I Can See You

Obstacles To Progress

Remus pulled out two books from the library shelves, and was approaching the seating area when he caught sight of a certain sixth-year Slytherin. Natasha Strauss was sitting alone, engrossed in a thick book. He hesitated till she lifted her eyes, saw him and gave him a friendly wave.

Remus smiled back and slowly approached her table. "Mind if I sit with you?" he asked.

A look of surprise flicked across her face. "Sure, take a seat," she gestured at the seat next to her.

His eyes took in the high pile of books in front of her and remarked, "You must be really interested in old spells."

Natasha snapped shut the book she was reading - A Practical Guide To Ancient Spells, in shock and silently reprimanded herself for her carelessness. She was reading up the chapter on causes and uses of invisibility.

"I'm sorry," he muttered. "I don't mean to be nosy."

"No, don't worry about it. I'm just done with this book." She took out her quill, ink and a clean parchment. "I'd better start on my Transfiguration assignment."

Remus nodded and started reading one of his two books.

*

It was almost two hours later when Natasha neatly printed the last word of her twenty-inch essay. She looked at Remus from the corner of her eyes and noticed that he was already into his second book.

"I'm done. Guess I'll see you when we next meet our Malaclaw," she said reluctantly, talking her time to roll up her parchment.

He looked at her thoughtfully for a moment, before closing his book. "I'll save the rest for tonight. Come, I'll walk out with you."

It took all her self-control to suppress her desire to jump for joy. She deliberately bent her head low and let her hair fall around her face as she gathered her things. She did not want Remus to see the silly wide grin on her face.

*

Remus and Natasha did not exchange a word as they made their way out of the library. But it was a comfortable silence which she enjoyed. She felt as though her wish had come true. She had not even dared to dream that some day, she would be working side by side with Remus in the library, and then leave together with him as though they were...

"Nat! Natasha Strauss!"

Natasha frowned as she cursed the source of the voice that interrupted her time with Remus. She looked to her left and saw Jason Lindow, Captain and Chaser of the Slytherin Quidditch team, running towards them.

"What are you doing with him?" the seventh-year Slytherin asked Natasha almost angrily, as he stared at Remus with undisguised dislike and hostility.

"What is it, Jason?" she asked irritably.

He shifted his glance from Remus to the girl. "I have been looking all over for you. Don't tell me you've forgotten about our practice session today?" he told her accusingly.

Natasha slapped her palm over her mouth. "Oh no! I've really forgotten!" She noticed Jason's dark looks and quickly added, "Sorry, Jas, I don't mean to forget. I must have spent too much time in the library on my assignment and lost track of time."

Jason unclenched his jaw. "That's alright. Just don't do it again or I'll not be able to cover up for you. Kathleen has your Shooting Star. Come on." He slipped an arm over Natasha's shoulder.

"Jason Lindow!" she protested and brushed off his arm. Lupin must have a terrible opinion of me now - a forgetful girl who's also a flirt, she thought miserably. "Why don't you go ahead, Jas. I'll catch up with you."

Jason looked almost murderous as he stormed off.

"I'm sorry, Lupin. I'll see you around then," Natasha flashed him a weak smile.

Remus nodded slowly, with a tinge of disappointment and regret.

*

Natasha swung her club and hit back the Bludger.

"Strauss! Use your strength! Stop hitting like a girl!" Jason yelled at her for the third time.

"I am a girl, Lindow!" she shouted back at him, her temper was rising rapidly.

"Show me you've got what it takes to be on the Slytherin team!" He hit back a Bludger at her. It came so fast and furious that she barely managed to swing it back into Jason's direction.

Natasha cursed under her breath when the Bludger narrowly missed his face by a few inches. For a split second, she had hoped that it would slam right into her captain's face.

*

"Jason was really hard on you a while ago," Dominic, the Slytherin Seeker, told Natasha sympathetically. "Is that because you were late?"

"No, that cannot be the reason," Kathleen interrupted as she landed neatly next to them. "Jason was more eager to cover up for Nat than to accord blame to her. She must have done something else to upset him."

"I should be the one to lose my temper!" Natasha fumed. "I hate it when he acts as though he's my boyfriend or something!" She was also very sore at being repeatedly picked on in front of the rest of her Quidditch team. She had always prided herself to be a good Beater.

Kathleen did not reply till they had more privacy when Dominic walked away to return her Bludger and his Snitch to the chest.

"He must have done it in front of that particular Gryffindor prefect," she stated evenly.

When Natasha shot her a look of surprise, Kathleen grinned, "This is not the first time Jason gets possessive and you were never this upset."

"I'm not his..." Natasha stared to protest when Kathleen suddenly shot her a warning look. Natasha knew what it meant, and turned around irritably to face her Quidditch captain.

"I'll catch you later," Kathleen whispered to Natasha and quickly departed.

"What is it now, Captain Lindow? Are you going to give me another lecture?" Natasha asked him coldly.

"I just want to ask you a question."

"Are you asking me to get out of your wonderful team?" she asked sarcastically.

"You know I'll not do that. You're the best Beater we have in Slytherin - even better than your good friend Curtis." Jason paused and regarded the blonde seriously. "Are you going out with that Gryffindor you were with this morning?"

Natasha rolled her eyes. "He has a name, Jas. He is Remus Lupin, a prefect. And I would like to remind you that you have absolutely no right to interfere in who I date, or who I choose to befriend."

Jason narrowed his eyes, sending a shiver down Natasha's spine. She knew that Jason was not someone she should trifle with, and she did not want to get Remus into any form of trouble.

"I just happened to meet him in the library. That's all there is to it," she grudgingly admitted. "But like I said, it's none of your business."

"Good," Jason gave her a sinister smile. "As long as you're not seeing anyone."

*

Natasha kept a lookout for Remus Lupin the next day, but he was neither in the Great Hall at breakfast nor at lunch. After her last lesson of the day ended, she decided to go look for Remus, and find some way to explain to him that Jason Lindow meant nothing more to her than a fellow Quidditch teammate.

Natasha spent several hours wandering along the school corridors searching for Remus, but there was not a trace of him. She was becoming increasingly impatient and close to ending her futile search when she saw Sirius Black at the other end of the corridor.

"Hey, Black!" she yelled before she could stop herself.

Sirius stopped in his tracks and stared at her, slightly taken aback.

It's too late for regrets now, Natasha told herself and jogged up to Sirius. "Hi Black, would you happen to know where Lupin is?"

Sirius' lips twitched upwards. "Is this important?"

"Yes," Natasha snapped, annoyed by the obvious amusement in Sirius' tone.

"You may be able to catch him at the staff room. McGonagall is having a briefing for the Gryffindor prefects."

"Thanks, Black," Natasha flashed him a grin and dashed off.

"Some girls certainly do not believe in being discreet!" he mumbled to himself before chuckling aloud.

*

Natasha attracted some curious stares from students passing by, as she was waiting outside the staff room.

"Are you waiting to see me, Miss Strauss?" Professor Stoatus Bastaro, Slytherin's Head of House and Hogwarts' Defence Against Dark Arts teacher, asked her. He had seen Natasha hovering outside the room.

"Hi, Professor Bastaro. I just want to ask you which spell we'll be learning tomorrow. I would like to read up on it first," Natasha fibbed.

Professor Bastaro beamed at the girl. "Daniel must be so proud to have a daughter like you! Come in with me. You can borrow some of my reference books."

Natasha knew her professor was especially nice to her because he was afraid of her father. Daniel Strauss not only held a high appointment in the Ministry of Magic that was second only to the Minster himself, but more importantly, Professor Bastaro knew that Daniel Strauss was a master of dark arts.

Natasha's violet eyes swept across the group of Gryffindor prefects gathering at Professor McGonagall's desk as she followed her Head of House into the staff room. She caught Remus' attention and smiled across the room at him. Her heart began beating twice as fast as he returned her smile without hesitation.

"Here you go," Professor Bastaro said as he thrust a pile of books into her hands.

"Thank you so much, professor! I'll just borrow this book," Natasha intentionally selected the slimmest book and placed the rest back onto the table.

"Read that tonight, Miss Strauss. I'll be giving points to those with the correct answers," he winked at her.

"Sure, I will. Slytherin's points will be raised tomorrow," Natasha played along and made a quick exit before she had to engage in further conversation with him. The Gryffindors had just left the room and she had to hurry if she wanted to speak to Remus.

Natasha was dashing out so quickly that she almost bumped into the stationary figure at the doorway. She let out a gasp when she saw Remus smiling at her.

"Hi," he said easily. "Saw you with Professor Bastaro a while ago."

He was waiting for me! Natasha thought happily.

Remus glanced at the book Natasha was holding. "You're quite hardworking, aren't you?"

Natasha suddenly realised she had a silly wide grin on her face, and quickly composed herself. "Are you going back to the Great Hall for dinner? We can walk there together," she told him, her voice was slightly unsteady.

Remus looked a little uncomfortable. "I have some work to rush. I'll be skipping dinner."

"I didn't see you at the mealtimes earlier today too," she said almost accusingly.

Remus raised an eyebrow, surprised that she noticed his absence. "I had some prefect duties," he replied, avoiding her eyes. "But I'm going in that direction too. I'll walk with you part of the way."

Natasha flashed him a happy and dazzling smile.

They were walking in companionable silence for the first minute.

"I met your friend Sirius Black a while ago," Natasha said, thinking that she had better confessed that she had been looking for him since he would know about it from Sirius anyway.

Remus nodded, not seeing anything peculiar about her statement.

"I can tell you hang out with your three friends quite often," she said again.

"We're very good friends. They're like brothers to me," he told her seriously. "I will trust them with my life."

Natasha was a little surprised by his declaration but did not show it.

"What about your group of friends? I notice that you're quite close to your dormmates," Remus commented.

Natasha was glad he noticed. "I've been friends with Kathleen since the first year. We only got closer to Tessa and Pamela when..." Natasha's voice drifted off. Her mood swung around completely and suddenly, she was fighting back tears.

"When Julia Welch left?" Remus asked gently. Julia Welch was the fifth girl in Natasha's dormitory. She was dabbling with dark magic and an accident during one of her secret experiments caused her sudden death in the middle of their fourth year.

Natasha nodded wordlessly. She had been close to Julia, even closer than she was to Kathleen. Natasha and Julia practically grew up together as their fathers were friends.

As Remus took a step closer to comfort her, they heard another female voice shouting his name. Remus immediately withdrew the hand he was about to lay over Natasha's shoulders, and addressed the intruder awkwardly. "You're looking for me, Lily?"

"I sure am!" Lily frowned at Natasha before turning to Remus. "Don't you remember our appointment?" she asked him meaningfully.

Remus' eyes widened with understanding. It was full moon and he was supposed to be at the Shrieking Shack now. It was already turning dark and there was no time to waste.

Natasha noticed Remus' face had paled, and felt a surge of anger. Why should he be so concerned over a stupid appointment with that redhead? In the first place, he should not even be making any appointment with her!

"I'm sorry, Natasha. I have to run," Remus told her hurriedly.

"Wait!" she protested, holding onto his arm. "You said you'll walk with me and we're heading the same..."

"I'm sorry," Remus cut in. "I really have to run. See you!"

Before Natasha could protest, Remus Lupin had hurriedly left with Lily Evans tugging at his arm.

Natasha stood still as a stone for several long minutes. She could not believe her eyes. Things seemed to be going well, till that Gryffindor redhead butted in. Natasha never had a guy walk ...no, literally RUN away from her before. But that was exactly what Remus Lupin, the only guy she ever cared about, did.

She would make them pay for it.

* * *