TIME; SIRIUS BLACK

001.

"Have you already heard about the new girl?"

"She's completely mental and a slytherin. I'm sure it's not just an incident that a new girl appears at the start of the school year. She has to be a Death Eater."

"I tried talking to her but she straight up ignored me."

"She's alone the whole time, not even the other Slytherins try talking to her, that speaks of how weird she is, right?"

Things like these were the only things being said in Hogwarts, the school of witchcraft and wizardry, over the past weeks. You'd think the students (and teachers) would find other things to talk about, but no, Charlene Longbottom was the name in everybody's mouth.

Not even the newest prank of a certain group of Gryffindors received any attention, the culprits disappointed in the reaction, or rather, the lack thereof.

"This new girl, whatever her name is, is a serious problem for us," James Potter stated the night of their failed prank.

They had enchanted every portrait in the whole castle to scream like a donkey whenever somebody walked past and the statues began barking, but everyone was too caught up with this new girl that kept mostly to herself and refused to wear a skirt.

"Her name's Charlene, from what I know," Peter said, having overheard too many conversations about said girl.

"Okay, so this "Charlene" girl is a problem," Sirius repeated, "What are we going to do about her?"

The four remained silent, the fire cracking softly in the fireplace behind the little seating circle they had formed in the common room as they were thinking; if it was about Charlene or if they still had clean underwear in the closet, nobody knew.

"Why do we need to do something about her?" Remus asked, not really getting why his friends disliked this new girl.

"Remus, my dearest friend," Sirius spoke, throwing an arm over Remus shoulder and pulling him closer. "I thought the five years in which we got to know each other were enough but apparently not."

"Yes, I have to say, I'm quite disappointed in you, Remus," James added, his hand clutching his chest as he threw himself back dramatically. "Sirius and I live off of attention and since she has been here, we've been getting close to zero of that – well, except for Evans hexing me, but that doesn't count."

"Exactly! And our prank, it was brilliant, it should've had the whole school speaking about how amazing this new charm was, or at least the professors complaining about how they couldn't get it off of the portraits, but no. Nobody even really noticed the portraits making weird sounds."

"That's true," Peter added, "most of the portraits still do that and the statues all bark."

"You see that, Remus," Sirius exclaimed outraged, "the professors don't even bother to find the culprit or a solution, they only care about the new girl."

"Okay, so you want to do something about her, just because no one gives you attention?" Remus repeated, just to be sure he understood the whole situation. After receiving enthusiastic nods from both James and Sirius, he sighed deeply, massaging his temple.

Why did his eleven-year-old self think that those guys would ever make good friends?

"And what do you plan on doing?" Peter asked. He liked participating in the harmless pranks and those that went against rude Slytherins but Charlene hadn't done anything wrong, so he didn't want to do something bad to her.