written in the stars | sirius black | remus lupin

11

"He said what?" Lily hissed through the nearly silent classroom as Charlotte shot her a warning glance, Slughorn, thankfully, scribbling away at his desk. Although, their professor had made it quite known that Lily was one of his favorite students, and sometimes Charlotte thought Lily could have blown the classroom up with no repurcussions.

"Lily, I said I would tell you, but I'd love it if half the school wasn't listening in..." Charlotte whispered back, scanning over the pages of their book until she found the title matching the chalkboard before them. The room was filling up now, sleepy-eyed students falling into their seats all around them.

"Well, I didn't think he'd admit to being bloody in love with you." She answered, shortly, her pages flying around until reaching the one Charlotte was on.

"He didn't say that." She replied, hearing the familiar laughter at once, dying down as the boys crossed through the doorway and offered Professor Slughorn identical innocent smiles.

"Evans!" James forgot his silence at once, hurrying towards the two Gryffindor girls and dropping into the table beside Lily. "How are my two favorite Gryffindor ladies doing tonight?"

Charlotte pressed a hand over her heart, looking towards James' grinning face. "I've made second place?"

"Shut up, Charlotte." Lily ordered with a warning glance as Sirius dropped into the chair behind James, Peter having already stolen the last spot at the table. Charlotte could practically feel Lily itching to look to the dark haired boy behind them, though she wasn't sure who was having a harder time as she heard Remus pull the chair out beside Sirius.

"Your hair looks different, Lils." Remus asked, noting the curls Lily had let Mary practice on her the night before. He pulled a few books out from his bag on the floor as everyone exchanged wide eyed glances. "Looks nice."

Lily's eyes found Charlotte's, pity forming behind them that made Charlotte's stomach sink. She forced her eyes to the book before her, willing Lily to answer him, to not let her feel like the entire group was watching the entire exchange.

"Alright there, Cassanova?" James exclaimed, shooting Remus an incredulous look that Charlotte could clearly read to mean shut up.

"Yeah, isn't it enough you've got girls throwing themselves at you in every class, you need to steal James's too?" Peter snickered, earning a glare from everyone of his roommates and judging from his wince, a hard kick beneath the table.

"Alright, Charlotte, let's go-" Lily stood from her seat, a flush rising to both of her cheeks before James caught her wrist, pulling her back down.

"Lily! Evans, Evans, I'm sorry. They're all wankers, I'm sorry."

Charlotte burst into laughter, Sirius's jaw dropping.

"Oi!"

"Actually, you've been surprisingly well behaved." James corrected.

"Yeah, we'll get you a treat upstairs if you sit nicely." Remus muttered beneath his breath before diving into his book, Lily and Charlotte exchanging an exhausted glance as Lily retook her seat.

"Ah, I believe that's the last of you!" Slughorn offered Marlene and Mary a thin smile as the girls collapsed into seats near the door. "I've got a bit of a fun lesson planned for us, if I do say so myself." Their professor's eyes gleamed. "Elixir of Euphoria. Now that you've all had a few weeks to study up since we went over this one, I thought it would be fun if we had a bit of a contest."

There was a low murmur of excitement, although Charlotte was sure she could hear a small whine from Peter a few seats down.

"Now, it's got to be fair, of course. We can't have all of our resident geniuses teaming up and taking over," He shot a look between Lily and Snape, who's dark black eyes were latched on the red head. "So, I'll be drawing names."