This Animal I've Become

“Why don’t I have a girl’s opinion?” James mused to himself before turning to Addie and raised both of his arms. “Addie? Which one do you think would help me get the girl of my dreams?”

Addie raised her eyebrows at his question and dead serious face. She looked at the robes separately before nodding at the all black robes with the white vest and tie in his right hand, “That one.”

James smiled thankfully at her before scolding Sirius, “You see, Sirius, it isn’t that difficult now is it?” Sirius just tilted his head and narrowed his eyes at his friend.

“He’s just mad that I found out his name before he found out mine,” Addie told James nodding slightly.

Sirius turned to the girl he had been pursuing just minutes before with a smirk on his face and said, “You know I would have won our little game."

Addie scoffed and with a roll of her eyes replied, “Not likely.”

“Come off it, Padfoot,” James intervened and then teased, “She’s obviously not interested and too old for you.” He then turned and started to turn away from the small group with the intent on getting his new set of robes tailored for him.

Addie’s face became confused and looked at James. She then asked curiously, “How old do you think I am?” James had stopped walking and turned back to Addie who now had her arms crossed over her chest and a look of questioning on her face.

“Oh, uh,” James had started stuttering slightly. To Remus, Addie hadn’t looked too old compared to themselves; she just seemed to carry herself on a more mature level than they did or at least the other two boys with him. And in all honesty, Sirius didn’t actually care too much about how old she was. Then there was James who thought she had looked to be around nineteen years old, but he knew how touchy girls could be with their age…or was that their weight? Whichever it was, he decided to lie anyway. “Eighteen?” he then said, unsure of his answer or her reaction.

Addie laughed. “Nope,” she replied shaking her head, “Sixteen.”

“See Prongs!” Sirius exclaimed while smiling. “She’s our age. She isn’t too old for me.”

Remus took his chance to pipe in, “Be that as it may, it still does not mean she’s interested.”

“Thank you,” Addie interjected giving Remus a kind smile which made his stomach squirm gently, then moved her attention to Sirius, “I am definitely not interested in you.”

“Ouch, darling,” Sirius pouted while putting a hand over his chest, “That really hurt.” He then poked the center of his chest and said, “Right there.”

Addie rolled her eyes and muttered, “I’m sure that’s not the only place it hurt.”

“So since you’re sixteen,” James started, jumping back into the conversation, forgetting his intentions from earlier, “Where do you go to school? Since you obviously are not from around here.”

“Oh, actually I was home-schooled by my mother in America,” she replied smiling faintly. “We just moved here. I’m going to Hogwarts this year.”

“Are you really?” Sirius inquired as she nodded in response. “We go there, too. Sixth years as well.”

“No kidding,” Addie said sarcastically before forcing a small smile on her face.

James pushed himself into the conversation again, “Let me be the first to introduce you to the infamous Marauders.” He spread out his arms and motioned to himself and the two boys next him. “We’re missing one though, his name’s Peter.”

“He’s in Scotland right now,” Remus stated.

Addie raised an eyebrow at the boys. They were a group of four, sixteen year old boys who named themselves like a gang. The mere fact that they gave themselves a name made Addie feel as if these boys were strange. “Are you guys like, in a gang, or the mob, or something?” Addie asked confused. Her company laughed at her question.

“Not really,” Sirius replied smiling, “More like four pranksters who just like to have a little bit of fun at school. Harmless, really.”

“So you guys call yourselves the Marauders?” Addie questioned as they nodded. She then suddenly asked, “So what’s up with the nicknames?”

“Oh, you mean like, ‘Prongs’?” James replied and Addie nodded.

“That’s for us to know and for you to never find out,” Sirius replied cheekily, grinning all the same before giving James a look. Addie rolled her eyes at the childish answer.

It was silent for a second or two before Remus asked James while gesturing to the robes in his hands, “Are you going to pay for those?"

“Oh, right,” he said before chuckling to himself and walking away, calling over his shoulder, “Be right back.”

“Are you here by yourself?” Sirius asked Addie after James had disappeared around the corner.

“Yeah,” she replied nodding.

“Don’t your parents know it’s dangerous to let a pretty girl to wander about by themselves in a foreign country?” he asked in a charming voice.

Addie held back the snort that she felt wanted to surface. “Don’t your parents know it’s dangerous to let their five year old run around without mommy’s supervision?” she retorted with her head tilted to the side slightly. Addie watched as Sirius’ face fell slightly and changed from that smug expression his face had originally held. She saw it change into some form of sadness and anger, but it was only for a slight instant before his face changed back to his signature smile.

Sirius looked to Remus smiling manically, “I like her, Remus.” He then stepped next to Addie and slipped his arm around her shoulders. “Can we keep her?” he joked. Addie then grabbed his wrist and pulled his arm off of her.

Remus shook his head at Sirius while laughing slightly, “She’s not a pet.”

“I know,” he said, “but she’s just so cute.” Sirius then reached to pinch her cheek which Addie slapped away quickly. “And feisty,” he added while winking at Addie.

Addie looked at Sirius strangely before taking a step away from him and towards Remus. This made Remus’ stomach tighten a little and a light smile to come on his face. He was happy to see that Sirius’ charm wasn’t working on this girl like it usually would.

“Is he always like this?” Addie asked Remus.

“Yes,” he replied while nodding. “Even worse sometimes.”

“Oh, go ahead and talk like I’m not even here,” Sirius said, crossing is arms and glared at the two standing before him. “Don’t worry-”

“Worse? How so?” Addie inquired.

“-I’m just invisible to you lot.”

“Bad pick up lines,” Remus explained while nodding. “Constant flirting, especially the type that makes you want to vomit. Oh, and girls who hang off his every word.”

“Remus!”

“What?” he responded with a ‘what the hell’ look upon his face.

“How can you say that about your best mate?”

“What do you mean?” Remus asked. “If you’ve forgotten, you said exactly that last year.”

Sirius paused and thought for a second, “Oh yeah, I did say that didn’t I? But I was piss drunk!”

“Your point? Now we should go make sure James hasn’t bitten the tailors’ head off,” Remus said.

“Fine,” Sirius groaned before turning around and starting to walk away with Remus following behind him. “Always have to be the responsible one don’t you, Remus?” Remus paid no attention to his comment, but inhaled once more as he passed by Addie, breathing in the stimulating scent that he had breathed in not a few minutes ago. He had confirmed that she was the origin of the smell. He was quite confused as to why her scent was so strong, and why it lingered around him. With a shake of his head, Remus focused back to his task at hand, and remembered his promise to himself about ignoring these feelings.

Addie watched their backs for a few seconds before going back and looking at the dresses. She now found looking at them less entertaining than talking to the boys she had just met, but was determined to find a formal dress for herself.

“Don’t think you’re getting rid of us that easily,” said a voice Addie had recognized to be Sirius’ deep yet strangely light voice. Addie turned her head to find Sirius walking toward her with a large grin on his face. He slipped his arm around her shoulders once again and pulled her in the direction they were walking before. She couldn’t help but laugh and roll her eyes as she started taking steps along with Sirius. Her eyes connected with Remus’ who was standing at the end of the aisle and smiled at him which he returned quickly. As he smiled back, a few of the intentionally caged butterflies escaped in her stomach.

It had taken nearly ten minutes before the four left the clothing store. James had fussed about the length of the pants and sleeves and the tightness of the shirt across his chest. He even started squirming when the enchanted measuring tape had checked the length of his inseam. The three onlookers had laughed at him, but the tailor didn’t. He was more than agitated that a fully grown boy still wasn’t comfortable with the fact that a piece of plastic was going to be near his crotch.

“Bloody hell, mate,” Sirius said as soon as they stepped onto the stone cobbled pavement. “Still can’t get over the damn tape, can you?”

“Excuse me for not wanting a piece of enchanted tape feeling me up,” James scowled as Addie and Remus laughed at the two friends bicker at each other.

Since the road wasn’t large enough for them to walk in a straight line without having to stop and maneuver around other people, they had unconsciously split up into two and walked in a block formation. Sirius was at the front with Addie at his side as Remus and James followed behind them.

They made idle chatter with each other as they walked down the path towards Flourish and Blotts. Sirius tried to flirt with Addie, but she didn’t return the favor. If anything she stopped responding every time he tried to throw complementary words at her, choosing to ignore him rather than respond back and give him the attention that he wanted. Only when he asked serious questions or made serious comments was when she responded to him.

James had tried to defend himself to Remus about his dislike of the tape measure. Telling him that Sirius was ‘used to things touching him there all the time so of course he doesn’t give a rats ass about something getting near his bits’. Remus, unlike most times, paid no attention to his friend’s babbling. He focused more on his thoughts about himself and a certain girl from a foreign country. He couldn’t figure out why he felt so strongly for her after merely minutes of being around her. Somewhere in his upper torso was a light tug that had seemed to be pulling him towards Addie. He had never felt that tug before, not with the previous girls he had liked or even dated. She had to be different from the others. But could he let himself be put in that position?

He had stolen glances at Addie every so often. James, often clueless to others around him when he started to go off on rants, didn’t notice Remus’ eyes drifting towards the dark haired beauty that was close enough for him to reach out and touch. He could even feel a twang of jealousy as, once again, Sirius draped his arm around her shoulders and she didn’t even move to brush it off. It was in that moment that he had decided to ignore these feelings that were surfacing. If he was to indulge himself and acknowledge the presence of his feelings, the inevitable rejection and or hook up with Sirius would occur. And he wasn’t sure if he could bear either.

“Oi, Remus!” James called out, slapping his friend on the shoulder. “You even listening?”

“What? Oh, yeah. Yes, I was,” he said sheepishly. Out of the corner of his eye he saw that the two in front had paid no attention to them, which he was glad of and couldn’t help that his eyes lingered a little longer on the arm wrapped around Addie.

“Really?” James asked in disbelief. “So what was the last thing I said?”

“Oh, um,” Remus stuttered his eyes darting to various locations, “you were, uh, talking about…Qudditch.”

James stared blankly at Remus before chuckling and saying, “You’re bloody lucky that love Quidditch.”

Remus gave a nervous laugh, “My second guess would have been Lily.”

“And too right would you have been, mate,” James replied with a laugh.

Before they knew it, they were stepping into Flourish and Blotts. There were not as many people in the store as before when Addie had visited earlier. Due to the crowds she did not have the time to stop and take a good look at all the books that the store contained. Reading wasn’t a passion of hers, but she did like to-once and while-sit and just engross herself in a book littered with information that she may have not known before. She was, by no means, a bookworm.

“All right, let’s do the ones that we all have, shall we?” James suggested while they took out their book lists. They all faced inward, making a small circle like before. “I know we all need Confronting the Faceless, Advanced Transfiguration, Advanced Potion-Making, Standard Book of Spells, and Quintessce,” James said, reading off his paper. “Am I right?” Sirius and Remus had nodded to what James had read off and all started walking off towards the right of the store with James and Remus leading the way this time.

Addie had slipped her own book list out of her pocket and looked down at the paper, reading off every title again, even though she already had it memorized. She had needed the same five books and decided to make a mental note of where they picked up their books so that she could come back later and know exactly where to look.

“Is that your list?” Sirius asked Addie, glancing over to the parchment in her hands as she nodded to him. “May I see?” She didn’t nod, but held out the sheet to him. Sirius took the paper into his own hands and read off the books. “Merlin, are you insane?” he asked rhetorically. “Ten advanced classes?”

Addie nodded as her eye-brows knit together, “Something wrong with that?”

Sirius had sighed what could have been a ‘dreamy’ sigh, had it come from a girl. “Brains and beauty,” Sirius mused. “What a catch.” Sirius then turned his attention to his friends by tapping them on the shoulder. “Hey, guess who’s a secret genius?” he asked them with a smile.

Both of the leading boys glanced back to Sirius, James had done so after rolling his eyes and Remus after shaking his head. “I hope you aren’t talking about yourself,” James scoffed.

“What? You don’t think I’m smart?” he asked, “We’re taking the same classes, arse. So you’d be insulting your own intelligence as well. Anyway, it’s Ferrari here who’s the genius. Here, look at her book list.” Sirius thrust his hand that contained the book list in the space between his two friends. James was the first to snatch it away from Sirius’ grip.

James made a low whistle sound. “She’s going to be taking the same level classes as you, Remus,” James noted, handing the sheet to Remus who took it earnestly.

Remus, like his friends, read through each title finding that, in fact, each book was a N.E.W.T. level, advanced course book. He had smiled to himself, liking the fact that she had brains and that there was more to her than just good looks.

By the time Remus reading through the list, they had arrived upon stacks of books that were already set up for the Hogwarts students. He held the paper in his hands towards Addie. “I’m going to be taking the same classes,” he said. “Except I’m taking Muggle Studies instead of Care of Magical Creatures.”

Addie took back the paper and smiled. “I don’t need Muggle Studies,” she laughed, “I’ve spent sixteen years pretending to be one, I don’t think I need a class telling me what a television is.”

Remus smiled at her statement, but it was immediately dropped when a stack of books was shoved into his stomach, lightly knocking the wind out of him. “Quit flirting, Lupin,” Sirius said while laughing his bark-like laugh. James laughed along with Sirius before they headed off in another direction.

Addie did nothing but smile lightly, whereas Remus had rolled his eyes and tried to get rid of the light blush that appeared on his cheeks. Remus had grumbled something under his breath as he glared at Sirius who was still laughing alongside James. “So, you getting your books too?” Remus asked politely as he roamed around the stacks searching for his other five books. Just because he told himself that he couldn’t be romantically involved with this girl didn’t mean he could talk to her like a normal friend would, right?

Since Addie was holding a conversation with him, she thought it would be rude to walk away so she followed behind him. “Um, no,” she replied slowly, looking at the books that were stacked as Remus grabbed a few more books. “I didn’t bring enough of my money to pay for all the books yet. I was just exploring today.” She looked up at his face and saw something that she hadn’t noticed before, which was rare since she usually noticed everything. Scars had adorned his face, some were lighter than others, but they were still there all the same. They were long and thin, yet practically unnoticeable at first glance. She looked away before it could be conceived as staring, but Remus wasn’t looking at her so it didn’t matter much anyway.

After taking a deep breath, she had understood everything.

“Oh, so are you coming back then?” he then asked as he turned to face her.

“Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that,” she then replied as she tipped her head to the side.

“Coming back where?” James’ voice piped in, then the voice was soon joined by his body and Sirius. Their hands looked full with their books and bags.

“Here,” Addie said bluntly.

“Why would you want to hang out in some bookstore?” Sirius asked in confusion and glanced around. “Did Remus trick you into thinking this is the best place in town or something?” Remus took this as his chance to glare at Sirius who gave him a cheeky grin.

Addie laughed. “No,” she said shaking her head, “I have to come back because I haven’t gotten all my things for school yet.”

“Really?” James questioned. “Well, we can come back and help you out if you’d like. We know where everything is.”

“Um,” Addie started to say, drawing out the ‘m’, while thinking about the offer. As much as her brain was telling her to reject the proposition, she couldn’t help but hold back on saying a few rejecting words.

“Come on,” Sirius prodded. “What can it hurt? We’ll even give you a tour of the whole place.”

“From top to bottom,” James concluded.

“Since James and I have been coming here since we were babies-”

“-We know this place like the back of our hands.” James then shoved his unoccupied hand out in front of him and looked down at the back of his hand. “Hey,” he said, very interested in one spot and brought it up closer to his face. “I’ve never seen that freckle there before.” The other three couldn’t help but laugh at his silliness as he dropped his hand with a shrug of his shoulders.

“So what’dya say?” Sirius asked, a ghost of a smile still on his face.

“Uh, yeah, sure,” she answered nodding her head slightly, going with her gut instead of her head for once. “When and where do you want to meet?”

“How’s tomorrow?” James asked.

“Two o’ clock?” Sirius then added.

“Leaky Cauldron?”

“We won’t miss each other.”

She thought how it was slightly scary how they finished each other’s sentences, but ignored to comment on the matter. “Sounds good,” she said in agreement before Remus suggested they pay for the books and head back to James’ house.