⚯͛ Unfortunate - Remus Lupin ⚯͛

8.

"Happy birthday babe," Barty said merrily as Maeve got to the Slytherin table.

"Fuck off," She said, grabbing an apple and pocketing it for later.

"Aw come on Maeve, it's your birthday - you should be happy," Cissa said.

Maeve glared at all of them and stormed out of the hall. She was already in a shit mood because it was her birthday and she hated her birthday, but then her friends have to go and talk to her about it as well. Idiots.

She walked to the potions classroom for her first lesson that would start in fifteen minutes and sat in her seat, her face dark and her eyes unforgiving. No one would dare to bother her today.

The whole classroom was empty, which was at least a good thing.

After silently placing the new ink pot and quill she had reluctantly accepted as a birthday present from Cissa on the desk in front of her she sat back in her chair, scowling at the blackboard. This day was not going to be a good one.

But no one actually knew the real reason why she hated her birthday, and it was going to stay that way.

Sirius Black had just entered with James Potter which immediately made Maeve tense up, but her gaze did not waver from the blank blackboard. Their footsteps echoed through the silent room as they snickered amongst themselves. Black walked past her, lifting a hand and in a clean sweep knocked the ink pot off the desk.

"Sorry Iverson, my hand slipped," Black said in his arrogant drawl.

She stayed silent as she magically repaired the pot and summoned it back to her desk, her jaw clenching in anger as she quietly seethed.

"What? No comeback today, Iverson?" Potter laughed.

She raised her wand threateningly at them and said quietly, "you'd better move along."

"Damn," Black commented, "you're hot when you're angry."

Without hesitation she flicked her wand in an upwards motion which caused Black and Potter to be thrown back into the empty desks and cauldrons behind them.

They both groaned in pain, which made Maeve feel more happiness than sympathy.

"You'll fucking pay for that," Potter spat, "reducto."

"Potter no-"

He aimed it at the heavy cauldron in front of her, which they all realised too late was a very very VERY bad idea.

It exploded. Not just a little explosion either, pieces of sharp metal were propelled across the room. It was like shrapnel from the shell of a bomb. Maeve, Sirius and James all had the sense to duck under their desks to shield themselves from the flying debris.

"Potter you're an imbecile," Maeve said as they all got up from their hiding spots. "You're lucky that didn't impale one of us."

"Shit, reparo," He pointed at the cauldron.

"James, no-" Sirius said.

They all ducked under their desks again as the 'reparo' charm causes the pieces of something to come back together. This meant there were pieces of sharp metal flying through the air. AGAIN.

"Potter what the fuck," Maeve cursed as she hid under her desk.

"Shit, sorry," He groaned.

They all got up again after the cauldron and desks were like they were before.

"Ah, Iverson, uh..." Sirius trailed off.

"What, Black?" She asked, in an even worse mood than before.

"You have a little something on your cheek," He handed her a little compact mirror from his robe pocket, "here."

"I'm not gonna even question why you have that in there," Maeve laughed.

She opened the mirror and looked at her face. She blankly observed the little cut on her right cheekbone that was now starting to bleed slightly. Without hesitation she dabbed away at the blood with the sleeve of her robe and cast an inaudible spell to seal the cut. The spell, being pretty weak, meant you could still see the red line of the cut. Great.

"Hey guys, what's going on?" Remus Lupin entered merrily, a few other class members filtering in with him.

And in that moment - even though she was feeling like shit and having the most crappy day - she felt...happy? Her spirits lifted, her lips threatened to pull up into a smile and all of a sudden she wanted to give him a hug. A hug??

What the fuck, no. Snap out of it, Maeve. He's a halfblood, her parents and her friends and everyone would kill her. For Merlin's sake, he's a fucking arrogant Gryffindor.

A fucking arrogant Gryffindor that smells nice and makes her smile.

"Hey Iverson, what happened to your cheek? Are you okay?" He asked concernedly as he sat down next to her.

"Ask your friends," She said, trying not to smile at him.

"Lads?" He tilted his head to them.

"It was an accident," James started.

"It was all his fault, I did nothing!" Sirius protested.

"Yeah so maybe I exploded the cauldron, but you started talking to her in the first place," James argued.

"You're just trying to make excuses f-"

"Wait," Remus lifted a hand up to silence them, "James, you exploded a cauldron? What the fuck were you thinking?"

"He wasn't, not like that's a change," Maeve smirked to Remus who gave her an amused glanced.

"Careful with that mouth, Iverson, or I'll do it again," Potter taunted.

"You will do no such thing," Remus scolded.

"Fucking hell, you act like you fancy her or something," Black laughed.

"No, that's not..." Remus's cheeks suddenly became very red as he tried to protest.

Shit. That wasn't very convincing. Shit, Maeve, he might like you. Shit.

"Oh my Merlin," Potter started hysterically laughing.

"I don't like her, shut up James," Remus begged.

"You like a fucking snake, this is amazi-"

But Sirius Black was interrupted by his stool disappearing underneath him.

"Don't be a dick, Black," Said Maeve, putting her wand back in her pocket.

"Alright!" Slughorn entered, clapping his hands to get everyone's attention, "shall we get started?"

"This isn't over, Snake," Black hissed quietly as he grabbed a spare stool from the back of the classroom.

"Sure it isn't," She whispered back, shooting him a quick wink which made him scowl.

"Right, so we'll begin at..."

Maeve zoned slughorn out as she began to doodle a skull on the edge of her parchment.

"Thank you for that," Remus whispered to her.

"For what?" She asked softly.

"You know what," He said back.

"Yeah," She smiled slightly, "you're welcome."

He grinned at her, before turning his attention back to the Professor.

Wow, she was in some deep shit. Happy Birthday, Maeve.