The Marauders: Year One (female)

15. Have a Biscuit, Potter

Remus grabbed the first book she saw in the library, and went to read in her usual spot: the section of the library at the very back, which had a lovely window seat overlooking the grounds and lake. Just not the part where she'd watched the duel between Snape and Jamie.

'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' by 'Newt Scamander.' He had gone to school with Lyall Lupin. Her book was about Magical Creatures, and it had a highly biased view of werewolves, giving them an extremely high danger rating, and portraying them as dangerous, heartless creatures even in their human forms. Remus let out a bitter laugh before she could stop herself.

'What's funny?' asked a sleepy voice from somewhere nearby. Remus nearly wet herself in shock.

A tussled, black head popped out from underneath the large table that filled the aisle, clad in wrinkled robes and an oddly out of place band t-shirt. Remus had no idea how the young pureblood even knew about Muggle music, let alone owned a band t-shirt. She could not imagine Walburga and Orion Black condoning that in their home. But then, Sirius had secretly had a Muggle friend. She had more secrets than Remus knew.

'Sirius?' asked Remus in surprise. 'What are you doing here?'

Remus had thought that Sirius would have left hours ago. She had to give her credit for dedication.

Sirius ran a hand through her hair, trying to fix it up. The effort was wasted. 'I was doing a bit of light reading... and I'm afraid to say I fell asleep, as you can see.'

'What are you reading?' As Remus asked this, she tried to hide her immense desperation to know, asking in are faux casual tone.

She got up and lunged down for the book. But Sirius pulled it away swiftly and sat on it. 'Ah-ah-ah,' she sang. 'No grabbing. What brings you here?'

Too tired to care much about the book anymore, Remus closed her eyes and gave in, thumping down heavily on her window seat. 'Well... I'm afraid Jamie's gone and messed up a bit.'

'Does that quite often, doesn't she?' snorted Sirius sardonically.

Remus grimaced. 'Well... she spotted Snive-- Snape, sorry, and they got in a bit of a fight...'

'Good,' supplied Sirius. 'Who won? Not that greasy prat?'

Remus sighed. 'I don't know about winning, but Jamie did cast the last hex, but only because Lillian stopped the pair of them. She's probably looking at a detention right now. Severa went into the lake.'

Remus waited for Sirius to stop cheering. Sirius sobered up quickly when she saw the look on Remus's face. 'And then?'

Remus's mouth twisted up into a bitter smile. 'This is going to make me sound like such an oversensitive prat...'

'No, not at all,' said Sirius, climbing onto the seat beside Remus. After what she'd seen that night in the bathroom, Remus couldn't be a drama queen at all. In fact, she was more of the suffer in silence type. Sirius wasn't sure this was a good thing in this case. If she was being hurt by anyone, family or not family, she shouldn't be scared to open up her mouth and speak up.

Remus hesitated. 'Well, she poked fun at Severa for having drunk and poor parents, who couldn't afford to get her proper robes and stuff. And the part about "poor parents"... well it kind of hurt a little because, well...'

Here, she lamely picked at the end of her second hand robes, which were patchy and thread bare. Remus finished after composing herself. 'I -- well, I got a bit upset, and I just walked off without a word, and now I think Jamie is mad at me.'

Sirius looked at her with concerned eyes. She patted Remus's shoulder awkwardly. 'Well, you know Potter. She's sometimes an unthinking git. She didn't mean any of it. It's only because she hates Snivella so much.'