Chapter 1: Marlowe needs a Tutor

"Miss Valentin!"

I wake with a start to a sharp Scottish voice calling my name, making me jump out of my seat. About an inch away from me is the heavily disapproving face of Professor McGonagall, and I notice my classmates are supressing their giggles around me. Shit. I had fallen asleep in class, for what must have been the fourth time this year – and we were only three weeks in. At least I didn't get any injuries this time, in potions I had fallen asleep next to Uma's lit cauldron and burnt my hair, which now in consequence reached to just above my shoulders.

"Now that you are conscious, Miss Valentin, I will continue with explaining to everyone the importance of your OWL year," Professor McGonagall said, glaring my way when she emphasised on the word 'importance', and carried on with her OWL lecture, which I quickly zone out of.

Its not really my fault that I fell asleep in her class, if anyone was to blame it would be Matty O'Reilly from the year above, as it was him who had acquired butterbeer from the kitchens for his 17th birthday and made all the Hufflepuff 5th and 6th years join him in a game of Never Have I Ever. Yes, I was the one who got the most carried away with it, but I play the peer pressure card. As I was too tired, and hungover, to concentrate for the rest of McGonagall's class, I decided to spend the rest of the class doodling Marlene as she was sitting next to me, and looking comedically serious – she had told me and Uma on the train to Hogwarts that this was to be the year she was finally going to buckle down and study, instead of having her head occupied by Quidditch 24/7, and so far she seemed to be sticking to this pledge.

It felt like an eternity before class ended, however, just as I was standing up from my desk and turning to leave, McGonagall called me once more.

"Wait just one moment, Miss Valentin. I want to talk to you."

I rolled my eyes and looked to Marlene, "I'll meet you in Defence, save me a seat next to you, yeah?" I asked.

"Of course, I'll try to battle away my suitors to save your seat," she joked back, before exiting the room. When I turned to the front of the classroom, I was surprised to see that Remus Lupin was standing next to Professor McGonagall's desk in a quiet conversation with her. That's unusual, Remus is one of the best students in our year, surely his attention isn't slipping as well.

When I reached the desk, the quiet conversation stopped and the two turned to face me.

"Miss Valentin, not only have you fallen asleep twice in my class – and made no progress whatsoever in these past few weeks – but I have been informed by Professor Sprout that you have had the same attitude to other classes! Somehow, your grades aren't too horrendous in other classes, but I cannot say the same for Transfiguration. If you carry on like this, you will get a Troll in your OWLs. I believe you can pass this class but are in deep need of guidance. So, meet your new tutor," McGonagall finished, and motion her hand towards Remus, who looked very awkward after hearing McGonagall's speech to me. I can't believe she thinks I need a tutor! And one who is a Marauder no less!

I open my mouth to protest this but McGonagall holds her hand up to stop me before I can start.

"No protestations, this is happening. I suggest you two talk over when you're going to meet on the way to your next class. Don't keep Professor Prewett waiting," she finished, before looking down at the marking below her as a sign that she was finished with us. I let out a frustrated sigh, turned on my heel and stormed out the door. I could hear Remus rushing up behind me, and it took no time at all for Remus and his long legs to catch up.

"I know this isn't an ideal situation, so let's just say we'll meet halfway though lunch at the back of the library and get this sorted, okay?" Remus suggested.

"Fine by me," I replied, without looking his way, and we remained in silence for the rest of the walk to Defence Against the Dark Arts. We reached the classroom at the same time as Professor Prewett did, so we luckily hadn't missed any of the class. When we got in, I moodily took my seat next to Marlene, who gave me an inquisitive look which asked, "what was that about?"

"I'll tell you after," I whispered, and turned to the front, trying to pay attention. I loved Defence Against the Dark Arts, especially now that Fabian Prewett, who had been 5 years above us in school, had agreed to teach it for a year. Fabian Prewett was gorgeous and extremely enthusiastic, meaning that this was about the only class I payed attention in at the moment, but this tutoring news had put me in a sour mood.

I'll give you some context as to why I have a disdain for the Marauders, as they like to call themselves. In third year when I had been chosen for the inter-house quidditch commentator, James Potter had made it onto the Gryffindor quidditch team as a chaser. We were the only third years, and the youngest people in the school, to be actively involved in quidditch. Not only did this come with a surge of popularity for us and our friends, but we forged a new friendship from this connection and for a while our two friendship groups had joined. After a while, I had developed quite a sizeable crush on James, and at the beginning of fourth year I had asked him to go on a date with me on the first Hogsmeade trip of the year. Yes, I knew about his infatuation with Lily Evans, but she despised him and I thought I might as well shoot my shot, which Uma and Marlene encouraged me was a good idea. To my surprise, James agreed to go on the date. I was beyond excited, I even got Uma to curl my hair for me – I had always been useless at beauty charms.

After meeting at the Hogwarts gates, James spent the whole of our date following wherever Lily was going, and either half listening to me or ignoring me overall. After two hours of this, I finally snapped and asked him if he really wanted to be on this date with me, to which he apologised and insisted he did. Being naïve, I believed him, and we went to the Three Broomsticks together where we actually had a nice time talking about quidditch, drinking butterbeer and having a laugh. I noticed that after about an hour his mood changed, and then out of nowhere he kissed me. I remember thinking I was so lucky, James must really, finally like me! However, when we broke apart, the first thing he did was look over my shoulder, and when I turned to see what he was looking at, I saw Lily Evans three tables down. That was it, I didn't want to seem jealous but I asked him again if he actually liked me. He could see I was hurt, and so he confessed that the Marauders had convinced him that, perhaps, if he went on a date with me and Lily saw, she would get jealous. In that moment I felt like my heart broke, my first date ever and I had been ignored and used in a play to get another girl. I could feel the tears prickling in my eyes, so I ran out of there and straight back to Hogwarts.

My crush on James ended forever that day, and by now I have gotten over the humiliation – I even went on a few real dates later on in the year and had a two month relationship with Cian McLaggen from Gryffindor in the year above (which ended after he stated that the Montrose Magpies – my home team – were the worst in the league). What I have never gotten over, however, is how those boys betrayed my friendship by putting me up to be humiliated. I've hardly talked to the Marauders since then, Marlene is still friendly with them as she is in Gryffindor with them, but I can't bring myself to forgive them just yet.

"Alright, so your homework for next week is to just continue practising your shielding spells," finished up Fabian, "Right, you're all dismissed, go eat lunch."

"Okay Lo, what did McGonagall say to put you in such a sour mood, and why did you come in with Lupin?" Marlene enquired as we packed up our bags.

"Lupin is my new tutor," I answered in an embarrassed groan.

"Tutor?! God Lo, I didn't realise your grades were that bad. And yes, I know you're still mad over the James thing last year, but Remus isn't a bad guy and he's super smart. I'm sure everything will be fine," Marlene tried to reassure me. When she saw this hadn't reassured me much, she changed the subject quickly, "anyway, did you see Fabian's arm muscles? You could see how toned they were when he was showing us how to properly do a shield charm."

That broke through my moody exterior for a minute, and I laughed as she carried on fawning over our teacher. It took us 10 minutes to reach the Great Hall where Uma was already waiting for us at the far end of the Hufflepuff table, which was where we ate lunch together every day. Her dark head was buried in her sketchbook so she didn't see us approach, apparently she was so focused that she jumped with fright when we sat down beside her, knocking over her pumpkin juice.

"Why so jumpy Uma?" I enquired, while treating myself to a large spoonful of the mouth-watering shepherd's pie that was in front of me.

"I had a new design idea and had to get it down," she explained, while clearing up the pumpkin juice spillage with her wand. You see, Uma has had the desire to be a designer since she was little – it was this ambition which got her sorted into Slytherin in the first place. She thought that the wizarding world's clothing was too old fashioned, and so she wanted to bring a modern flare to the traditional cloaks and robes for young witches and wizards who now usually chose to wear muggle clothing. As she had been practising her designs for years now, there was no denying she was a pro and no one doubted that she would go on to do great things after Hogwarts.

"What's the design?" Marlene asked in a very un-ladylike manner, with her mouth full of potatoes.

"A pastel pink embroidered cloak for the Spring, way to girly for your liking Marley," joked Uma as she put her prized sketchbook into her bag. Uma was right, if there was one thing Marlene was not, it was girly. Marlene was the tomboy in our group – she had gorgeous honey blond hair that was always unbrushed, she refused to wear anything but muggle jeans and t-shirts when not in uniform, and she was the only female beater in the whole of Hogwarts. Despite her unmatched Quidditch talent, Marlene had decided over summer that she wants to become a healer like her mother, which came as an unexpected surprise to me and Uma.

"Okay, what's up with the moody cow over here?" Uma asked Marlene upon setting her eyes on me.

"Oh, she's mad because she needs to be tutored by Lupin for Transfiguration," Marlene explained, again with her mouthful, and Uma snorted at my misfortunes.

"Serves you right for falling asleep so much in classes, I told you that there would be consequences sooner or later to your behaviour," Uma chastised, and then in a serious tone added, "I know you've lost motivation recently but you need to carry on trying."

Not wanting to have the serious conversation about the reason behind my lack in motivation, I quickly shovelled the rest of my shepherd's pie in to my mouth and told the girls that I had to go find Lupin, although I still had another 15 minutes till I had to meet him in the library, and that I would see them both in Divination after lunch.

As I had left the Great Hall so early, I waited at the back of the library for about 10 minutes before I was joined by Lupin.

"Hey," he greeted me quietly, to which I replied an equally quiet and awkward, "Hi."

Lupin sat down and got out his books, parchment and his quill.

"So, if you want to get your Transfiguration book out, we can look the at chapters, divide up the workload and decide when we're going to meet," he said.

"I don't have the book," I said.

"What?" he asked, visibly confused.

"I may have forgotten to buy my textbooks this summer," I explained, now feeling quite embarrassed and ashamed about my former decision. Remus sighed and put his head in his hands.

"Okay," he said into his hands, before lifting his head, "you bought none of them?"

"No, but I've managed to get most as second-hand copies from the teachers. I just don't have the Transfiguration, History of Magic or Divination books – but let's be honest, who actually needs the Divination book?" I tried to joke, but received no laughter.

"Okay," he said again, in the same, disappointed tone, "so, what we're going to do is we'll look through my Transfiguration book at the chapters to divide up the work load, and then next weekend we are going to Tomes and Scrolls and I am going to watch you buy all the books you need to actually pass this year."

"But that's the first Hogsmeade trip! Matty O'Reilly has asked me on a date!" I protested.

"I don't care. To be honest, I'm not crazy about spending my first Hogsmeade trip as your tutor but I promised McGonagall I would get you to pass this class, and the sooner we can make it happen the better. Now let's get started," he answered firmly, and started to make a schedule on a blank bit of parchment.

That speech had come as quite a surprise to me, in the years I had known Lupin I hadn't known him to be so firm and almost angry, he had always been the quiet, sweet one of the group. I couldn't tell what the reason behind this anger was, but I deduced that it must be from me wasting his free time which he could spend with his mates, and I couldn't blame him. I was angry at me too.