Lyra couldn't deny that she was excited for Slughorn's introductory Slug Club supper for Sixth years. She had been itching to turn on some charm, and to eat a good meal. The Hogwarts food was always good, but she was craving something extraordinary. It wouldn't surprise her if a few famed chefs had been a part of the club before her. 

Her and Rabastan were on their way there, talking excitedly about unimportant things. It made her feel happy, knowing there were still things they could talk about that weren't about becoming Death Eaters. Sometimes two friends could talk about which type of pasta tasted better. The one thing they agreed on was that it had to be authentic Italian. 

As she was putting her final argument for tortellini into the discussion, she noticed James and Remus laughing in a corner. She supposed the Potter boy had been on his way to the same supper as them. 

Lyra didn't pay attention to Rabastan's counterargument as James looked over at her. If this was a month or two ago, he would have smiled and winked at her in some obnoxious way. This time was different. His gaze hardened and he looked away, making it obvious he hadn't forgiven her for her treatment of Remus yet. 

The Slytherin girl frowned at this. There were many times she used to hope that James would start leaving her alone, but now she couldn't help but miss the times he would annoy her and talk about how much he fancied her. 

Rabastan had finally finished talking when she turned back to him, faking a smile. She was sure he hadn't spotten either Remus or James, so she was safe. "I have to go to the bathroom, you should go ahead."

The Lestrange boy raised an eyebrow, which made it clear he didn't really want to go to the supper alone. "Are you sure? I can wait for you if you want. Can't risk losing a seat next to you."

"Just save me a seat, you'll be fine. And I can go to the bathroom on my own. You don't have to be afraid that I'll fall in or something. If I do, I've got my wand." Playfully, she pushed him forth. "Now go! You don't want to be late."

Rabastan rolled his eyes, but still smiled brightly at his close friend as he started walking away, but still calling back to her. "Fine. I'll see you soon!"

The blonde waited until he was out of eye sight before moving, only waving to him in case he turned around. When he was gone, she looked to the corner, finding that James and Remus were still there, acting like they hadn't noticed her.

"Hey, James, Remus," she greeted them both brightly. James raised an eyebrow at her while Remus's eyes widened in surprise. That wasn't the first thing she noticed about him, though. 

He looked incredibly pale, and she supposed maybe the past month had taken its toll on him. He hadn't heard a word from Lyra, and he still hadn't talked to Sirius. Then again, it could also be because the full moon was approaching.

She came over her initial shock at his horrible state and forced a bright smile on her face again. She didn't think telling him he looked bad was a good way to start the conversation.  "Eh, Remus, I was wondering if I could ask you a small favor?"

The werewolf quickly nodded, a bit too eagerly perhaps. He wasn't even sure what favor she would ask, but he knew that he would do almost anything for her, even after everything. "Sure, of course. I'll do whatever."

Lyra ran her fingers through her hair. "Well, you know how Dowson's always assigning us new essays. I'm writing the new one on Dementors. I've got a lot of information on it, but I'm not sure if it's all right. Would you mind looking over it when it's finished?"

"Yeah, definitely. Just tell me whenever you're done with it and I'll definitely look over it." He would have been prepared to do a lot more than that, but if such an easy request could help rekindle their friendship, he would do it without second thought. 

Because while Remus had always seen himself as a monster that had ruined his parents' lives, all the friends he had had never abandoned him for it. Until Lyra. And it had made him hate himself more than he did before. 

And because he hated himself so much, he understood. If he was in her shoes, he had no idea what he would do. But he loved her, because she was his friend. And he selfishly wanted things to stay that way. 

"Good, thank you! You're the best," Lyra said, ignoring every second thought going through her head, begging her to stop and keep ignoring him. "And you know, I could always look over a Transfiguration essay for you at some point if need be."

He nodded, almost forgetting that James was next to them, listening to every part of their conversation in silence. "That sounds great. Tit for tat."

"Exactly, I'll see you soon then." Lyra turned to look at James, who was smiling slightly at the pair. She flashed him a quick smile before looking away, letting him know that he had gotten through to her during their conversation. 

James's smile widened at this. He couldn't help but think that she had never looked at him like that before. Also, that he never wanted her to stop, so when she looked away he wanted nothing more than to grab her chin and force her back to his.

The Slytherin girl took a few steps to walk away, leaving the boys to look at her strangely, wondering what had gotten into her. She then turned back, raising an eyebrow at James. "Are you coming or not?"

For a quick second, the Potter boy wondered if she had just invited her to go into a broom closet and have a secret snog, which he wouldn't have declined, until he remembered they both had somewhere to go. "Right. The supper. I'm coming."

"Well, hurry up then or I'll leave you behind," she teased, grinning. He could hear she was joking with him, which was almost as shocking as the rest of the conversation. He shook his head and chuckled.

He quickly said goodbye to Remus before jogging after her to keep up. She looked straight forward, a smile on her lips. He looked at her, smiling himself. "So, is this when you admit you're in love with me?"

Shocked, Lyra's eyes widened, turning to him. Fits of giggles emitted from her mouth, and he could only gasp in fake offense as she kept laughing. "Oh, Merlin. I've never really thought your jokes were too funny before but this one really cracked me up."

"It's not a joke!" he laughed along with her. "I mean, I was obviously the one who got you to try to make up with Remus. Call it what you want. Love, destiny, soulmates... just a deep connection you can shake..."

"The right place at the right time?" Lyra suggested, trying desperately not to smile. "I didn't say you were the reason I made up with Remus. Maybe I just missed him. You think so highly of yourself, James."

Again, he gasped dramatically. He put his hand over his heart, shaking his head as he faked having tears to wipe from his eyes. " You wound me, Lyra Black. How can I not? Have you seen me?"

"A few too many times," she ended up joking. It felt like things were falling into place, like she had done the right thing by trying. Of course, there were some doubts. But as she glanced at James, who was once again laughing with her and acting like the boy she knew, they all went away.

▹▹▹

It took a couple of minutes before Lyra and James found their way to the supper, where they were supposed to be around ten minutes before. It didn't help that James was very sure of where they were supposed to go, but it ended up being the opposite direction.

As James opened the door, Lyra was still laughing and teasing him about the fact that he had walked into a wall while telling her that he was extremely sure of where they were going and he wasn't being stupid. She thought he looked very stupid then. 

But she quickly stopped speaking and giggling when they noticed everybody's eyes on them, looking at them very strangely. Lyra tried to suppress her smile, especially as James was smirking quite obnoxiously in Rabastan's direction.

"I'm sorry we're late, Professor," said Lyra, turning to Professor Slughorn who looked quite shocked at seeing them walk in together. Of course, he'd always had his suspicions but they were being quite obvious. "Potter got lost."

The room was still quiet. Lyra scanned and recognized those invited from the Potions class, along with a couple of others.  A boy named Adrian was sitting with his camera on his lap, tapping it awkwardly. 

Rabastan was sitting between two empty seats, one of them obviously held off for Lyra. When he saw her walk in with James Potter, he was quite obviously unhappy, glaring at James heatedly. Snape had a similar look on his face, although this one was meant for the both of them.

Lily Evans sat and watched them strangely with narrowed eyes, as if she was trying to decipher a puzzle that made no sense, which was always frustrating. Bertram Aubrey looked away, which was quite easy to understand considering the history he had with the two. 

The only one who seemed happy about the two walking in together was Slughorn, who had secretly rooted for them ever since he intercepted a strange note between them during their fourth year, even if he had read it the wrong way.

"It's fine, my dear. It's lovely that you and Mr. Potter joined us, no matter how late." Slughorn was grinning so wide Lyra was afraid his face would crack as he looked over at Rabastan. "Mr. Lestrange, why don't you move over so these two can sit together?"

Rabastan knew better than to argue with his Potions master and Head of House, so he begrudgingly moved seats, not sitting next to Snape, leaving two open seats at the end of the table. 

It took a moment to think about why Slughorn seemed so happy, but the moment she realized, she blushed deeply and pursed her lips to keep from smiling awkwardly. It was quite strange for your teacher to think you were late to supper because you were snogging. James only smirked wider.

The blonde hurried to her seat, while James took his time as he strutted towards the chair. Lyra ended up sitting between James and Rabastan, which she was sure was a recipe for disaster that she didn't want to see the finished product for. 

Lyra quickly shoved a piece of bread into her mouth so she hopefully didn't have to converse with anyone before things calmed down. And by things, she meant the heat between James and Rabastan.

But that didn't stop the Slytherin boy from leaning towards her, a pointed look on his handsome face that made her realize she wasn't getting out of this unscathed. "Lyra, what's going on? What were you doing with... him?"

She took the seconds it took her to finishing chewing and swallowing the bread to come up with an excuse, until she realized she had already given one to Slughorn. "He got lost so he asked me for direction, so I just showed him where to go."

Rabastan glanced over at James, who was now throwing food into his face like a madman. He grimaced in digust. "You know, you could have just told him to go in the wrong direction and been on your way."

The Black girl resisted the urge to roll her eyes, which was very difficult considering how annoying Rabastan was being. "Yes, I could have done that. The issue is that I'm a, what's it called? Yes, I'm actually a decent person."

"Sometimes you're decent towards the wrong sort," the Lestrange boy countered, looking at her sternly before he looked at James, who was happily talking to Slughorn about what his father was up to these days.

But when Slughorn turned his attention to Bertram Aubrey to talk about his uncle, James turned and realized that Lyra didn't look too happy, with her lips pursed and her gaze locked on the table, as if something had upset her. 

"Are you alright, Lyra?" he whispered, leaning closer to her, making her eyes snap to him. She quickly nodded and flashed a quick smile, a bit too quick. "You know, I really should thank you for giving Remus a chance. I know it's not easy for you."

While Lyra thought it had been funny the way he had taken credit for her talking to Remus again, she didn't want him to get the wrong idea, because she feared that would get them in some very awkward situation. "I didn't do it for you."

"I know." The Gryffindor shrugged, flashing her that well-known troublemaker smile that had made a few girls at Hogwarts swoon. Not that Lyra would ever admit being one of them. "Doesn't make me any less grateful, though."

There was something so incredibly perfect about what he was saying, yet she couldn't put her finger on it. "I'm just... I'm trying my best to be a good person. And I'll try to see if I can look at him and see Remus, my friend, and not just a werewolf."

"That's all anybody can do," he smiled in support. "Try. But I know that you don't have to try to be a good person, you are one already. I've seen it more times than I can count. I believe in you, you know that by now."

And that's when it happened. James could see her looking at her in that way she had earlier, the new way that he liked so very much. He just hoped it wouldn't end as quickly this time. "Thank you, James. You have no idea how much I appreciate it."

Slughorn finished up talking to Bertram and glanced around the room to find the new objects of his attention, then he caught a look of James and Lyra whispering to each other, sitting closely and smiling softly. 

And again, he looked like he was going to explode in joy and hearty laughs. He brought the attention of the whole table over to the two. "What are the two of you whispering about over there?"

Lyra didn't know what to say at first, especially as she felt Rabastan's accusing glare on her. But she was always quick on her feet when it came to telling a little white lie. "Potter and I are Transfiguration partners. We're discussing our approaching attempt at... human Transfiguration in class soon."

James choked on his drink at her words, coughing to cover up his urge to laugh. It went unnoticed by all those who didn't know the secret, but he quickly realized it was a jab at him being an Animagus. 

Slughorn nodded thoughtfully. "Yes, Professor McGonagall has mentioned that both you and Mr. Potter excell at Transfiguration, she's always giving the two of you praise. Don't tell her I said that, though. Can't have her think I'm spreading gossip!"

Lyra faked a laugh at his joke, opening her mouth to speak. Because tonight was the night she was going to get herself an invite to his Christmas party. She didn't have much time, as it was already the end of November. 

But she knew that if she put all her natural Black charm together with her great Slytherin ambition, she was a foot in, and for all she knew, that could save her life.