-Beastie- James Potter

-5-

- - -

6:30. She had been waiting for two and a half hours. Dinner was over around 4:15 but she left early to go wait for Potter, partly because she didn't want her friends to ask questions about where she was going.

Karmen had asked, more like told, James that they would be working on the Potions project after dinner. She could have seen this coming. Him blowing this off like it was nothing. She was starting to wonder why Professor Slughorn would put them together.

The curly haired girl started to collect her things, standing up from her chair only to stop as a familiar figure tumbled towards her to the back of the library. James Potter, who else would it be. She gave him a blank look with her head tilted to the side as she studied him.

His hair messier than usual, rounded glasses crooked on his nose and his chest heaving up and down as he came to an abrupt stop in front of her. Karmen looked at him expectantly as she waited for him to catch his breath.

"I'm so sorry I'm late, darl-Karmen. I got caught up with the rest of the boys and-" Him using her name instead of a term of endearment made her raise an eyebrow but she cut him off by saying, "It's fine, Potter. I was just about to leave too so you caught me just in time."

Karmen sat down and put her book bag back down on her chair as she sat. James scrambled to sit in the chair in front of her. He pushed his glasses back up his nose as they were still crooked and while she was turned around to grab her potions book, he ran a hand through his hair to try and tame it, trying to look his best obviously.

"No, I shouldn't have been late. I'm sorry but it's not that you really gave me a time to go off of- Not that me being late is your fault! I'm sorr-" He rumbled as Karmen wondered about the absence of any nicknames or flirtatious comments. She rolled her forest green eyes gently before cutting him off by covering his mouth with her hand.

"You talk too much, Potter." Karmen was using everything she had to suppress a small smile and he could tell. James smiled at her with a love sick grin underneath her hand.

"Yeah, I do.." His words were muffled by her hand but she understood well enough. She took her hand off quickly after that and finally pulled out her books, along with her drawing notebook.

"What potion are we brewing?" James asked. He was really trying to make sure that he didn't make any super flirtatious lines as he really trying to take Sirius' advice, be her friend and try to be acquaintances without her killing him. It was...nice. Besides he could now admire her from across the table in front of her instead of down the Gryffindor table or the classroom.

"The Calming Draught. It's one the easiest to collect the ingredients for, but just complicated enough to earn a high grade on." She said as she flipped through the pages of her Potions book and turned it around to him.

"Ok. Let's go get some books and find the ingredients." He gave her a smile before standing up and walking towards the Potions section for books. Karmen narrowed her eyes at James' back, mostly out of confusion. No picklines, no nicknames, he hadn't even asked her out yet today.

Maybe he was sick...

***

"It was so weird. Not in a bad weird, but still weird."

Karmen ranted to Alice about Potter's strange behavior while they were working on the Potions project. She body was laid sideways across one of the comfortable chairs with her big hair lay over one arm of the chair while her legs hung off the other. It was almost 10 at night and they were alone in the Gryffindor common room.

Marlene and Lily had gotten into an argument about who knew their friends better which lead to a quiz that Alice had organize herself. She asked the question and marked down who got the point while nodding sympathetically with Karmen.

"Well maybe he is trying something different because flirtatious comments and terms of endearment hasn't worked for the past five, four years." Alice said as she flipped to the next cards, the two other girls almost shaking for anticipation for the next question. They were tied 9 to 9 and this was the last one.

"Last question," Alice stopped herself as she actually read the question and giggled under her breath, making the three girls narrowed their eyes at her in curiosity.

"What is Karmen's sexuality?"

Marlene and Lily both froze. The curly haired girl was a very confusing person sometimes as she didn't talk about herself a lot of the time, more worried about the other Reines then herself when it came to emotions. So trying to remember when she talked about her sexuality was like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

They both looked over to Karmen, who was already looking at them with a half amused look, for some help but she shook her head and said, "Spoiler alert: I'm not straight."

The girls slightly chuckled at this as they continued to think before a few seconds later Lily shot out of her seat on the couch and said, "Bi! She's bisexual!" trying not to be too loud as to not wake up the entire Gryffindor house.

Alice and Karmen looked at each other and held their stare, almost like they were talking telepathically, before Karmen confirmed by saying, "Ding! Ding! Ding! We have a winner!"

Marlene and Lily shook hands while the blonde pouted and the red head celebrated her win.

When the grandfather clock in the corner of the common room struck 12 am, Alice had already passed out the couch while Marlene had started to doze off. Karmen chuckles quietly as she watched Marlene's head shake itself awake.

The curly haired girl got up from her chair and walked over to Alice who was passed out in the arm chair next to her. She gestured to Lily to help the blonde while she picked up the doe eyed girl. Naturally, Alice wrapped her legs around Karmen's waist and her arms around her neck.

They walked up the stairs, Lily holding Marlenes hand as she pulled her up to their dorm. Karmen unlaced the girls shoes wrote slipped her into her bed and walking over to her own. Lily did the same for the blonde before changing her clothes and walking over to Karmen, who stood over Alice.

"We are the best friend parents ever." She whispered.

Karmen nodded before hugging Lily and flopping down on her own bed, falling asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.