Switching Sides

Switching Sides

*

Coming Out

*

Rachel Jones, a fifth year, was one of the few people in the Gryffindor Common Room. In fact, she was the only one excluding a group of almost all sixth year Gryffindors gathered in one corner. Only Remus Lupin seemed to be short of their full amount.

Rachel was currently sitting right next to the portrait hole, revising her Charms homework, as the portrait opened and a girl wearing the school uniform stepped inside. She was a small brunette Rachel had never seen before, yet she was familiar in some way. "Um... I'm sorry, but who are you?" Rachel asked, rather confused. "I don't think I've seen you before."

"Oh, yes you have," the strange girl said, smiling a bit. "Although it's quite understandable that you don't recognize me. My name is Remia. Remia Lupin."

As she said these words, a dark head popped up over the back of the largest armchair in the corner where the sixth-years were currently siting. "Moony!" Sirius Black exclaimed. Then he jumped over the arm of the chair and ran to the girl, pulling her into a big hug once he got near enough.

"Oh, Sirius!" she exclaimed, raising her hands in mock horror. "Let go, you're cracking my ribs!"

Black smiled and pulled away. He held the girl on the shoulders and examined her from the arm's reach. "You look stunning," he praised.

"Thank you," the girl said, flushing only the tiniest bit. "I honestly can't say how I look. This is all so confusing."

"Believe me, you look great." Black turned her around so they both faced the corner he had come from. The other boys were standing as well, watching with great interest at the events. "Hey, boys! Don't we agree that our little Moony looks hot?"

"Hell yeah!" rose a simultaneous yell from the boy group, making the girl - Remia? - blush a little bit more.

Rachel blinked. She wasn't quite aware of the current events anymore. What exactly was happening? Why was Black getting intimate with a strange girl, when everyone in the whole school knew that he and Lupin were an item? And - wait a minute - Remia Lupin? And had they just called her Moony? That had been the Lupin boy's nickname, right?

But the Lupin boy wasn't there. There was only a Lupin girl, with honey locks halfway down her back, amber eyes glittering in the candle light, and a short, slender frame with pale skin covering it.

Considering that the Lupin boy had honey locks down to his shoulders, amber eyes, pale skin and a short and slender frame, the main features seemed to fit rather well. Why and how and when were minor points now. The fact was that this seemed to be Remus Lupin - turned to a female.

"Are you Remus Lupin?" Rachel piped up. She regretted it at the same moment as Black glared at her, but she just had to know.

"No," the girl replied. "Like I said already, I'm Remia Lupin. Remia Julienne Lupin, to be exact." Then she smiled. "But if you mean, if I was Remus Lupin, then, well, I was. Until this evening, that is."

"Right," Black grinned. "So the bets have been at last reached their end - I've got a girlfriend!"

Everyone laughed. It was well known that before his relationship with Remus had come public, a whole lot of girls from all houses had started to place bets for how long it would take from Sirius to get a proper girlfriend. Of course they had tried to make it happen in all ways possible - some of the most desperate had even sneaked to the dorm Sirius was sleeping in at night, only to be hit by Peter's rather effective curses, James's hexes and Remus's nails in their eyes - until Sirius had at last cracked up and yelled at some Ravenclaws that he was perfectly fine without a girlfriend, would be fine without one, and that he had a wonderful boyfriend whom he loved more than anything. This had made part of the girls' action cease, but not all of it, at least not after they'd revealed that Sirius wasn't actually gay but bisexual, so some girls thought they still stood a change. Gryffindors of course didn't anymore participate in this, since they knew Sirius had eyes only for Remus, but girls from all the three other houses were still trying to lure the Pride of Gryffindor to themselves.

Now all their plans would be ruined. At the same moment they would find out that Sirius had indeed a girlfriend, but hadn't given up his old lover, they'd most probably lose their last hope - although one could never be sure, when it came to the Ravenclaw girls. They were merely a bunch of bitches in Rachel's mind.

She watched as Black playfully picked Lupin on his arms, like he had done so many times before, and began carrying the laughing and struggling girl towards their peers.

Then she shook hear head and turned the page in her book. She could only imagine how the life in the Gryffindor Tower would change.