows at me but didn't say anything. We both knew that Jenkins had upset him. Jenkins had always been harder on Sirius than anyone else. It was because Sirius was a Black, despite that fact that, if he could, Sirius would have chosen any other family for his own. It wasn't as if he even talked to them.
No, Sirius hadn't spoken to anyone in his family in years, not since he finally left for good and moved in with James. They were always a sore spot for him, and Jenkins was a constant reminder of his unfortunate ancestry.
"What do we have next?" I asked James, who shared the exact same schedule as me.
"Transfiguration." He said with a sigh.
"Great." I mumbled.
I may have been the most sensible, responsible one in our group of friends, but that didn't mean that I fully enjoyed school, either. I liked learning, and I worked hard to get good grades. But Transfiguration right after Defense Against the Dark Arts was not going to be fun. Both classes were easily the hardest, and both classes were taught by the strictest Professors.
"At least we have it with the Ravenclaws." James said, giving me a knowing grin.
Melissa was a Ravenclaw. Which made Transfiguration more appealing, yet, at the same time, even less. Spending time with Melissa was bittersweet. She was great; she was smart, attractive, fun. But nothing more would ever come from it than friendship.
"If she really likes you, she'll look past all that." Lily spoke up with her usual overly optimistic advice.
Lily knew I was a werewolf. She knew that James, Sirius and Peter were unregistered animagi. James had, at first, only told her about himself, but after a while we trusted her enough to tell her everything. Lily was practically one of the Marauders now.
"I'm not even sure if she likes me at all." I replied, not really wanting to talk about it.
Transfiguration was taught by Professor McGonagall, an older woman who was also the Head of Gryffindor house. She was fair, and actually nice when she wanted to be, but she also tolerated absolutely no nonsense.
The class itself was held on the same floor as the Great Hall. The walls were covered with windows, and it was bright and airy. Instead of large group tables, like Defense, it had smaller tables that only sat two people.
Throwing an apologetic look over his shoulder, James and Lily took a table together. That left me to sit by myself. I took a seat near the middle of the class.
Everyone knew that if you sat at the front, you'd be right in the line of sight of the teacher. But the back of the class was never a good option either because, being the farthest away from the Professors desk, they tended to watch you more closely, knowing that people are more likely to fool around back there.
The middle of the room meant that you were relatively okay to talk and slack off. Not that I was exactly prone to do either, but the option was open at least.
Seconds before the class was about to start, a breathless Melissa slid into the seat next to me, hurrying to pull our her quill and parchment.
"Am I late?" She whispered to me.
I shook my head. "Oh, thank god." She said, looking relieved. "I do not need a detention."
Her cheeks were a little red and her black hair looked a little mused from her running. Over all, she looked extremely cute. Which was not something I wanted to notice, but I couldn't help it.
"Can you believe," She whispered, ignoring McGonagall, who was going over the importance of this year, due to the fact that we would be taking our N.E. and graduating this year. "I have Divination first period, and then this! That's eight floors I have to run down between class. It's ridiculous!"
I chuckled, careful not to make too much noise. "Try having Jenkins at eight in the morning." I complained. "Consider yourself lucky."
"Ouch," She said sympathetically. "I guess I am lucky."
For a few minutes we were quiet, listening to McGonagall go over how to transfigure actual body parts. "It's not easy, and, more often than not, people end up in the hospital wing after the first try." McGonagall said, much to the horror of many students. "But don't worry. If you follow my instructions properly and concentrate, you'll be fine."
"I want to stress the fact the, no matter how good you are at performing magic, this class requires more than sheer skill." She continued, making sure to give everyone a stern look. "You must concentrate in order to succeed."
Everyone nodded, letting her know we understood.
"No, I'd like this week for everyone to practice on the person you're seating with. It's much easier to transfigure another person than it is to perform this spell on yourself. By next week we will be moving on to actually using it on ourselves."
"I'm not going to have any body parts left!" Sirius's voice said from the back of the room. I turned to see him sitting with Peter. He faked a look of horror, causing everyone watching to laugh.
"Now, now, Mr. Black. I have the utmost faith in all of you." McGonagall said, giving Sirius a 'behave yourself' look, which she usually had to do about five times a lesson. "I'd like you all to begin by transfiguring the nose of your partner. You can get creative if you like, as long as you succeed in changing the original appearance."
With a flick of her wand, McGonagall's rather pointed nose shrunk to the size of the button. "I doubt any of you will be able to do it today, but by the end of the week you should be able to do what I just did to your partner."
"Any questions?"
When no one raised their hands, McGonagall gestured for us all to proceed.
"If you give me a pigs nose I'll kill you." Melissa said, turning to me with a grin on her face.
"Don't worry, I'll just make it smaller." I assured her.
"Oh, you think my nose needs to be smaller?" She said, raising her eyebrows at me.
"No, I didn't–,"
"I'm just teasing, Remus." She said with a laugh.
"Do you want to go first?" I offered. "I wouldn't want to screw up that pretty face of yours." I joked.
Melissa blushed slightly, making me smile wider. "Sure." She said, raising her wand. "But if you come out of this without a nose, remember that you allowed me to do it."
"That makes me feel so much better about this situation." I told her.
Melissa flicked her wand, pointing it at my nose. I felt a slight tingle at the tip of it, but from what I could tell, nothing happened.
"Hmm," Melissa said, studying my nose closely. "I don't think I made any change what-so-ever."
I raised my own wand, and this time Melissa sat still, waiting for me to attempt to change her nose. I moved my wand the same way she had, concentrating hard on making her nose shrink. Just as with Melissa, nothing happened.
"McGonagall wasn't kidding when she said it was going to be hard." I said, noticing absolutely no change in Melissa nose.
"Ten points to Gryffindor, Mrs. Mason." McGonagall said loudly.
Everyone turned to Elli, who was sitting at the back of the room with one of the Ravenclaws. Much to everyone's amazement, her partners nose had changed into an orange beak. Everyone laughed, including her partner, except for Sirius. Instead of joining in with everyone else, he turned to Peter, a look of pure concentration upon his face as he flicked his wand.
Elli flashed a small smile before turning her partners nose back to normal.
Melissa's Point of View
Remus and I spent the rest of the class laughing in our attempts to transfigure each other. After finally succeeding in shrinking and expanding each other's noses, we worked on making the others nose look as ridiculous as possible.
"Did you honestly just change my nose into a tail?" Remus asked me, laughing. The fluffy tail itself waved around.
I joined in the laughter, pulling out the small mirror I carried in my bag. I held it up to his face and we both burst into another round of laughter.
"Just you wait." He said, flicking his wand.
What he did was obvious, since the trunk that appeared in place of my nose was a few feet long. When I laughed, it made a weird trumpeting noise.
"Change it back!" I ordered, but I was still laughing. "This thing is heavy."
Remus obeyed. He studied my nose for a second, making sure that he had put it back right. He spotted something on my cheek and reached out his hand to gently brush it off with his thumb. His hand lingered on my face for a second.
"Eyelash." He said softly.
I didn't move or breath, not wanting to ruin the moment. But still, a moment later he moved his hand, turning away from me, looking slightly embarassed.
What had that been all about? I wondered.
For years I'd had a thing for Remus. He was attractive, with his light brown hair, kind brown eyes, and killer smile. And he was by far the nicest guy I'd ever met. But no matter how much time we'd spent alone together, he'd never made a move.
This was the closest he'd ever come to touching me intimately, and it had surprised me. I liked the way he touched me. A lot, to be honest, but he always held back, no matter how much he seemed to like me back.
"Quiet, everyone!" McGongall called.
The laughter around the room died after a few moments. "I see that everyone has been successful in today's lesson. We'll continue with more harder transfigurations throughout the week." McGonagall told us all. "Anyone who is still struggling with this task can work on it tonight as homework. As for now, you're all free to go to lunch."
Lupin's Point of View
Melissa and I joined James, Sirius, Peter and Lily.
"Are you going to sit with us?" Lily asked Melissa. The two had gotten along pretty well and it wasn't unusual for them to sit with each other.
Melissa looked at me for a second, considering. "As long as Remus promises not to give me a trunk again." She replied with a smile in my direction.
Both Lily and Melissa walked ahead of us to the Great Hall, chatting with each other.
"Who knew that Transfiguration class would be the perfect place for Moony to get a girlfriend!" Sirius joked.
"We just get along well, that's all." I protested. Had they seen me touch her cheek? I hadn't meant to let my hand linger on her face, but her skin had been so soft.
"I don't see why you don't get with her." Sirius said, frowning slightly. "She's definitely attractive, and for some reason she actually seems to like you."
"I'm not sure if you just insulted or complimented me." I replied.
"A little of both, I think." James put in.
"Anyways, you know why I can't, Padfoot."
"You don't have to tell her." Peter offered.
"Exactly!" Sirius agreed. "I find that the best relationships are built on lies."
"And that's what makes you a terrible person." I told him.
"Yeah, and when was the last time you actually had a girlfriend?" James added.
Sirius looked thoughtful for a minute. "Never," He admitted. "I don't believe in relationships, you know that. You used to share those views, if I recall correctly, Prongs."
"Until he met Lily." Peter said.
James laughed. "One day, Padfoot, you'll fall in love and understand."
"Perhaps, but I want you to promise to kill me if that happens." Sirius said as we stepped into the Great Hall.
We sat down at the Gryffindor table. I ended up sitting beside Melissa. Sirius sat beside me, almost sitting on me.
"Move down." He grumbled.
I looked beside him, where there was more than enough room for him to sit.
"What are you talking about? You move down." I said, giving him a 'what is wrong with you' look.
Sirius sighed and shoved me sideways, making me bump into Melissa.
"Sorry." I said quickly, sending Sirius a death glare.
"No problem." Melissa said.
Sirius made sure that I didn't move any farther down, so Melissa's leg was completely touching mine. She was deep in conversation with Lily.
"Did you see what Remus did to me?" Melissa asked Lily, laughing. She grabbed my hand as she laughed, giving it a squeeze. "A trunk! Can you believe him?"
I laughed along with them, but I wasn't really paying attention. I was too busy looking at Melissa's hand, intertwined with mine. Melissa saw where my eyes were and quickly let go, blushing.
"Does she even have friends?" Sirius said out loud to no one in particular.
"She's kind of friends with everyone." Lily said, following Sirius's train of sight down the table to where Elli sat reading a book.
Sirius snorted, but looked away from Elli. "I'm going to go sit with Maria." He said, standing up. "I think I'm going to take her up on a rain-check I made with her last night." He said with a wink.
"He's sleeping with Maria now?" Peter asked as we all watched Sirius walk away.
"No," I answered. "He's going to sleep with Maria. You know he doesn't sleep with the same girl more than once." I said, slightly disgusted by my best friend. He really was kind of a slut, to be honest.
"Are you serious?" Melissa asked, looking shocked.
James, Peter and I all nodded.
"That's terrible." She said.
"That's Sirius." James said with a laugh.
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