Professor Slughorn always believed his lessons were the most interesting ones in the world. Especially his N.E.W.T.-level classes, mostly filled with his favorite students. So he said his thousands of jokes, which everybody faked laughs to. 

It made the classes feel a thousand times longer, but it wasn't always so horrible. She sat with Rabastan, and they managed to whisper to each other and write notes so they could ignore it. The Professor allowed it because he loved both of them. 

"And that was how I used this very potion to convince my best friend to marry a pig," Slughorn finished a story as they had just finished testing their potions. He then glanced at the clock on the wall. "Oh, class is already over. Well, you can go. Remember to do your homework! Ten inches of parchment on my desk by next week."

The students quickly started packing up, as they were going to lunch soon. Lyra was starving so she wouldn't mind getting there as soon as possible. She was the fastest one at putting her things away.

"I was wondering if a few of you could stay behind for a quick moment, actually," Slughorn called out. Lyra knew she should be one of them, but she was also very hungry so she hoped for a quick moment that it wouldn't be her.

Slughorn scoured for the six students he had been waiting for, as his whole class stood expectantly, some hoping to be chosen. "Miss Black, Mr. Lestrange, Mr. Snape, Miss Evans, Mr. Potter, Mr. Aubrey." 

Lyra and Rabastan exchanged quick glances before walking up to their teacher's desk. She could hear James telling Remus to go on without him, but she stared straight forward and tried to ignore their voices. 

When all of them had come up to his desk and all the other students left, Slughorn sent them all a hearty smile. "I was thinking of hosting a supper for my favorite sixth-year students tomorrow, and I'd be delighted if my best N.E.W.T.-level Potions students would like to join me."

Lyra had to suppress a smile, because everything she had wanted was falling into place. Being invited to Slughorn's exclusive club was the first step of the plans to achieve her dreams, and avoid becoming a Death Eater, hopefully. 

They all assured Slughorn that they would check their schedules and get back to him. Lyra had a feeling that Bertram Aubrey wasn't too keen on attending, especially as both Lyra and James were invited. He wasn't quite fond of either of them. 

"Sounds wonderful. I hope to see every single one of you there. Now you may go and enjoy your lunch. Until tomorrow!" Slughorn said, and all of them were quite pleased that the conversation didn't take too long. "Try to let me know as soon as possible."'

Lyra knew that Slughorn didn't only invite them because he liked them as people. Slughorn only did things for himself, which she appreciated and respected. He was cunning, and had ambition. No wonder he was the Head of Slytherin house. 

Bertram Aubrey had a maternal uncle in the Wizengamot, which meant he was Slughorn's connection to them. James's father was quite famous, and he was known for his Quidditch skills throughout the school. He had great opportunities after school because of it. 

Rabastan wasn't always the best in Potions, so his connections throughout pureblood society was most likely the reason he was invited. Lyra had the same, but also with a bit more skill in the subject, as well as her great luck in Transfiguration. 

Snape and Lily definitely didn't have the connections the others had, but they had raw skill. Lily was at the top of their Potions class, only rivaled by Snape. They were also just well-liked by the Potions Master. Lily, Lyra could understand. Not Snape though. She hadn't seen a single redeeming quality in him. 

She supposed it didn't matter. She only had herself to focus on, and charming Slughorn, of course.

▹▹▹

That day was mostly yet another day at Hogwarts. A day where she tried her best to keep up with her classes. The only really annoying thing was that she had just handed in a Defense Against the Dark Arts essay just for Professor Dowson to assign them another. She knew what she would be using her night for. 

But before Lyra could worry about that, she had to worry about dinner. Also, she needed to remind herself to send a note to Professor Slughorn before the day was over so she could come to his supper the following day. 

But she had passed the Potions classroom on her way to the Great Hall and managed to tell him in person. He was thrilled, of course. He had seemed to have a special interest in her as a student ever since he found out just how ambitious she could be. 

She walked up from the Dungeons, having told all her friends to go on without her so she could talk to the Potions master. She regretted it as she felt her stomach rumble, but she was thankful she had eaten a large lunch, so it could be worse. 

Suddenly, she felt someone grab her arm, pulling her away from the hall. She was preparing to scream, her mouth open when that person put their hand over her it. Her eyes were wide and frightened until she saw who it was. 

"James, what the hell! Let go." Lyra ripped his hand away from her face. She looked at him incredulously as she realized they were in an unfamiliar classroom. "You scared me, you horrid git."

James grinned, raising his hands in the air in surrender. His happy demeanor didn't make her any less annoyed. "I didn't mean to! I just needed to talk to you and I think you wouldn't just follow me because you wanted to."

"Well, of course I wouldn't! You're less of an idiot than I thought." She smiled bitterly before taking a step, ready to walk out the door. But he only stepped in front of the door, not letting her out. "Move."

"You really think I will?" he asked, amused. He leaned with his back against the door, looking very casual and aloof. "I was just going to ask you a simple question, you don't have to worry. Are you going to Slughorn's supper?"

The Slytherin swallowed a lump in her throat. She couldn't tell him why she had to go the supper. To get invited to his Christmas party, to avoid going home and becoming a Death Eater right after she had turned seventeen. 

"I won't let a good meal go to waste," she responded shortly, avoiding eye contact.

He nodded, trying to act like he didn't care. He had heard girls liked that sort of thing, but she still didn't look ready to jump into his arms. "I'm going too."

"That's nice." Lyra grabbed his arm in attempt to push him away from the door, which wasn't going to be easy as he was a star Quidditch player and she was far from it.  "If that's all you wanted, then I'll be on my way. I'm hungry."

He didn't budge, his smile fading as he looked own on her, watching her look up at him with stubborn, annoyed eyes. "How long are you going to keep this up, love? You've got to talk to Remus at some point."

Her glare turned much more fierce at the mention of her former friend, making it obvious he had hit a nerve. "Leave it alone, Potter."

"No, I'm not going to leave it alone!" he suddenly exclaimed. She was shocked to hear him raise his voice at her for the first time since the time he had hated her. "Why do you care so much about this tiny little part of a guy who was your friend?"

"Because he's a monster!" she retorted. "That's why. He could have killed me. If you and Sirius weren't there, then he would have with no second thoughts. And throughout the last five and a half years... he could have killed our classmates a thousand times over."

James straightened up, no longer leaning against the door. He walked closer to her, making her take a step back in surprise. She was mostly surprised at the look in his eyes, she hadn't seen him look that serious since... ever.

"You have warped your perception of Remus in your head," he said, shaking his head in disappointment. "You need to remember the boy you've known for years. The one you became friends with the second fifth year started."

"Think about that before you think about the werewolf part. Because that is a part that Remus despises more than you ever could." There was a poison in his voice, an anger Lyra had forgotten he could have towards her. 

Frustrated, Lyra ran her fingers through her hair just to have something to do with her hands. This whole conversation was strange, and not in a way she liked. "You don't understand!"

"Oh, but I do!" said James. "I grew up with the same horror stories about werewolves that you did. I read all the scary stories in the Daily Prophet. But I chose to care more about my friend than I am scared."

Lyra looked away, closing her eyes. She didn't know if it was from frustration, anger or sadness, but she could feel her eyes itching to cry. They had for weeks now. "I can't make that same choice."

"Yes, you can!" the Gryffindor yelled, frustrated beyond belief. She jumped in both surprise and shock. He took a deep breath to calm himself as he realized he had frightened her which wasn't what he had wanted to do. 

"You don't know that! You know nothing. You're James Potter, a Gryffindor with the perfect, loving family who's been raised to love all things. I'm a Black," she spat her own last name, as if it had a bitter taste. "I'm doomed for hatred."

The Potter boy scoffed, not able to believe what she was saying. "If you were doomed for hatred then you would have hated all of us a long time ago. Remus would never have stood by you saying these things about yourself. He believed in you and the choice you have of being who you want to be. I believe in you."

Lyra quickly realized that he had stepped closer to her as he spoke, making there be almost no space between them. She took a shaky breath, refusing to break eye contact. "Maybe I don't believe in myself."

While James wanted nothing more than to force her to realize there was something to believe in, he knew there were steps to take before he could do so. "But you believe in Remus. You won't admit it, but you do."

 Again, the blonde shook her head, unsure if she was just in denial. "He's a monster." 

"He's your friend." 

"He was."

For once, James seemed to be at a loss of words. For a few moments, they stayed in the exact position, and he could her her shaky breathing and see her eyes becoming red as tears threatened to build up. 

But Lyra was getting scared at how intimate the situation could seem, so she turned her head away, refusing to look at him for a few seconds. "Can't you just stop, please? Why you do even care?"

"Come off it, Lyra." The Gryffindor Quidditch legend rolled his eyes, not even understanding how she could bother asking that question when the answer was so obvious. "You know why, you're not an idiot."

And she did know, but she didn't want to. "You don't fancy me! Stop saying you do. The only thing you like about me is that you think I'm pretty and I was the only girl who ever bothered to snog you last year."

James messed up his hair for the first time in the conversation. "Fine. At first, that was probably all it was. Or at least, a part of it. But things have changed. It's been almost a year since we snogged. I know who you are now." 

Lyra disagreed strongly, even chuckling at the absurdity of his statement. "You don't know a thing about me, Potter."

He sighed. "You're scared, and I understand. I get that. But I meant it when I said I believe in you. Because I've seen the light inside of you that I didn't know was there before, but I was very happy to discover."

The Black girl didn't know what to say. Because there were so many things she wanted to say, none of them things she believed he wanted to hear. Because where he saw light, she only felt darkness. 

There was something about the seriousness and the honesty that was in his eyes that stumped her, that made her want to tell him things she had never told anybody. Her doubts, her fear, her future. 

But he couldn't know. There was no way she could ever tell him that she was only one meeting away from being well on her way to being a Death Eater. She'd even used the word Mudblood in casual conversation before, and she knew that was a slur James hated. 

It was then she realized that no matter how much she hated talking about Remus, it made her even more uncomfortable to hear the way James saw her, which was a far cry from how she saw herself. 

It felt like there had been minutes of silence, even if it had only been a few seconds before Lyra spoke again. "If you're so sure that Remus is a good person even if he's a werewolf, then why don't you hate me for hating him?"

He shrugged. "Because you don't hate him. I can see it in your eyes. I don't think you could ever hate him, honestly. I've seen you two together, that's not something you forget in the blink of an eye."

This conversation was way too long and way too emotional for Lyra's taste. She just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible and forget that it had ever happened. "And yet I did."

"Stop being so stubborn!" James groaned in frustration. Her frustrating him wasn't a new thing, but she had reached new levels that he didn't enjoy. "Don't you say that we're all worried about you, Lyra?"

He shook his head as she refused to meet his gaze once again. "We've all seen that you have no hope for yourself and that you don't believe in your choice to have your own opinions. But you're not like your family, you just don't think you have a choice."

To force her to look at him, he put his hand on her arm which snapped her gaze to his. "You are your own person, Lyra. You're not just another Black and I need you to understand that. You're an extraordinary witch who could survive on your own if you wanted to. And Remus is an extraordinary wizard. He just has one problem pulling him down."

Lyra wanted to pull his hand off her, but she felt like she had been frozen in place. She tried to swallow the lump in her throat, but it seemed impossible, making her choked up. "It's a pretty big problem."

"Come on!" he exclaimed. "This is Remus! Remus who believes in everybody but himself. Remus who wants to be a Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor for Merlin's sake! Remus who's made you laugh and wanted nothing more than for you to believe in yourself."

"And because of that, you owe it to him to believe in him as well." As he finished speaking, she had nothing to say. She only stared at him, wide eyed, in surprise at just how angry he seemed at her for how she been treating Remus.

Once he realized he wasn't going to get a reaction from her, James messed up his hair one more time as he shook his head in disappointment. He quickly turned on his heel, being out the door within seconds. 

Lyra turned to look after him as he walked off, her mind filled with a million different thoughts. Most of them wondering what had just happened, how James had snapped in such a way at her. It had been so long, she had forgotten it was possible. 

It was strange seeing him as more than her cousin's friend with the big crush on her, which was how she saw him in her mind. It was always different when she actually saw him, of course. But this time was different. 

Now he was acting like a mature friend, someone who was willing to stand up against anyone for the sake of those he cared about. It was strange to realize that he considered Lyra one of those people. 

If he hadn't, he wouldn't have bothered to do this. He would have simply chosen Remus and gone off with his life without her. But he hadn't. He had chosen to support Remus, of course, but he had made it mission that day to tell her that if she did, too. If only deep down.

It was time to dig out that part of her that loved Remus Lupin, and bury that part that only saw him as a dangerous werewolf.