-Beastie- James Potter

-7-

- - -

Karmen walked through the halls to the library a few days later as she and Potter were suppose to work on the last part of their potion, and good timing to as the project was due soon. Thankfully they didn't have to present it to the class or anything like that, only give a small vile of it, labeled with their names for Professor Slughorn to grade.

She walked past the librarian, giving her a small smile before walking to her usual table where they had been working for the last few days but was met with a surprise. James Potter was already sat their, reading a book on unnatural Animagus transformations, which was a interesting choice to say the least.

She tilted her head to the side slightly with furrowed brows and narrowed eyes as she looked at the scene in front of her. The messy haired boy seemed to notice her presence as he immediately popped his head up and smiled once he realized it was her.

Karmen snapped out of whatever trance she was in and walked forward, making James look at her in confusion as he closed his book and slipped it into his bag. "What's wrong?" He asked as she sat across from him as she normally did.

The curly haired girl nodded her head and said, "Yeah, no, I just don't think I've ever seen you read. I thought you couldn't." Her last sentence was said with a slightly teasing tone that she normally reserved for the other Reines or Sirius, which seemed to surprise both of them.

He let out a small chuckle before saying, "I normally don't but it seemed interesting."

Karmen hummed with him as she had read the same book before and it was a fascinating book. It was about Animagus', natural or not. Like what certain animals mean about you, the rarity of some transformations and how many people have the probability of being a animagus at birth.

With that they got to work, they had finished brewing the potion a few days ago but the directions said it had to settle for 48 hours with a lotus petal soaking in it before its ready for digestion. Then after that you can cool it with dry ice and then put it in a vile.

"Are you excited for Winter break?" James asked, wanting to break the silence. This 'be her friend before flirting' thing seemed to be working great and he thought that Karmen was really starting to warm up to him.

Her green eyes widened slightly as she remembered that next week was Winter break. Which meant had to back home to her mother. She had completely forgotten with the project and Hogsmead.

"Shit, I totally forgot about that." Karmen said to herself but James heard easily.

"What's wrong? Normally people are excited to go home, you know, unless you're Siri-" He cut himself off as he thought about what Sirius said about Karmen's family, about how her family was like the Black's but Gryffindor.

She noticed the way he stopped and seemed to remember something so she asked, "Sirius tell you?"

"A little."

She let out a sigh before slightly shaking her head and saying, "I've just never had a great relationship with my mother. While my father cares for me, he's more her lap dog now a days but he does care for me. That's nice."

He gave a small laugh before saying, "You could always stay with my family."

When Karmen gave him a questioning look, one if not both her brows raised, he immediately back tracked as he ignored how his cheeks burned when she looked at him, "I didn't mean it like that! I meant that Sirius is coming to stay with us for a few days over Winter break and I know you two are close so."

She smiled at him a little, before saying, "Thank you, James."

"Did you just say my name? I don't know if that's ever happened before."

"Oh, I wanna take it back."

"No, you can't. No take-backies. Nope. Cherishing that forever."

***

"Excellent! Wonderful job done, two you. Now, at first, I was worried about putting you two together but you have certain proved me wrong." Professor Slughorn said as Karmen handed the veil of lavender colored potion. A small tag hung from the top of the corked bottle that read Karmen T. & James P.

The T was originally a P but Karmen changed it.

She had put James in charge of the writing.

The curly haired girl didn't question what the Professor meant in his last sentence about just smile at him, turned around and walked back to her seat as James did his own.

As he walked by her, he nudged her shoulder with his, making her look up at him slightly, which he only gave her a cheeky smile as he sat back down at his own desk.