just like me || remus lupin

partners? sweet.

Cerise, like always, stayed oblivious to this encounter. She was never close to any of the Marauders. They were more like acquaintances. Sirius and Potter have made several moves on her in the past but was 100% rejected every time. To Remus's dislike, she would only chat with them when one of her friends, usually Lily, was with them. She knew of their nicknames, which she would occasionally call each of them by, but if she were ever alone with them, the only one who would ever talk to her was Sirius, which Remus envied as he's wanted to talk to her many times.

She was going to originally try to start a conversation between Lily and her loverboy when Sirius interrupted her train of thought.

"So, Bug. Have you seen that our names are fairly similar? Cerise, Sirius, pretty cute right?" he said motioning his arms up and down like a weighing scale. He received a playful eye roll from her. Remus was a little shocked at how he already started calling her by her nickname, but he brushed it off.

"Sure, Sirius. Definitely," she chuckled. Remus, while admiring her side profile, was jealous of how easily Sirius could start a conversation with anybody. It wasn't like he was scared to say hello to Cerise, he was just scared of what he would do after she returned the greeting.

Cerise remembered why she originally sat with them in the first place, but as she turned she frowned seeing that her friend had her head squished between two slices of bread. She glared at Potter and gave a what-did-you-say look.

"Don't look at me, Rein! I just simply asked-no wait, more like begged her to give me a checklist of what I had to do to get her to finally go out with me. Then without a single word she just did that! That's not my fault!" he said motioning his hands up in the air. Cerise sighed and turned to the neglected 3 other boys.

"Well, I think that's my cue to leave. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot." She turned her head in that order to each one of them before nodding and standing up. Remus's heart fluttered as he heard his crush use his nickname. He gave an awkward wave to her before turning to his friends with a dopey grin on his face.

"C! You can't leave me here with these numbskulls," Lily whined removing the slices from her ear. She stood up, reached over to Potter's head, and gave him a small flick. He groaned as he flipped her off in return.

"I promised Rosie and Andie that I'd sit with them today, so I'll see you in Potions!" With those words, Cerise saluted Lily and bolted off to the other side of the Great Hall.

"Why does your friend always hang out with Slytherins. Not long before they rot her brain with mumbo-jumbo stuff," James said pointing a piece of bread towards Lily, then at the Slytherin table before shoving it into his mouth.

"Oh shush, she doesn't even hang out with the bad ones."

"Like... Snivellus?" Sirius snickered.

Lily's expression tightened by the sound of that name. As if that cruel nickname caused a switch in her mind to turn on, she realized that she had been spending the majority of her breakfast period with the Marauders. She cleared her throat, stood up, gave them a nonchalant wave, and moved to sit with her other friends.

"Way to go, Padfoot. You scared away Prong's lover," Peter said nudging the long-haired boy. James gave him a death-glare.

———— ᕦ(ò_óˇ)ᕤ ————

Remus had been thinking about his recent interaction with Cerise all day.

He had never sat so close to her before. He had been replaying the event in his head imagining what different outcomes could've happened if he wasn't such a wuss. He was hoping that maybe he would have some luck with talking to her more in Potions class. He walked into Slughorn's classroom to see there were only a few people there. Confused, he checked his watch to see that he was minutes early. He didn't really care though, he liked being early. Being one of the last people in class meant you had very few seats left to take, and the anxiety of having someone scoff or roll their eyes when you sit next to them always scared him.

More and more Slytherins and Gryffindors entered the class, but not the Gryffindor he wanted to see. It was two minutes after class started when Cerise and Lily Evans scurried into the class giggling to themselves. He softened as he saw the girl of his desires.

Instead of being reprimanded, Slughorn only smiled at the two, considering they were both part of Slughorn's little club. Remus assumed they would sit together, as the two were a matching set, but was shocked when the girl stood in front of him.

"Hey Moony, all the seats are taken and I'm not trying to sit with a few of the gits in this class. Is this seat next to you taken?" she asked softly, making him melt into his high chair, causing him to stumble a bit.

"I-uh-n-no! You can sit here," he stammered pointing to his side. She nodded and smiled at him moving herself to the other side of the table. She moved her hands through her hair and Remus watched intensively, watching the rings on her hand be engulfed in her luminous hair just to reveal themselves for short moments. She moved a few strains of hair behind her ear, revealing multiple earrings on her right ear, the one that stood at the most to him was the golden crescent earring that shimmered every time she moved slightly. She listened closely to Slughorn's instructions, not noticing Remus's face turn a bright shade of red. Remus notices himself staring a little too much and proceeded to turn towards the front of the class.

Slughorn cleared his throat. "Now class, I have decided to not assign partners this year for the upcoming projects and assignments you will all do in this class." Remus slightly groaned as he hated having to ask a random classmate if they wanted to be partners. It was so much easier if he would just assign them so it wouldn't have to be weird. It would've been way easier if any of the Marauders were in this class with him, but alas, he was a loner this time.

"The person you are sitting next to will be your permanent partner for the rest of the time you are here."

Remus's heart jumped at least sixty times when he heard this. He had to pinch himself to make sure he wasn't dreaming, and he had to ask his buddies later if any of them slipped liquid luck in his drink earlier. Cerise and he both turned to each other and there it was. Her smile. He originally had something planned out to say but she started first.

"Partners? Sweet," she said looking at the dirty blonde haired boy. The boy calmly nodded in return, without noticing he started tapping the desk in a rhythm, which made Cerise smile.

She never noticed the boy's features. His shining eyes, his nervous tic, and the scars that seeped through his long-sleeved wool sweater. Deep scars. Almost like—

"Pst." She stopped admiring the boy and turned to see her friend's annoyed look. Lily mouthed the words, help me, as she gave a wincing expression. Cerise stuck her tongue out and looked over to see Lily's partner was the infamous Quinn Pucey.

"Lupin! I'll pay you loads if you switch partners with me right now." She tilted over so she could meet eyes with the boy. Pucey scoffed before going back to read his book. He frowned as it would make sense for Cerise to rather work with her best friend, and looked to her for her opinion on it before he answered, which would be a fat no.

"Sorry Ro, unlike you, I actually like my partner," Cerise softly giggled before turning to Remus and giving him a wink.

Remus felt like passing out right there and then but kept his cool and was only able to give her a wink back.

———————

AHHHH FIRST CHAPTER DONE LET'S GO, BABY. I know it's only 2000 words so I apologize, but I'm hoping you truly like it so far. I changed Cerise's look up a bit if you wanna check that out but if you already have an image of her in your mind keep it! Just as long as you keep reading. kk love you guys, byeee