Five

Lina followed Remus and James through the dark passageway back to the castle. She thought about the events of the last couple of hours, and realized that it was hard to be luckier than she was.

She had been caught in between two suitors – one, James Potter, was one of the most popular guys in school, and the Seeker for the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. The other, Remus Lupin, was a kind, sweet, handsome guy with a good head on his shoulders. He never got the girl, because she was always attracted to James. And he was gracious enough to be able to talk to James calmly and rationally when he found him kissing the girl he had admitted to liking.

And then James had come, and kissed her multiple times. And though he was quite good at it, something hadn't felt right. She felt horrible, having two great friends fighting over her.

But then, at their last kiss, James had realized that he loved Lily, the girl his other best friend admitted to no longer liking.

"You see, Lina, last year, before you came, Lily and James had been going out," Remus had explained earlier in a hushed tone. "But then they sort of broke up, but were still friends. James seemed a little heartbroken by the whole affair, but was determined not to show that to Lily. However, when Lily started seeing Sirius, James was furious and didn't speak to Sirius for a whole week. For them, that is like an eternity – they're the best of friends. But then they resolved the conflict. James realized that he wanted what Lily wanted, as long as she was happy. And what Lily wanted was Sirius. Or so she thought. So ever since then, he has been in denial of whether or not he still loved Lily. Now, after he just kissed you, he realized that he missed Lily and he could truly love no one else."

"No offense, of course," James had butted in. Apparently he had been eavesdropping the whole time.

"None taken. I can't be a dream come true for everyone," Lina had said jokingly. She still remembered the look on Remus' face when she had said that.

"You are for me. And I hope that's enough for you," Remus had said, turning to face her. He had stroked her face gently, her eyes closed. She remembered hearing James crawl away, saying, "I'll leave you two lovebirds alone."

She still remembered his kiss. His lips, full and warm, caressing hers so gently. She wanted nothing more than another one of those kisses. However, now would not have been the time, seeing as James had found the exit of the passage.

"Here it is, guys," he said in barely more than a whisper. He took out his wand and muttered, "Dissendium!" The hump on the back of the witch re-opened. James threw the invisibility cloak over the three of them and together, the climbed up through the hump of the one-eyed witch.

About half an hour later, the three of them had made their way to the Common Room. Remus went up to the portrait of the Fat Lady and murmured the password, at which the Fat Lady scoffed at them for waking her at such an hour (it was around six o'clock), and they entered the Common Room. James was about to take off the invisibility cloak when he saw something which made his heart stop.

"It's Lily!" he cried. "What do I do?"

"Go talk to her, mate. She's waiting for you, wishing you were there."

Just then, something odd happened. Celina had been focusing on Lily, staring at her hard, when all of a sudden, she heard a voice in her head.

"Oh, this relationship with Sirius really isn't working out. Come on, Lily. You have to talk to him. Just, be firm but kind. He'll understand. You need James back, Lily. It's not the same without him."

Lina stopped concentrating on Lily. She gasped.

She had just read Lily's mind.

With a slight grin on her face, he turned and focused on James.

"Come on, James. Sirius won't be mad. You heard what Remus said. Just talk to her, and then everything will be fine. And pray that Sirius doesn't kill you and Lily doesn't turn you down. No, she won't turn me down. But what if she does?"

Lina suppressed a laugh. This was fun. What was Remus thinking?

"I feel bad for Sirius. If this whole thing works out with Lily and James, then he'll be the only single one in the group. Well, besides Pettigrew. But he doesn't really count.

"Hey. I'm not single anymore. I have a girlfriend. The most wonderful, amazing girlfriend the world has ever seen."

"Of course you do, Remus," she thought to herself.

Suddenly, Remus looked at her.

"Who said that?" he asked in his head. Lina gasped again. Not only could she read people's minds, but when doing so, she could talk to them.

"Remus, it's me. It's Lina. I can talk to you by reading your mind."

"You can read minds? Oh, shit. My mind is never safe again. I'll have to stop thinking."

"I tried to stop thinking for the Sorting Hat. But it didn't work. It's no use. Your secrets are no longer safe." In her mind, she laughed. Then, her vision snapped back to the Common Room, where a shadow was being cast over Lily.

"Lily?" a voice called quietly into the Common Room. Lina recognized the voice well.

"Oh, Sirius, there you are. I've been meaning to talk to you," Lily said.

"Yeah, me too. You see, Lil, I love you to death and I'm mad about you. I think you're an amazing person and so great to all your friends."

"As do I of you, Sirius, but –"

"But I feel like –"

"Like this relationship isn't working out."

"And we should . . ."

"Break up."

The two of them said this simultaneously, so it sounded as though they had planned this. Lina knew that in their heads, they had – but the others didn't know. And she intended to keep it that way.

"You mean it? You understand?" inquired Sirius.

"I understand completely. You understand too, right?" Lily continued.

"Yeah, of course!"

"But we're still friends, we're just not any more than that, right?" Lily said.

"Right."

There was an awkward silence, in which neither of them said anything. They both kind of looked at the ground and shuffled their feet, wondering what else there was to say.

"So . . . that's it then," Sirius said in a monotone. "I guess I'll go to the dormitories – I didn't actually put away my clothes and stuff yet."

"Alright," Lily said, and Sirius went upstairs.

Remus gasped and said, "Now's your chance, mate! Go up there and tell her how you feel!"

Remus pushed him forward. James slipped out from under the invisibility cloak. Lina thought she could hear his heart pounding. He opened and closed the door behind them, so that Lily would think he had just walked in. Then, he entered and faced her.

"Hello, Lily," he said nervously.

"Oh, um, hi James," Lily said.

"I wanted to . . . . well, I guess I wanted to do a lot of things," James began.

"Like what?" Lily pursued. Remus gave Lina a look of superiority when James continued:

"Well, er, ever since we broke up, I've been feeling a bit . . . different." He stopped. Lily looked at him, willing him to continue, but he had reached his limit for the moment.

"How so?" Lily asked, pressing him on.

"I've been noticing that I haven't been feeling the same. And then, when Celina came, I thought I was in love. And I mean, she's hot and all, and she's really nice and smart and everything, but . . ." he paused. He didn't know what to say. Celina could tell that this wasn't good. So, she decided to take things into her own hands.

She concentrated hard on James, staring at his figure, his mouth opening and closing. She squeezed her eyes shut and let all other thoughts flee from her mind as she focused on him.

She tried to make the voice James would hear sound like his own voice – she didn't want him to know about her power. Not yet, when she barely knew of it herself. She took a deep breath and thought in a low, male voice: "But when I kissed her, it wasn't the same as yours."

James responded well to this new thought. "But when I kissed her, it wasn't the same as yours." He stopped there. Lina sighed. Would she have to do everything?

But surprisingly, James responded with something of his own: "I miss your kiss, Lily. I miss you. And now I realize that . . . I could never love anyone else the same way."

Lina's mouth dropped open. She had no idea James went that deep. Apparently, neither did Lily.

She sat there, wringing her hands, her eyes locked in his. "Oh, James . . ." she whispered. Lina and Remus swapped a look of excitement as Lily threw her arms around James and kissed him, deeply and passionately.

"Come on, let's leave them to . . . do what they want to do," Remus said. He gestured for her to move forward, and Lina followed obediently. There was something about watching James and Lily kiss – it made her think that they would be the couple that would be together forever.

That morning, the group was all abuzz. James and Lily were excited to be back together; Sirius was happy to not be going out with Lily anymore but not have her mad at him; Remus and Lina were happy to have solved their problem and to have found people that loved them, despite their differences. Peter was the only one who wasn't exceptionally agitated.

"So what was kissing Remus like?" Lily asked excitedly.

"It was amazing. It was like . . . I heard music in my mind, and I saw fireworks flashing before my eyes. It was like I had floated all the way to heaven in his arms," Lina said, describing it the best she could.

Lily smiled and replied, "Yeah. I know the feeling. You really love him, don't you?"

Lina thought a moment. "Yeah, I'd say I do."

"But what about James? Obviously, he wasn't heartbroken when you went for Remus."

"No. I mean, when he kissed me, he seemed kind of wary, like he knew something was wrong. And I knew something was wrong. He didn't seem very into it, and neither did I. I hoped at the time that I wasn't hurting his feelings, but apparently I hadn't," she said.

Lily leaned over and whispered quietly into her ear, "He's a good kisser, though, isn't he?"

Lina giggled and cried, "Lily!" But after their laughing fit, she nodded solemnly, and they burst out again.

"Jesus, what are you guys so giggly about?" Sirius asked, staring at them intently.

"Nothing," Lina said quickly.

The first class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts for Lina, Lily, Remus, and James. Sirius and Peter had Muggle Studies, which none of the rest were taking.

"See you at lunch, mate," Sirius said to James.

"Good luck with Peter," murmured Remus. James tried to contain his laughter.

After Sirius and Peter had walked away, Lina leaned into Remus and whispered, "You guys really don't like Peter, do you?"

"It's kind of complicated," he replied. "Before I was here, James and Sirius were best friends, and you'd never see them apart. That was most of the company they kept, besides James' adoring Quidditch fans. Then I came to school, and James was extremely nice to me, and he was my first friend. He introduced me to Sirius, and together, we were like the Three Musketeers – always in trouble, always attracting the girls (well, that was mostly James and Sirius, but I like to think I was a chick magnet). So Peter wasn't originally a Marauder.

"Then all of a sudden, Peter kind of started stalking James and Sirius. To him, they were the bee's knees. They were the greatest – so hip, so . . . I don't know. And so then, we thought if we let him hang with us and be with us and pretended to accept him as a member of our group, he would calm down and stop being so annoying. As you can see, that plan failed miserably, and none of us has the heart to tell him to get lost."

"Ah," Lina said. She thought for a moment. Was that the way it was with the rest of the Marauders and herself? Was she a reject, and none of them really liked her, but they all pretended to, just to get her off their backs?

"Of course not!" Remus cried suddenly. Celina jumped and turned to look at him. It was then that she had realized that in staring at him, she had sent all of her thoughts to him. She blushed. She would have to be more careful who she concentrated on.

"Sorry. I didn't mean to say it that loud," he said. His outburst had attracted many stares. Among them was the Slytherin with the greasy hair. He stared at her maliciously, but still, his stare had a sense of desire about it. It sent a shiver up her spine.

"Remus," she asked, "who is that Slytherin?"

"Which Slytherin?" he queried. Lina pointed to the one she meant. Remus scowled.

"That's Snape. Severus Snape. What an awful name, huh? It sounds like sever his nape. God, I wouldn't mind severing his nape."

"Why? What's so bad about him?" Lina inquired.

"He's just a loser. For one thing, he rarely bathes. And when he does, he doesn't brush or wash his hair. For another thing, he's gifted in the Dark Arts, and gives me the impression that he will one day turn against us, and turn onto the side of You-Know-Who."

Celina knew who alright. She had heard the name repeated a million times by her father. She had no idea what kind of horror this guy caused, but she knew that people feared him above anyone else in the world.

"You mean Voldemort?" she said. Remus flinched.

"Jesus, do you have to say it so loud?" he asked. "In fact, do you have to say it at all?"

"Sorry. It's just that I'm used to it, because my dad calls him Voldemort."

Remus flinched again, but then continued to say, "The only person I know who calls You-Know-Who by his other name is Dumbledore."

A knot formed in Lina's stomach.

"Right," she said quickly, turning into the Defense Against the Dark Arts classroom.

The professor stepped over to his desk and rapped on it sharply with a ruler. He was tall and handsome – his brown hair fell gently across his forehead, curling slightly in the front. He had sky blue eyes, full lips, and soft, rounded features. He gave the impression of someone who was young and carefree, but was still collected enough to be able to run a class.

"Welcome, class. For any of you who don't know" – he looked to Lina – "I am Professor Martin, the Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher."

Only problem was that she did know – his name was John, and he had just been hired last year. And he knew she knew who he was. But he was smart enough to address obviously that he thought she didn't. Because John, of all people, knew how Celina didn't want to be known as Celina Dumbledore. In fact, John knew best of all the teachers.

"Well, this year promises to be one of great interest for all of you seventh-years."

Celina and John had been friends – she had been here when he was at school. She had even dated him secretly for a while. But that was six years ago. John was twenty-four now, and realized that he and Lina could never be. Besides, they had been better as being just friends.

"We will be studying many appealing topics."

John had given her the low-down on what was going on in Hogwarts – the latest gossip, the newest Quidditch players, the scores in House Points. He had explained how Hogwarts worked, and helped her keep up with her magic so that one day, when the world was ready, she could come and join the crowd of seventh-years, waiting to become adults. You could say that John had been her best friend, and had taught her everything she knew.

Remus had mentioned during breakfast one day about how excited he was for this class.

"We have this awesome professor, Professor Martin. He's so great – he actually went to school here only . . . five years ago. I was in my first year here, with the Second-Years, when he was in his seventh. He was the greatest – the only Ravenclaw that I had actually admired. He was the Seeker for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team, and I remember how disappointed he had been to loose the Quidditch Cup to James, when James was only a second-year. But the best thing was that even though he lost, he was still cool about it, and didn't hate him for the rest of forever."

When he had said that, Lina had knew exactly what he had meant by "great," and even more so. Because Remus didn't know what a great kisser he was.

Lina snapped back to reality and tuned in to what John/Professor Martin was saying.

"Some of these topics include red caps, hinkypunks, boggarts, centaurs, unicorns, and . . . werewolves." She noticed the small inflection John put on werewolves, as though he didn't want to be studying them.

Lina watched as Remus slid down slightly in his chair, his robes bunching up in the back. She saw that Snape was grinning broadly at this statement, as though he knew something no one else did. She leaned over to Remus and whispered, "You alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, the subject makes me uncomfortable, that's all," he hissed.

Lina moved back to her seat and listened for the rest of the lesson, aware of Snape's eyes on the back of her neck. She felt as though he were watching her, as though he were stalking her. Or as though he knew something she should know, and he was going to torture her with it until she figured it out.

And then there was Remus, who after the werewolf comment, had been completely still, staring into space, obviously thinking. She really wanted to know why he was so uncomfortable about the subject. She decided to read his mind to see if it would reveal anything.

"Just stop thinking about it. Think about Lina instead. She's beautiful, she's awesome, she . . . she can't know."

"Can't know what?" she thought to herself. But unfortunately, she wasn't used to this power yet, and had forgotten that while reading someone's mind, every thought of her own was transferred to the other person.

"Lina? Stop reading my thoughts! A person's mind is a place where they're supposed to be alone, where no one else can see what they're saying!" Remus cried.

"I'm sorry, Remus, I'm just not used to this yet," Lina lied. "I did it by accident."

Lina was careful not to concentrate on anyone from now on unless she wanted to talk to them.

But still, she wanted to know what she couldn't know. Even with this power, she was still so deprived.

Finally, class was over, and it was time for lunch. She had been so excited to see John, and to come to this class. Funny how quickly things like that could change. She wanted to get Snape off her back, she wanted to get Remus to speak again, and she just wanted to leave. Unfortunately, fate was working against her.

"Lina, may I have a word with you in private, about your previous education?" Professor Martin asked. She thought she saw a hint of a smile on his face.

"Yes, sure," she replied. At least they would be alone, where Snape could no longer stare at her.

"I'll wait for you outside, Leen," Remus said fondly. Lina nodded as he shut the door, the last one outside.

Professor Martin pulled out his wand and muttered, "Vocalo proofiero!" A line of sparks shot out of his wand and burst at the door.

"Sound proofing charm," Lina muttered, forcing a smile on her face as she looked to John. He looked happier than he ever had in his life.

"You remember that class, huh?" John asked. Of course Lina remembered that "class." That was the "class" in which John had kissed her for the first time.

"How could I forget?" Lina replied.

John conjured an armchair and motioned for her to sit. "How are you, Leen?" he queried.

"I'm alright. I feel really weird, keeping this all from everyone," she responded. Of course, John had known about Lina's Special-ness. He had been the first student to ever know. In fact, the only student to ever know, as far as she could remember. He had met her one night, when she had been walking down to her father's office. He had been sneaking back from the Quidditch pitch, after a long practice session. She had told him to meet her in her room at midnight the next night, and after many midnight meetings, she had explained everything. And besides, now that John was a teacher, he had been told by her father about her Special-ness. All the teachers knew.

"Don't worry about it," John said, looking her straight in the eye. "Everyone has a secret to keep."

"Apparently so," she murmured, thinking of Remus. "How are you?"

"I'm okay. I am glad your father gave me this job – I've wanted to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher since I was in my fifth year."

And so they talked, for about fifteen minutes or so. They reminisced of their past days and all the good times they had together, all of the news of the present days, and everything else. They chatted about spells, about the things they were going to be doing this year, and the gossip about the teachers in the school. They laughed and joked and had a great time – almost as though they were seventeen again (even though when Lina was seventeen, she couldn't talk, because her body had only matured to the baby stage).

After a particularly long laughing fit, John looked her up and down. "Jesus, Lina, you haven't changed a bit."

"Yeah, you neither," said Lina. They locked eyes. Lina felt her cheeks burning as he searched her face for any sign of emotion.

"I've missed you, Lina," he whispered, still meeting her gaze. Lina had no response. She just stared at him, wondering what else there was to say. Was it just her, or was he looking at her different than before?

"I think I've got to go," she said suddenly, standing up and picking up her bag of books. She tried not to look at him, for even though people said those words all the time, the way he said it made her think that they had more meaning than she wanted to hear.

"I'll see you later, John," she said. "I mean, Professor Martin."

He gave her a sly smile as she walked out the door, his words cutting a hole in her heart like a knife.