Halcyon // R.J.L

Chapter Two: The Crush

 The feud between Severus Snape and the five dubbed 'the Marauders' (thanks to McGonagall getting creative with her adjectives rather than constantly referring to their behaviour as buffoonery) was painfully obvious to all at Hogwarts. Even a handful of first years had caught on, and the first class of the year was yet to commence. Quite frankly, Violet was rather impartial to the Slytherin boy, though she would never voice this to James who actively detested him. Until it came to potions.

Constantly tied for top of the class, Snape consistently did everything possible to sabotage Violet from attempting to slip an ingredient in her cauldron as he slipped past to the store room to loudly spreading nasty rumours as soon as the professor walked by. No matter his attempts, Slughorn adored Violet and her passion for potions, even more so considering most Gryffindors didn't care for the class. So when Lily chose to partner with her female best friend as opposed to male, she may has well of drawn a target directly on Violets back for the year in the class.

Severus was making no attempt to hide his anger as he slammed his books down next to Mulciber across the room, openly glaring at the brunette as Lily threw her head back in a laugh at something she said. To the left of the pair sat James and Peter which usually would have put Lily in a foul mood, but even James knew not to disrupt any work being done when Violet was involved, so the natural red head sent a slight smile in his direction causing a red dusting on the boys cheeks.

James and Severus weren't the only ones with their eyes glued to the pair, as Remus sat beside Sirius starring in utter adoration at the girl diagonally across from him who scrunched her nose in concentration as she furiously scribbled notes. While Sirius wasn't one to fuss too much over his marks, when the potion making process began and Remus was still glancing across the room rather than helping him Sirius, the raven haired boy decided to have a little fun with his friend

"Here mate stop starring for a second and chuck this in" Sirius said while shoving a handful of porcupine quills into Remus' hands, stifling a laugh at his book which in bolded letters read 'Carefully place in a singular quill and stir thrice in a clockwise motion to avoid a broken cauldron and singed eyebrows'. It was at that moment Violet bit her lip leading Remus to lose all thought processes and blindly follow his friends instructions. Leaping under the table just in time, Sirius heard a loud bang on the table above his now crouched figure and barked out a laugh causing most of the girls to swoon once the squeals of shock subsided.

"Mr Lupin I expected this of Mr Black, but I have to say I'm shocked at your lack of attention" Slughorn shook his head and coughed in an obvious attempt to cover a chuckle at his statement as Remus wiped the soot from his eyes, proceeding with

"Never mind my boy, head out the back to clean up". Needless to say, Remus decided it would be best to swap seats with Sirius next lesson so his view would be a little more obscured.

✵✵ ✵ ✵ ✵

Remus' two worst classes were Potions and Herbology, which not so coincidently happened to be Violets favourites and the first two lessons of the day. It's not that he purposefully did poorly to get her help, Remus cared too much about his education and how lucky he was to get it to do anything of the sort. But there was something about the way her eyes lit up and the smile that subconsciously crept its way onto her face that made him lose focus on everything around him, wishing it was him that made her react in such a way. Then realising he was seriously jealous of a class, the boy felt rather ridiculous and quite embarrassed at his own thoughts.

He didn't quite understand what was going on with him. He had known since second year he felt something for Violet a little more than how he felt about James, Sirius, and Peter but put it aside to the fact that she was a girl. On the 14th of February in third year when she got letters from six different secret admirers and he could feel his chest tighten with each one, he realised it was a crush but brushed it off knowing that Sirius got crushes on a bunch of girls all the time and it would fade away soon. Later that year when she had her first kiss and came running up to the boys room gushing about it, Remus excused himself and punched a wall. Having never been the violent type before aside from when his affliction came into play of course, he realised it wasn't the same as one of Sirius' crushes. And last year when she briefly dated a boy, Remus once genuinely threw up at the thought of not sharing each first with her, and found tears threatening to spill one too many times as they held hands. That's when the boys picked up on his crush, and it was probably the most humiliating moment of his life. Like, more humiliating than when they found out he was a werewolf, as he sat in the bathroom, gangly legs pulled up under his chin as he hugged his legs and cried when he saw Violet kiss him good night. Not exactly the big bad wolf type at all.

But something was different this year, and Remus couldn't quite work out why. She'd matured a lot over the summer like Sirius had pointed out at the feast, but she was the same girl he'd met on the train his first year, so what changed? He couldn't take his eyes off of her and felt the constant need to be by her side 24/7, finding excuses to do silly things like brush his hand against hers at breakfast and grab her books when he saw her blow a stray curl out of her face so she could fix it back into the white bow that gathered her wild locks.

Lost in his thoughts Remus didn't even notice they were at the greenhouse until he felt himself being shoved into Violets side, grabbing her waist to steady himself.

"looks like you fell for me hey" Violet laughed with a wink before jokingly shoving Remus off of her, who looked mortified to say the least.

"S..sorry Vi I tripped and.." Remus trailed off his cheeks the colour of Lily's hair as he turned to glare at the laughing boys behind him, only to be met with Violets usual partner looking up at him. As Remus tried to step around Lily to get back to Sirius who he was fully prepared to kick under the table, Sirius called out.

"Oi Lily, we're switching up the seats, you're with me on this one". Now Sirius had both Remus and James glaring at him, while Peter shook his head and laughed taking his usual seat beside James. It was always Sirius and James, Remus and Peter, and Violet and Lily between first and third year, but Sirius and James got banned from sitting next to each other after one too many transfiguration mishaps.. in potions. Lily glanced around the room in panic looking for a familiar Ravenclaw face, but upon realising everyone was already partnered up she slumped into the seat beside Sirius with a huff.

Remus couldn't take his eyes off of the girl beside him, and for once he shamelessly watched her, knowing full well she wouldn't break concentration in Herbology to see him glancing at her with a longing gaze. The few freckles dusted across her nose were slightly more prominent due to days out in the sun and wrinkled just as they had in potions when she went into the concentration zone. Cerulean eyes glistened in delight at the plant before her, and her tongue poked through her slightly parted and chapped lips as she focused on the task at hand. In that moment, looking at her so delighted by something most found mundane and rather uninteresting, Remus realised this was far from a crush. It was something much deeper, embedded in his very being. He was in love.

✵✵ ✵ ✵ ✵

"This is the big 10 Sirius a poem won't cut it"! James yelled, throwing his arms in the air exasperated.

"You act like this is a genuine wedding anniversary" Sirius chuckled, shaking his head at his friends antics.

"That's because it is Sirius, now bloody brainstorm harder". The pair laughed as Peter came out of the bathroom grinning.

"James, I have the perfect idea for you" Peter said chucking his towel onto his trunk, turning to the expectant pair to deliver his idea.

Downstairs, Violet was experiencing the same struggle. The day James and Violet got 'married' as kids underneath their tree was the same day Violet lost her mother, and all this time later James knew it still ate away at her, making her question what she could have possibly done wrong to make her leave with no explanation other than a note with only the word 'goodbye' scrawled in green ink. So every year since, James made it his mission to turn that day into a celebration of their friendship, rather than a day for Violet to wallow in bed. Hence, the wedding anniversary tradition was born. Each year the pair attempted to out do each other with extravagant gestures, and what started as little teddy bears and chocolates in first year grew into a day the whole of Hogwarts marked into their calendar for some amusement.

And while Remus knew it was nothing more than a joke and Violet and James were practically siblings, part of him still wished it was him receiving her romantic gestures rather than his friend.