A/N: Thank you guys! Sorry to keep you waiting for this one. Big/not really/but sort of moment in this chapter ;)

Chapter Twelve: Merlin, it was boring being sad

The next day was bloody torture.

Honestly, I'd rather have let Peeves sing me a rude version of 'You avada-ed my heart'.

I'd rather have watched Peter pick his nose.

Rather have suffered through three hours of Lizzy mumbling.

Through seven million hours of Quidditch.

I'd rather have done anything than sulk and be miserable and have to avoid Sirius Black. I hated being miserable. It didn't suit me! I was really a very happy person.

But stupid Sirius had taken that all away from me. Because even though I would have preferred to be happy and carefree – I couldn't be. Truly, I couldn't stop myself from brooding and looking away when Sirius tried to catch my eye. The only thing that gave me some small joy was telling off the First Years for getting in my way on the way to Herbology.

"Just bloody move!" I yelled, shoving one of them out of my path when he'd stepped into it three times already.

"Kate!" Lily said sharply. "I know you're upset – but that's no way to talk to the younger students!"

Oh hello Dorcas, I didn't see you there! Now I knew why Lily was made a Prefect. Dorcas should have been one too and the two of them could just skip around, linking arms with Mafalda, barking orders and ruining people's fun.

"Oh cheer up! Sirius is terrible at Herbology – maybe a plant will eat him," Lily smiled, nudging me and I sighed.

I was really a very miserable sort of person.

Merlin, it was boring being sad.

"Have you done the Defence homework?" Dorcas asked as we headed out through the courtyard and towards The Greenhouses.

Yes Dorcas, let's all go through our essays and discuss the finer points. I really couldn't think of anything I'd rather do!

Bloody swot.

"Yeah, it was a fun one, wasn't it? Prewett is such a good teacher. I wish he were staying," Lily sighed.

I nodded in agreement, because even though I was in a mood – I drew the line at being miserable about Professor Prewett. Godric, he was dishy. I wondered if it would be awfully wrong for me to try to get off with him – then Sirius would have to mope and sulk because all he'd have was Mumbling Lizzy and I'd have the Defence Lord – Gideon Prewett.

The only problem was, Gideon Prewett wouldn't have looked at me twice.

Pomona was bumbling around the Greenhouses setting up some green, spiky plants with teeth and she was waving her wand at the rogue vines. Oh good. Just what I wanted to deal with – caresses from fanged plant-life. At least Lily's prediction might come true and Sirius stood a chance at being gobbled up.

We took our seats at our usual workstation and eyed Sprout's scary plants warily. This was going to be a difficult lesson, I could already tell. We'd had dangerous plants already, but this one looked the worst so far.

"Venomous Tentacula," Dorcas breathed, staring at the vines with awe.

Trust Dorcas to fall in love with annoying plants that had shoots and vines flying from all directions. They were basically the Herbology equivalent of James Potter and his hair.

"Urgh, they look terrifying," Lily commented and I nodded. Not surprising that Lily wasn't as taken by the things.

And just as Dorcas opened her mouth, no doubt to spew something from the textbook about how to deal with them, the Marauders entered the Greenhouse. James was in the lead, chatting to Peter, and Sirius followed only marginally behind them. I averted my eyes but hadn't been quick enough not to notice that he didn't look quite as carefree as usual. In fact, he looked downright gloomy.

"Sirius is staring," Lily muttered.

"Merlin, he looks awful," Dorcas added.

And because Dorcas knows just how to infuriate me, I flicked my stare up to sneak a quick look. She wasn't lying. It looked like he hadn't shaved and his hair was messier than usual, but all of that was attractive like always – it was the sullen and defeated scowl on his mouth that was totally unfamiliar. I felt an undesirable leap in my chest. He was actually upset over this? He'd never seemed sad when we'd fought before. I sniffed, suddenly feeling angry again and turned away from him. I bet Lizzy had turned him down or something and that's why he was all cut up.

"H'lo," said Remus. He had entered the Greenhouse quite a bit after the other boys, who had now reached their own workstation a few yards away. "Can I sit here today?"

I raised an eyebrow but nodded. Remus didn't usually sit with me in lessons – even the ones where he and his mates were forced to sit apart in – he always said I was too distracting. He slumped on to the stool beside me with his back to the rest of the Marauders. I wanted to look over his shoulder to see their expressions, but I couldn't bear to see that depressed and foreign look on Sirius' face again.

"You all right?" Remus asked, tiredly.

I shrugged. "Right as rain."

He laughed. "You're an awful liar."

I turned the corner of my mouth up and turned away. I didn't want to spill my guts to Remus – he'd probably just go straight to Sirius and repeat the whole thing. I knew that he'd been angry with Sirius yesterday when the whole Lizzy thing had been a secret, but now that Sirius had come clean, Remus was bound to have forgiven him. He wasn't one to hold a grudge.

"How come you're sitting with us today, Remus?" Dorcas asked and I felt a burst of affection for her. Sometimes her blatant nosiness came in handy.

He sighed and glanced over his shoulder before shrugging.

"Sirius and I aren't speaking."

I raised my eyebrows but he didn't look at me.

"Ah, yes," Dorcas said knowingly.

"Right, hurry along there Stebbins!" Pomona said in a loud voice, drawing the attention to the front of the room. "Now – today, we will be handling Venomous Tentacula – among one of the most dangerous plants you will have faced. The dangers of the Tentacula are threefold. One, poisonous venom may be expelled from its various shoots." She used a thin beam of light from her wand to point to the various areas on one of the plants.

"Two, its spikes are deadly, and three, its bite is poisonous and can prove fatal. Amazing things!"

"Yeah, they sound really charming," Remus muttered and I chuckled.

"Ah – and of course, their vines are mobile and intent on grabbing hold of human prey."

"But that's four dangers!" Dorcas cried as if that was the alarming part of Sprout's additional description.

"Right you are, Meadowes – my mistake. So – on the count of three, I will banish a plant to each of your workbenches and you'll attempt to remove them from their pots and replant them in the soil planters behind you so that they will be closer to the windows. Protective gloves, if you please, and I give you my full permission to swear loudly if they happen to grab you!"

And then, the plants were suddenly at our desks and a variety of yells and shrieks were heard all through the Greenhouse. I burst into laughter when I heard Sirius' husky voice yell, "Ow! Bloody hell, get the shitting thing off me!"

But then, a vine shot into my open mouth and I started choking. Thankfully Remus had enough use of his entangled hands to manage to use the Diffindo spell to set me free.

After we left Herbology, grumpy, sweaty and out of breath, I groaned.

"What a way to start the week."

Lily and Remus harrumphed their agreement but Dorcas shook her head.

"They are really interesting, aren't they? I wonder if we'll get to work with them again next lesson."

"Dorcas, have I told you before that you are absolutely barking?" I asked, wiping my brow and retching. "Merlin, I feel disgusting."

"Well, we've got Care of Magical Creatures now," Lily sighed. "No point in trying to wash when we've got to shovel Hippogriff dung."

I wanted to vomit. What kind of evil torture was Hogwarts making me endure during my day of depression?

"What lesson do you have now?" I asked Remus, who was curling his lip at his torn sleeve. The Venomous Tentacula had almost bitten him, but I managed to wrench it free before it broke skin.

"Free, thank Merlin," he muttered, waving his wand uselessly at the tear.

"Kate!"

BLAGH. As if I needed him of all people to try and talk to me when I was in this mood!

Remus rolled his eyes and Lily and Dorcas looked up, their eyes flashing dangerously but none of that stopped Sirius. He caught up to us, panting a little before he stuck his hands in his pockets. Merlin, I was going to have to curse those off. Maybe I'd also curse off the button on his fly and he'd have to go around the school with his trousers around his ankles. Lizzy would love that.

"All right?" he said to my friends uncomfortably, wincing when Remus looked away. "Kate, please – can I have a word?"

"I am very busy walking to Care of Magical Creatures at the minute. Try again later," I said dully.

"Oh good – I'm going there too. We can talk on the way," he said with his annoying, roguish grin.

"Actually," I said, turning to Remus. "I think I'm going to skive off today. Lead the way to the Common Room."

Sirius' mouth fell open and Remus grimaced between us, looking to be in two minds.

"Kate! You can't skive."

"Shut up Dorcas," I growled at her, cocking my head at Sirius. She looked annoyed, but shut her mouth.

"Okay, I will too. Even better – we can both shower before we talk," Sirius nodded, looking determined.

I wanted to scream – I almost did – but suddenly James, who didn't usually go out of his way to look out for me, grabbed Sirius' sleeve.

"Leave her alone, Padfoot."

And then, even though Sirius was walking backwards still looking at me, he let James lead him off towards the forest where Care of Magical Creatures would be starting shortly.

"We'll tell Kettleburn that you're ill, Kate," Lily said, squeezing my shoulder.

"And bring you the homework," Dorcas added.

"You know just how to brighten my day, Dorcas."

She scowled at me. "Don't be so bloody rude. I haven't almost snogged anyone that isn't you!"

"Dorcas!" I said, stretching my arms out in front of me and lunging towards her. "I had no idea you had such strong feelings of lust for me!"

She shoved me off hard and scowled at me. "Go away, Kate!"

I made a face at her and Lily sighed, pulling her away and muttering something that sounded like, "She's in a mood – cut her a break."

"Common Room then?" Peter asked from behind us and Remus and I nodded our assent.

After we'd all washed, Peter decided that he wanted to go off to the Kitchens, so Remus and I decided to work on our Procrastination song. We got about two more bars into it before we collapsed against the sofa and decided to work on it later.

"Are you okay?" I asked, noting that he was starting to look a little pale again. What a poorly bloke Remus was.

He shrugged. "Yeah – cold coming on. Probably not for another week and a half though."

I didn't comment on how he could possibly predict when he was going to get a cold, but just twirled my hair around my fingers. Really though – colds always caught me completely off guard – I just woke up one day with an incredibly snotty nose and wanted to jump off a cliff. What an extraordinary talent to possess: knowing when you were going to be ill – you could plan all sorts of things around it.

"What about you? With Sirius harping on after you today?" He questioned softly, twirling his quill in his fingers and tapping the parchment with our awful lyrics all over them.

"Yeah, I'm lovely. It's all I dreamed of really – him ignoring the fact that he betrayed me and instead, resorting to stalking me with what he considers a winning smile, but what I consider a smug sneer."

Remus scowled. "He is such a prick."

I smiled to myself but shrugged. "Not really out of the ordinary though, I suppose."

He shook his head. "No. Look, if I told him off every time he looked at a girl who wasn't you or made a flirtatious comment, then I'd be telling him off half of the day – but he went too far this time."

I crouched into the sofa and pulled a cushion on to my lap to hug. "Well, he didn't actually do anything."

Remus let out a whoosh of air from his lips and his face was still curled in annoyance. "Still – he's a prick. Extra-prick."

I laughed and stretched over the sofa, curling my back. Remus was watching when I turned on my side and hugged my knees to myself.

"You don't have to stop being friends with him because of me. Just because I'm not going out with him anymore, doesn't mean you should ditch him altogether."

Remus laughed shortly and sighed, patting my knee. "That's very generous of you Kate, but I'm not actually ditching him. I'm just making a point – he can't treat you this way and not deal with the consequences. Now that I've seen him making a valiant effort - we'll be all right by tomorrow."

I snorted. "Some stand you're taking."

He smiled. "He knows that I won't really forgive him until he makes it up to you though. I just want him to start thinking before he says and does things – so that he stops hurting people."

I frowned and twirled my hair, looking at the tiny space between Remus' buttons that revealed his pale chest. He had quite a bit of hair on it – not in a disgusting bear-like way – it was actually quite manly for a fairly scrawny sixteen-year-old bloke. After a moment, he cleared his throat and readjusted his shirt so I couldn't see anything anymore.

"I do that too, you know," I said quietly. "Speak and do things without thinking."

"Yeah, I know," he said. "But you usually figure it out mid-sentence and at least try to make up for it. Lately, you've been trying to filter yourself and that's what matters – that you try. Although, I wouldn't be me if I didn't remind you to try a bit harder."

I smiled at him and he broke into another sweet laugh, ruffling my hair and sliding away from me so he was leaning on the opposite armrest and looking at me over his knees.

"I was pretty horrible to Lizzy," I muttered. "Called her a mumbling bitch."

Remus laughed but covered his mouth quickly. "Yeah, I heard about that. You should apologize to her."

"Not likely," I said shaking my head before something occurred to me. "Oh yeah! You weren't even there to witness the fall out, were you?"

He smiled knowingly and sighed. "Yes. I was elsewhere."

I nudged his knee with my foot. "With Emmeline."

He covered his face and chuckled. "Merlin, I hate you."

"Well go on!" I said sitting up and grinning. "Dish the dirt."

He sighed very laboriously and blinked at me. "There is no dirt. We just chatted about The Ghouls and she told me about this mad party she went to over the summer."

"Mmm-hmm and werewolves of course, but what else? Do you fancy her?"

Remus had frozen and he was suddenly sitting up straight too, a look of shock all over his face. I pouted. Was this the appropriate response to the question – 'do you fancy her?' Funny, I always assumed a simple 'yes' or 'no' was good enough.

"W-What did you say?"

I sighed patiently. "Do you fancy her?"

He shook his head vigorously and I frowned.

"Um…I just assumed you might have talked about werewolves because you were both at that rally this summer," I said feeling confused at his expression of alarm. But then he relaxed and leaned back against the armrest again.

"So, you admit it," he said as if he hadn't just acted like a loon. "You set this up, didn't you?"

I laughed and held my hands up in submission. "I would never!"

"Katie, I've said it before but I'll say it again – you are a horrible liar."

I groaned at the nickname. "I didn't do anything really. I just suggested it to her and she thought you were quite fanciable, so she said that she'd like to get to know you."

His expression was unreadable for a moment and I felt a strange desire to throw something at him – usually I didn't mind if he took forever to answer, but now all I wanted to know was if he fancied her back. Why couldn't he just tell me? And why did he look so bloody thoughtful – it wasn't that hard, either he did or he didn't. Merlin, please let him hurry and tell me so I knew whether to move on to Girl Three or not.

He was fiddling with the material above his knee when he finally replied.

"Have you ever wondered if I might be offended by this whole thing?"

Eh?

"Pardon?"

His eyes flickered up to me and I was worried to see that they looked a bit sad as well as embarrassed. "Don't you think I could get a date on my own?"

"Remus!" I exclaimed, sliding over on the couch so that I was beside him. I propped my chin on his knees so I could look at him properly and his cheeks were still pink with embarrassment. I felt a pang of guilt for our closeness but brushed it off. I was broken up with Sirius now anyway, what did it matter if I patted his mate's arm or rested my chin on his knees – I knew it wasn't flirting and that was all that mattered really. It wasn't as if I was about to 'almost' snog Remus.

"Remus, of course I think you can get a date on your own! I just wanted to help because sometimes I think that you don't believe you're worthy of any attention. I don't know if it's because you get ill a lot or because the rest of your mates are such attention-seeking berks…but, you're the best one of them Remus. So, I felt it was important that you started to believe that!"

His eyebrows were creased together and his eyes were a lot greener than I remembered them being. Usually they were quite dull and subtle – more brown, but right now, maybe it was a trick of the light, but Godric, Remus Lupin had some gorgeous eyes. I cleared my throat and leaned back so that I was sitting facing him, but no longer touching. This might have been one of those odd 'moments' that sometimes happened between mates.

He wet his lips and still seemed to be struggling for words. I didn't push – because even though it frustrated me sometimes, it really was one of my favourite things about him – the fact that he always put thought into his words. It was something I admired and wished I could do. Sometimes I did quite well just spewing out what I thought, but I reckoned if I spent a few seconds thinking like he did, maybe I'd be as eloquent as he was.

"You're a very good friend Kate," he said, his voice cracking a little. "I think I understand now."

"What?"

"That you don't think I'm a pathetic lost cause."

Well – so much for eloquence. That was ridiculous.

"Remus, I think you're perfect," I beamed and he looked away, embarrassed again. I didn't much mind – embarrassing him this way was preferable even to saying 'tits and arse'.

And then the Portrait hole swung open and McGonagall barged in looking very angry. Her eyes locked with me and she curled a finger towards her.

"Bollocks. Caught," I sighed as I went to her meekly.

A/N: There you go - a little Remus/Kate - but I wouldn't expect it to stick around for long haha - too easy! Thanks for reading.