Author's note: If anyone's read "Letters to a Werewolf"…well, there's some idea for you. But this isn't copied from a group!
I wish I could do that, thought Remus wistfully as he watched Sirius flirt with the Hufflepuff sixth year, Greta something or other. Her face was shining and her smile was bright, her laughter genuine as Sirius casually tugged at her ponytail, teasing. She was blushing, but she enjoyed the attention. Sirius had a love-hate relationship with the girls of the school- they all adored him because he was so nice to them, but when his issues with commitment got in the way, every one of them was livid. Remus wished he could talk with girls as easily as Sirius did. He wasn't really that shy, but he just didn't manage to talk with girls as simply as Sirius did it. He caught Peter's eye. Peter felt the same way most of the time, but girls liked him too. He might not have been as good-looking as Sirius, but he was sort of cute, and girls did talk to him. Remus always looked ill, it seemed. Girls could tell when someone was troubled; it was as though they purposely avoided him because of that. Sirius was the dangerous one; James was the athletic one; Peter was the cute one. He was just Remus. He read a lot, and he studied, but Sirius managed to get amazing grades without studying. Sirius would always be a bit better than he.
He didn't mind it much. The three were his best friends in the world. They had been for such a long time…even up until this time. Remus leaned against the wall casually. They had recently started their seventh year and had decided to have a small (cough) party in the Room of Requirement. Students from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff houses had been invited. Of course, no Slytherins had been invited, that he knew of. Remus was fairly certain of that. If any had come, he wouldn't have minded, but Sirius and James might have.
Remus walked over to the punch table and picked up a cup of punch, taking a sip and frowning at the bitter taste. Someone had put alcohol into the mixture. I hope it wasn't Sirius who did that, he thought fervently, hoping that not too many people had had any punch. That was the problem with the Room of Requirement. If someone wanted alcohol, it would just appear. That was a slight problem, now, wasn't it?
"I'm going to go ask James about it…." Remus said aloud, and began to walk in James' general direction. He stepped right into someone and they both crashed to the floor. He dropped his cup of punch and got splashed with the sticky liquid as it fell.
Looking up from where he sat on the floor, Remus surveyed the hapless stranger he'd just knocked over. It was a girl- It just figures, doesn't it? That you'd knock over a girl? Sirius would be up on his feet and helping her up, and you're just staring at her as your punch drips from her face- and she wasn't even looking at him, just staring off into the distance with a hopeless blank look on her ashen face, as though her situation was so bad it wasn't even worth sighing over. Remus may not have been good at charming people, but at least he could read them well.
"I'm sorry…" he began, and stood up awkwardly, wiping punch from his face. It was a bit more than humiliating for him. "Here, let me help you up."
She shook her head and stood up on her own. She was wearing a loose and relatively shapeless, almost-waistless dress of some unrecognizable shade of grey. The length was fine for her, but it fit her all wrong. It was too loose around her hips and waist and chest, more like a nightgown than a party outfit. He thought it was rather plain and ugly, but he wouldn't say so to her face. He was merely surprised anyone would wear it.
"That's what you get," she said in a quiet, hollow voice.
Remus wasn't sure what to say to her. "I'm sorry," he said, "but what did I get?"
She looked at him. The red lights from whatever lamps Sirius and James had used were an awful colour for her hair, presumably light blonde, and her eyes. He couldn't tell what colour those were.
"Not you, me."
"Oh…" So, she was talking to herself. Remus wasn't sure what to say, but he had, after all, knocked her over and drenched her grey dress in punch. He might as well be polite. "Why did you get- well, you know."
"Because I went to this stupid party," she replied. He decided her voice must have been soft by nature; either that, or she was too embarrassed to talk loudly to him.
"I don't think it's that bad," Remus commented, concerning the party. He wasn't enjoying himself, really, but he wasn't upset about it, either. He just felt he needed to defend his friends' party against this girl.
"It's not," she said, then feel silent. For a moment he thought she wouldn't continue, but she added, "But I shouldn't be here."
"Why not?"
"I'm…" She hesitated, then went on. "I'm a Slytherin."
"Oh." Remus was taken by surprise; no Slytherin he had ever heard of would go to a Gryffindor party in a grey dress that was too big for her.
"Yeah. And now I'm leaving." She turned around and walked away, and as she walked she took out her wand, pointing it at herself. He was fairly certain she performed a cleansing spell, and he decided to take out his wand and do one for himself.
After that he got new punch and sat with James, bored. What was there to do? The girl had probably been lying. She couldn't have been a Slytherin. Maybe she was a Hufflepuff, though.
That night, Remus forgot about her, as Sirius and James all kept him awake all night discussing girls. He'd thought about her for a while, but eventually he just tried to sleep. It was hard. Everything James and Sirius said reminded him of the fact that he would never get a girlfriend. Remus was happy- he had his friends, he had everyone, but...sometimes he just wished there was someone whose idea of cheering him up wasn't making him forget- someone who really understood.