6 am, Saturday.
Fifth Year Girl's dorm, Griffindor tower.
A certain girl was studying. Not because of exam pressure or class tests. She was studying because it gave her immense joy learning about magical stuffs. This curiosity never left her even after her strange amnesia.
"Good morning, Temi." Marlene said groggily.
"Good morning Mar." Artemis replied.
"What are you – Are you studying? On a Saturday morning?" she was sleepy but still somehow managed to flash a surprised expression.
"I'm just catching up, nothing more." Artemis said with a smile.
"Ugh… it seems like Lily bug has already bit you."
"Shut up." they heard Lily's derisive comment as she woke up. "It's not a bug, it's called natural conscience. You are a student, you should do it too sometimes."
Lily got herself a pillow thrown on her not only by Marlene but by Alice too. Cursing, they all got up and headed for bathroom one by one to freshen up. By the onset of the Saturday breakfast, they were ready and down at the House table. Artemis was especially happy, for it was her first weekend at Hogwarts.
"Everything looks delicious." Artemis said smacking her lips. "but it's probably because I missed yesterday's dinner and I'm starving right now." She grinned sheepishly, loading her plate with pancakes while she chewed on an apple.
"Ah…. The weather is so gloomy…I feel gloomy. Let's just eat and go back to dorm. I want to spend my Saturday sleeping." Marlene whined.
"Hey… don't say that." Artemis insisted. "This is my first Saturday here! We should do something. What about my Hogwarts tour, huh? I still don't know this place. It'll be fun."
"Your Hogwarts tour is booked with me, remember?" James said, walking up to them and taking a seat beside Artemis, Sirius and Remus following him behind. "Good morning my beautiful Lily. Looking stunning, as usual."
"Good morning Potter. Being annoying, as usual." Said Lily, her voice suddenly changed to a monotonous tone.
"Cut him some slack, Evans. He is in a good mood today. Don't be the reason of him go all grumpy for the rest of the weekend." Sirius added, he too started stacking his plate with food.
"Hey guys." Artemis munched on. "You are all up early. What are you up to?"
James smiled a bit wickedly, "Trust me, you wouldn't wanna know." Artemis eyes travelled and rested on Sirius. He winked at her as he, too, reflected the same mischievous smile.
"Don't mingle with them Temi, they are always up to no good. I know that Potter is your family friend but trust me on this, they always end up in trouble." Lily said and stood up ready to leave. "Now if you'll excuse Alice and me, we have to go to the library."
"Huh, me too?" Alice jolted up, questioning the sudden change of her plans. Lily eyed her menacingly which clearly said, 'Come with me right now, no question asked.'
Artemis smiled as a particular memory popped up in her head in which a certain bushy haired girl always leaves her two best friends hanging before she storms to library as a conversation ending statement.
"There goes Lily and I didn't even get to ask her out today." James whined but still stuffing food in his mouth.
"Of course, that's where the only problem lies; otherwise if you had asked her, she would have definitely said yes." Sirius said, sarcastically.
"Ooh…You think?" James asked eagerly.
"No, you dumbass!"
The breakfast was fairly quite after that. Everybody concentrated on filling their stomach, Remus was talking to Marlene; Frank, Alice's boyfriend who joined them at the table soon after Lily left, was talking about quidditch with James and Sirius and Artemis was just waiting for everyone to finish up.
"You all are going for quidditch practice now?" Artemis asked. Getting head nods from the boys made her a bit disappointed, as they headed to the ground. Marlene has already went upstairs to her beloved bed.
"Well, you are coming too, right?" James asked, putting his arm on her shoulder, though he didn't waited for reply but pulled her along with him.
James, Sirius and Frank were on Griffindor quidditch team. They left Remus and Artemis at the stands and proceeded to the locker room. The other team members: Fabian and Gideon Prewett, Cas Marie, Thomas Wood, were already on the pitch, doing some usual warm up routine.
"You don't play?" Artemis asked as She and Remus took seat at the nearest Griffindor stand.
"Never had that much interest. Besides, James and Sirius's passion is enough for all of us."
"So, you just come here and watch them play? Even on practice days?" She teased him.
"No. Just today." A blush flashed across Remus' face, when he realized what just escaped his mouth but that went unnoticed by Artemis as that precise second someone flew past them, missing them by inches. He turned his neck to see Sirius showing off his skills again and Artemis waving at him, looking amazed with his stunts.
"Sorry, what did you say? I didn't heard you." She said, turning back to Remus.
"Ah! Look. They are starting." He quickly changed the subject.
The Griffindor quidditch team took off the ground. They flew some practice rounds before starting ball practice. James, who was the captain, yelled every now and then, either to raise morale or at Fabian and Gideon to stop fooling around with bludgers. James was a fun guy but he does not had any sense of humor when it came to quidditch.
"Padfoot, where is your usual attention today?" bellowed James from above. James shouted at Sirius when he missed a pass from Frank for the fourth time today.
"My bad. I think I ate too much." He returned at James with equal loud shout.
"Just go easy on him, James. I don't want him to puke all over us." Cas said, halting beside James.
"Alright. Let's leave this drill for now, okay. We will do the Arrow stance." And they, once again resumed their practice.
They were done with the Practice before lunch. The team changed from the gears before heading towards the castle. Sirius was perplexed, 'what happened today? Why couldn't I concentrate at the practice?' he thought. He didn't gave much thought to it but during this entire practice, Sirius's eye kept darting towards the stands where a certain girl and one of his best friends were talking, laughing with each other and he was feeling uneasy with all of this without even having any clue of it.
Artemis P.O.V.
"Padfoot, where is your usual attention today?" James shouted somewhere from my far left.
"Is James always this much worked up every time he plays?" I asked Remus.
He laughed at my question before he answered, "When it comes to quidditch, he is always this much worked up."
I sighed. "All this looks so much fun. You know, every place here looks insanely familiar. The faces, the classes, even conversations seems familiar to me. But I can't do anything about it. It just makes me want to scratch my brains off my head, if I could ever do that." Remus laughed with me. I sighed again. "Ah… what wouldn't I give to remember all my memories. The time that I would've spent here…our times together… first day meeting, in train, first classes together… maybe flying even!" a disappointed expression crossed my face. "It hurt more to think that I have four years of Hogwarts missing from my life."
Remus' expression softened, "Hey…–" He put his palm on top of mine, "-don't think like that. Take it like this: atleast you have three more years here, with us. Plus your memories is also coming back, bit by bit." He gave me a reassuring smile which I tried to returned as convincingly as possible.
"Speaking of spending more years here… can we start 'you tutoring me' thing from today? It's already been a week." I asked, making my best puppy eyes. "If you got some time to spare. Obviously."
Remus P.O.V.
"… can we start 'you tutoring me' thing from today?" Artemis asked with her puppy eyes. Damn, those eyes…. I can't say no to her. Even if I wanted to, I can't. Not that I had any prior engagements.
"If you got some time to spare. Obviously."
"Of course. I am free after lunch anyway, why not make some use of it." I tried to laugh my awkward gawking off. "We can meet at Library."
"Cool."
We took a head start towards Hogwarts as the practice ended. We chatted on a number of random topics, from homeworks to leisure activities; from favorite music to favorite books, I seriously never had this much fun talking to someone since ages. It's been a week since Artemis came to our life but it feels like she was always with us.
"Let's start, shall we?"
Artemis and I were in the library after lunch. It was just a study session but her face clearly showed enthusiasm of a child who was eager to learn something. She is so pure, it takes my heart away.
"Yup." She chimed. We took seats beside each other. She pulled out a notebook, her quill, inkpot and notes that I gave her some days ago and put them all in front of her in a perfect balanced order.
A smile formed on my lips as I saw her doing her usual routine that she does at the start of every class.She is taking this study session quite seriously.
"Which subject you wanna start first?" I asked, focusing on her again.
"Transfiguration. I really want to do well in McGonagall's subject." Artemis said, smiling sheepishly.
"Alrighty then."
Time flies when you are having fun. True. I enjoyed spending every second with her. She was like a mystery to me; she knew about us but we knew nothing about her. We were in the library for almost three hours, yet somehow it seemed we just arrived.
"Ah… sorry to interrupt your study date but I am going to borrow Artemis here."
Sirius P.O.V.
I walked out of the shower, feeling relaxed to the very cells of my body after a quidditch practice, only to here James shouting, "Our little Remus… going on a date!"
What the hell did happened while I was in the shower.
"What? Remus going on a date?" I asked eagerly. I sat on my bed, still in a towel, forgetting completely to dress up; I was just surprised that he arranged himself a date without even telling to us.
"It is not a date!" Remus emphasized. "…again, I am telling you. Artemis asked me for helping her with her studies and that's what I am going to do."
"So, it's not a date. It's a study date!" James inferred with a smirk.
"Is it a Sirius kind of 'study date' or…" Peter also joined, now genuinely thinking about it.
"You guys are impossible…" and with that disapproving tone, Remus walked out of our room.
Remus tutoring Artemis was not a new news to me but when James put a label on it, the same uneasy feeling came back that was bothering me all this morning, and I didn't know why. Brooding over these random things, I dressed up. I was meeting up with this Revenclaw girl for a 'study date' that Peter mentioned earlier which reminded me of 'that' conversation and my head flooded with all the 'Remus and Artemis' thoughts all over again.
Why are you thinking about them now! You are going to meet a hot girl. Concentrate on that! I shook my head to disperse all the useless thoughts as I pictured that girl –what was her name again…- Ugh, not again.
Half hour later, I was in a broom cupboard, with the girl.
"Hey, Sirius." 'the girl' smiled seductively at me.
"Hey –… babe" I returned her smile as I controlled the 'not-remembering-the-girl's-name' situation. She bit her lower lip ever so slightly as her eyes filled with desire. I smirked at her as she covered the remaining distance between us and wrapped her hands around my neck. Even in the next-to-no-light in the broom cupboard on the fourth floor, I could still make out her desire filled eyes that only wanted me.
I only had to lean against her body and reach out to her full pink lips.
I plucked a leaf and threw it on the ground. I have repeated these two action for the nth time in last two hours. I know what you are wondering: whenever I have things to think over, I come here; on the beech tree at the edge of the lake. From the past two hours, the only questions keeps revolving inside my head:
What is wrong with me?
Why do she keeps popping up in my head all the time? Even when I was kissing another girl! What she does in her time is none of my business. So, why it bothers me when she is alone with Remus even while studying.
Something is definitely wrong with me. Or something is wrong with her. Yes. There is no such girl that can rule my head. So what, if she doesn't see me like the other girls do. She is no special. My attention goes towards her only because I don't know anything about her.
That's it. I have to get to know her. This is the only way I can stop her from invading my thoughts.
I jumped down the tree, dusted off my clothes and ran towards the Library. The thought of getting to know her made me excited. As I reached the Library door, I stopped for a moment, paced down my breathing and entered. My eyes searched for her eagerly as I scrolled down aisle after aisle. Finally I found her, and Remus, sitting at the far side of the Library, fully engrossed in their books. A part of me felt relieved when I saw them actually studying unlike my kind of 'study date'. I laughed at myself as walked up to them.
"Ah… sorry to interrupt your study date but I am going to borrow Artemis here."
I said to them as I grabbed Artemis' hand and pulled her towards me. I flashed my million dollar smile as both of them gaped at me.
"What…. Sirius?" Remus tried to form a question but failed miserably after witnessing my abrupt actions.
"That's enough studying for today. Save something for tomorrow at least." I winked at him. "See you later." I whisper-shouted and with that I was out of the Library within a minute.