make it better || closed rp.

Bernie found herself growing more and more tired as the seconds ticked by. She had no idea why she'd decided to take History of Magic in her last year. She knew it was a boring subject, she knew it wasn't really going to come in handy, she knew with the state of the world she should be taking something more applicable. But there she sat, listening to Professor Binns drone on about some goblin war she really couldn't tell you any specifics about. She could hear her mother's shrill voice 'You're not a good enough student to be in Ravenclaw, Bernie!'. She quietly sighed as she tried to snap herself out of her sleepiness. Maybe her mom was right.

Thankfully, the ring of the bell tolled across the school, signalling classes were over. She collected her books as Professor Binns mentioned the homework he was assigning. She'd have to ask someone in the class exactly which goblin war they'd been talking about all class, otherwise she wouldn't be able to complete the lesson. Bernie stood and hitched her bag over her shoulder, heading for the door, excited to eat dinner.

---

James' foot tapped on the ground as he stared at the clock above the door to his classroom. He'd missed lunch, and he was starving. It was his own fault, really, for egging Peeves on. He knew he shouldn't have done it, but sometimes it was just too easy to cause some chaos. Long story short, he'd been stuck in hospital wing all lunch, getting a very long lecture from McGonagall as to why it was dangerous for him to tell a poltergeist he couldn't even scare a first year if he tried, all while Madam Pomfrey worked to take porcupine quills out of his back.

As soon as the bell rang, James was out of his seat and heading towards the door. He could hear Sirius behind him telling him to slow down, but James' stomach was more important than whatever Sirius wanted to talk to him about on the walk to the Great Hall.

"I'll just meet you there, Padfoot!" James called out over his shoulder once he was in the hall, walking much faster than Sirius would want to. "I'll save you a seat!"

Remus blinked as he tried to sit there and listen, but it was no use. History of Magic had been suggested to him by McGonagall, and he’d yet to figure out why. The homework was easy enough, but it was as though he was about to fall asleep in every single lesson. No matter what he tried, it was no use. And there were more important things to think about, anyway. Like how the full moon would be there in a week and he had too much homework to complete for him to take a night off of doing it. Plus, the rest of the guys had even more work than him - which was their fault, but still - and they shouldn’t have to take time out of their lives to just help him out. He was grateful, sure, but it wasn’t right for them to have to keep doing it.

He jerked his head up as the bell rang, eyes widening. He had no idea what they’d been talking about, which meant that getting the homework assignment completed was going to be harder than usual. He stood up, sliding his bag over his shoulder before he spotted Bernie. He grinned to himself and headed towards her, sidling up to her as they headed for the door. “So, what goblin war were we talking about?” He asked, taking care to keep his voice down so Binns wouldn’t hear him. “I think I might’ve zoned out for a bit.”

---

Lily felt a bit annoyed with herself for having skipped lunch that day. She hadn’t been that hungry, and at the time, she’d thought the period would be put to better use trying to get a head start on her Transfiguration essay. But of course, the one day her stomach wasn’t howling for food was the day that James Potter pissed off Peeves and somehow ended up with porcupine quills in his back. Alice had been the first to tell her, grinning wildly as Frank filled in the details. It was a little ridiculous, really. Potter pissed off at least one person per meal, but he just had to do it to Peeves when she wasn’t there.

So really, it was all his fault that she was in a bad mood for the rest of the day. The incident was all anyone was talking about, and on top of that, her stomach felt as though it was going to eat itself. She was practically running out of her seat the instant they were released, heading towards the Great Hall as fast as she could without looking like a bad prefect. Her shoulders tensed as she heard his voice, Sirius calling after him. The din of the other students was too loud for her to make out what Sirius had replied, but she wasn’t too concerned with that. She was more concerned with the Potter spotting her. She picked up her pace a bit, weaving in and out of the students as she tried to keep her head down. Just a little bit farther and she’d be there.

Bernie's head turned in the direction of Remus's voice when he spoke, a small smile moving across her face. "You're asking the wrong girl," she replied, looking ahead again. Once they were safely out of the classroom and away from Binns, Bernie continued. "I stopped paying attention after he mentioned... Oh, I can't even remember the name. Org-something. I don't know why anyone in that class signed up for it, we're all proper stupid." She gave Remus a small grin, not wanting him to think she was directly calling him an idiot. She didn't really think anyone in the class was genuinely stupid, but maybe they all had a bit of poor judgement.

Bernie had never been a fan of the amount of students at Hogwarts. It made it a bit difficult for her to navigate through the crowds without incident. She was rather short and rather clumsy and these two things mixed with a packed hallway always spelled for disaster. This particular walk to the Great Hall brought her a bit of a shoulder check from her left, sending her right shoulder into Remus's arm. She could immediately feel her ears turning hot as soon as her arm hit his. "Merlin, sorry Remus," Bernie said, giving her head a small shake so her short hair would cover any blush that threatened to show.

---

James wasn't exactly looking for her, but his eyes easily found Lily's beautiful red hair in the sea of students. He knew she wouldn't exactly be thrilled to talk to him, especially after what he'd done at lunch, but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try to talk to her. He was pretty much always trying to talk to her, so she should expect it, he figured. Around the school he was known for various things, but one of the big ones was his gigantic crush on Lily Evans.

Being tall and long legged helped James in situations like moving quickly. It didn't take him long to get through the crowd that was between himself and Lily, and once he reached her he put an arm around her shoulder and a lazy grin on his face. "I assume you heard about the Peeves thing, Evans?" He asked, looking at her. "Now, before you say something like 'You're an idiot, James Potter,' just know I can explain why I did it." This was a lie, he knew that. He knew she probably knew that too. James could tell she wasn't impressed with him, even before he'd finished his sentence.

Remus let out a snort of laughter. It looked as though they were in the same boat then. “Org-something. That’s got to narrow it down a little, at least.” He made a face at the thought of having to go through all of those history books, trying to figure out just what they’d been ‘learning’ about. “I’m pretty sure we all let everyone know how stupid we were when we signed up for the class. I feel like I get stupider the longer I sit in there,” he said, shooting her a quick grin. Bernie was anything but stupid. As far as he was concerned, you had to be pretty smart to be a Ravenclaw. And she was more than just a little smart.

Everyone seemed to be in a rush to get to the Great Hall, which wasn’t surprising to him. Dinner always seemed to be looked forward to, especially as the weather slowly got colder out. He glanced down to her when he felt a shoulder bump into his arm, and shook his head. “You’re fine,” he said, offering her a small smile. “The other day somebody knocked into me so hard I bowled Sirius right over,” he said, chuckling at the memory. “So how’s your classes going? Aside from History of Magic?”

---

For a moment, her rumbling stomach distracted her from the possibility of James spotting her. It was a little hard to focus on that whenever her stomach was almost in pain at that point. She was so lost in her thoughts of dinner that when someone’s arm fell around her shoulder, she jumped a little. “Merlin, Potter, could you not do that?” She asked, scowling as she ducked away from his arm. She quirked a brow at him. She hadn’t planned on calling him an idiot, but the title fit. “You can explain why you decided to taunt a poltergeist to make him mad without sounding like an idiot?”

Lily just shook her head at him. Really, she had no words for him. He could just be so stupid sometimes. Granted, he was a lot better than he had been in previous years. He was more tolerable now, and had been ever since she’d had her falling out with Severus. But tolerable didn’t necessarily mean that she wanted to spend any time with him. It just wasn’t as grating. “Did they hurt when Madame Pomfrey had to take all the quills out?”

Bernie gave a small laugh as Remus recounted his recent collision, glad she hadn't hit him that hard. She shrugged, adjusting her bag over her shoulder. "Good, thankfully. Runes has a lot of assignments due already, which is a pain, and I'll have to spend the entire weekend in the library, but besides that its been smooth sailing. What about you?"

She knew it was her own fault for taking classes like Runes and History of Magic for the heavy homework load. It was always a lot of writing, and she knew that going in. She figured it would be a lot of homework regardless, though, as she was in her seventh year and that was NEWTS year. She was excited for that to be over with. They weren't scheduled to start for several months, but she was already stressed. Bernie knew she had to do good for not only herself, but her parents too. They were both very smart, and she wanted to at least try to live up to the Chae family name, even though her mother clearly didn't think she could.

---

James gave a little shrug with a small grin as he put his hands into his pocket. "I can't really explain, no," James replied, shaking his head. "I just thought it would be fun, honestly. You know me, Evans. I'm a pain in the ass."

He pulled a hand out of his pocket to put it over his heart, putting a false touched expression across his features. "Lily, were you worried about me? Little old me? If all it took was me landing myself in the hospital wing, I would have done it earlier." He laughed, putting his hand back into his pocket, he elbowed her arm lightly, shaking his head. "I'm only joking. It did, I think McGonagall told her not to put a numbing spell on my back. It hurt worse getting them in, though, so at least there's that. I'm just hoping it doesn't scar, I don't think Madam Pomfrey put anything to stop that on me. My back won't look as nice with little holes all over it for the rest of my life."

Remus turned to look at her better, eyes wide. “You’re taking Runes? Why are you taking that and History of Magic? That’s - You’ve got to be a bloody genius to be able to balance those two at the same time.” He scrunched up his nose at the mere thought of it all. He was regretting taking the History of Magic, and that was just on its own. Everything else wasn’t too bad. “It’s not too bad, but I’m going to be spending every night this week trying to get all of my assignments done on time.”

It wasn’t necessarily that he was so behind he’d be working nonstop, but it would make his life a lot easier if he got done as much as he could before the full moon. The day before and after always took it out of him, and he knew that he wasn’t going to be getting that much homework done, if at all. He glanced forward for a moment, sidestepping a fourth year that was just standing in the middle of the hallway, gabbing to one of his friends. Remus rolled his eyes. “Did we look like such babies when we were fourth years? They all look so young. It’s weird.”

---

“Christ, do you ever think before you do things?” Lily asked, feeling a small twinge in her chest at the usage of ‘Christ’. It wasn’t that she was particularly religious or anything, but she’d tried to stay away from using muggle phrases ever since things and taken a turn for the worse. While James Potter might have been a huge pain in the ass, he wasn’t cruel. She trusted him in that way.

She rolled her eyes, shaking her head slow at the theatrics. “You’re ridiculous.” She paused for a moment. “You should’ve just stayed in the hospital wing,” she added, shooting him a small smirk. She elbowed him back as he replied. “Good for McGonagall. You deserve every ounce of pain for making Madame Pomfrey have to take those out.” She couldn’t imagine that the woman would be thrilled to see him anytime soon. “If it does scar, you could always ask Peeves to cover you all over in quills, so you match on all sides,” she suggested, sarcasm dripping from her words as she stepped into the Great Hall.

"It's because I'm an idiot, clearly," Bernie laughed quietly in response to Remus' first question. She really didn't think he wanted to get into the parent pleasing complex she had, so it was simpler to just self deprecate. It wasn't like he really care about the answer, anyways. She knew it was just small talk, and that they were really just casual friends. She really doubted they'd even see each other after graduation, even though that thought kind of made her sad. Remus was a very nice guy, it would be a shame when she wouldn't see him anymore.

Bernie's eyes fell on the group of kids as they walked by, a small smile moving across her features. "You probably did when you were shorter, but you were blessed with height," she pointed out, shrugging. "Granted I'll be eighteen in a month's time, and I still get asked if I want a children's menu if we go to the muggle restaurant down the lane from my house. I'm going to look like I'm twelve forever." She was one of the older people in their year, being born in October, but that didn't help her cause. She was short and had a very 'cute' face. She probably looked younger than the fourth years Remus commented on.

---

"I do think before I do things, actually," James pointed out, fake pouting. "But the little voice in my head that says 'no James, dont do it!' is much quieter than the voice saying 'go on then, mate, it'll be a laugh!'" He gave a little shrug, reaching over his shoulder to scratch part of his back. It was kind of sore, he could tell his muscle was bruised and tender from the quills that Peeves had not so gently inserted under his skin.

"I could," James said, pondering Lily's suggestion. "I could also just get some potion to make me beautiful again. I'm sure some ones got some beautification potion on the market. Witches these days are rather obsessed with their vanity, wouldn't you say? Ones my mums age, anyways. The old ones who really have no hope in ever looking beautiful again." He didn't really assume Lily would know anything about them, unless she'd seen an ad in a magazine or at Diagon Ally. Lily was both too young and far too beautiful to need to actually look into things like potions to make yourself more beautiful. She was absolutely perfect, head to toe. The potion wouldn't do anything, James was sure.

“You can’t be an idiot though, not if you’re taking both of those classes at the same time. And besides, nobody would actually let you take both at the same time unless they thought you were smart enough to handle it,” Remus argued, giving her a pointed look. He didn’t know her that well, but they were friends enough that he wasn’t going to let her get away with calling herself an idiot like that. James was an idiot. Sirius was an idiot. Bernie was anything but.

He just shook his head at her words, laughing. “Blessed with height? Merlin, when I was younger, it was more like cursed. I’d trip over my bleeding feet every single day,” he mumbled, making a face at the memory. It was a miracle that he’d managed to grow into himself as well as he had. He clapped a hand over his mouth, trying not to laugh at the image that had popped into his mind. “No, you look at least fifteen,” he teased, knocking an elbow gently into her side as his hand fell away from his mouth. “Trust me, you look look nothing like those first years. They’re absolute babies compared to you.”

---

“Maybe you should just try listening to the quieter voice, then. Might actually help you make a good decision for once,” Lily said, finding it a little hard to keep a straight face at the sight of his pout. That was the thing about James. For as hard as she tried, it was difficult to remain annoyed with him over extended periods of time. She watched as he scratched at the back of his neck, wondering just how painful it was for him.

“Again? Beautiful again? But that means that you would’ve had to start out beautiful. Which… You know…” She gave a shrug of her shoulders, shooting him a sly grin as she looked him up and down. “Wouldn’t have ever called you beautiful. A bit gangly, though. That’d fit you quite well,” she teased. She glanced around the Great Hall. It wasn’t too full just yet, most of the students still dashing out of their classrooms. She reached up, tugging her fingers through her hair as she glanced towards the Gryffindor table. There was little doubt in her mind that James would try to sit near her. “You going to wait for Sirius then, before sitting down?” She asked him, searching for a group of people to sit with with just a single seat left.