Of Foxes and Wolves

Chapter Four

The bell for class change rang soon after I began to read, but it was my free period so I stayed where I was. I felt a bit guilty about lying to Professor Slughorn, but it was for my own good! I feared for my life!

I spotted Raine and three of the other Marauders making their way down to the shore of the Great Lake. I debated whether I should go and join them but decided against it. They probably didn't want me to join them, they barely know me and I'd probably just end up annoying them. I just turned back to my book and continued reading.

"Hey, what are you doing up there all by yourself?" Someone called up to me. Glancing down I saw that Raine, Remus, James, and Sirius were all at the base of the tree looking up at me. It was a rather funny sight and made me giggle.

"Reading." I said softly.

"What? We can't hear you! You're too quiet." Sirius said, his eyebrows furrowing.

I raised one of my eyebrows and dropped the book I was reading onto his head.

"Ohh, reading!" He said, to which I nodded my head. I reached out my arm, gesturing for him to give me back the book. "Oh no, if you want this back you're going to have to come and get it from me!" He laughed, taking off across the lawn with my book.

"Hey!" I gasped. I dropped out of the tree gracefully and took off my cloak, it would only slow me down.

I caught up to Sirius in no time, I was very fast as I trained on a Muggle track team every Summer. The next plan of action was to get my book back, but how? I could trip him. Or I could jump on his back but that would probably send us both tumbling to the ground. In a split second decision I decided to jump on his back. Surprisingly he didn't fall, he barely even stumbled. He did stop moving though.

I reached over his shoulder and grabbed my book from his hand whispering in his ear, "No one is faster than the motherfucking fox."

"You are very fast." He agreed, hooking his arms under my legs as we made our way back to everyone else.

"Is this all of your free periods?" I asked.

"No, just theirs. I skipped." I didn't need to see his face to know he was grinning. I lazily drooped my hands over his shoulders.

"On the first day? That's a little bold, don't you think?" I skipped the occasional class but only if I had very good grade in the class and the teacher liked me.

"Look who you're asking, love." He meant it as an innocent statement but the him calling me love made me think back to Lucius and I shuddered, my smile vanishing.

"Please don't call me that. I'm sorry." I apologized. I didn't really need to apologize but it was just a habit.

"Hey, no need to apologize. I'll tell the boys later to watch the word around you." He said, surprising me. I hadn't expected him to be so kind about it.

I whispered a soft thank you and we continued the rest of the walk in silence. When we arrived at tree I held my book up in triumph and all of them cheered. Removing myself from Sirius's back I headed to my bag and shoved the book in it.

"Victory!" James and Sirius said in unison and then high-fived each other.

"Excuse me?" I asked, raising my eyebrows.

"The goal was to get you to stop reading and come have fun with us, and we accomplished the goal." James explained, a triumphant smile on his face.

"Oh?" I quipped. "And who's to say I wasn't putting my book in my bag so I could head up to the library?"

"Were you?" James' smile faded.

"No." I grinned and his smile returned.

"You. I like you." He said happily, slipping my arm through his.

"Me too." Sirius said, taking my other arm.

I slipped out from them and went over to Remus, hooking our arms together. "What about you, Remus? Do you like me?" I looked up at him with big doe eyes.

"Yes, I like you too." A very subtle blush covered his cheeks. I grinned and skipped over to Raine, asking her if she liked me, to which she replied,

"You know I like you." While laughing.

We spent the rest of our hour sitting at the base of the tree and just talking. It was nice, it was fun. I decided I very much liked having friends and I was rather silly for not trying to make friends before.

When the bell rang for next class we all groaned though I was happy to know that I had Charms with Gryffindor, so I didn't have to leave them.

About halfway to class I caught a glimpse of long white blond hair that could belong to none but Lucius.

"Hide me!" I squeaked, falling behind the four of them and ducking down. They didn't ask for an explanation, but they all formed a sort of box around me. James was in front of me, Sirius to my left, Remus behind me, and Raine to my right.

I must have looked pretty distressed because Raine grabbed my hand and squeezed it reassuringly. I gave her a thankful smile.

We continued on like this all the way to Professor Flitwik's classroom, where they dispersed around me and asked me what was up. I told them about what I had done to Lucius in Potions and they all laughed, congratulating me. The bell rang soon after and Remus and I sat up in front of the class together.

James, Sirius, Raine, and Peter all sat in the third row. I couldn't tell if they were doing this so Remus and I could sit alone or because they didn't care about the class. Probably both.

Class was going by extremely slowly, Professor Flitwick was only talking about what we'd be learning this year and what he expected from us in his class. He was just getting to the part about using enchanted quills on homework assignments when Remus passed me a note. I opened it quietly and read the only sentence on the parchment:

Were you reading The Princess Bride earlier?

I scribbled a quick reply.

Yes, I've not read it before. Have you?

I took notes on what Flitwick was saying while I waite for Remus to hand the note back to me.

I have. It's one of my favourites. You have very good taste in books.

The rest of class was spent talking about books with Remus over notes. When the bell rang for lunch we joined the other Marauders, walking with them to the Great Hall.

For the first time in all my years at Hogwarts, I ate my lunch with friends.

***** A/N *****

I'm not so sure I like this chapter. It seems kind of robotic. I may end up editing it and changing things so if I do that I'll let you guys know at the beginning of the next chapter.