Standing There By You
Ch. 31- Absurd Advice and Swindling Students
Disclaimer: Let it be known... it's not mine.
A/N: Hooray, I'm back! I missed you all terribly, and my hands were not complete without a keyboard to type upon. Thanks for being patient! Er... also, a friend informed me I spelled daiquiris wrong in my A/N. Just goes to show you what an avid drinker I am ; ) Anyway, thanks for all the reviews, it really made my day (okay, night, I hurried onto my computer as soon as I set foot in the doorway... after a 15 hour drive)
Sirius Black Fan Club... eh, it's coming ; ) Glad to hear you like it, though.
Enough of my rambling, here's chapter 31...
"Well this is absolutely absurd," Remus muttered, as he scanned a folded and creased paper. He set the yellowing newspaper aside and drew a scrap piece of parchment out of his bag, before scribbling something down. Gently pushing the bridge of his reading glasses up with several light taps of his finger, he bit his tongue slightly in concentration and went back to study the bedraggled paper. Shaking his head in disapproval, he grabbed the scrap parchment and added a bit more, occasionally picking up his head to go back to the newspaper for reference. "Drugle..." he grumbled. "What sane person likes him, anyway?"
"My aunt does," an unexpected voice answered thoughtfully. "But I'm not quite sure if she's sane, actually."
Remus was so jolted by someone responding to his question that he jerked his quill mid-drip, sending a large ink blotch across his parchment. He had been so engrossed in his work that he hadn't even noticed someone join him in the once empty common room and occupy a chair beside him. He straightened up. "Oh, Grace," he laughed nervously, "didn't see you there."
"Hello," she responded cheerfully. She peeked over at his parchments. "What are you doing?"
"What?" he asked, staring back at her blankly. She motioned to the table where his work lay. "Oh- oh this is just an article Stephano, oh wait er... Drugle and well Stephano was a co-partner, but well there's just um misguided facts and, er..."
"Oh, I know Drugle," she said, mercifully paying his stammers no mind. She stood up and glanced at his papers with interest. "He wrote about the fundamentals of the Sargo curse, right?"
"Yeah, he did," Remus said, looking at her in surprise. "You know about him?"
"Mmm-hmm," she nodded. "My aunt has a couple of his works. So, you're... fixing them?"
"Well, uh... sort of," he replied, giving a jerky shrug. He picked up his parchment, and as he began to explain the topic he was so thoroughly intrigued by, his nerves were subconsciously forgotten. "Drugle, he's an incredible man, some might even say genius. But he goes with such a difficult angle that such a simple piece was made incomprehensible, and the very people that are supposed to learn from it probably can't even understand it." He stared at the newspaper with a newfound intensity as he continued on. "Drugle's so worried about making his writing appear advanced, that he's simply disregarding the audience, and in the mean time he's getting crucial facts incorrect. So, I was just revising it a bit in my own words and..." he trailed off abruptly, lifting his head to look at Grace as if just remembering she was there. He smiled weakly, his nervous persona returning. "Oh- I'm sorry, I'm probably er.. probably boring you to death-"
"No," Grace said, shaking her head earnestly. "I think it's great to be so passionate about something."
"Oh well, you know..."
She picked up her head to look at him, twisting a midnight lock around a purple painted fingernail as she studied his expression. After a few seconds of silence, she smiled and leaned over. "Well let me read your revised article, then."
Remus looked down at his scribbled and blotched up paper, before looking back up at Grace. "Oh no, well I'm not nearly finished, and it's all messy and..."
Grace shrugged. "Okay." A grin turned the corner of her lips, "But you've got to promise to show it to me once you're finished."
"There ya are you old bloke," a loud voice called from behind the swinging portrait.
Sirius, James, and Peter appeared in the common room one by one. "What have you been doing all this-" Sirius cut off as he spotted Grace hovering over Remus. He grinned and threw an exaggerated wink at the pair. "Oh," he said dramatically.
Beside him James smirked as well. "Sorry for ah... disturbing."
"No, no," Remus said quickly, standing up and gathering his newspaper and parchments, "not disturbing, er, we were just, and then she uh-"
Grace smiled, laughing slightly. "I've got to go, I'll see you later Remus."
Remus nodded. "Right then," he said, his gaze directed at her left elbow. "See you."
Grace gave a quick wave to his friends before setting off toward her staircase. Remus joined his friends on their path to the dormitory, and shot them an angry glare as they snickered on either side of him.
"You know mate," Sirius said, as he pulled open the door, "we've been talking, and we think you need a bit of advice."
"Advice?" Remus repeated sardonically, sighing as they stepped into their messy dormitory. "You're going to give me advice? On what?"
"Yes we are," James continued for Sirius as he plopped onto his bed and pulled off his shoes. He tossed them carelessly across the room and leaned back. "I'm afraid, my friend, that you are in dire need of advice on women."
"What? No," Remus replied firmly, frowning at James's misshapen shoe that lay wedged between his mattress and bedpost. "And get this disgusting thing away from me."
James rolled his eyes as he watched Remus kick his shoe off the bed. "Yes you do," James persisted, sitting up to face his friend. "Now listen closely. To woo said girl-"
"I don't want your advice," Remus grumbled his protest.
"Yes you do," Sirius cut in. "Now. All you've got to do is ask her to..." Sirius tapped his finger on his right temple as if deliberating, before turning to Remus and brightening. "Tutor you."
"Tutor?" Remus asked, making a face. "In what?"
"Defense," he replied with a tone of finality.
"Defense Against the Dark Arts?" said Remus. "I'm getting full marks in there!"
"Well that's alright," Sirius said, wiggling his eyebrows suggestively, "you could always use a little extra credit."
"Shove off!" Remus exclaimed, throwing his pillow directly at Sirius's face. This didn't stop the insane laughter that came from him, however, and only increased James's.
"Oh," Peter spoke up, looking over at his one frustrated and two laughing friends. "Do you think I could ask her, then? I really need some extra credit."
Remus shook his head, and James and Sirius paused and turned to look at Peter. After a few seconds of silence, they dissolved into even harder laughter.
Peter turned to Remus. "Was it something I said?"
"And yesterday we had a full out break through," Grace said excitedly, as she, Lily, and Julie made their way to Potions class. "You know Samuels? He threw an all around Rolly Ding Off, and then Kabas came with another Acute Arrest!"
"Great," Lily said, smiling at her friend and nodding. As Grace continued to chatter on about Quidditch, she turned to Julie and muttered, "It's as if she was speaking a different language."
"I know," Julie agreed. "What the heck is a Rolly Ding Off?"
Lily shook her head and shrugged; they entered the gloomy atmosphere of the dungeons, where the atmosphere contrasted greatly with their happy mood.
"Hope Fluent's not in a bad mood today," Grace said, as they turned to enter their Potions room.
Lily rolled her eyes. "Is he ever not in a bad mood?"
"Too true," Julie said, laughing in spite of the dreadful class before her. The three girls made their way to the desk they had always occupied, but found three Slytherins sitting on top of it.
"Excuse us," Grace said pointedly, slamming down her books. Julie hesitantly reached out her books and followed suit, setting them next to Grace's.
A girl with sleek black hair wrinkled her noise, looking over at the girls with disgust. The other two didn't make any notion they realized the three Gryffindor girls had arrived.
"You're sitting on our desk," Lily informed them. "Could you move?"
"For a Mudblood, Halfblood, and Pureblood gone to waste with muggle values... let me think," a boy sneered to her left. "No."
Grace stepped forward and shot a menacing glare at the boy. "Watch your mouth, Audire," she warned heatedly. Behind her Julie nodded vigorously.
Lily walked up and stood next to her friend. "Class is starting, now move."
"Nah," the third boy drawled, dropping onto a chair and resting his feet on top of the desk. They happened to jerk and send Julie's books flying. "We're fine where we are, thanks."
"Take your seats," Professor Fluent's brisk voice rang throughout the dungeon. "Open your text..." he stopped mid-sentence as his eyes fell upon the three girls that remained standing. "Are you deaf? I told you to take a seat. And what is all this mess you've made?"
"We know," Lily started to explain, "but they're sitting-"
"Sir, they just won't leave us alone," one of the Slytherin's informed him with an innocent expression. "All we're trying to do is follow your instructions." His two friends nodded sullenly beside him.
"Bullocks!" Grace cried, pounding her fist on the table. "And they're the ones that made the mess, tell him Julie."
As all eyes shifted to the girl, as she crossed her arms nervously. "Oh well... yeah, they-"
"Unless you'd like a week's worth of detentions, I highly suggest you move and find your own seats now," Professor Fluent instructed firmly, his cold gaze falling over the girls.
Grace gave an angry huff and scooped up her books, before turning to look around the dungeon. The only available seats weren't located together, so she stomped off to the nearest unoccupied one. Lily did as well, although her frustration was dented a bit with terror at the prospect of a week of detentions. Julie took a slight while longer, as she hastily scrambled to pick up her scattered books and parchments.
Once they were all settled, Professor Fluent sneered his instructions for that lesson's potion assignment, before casting a list of ingredients on the board.
"It's funny," James commented, as he handed Sirius a pile of chopped Rewsins to pour in the cauldron, "the two people I can't stand the most, and they're stuck working together for the entire class. This is highly amusing."
"Severus, could you pass me the Ganage?" Lily requested, wiping her hands to rid of excess frog liver.
"I can do it myself," Severus said coldly.
Lily bit her tongue to refrain from retorting. "Severus, this is supposed to be a group project-"
"I can do it," Severus repeated, ignoring her exasperated look. "You don't know what you're doing, anyway."
Lily sighed, and reached over to start grating the Presarios instead. "Don't touch that!" Severus shouted angrily.
Lily turned to glare at him, her hands on her hips. "Severus! I'm fairly positive I can handle this project as well as you can. I have been studying Potions as long as you have, you know."
Severus jerked his head slightly to peer at her, before looking back down at the Ganage he was stripping. "Sorry," he replied in what Lily figured to be the most genuine voice he could muster, "I'm just used to working by myself."
"Can you believe them?" Grace demanded, as she furiously chopped her terigunes.
"Nope," Remus responded, his voice fairly higher than normal. He gulped as the knife came down harder with each slice.
"Oh, was I supposed to do that?"
Grace and Remus turned to look at Peter, who had just dumped a mountainous pile of Nions into the potion.
"No," the two said together, hurrying toward the now putrid smelling potion. The small strainer they were supplied with simply sizzled and melted into the potion as soon as it touched the liquid.
Grace sighed as she watched the metal sink into the potion and vaporize in an instant. "Well... let's just keep working, maybe we can still save it..."
Peter gave a discouraged nod, staring down at the pitiful potion with disbelief. "Yeah, maybe..."
"Make sure you grate the strewn mesucs before gathering the Presarios," a haughty voice directed Julie. "And hurry up. We've only got an hour, you know."
Julie turned to look at the lazy Slytherin girl that was resting on her chair and issuing instructions, without lifting a hand to help. "Well," she began hesitantly, "maybe if you'd-"
"Maybe if I'd what?" the girl interrupted, glaring at her menacingly.
"N-nothing," Julie said, turning back to the potion. She sighed as she picked up the pile of ingredients, and hastily continued to work.
"Well we're almost finished," Grace said, grating the last of the lipits. "How are those ganages coming along, Remus?"
"Fine," Remus said, nodding his head more vigorously than necessary, "just fine."
"Oh, he's coming by," Peter said, craning his neck to view the professor.
"Okay. Remus, hurry and hand me that dish," Grace said, motioning to an argent bowl. "I need to mix these ingredients."
Remus absently reached out a hand to grab the dish, not peering up from his growing pile of mesucs. Just as his fingers brushed the lid, however, he retreated his hand quickly and his head shot up in alarm.
Grace stared at him as he waved his hand around, fanning it slightly in the air, and James stepped up from the cauldron behind him. James laughed and said something about Remus being quite the clown, before picking up the dish and handing it to Grace.
"And what's this?"
Professor Fluent stood before them, wrinkling his nose in disgust as he peered into their cauldron.
"An absolute mess," the professor proclaimed. "A disgrace to this class." He made bold marks on the parchment he held, an obvious gesture of horrid marks.
Peter watched as the professor walked off to the next cauldron. "Sorry guys," he apologized in a small voice.
"It's alright, Peter," Remus said, seemingly recovered from the odd incident that had just taken place. He gave the upset boy an encouraging smile. "We would've never made it without you anyway- no one can chop the Rewsins as well as you can."
"Yeah, I guess..."
"Honestly Peter," Remus said with an increased amount of enthusiasm. "And, I don't even think it was your fault. I'm practically positive I didn't slice the guents fine enough."
"Really?" Peter asked, looking up at him. Remus nodded again. "Oh."
The bell rang to dismiss the class, and everyone quickly gathered their supplies. Grace lingered behind a bit, as Remus put away all of his books neatly and placed his parchments in their designated positions. When he looked up and saw her, she smiled. "If you would've grated those guents any finer, they'd of been invisible."
Remus shrugged as he watched Peter retreat toward Sirius and James. "Well, he needs all the encouragement he can get."
Grace nodded as they began to walk out of the classroom. "A highly respectable student, Remus Lupin, a highly respectable student."
She cocked her head and grinned, and he smiled in return. "You know Remus," Grace began, as they sauntered out of the classroom. "I was wondering if-"
"Well, my friends are waiting," Remus said quickly. He nodded to Grace before hastily setting off toward them. "Bye."
Grace frowned as she watched Remus hurry down the hallway. "Bye."
As Remus met up with the other boys, he was faced with astonished faces and dismally shaking heads. "Remus, you dolt!" James exclaimed. "We would've waited!"
The group began walking down the corridor, and Remus shrugged his shoulders. "Doesn't matter."
"Doesn't matter?!" Sirius repeated incredulously. "Remus, buddy ol' pal, you are truly daft." He hit his shoulder. "She was about to ask-"
"So any news on the passage?" Remus interjected, pointedly ignoring Sirius. "If we don't find it soon we won't be able to go."
Sirius stared at him for a moment and frowned, before nodding his head and replying, "Yeah, we're pretty sure we've spotted her on the third floor. We can check it out further tonight."
A/N: Hm... this whole Remus/Grace thing isn't getting too frustrating, is it? If you'd like to know about that in further detail, there's a little bit of information in my livejournal. (Click Homepage on my bio for the link) And... not that many people look at it, so I'd be mighty glad if you'd comment and let me know you've visited : )
Dulcis- ::sigh:: I missed you too... A whole week, it was tragic. I'm glad your eye is not wrinkly, and I'm glad you liked the chapter. Mucho gracious!
Chocolatehundreddollarbill- Intruging name. Have Remus ask Grace out? Well I'll try to make him, but he's a tough one, he is. Thanks very much for the review : )
Dance-flirt- Yes, you are Abbi. I'm extremely happy you enjoyed your 3 lines of fame : ) Thanks bunches for the review!
Pline- I'm glad you think Remus is cute ; ) Yes, most boys do show off, don't they? But not in this story, no sir (or ma'm). Nope. Well except for Sirius. And James.
LooneyLuna1122- Ask her out? Preposterous. Insane. Mad. Wicked. I like adjectives. Thanks very much for the reviews, I appreciate them soo much!
Gaby-Malfoy- Hehe, I don't think so either. Thanks very much for the review, much appreciated!
Charmed4ever- I'm sad. Why am I sad? Because my beta keeps shoving the stars in my face, and reminds me constantly that they are, in fact, sparkling. ::hinting hinting:: I really like purple. And stars are nice to. Yes, I like purple, and stars. Just in case you didn't catch that, I fancy PURPLE and STARS. Erm... anyway, I'm really glad you like Remus, and thanks for the review!
Misakichi1- I'm glad you find it lol worthy, thanks mucho for your review!
SiriusJamesRemus'sgirl- Thanks for the review, and I plan to stick to everyone of JKR's words. Thanks again ; )Oliverwoodschic- Thanks much for your review, and, you're such a silly girl... you actually think I'm going to answer your questions? Funny lass, you are.
Molly- Lol, it's okay you didn't review, a lot of people didn't get the update. I think fanfiction was being a little goofy. A 17 yr. old looking Remus? Yum yum. Nope, haven't sent out another one, any ideas? Thanks mucho for the long review!
MissBlueAngel- It's okay, but any pair of boxers can be wacky : ) Ah well, thanks for trying!
IrishMaiden- Hehe, yes, Sirius is a player. And I'm not talking about Quidditch....
MelissaMoony- Aw, hehe I'm glad you like Remus's crush. I sometimes worry I'm overdoing his stammers... don't hesistate to let me know if you think I am. Thanks bunches for the review!
Dreamlessnights- Thanks much for the review! I'll try and hurry with another SBFC, and... hope you had tons of fun on the dog walk. : )
Becky- Thanks for all the reviews! I'm really glad you like it. Good luck with your story, I sent you an e-mail, so respond if you need me : )
FreckledIrishMaiden- Hehe, yeah, I put the shoulder part in because I didn't want people to think he was looking at stuff er... R rated. You didn't get a response?! Oh no... I'll make that up for ya ; )
Siriuslyfun19212- Um, didn't I just write a dedicated section of my chapter with the emotional words of Hero to my beta, hmm?? My beta is very much appreciated, thank you very much : p I'm glad you liked the Grandma part, I've had that in my head for awhile...
ImperishableStars- Oh, thanks : ) I'm so glad you like the canonness (does canon just mean sticking to the books? I've always wondered that) Oh, and Remus thanks you for the luck, boy does he need it...
Lanette- Well I've never actually thought about that, but I suppose he does fancy naming things : p Why didn't we see the girls? They were skipping throughout the Forbidden Forest and illegally trading perishable pillows, so they refused to come join the chapter. I forced them into this one, though.
Ninde Annare- Hello! Thanks very much for the review, they always make me feel mighty spiffy : )
MilesFromNormal- Lol,I have faith in my beta, don't worry. It's just the way she exclaimed, "I've got the power!" frightened me a tad. Thanks for the review!
Padfootz/thoroughbredchickie- Ooh... two reviews for one chapter? Great stuff! Thanks very much, and by the way, nice alias ; ) By the way, I sent you the first two Fan Club notices, right?
Misty Cherry- Hello! Long time no talk, it's sad. Thanks for the wonderfully long review, I like when people point out parts they liked. Very much appreciated!
Windowseat Wonderer- Oh no, you're leaving me? Sad stuff. Where are you going? I hope you have tons of fun : ) Thanks for the review!
Lily Skylo- Yes, he just went away for a little while. On a vacation of some sort. In fact, I'm practically positive I glimpsed him on the beach... Thanks for the review!
Aerandir- Hey there ; ) Thanks mucho for the review, and for informing me about the daiquiris... whoops.
Jess- Hello! You make me feel so dandy, thanks bunches for your review!
Siriusismine- Oh no.. secretary's already taken too! How about.. um.. if you can come up with a position, it's yours! Hehe, thanks for the review! : ) Smiles are good.
Ieyre- Sirius was that hot and then some.Parvati and Lavendar wouldn't have standed a chance. : ) Thanks for the review!
Curiousknowitall- Oh yay, I'm glad I have a Remus/Grace shipper... wait, I have a shipper? That's so cool! Thanks bundles for the review... will she accept him? Hmm... good question.
Jameschic23- I'll make many, many more, so no worries... Thanks bunches for the review!
Luna Gypsy- Yes, and I LOVE your reviews so MUCH! Thanks for the review, yours always make me feel utterly fantastic : )
Holly-Evans- Thanks very much for the review, appreciated greatly as always!
Manny- Posted ASAP, just for you ; )
Raven Sirius Black- Glad you like it, thanks so much for the review! My drink is warm...
Jounin-Elite- Yes! We're definitely making the stew. It sounds scrumptious.
EW4eva- Thanks for all of the reviews, they're very much appreciated!
L.M. Robertson- I'm glad I made you laugh! Thanks very much for the reviews, they made me feel splendid : )