"BETTY, PANDORA! WAIT UP!" Claudia called after her two blonde best friends as she left her final class of the day; Study of Ancient Runes.

"How was class?" Pandora asked as Claudia caught up to them and the three started to walk towards their dorm.

"Dreadful," Claudia said, although she carried a big smile on her face.

Things were good for once in Claudia's life. Things were great between her and all of her friends, even though both Inez and Remus had been acting a bit strange for the last few days.

And even though Betty and Pandora had starting asking questions she couldn't answer that easily.

But they obviously had reasons for that, and Remus and Inez both had reasons for acting strange; one was a werewolf and one was being threatened.

"Doesn't sound like it was too bad," Betty pointed out.

"Well I'm just happy because it's Friday, of course!" Claudia said cheeringly. "Which reminds me, did Inez agree to come tonight?"

That very night, the 26th of March, there would be a birthday party for none other than James Potter in the Room of Requirement, with only the nearest and dearest invited due to what Sirius called "Claudia-Maple-reasonings", which was something that made her feel rather guilty, but James continued to assure her that he liked it better with fewer guests anyways.

Which wasn't exactly true, but she didn't need to know that James figured.

"Yeah, I think so."

"Good. Where is even Inez by the way?"

"She left to hang out with Cole," Betty shrugged. "Her new man."

"Another one?" Claudia said with a grimace, because Inez was clearly going through something, considering the fact that she changed boys like she changed socks.

Claudia was not concerned about this due to reasons like what doing that would do to her reputation, or that it could hurt those boys or that it was considered "slutty". She was furious that people had started to say horrible and misogynistic things about her best friend, but that was not her biggest concern at all.

Claudia was concerned over the fact that Inez was clearly struggling.

Because she knew that Inez wasn't accepting who she was. She didn't even know if Inez liked boys, but she did know that Inez liked girls; and that Inez was not true to herself when it came to that.

They had talked about it more than once. Inez did have a small crush on Marlene McKinnon, and Marlene had an obvious crush on her back. Claudia understood why it was so hard for Inez to accept, but it hurt so badly for her to see her pretend.

Claudia also had another idea that may have been a contributing factor to the whole thing, and why Inez had buried whatever attractions she had for Marlene six feet under.

Claudia was worried that her assumptions were true, and that was what caused her ignore her struggles by engaging in meaningless hookups instead.

"Yeah..." Betty said slowly. "Why are people staring at us?"

"No idea," Claudia said confusedly as she and Betty looked uncomfortably at all the people looking at them, Pandora doing the same in a more cheery way as she waved kindly to some of them.

And then, Claudia could have sworn she heard someone say something along the lines of "that's her friends."

Claudia didn't get the chance to question the person's words as her answers came in the form of a sprinting Inez, who carried a look of fear in her eyes.

"They know," she said out of breath in a panicked tone as she stopped in front of them, the feeling of people's eyes on her bringing her more waves of anxiety. "Claudia....they know about me."

"Know what?" Betty asked as she was completely befuddled, at the same time as realisation struck Claudia.

"Oh, Inez," she said worriedly. "I'm so sorry-"

"Guess the school slut doesn't actually enjoy dobbers as much as everyone thinks she does," the rude voice of a fourth year Slytherin interrupted the conversation. "Heard you swing the wrong way, is that true Harper?" The boy laughed, his friends following suit, with the exception of Regulus, who had started to walk off before his "friend" had even started talking to the girl.

He couldn't stand listening to them any longer.

"Oh, bugger off!" Claudia groaned as Inez began to panic even more. "What the hell is wrong with you?! I swear to god if you ever do that again-"

"You'll do what Maple? Go home crying to mummy? Oh, right, you don't even have one!"

And that's when all hell broke loose.

Claudia had no idea when the four Marauders had appeared. She also had no idea of just how loudly Betty's sweet voice could yell. And she was surprised to actually witness sweet, sweet Pandora punching someone.

She really was good at punching people like Inez had said.

Which she did for the second time that year, once again for her dear friends Claudia Maple and Inez Harper.

Betty was throwing out insults like crazy, Sirius and James doing the same. Peter backed off with Pandora, whose hand had been slightly dislocated due to her very violent punch on the random rude boy.

And Remus, well, Remus was doing everything in his power to resist beating the crap out of someone younger, simply because he knew it would only make things worse, especially if he were to defend Claudia in a way that she would actually approve off.

And because they would know just how much he cared for her, and that would only make matters worse.

Instead, he insulted and threatened the boy in...well, not the nicest of ways.

Claudia was too busy observing some random girl that she didn't even know defend Inez as well, and that's when she saw Regulus looming conflicted.

He had the power to make it stop, she realised.

So, Claudia quickly walked over to the boy that she had some sort of weird "sort of friends but also not" relationship with at this point.

She knew he was better than most deep inside. She knew he wanted to show it too. And this right here would be his first chance to do so.

Inez had left, and Claudia was not going to allow her to be by herself when she was the one who was really dealing with something in that moment. She needed to be there for her friend, whose sexuality had just been announced to a school filled with posh people in the seventies.

And she didn't even have a label on it yet.

"This is your chance to be better, Regulus," Claudia said. "Are you going to take it?"

Regulus looked at his friends who were struggling to deal with the older students, and that's when he saw Remus yell a little too angrily at the boy who played the leading role of the chaos.

And then, Regulus nodded.

And Claudia ran.

•••

The brunette girl entered her dorm, and her ears were immediately filled with the sound of Inez crying.

Claudia didn't really know what to do in that exact moment. She was scared she wasn't going to be good enough at comforting her. Sure, she had had her moment of comforting her friends, and they had normally been successful, but never ever had she ended up in a place where the reason behind why she needed to comfort one of them was so serious.

She was scared she wasn't going to be the type of friend she wanted to be - the type one would trust ever so much.

But that didn't mean that Claudia wasn't going to comfort Inez, even though she had no idea what to say or how to say it.

So, the girl simply just sat down next to her best friend, and it showed itself to be plenty easier as Inez took the first step in hugging her.

"I'm so sorry," Claudia whispered as she rubbed circles on her back. "You don't deserve this."

"I hate them all so much," Inez sobbed. "I don't even know what I am, and now everyone has decided it for me."

It was horrible. Horrible that Inez had to face such judgements simply because of something she could not control. Because of something that was actually so real and beautiful - because of love.

The thing that everyone strived after and dreamed about. Why was it that Betty and Claudia were allowed to talk about it loudly in the hallways when Inez had to be quiet?

Why was it that it even mattered at all?

Why on earth people cared so much about who another person would be attracted to or love was something Claudia couldn't understand.

"I know," she comforted. "It's not fair, not at all. Who did this?"

Inez stayed quiet for a few seconds before she sighed and said the name:

"Rosamund."

"Chang?" Claudia asked out of confusion.

"She told...everyone," Inez said angrily. "I didn't think she would actually do it."

"But...how did she know?" Claudia asked, wondering why on earth Rosamund would do something like that to someone.

"Well, you remember that Slytherin party last year? When I made out with like ten guys."

"Yeah. That was pretty iconic, by the way." Claudia said with a proud smile, that fell once she realised that maybe comedy wasn't the best road to take in that moment. But Inez didn't mind.

"I know, thank you. Anyways, the reason why I even did that in the first place was...that I had realised then that I actually liked...girls, I guess."

"Oh."

"I kissed that seventh year, you remember Olivia?"

"Oh, good scored!" Claudia said happily, and then she grew rather guilty again. "Sorry."

"It's fine, it's true," Inez chuckled. "Anyways, I guess Rosamund found out somehow, maybe she told her. And she..."

"She what?"

"Doesn't matter," Inez lied. "It's just...everyone's going to hate me now."

"I don't think so," Claudia said as she dried some tears off of Inez's cheeks. "And if they do, you remember right? They'll be forced to deal with me."

Inez smiled at her friend as she tried to get herself together again, but she was nonetheless sad.

Sad that people were putting their nose in her business and judging her for her feelings, feelings she wasn't even ready to fully understand herself.

Sad that she didn't get the chance to come out by herself.

And sad over why this even happened in the first place.

"Maybe you can see things from the bright side after all this, even though people are being so horrible. They have nothing on you now." Claudia said, slightly scared that it was not the right thing to say.

"They really don't," Inez said. "Claudia?"

"Yeah?"

"I can't go to a party tonight," Inez said guiltily.

"I know. And you won't have to. I'll stay with you. But I'm gonna have to warn you, I'm in the mood for some Frankie Valli."

"Merlin, not again!"

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a/n: i start school in a few days so updates might not be as frequent! :(

but i'll try!