A Step Into the Future: A Marauders Fanfiction (completed)

Twelve: Friends, Enemies, and Whatever Else They Consider Us to Be.

LILY: "Who's Harry staring at?" Ron and Hermione giggled to themselves and Harry must not have heard me. Harry had been looking in the direction of the Ravenclaw table for almost ten minutes now. I was growing concerned.

"You see that pretty girl right there? The Ravenclaw with the dark hair," Ron asked.

"Uh, yeah?" I replied.

"Harry fancies her," Hermione said. "Cho Chang is her name. She's a years above us. Quite nice, plays for the Ravenclaw Quidditch team." Hermione summarized. I should've known. It would be just like James's child to goggle over girls.

"He's too bloody scared to talk to her though. Girls are a different species to us." Ron said matter-of-factly.

"Pfft." Hermione mumbled something under her breath, though I couldn't quite make it out.

Okay, so that wasn't like James' child. Treating girls with respect? Being half-scared to approach them? He seems like a polite young boy, hardly anything James Potter could've brought into this world.

My mind traveled back to earlier at the Quidditch pitch.

"Do you know who he is?" George exclaimed.

"Not this again." Harry murmured, bringing his palm to his face.

"He's Harry Potter!" The twins chanted.

"The boy who lived!"

"The chosen one!"

The twins seemed like jokesters but Ron and Hermione didn't. They seemed just as surprised as the twins when James admitted he hadn't a clue who Harry was. Who was he? People all over the great hall were still gossiping about and staring at him. Maybe he was just like his father,I thought. Maybe he's just known for pulling a few pranks here and there.

"Who's your guys' favorite professor here?" I asked, hoping to keep my mind away from my overwhelming thoughts.

"It depends, you can either like the professor and the class, like the professor and not the class, or like the class and not the professor." Ron said.

"What?" Harry said, and the two laughed. Hermione rolled her eyes.

"Who does the best at teaching a class, I mean."

"Hm, I'm not really amazing at transfiguration but you're right. McGonagall's a great teacher." Ron said.

"Defense against the dark arts for me, though we've had a number of professors over the years. One ended up being a servant of Vol-" he leaned in closer, "you-know-who."

"Really? Who were your past professors."

"Quirrell, Lockhart, Lupin, this year is Moody."

"Wait--Lupin?" I said quietly enough for only me to catch it.

"My favorite subject is potions--but don't get me wrong--Snape isn't my favorite professor. My favorite professor has probably been Lupin or Hagrid--though Hagrid had his discrimination."

"My favorite professor who's taught a class well is definitely Lupin," Harry agreed. Ron nodded and mumbled what sounded like a "yeah" while he was stuffing a second chicken leg in his mouth.

"So, he taught defense against the dark arts? For how long?" I asked casually.

"A year." Harry answered, adding more potatoes to his already full plate.

"A year? Why only that long?" I was trying to ask these questions as casually as possible, but that's quite hard to do when your trying to get information about your friend's future.