I Can See You

Be My Partner?

Kathleen groaned. "Do you have to create such a din so early in the morning?"

Natasha shot the brunette an apologetic grin but carried on rummaging through her drawers. Seeing that her friend was unlikely to end her noisy search anytime soon, Kathleen pulled her pillow over her head to muffle the noise and tried to get back to sleep.

"Nat!" It was Pamela's turn. "What's the matter with you?" she asked irritably before she noticed that Natasha seemed to have found what she was looking for - a lime-green ribbon which she was now carefully tying to the end of her plaited hair. Pamela instantly felt a little more awake and told the blonde approvingly, "So you're paying more attention to your looks at last. At least one of you girls is finally seeing the light."

Natasha giggled. "Don't worry, Pam. You'll always be Hogwarts' fashion icon. I have absolutely no wish to compete with you in that area."

Pamela glanced at the rest of her roommates. Kathleen seemed to have succeeded in falling asleep again, while Tessa, a heavy sleeper, had not even stirred. She sat up and stretched, before returning her attention to Natasha. "So what's up with you?"

Natasha gave what she hoped was a casual shrug. "Nothing. I just felt like getting up early for a change."

"You mean you're making yourself wake up early just to look for a ribbon?"

Natasha blushed. It wasn't easy to kid Pamela.

"You should plait your hair this way more often. You look great."

"Thanks," Natasha mumbled as she adjusted her robes. Satisfied with her appearance at last, she turned to Pamela again. "How would you like to go for an early breakfast?"

"Sure," Pamela agreed. "Just give me half an hour to get ready."

"Make that five minutes," Natasha said firmly. "And I'll leave a note for the girls to join us later.

*

Natasha did a quick search of the Gryffindor table and soon found the person she was looking for. It was not hard to spot Remus Lupin since there were not many students in the Great Hall at such an early hour. The official breakfast time was more than thirty minutes away.

"Why was I such a sucker? Breakfast isn't even served yet!" Pamela grumbled, stifling a yawn. "I could have been curled up in my warm bed longer this morning instead of sitting here staring at the school idiots."

"They are not idiots!" Natasha said in a harsher voice than she intended. "There're some who take this quiet time to prepare themselves for the day."

Pamela looked as though she was wondering if Natasha had lost her mind. Then she gave another yawn and plonked her head on the table, apparently intending to make up for some lost sleep.

Natasha glanced in the direction of the Gryffindor table for the second time. She knew that Remus Lupin was one of the regular early birds. He was always already in his seat when Natasha and her friends entered the Great Hall each morning. He always looked deep in thoughts, as if he was considering some serious matter, and would only visibly relax when his friends joined him, just in time for the food to be served. Natasha was never a morning person, but once in a while, she would wake up very early so that she could catch a longer look of the Gryffindor prefect.

But today was like no other day. If everything went according to her plan, she would be catching more than a view of Remus Lupin.

*

"G'morning, Moony," James slapped Remus' back and settled down beside him, while Sirius and Peter took their seats opposite them.

"I'm sure you'll have a good day today," Sirius added.

Remus felt uneasy when he caught Sirius' knowing grin. "Have you suddenly developed a talent for reading fortunes?"

"I don't need that to know what's going on at Care Of Magical Creatures today."

Remus shot his friend a questioning look.

Peter leaned forward and offered more information, "The Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs had their lesson yesterday. Professor Kettleburn will be grouping us into pairs for today's lesson."

"And not just in pairs, mind you. It'll be pairings of the opposite sex," James added happily, obviously conjuring an image in his head about being paired up with Lily Evans.

Remus tried to keep his expression unreadable. "How did you guys know about this?"

Again, it was Peter who was eager to explain. "The Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff girls were telling Sirius how they wished that they could have the lessons with the Gryffindors -"

"Meaning they want to be paired with Padfoot," James cut in.

"Yes," Peter continued, "And Sirius was also stopped along the corridors by the Gryffindor girls on our way here this morning."

"They were dropping blatant hints for Sirius to ask them," James supplied again, as the food magically appeared on the table.

Remus ate quietly, and wondered if he would find the courage to ask a certain girl to be his partner.

*

Natasha made sure she stood near Remus Lupin as Professor Kettleburn was briefing them about the new magical creature they would be studying for the next few weeks. She kept her eyes on him, anxious to find out if there was any one girl he was paying special attention to, in case Sirius Black was right. But Remus kept his eyes glued to the professor.

"The Malaclaws can reach a length of twelve inches and is light-grey with deep green spots. It eats small crustaceans and will attempt to tackle larger prey. The Malaclaw's bite has the unusual side effect of making the victim highly unlucky for a period of up to a week after the injury."

"The Malaclaws are not very co-operative creatures and they may try to escape," Professor Kettleburn was saying. "When this happens, you have to catch hold of it on both its head and the middle portion of its shell. You'll need considerable physical strength to overcome it, so I want you to work in pairs and there should be at least one boy in each team."

There was a flurry of activity among the students as everyone wanted to find their own partner before Professor Kettleburn assigned them to someone they did not like. Several Gryffindor girls were gathering around Sirius, each offering to pair up with him.

Kathleen was watching them with a sinking feeling in her stomach, when Dominic Burtus, a fellow sixth-year Slytherin, approached her. "Hey, Kate! Want to pair up with me?"

"Sure," she gave him a weak smile and followed him to the front row, where several paired-up students had already gathered.

Sirius finally made his choice among the girls. Briana Lilian gave a delighted squeal when he casually took her hand and led the way to the front.

James decided it was time to take action. "Come, Lily!" He grabbed Lily's hand and started pulling her behind him.

"When did I agree to partner with you?" she asked, only half annoyed. He flashed her a confident grin over his shoulder and she stopped her protests.

In the meantime, Natasha was tapping her feet impatiently. She felt a tap on her arm and whirled around with a frown.

"We'll make a great team," Seth Milton, another Slytherin, tried in his most charming voice.

She glanced at Remus. He was standing next to Peter, not making any move. Professor Kettleburn had mentioned that one of the pairings would be made up of two boys, and she had no intention to let Remus be one of them. "I'm sorry, Seth. You have to find yourself another partner."

Seth shot Natasha a perplexed look before approaching Tessa.

It's now or never, Natasha told herself, taking a deep breath. She took a step closer to Remus. "Lupin, would you like to be my partner?" She began to regret making the first move when both Remus and Peter stared at her in disbelief for several long moments.

"It's alright if you don't want to," she said quietly, trying not to let her disappointment show.

"That's alright with me," Remus replied slowly. "I mean... I would like to be your partner."

Natasha broke into a relieved smile, and felt like she was floating as she followed Remus to the front of the class.

Peter sighed in resignation. He had to search for another partner now.

*

Remus and Natasha received curious looks from their classmates. Some even scowled at them openly. It was rare, almost never, that a Gryffindor and a Slytherin should choose to work together.

Remus seemed unperturbed by the stares and even returned smiles from Sirius and James. Natasha, however, made a conscious effort to avoid her friends' eyes, in case there was any reproach in them. She felt like a traitor, but she was unwilling to give up the chance to know Remus better.

Remus cleared his throat and extended his right hand to Natasha. "Hi, we've not been formally introduced. I'm Remus Lupin and I know you're Natasha Strauss."

She shook his hand solemnly before laughing out loud. That broke the ice and any awkwardness between them melted away. As the lesson progressed, Natasha found herself wondering why she took so long to approach Remus. She found it easy to hold a conversation with him, and even dared to think that they clicked immediately.

Before long, she found herself studying Remus' profile, observing how he listened attentively to Professor Kettleburn's instructions, and admired how his hands looked strong and steady as they handled the struggling Malaclaw. Natasha gave herself a little shake. She had to stop daydreaming and start contributing to the class before Remus Lupin began to regret agreeing to be her partner.

*

Natasha tried to hide her smile when Professor Kettleburn informed the class that they would be working on the Malaclaws for the next three weeks. By the time the lesson ended, Natasha found herself looking forward to the next one. She peered uncertainly at her partner, hoping desperately that he felt the same way.

"Well, I guess that's all for today," Remus said as he carefully lifted the Malaclaw. "See you next week."

Natasha found that she had temporarily lost the use of her voice and all she could do was grin back foolishly. He said he'll see me next week, she told herself happily, as she watched Remus return the Malaclaw to Professor Kettleburn before joining his friends. She ignored another voice in her head that he was just being polite.

*

Kathleen saw the emotions that ran across her best friend's face and smiled. She had suspected for a long time that Natasha was interested in someone, since she kept spurning Jason Lindow's advances. But Kathleen had no inkling as to who it might be. Until now.

She linked her arm through Natasha's, as they made their way slowly back to the castle. "So did you enjoy Care of Magical Creatures today?"

"Yeah," Natasha replied cautiously.

"So how was Lupin? I noticed Seth coming up to you and assumed that he would be your partner. I had a minor heart attack when I saw you with that Gryffindor prefect instead."

"You know how careless Seth can get sometimes. I don't want to risk getting bitten by the Malaclaw and get jinxed for that."

"And Lupin is known to be the little perfect student who'll not make such silly mistakes," Kathleen taunted in a teasing voice.

Natasha was grateful that she did not have to reply when the rest of the class caught up with them and there was no longer a chance of speaking without being overheard.

*

"So now we know who Moony's secret crush is," James said as he bit into the roast chicken.

Sirius chuckled. "I'm proud of you, Moony. I thought you'll never ask!"

Remus squirmed uneasily in his seat. "It was not what you think."

"Moony didn't ask her. It was Strauss who made the first move," Peter spoke up.

"That's spunky of her!" Sirius said approvingly. "And that's a Slytherin who's not into the pureblood nonsense."

James nodded. He knew how much Sirius hated discrimination against the non-purebloods. "So if the feeling is mutual, what are you waiting for? It's not everyday that you have a girl telling you that she finds you irresistible."

"Please, Prongs. She only asked me to partner her for one lesson. You're reading too much into this."

"Am I?" James grinned, and turned to Sirius. "Padfoot, you'd better hurry. Moony may date a Slytherin before you do!"

Sirius rinsed down his food with a mouthful of pumpkin juice. "That doesn't bother me. I'm in no hurry and may even offer my help if Moony wants to date Strauss."

"Don't you get any crazy ideas, Padfoot. And stop using me as a distraction for your bet with Prongs," Remus said cunningly.

"Oh, that's what you're trying to do? Create diversion?" James eyed Sirius suspiciously.

Remus gave a soft sigh of relief as James and Sirius soon launched into a playful argument on the bet. This gave Remus some time to clear his thoughts. He had more than Natasha to worry about. The next full moon would take place in two days' time.