The next morning at breakfast Lalaine quickly walked over to Sirius's table, dragging Lily with her and sat down. Sirius smirked and sarcastically said, "Nice of you to grace us with your prescence."
An uncontrolable grin spread over James's face and said, "Yes, very nice."
At that moment a gorgeous Slytherin walked past their table and shot Sirius a smile saying, "Good morning," clearly only to Sirius. He smiled back and replied, "Good morning."
After she glided by Lalaine said casually, "Who was that?"
"Oh that was Mandy."
Lily tried to decipher Lalaine's face but couldn't read it. Lalaine said, "Oh, I don't think I have heard of her." The breakfast went by without much more conversation.
After breakfast they all headed to their first class of the day. McGonagall had handed out everyone's schedule during the meal and Lalaine had made a huge deal of checking to see who was in all of her classes. Luckily everyone from "the gang" had potions together, but when she looked more closely she found it was with the Slytherins. With grimaces on their faces (everyone besides Remus that is) they entered the dungeon, dreading having to spend the whole class listening to Professor Mann complain on and on about absolutely nothing.
Worse was knowing that there was no escape of note passing between them, with the Slytherins watching their every move like a vulture on a faltering animal. Any chance they got to tattle on them the Slytherins would take, and the Gryffindors were well aware of this. And being caught in Mann's class was the worst - he was so paranoid about what everyone thought of him that you were sure to get sent on a guilt trip when he started to wallow in self pity, mumbling about how horrible of a teacher he was (not that anyone would disagree with him). No, this class was sure to be a dull start to the year.
Professor Mann started the class by assigning everyone a seat - alphabetically. How original. Lalaine heard James groan, for alphabetical meant he was stuck next to Peter, and despite them being friends, Lalaine knew Peter annoyed James to no end, always copying everything he did and trying to be exactly like him. To say it simply, Peter worshipped James and his popularity.
On the other hand, Peter was jumping up and down, making him almost eye level with James. "Do you know what that means James! We get to be partners for the whole year! Every experiment, you and me James, isn't this great!"
Lalaine's pity for James was beyond imaginable, for she hated Peter with a passion. But it was also amusing for her, so she gave James a few words of encouragement. In an optimistically high voice she stated, "Think about it James, you get to sit with Peter, talk with Peter, work with Peter, and spend every moment of this class with Peter for the whole year! You guys will have so much fun!" She gave him a big cheesy smile and patted him on the shoulder. If looks could kill, the evil glare James shot at her over Peter's head would have had her lying unconcious on the floor. He remained silent, unanswering to both her and Peter. Lalaine smirked at him and slinked off in the opposite direction. Her job was done.
Honestly, Lalaine didn't mind sitting alphabetically. It always meant she was next to Lily, and she had no objections to sitting next to her best friend for the year. No worries for her, what a relief. If only everyone could have been so lucky...
Lalaine only paid attention to her friends' seating assignments, and was glad to be more fortunate then them.
Professor Mann's whiny voice droned "...Black, Carlson...Evans, Faulkner (of course, she thought with a smile)…..Layne, Lupin…...Pettigrew, Potter..." There were more but Lalaine didn't care. So Remus was next to Alana, huh? That was alright Lalaine thought, considering she was pretty sweet for a Slytherin. And James and Peter were together, no surprise there. But who was Sirius next to? It had to be a Slytherin, for Lalaine knew all the Gryffindors in the class. She'd never found a reason to know any of the Slytherins' names if she could help it. She'd just have to wait and see when they took their seats once Professor Mann was done explaining all the class rules in his annoyingly high voice. The anxiety was killing her...
The students took their seats and Lalaine watched carefully to see who was sitting by Sirius. And it was none other than the flirting-with-the-guy-she-shouldn't Mandy herself.
Lalaine sank down in her seat with a frown. She strained her ears to listen to their conversation. "Awesome Mandy, we're partners! Wanna make out?" asked Sirius.
"Oh, Sirius. you're such a tease!" Mandy replied in a high pitched tone and giggled.
"Who said I was teasing?"
Mandy just giggled more.
Lalaine elbowed Lily and pointed to Mandy and Sirius. Lily exclaimed, "Ow, that hurt!" Lalaine paid no attention to this remark and said, "Look at them! What immature little flirts! Mandy is practically throwing herself at him! It's disgusting!"
In a sing song voice Lily said, "Somebody is jealous!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you are!"
"Shut up!" Lalaine screamed drawing the attention of several of the students that were sitting near them. She lowered her voice and said, "I'm just saying that Mandy is being such a slut."
"Well I have a feeling it wouldn't be such a crime if you were the one being a slut with Sirius."
Before Lalaine could say anything, James, who was walking by their table, cut in and asked the age old question, "Hey Evans, wanna go out with me?" Lily exclaimed, once again drawing some strange looks, "No Potter! In a million years - no again! Never!" With that James said, "Oh, you say that now, but in a million years when you are a moldy old woman we will see what your answer is then!" and with a wink he was gone. "Like I said, it's gonna be NO!" Lily shouted in his direction, but James pretended not to hear.
Lalaine said to Lily, "I think you like him."
"Lalaine, did you just miss what happened?"
"No, and it shows all the signs of crushing."
"No it doesn't!"
"Yes it does!"
"No it doesn't!"
"Yes it does!"
"No it doesn't!"
"Ok, this is getting annoying now."
After Lalaine's last remark class began with more droning from Professor Mann. But the whole class, Lalaine never took her eyes off Mandy and Sirius…