Word count: 604
Chapter 23
Failed Attempts
Remus had every intention of hiding in the back of the library alone before he spotted Sandra bent over a book and with a quill in her hand. There was no one with her, and though he hesitated, Remus couldn't pass up the opportunity to actually speak to her for once.
"Hello."
She glanced up at him, eyes widening as she realized who was speaking to her. Her arms splayed out over her parchment as if concealing it from him. It made his eyes want to flicker down to see what she'd written, but he forced himself to keep looking at her face, not wanting to pry.
"Hello," she echoed defensively. "Why are you speaking to me?"
Remus frowned. He had no idea what he'd done that could have her so angry at him. If it was about Peter, that really hadn't been him, though he could see why she'd blame him just as much.
"You're dating one of my best mates. Why wouldn't I say hello?"
"You've never said hi to me before."
He resisted the urge to tell her that he never spoke to her because she didn't seem to want him to. That wouldn't help him if he had any hope at all of befriending her.
"You never talk to me either, but maybe we should try. For Peter?"
She looked at him for a long time, making Remus uncomfortable. Part of him was tempted to walk away and give up on ever making nice with Sandra.
"I know what you said to Peter," she said.
"I didn't say anything about you to Peter. You might be referring to what Sirius said."
She shrugged as if that difference was meaningless.
"You don't want to be friends with me," she said, turning back to her parchment and scribbling on it as she continued to use her other arm to block Remus' view of what she was writing. "You think I'm some heartless hag who's playing with an innocent man's heart, and I'd rather not speak to someone who has such a low opinion of me."
He wanted to point out, again, that she was angry about something Sirius had said, and that what she had just accused Sirius of saying actually differed greatly from what he'd actually said. But he didn't.
With a sigh, he backed away from the table, giving her a small wave.
"Have a nice day," he said as he went.
She didn't return the nicety.
The aftermath of their NEWTs was similar to that of their OWLs. As soon as their last test was over, the Marauders found themselves a spot on the grounds to enjoy the afternoon sun. Luckily, Snape was nowhere to be seen this time around, and Remus didn't think James or Sirius would have bothered going after him even if he had been.
Unfortunately, Peter was much more preoccupied about his test scores than he had been in their fifth year.
"I know I failed everything," he whined, flicking through his notes as he tried to look up the answers to the hardest questions. "Everything."
"Relax, Pete," James said, clapping him on the shoulder. "You studied hard. There's no way you could have failed everything."
Peter looked up just long enough to give James a disbelieving look before delving back into his notes, flipping frantically in search of an elusive answer.
"Besides," Sirius said, leaning around Remus to look at Peter, "don't you have that job with your cousin lined up? What do your scores matter?"
"That doesn't mean I want to fail," Peter mumbled, not looking up from his notes a second time.