AS SOON AS CLASS was dismissed on a surprisingly sunny Wednesday in March - also known as Remus Lupin's 16th birthday - Claudia practically sprinted towards her dormitory.

Why? To get Remus' presents of course.

Claudia loved giving presents. Every year on Inez's and Betty's birthdays she would always send them something, even if that involved plenty of struggle on her part.

Her father did like her friends' families, but he assumed that Claudia's friendship with the two was the way most friendships were like in his world; cold, awkward and only there for benefiting both parties.

That's why she didn't really get to see them that much during the summer, if only about once, but at least that was something. But, mostly she had to cancel anyways because it was obvious that she was not doing well, and that wasn't something neither she or her father wanted them to see.

Claudia grabbed the presents in a fast pace, and then she immediately left the dorm again, with the cloak in the bag with the gifts. She was heading to the birthday boy and his friends.

James, Sirius and Peter had told her to go to their dorm as soon as the classes of the day were over, so she did that specifically without questioning it.

But, James, Sirius and Peter weren't going to be there at all.

To summarise why, let's just say that they had talked.

James had noticed jealousy coming from Remus during the whole Hogsmeade-thing, and Peter had seen it coming from Claudia.

Sirius was completely clueless on the matter, but he jumped on the idea as soon as possible.

They wanted to get Remus and Claudia closer together.

Because, even though they had only been actual friends for about three weeks, something was just different between the two of them in comparison to what it was like between Claudia and the other boys.

It was the way she felt so safe with him and the way he thought about her all the time. The way she sat next to him on his bed if all the boys were in the dorm, and the way they both looked at each other when the other one didn't. The way they joked and the way they searched for each other in crowds.

Something was truly different between the two of them.

Something was just right.

So, the three boys had decided to give them some alone time as an unannounced birthday present to the oblivious Remus.

And as Claudia headed to their dormitory, she found herself bumping into Nicolas.

And, being the clumsy individual that she was, she ended up dropping her bag of gifts and the invisibility cloak, causing a gift to fall out.

Claudia and Nicolas looked at each other for a mere second before he saw the gift that had fell out, causing Claudia's eyes to widen. She quickly picked up the gift and the bag out of pure panic that he would grow suspicious over what she was doing and who the gifts were for.

"Sorry," she mumbled, but he was already on his way. Claudia grew rather confused at that, considering how weird Nicolas had been acting recently.

Nolan would've asked her about the gift.

Nolan would've said something rude.

Nolan wouldn't have just looked at her and the gift, and then walked away.

Nicolas simply chose to pretend like nothing had happened, like he had seen nothing suspicious and as if Claudia was just another person he accidentally bumped into.

Claudia liked that she didn't get caught in a confrontation, but it did still slightly put her off.

She wondered if Nicolas was up to something, or if he simply just didn't care.

Nicolas was always the brother she didn't see, look at or really talk to at all. Nolan did the talking, Nicolas did the watching. That was just the way it was, but never in Claudia's life had she wondered if maybe Nicolas wasn't actually as bad as she always had thought he was.

Claudia couldn't help but to look after him as he walked off, and as she did she somehow ended up bumping into someone once again.

She turned around and was met by the expressionless face of Rosamund Chang, a fellow sixth year Slytherin just like Nicolas.

This time around, Claudia wasn't the one to drop something, but instead one of Rosamund's books fell to the ground.

"Oh, sorry!" Claudia apologised as she picked up the book and gave it to Rosamund with a polite smile. "You're Rosamund, right?" Rosamund merely nodded as she accepted the book.

"And you are Claudia Maple," she said in an almost robotic way.

If there was one thing to note about Rosamund Chang, it was that she always knew everything about everyone.

"Yes!" Claudia smiled awkwardly since Rosamund wasn't exactly easy to talk to. "Well, anyways, I should get going! Sorry, again."

Claudia brushed off the thought of the two weird encounters she had had in less than five minutes as she entered a lavatory, pulled the cloak over her and then eventually found her way to her destination.

"Hi," she said quietly with a bright smile as she came into the dormitory and found Remus awkwardly standing by the foot of his bed.

That was because he was hiding one of her stolen books.

"Happy birthday," she said with a warm smile.

"Hi," he replied with a just as big smile. "And thank you."

Neither of them knew why they grew slightly nervous in that moment. It was weird, because before they normally had an easy time to speak with each other. Well, at least Claudia did.

So, when they both stood there for a little too long smiling brightly at each other, they felt their cheeks heat up and their heartbeats increase.

Claudia then cleared her throat as she awkwardly shifted her weight. "So, um, where are the others?" She asked.

"I don't know," he said. "They said they were doing something and then they just left."

"Oh," she replied.

They both grew rather quiet again for a few seconds before Claudia decided that she had had enough.

"Happy birthday!" She said cheeringly, and then she walked over to him and hugged him.

"You've already said that," he chuckled as the hug broke.

"I know, I just felt we needed to start over again," she said. "This way we are less awkward. Anyways, I've got presents!"

"Claudia you didn't-"

"We've already talked about this," she laughed as she picked up the bag and sat down on his bed with her head against the headboard. "Come on, now!"

He sat down next to her with a giddy smile, and as he did so their legs brushed, which caused both of them to feel their breaths hitch for just a second before they got back to normal.

Butterflies and electricity filled the room.

"Okay, start with this!" She said happily as she gave him his first gift.

"There's more than one?" He asked as he started to open the wrapping.

"Of course there is! I like giving presents, you deserve presents, so naturally there's more than one."

"I deserve presents?" He asked.

"Oh, stop it! You know you do! You're one of the nicest people I know, plus you're pretty and that gives you extra points."

"You think I'm pretty?" He asked with a grin.

Claudia rolled her eyes as she ignored the comment. "Open it!"

First, he received a normal sweater like the ones he used to wear. Claudia had found it in Hogsmeade, where she had gone thanks to a secret passageway.

After that he had gotten a watch. It wasn't exactly the most luxurious perfect thing, but it was exactly what a watch owned by Remus would look like. It was basic with a brown strap.

And finally, Claudia had given him one of the very few books she actually owned, the books Inez would take care of for her when she wasn't at Hogwarts.

He received Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen.

She had read it so many times that she didn't care for giving it away, and she truly just wanted him to have it.

"I remember you said you like her, and I've annotated this one so maybe you'll find it interesting? I don't know though, it was just my guess," she said nervously.

"It's perfect," he assured her with an admirable smile. "It's all perfect."

It wasn't exactly the most perfect gifts like he said, Claudia figured, but it was fine. He seemed happy, and she just wanted to show her appreciation for him somehow.

He had, after all, made her smile a few more times than she normally would have during the past few months.

"But, Claudia, all this must've cost a fortune! I can't-"

"I've got to mess with my father somehow, don't I? And spending his money is a solid way to do so," she chuckled. "Don't worry about it, really, I want you to have this."

"Well then, thank you...love," he said shyly.

"You're welcome," she whispered.

As soon as those words left her mouth, Remus found himself looking at her lips.

It's not exactly like Remus knew what he was feeling, but he knew that he always had her on his mind, and that what he had felt earlier during his date with another girl was a feeling of both longing and jealousy, because he wanted to be with Claudia instead of Peter.

So, when he looked at her lips and back to her eyes, and then her lips again it was like a magnetic force was pulling him closer to her.

The way he looked at her almost drove her mad. He must have known what he was doing, she figured.

The space between them was slowly becoming smaller as he felt himself growing rather nervous.

"You make me nervous," he confessed in a whisper.

"Oh, do I?" She whispered back with a grin. He gulped nervously as he slowly nodded.

"Very much," he whispered as their lips almost brushed.

And then, a small squeak suddenly came out of nowhere, causing the space to become big again, Claudia to jump and Remus to hate his existence.

He pinched his nose as he realised what he was so close to doing, and just how awkward things were going to be from that point on.

But, Claudia was not thinking the same thing as he did when she saw something on the floor.

"Uh, Remus?"

"Yeah?"

"I think there's a rat in here," she said slowly.

"What?!" He said in an almost angry tone.

"Yeah," she said, confused to why he looked so angry. "Why are you upset? It's not the rat's fault that it interrupted..."

Remus stood up as she said those words, causing her to grow even more confused. "Forget what I was saying, are you going to chase it?"

"Yeah."

"Do you need help?"

"No."

"Are you sure? I don't think it's that easy."

"It's easier than it seems."

"Alright, then you won't be mad if I go then I guess," she said as she stood up and grabbed the cloak.

He didn't want her to go, of course, and she also didn't want to go. But he had a rat, also known as Peter, to chase, and Claudia felt awkward over the whole thing.

"Um, bye then," she said.

"Bye," he replied as he spotted him.

Peter was nervous out of his mind as he tried to run away from Remus.

He was there to eavesdrop for the three boys, since James and Sirius couldn't exactly go unnoticed in the dorm since their animagi forms were a little too big.

And, when they were just mere seconds away from kissing, Peter had become so excited that he accidentally squeaked out of pure joy, which had messed everything up.

He tried to run away, but he did so unsuccessfully as Remus aimed his wand at him, and suddenly he was back to human form.

"I'm sorry?" Peter said in a scared tone after Remus had given him his death stare for a few seconds. "It's not that bad, I didn't really interrupt anything, now did I-"

"Didn't interrupt anything? Didn't interrupt anything! I was going to kiss her you bloody idiot! I wanted to kiss her!"

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