antidote - sirius black

seventeen

The Marauders were early to potions. They did not see Vera in the Great Hall for lunch. They even asked Lily, who had not seen the girl since transfigurations.

It was a stumble more than anything else the way the boys entered. Not one of them wanted to go in second, therefor they all tried to walk through the door together. Lily had to kick Sirius and James knees forward so they fell forward. Effectively unblocking the human door jam. The boys fall in turn cause Peter and Remus to lose balance and fall forward as well. Those two were able to keep their dignity though, as they only lost their footing, but still stayed upright.

Vera was usually the first one at potions, she ate her lunch in her room, after she picked it up in the kitchens. Then left for the empty potions classroom with forty five minutes of lunch left.

She was so focused on her potion that she didn't even hear anyone thundering down the stairs to the dungeon. She was trying to strengthen the potion for Remus. It was what she always did in her spare time.

There was a thump, and an "ow" and a "this is all your fault Prongs" accompanied by a "well excuse me Padfoot, I'm not the one who wanted to come early to potions just to see Ve—mppp!" James was stopped from finishing his sentence by Remus' hand on his mouth. An action Remus was getting quite tired of doing. James was then forced to look up and surveyed the room, seeing that Vera was actually sitting right at her potions station staring at them. Perplexed.

"Are you all alright?" Vera asked, she tilted her head slightly to the side, an act that was unanimously decided amongst the cute adorable. She continued to stare at them with her wide amber eyes, waiting for an answer that took many slaps to the chest to come out. From the only one with dignity still intact.

"Yes Vera, they are fine, just stupid." Lily was angry. All she wanted to do was find Vera, convince her to be her friend. But no. The boys had to ruin that for her with their awkward walking and over competitiveness. "Why are you here so early? We didn't see you at lunch."

"I eat my lunch alone, and then I always come here to work on my potions."

Lily tried not to show it on her face, the last thing Vera would want was for Lily to feel bad for her. And Lily did. No one should have to eat alone. No one should be fine with it.

"You can eat with me if you want? You could come to the Gryffindor table, or I could come to the Slytherin table. Or we don't even have to eat in the Great Hall, we could eat in the Gryffindor common room or by the Black Lake, I don't mind eating in here either. We could try eating in the library as well, Madam Pince might murder us but we might be able to last like ten minutes." Lily knew she was ranting, she was sure her face was as red as her hair out of embarrassment. It seems Vera White makes her lose her cool. "Okay well while you think about that," Lily continued without even giving Vera a millisecond to answer she asked, "what potion are you working on? Is it for class?"

That made Vera panic, she looked up to catch Remus' eye. It took him a couple seconds to comprehend why she was panicking. He however didn't do anything, all he did was start to panic as well.

Peter, Sirius and James, knew their best friend through and through. They knew when he was happy, sad, confused, angry, they knew all his emotions. It was because of that, that they knew that Remus Lupin was certifiably horrified. His face was alarmed. His body froze with his fists clenched. The usual calm and collected Marauder was filled with dread. There was very few ways that this could end up in his favour.

"Remus you alright mate?" Sirius asked, the same time Lily asked once again, "may I see it? I love potions, maybe I could help?"

"No!" Both Remus and Vera yelled at the same time. Surprising everyone, "I mean yes Sirius I am fine, it's just I think that we should let Vera do her potion on her own, we just disturbed her peaceful time anyways. Sorry Vera we will be leaving now."

"Remus. Mate what are you doing? We have potions in five minutes. Why would we leave?" James was staring at Remus like he was crazy. Something was definitely wrong and by the looks on Peter and Sirius' faces, they agreed.

While Remus was talking, Vera had enough time to pack up her notes, and empty her cauldron of all evidence. So when everyone turned to look at her once again. All they saw was Vera just sitting there, blank faced.

"You are welcome to stay. James is right, class is about to start."

Lily, losing her serenely manor infront of Vera once again, "may I sit with you?"

If there was any other Gryffindors in the room, surely they would be gaping in horror. Lily Evans couldn't possible sit with Slytherins, not after what Severus did. How could she even stand that house. But good for Lily, no one else was in the classroom except her, Vera and the Marauders. That meant no one else would see Vera turn Lily down. That gave Lily comfort. She really wanted Vera to say yes, but Lily Evans was anything but stupid. So she knew that the probability of Vera saying yes was very low. Yet she had the optimism to hope.

"Are you sure?" Vera asked, "This is not a prank? You really do want to sit with me? Are you sure, you're sure, I don't want you getting in trouble with the other Gryffindors. I understand if you don't want to be near Slytherins, especially Severus. This is a bad idea. Are you sure? You don't have to. I usually work alone." For the first time in her life Vera White was rambling. She had never had anyone to ramble to or about.

The five Gryffindors didn't even know she could talk this much, evidently from the look on Vera's face, neither did she.