Monster - [Marauder Era] {Remus Lupin}

Chapter Six ~ The First Quidditch Practice

"Bleh. I have a really good book to read..." I groan, facing the gold-brown-haired boy with sparkling green eyes. He wore a pleading expression, his face bright against the dark stone walls in the Transfiguration Hallway.

It was Monday, two days after Hogsmede. It was just after Transfiguration, where I had transformed a mouse into a teaspoon with great ease. Remus had done so as well, and Sirius and James had done near perfect, except that James' teaspoon had a tail and Sirius' had a nose. They had laughingly played with their semi-transformed figures by sticking them into each other's mouths at almost the exact same time.

Poor Peter could not get more than the handle of the spoon transformed. Transfiguration troubled him very much recently. Each class was a new battle for him, but he was slowly improving, thanks to the help from the rest of us. He wasn't unintelligent. His only problem was thinking that he was.

"C'mon, Calico, you can't abandon me." Remus reasoned, smirking down at me. He was only just so frustratingly taller than me, just so that it was infuriating that I had to incline my head to look at him in the eyes.

"You have Peter..." I look up at Remus after crossing my arms over my chest. "Why must I go?"

"All four of your best friends are going; two of them are flying. Support, perhaps?" Remus laughs after he finishes, grinning down at me. His sweater was unbuttoned down the front, a crisp white button up on underneath, his tie laying down it. Today, it had been warmer, at temperatures that were not cold or hot.

"Fine," I give in. "I'll go give 'support'." I give him a small smirk and we continue on, side by side, towards the bridge to the Quidditch grounds.

James, Sirius, and Peter had persuaded McGonagall to let the three of them out of Transfiguration about halfway through, claiming that they wanted to check out the field and get ready for the other members to arrive. Of course, since the Professor had such pride in her house's Quidditch team, she let them leave.

"The first Slug Club is on Friday." Remus chimes in as we walk. "Are you going?"

With a slight growl, I remembered the letter I had received at breakfast this morning from a first-year girl named Abigail. It was from Professor Slughorn, with all of his words written precisely and carefully. It was an invitation for me to go to the Slug Club party at the end of this week. The Slug Club was Slughorn's group of students that he saw the most potential in, and he therefore promoted them after their Hogwarts years and said that he was one of the people that had taught them, if they succeeded in becoming a star.

When I had first explained the concept to my mom in Second Year, when I had gathered up enough courage to go to a party, she was a bit confused. She thought that it was stupid to pick teenagers that were doing well in school and think that they would do better than others later on. However, she supported Slughorn throwing parties for our hard work that we had done well.

"I guess I am." I reply, fiddling with the strap of my book bag on my shoulder. "Are you?"

Remus nodded, looking out from under where we were now on the bridge to see the sky. "Yeah." He seemed uneasy as he took in the late afternoon sky, but as soon as he turned back to me he was the usual Remus.

Once we reach the end of the bridge, I leap off of the platform to the ground, while Remus steps down the stairs. Leaves were spinning lazily down from trees by the lake, scarlet and golden and russet everywhere you looked. The Forbidden Forest loomed ahead, it's ebony shadows casting across the green of Hogwarts' grounds.