THE NEXT DAY Claudia was sat with Betty and Inez out in the courtyard, passing time over a free period since Professor Flitwick had fallen ill. The girls were all hunched over their different sets of homework; Claudia working on her Arithmancy essay.

The two electives she was allowed to take by her father was Arithmancy and Study of Ancient Runes. She would have preferred to take Muggle Studies or Care of Magical Creatures, but her father thought that Magical Creatures weren't for her, and he hated Muggle Studies for obvious reasons.

So, Claudia was left with the boring essays and runes. She didn't even understand why he even preferred those, since he thought mostly everything was ridiculous, but it was probably just the best options according to him at the end of the day.

"Claudia, it's happening again," Inez informed the girl who looked up confusedly. "The Marauders."

Claudia rolled her eyes as laid her quill down. They had been continuously staring at them, all the more because of Sirius' thing for Betty. Claudia wasn't even sure that the attention was for her at this point. Which, she was grateful for.

It wasn't that Claudia hadn't noticed their staring. Of course she had. She just didn't want to embarrass Betty since she was so against confronting them, but this time it did seem as if Betty kind of also wanted her to talk to them - at least by the look on her face.

But, it was time for lunch so the girls just shrugged it off and headed into the Great Hall, Claudia finding her normal pancakes on the Ravenclaw table, which caused her to smile brightly.

"It's adorable how much you love pancakes and syrup." Betty said as she sat down next to Claudia, Inez doing the same across from them.

"Very sweet indeed," Inez commented causing her friends to laugh.

But, Claudia's laughter was stopped as she caught sight of Evan Rosier, who was smirking right at her. Next to him were his friends that consisted of Claudia's stepbrothers, Severus Snape, Regulus Black, Mulciber and Wilkes.

Claudia moved her attention from Evan nervously as she caught sight of Nolan, who was also smirking at her, or that's at least what it seemed like.

She also met eyes with both Nicolas and Regulus - no sign of a smirk on either of their faces.

Claudia shook her head as she shifted her eyes to Inez, who was apparently trying to get her attention.

"What?" She asked bewildered, her mind still tracing back to the two evil smirks.

"They're doing it. Again. How can you not notice?" Inez said annoyed at the four Gryffindor boys.

Claudia hadn't noticed it since people were staring at her from every direction at this point. She felt watched by everyone as the most popular Slytherin and Gryffindor boys watched her.

Then she realised something:

What if her brothers and their friends saw the Marauders staring at her?

Now, Claudia was not exactly unfamiliar with mischief. She had caused it many times growing up, but after spending the past two years with her father and his family she had stopped doing it completely, which was why she wasn't sure if what she was about to do was even a good idea.

"Fuck it," she whispered to herself as she aimed her wand quickly towards the floating candles above the Slytherin table and flicked it swiftly.

Suddenly the candles fell over the table, the air blowing the lights out just as she had calculated.

The candlesticks did however poke several people in the eye, which included Severus Snape who was screaming over his unability to see.

Then, Claudia sneakily transfigured her brother's and their friends' goblets into snakes, causing the entire Slytherin table to scream.

"What did you just do?" Betty whispered to her friend in panic, as Claudia tried her best to stifle her laughter as she stood up and whispered to her friends:

"Manoeuvre."

Then, she darted towards the Gryffindor table as the entire hall were focused on the commotion by the Slytherin table.

The teachers attending lunch were all running towards the table, and each and every single head in the hall were turned towards the one with snakes hissing on it.

Well, not each and every single head.

The Marauders were all staring at the girl who was approaching them in awe, completely dumbfounded over what she had just done.

Sirius was opening his mouth as the girl came up to them, but he was stopped as she began to speak:

"Now, I know you really like looking at Betty, Black, I don't blame you for that, but you've got to stop staring it's getting creepy! All of you!" She hissed lowly, glaring at all of them.

"Sirius is the only one looking at Betty," Peter said stupidly, earning himself a swift kick from James underneath the table. "Ow!"

"I'm not even gonna ask! Just stop it with the staring or you'll get yourself into trouble!" She exclaimed as she realised what her brothers could to do them.

"I'm not joking, you saw what I just did and I wouldn't mind doing it again," She threatened and then she stormed back to the Ravenclaw table, mentally preparing herself for receiving a very public scolding, which would probably end with a week's worth of detention.

But, that didn't seem to be the case as McGonagall and Slughorn spoke to the Slytherins, and they all looked utterly confused. That was with the exception of Evan, who caught Claudia's nervous gaze and gave her a wink as he smirked to himself.

She was close to throwing up at that point.

At the Gryffindor table, the Marauders were now even more dumbfounded.

"Is it just me or was that kind of hot?" Sirius gulped, to which everyone nodded.

"Not just you," Remus whispered to himself, way to quietly for any of them to hear.

That was with the exception of Peter.

•••

"Hurry up or we'll be late for potions!" Betty yelled at her friends.

"Don't stress us just because you want to see Black!" Inez said as she rolled her eyes.

"Not true!"

"Yes it is!"

"Alright, maybe it is but we don't have much time so hurry up!"

The girls all left their dorm, Inez and Betty still gushing about the events during lunch, much to Claudia's liking since she was rather proud of it.

They entered the potions classroom; only for Betty to awkwardly collide into somebody.

"Sorry Maple," Remus mumbled as he, as if on instinct, took a soft hold on her wrists in order to make sure she didn't bump into him to hard.

Claudia looked up slowly to be met by his warm chocolate brown eyes and a giddy feeling came over her by his touch.

Were those...butterflies?

"It was my fault, sorry," she mumbled back as she shrugged that thought off her mind.

Remus removed his hands from her wrists, and as her sweater was pulled up slightly by the movement he saw a strange bruising. It was quite dark and it moved around her wrist. He frowned at the sight, but soon the girl was gone.

"Hi Peter," Claudia greeted the blonde boy as she sat down next to him.

"Hi," he mumbled nervously, thinking about the way she had scolded them just a few hours ago.

"Look," she said leaning in and lowering her voice. "I'm sorry for being so rude earlier, it's just better if you and your friends don't look at us at all - well, mainly me. I know it doesn't make any sense, but just...just trust me."

"Okay," Peter said with a faint smile which she returned.

The rest of the class was spent with the pair brewing their Strengthening Solution potion in a comfortable silence. Claudia was however a bit distracted as she kept meeting eyes with Remus, who was having a hard time not looking at her from his table with Lily, who was smiling proudly.

Remus was thinking about the bruising. It wasn't a strange thing to have, a bruise, but one that went around your wrist like that must have come from someone else's touch, he figured.

Remus wanted to know if she was alright, so after the class was finished he pulled her aside, making sure that he grabbed the wrist that wasn't bruised.

Claudia was confused to what he could possibly want, but she allowed him to pull her aside nevertheless, a questioning look on her face.

"Are you alright?" Remus asked her softly, to which she looked even more confused. She was also confused to the feeling in her stomach that had returned, and confused about the fact that Remus hadn't let go of her wrist just yet. That he noticed too, as he quickly dropped it, his face growing warm.

"I'm just fine, how are you?" She replied in confusion, which caused Remus to look awkward as he rubbed his neck. Remus wanted to say something else, she could see it on his face, but he didn't.

"I'm fine, see you around Maple," he said walking away, leaving a befuddled girl. Remus beat himself up internally for not making sure she really was fine, but that was something he wasn't going to learn just yet.

Because boy was there more for him to learn about the girl who loved books and golden syrup.

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