MADAM POMFREY HAD run out of the potion for the flu that had been spreading around the castle. That meant that Claudia, who had eventually gotten ill from her friends, had to recover in the normal Muggle-way; she had to rest.

So, for about a week Claudia had been a moody brat to say the least. Her friends were rather sick of her, and in all honesty she was as well. But, eventually she recovered and was back to normal; which meant that she was also back to being a person her friends actually could stand.

Then, it was Remus' turn to be ill. He was, after all, a werewolf; and the full moon was approaching.

He was in pain, there was no denying on that. He tried getting through class that Monday, but he eventually gave up and then he spent the rest of the day in bed; sleeping and staring at the ceiling. He was bored. Not even his friends helped, so they were gone getting food for him in an attempt at cheering him up a bit.

Remus, however, had an idea. It might have been a stupid one, but he wanted a book. He wanted one of Claudia's books.

She had finished "Jane Eyre" when she was ill, and Remus had already finished that one short after. After that Claudia was to busy with revising, so she hadn't gotten another book.

Remus figured there was a large possibility that she had read some other book on that dusty shelf of Muggle-books, so he left to the library. The walk was slow and painful, but he wanted to read badly so he didn't care.

At the same time as Remus slowly and surely walked to the library, Claudia was doing the same in a more jolly and excited rate. It was time for another book, and that always brought a smile to her face no matter what. It wasn't often that her smiles were that genuine.

She entered the library only to see a little girl, a Hufflepuff, standing in front of Madam Pince with a book that she was returning. A Muggle-book, that Claudia had read last year.

"Shit," she whispered as she saw how the librarian picked up her wand and began checking the book.

It was very rare of other students to read Muggle books. That was why Claudia felt so safe doing what she did, but seeing an eleven year old little girl being so close to getting in trouble was something that trapped the girl in guilt. So, she started walking towards the librarian in order to take the blame, only for the strangest thing to happen.

Madam Pince checked the pages, closed the book and gave the girl a small nod, indicating to her that she could leave.

Claudia's eyebrow knitted together closely as she realised that her books were most likely safe from whatever spell Pince would use to make sure the book hadn't been cluttered on.

She couldn't see Claudia's annotations, and she also didn't seem to notice that Claudia had removed all her protective spells so that she could annotate them in the first place.

She also didn't notice how Claudia stood there with a dumb look on face as her lips curled in confusion.

Had she been stealing books for no reason whatsoever?

She needed to test out that theory with someone who didn't mind getting caught; or maybe someone who deserved getting caught.

Madam Pince may not have noticed how Claudia stood and stared, but someone else did.

Remus walked up to the girl with a grin on his tired face, observing how her face showed both confusion and realisation as her eyebrows knitted and her lips twisted. He thought that she looked adorable.

Remus waved his hand over her face as she came back to reality and found him standing there with a questioning look on his face.

"Everything alright?" He asked, and she nodded with a smile.

Then, her face fell at the sight of him, because he looked tired and like he was suffering. His eyes looked close to shutting down to sleep, his face was pale and his hair messier than normally.

"Are you okay?" She asked in a concerned tone. "I don't mean to sound rude but... you don't look so good."

Remus chuckled as he nodded his head. "I'm fine."

"You sure?"

"Positive," he said with a smile. "Don't worry about me."

"Telling someone not to worry is like telling Ravenclaws not to be apart of the best house. Impossible," she said with a smirk as she walked towards the Muggle-book section, Remus following right behind her.

"Aha, and here I thought Gryffindor was the best," he said with a smirk as he walked backwards in front of her.

She chuckled. "You're all just a bunch of kids with god-complexes and a need to save everyone."

"Yeah? And you people are all just a bunch of kids who are burnt out and scared of failure." He smiled teasingly as he accidentally walked into a small Slytherin.

"Stupid idiot, I could have dropped my books! Or tripped!" The small boy hissed angrily as he stormed towards his friends.

Both Remus and Claudia couldn't help but to laugh at the Slytherin's outburst, which caused him to shoot them daggers as they continued walking.

"Better watch out where you're going," Claudia teased.

"Ha ha," he said with red cheeks.

"I thought I was very funny!" She said seriously as he looked at her with a concerning smile. "Not. Well, anyways I bet you are also burnt out and scared of failure like us Ravenclaws," she said as she pointed at him.

"True. And I bet you have an overwhelming need of saving others as well as a small god-complex," he chuckled.

"Also true," she said with a grin as they stopped in front of the shelf of Muggle-books.

"Getting a new book?" He asked as he looked at the girl who was scanning the shelf.

"Yeah, can you find "The Catcher in the Rye" anywhere?" She asked as her eyes drifted between books.

"Yeah, here," he said as he took the book and handed it to her.

"Thank you," she said with a bright smile as their eyes met, only for her face to fall once again in a matter of seconds.

"Shit," she whispered, once again.

"What? Is there something wrong?" He asked worriedly.

"No, nothing is wrong. I just... I can't be with you," she said without thinking. She slapped a hand over her mouth the second those words left her mouth.

"What? Why?" He asked as if he had done something wrong.

"No reason, just forget what I said!" She said in panic as she tried making a convincing face that showed him that what she said wasn't true, even though it was.

"But-"

"Forget it," she smiled as she nodded her head.

"Is it because of..."

"Because of what?" She asked as she started questioning if he knew more than she thought.

"Because of him," he said, and her concern grew.

"Him?" She asked without breathing, thinking that "him" was Nolan.

"Um, so do you need any help with him?" He said nervously as he fiddled with the hem of his sweater.

"Do I need any help with who?" She asked with a raise of her eyebrows, still not taking a breath.

"Uhm... you know," he chuckled awkwardly.

"I don't, who are you talking about?"

"James."

Claudia couldn't help it when she bursted into laughter. It was the type of laughter that was rather uncontrollable, despite the fact that it wasn't even that funny. Her both adorable and almost a little ugly giggles made Remus laugh as a fluttery feeling took over his stomach.

"What's so funny?" He chuckled as she held onto a chair in order to stabilise herself.

"Sorry," she said through her giggles. "That bitch told him, I knew it," she said, almost a little too cheerily.

Then, the sound of Madam Pince's heels filled Remus' ears as he grabbed the book from the girl and tucked it under his sweater in order to hide it.

The librarian stopped and hushed the laughing girl, who tried her hardest to shut up. It was a good thing that Claudia was distracted, because otherwise Remus' action of hiding the book would make her suspicious.

The librarian left as Claudia took a few deep breaths in order to stop laughing, and Remus took the book back out from under his sweater and gave it to her.

"Sorry," she chuckled. "I don't like James, by the way."

"You don't?" He asked, almost a little too happily.

"No," she said with a shake of her head. "That was a lie."

And once again, Claudia slapped her hand over her mouth. Because once again, she said something she wasn't supposed to to the boy that somehow had that affect on her.

"It was?"

"Uh... yeah. But you have to promise not to tell anyone," she said seriously. "Promise?"

"Promise."

"Good, Remus," she smiled. "Inez and I are still going to ignore you and your friends though."

"But you're talking to me right now?" He said with a soft smile.

"Yeah... and I have no idea why! But... just let me ignore you, alright?"

"Alright," he said with a weird face, as his mind thought about the weirdest conversation he had had in a while. That girl had her ways of being sort of peculiar sometimes.

"So... what were you doing here?" She asked.

"Aren't you going to leave?" He said in a surprised tone.

"Not yet," she shrugged. "Possibility is that this is an exception to my so-far unsuccessful attempt at ignoring all of you. Now, what were you doing here?" She smiled.

"Just... getting a new book."

"Oh! Can I get you one?"

"Yeah, sure," he smiled.

"Genre?"

"Anything."

Claudia scanned the shelf of books as she picked out one with a big smile.

"Breakfast at Tiffany's," she said as she waved the book in front of him. "It might be considered a book for girls, but you said you like romance so you should read this. Have you seen the movie?"

"Yeah," he smiled. "My mum made me watch it."

"And what did you think?" She said excitedly with a raise of her eyebrows.

"It was great, except for the racism," he said, and chuckled at her over-enthusiastic eye-roll.

"True, very true. It's great to meet someone who actually noticed that awfulness. And what did you think about the rest of it?"

"Well, I liked that the characters were real. They had flaws, you know. And... their love was unpredictable and imperfect. It felt sort of... accurate I guess."

"I think we share a brain, Remus," she smiled. "I must say, romance is great but it's almost better when it's flawed. Fairytales bring us comfort but zero realism. I want realism," she said with a sigh. "Holly wants a fairytale when the real love has been in front of her for so long without her even noticing it. That's what makes it so relatable. We all do that to ourselves, we're all a little blind to the good things."

Remus smiled as the girl spoke about the book and the movie like it was her greatest passion. He wanted to hear more of it, and not only about that story but about a billion more stories. He felt that he could listen to her talk about something she understood so well for the rest of his life.

"And... I also want a cat just like she had!" She grinned as she handed the book over to him. "It's my dream to have a cat. I was going to get one years ago, but um..." She paused.

"But?"

"I didn't," she shrugged. "Well, I better go loan this," she lied as she smiled brightly at the boy in front of her, who weirdly made her feel like she could say whatever she wanted and he would listen to every word.

"Bye, Remus. You will see my around, but you will not hear from me," she grinned as she began to walk off.

"Bye, Claudia," he said lowly, and then she stopped and turned around.

"It would be you by the way," she said with a faint smile.

"What?"

"If I would fancy any of you... it would be you," she said with a grin as she left the boy alone with his thoughts.

Remus felt giddy the moment those words left her mouth. He didn't care that she was gone for the time being, because what she said brought him a goofy smile and a happy thought to bring with him for as long as he needed to before he could see her again.

Because that boy wanted to see her a billion times again.

Claudia didn't fancy him, but she also didn't fancy James. And, if she would fancy any of them it would be Remus; and he was feeling rather cocky and excited about it.

"Knew James wasn't her type," he chuckled under his breath as he did a quick spin, stopped abruptly and looked around to make sure no one saw it, and then went back to smiling like an idiot as he started walking back to his dorm.

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a/n:

reached 1k the other day thank uuuuuu for
reading!!! it makes me so so soooo happy<3

i'm going to try to finish part 1 in the next few days!

so, do you think claudia can live in peace after speaking with remus for like 5 seconds????