I quickly got on my robes and prepared myself for a long day ahead of me. I missed breakfast and feeling beyond anxious, like I could throw up at any given second and thought perhaps Mother was right, I'm not cut out for Hogwarts? Was she just looking after me in her own stern way? At this very moment, it seemed plausible.

I softly pushed my way past Lily, who was still bickering with the boy, James  (that I refused to look at incase he ruined my imaginary version of him) outside our dorm and tried sliding past him as discreetly as I could. I kept my hair down hiding my face, barely being able to see myself as I quickly ran down the swirly stairs past them both.

"That's Sirius' cousin right?" I heard him ask Lily quickly.

"I think so, anyway-" she replied and the rest became inaudible as I moved further away.

I forced my way out into the common room seeing a number of people hanging around the fire waiting before lessons started. I didn't even take time to absorb any of their faces or words before I forced open the portrait painting harshly and started figuring out the direction to my first class, herbology.

SIRIUS POV

"Wait Artemis?" I snapped my head up from the light wizarding chess game me and Peter had been playing but it was too late, she had already escaped the common room, the door creaking loudly behind her. 

I hadn't actually pieced together yet that her being sorted into Gryffindor meant I would see her in my territory. I furrowed my eyebrows.

"Wait that's your cousin?" Peter mumbled looking honestly confused.

"We discussed this last night mate, yeah." I rolled my eyes at how slow he was being processing this information.

"She was in the train cabin I tried reserving for us yesterday" He replied nonchalantly and moved a figure in the chess game.

"Wait, really?" I snapped paying full attention to his face, ignoring his move.

"Yeah, she seemed nice. Quiet but nice!" he smiled and made a move for me on the chessboard.

"Doesn't mean she's still not another member of the black family freak show" I mumbled keeping my eye on the portrait door as if she was going to come storming back in at any second to scold me about the insult. 

I scraped back the rest of my hair into a bun behind my head and turned to a coughing noise on the seats behind me.

"What?" I rolled my eyes at Remus who was smirking at me slightly.

"You honestly can't be bitter towards someone who appears quite similar to yourself? Or can you?" he asked amused, gathering his stuff and sorting them into a neat pile.

"Similar?" I scoffed "She's a little freak like the rest of them, she's more like Narcissa than she would care to admit and you saw her suffocating Reggie last night!" I puffed out getting slightly agitated.

"If you say so, but then again Narcissa wasn't sorted into Gryffindor." He simply replied, gathering his books from his side and shoving them underneath his arm ready for class. He shrugged his shoulders at me to gesture I should think about what he's saying.

"No chance that you're going to befriend your own cousin anytime soon then? We won't have to worry about making more space at lunch?" Remus asked more genuinely as he ruffled up his hair slightly.

"No chance. Just because she got sorted into Gryffindor doesn't give her a pass to friendship. I said goodbye to the Black family and I intend to keep it that way...except Regulus of course. You know this!" I hissed, causing Remus to raise his hands up in defence.

"JAMES LET'S GO!" we all simultaneously screamed up the stairs before heading to first lesson, herbology.

ARTY'S POV

I easily found my way to class, much to my surprise. Not hard to find a mass of Greenhouses and before I knew it, I was greeted by a smiley looking plump woman with other students swarming behind me.

"Hello class! It's lovely to see you all again!" she hummed clasping her hands together "And some new faces! I'm Professor Sprout, the herbology teacher" she introduced herself to me with a big enthusiastic, muddy handshake. 

There were whisperers behind me.

"What's she doing here?" I heard a deep voice mumble, why did I agree to be risen up a year? 

"Give her a break, you goblin." another male voice mumbled and I heard a book being swat around someones head.

We all rushed in and grabbed a pair of goggles from the counter on the side, everyone fighting for the least scratched up ones.

"Today we're going to be repotting mandrake" Professor Sprout said gaining a groan from each student "I know we've already covered this but over the holidays they were left with little attention and need a bit of work and since you're all my first class-" she was cut off by a sarcastic sounding voice.

"This is an absolute waste of my time, I'm gonna be off now. I've got some important topics to discuss with McGonagall!" Sirius rolled his eyes and pushed his goggles back off of his face.

"I will fail you Mr. Black sit back down" she puffed as if she was used to his behaviour.

"if you fail me, you get me next term!" He warned, gaining a small laugh out of most of the class.

"I'll get you next term regardless. Don't be stupid Sirius, honestly!" she laughed at him as the small blonde boy from the train tugged on his robe in order to snap him back to reality and back to his place. Professor Sprout continued, ignoring Sirius and the blonde boy joking around together.

"You'll need to find a partner to pair up with and go through the usual potting process. If you need any help raise your hand and step outside the greenhouse for a chat. Under no circumstances, James, do you take off your earmuffs, you hear me?" she waggled a finger at James Potter who was laughing to himself. He looked nothing like I had imagined. 

Sirius paired up with James. I couldn't look away, finally putting a face to the name. His hair was  corse and dark, a bit wild looking and got frizzier in the humidity of the greenhouse and had big wide dark blue eyes and an enthusiastic hyper expression plastered permanently on his olive coloured face. He was skinny, but in an athletic looking way and already had dirt under his fingernails and swiped on his face like tribal markings. 

Marlene paired up with Lily. A pattern showing me that they must be best friends. The dark-haired girl in the dorm, called Alice (who I hadn't gotten the chance to have a proper conversation with yet) paired up with a rather tall boy with sticky out ears.

I looked around the class everyone finding a partner, except me. Damn odd numbers.

"Oh no worries dear, I'll be your partner for today!" Professor Sprout came waddling over to me, her voice booming from across the greenhouse.

"Oh no worries Professor, I'll be her partner" A tall boy with soft reddish-brown hair came sliding up beside me, leaving the familiar looking boy with blonde hair from the train looking betrayed.

"But Moony?" The short boy questioned in a sharp sounding whisper, getting a similar reaction from James and Sirius looking confused from across the table.

"Very well Mr. Lupin! Looks like we're partners today Pettigrew!" She said joyfully and...Moony or Lupin (?) Gained quite a threateningly pleading look of help from the blonde boy. I smiled feeling embarrassed that I had just destroyed their usual pairing.

"Remus." he said stuffing his hands softly into his pockets, a little too softly making his hand look limp and foreign from the rest of his body.

"Arty" I didn't look him in the eye, feeling a blush creep to my cheeks with the attention I was gaining from his friends...and my cousin.

We silently sorted out the Mandrake, not being able to hear each other over the muffled screams outside the protection of our ear gear. I had never potted a mandrake before, considering we didn't have a greenhouse at home so I was pretty nervous compared to the confident boy beside me guiding me through each step with ease as if he's done this a hundred times over. 

Our hands brushed slightly here and there in the stressful act of repotting and I recoiled each time, in the end I ended up stepping back and just observing his memorised arm movements and trying to equally memorise each step that he took with the strange branch like baby.

*

Class finished relatively earlier than I thought and I presumed it was mainly down to the fact that I didn't actually have to speak to anyone. 

After we were told to remove our earmuffs, we were ordered to wash our hands by Professor sprout. 

As I joined the back of the queue to the only sink in the greenhouse, Remus appeared behind me with already clean hands. He seemed to mumble a spell before a fizzing appeared around my muddy hands and I looked down to see that they were spotless.

"Saves you waiting in line" he laughed as I then stepped out of the queue and headed towards the door with him.

"Thanks." I mumbled feeling awfully shy. My heart thumped in my chest whilst trying hard to think about conversation.

"You didn't have to ditch your friend to save me working with the teacher, I'm perfectly fine not having a partner" I muttered, I was quite used to working on my own anyway.

"Peter survived. Not nice to feel like an outcast on your first day." He looked down at me, trying to form eye contact but I wasn't entirely paying attention, still hyper aware he seemed pretty good friends with Sirius, who I was trying to avoid.

"Well thanks...I guess." I laughed softly looking down at my squeaky-clean hands, not knowing how to respond.

"No problem!" He hummed and walked over to his group of friends outside. I stopped abruptly, not wanting to go join them, trying to linger behind until there was a spacious gap between us for my feet to feel able to move again.

"See you in other lessons then I guess" I loosened my hair to let it fall over my face again.

"Don't you want to walk with us to next class?" He quietly questioned and ushered me closer to the group and I shook my head 'no' and pressed my lips in a thin, awkward straight line...attempting to smile, but so obviously struggling. He nodded slightly, not pressing me on it.

There was a slight pause, Remus was about to say something and then a- 

"Hurry up Rem!" From the messy looking James who had obviously lost his patience and was itching to start moving his tireless feet.

"I hope to see you at lunch" He sounded cheery and started to walk further away. He let the others turn the corner into the main building and lingered, his hand resting on the door he was holding open for me.

"I noticed you didn't eat dinner last night, or breakfast this morning in fact. You should really eat, you'll feel better" and with that, once I had managed to reach the door he held open, he jogged over to his friends, I looked up slightly seeing how his hair lightly bounced up with each step and then how Sirius glared at me through narrow eyes.

"Avoid and ignore." I gulped, repeating to myself and started walking to the next class.