Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters, events and/or places that are recognized as being written and created by J.K. Rowling. J.K. Rowling owns all the characters and places from the Harry Potter books including the ones used in this story.
A/N: Thank you so much, everyone, for the nice reviews!!! They make me giddy, heehee!!! Anyways, just incase you don't know, things in between the ... are flashbacks. That was the only way I could come up with indicating a flashback without italics. Enjoy! Cheers!
Clea sat outside in front of the lake during her afternoon break. There were patches of snow all over the ground and the lake was almost frozen, but she didn't notice. She closed her eyes, enjoying the way the cold, brisk wind played across her face and blew her hair in every direction. She leaned her head against the tree. Remus must not be lying then, she thought to herself. He must really not be interested in me like I thought he was. She sighed deep and opened her eyes. Her vision blurred as a salty tear rose up and fell down her cheek. She convinced herself that he felt the same about her; he never actually said anything. She knew it, but didn't want to believe it. She started thinking about the past October. A month after the bulletin was placed. When she thought she knew Remus' true feelings.
...
"What are you writing, Sirius?" Lily said and tried to look upside-down at the parchment Sirius was furiously scribbling on.
It was lunch and the usual gang was seated at the Gryffindor table, talking more than eating.
"It's a list," James said, rolling his eyes at Sirius and causing more confusion for the girls.
"A list of what?" Clea said trying to grab the paper, but Sirius smacked her hand away. "Sirius!" she squealed rubbing her hand.
Sirius looked at James and smiled, pointing down at the list. James narrowed his eyes at Sirius. "Erase it!" he demanded. Sirius laughed and waved his wand. One of the scribbles vanished.
"Well, I don't care anymore about your list," Lily said arranging her books in a neat stack in front of her. "I have to go to the library, want to come?"
"Defiantly," James said and stood up.
"Clea, do you want to come?" Lily said correcting herself.
"Not really," Clea responded, but to Lily's horror, a mischievous twinkle shone in Clea's eyes. "James can go with you. He was saying that he needed help with a Potions Essay and that's what you are working on right?" Lily made no facial expression, but before she could say anything James spoke up.
"It's all right Lily. You can go by yourself. I don't want to bother you while you're working."
This statement caught both Clea and Lily off guard. Lily smiled at James, turned bright red and then bolted out of the Hall.
"Good game," Sirius said, as he patted James on the back. Clea's mouth dropped open.
"Are you playing games with Lily, James? That's not very nice. Pretending you're all sweet and charming when it's all false. Don't think for one second either that I'm not going to say anything to her,"
"Clea," James said, silencing her rant. "I really meant what I said. I like Lily a lot. A lot! And I know now that chasing after her isn't the way to her heart." Clea scanned James's face, but found no sign of lying; and she smiled.
"Can we see your list, Sirius?" Remus said with one eyebrow raised. Remus hadn't said much the entire lunch period. He just sat there with his head hanging down, offering a comment here and there. Clea, who was sitting next to him, kept shooting him a bright smile, that he would return but only be able to hold for a second or two.
James sighed and laughed at the exact same time. "He's making a list of girls he could ask to the Ball." Remus, Peter and James laughed. Even Clea couldn't help giggling, even though she thought Sirius was being really childish.
"Well, I need to make sure that I don't ask the same girl twice." Sirius said, as if this made perfect sense.
"You only need to ask one girl," Remus stated. "Who's going to say no to you?"
Sirius shrugged his shoulders. "It's just fun."
"Who are you asking?" Peter said staring straight at Remus. Clea felt her stomach lurch back and forth. Remus ignored his question.
Then, after a brief moment of silence, Remus spoke up. "Have you bought any dress robes yet, Clea?"
Clea almost went into a cardiac arrest at this question. Was this his way of asking her to go? She couldn't tell. But before she could answer Sirius spoke up.
"Why would she need any, Remus?" Sirius asked through clenched teeth. Clea's mouth dropped open.
"Well, maybe," Remus began stuttering and turned bright red. "I thought maybe she could go..." His voice shrank, until he completely stopped talking.
Clea's face was frozen solid, and James grabbed her hand to pull her out of her trance. "She'll have to be my date, if Lily turns me down Sirius." James said breaking the tenseness that had spread around the table. "The best Gryffindor chaser will need a beautiful girl on his arm you know." James said winking. Clea flashed him an awkward smile. She turned to say something to Sirius but he had got up and was walking down towards the other end of the table to talk to some blonde. She looked at Remus. He smiled at her. She smiled back.
They started at each other for what felt like two minutes. Clea's hair was covering her left eye, as it usually did. Remus reached a shaky hand up towards her face and gently brushed her hair behind her ear. With her now perfect vision, Clea noticed that there were bandages on Remus's hand.
"You should wear pink, if you go" he said in a whisper almost too quite to hear. "That's a nice color on you."
...
The harsh feeling of ice hit Clea's cheek and she sprang to her feet. Sirius stood behind a tree laughing, a snow ball clenched in his fist.
"Don't!" Clea said pointing a finger at Sirius. He threw the snowball against a tree where it shattered into a million shards of ice. "Come on, then!" He shouted across the lawn. "Walk with me to the Hall for dinner."
Clea ran over to Sirius and allowed him to begin giving her ten thousand reasons to not go with Snape to the Ball; none of them having to do with Remus. She was half glad Sirius came though, and stopped her from analyzing Remus's every word and movement some more. She really wanted to stop thinking about him all together. But how do you stop thinking of someone you've spent every second the past five years dreaming about?
