Chapter Two- Making Mates

The very next morning Lydia was sitting at breakfast, studying a chapter of a book on the Confundus Charm, trying to see what she was doing wrong, when she sensed several people seat themselves beside her. She looked up directly into the face of Sirius Black, who had leaned close to see what she was reading. She jumped slightly in surprise. Sirius looked at her and grinned.

"Getting prepared for Charms today?" he asked pleasantly, spreading marmalade on his toast. Lydia nodded, looking down into her porridge.

"I'm certainly not," Sirius alleged readily. "Perhaps you could help me?" He cast her a sidelong glance.

"Oh no," Lydia said quickly. "I'm really horrible at it."

"Well, so is Sirius! So there, you've got something in common already!" James said from across the table. Lydia smiled and made brief eye contact with Sirius.

"You know, you don't have to be so afraid of us," he said, taking another piece of toast from a golden plate before them. "We don't bite- at least, most of us." He smiled evilly at Remus, who shot him a sharp and urgent "stop-talking-now-you-lousy-git" look. Sirius just smiled wider. Lydia looked between them silently and expressionless.

"Well, better get to class," she said briskly, closing her book and taking a last swig of pumpkin juice.

"We'll come with you!" James said quickly.

"I'm not done with my sausage yet-" Remus began stubbornly but James hauled him up by the arm and pushed him to start walking, though he chose to stay behind the others. Almost immediately Sirius struck up a conversation, though it was mostly between him and James, Lydia just smiling nervously and nodding occasionally.

On they strolled, nearing the Charms classroom when Lydia said suddenly, "Excuse me a minute, would you? Got to go to the loo; you guys go on ahead." And with that she backed out from between the boys and turned around quickly, only to collide with Remus.

"Oh!" she exclaimed in surprise. "Sorry!"

"No, my fault, sorry," Remus muttered rather insincerely, glancing up and continuing on around her. She looked after him for a moment, with an expression of mixed curiosity and hurt on her face, watching him run to catch up to his friends.

"Way to be a gentleman, Remus," James said sarcastically as he joined them. "Speaking of, do you think we should wait for her?"

"She told us to go on ahead," Remus said instantly, not stopping.

"Oh come on, she didn't really mean it," Sirius said as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"If she didn't mean it why did she say it?"

"You have to understand the female psyche," Sirius explicated knowingly. "They tell you to do something even if they don't want you to, just to see if you'll go ahead and do it anyways." He nodded smugly and James and Remus both raised their eyebrows and shared a look.

Several moments went by.

"Girls sure take a long time in the toilets…" James said, checking his watch. Class would start soon.

Sirius seemed about to say something (undoubtedly more of his ample knowledge of the female psyche) but turned to look over his shoulder and stopped.

"Uh-oh…"

"What?" Remus asked, turning around as well. And without another word the three were sprinting down the corridor back the way they had come.

As Lydia turned around, shaking her head at Remus's behavior, she walked right into someone else. She was about to apologize but stopped abruptly as she raised her head and her eyes met the steely blue ones of Lucius Malfoy.

"That was an amusing stunt you pulled yesterday, Hayes," he said coldly, his glaring down at her.

"Well then perhaps you should learn to keep your hands to yourself, Lucius," she spat back with as much defiance as she could muster. Her wand was in her pocket and her arms were full of books, so she was unprotected. Her eyes darted up and down the corridor; there was no one, classes about to start shortly, so she was alone. Sirius and his friends walked awfully quickly.

Lucius advanced and Lydia immediately backed up and felt her stomach drop as she made contact with the cold stone wall. The much taller boy smiled sadistically as Lydia looked up at him, her eyes betraying the anxiety she was beginning to feel. Should she at least attempt to get to her wand? Lucius's hand was already in the pocket of his robes; if she made any suddenly moves she was a goner. She certainly did not have the upper hand in this situation.

"Well, we'll just see if you'll ever dare to do that again," he whispered menacingly. In a flash, his wand was out and at the ready. At his first movement Lydia did the only think she could think to do: she instinctively closed her eyes and braced herself behind her armload of books, hoping to deflect whatever spell came her way.

"Stand off, Malfoy!"

Lydia opened her eyes in shock upon hearing James's voice and was even more shocked to see not only James, but Sirius and Remus standing directly in front of her, all of them with their wands out.

"What's this?" Lucius demanded mockingly. "Got your own personal bodyguard now Hayes? What did you do, shag all of them?"

Lydia's face burned and Sirius was about to yell back something just as nasty, but all was drowned out by the sound of someone shouting the Blasting Curse and Malfoy was thrown back into the wall opposite. James and Sirius were knocked off their feet, leaving Remus the only one standing, his wand tip emitting a few wisps of smoke, his jaw set and nostrils flaring, looking quite intimidating for a tall, skinny, rather sickly looking sixteen-year-old.

Lucius jumped to his feet, as did James and Sirius, and pointed his wand directly at Remus, who did not back down.

However, just then to the surprise of them all, Sir Nicholas slid suddenly through the wall to their right. Instantly all four of them hid their wands in their robes.

"Now what's going on here?" he asked surprisedly. "Get to class, all of you- the bell's about to ring; go on!"

And with one last mutual loathe-filled glare, Lucius headed off towards Potions while the marauders and Lydia began walking in the direction of Charms. None of them spoke as they walked speedily down the corridor; Lydia kept her eyes on the ground and her expression closed.

Upon arrival she went straight to her usual seat in the back.

"This where you usually sit?" a voice asked. She looked up quickly to see James seating himself in front of her.

"Y-yes…" she said haltingly.

"Good, I prefer the back," Sirius said, forcing a student out of the seat next to Lydia and sitting down. He smiled at her. Lydia looked down at her desk, then glanced up to see Remus seating himself besides James, very careful not to look at her.

"What's the matter?" Sirius asked as the bell sounded to start class.

Lydia glanced at him quickly but then looked away. Then she seemed to steel herself and turned to Sirius, looked him square in the eye and asked, "Why did you do that? Just now, in the hallway." It wasn't accusatory, really… more curious.

"Well, because…" Sirius was taken aback by the question. "That's the sort of thing friends do."

"What?"

"Because that's the sort-"

"I heard what you said, but what did you mean?"

"About what?"

"About being friends- my friends. You've never even spoken to me before yesterday."

"Bloody hell, Lydia, why do you think it's so impossible for anyone to like you?"

"You… like me?"

"Cripes, you're not as bright as you look, you know that?" Sirius remarked with a grin. Lydia gave a small snort of laughter she quickly tried to cover with her hand. Unfortunately the laugh escaped to the ears of Professor Flitwick, who stopped talking. She blushed to see the whole class looking back at them as Sirius slid back into his seat; he had been leaning over to talk to her.

"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your private conversation," Flitwick said dryly. "Mr. Black I would expect this from, but Miss Hayes… Considering your performance in this class I don't think you can afford to miss a lesson." Lydia blushed even deeper and sank down slightly into her seat. After a pause for effect he continued on. "Now, the Confundus Charm…"

Remus rolled his eyes, listening to the conversation of Lydia and Sirius behind him. Why did Sirius have to flirt with everyone? And by God why did it always have to work?! As Professor Flitwick broke up their happy little chat Remus felt a small pang of smugness, then immediately guilt. He shouldn't feel like that towards one of his best- only –friends.

Lydia barely paid attention to the rest of the lesson, though she knew she would be regretting it later. She just couldn't stop thinking about what Sirius had said.

She glanced sidelong at the devilishly handsome boy beside her, the messy black hair of the boy in front of her, and the pale face and strained expression of the boy next to him. She knew their reputation for trouble. Did they truly want to be her friends? All of this was rather out of the blue...

Bloody hell, Lydia, why do you think it's so impossible for anyone to like you?

Well, if they did, then so be it, she finally decided happily.

Maybe this making mates thing wasn't as hard as she'd always thought it to be.