CLAUDIA HAD MADE the wonderful discovery that she had way too many classes with Remus.

Like, way too many.

Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, and bloody, sodding Artihmancy (which she had always had with him but since Mulciber had it too she couldn't talk to him because he would go straight to her brothers).

He was everywhere - and it made the whole "ignoring-him-thing" incredibly difficult.

Claudia was angry at him. She was angry and disappointed and annoyed. But, she had also decided to ignore him because of Nicolas - who had been watching her like a hawk for the mere few days that they had been back at Hogwarts.

The girl headed off to class on that very Monday she had had her first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson - which had, understandably, ruined her day.

On her schedule was Potions; and that would play another factor when it came to the fact that Claudia would have a rough start to her sixth year.

She entered the classroom quite early, only to find a small amount of students and Professor Slughorn himself taking their seats - that were bloody assigned by the man himself.

Claudia sighed to herself as she walked up to the man and greeted him by plastering on a smile.

"Oh, Ms. Maple!" Slughorn said happily. "How pleased I am to see you again!"

Claudia was glad to know that not every teacher hated her.

"You too, Professor," Claudia smiled. "Where should I sit?"

"There would be just fine," he said as he pointed towards an empty seat. "You'll get your partner soon."

Claudia thanked him and then she sat down on her assigned seat, scribbling on a piece of paper in the process as four boys entered the classroom, all of them making so much noise that Claudia had no choice but to discreetly glare at them.

Slughorn sighed audibly before he assigned them their seats. Sirius ended up next to Betty, which caused Claudia to feel a bit embarrassed for the two of them, but instead of glaring and sighing - the two smiled politely and had a small conversation.

Because they had talked and moved past it all.

Peter ended up next to Mary MacDonald, which inevitably brought a lot of redness to his face, and James ended up next to Lily - which inevitably brought a small tint of redness to her face.

Well, that was at the same time as she groaned out of pure misery as the boy sat down next to her with a giddy smile.

And then, Claudia did the math.

No, no, no, no-

"Over there next to Ms. Maple," Slughorn said to Remus, and Claudia wanted nothing more than to die right there and then.

"Murder me," she said under her breath as the boy sat down next to her.

"Hi," said Remus with a small smile, receiving a nod from Claudia in response - her doing so without looking him in the eyes.

Claudia was convinced the universe was against her as she got paired with Remus.

And Remus was convinced that the universe was for him.

"Alright!" Slughorn said, catching everyone's attention and bringing a wash of relief to Claudia as Remus finally took his eyes off of her. "Since this is a more advanced class then Potions has been for all of you previously, I thought we would start of with something fun!"

Something fun my arse, Claudia thought as she realised she would be forced to brew a potion alongside the boy who she hated and loved all at the same time.

"Amortentia!"

And then she wanted to die even more.

"Does anyone know what Amortentia is?" Slughorn asked the class, his eyes landing on Claudia since he had expected her to talk - but she merely sat there as she thought about the best way to escape and never return. "Ms. Evans!"

"Amortentia is a love potion that causes a powerful infatuation or obsession in the drinker. The person who gives the potion is the one the drinker gets infatuated with," Lily answered as James watched her in awe.

And Sirius and Betty both wore matching grimaces.

"Very good, Ms. Evans, 10 points to Gryffindor! Now, today you will be brewing Amortentia with your assigned partners and then we'll talk a little more about it's affects!"

"I'll get the ingredients," Claudia said quickly as she ran towards the cupboard of ingredients, bumping into Lily as she picked up the Pearl Dust.

"Do you want to die too?" Lily asked the girl who was wearing a permanent frown on her face.

"You too?" Claudia asked with a gasp as Lily chuckled. "I have never wanted to disappear as much as I do right now."

"I feel you," said Lily. "He won't stop staring at me!"

The two girls turned their heads around - only to find their separate boys staring at them out of pure awe.

"Well, looks as if we are in the same boat at least," Claudia sighed. "It's like we've used Amortentia on them."

"I wonder if we could reverse their obsessions if we make them drink it," Lily said dreamily.

"That sounds wonderful," Claudia said as she picked up the final ingredient. "Well, good luck brave soldier."

"You too," Lily smiled as she watched Claudia return to her seat next to Remus.

"So..." Remus said airily to the girl who was far too busy staring at the board . "How are you? After this morning, I mean. No, actually, how are you overall?"

"Fine," Claudia replied flatly. "How about I start with step one and you prepare step two?"

Remus gave Claudia another defeated glance before he nodded his head slowly as he leaned back in his seat.

"Sure," he said, and then they got to work.

After a while of just sitting in quiet as they loaded all the ingredients into the cauldron, Claudia was growing rather impatient.

"I think that's enough staring for one day," Claudia said with an accidental smirk as she finally turned her head and met his dazed eyes.

"Right, sorry," Remus said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck as he turned his head, only to shift his eyes a little to watch her stare at him instead. "Now you're doing it."

"Shit, sorry," she said as she moved her head and continued to stir the potion in the cauldron, noticing how it had turned pinkish. "I think we've succeeded."

"Seems so," Remus said with a smile, that immediately faltered as he saw how Claudia's face had dropped. "What's wrong?"

"Uh, nothing," Claudia replied as Slughorn came and inspected their potion.

"Oh, won't you look at this!" He said proudly. "Mr. Lupin and Ms. Maple have succeeded with the potion!"

The entire class turned to look at the pair, James and Lily not doing so as Lily had a mini heart-attack due to the very same reason Claudia was having one.

"Now, tell me Mr. Lupin," Slughorn said with a smile. "Have you managed to do it completely right? How about you tell us what you can smell?"

"What I can smell?"

"Yes! An effect of Amortentia is that one can smell what attracts one! So, tell us, what do you smell, Mr. Lupin?"

"Uh," Remus said awkwardly as he turned around, looking stressfully at Sirius, who gave him two thumbs and a smile in return.

"Go on," Slughorn urged.

"I smell, uh, lilies and citrus and...new books and...pancakes and uh," he said cautiously, and then he took a small glance at Claudia, and suddenly he didn't feel so scared anymore.

"And?" Slughorn questioned.

"Golden syrup."

Claudia immediately turned her head to the boy, giving him an unreadable look as he stared straight ahead, feeling both like a fool and a valid lovesick individual at the same time.

"Very well, I presume it works," said Slughorn with a smile, and then he turned to Claudia. "How about you Ms. Maple?"

Claudia glanced around the classrooms with a grimace on her face, before turning her eyes back to Slughorn with a sigh.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" She asked quickly, because she needed to avoid whatever could happen next.

And because she was terrified to let her guard down.

"You may go once you've answered the question," Slughorn said, and Claudia swore he looked excited to hear her answer.

"I...I really need to go, Professor," she said with a polite smile. "It's an emergency."

"Surely you can answer the question-"

"Please," Claudia pleaded as Remus felt concerned over the stressed look on Claudia's face.

"Ms. Maple-"

"I have lady troubles," she lied awkwardly.

And it was most certainly a lie - because after that summer her period had, for the time being, stopped from the lack of food.

"Oh..." Slughorn said awkwardly, since he had no idea on how to deal with the situation. "Uh-"

Slughorn didn't get the chance to finish his sentence of either telling her to go or telling her to stay as Claudia ran out of the classroom.

Like, actually ran out of there.

The girl didn't care if she was making a scene - because she was not okay with what she had smelt.

It was driving her insane.

"Claudia!" Inez yelled as Claudia almost ran past her with a panicked look on her face, causing the girl to halt right in front of her. "What's wrong?!"

"Everything's wrong!" Claudia exclaimed. "I smelt stupid books and a stupid fire and stupid cinnamon and stupid coffee and-"

"Claudia, calm down!"

"-And stupid, sodding, bloody chocolate!"

"Claudia!" Inez yelled. "What is going on?!"

"I smelt Remus in the bloody Amortentia and now I-"

"Oh," someone said from behind her as Inez's eyes widened. "You smelt me?"

Remus.

Claudia turned around abruptly at his voice, and she felt the biggest urge to just run away.

So, that's exactly what she did - leaving a confused Inez and a slightly relieved Remus.

Because Claudia couldn't possibly hate him if the Amortentia had smelt like him to her, right?

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