Ineffable | Remus Lupin

VIII

Ingrid sat near the back of the Charms classroom the next morning, with only one table behind hers. Completely unsurprisingly, nobody had sat next to her.
Behind her, however, was Sirius Black and James Potter and on the table next to them was Remus Lupin and Peter Pettigrew.
Slumping down in her seat and extending her legs straight out under the table, Ingrid cast her gaze out of the window - looking out at the vast Hogwart's grounds.
She'd never seen anything like it before.

The rolling hills and the expanse of greenery. The glimmering lake and the clear sky. The peace and tranquility.
Ingrid had only ever lived in rundown care homes struggling to scrape together the funds to stay open in various cities. But here... It was truly magical.

"Miss Temple?"

Ingrid groaned as she turned her head to the front of the class where Professor Flitwick stood, staring at her along with every other student in the room.

"Do you know the answer?" Flitwick asked.
"Me?" She pointed at herself, "Really? I'm gonna guess no." She tucked a strand of her light hair behind her ear and leant back in her chair again, folding her arms.

Flitwick, choosing not to stir up any more trouble with his newest and perhaps most difficult student, turned back to the rest of the room and asked, "Does anybody else know the answer?"

One hand at the front of the classroom shot up into the air.

After predictably rolling her eyes, Ingrid recognised the girl who was next called on to be Lily Evans - the girl from King's Cross station and the train.
The girl who Ingrid had already labelled as annoying, but she hadn't yet decided if Lily was deliberately such a pain, or if that was just accidental.

"Look. At. Her. Merlin..."

Ingrid whipped around in her seat at the voice and locked eyes with James Potter. He was resting his head in his hands and had his eyes fixated on something at the front of the room.
"What did you just say?" She asked.

He lazily looked over at her, then coughed and straightened up whilst running a hand through his hair to spike it up, "What? Nothing."
Ingrid continued to stare at him.
"I didn't say anything!" He insisted.

"While you're here..." Sirius spoke up from beside his mate, "After class I can show you advanced level magic... For educational purposes, of course. Could help you catch up." He suggested.

Ingrid scoffed, "Piss off, Shaggy."

Sirius gasped, and held a hand over his heart. "You hurt me, right here." He announced dramatically.
She retorted, "Good; that's where I was aiming for."

From the next table over, Remus snorted, then attempted to mask it by holding his hand over his mouth and coughing.

"Mister Black. Mister Potter." Flitwick called out, yet again bringing the rest of the class to a standstill, "Perhaps you could keep yourselves on task, yes?"
"Of course, Professor." Sirius bowed his head with solemn over exaggeration.

He then yelped as James kicked his violently in the shin under the table, the spectacled boy then smiled sweetly at the Professor and replied, "Yes, Professor. Sorry."

A short while later, as the lesson finally drew to a close, Ingrid was feeling more out of depth than ever before.
Who the hell needed charms anyway?
She could turn a pen into a flower of her own free will, and that was pretty damn cool. What else did she need to be able to do?

"Fancy dropping a handful of dungbombs in Filch's office with us?" Sirius asked her as they packed up their things into the bags.

"No." Ingrid replied shortly.
He chuckled, "Oh that's right, you don't know what fun it is to wind up Filch. That's a very important lesson you've got to learn."