Lisa cursed under her breath as a pair of boys ran past, knocking her and her good friend, Lindsey, into a pile of slush on the wet ground.

"Watch out there, you!" she shouted after them, waving a fist. She was slightly annoyed when they didn't respond to her shouting... and didn't even seem to notice that they'd knocked the girls over.

Another boy had been trotting along after his running friends, not really trying that hard to catch up, and he stopped when he saw Lindsey and Lisa still on the ground. He smiled apologetically, offering his hand to Lindsey.

"I'm sorry about them..." he offered politely, helping her to her feet. She smiled at the taller boy. Being nearly 5'9" herself, it wasn't often that she bumped into one that was the perfect height for her to gaze up into his eyes. Lisa climbed to her feet, eyes darting back and forth between her friend, and the stranger, a smile playing on her face.

The two looked good together. The boy was tall and slender, with short blonde hair that was wild and still managed to look good on him. His eyes were bright and blue, and most definitely fixated on Lindsey. She was shorter, but not by much, and she tucked her deep black shoulder length hair behind her ear, trying her best not to blush. She tore her dark brown eyes away from the boy, smiling to the ground.

"My name is Remus," he muttered, dropping her hand, "Remus Lupin."

Lisa could tell by the look in Lindsey's eyes that she was absolutely smitten, and she gave her a small nudge in the side with her elbow when she failed to reply to him.

"Oh... I'm Lindsey..." she stuttered out after a moment, mentally kicking herself for sounding so stupid. A whoop of spontaneous laughter from off in the distance drew their attention to the two boys that had knocked the young witches down.

"Hey!" shouted Remus, "James, Sirius! Come here!" The racers trudged over, most obviously not in as big of a hurry as they had been before, and Lisa scowled in their general direction. She plucked a leaf out of her short brown hair and pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose to see the racers better. The taller of the two boys looked lean and dark, with shoulder length black hair that he wore tied into a ponytail at the nape of his neck. His dark brown eyes were the same shade as Lisa's, but he was much taller... He looked taller even than this Remus Lupin. Lindsey, who sometimes actually listened to their friend Cari's quidditch ramblings, recognized him instantly as Sirius Black, beater for their Gryffindor quidditch team. It took Lisa a few moments longer to place the broody looking sixth year (she didn't often listen to what Cari had to say about the sport), but once she did, she also knew who his companion must be. It was James Potter, Gryffindor seeker and best friends with his trouble-making brother in crime... Sirius Black. James was shorter than both Sirius and Remus, but he was still on the handsome side in his own way. His shaggy black hair was wild and unkempt, and he wore thick glasses that made people whisper about how he'd gotten to be such a wonderful seeker.

Lisa put her hands on her hips as James and Sirius came to a stop next to Remus, who seemed semi-oblivious to the presence of his good friends... His eyes were on Lindsey alone.

"What on earth happened to you girls?" Sirius asked, laughing, as he indicated their mud-splattered robes. Lisa's face turned red, as much from embarrassment as from anger.

"You did," she said, clenching her teeth. James looked about as confused as Sirius, and the both looked over to Remus for an explanation.

"You knocked into them when you ran by," he offered, "and they fell over." James shrugged a turned away, scanning the grounds for cute girls. Sirius looked a little bit embarrassed. "You really ought to be more careful," he added, "Lindsey, and um... I don't think I caught your name..."

"Lisa," she muttered, still angry.

"Lindsey and Lisa could have gotten hurt."

"Well," Sirius said, bending down to scoop up some books that he'd dropped during the race, "they didn't, did they?"

Lisa looked at Lindsey, who shrugged, indicating that she, too, was fine.

"Well, no, but really, it wouldn't at all hurt you to have a little more tact! The next time, someone might really get hurt!" Lisa replied, brushing some of the mud from her robes.

In Lindsey's defense, she really did try to keep her composure and follow Lisa's lead. She really did try to act mad about getting pushed over, but hearing those words come from Lisa's mouth caused her to burst into a fit of laughter.

"Tact? Tact?!" she demanded, still laughing hysterically. "You are such a hypocrite!"

"Oh, I've got plenty of tact," Lisa protested confidently.

"I'm sure that's what the Potions professor was thinking when you lit his robes on fire by mistake! You knew perfectly well that Cari and I really didn't need to see how flammable Pippy's potion was, Lisa... You just did it for giggles!" Sirius and Remus started smiling, and when she said 'giggles' they even started to laugh. It appeared that James hadn't heard the comment. His attention was on the other side of the grounds, directed towards a cute Ravenclaw reading a book. He drifted off in her direction.

"Ah, see?" Sirius said, nodding at her and folding his arms across his chest in a mocking manner, "You're as much of a troublemaker as we are, if not more so."

"More so?!"

"I have never lit anyone's robes on fire. Well, not that of a teacher, anyway." He smiled, a mischievous gleam in his eye as Remus continued to make eyes of his own at Lindsey.

"It was an accident!" she protested, starting to become frustrated by the boys. She grabbed Lindsey's sleeve. "Lets get out of here." She started dragging her back towards the castle. They'd only gone a few yards when they heard Remus call out to them.

"Lindsey! Wait!" The girls stopped, and he was there in an instant, standing in front of her and smiling like a lovesick puppy. "I was wondering... Well, if maybe you'd like to sit with me at supper tonight. I usually sit at the far end of the table with James and Sirius, and hey, we're all Gryffindor's so it works out nicely..." he looked very nervous, "And you can even bring your friend... It wouldn't be a problem..." aware that he was beginning to ramble, he cut himself off and fixed his eyes on the ground.

Lindsey stared at him, surprised out of her mind, and unable to reply. Even a nudge in the gut from Lisa couldn't get an answer from her, and so knowing she was interpreting her friend's behavior correctly, she answered for her.

"She'd love to."

"Great!" he said, his face brightening with excitement and anticipation, "I'll see you tonight then."

"Tonight..." Lindsey managed, smiling at him as he trotted back over to Sirius, who had begun heading in the direction of the Forbidden Forest. Lisa tugged her friends sleeve again, and they both started trudging back to the castle. They passed a short boy who was painfully overweight and not very coordinated, running towards Remus and Sirius, shouting for them to wait up for him, but the witches took no notice. They climbed the steps to the magnificent castle, most obviously in a daze.