ripped pages (r. lupin)

2-Little women

1st year

Third person POV

Remus sat on one of the two seater couches in the common room, staring at the paragraph he had just attempted to read for the third time in two minutes. He had always been an early riser, so he snuck out of the dorm in a successful attempt to not wake up the other boys. In his dorm was him, and three out of four of his new friends, James, Peter and Sirius. James was a big joker, Sirius was extremely dramatic,  Peter was shy and didn't say much, and Remus was smart. The one person missing from that equation was Lizzie, she was like the bitchy but loveable mother of the group. Him and all of the group had grown insanely close in the month they had been at Hogwarts, but he knew that him and and the girl of the group just clicked immediately.

"Remus, what are you doing up this early, geez." Speak of the devil, he thought.

"I'm an early bird, what can I say" He shrugged his shoulders and Lizzie let out a small chuckle. She came and sat on the other side of the couch and took a glance at the book he was reading. Little women. Remus always loved reading, the feeling of achievement after finishing a long book. It was one of the many things the pair had in common. Her eyes lit up as she saw the cover of the dirty paperback in his hands.

"Oh I love that book," She squealed, "I have the annotated copy in the bookshelf in my dorm. I can lend it to you if you want to look over it."

"Ok slow down Madam Prince." I joked under my breath." But yes I would like that. My book is annotated as well if you want to swap for a bit."

"Oh great, I'll go grab my copy." She ran upstairs and returned back a few seconds later with the book in her hand. It was an extremely old looking book with sticky notes poking out every which way. She handed it to him and he handed her his copy. "Sorry if some of the pages are ripped. I had to get it from a muggle library because mother would have never let me have it." 

Remus knew that Lizzie and Sirius had a lot of troubles at home. Especially with their mother. He knew this because on the first full day of school, Lizzie received a howler from her mother.

-Flashback-  

 Lizzie's face went red with shock as her owl dropped her mail on the tables. She picked it up to inspect who it was from when it accidently opened and began to yell at her.

" HOW DARE YOU! 

HOW DARE YOU BETRAY ME!

 AND YOUR FATHER!

 YOU ARE A DISCRACE TO THE BLACK NAME!

BOTH OF YOU! 

ELIZABETH'S NAME IS NO LONGER IN THE FAMILY TREE!

WHEN YOU COME BACK IN THE SUMMER,

BE READY.

YOU DISCUST ME!"

The letter shredded into pieces and Lizzie stood up for her seat, and with tears falling quickly from her eyes ran from the hall. 

-End-  

Even the memory of that moment made him shiver.

"Remus, earth to Remus" She waved her hands in front of his face.

"Sorry, sorry, anyways. We should probably go get ready." He looked the girl up and down quickly. She was wearing some plaid shorts and an old band tee. She had her dark brown hair up in a messy bun which he though she looked quite nice in. His cheeks flushed beet red when he realised he was staring. She let out a cough to remind him to look away.

"Eyes. Up here." She pointed up at her face before walking into her dorm to get ready.

////

The Gryffindors first class of the day was transfiguration with Professor McGonagall. The entire group had taken a rather strong liking to the teacher in their first class and had begun to just call her Minnie. Even after several warnings from her.

-Flashback-

 It was the first day of classes. Lily, Marlene, and Lizzie were all wedged into a desk in the corner of the room and Remus and Peter were in the seats in front of them. James and Sirius both entered the classroom late as they had gotten lost. The Professor was nowhere to be seen so the boys started chatting. 

"Thank god she's not here. I think she would have turned me into a map if we were late." Sirius sighed dramatically.

"I would sell my soul to see tha-" James was cut off by a cat jumping onto his desk then slowly turning into the teacher they had thought was nowhere to be found.

"I am afraid turning you into a map would be against school policy unfortunately, Mr Potter. But I don't see any restrictions on why I cannot turn you into a pocket watch! Maybe then you would show up on time! Sit, now."

The group began laugh as the petrified boys joined the group, deciding that they already have a favourite teacher.

-End-

////

At lunch on Saturday, James and Sirius joined Lizzie and began to ramble.

"We would like to talk to you." Sirius started.

"About a boy." James finished. In the four weeks James had known her, he became like a second older brother. He had become both protective and extremely irritating.

Y/N's eyes widened with shock at the statement. 
"What boy?" The tone of surprise highlighted in her voice.

"It doesn't matter," Sirius quickly started to talk. "As your older brothers, we have decided that some ground rules must be made."

"We're eleven guys. I don't think boys are my main thing right now." She sighed but they just ignored her.

"First things first. Absolutely no snogging. Ever."

She scoffed.

"As if."

She went to stand up but they followed her and went on about the rules she had to follow all the way to the common room.

Then they both hugged her and went up their rooms. Weirdos. 

She climbed the stairs up to my room when her realised the door was locked. Odd. She brought our her wand and unlocked the door. She grabbed the handle and opened the door. Big mistake. A bucket of bright red paint poured onto her and a bright flash from the boys dorm was basically blinding her. She opened my eyes to see Sirius and James smirking proudly with a big muggle camera in their hands. They pranked her and got a photo.  

She ran into the dorm and grabbed the boys into a hug, she then rolled all over their beds effectively getting bright red paint everywhere. 

Payback. 

Peter walked into the room just as she was rolling on the carpet. 

"Do I even want to know?" He rhetorically asked as he turned around and walked back out. Y/N followed him out. She got in the shower in her dorm and began aggressively scrubbing until all traces of paint were gone.

////

Later that night, as she was going to bed she grabbed the book she had received this morning and flipped open the front page to the boys name written in his cursive scribbles that he swore he could read. She lightly smiled as she began to read the book, occasionally squinting to read the cute notes written in the margins. Her eyes slowly began to shut and she finally drifted off to sleep with her nose in the book. 

Little did she know, the boy in the dorm across the hall was doing the exact same thing.