⚯͛ Unfortunate - Remus Lupin ⚯͛

3.

"Miss Iverson, please get off Mr Crouch," Professor Slughorn, the head of Slytherin, sighed as he walked down the table.

All Maeve was doing was sitting on Barty's lap because there was no space, there's no harm in that is there?

It had been two weeks since the start of the year and it was now the middle of September. It was nearly October, which was Maeve's favourite month: it was halloween month.

Maeve skimmed through her class schedule for the day and nodded in approval, happy about the amounts of free periods she had (supposedly to use to study, not that she would do that). First class she had was potions, that's fine she could get through potions, she was okay at the subject and she found Professor Slughorn funny so that helped her through it.

"What've you guys all got first lesson?" Cissa asked.

"Potions," Maeve said monotonely.

"Free period, that's lucky," Liz grinned.

"I have Defense," Cissa groaned, "I hate defense."

"Everyone hates defense," Maeve smirked, "have fun."

"You're mean, why are all of our timetables so different? They weren't like that last year?" Cissa said.

"Maybe it's because we have our OWLs this year," Barty piped in.

"Don't remind me," Liz smacked her head on the table.

"Calm down, Liz," Cissa said gently, "I'm sure we'll all be fine."

"I mean we have no ambition outside of being a death-eater," Maeve said quietly to her friends, "so why the fuck do we need to be here."

"Language," Dahlia called to her older friend from down the table, how could she hear that??

Maeve simply replied with flipping her off, before returning back to her conversation.

"Look, I agree with you, but we have no choice," Liz sighed, "we can't leave until he rises to power, you know that."

"Exactly, so all we can do is make the best of what we have right now," Cissa said, "everything happens for a reason, you know we should make the most out of every situation."

"How are you not in Hufflepuff?" Barty asked.

"She's a Black," Regulus smirked.

"Piss off," Cissa said.

"Touché," Reg replied.

"I don't think you know what that word means, Reg," Maeve said.

"It's almost time to go to class," Barty rested his chin on Maeve's shoulder.

"But I'm so comfortable," She sighed quietly.

His lips curled into a sly grin as he laughed slightly at her, his arms wrapping tighter around her waist.

"Get a room," Reg groaned.

"Gladly," Maeve teased as she got up from Barty's lap, "but right now we need to go."

Maeve led her friends out of the main hall, and as they left they split off to the different routes to take them to their classes. She went to the dungeons for potions, a look of satisfaction spread across her face as she felt the corridors become colder. It was that familiarity of the Slytherin common room that she now associated with the cold.

She entered the classroom and internally groaned as she looked at the board at the front.

There was a seating chart.

A seating chart? A fucking seating chart? They weren't first years, what was Slughorn thinking?

"For all the confused faces entering the classroom, I would like to inform you that I have decided to have a seating plan in my lessons now so minimal disruption occurs," Slughorn said confidently, "your OWLs are quickly approaching, I have realised that if you do not sit next to your friends you may in fact get more work done. Now, find your seats please and we'll get started shortly."

Maeve tucked a blonde hair behind her ear as she scanned the blackboard of names. She found Maeve Iverson sat next to Remus Lupin.

Seriously? A Gryffindor? Bullshit, she was not having this.

At least, that's what she said in her head, in reality she would never disrespect her head of house by 'not having this'...she really did like him (despite her denying it).

She saw the tall Gryffindor was already sitting in his place, chatting with his obnoxious friends. She sighed, running a hand through her soft, blonde hair, and walked to her seat. She sat down, not making eye contact with either of them.

"It's my favourite snake," Sirius Black mocked. "How are you?"

She looked up to him, raising a neatly shaped eyebrow in her amusement. He looked very confident with himself as his friends snickered at what he was saying, he dropped his eye in a wink at her making her want to puke. She noticed the only boy not laughing was the one sitting next to her.

"You do know your brother is also in my house, shouldn't he be your favourite snake?" She asked slowly, "Oh wait, I forgot, he's not your brother anymore."

She watched with a smirk as his face dropped for a moment before melting into a harsh scowl, his grey eyes narrowed and his strong jaw clenched in anger.

"You really are a bitch, Iverson," He scoffed.

"Takes one to know one, Black," She told him casually, before fishing into her bag and getting her Potions text book.

She heard Remus Lupin breath out a little shocked laugh beside her, which made her smile slightly.

"Okay, let's begin," Slughorn sang merrily, "Black, Potter, get to your seats."

The boys mock-saluted and went to their seats, but not before Sirius Black flipped Maeve off behind his back which made her laugh softly.

"Your OWLs are quickly approaching, and this entire year will be dedicated to working towards them. As you know, you will have a theory exam and a practical exam that could be on multiple different potions and techniques. This week we'll be studying the theory behind Skele-grow in preparation for next week where you will be attempting to make it, the successful efforts will be donated to the school hospital wing," Slughorn told them, "now can everyone please turn to page 49 in your potions textbooks and we will get started."

Remus Lupin smelt of sweet coffee and smoke. It was hot. Maeve's thoughts blurred over for a second before she internally slapped herself, and was back to having crystal clear ideas again.

That was weird.

"Make key notes on the information in the textbooks, then use your notes to answer the questions I'm about to put on the board," Slughorn clapped his hands before grabbing his chalk and turning to the board to write.

Maeve Iverson and Remus Lupin then sat there, in that cold classroom, in absolute silence for the rest of the hour-long period. Not communicating, but both equally focused on their work. Never having spoken before, they weren't going to start now.

But - although no one had noticed it - they were so similar. They should have talked. They were almost identical as they worked in the sense of how they did so. Both furrowed their eyebrows in concentration, hunched over their parchment as they wrote, bit their lips, and occasionally raked their fingers through their hair when frustrated.

One could say they were meant to be, but that was ridiculous.