Chapter 2

She was following Dumbledore once more, hardly paying attention to where she was going. She was too busy wondering about her classmates. Aerin wanted to know what they'd be liked… and then again, she really didn't.

A bad habit of hers was to expect perfection. Of course, she wasn't perfect, and she knew it- but no matter how hard she tried to rid herself of that habit, she always expected too high. Anything less than what she expected seemed to disappoint her.

As they came to a stop, she ceased her thoughts for the moment. She glanced through the open doors and into the Great Hall, where she saw an endless sea of black robes, identical to the ones she'd changed into.

With a final glance back at Dumbledore, who was beaming at her, she walked through the doors. Though the conversation did all but cease, whispers started up like wildfire. As she passed by each table, all eyes turned to her.

But rather than look away and avert her eyes to the floor nervously, she stared right back at them, her fierce gaze never wavering.

Aerin knew why they were staring. For one thing, she was someone they'd never seen before. But for another, she had, of course, attended Beauxbatons. If she hadn't had the looks, she wouldn't have been accepted into Beauxbatons in the first place.

However, she didn't thrive in the spotlight of being noticed for appearances. If anything, she loathed and despised her looks- it was the one thing she had in common with the other girls at Beauxbatons. She continued walking past the tables. Everyone was still staring. Aerin knew she could have any of them as her friend, any at all- but she wasn't interested. Their awe of her meant nothing in her mind.

But suddenly, something caught her eye. There, at the very end of the Gryffindor table, were three pairs of eyes that didn't notice her. She smiled to herself- this was some hope for her. Hope that she could be noticed for something other than her looks.

Three boys at the table were talking among themselves… well, two boys actually. The third, who had rather untidy hair, and mischievous hazel eyes, was trying his absolute most to impress an exasperated red-head to his left.

The other two boys looked to be arguing about something. The first had sandy blond hair. He was quite pale, giving Aerin the image that he was unwell. As he continued talking, she noted by his slight frown that he was doubtful of whatever they were arguing about.

However, it was the other boy who caught her attention. With his shaggy black hair and dark laughing eyes, he looked like some ancient god brought down to Earth.

She swallowed- why did it feel hard to swallow? - and glanced away for a moment. It took her a minute to realize she had stopped walking. She scowled fiercely, as though daring anyone to give her a hard time about it. Of course, no one had that idea at all.

Sighing, she continued walking until she came to the end of the table. "Mind if I sit here?" she asked the blond. Aerin had decided she'd just not acknowledge the dark-eyed boy. Certainly if she just tried to forget about him, she could forget that feeling she'd had when she looked at him.

The blond paused his conversation to examine her. She was relieved to see that he didn't care too much about how she looked, due to his expression. He simply nodded to her.

Aerin sat down, to her relief, on the pale boy's right, while the black-haired boy was on his left. Staring at the food in front of her, she realized she wasn't very hungry. When the silence became too much to bear, she finally spoke. "Sorry… I don't believe I caught your name," she told the blond.

He nodded once more. "Remus Lupin," he told her, extending a hand for her to shake.

"Aerin Lorenta!" she introduced herself, grasping his hand firmly.

Through all of this, the dark-haired boy had gone suddenly silent. He'd noticed for the first time, the auburn-haired girl with the fierce blue eyes who'd taken a seat next to Remus. His mouth was open just the tiniest bit. He wanted to know who she was. He was absolutely positive that he'd never seen her before.

"James!" Remus called, to the boy who was still trying to impress the girl beside him. By now, the girl looked as though she were going to be sick.

James failed to notice Remus, and continued to flirt.

Remus rolled his eyes and tried again. "Oy! Potter!" he called again.

This time, James finally turned around in his seat to face Remus. "C'mon Moony! I was talking to Lily! Why'd you bug me?" he whined.

"This is Aerin," he told James, pointing to her. Aerin was staring intently at the table, still trying not to glance at the other boy.

"I'm James Potter!" he introduced himself. As soon as he'd finished his sentence, he turned back to the girl, only to see she was quickly walking out of the Great Hall. "Wait! Lily!" he called after her, then sighed and turned back to Remus and Aerin.

"Well… if I had to introduce myself, so does Padfoot," James grumbled, half to himself. "Introduce yourself, Black!"

The other boy was still staring at Aerin. Who was she? He was examining her so intently, he didn't even hear James.

James sighed, annoyed. "Well, since he won't talk, I'll just go ahead and tell you that this drooling idiot is-" he started.

The dark-eyed boy snapped back to his senses when he finally heard James. He interrupted him. "I'm not a drooling idiot!" he protested, though he wiped his mouth off just to be sure.

"Then introduce yourself," James retorted smugly.

The other boy glanced at Aerin nervously. "Er… right," he told James, clearing his throat. "Sirius Black," he told her.

Aerin was staring at him now. Never, in her whole life, had she been so glad for someone to notice her looks. But she knew she never had much respect for those who noticed her for her appearances, and she suspected that her looks were why Sirius was so nervous. She hadn't noticed how nervous he'd seemed before, but once he'd started talking, she'd been able to tell at once. She had now made up her mind that if he cared about her looks, she'd certainly lose any respect she'd had for him, and never have that awkward feeling again. She would just be friends with him. No- friends with all three of them. She didn't want to have to settle with someone who was absolutely desperate to be her friend- she wanted a challenge, a feeling of satisfaction. That was why she would be friends with these boys- these boys who didn't need anymore friends at all.

Sirius's eyes flashed towards her. Their eyes met for a moment; his looked away first. "So… you're new to Hogwarts?" he asked finally. It was a safe enough question. After all, they'd never had a new student who wasn't a First Year.

"I was kicked out of Beauxbatons," she explained honestly, smirking the slightest bit.

Now all three boys turned to stare at her. A Second Year who'd appeared to be passing by casually now turned and sprinted back towards his friends. News about this strange newcomer would definitely be worth something.

"And you're… proud about this?" James asked her disbelievingly, noting the tone of her voice when she'd spoken.

Aerin's smirk widened. "Well now, did you really expect I'd have followed the rules?" she inquired.

In the week that followed, wherever Aerin went, a crowd followed. News of the strange new girl who'd been kicked out of Beauxbatons had traveled quickly. However, the novelty of it finally wore off due to the fact that she never answered any of their questions and scowled at them constantly.

As soon as the last curious First Year stopped following her, she went back to hanging out with James, Remus, and Sirius. Well, actually… she really just showed up wherever they did, and watched them silently. Presently, she came to notice another boy who hung out with them. Aerin found his name was Peter. However, she didn't care about what Peter did very much. She found he was rather boring, and whenever she looked at him, he seemed pathetically afraid of her. The other boys were much more interesting.

Her classes were also something for her to look forward to. At Beauxbatons, her classes had been quite boring. They'd done mainly bookwork and essays, and when they actually got to perform spells, they were often boring spells that had quite un-interesting effects. Here at Hogwarts, she was thrilled to be able to actually perform spells that sometimes made no sense at all. In Defense Against the Dark Arts, she made her way to the top of the class, surprising everyone, including herself, by being able to perform nearly all the defensive spells the class was assigned. That wasn't the only surprise she offered during her classes, either. In History of Magic, she was on the edge of her seat, listening to every word Professor Binns said. She didn't write any notes, but anyone who wasn't already asleep could tell that she was actually taking in what he said.

However, for as excellent as she was at Defense Against the Dark Arts, she was twice as dismal at Transfiguration. The entire class roared with laughter as she attempted to transfigure her stool into a book, and ended up turning Peter into a very fat tree frog. Well… she doubted that would make him any less afraid of her.

The days came to pass with similar results in the classes, until finally, the weekend arrived. It wasn't an ordinary weekend either. Since Aerin had come a little later in the year than the other students, winter had already settled in the day she'd arrived. As she came down to the Common Room Saturday morning, she saw a notice about it being a Hogsmeade trip.

At first she was confused, and merely stared at the notice blankly, but as she thought back, she vaguely remembered getting a form signed that had mentioned something about trips to Hogsmeade.

She pondered so long on whether to go or not, that she had to run to catch up with the large group of students when they set off walking across the grounds.

Aerin knew that she'd made the right decision when Hogsmeade came into view. The shops were absolutely brilliant, each and every one of them full of color and light as people rushed back and forth for holiday shopping. It was chilly out, and her cheeks were already red from the cold air, so she headed for a small, warm-seeming building.

It turned out to be a pub- and it also turned out to be the place the boys had come first as well.

Remus and Sirius were arguing over something, just as they had been the day Aerin first met them, while Peter watched, and James was getting butterbeers.

Remus stopped talking as he saw Peter dart behind Sirius. "Aerin's here, isn't she?" Remus asked, trying to keep from laughing at Peter's behavior.

Sirius glanced towards the doorway and saw Aerin. He smiled a little, and felt pleasantly warm. Ever since he'd noticed she always seemed to pop up wherever he and his friends were, he'd felt like that a lot lately. For any other girl in the school- and there were quite a few that had their eyes on him- he would have called this 'stalking', but she was so quiet about it… wait, what the heck was he doing? Without realizing it, he'd been waving at her to come sit with them.

Aerin bit her lip. For a moment, she even considered walking right back out the door. But, finally, she walked over to where they were and took a seat next to Sirius, ignoring the fact that Peter whimpered a bit, and ducked behind Remus instead.

Before any of them could start talking again, James returned with the butterbeers. He'd seen Aerin come over and bought one for her too.

It turned out that Aerin had never had any butterbeer at Beauxbatons. She absolutely loved it, as soon as she took her first sip, and drank the whole mug of it in less than three minutes.

Presently, Sirius and Remus began arguing again, in hushed voices, only this time, James took part in it as well. Aerin managed to catch a few words of what they were saying.

"I'm telling you Padfoot, it would never work! Maybe if we caught him in the library… but the Tower?" Remus asked Sirius, one eyebrow raised.

"Well he'd have time to fix it so no one would see if we did it in the library! It'd be better to get him while he's asleep, Moony!" Sirius protested.

James nodded. "We want it to last, not have him get rid of it!" he told Remus, clearly agreeing with Sirius on whatever the argument was about.

Remus opened his mouth to say something, but Aerin cut him off. "Mind if I ask what you're talking about?" she spoke up suddenly.

Sirius was slightly startled. It had been so long since she'd last spoken to them, he'd nearly forgotten that she could speak at all.

"Well… you see, there's this boy, Serverus Snape, and he's a horrid little piece of work. We're… planning on doing something to him… but we want to do it in the Slytherin Tower. Well, actually, I'm pretty sure it's not really a Tower," James explained.

Aerin nodded thoughtfully. She pretty much understood now. Since she'd never seen Snape before, she didn't know why the boys disliked him so much… but she trusted their judgment.

Remus sighed and shook his head. "But you two forgot one little detail- the password," he told them.

Sirius and James exchanged looks for a moment. It was obvious that they hadn't thought through how they were going to get inside.

Aerin had gone silent for the moment. She looked like she was trying hard to remember something that had happened a long time ago. As a grin slowly made its way up her face, all of the boys glanced at each other worriedly.

Finally, she glanced back at the boys, still grinning. "Well now… show me what you plan to do to Snape, and I believe I can help you with the rest."

"But how would you-" Remus started.

"You'll see," Aerin smirked.

"But-" Remus tried again.

"Now Moony, you heard the lady!" Sirius laughed. However, his laughter ceased as he noticed James smirking at him. "What are you thinking, Prongs?" he asked nervously.

James continued smirking. "She wants to know what we're planning on doing to Snape, so…" he said innocently.

Sirius gaped at him. "But why me? Couldn't you use someone else as an example?" he whined.

James stared at him hopefully. It was obvious he wouldn't stop asking.

Sirius sighed in defeat. "Fine. But you do know the counter curse, right?" he asked suspiciously.

James nodded, pleased with getting his way. He drew out his wand from his pocket. "Of course I know the counter curse! At least… I think so…" he told him.

"James!"

James laughed. "I was just giving you a hard time!" he grinned. In the next instant, he flicked his wand, and Sirius's shaggy black hair immediately changed… to pink? Not just any shade of pink either. It was a bright, hurt-your-eyes-to-look-at sort of pink.

Remus, Peter, James, and Aerin all tried to hold back their laughter at first, but when they started choking, they couldn't help but double over from laughing so hard.

Aerin managed to look up at Sirius when she'd calmed down momentarily from her fits of laughter. It surprised her how, even though it was hilarious, he still looked amazing, pink hair and all.

James was laughing so hard that he fell right out of his chair and continued laughing on the floor.

Sirius scowled. "Oh, ha ha, very funny. Now change it back!" he demanded.

James had to take several deep breaths and lean against the chair for support before he managed to calm himself. With another flick of his wand, Sirius's hair was returned to normal.

Sirius gave a sigh of relief, then grinned at Aerin, giving away the fact that he'd found it funny too. "So… mind telling us what your plan for getting into the Slytherin Tower is?" he asked after a moment.

Aerin was grinning madly by now. Rather than saying anything, however, she started looking around the pub, until she stood up from the table and walked over to a young Slytherin.

"You think maybe she'll mortally wound him?" James asked hopefully. He and Sirius were known for many things at Hogwarts, and hating Slytherins was one of them.

However, what she did next was something none of them expected. She began talking to the boy, smiling sweetly. They could even hear her giggle a few times.

"I didn't know that she could giggle," James said in a state of complete disbelief. "Bloody h-" he started to say, before Remus instinctively cut him off by clamping a hand over his mouth.

Sirius could feel his face growing hot. His fists were even clenching and unclenching slightly. He was so angry with this little insignificant Slytherin pipsqueak, that he didn't trust himself to say anything.

A few minutes later, Aerin returned, looking as though she might gag. She'd never been much of a fan of flirting. But once she sat down next to Sirius again, she wore a look of smug triumph.

All of the boys, including Peter, stared at her as though she'd completely lost her mind.

"The password's 'Boomslang'. I'm sure it'd be best to meet up in the Common Room at one in the morning- that way we could go ahead and dye his hair before having to worry that the password will have changed," she explained.

The boys continued to gape until James finally caught on that she'd only acted so unlike herself so that the kid would tell her the password. "Genius!" he yelled happily.

They all discussed it for a bit, and decided Aerin's plan was, indeed, the best one.

As Remus and James went ahead and left the pub, James was so excited, it looked as though Christmas had come early for him. He was ecstatic, not only at the fact that their prank would work after all, but also because they'd found someone with a mind as devious and mischievous as their own minds.

Peter followed after them, sending one last terrified glance at Aerin.

Aerin and Sirius stared at each other for a moment, neither making a move to get up. A question that had been dormant for some time at the back of her mind suddenly burst forth to the surface, no longer able to be contained. "So… does this mean we're friends?" she asked, eyebrows furrowed.

Sirius glanced at her, a bit surprised at her sudden question. It took him a moment to realize that he had been wondering the exact same thing. "Well… I… I suppose so," he stammered.

Aerin nodded. She appeared happy, but somehow solemn at the same time. That was exactly the answer she'd wanted to hear.