Out of the Blue (Remus Lupin, Marauder's Era)

Chapter 4- Desiderium

noun; an ardent longing, as for something lost

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Alice was feeling uninspired.

It had only been a few days since Tabitha had gifted her the journal, and Alice, rather foolishly, she could acknowledge, had been hoping for a mystery to just sort of plop right into her lap. It was a naive wish, but it's what always seemed to happen to literary characters, so Alice figured that perhaps some of that same plot magic could occur in her favor.

However, since that had yet to happen, she was currently on the patrol for leads whilst daydreaming in History of Magic. The class actually happened to be one of her favorites, and a little part of Alice was proud that she could claim that honestly. She was already obsessed enough with muggle history, a result of accidentally finding her fathers old history textbook from university years ago. Because of that, she was able to make connections with it and magical history, something which Professor Binns greatly appreciated, thus making Alice one of his favorite students.

However, at the moment, Binns would be greatly distressed by the current mindscape of his favored student, for it was not at all focused on the curriculum. Alice instead was staring absentmindedly out the window, trying to think of things to snoop about, but in a casual way.

The Slytherin in front of Alice was picking at her ear. The Ravenclaw down the aisle was tapping his quill on the table, and Alice began to time her breaths with the taptap tap taptap.

Inhale taptap tap taptap, exhale taptap tap taptap.

Outside the window, the sun was shining. She'd have to get out for a bit today, maybe Di and Tabbie would want to take a walk.They hadn't done that yet. Heavens knew they had things to talk about, such as the young lad from Hufflepuff who had asked Diana out just yesterday. They had a Hogsmeade visit coming up, which always brought on a slew of invitations for Diana, a few for Tabitha, and a whopping total of none for Alice. It was shit, sometimes, to be the "ugly" one in the friend group.

Alice knew she wasn't exactly ugly, per se, but she certainly wasn't as attractive as her friends. She was also quite tall, so that had eliminated any possibility of being asked out by a boy before fifth year, the bloody cowards. The pimples hadn't helped.

It really was a lovely day out, warm and buttery like a good piece of toast. The sunlight spilling across her desk was warming her hands and bent head, illuminating the dust particles floating through the air, making them seem like something far more romantic and ethereal than dead skin cells and bits of lint.

Alice's eyes slipped shut, slowly...

....and the bells chimed from the center courtyard.

Alice snapped to attention, chin lifting from her bent hand. She swept her papers into her satchel and her loose hair behind her ear, tugging her oxford shirt straight as she left the room, fingers clasping the leather strap of her bag. The halls were bustling as she made her way to Muggle Studies, her second to last class of the day. It was an elective, so it was with students from every house, which was actually quite fun, as much as she could tell from the introduction earlier in the week. Since it was an elective, much less one deemed useless by many, the few students who took it were hopefully genuinely interested in it, something that not many other teachers could claim.

The door was already open when she made it to the classroom- which, it must be said- was one of the coolest rooms in the whole school, in Alice's humble opinion.

The outside was unassuming enough, appearing to just be like every other classroom in Hogwarts, but the inside was another story. The window on the left wall actually had a drape, likely to do with the film projector hanging from the ceiling, one of the only electrical devices that worked inside the school's impenetrable walls. Alice had partially signed up for the class hoping for the opportunity to see some muggle films since her mother didn't allow them in the house, along with the majority of other muggle items. There was also a red telephone booth, a bookshelf filled with muggle textbooks and pleasure reading alike, a bicycle leaning against the wall, shelves filled with cameras, games, lightbulbs, a plethora of random kitchen devices, and more foreign tchotchke. Suspended from the ceiling was a kite, its long tail perpetually in motion, a result of a spell, was Alice's best bet.