Out of Time

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"Look! They've announced the first Hogsmeade Weekend already. I thought that wasn't supposed to be until October?"

Peter was more or less jumping up and down, but whether it was out of excitement or because he tried to read the note on the board, Remus couldn't tell.

"I don't mind it being this early though. I could use some more sweets," he continued, receiving a curious look from Sirius.

"Since when did we need a Hogsmeade Weekend to get ourselves a decent load of sweets?" he asked pointing at the little piece of parchment James had taken out of his pocket. Peter blushed and tried to think of an excuse.

"Of course I know! But I just thought I'd... I'd sound eager so that nobody would turn suspicious."

Remus and James exchanged looks but Sirius just turned and stared into the Common Room.

"Peter... There's nobody in the room except us."

Peter turned an even darker shade of crimson as Remus, sensing a tease-session coming up, quickly walked over to the portrait hole. This was certainly not the time for another round of mocking him. He was nervous enough as it was, having to face the girls in their year. They weren't exactly nice to him, as they thought he belonged more in Hufflepuff than in Gryffindor. Remus couldn't always blame them, but he thought that at least his friends should stay on his side. But of course, Sirius and James had always been very popular at school. Nobody, except the Slytherins, dared say a bad word to or about them, so how could they know how it was?

"Come on, guys. Breakfast.!

Remus sat down next to Lily at the breakfast table, receiving a nasty glare from James, who sat two seats down at the opposite side of the table. After everyone had gotten hands on some food, Sirius and James started discussing the never-ending subject of Quidditch and Peter did what he did best: stared around the Great Hall. Lily and Remus had gotten out their timetables and were trying to figure a schedule for patrolling the corridors in between lessons and homework.

"Muggle Studies first class on Mondays. How nice," Remus muttered sarcastically and made a face. Lily nodded and read the rest of the timetable.

"How about this one, we've got Double Potions later today and the same at 8 tomorrow morning. I have a bad feeling we'll be getting a nasty bit of homework on Mondays from now on. I guess we'll have to make arrangements with the prefects to patrol on Mondays then." Remus nodded and began discussing their Head-student duties, as they were both insecure about how strict they should be.

"I say we don't allow anything we wouldn't have done ourselves. What do you reckon?" Remus asked as he painted his toast red with raspberry jam.

"I reckon that you wouldn't be able to hit down on any crimes at all, if we go by that rule. Would you pass me the sugar please?" Lily nodded towards the sugar bowl further down the table. It was too far away for Remus to reach.

"James, could you pass the sugar?"

James looked at Remus' toast with a heavy load of jam. "You're going to put sugar on top of that?"

Remus rolled his eyes. "Who said the sugar was for me? Pass it already, will you?"

James looked past Remus to Lily, who was watching the little argument. "Of course!" James got up from his seat and grabbed the sugar bowl before walking past Peter and Sirius, who both looked at him curiously, and stopped at the opposite side of Lily.
"Here you are, gorgeous. It's not as sweet as you, but I hope it'll do." Remus covered his eyes with his hand and grabbed his wand under the table at the same time, and as James bowed, giving the sugar bowl to Lily, Remus lifted his wand and muttered a spell, making the sugar bowl fly out of James's hand, landing on Lily's lap. Remus chuckled, but Sirius had found this remarkably funny and doubled over in fits of laughter. For a split second James looked mortified, while Lily got out her wand and cleaned away the sugar with a spell. She tried to remain somewhat unaffected, but Remus could tell from the tiny ghost of a smile on her face that she too had found it quite amusing.

"I'm very sorry, m'dear. I hope it won't leave a stain?" James asked, his voice a little embarrassed this time.

"It's okay, it's only sugar," Lily answered. James nodded and returned to his seat.

"And that, ladies and gentlemen, was today's entertainment by our Romeo!" Sirius proclaimed and received a short applause from those sitting around, making James smile triumphantly again. Lily rolled her eyes and Remus hid his face again. James always managed to pull himself out of the dirt somehow, or at least with some help from Sirius.

Lily got up from her seat. "Coming, Remus?" she asked and started to walk down towards the doors. He emptied his glass of pumpkin juice and got up.

"Where are you guys going?" James asked, looking slightly alarmed about the fact that his best friend was walking away with the girl of his dreams.

"Muggle Studies," Remus replied and, seeing how James relaxed at these words, he continued. "Seriously, Prongs. Leave her alone for a bit."

Remus hadn't even finished his sentence before James had started talking to Sirius again. He gave up and left the remaining Marauders alone. He'd tried to talk James out of tracking Lily's footsteps before, but James always pretended he hadn't heard a word of it. Remus knew he shouldn't feel like it, but the fact was that James' attitude towards Lily annoyed him quite a bit. He knew it shouldn't, after all James was one of his best friends, but Lily was a good friend too and if not for his sake, he wished James would stop for hers. He always felt bad for thinking this way, but he also hated how Lily didn't just brush of James's attempts on getting her to go out with him. First of all, it reminded him about the fact that he himself wasn't brave enough to ask her something like that, but also it made him wonder whether or not she actually liked the attention he was giving her.

He caught up with Lily outside the Hall and they headed towards the third floor and Muggle Studies classroom. "Sorry," he said as they started to walk along the corridors.

"Quite okay. Talking James out of things, were you?" she asked. Remus looked curiously at her. "I know you better than you think," she grinned and Remus laughed.

Once inside, they parted and sat down by their desks on opposite sides of the square classroom. Today they were going through the use of electricity and different things using it. He looked around at his fellow students. Arthur Weasley seemed as interested as he always did in Muggle Studies, writing down every single word uttered by Professor Norman, an elderly wizard who had married a Muggle and moved to a Muggle town at the age of 20. Now that he was around his hundreds and his wife had passed away years ago, he had started teaching at Hogwarts. He was very much like Professor Binns, the ancient ghost teaching History of Magic.

Remus's gaze turned to Lily. She was writing notes from the blackboard and didn't cast as much as a side-glance his way. As he watched her, the curious expression from earlier came back on his face. What had she meant by those words in the hall? How much did she know, exactly? Apparently she knew his way of reactions. Why wouldn't she have managed to figure out his thoughts as well, such a clever witch as she was? For all he knew, she could've figured things out years ago.

He looked down at his empty piece of parchment. Stop it, Moony. Stop it right now. Never going to happen. Don't think about it, or you'll have grey hairs before you're 30.

A few seconds later he glanced back at her. She was still writing and every now and then tucking strands of fiery red hair behind her ear, only to have to do it again a few seconds later as they weren't long enough to stay in place. The rest of her long, wavy hair stayed perfectly where it was supposed to; trailing down her back, almost to the waist. Despite promising himself not to think of her that way, he had to admit that it looked very touchable.

Now you're doing it again. Concentrate on the electricity, not on the girl. Having said that quietly to himself, he started wondering if there was or ever could be any electricity at all between him and Lily...

* * * * * *

"I can't do this stuff. It's too damn complicated and I just don't understand any of it."

Lily slumped down in one of the huge, red comfy chairs by the Gryffindor fireplace. It was afternoon and she and Remus had just finished an Arithmancy session, their last class of the day. Outside the September night was cold and dark, the moon almost invisible. And thank God for that, Remus thought.

The common room was empty and the only source of light came from the fire, which illuminated the room in a golden colour, leaving the corners pitch black, almost as if everything outside that golden light belonged to another world.

He sat down in the opposite chair of Lily and got out his notes so he could start on the homework: "Describe how Transfiguration and Divination affected the teaching and understanding of Arithmancy in the 17th century."

"Yeah, it's a hard nut to crack if you haven't got the basics of it, and even then..." his voice trailed off as he noticed the sad look on her face. The flames from the fireplace mirrored in her emerald eyes, the dark red colour the light had given her hair, and the golden shade of her exposed skin; her face, her arms below the sleeves which were rolled up to her elbows...

Get to the point of staring at her, Moony.

"Hey, listen, I think I've got it. How about I tutor you a few times until you get the hang of it?" he suggested, but Lily shook her head, her hair rustling like autumn leaves in the wind.

"I don't want to be another problem for you, Remus. You've got enough to do already without having to teach me as well. I'll just have to work harder, that's all." She got her books and parchments out of her backpack and stared at the little amount of notes she had written. Remus nodded reluctantly and began his homework, but every so often he looked up and noticed how Lily's piece of parchment remained blank.

After an hour, Remus was done, but Lily had gotten no further than writing: "Transfiguration and Divination affected Arithmancy in..." and she was looking more and more desperate every minute. He collected his notes, got up and sat down next to her.

"Here. I'll help you out with this one, but we'll start with the basics in your first lesson." He said this with a concerned yet stern tone of voice, but Lily didn't say a word. "Lil, I'd rather have a stressful schedule than see you fail. I really don't mind helping you, okay?"

As he waited for an answer he couldn't stop himself from brushing a few strands of hair behind her left ear, and for once they remained in place. For a second he thought he could see a smile develop in the corner of her mouth, but if it was there, it disappeared before he could've been sure about it.

She sighed. "If you're absolutely, one hundred percent sure..." she began but Remus broke her off. "Totally. Now let's begin on this piece of crap...ehm...homework!"

Lily laughed. "That's what it is! A crappy piece of homework."

It didn't take long for her to finish, as he had decided to help her quite a bit now and explain the content another time when it was not almost twelve o'clock on a Monday night. The fire had gone out as he stretched in his seat and yawned. "There. I think Professor Vector should be satisfied with that."

Lily nodded. "I hope so."

Sensing that they were both incredibly tired after their first day back at school, Remus got up and moved to the stairs toward his dorm.

"Remus?"

He turned around at the sound and saw that Lily had stopped packing away her stuff. "Yeah?" he asked in an as natural voice as possible.

"Thanks. A lot." She smiled a weak smile.

"What're friends for?" he smiled back at her before continuing up the dark stairs.