- Chapter Thirteen -
"Hello. Quite dirty in here."

Just as the boys had said, in Defence Against the Dark Arts, Elladora was blessed by Peter's presence as he slid in the chair next to her, smiling warmly, only getting a glance and a nod in return. He would be lying if he said that he wasn't disappointed from the lack of words for a greeting, he saw her talk to Remus quite a lot, as well as Sirius sometimes too, so why isn't she the same with him?

"Morning class." Penhurst greeted them, sweeping through the doors and stopping at the front, looking down at the students scattered to each desk. "Seating plans." He said and half of the class groaned. Elladora didn't voice her disappointment but instead settled with chewing the inside of her cheek.

"There's been an uproar of chatting in these classes recently and I want that to stop." He sighed, slowly making his way around all of the desks. "And there are some..." He was right behind Elladora now, pausing his words. "Select students...that think they're too good to talk."

The girl bit harder on the inside of her cheek, she hated this man, she actually hated him. "So..." He continued, walking away from her desk as her mean glare followed him. "These are your new places." A mocking smile made its way onto his face as he waved his wand and the black board flipped over, revealing names.

Lily Evans and Dorcas Meadowes
Sirius Black and Ernie Byron
James Potter and Kevin Henderson
Marlene McKinnon and Marcus Bow
Peter Pettigrew and Juliet Walters
Chase Beck and Avan West
Jade Harris and Harrison Fielding
Elladora Hargreaves and Remus Lupin...

Elladora was filled with relief at the sight of one of her 'friends' next to her name on the board. Peter seemed quite reluctant to move away from her but eventually did and walked towards Juliet, a Hufflepuff. The girl scanned the room for Remus, but didn't find his shaggy brown hair and scar-covered face anywhere.

James Potter was approaching her instead. "Full moon tonight so he's staying in bed, ill." He whispered under his breath and Elladora nodded, eyes full of sorrow as she took a space at her empty desk, pulling out a quill and some parchment, ready for the lesson.

•*•*•*•*•

The three boys that were feeling well, were sat at the lunch table with Elladora, talking nonsense whilst the girl popped into the conversation every now and then, still not used to the concept of talking to people. They were patient though, and that made it so much easier to try and be their friend. They understood and they didn't force her to talk.

"No, that's not how it works." Sirius told James, they were currently having a conversation about how pumpkin juice is made. James said that they used real pumpkins, juicing the guts inside and adding some purée and water to make it nicer. Whereas Sirius said that someone cast a spell to make water taste like pumpkins.

"Yes it is." James said, quite loudly.

"No its-"

"Actually, pumpkin juice is made out of water, pumpkin purée, apricot purée, sugar and citric acid, as well as artificial flavours." Elladora told them, biting into a sandwich. She swallowed it before talking again. "James is right."

"Boom!" James actually yelled from next to Elladora, causing her to raise a hand to her ear in shock. "Yeah, high-five!" He shouted and held a hand up in the air for Elladora.

She flinched back at first, away from his hand, which made his smile falter as he lowered it, glancing to the other boys, who were also starting with solemn eyes. "I'm sorry." James said. "I would never hurt you." He said and she nodded slowly, scribbling something onto her parchment with trembling hands.

"Um, I don't know if you guys have a plan for the full moon or not, but here's some ingredients for a wolfsbane potion." She muttered quietly and pushed the paper towards them, they hurriedly looked down at it, wide-eyed.

"How long will this take to make?" Sirius asked in wonder, looking down at the paper.

"A whole moon cycle, if I start it tonight and then keep doing it every full moon, then he should be more in control every time he shifts." Elladora told them and they all stared at her, mouths agape as they broke into similar wide grins.

"You're amazing." Peter breathed out and she nodded curtly, she seemed to be doing that a lot lately. As the boys continued to stare at the potion ingredients, she packed everything else up and grabbed that last.

"Where are you going?" James asked her, furrowing his eyebrows.

"To see Remus."

They watched as she left the hall, her posture was straight and graceful as always as she swept around the corner. The boys returned to their lunch for a couple of seconds before Sirius looked up thoughtfully. "Does she even know the password to the common room?" He asked the other two.

"Its Dora, she'll find a way." James shrugged and returned to his sandwich.

•*•*•*•*•

Elladora strolled up one of the large staircases in the castle, on her way to Gryffindor tower. She had a couple of ideas written down for each house's password, but she had never tried any of them. The passwords were mainly just for emergencies in case she ever needed to escape, but she felt a caring tug towards Remus, he did save her after all and she wanted to return the favour, which is why she researched the wolfsbane potion.

She came across the new portrait of the fat lady, whose name was actually Elizabeth, and stood in front of it. The lady peered down at her, glancing at her tie and then away again.

"You're not allowed in without the password." She laughed mockingly and Elladora pulled out her list and her eyes trailed down to the Gryffindor part.

"equites audacia." She said and the lady laughed once more, it was fake and it made the Slytherin girl frustrated.

"No." The lady shook her head so Elladora moved onto the next option.

"calidum cor meum"

"Oh, you're just embarrassing yourse-"

"fortibus militibus." The girl said in an agitated tone and the woman looked down at her, surprised and angry, but she had no choice but to swing open for the girl as she walked through the hole, into the common room, where several people were sat playing games, luckily they were so immersed in them, that Elladora could slip up to the sixth-year boy dorms without being seen or noticed.

When she got there, her knuckles wrapped against the door three times, awaiting an answer. "No." Came a grumble from the inside that sounded an awful lot like Remus Lupin. Elladora didn't listen to him and pushed open the door, seeing the messy boys dorm with Remus sprawled on his bed, topless, with messy hair. He groaned and turned his head to the door to tell whoever was there to go away, but when he saw the brunette, he toppled off of his bed.

"Dora!" He said, standing up in surprise and flushing red as he grabbed a shirt from the floor, pulling it over his head. He looked back up to see the girl, with no expression, just like always.

"Hello." She nodded and sat on one of the beds, looking around at the room whilst grimacing. "Quite dirty in here."

"Yeah, that's because you're on Sirius' bed." He said and she stood up straight almost immediately, moving over to what she thinks is Peter's bed and sitting back down slowly. "Good call, no idea when the sheets were last washed."

He then realised that that was a horrible thing to say as he watched her nose crinkle in disgust. "So, uh, what are you, doing he-" A sneeze coming out of his own body cut him off and he smiled at her like nothing had just happened.

"You weren't in defence and the boys told me that you weren't feeling well, so I'm here." She said and it became quite awkward until she spoke again. "I feel like I owe you something, for saving my life."

"You owe me something? Dora, no, you don't owe me anything." He said, furrowing his eyebrows as he sneezed again.

"But...you saved me and now you want to be my friend and you're trying to cheer me up. And I want to do the same but..." She paused as she felt the stinging in her eyes and her voice turned into a whisper. "I don't know how."

Remus was silent for a moment before he puffed out some air and walked over to Peter's bed, sitting on it, his posture was slightly hunched over compared to Elladora's. The girl herself was staring at a poster of red and gold colours that hung over James's bed.

"I- we, only want you to be happy, Dora." He said, his voice quiet, just like hers.

"I don't know if that's possible."

"I think it is. If we work together. And I know, it can be hard getting out of your comfort zone and I'm not asking you to change yourself so suddenly. I just want to let you know that these boys have made my life so much better, and I think we can do that for you too. If you let us. If you talk to us and if you do things with us." He said and she sat, taking it all in.

"It's hard." Her voice trembled slightly. "I know you know it is, but I just wanted to say it. It's so hard to talk to someone when you've been starved of company your whole life, it's hard to try and live life in the moment when your so worried about the future and it's so hard not knowing what to do when you need distracting the most." She said and he nodded slowly, listening along.

"But if you're saying that you can make it easier, even just a little bit. I'm willing to try harder."

"Good." Remus smiled. "You don't have to worry about me, you know? I've been doing this for 12 years." He said, standing up off of the bed.

"Doing what?"

"The whole werewolf thing."

"I'm helping tonight." She stood up from the bed, nodding her head, though she wasn't sure if it was to herself or to Remus. He slowly turned around to face her, shaking his head.

"No, it's too dangerous and I can't ask you to do that." He said. Elladora stood abruptly and turned to face him, standing tall even though he was still a few inches taller.

"It's not a request. It's a statement. I'm coming." She told him and he bit the inside of his cheek in thought. "I'm helping you, besides, next full moon it won't be as painful."

"What do you mean by that?" He narrowed his eyes skeptically, the girl didn't reply and instead started to make her way out of the room.

"Good talk, Remus." She said and closed the door behind her, sneaking down the stairs again and managing to sneak out without being caught by the others, which was certainly difficult seeing that the number of students in the common room had doubled.

But she got out, and she went straight to her next lesson, where James Potter slid in the seat next to her, smiling. He made conversation and she actually said something back, making him grin.

When they were ordered to be silent, Elladora thought over what Remus had said. He said 'if we work together', she couldn't wait for them to try all sorts of things that they thought could cheer her up, she had to work on it too. She had to work on holding a conversation, being more easy-going instead of scolding them every time they said something the slightest bit offensive to anyone. She had to work on herself and the way she acted with other people.

And that's why James Potter and Elladora had a fun lesson, flinging balls of paper across the classroom. James' paper balls flew at great lengths, where Elladora's only went a couple of metres, but the boy helped her. And even though she didn't laugh or smile once, he saw that twinkle of amusement in her eyes and knew that she was having fun, even if it was just a little bit.

What he didn't know, is that Peter Pettigrew was staring harshly into the side of his head as he watched in envy as James whispered directions in her ear and pointed to the places where he wanted them thrown.

Snap.

"Pettigrew, please refrain from snapping your quill." McGonagall scolded from her desk and the boy blushed in embarrassment, looking over to see James laughing as Elladora landed a paper paper ball in Kathy Stuarts' hair.

•*•*•*•*•