October is the month of change. Leaves turn to shades of fire and the scenery turns into an explosion of deep colours. The sun is still there, but its cold and pale rather than warm and brightening. October was the month Ophelia finally understood that there can be good and beauty in change. It had been just over four weeks since Ophelia began at Hogwarts and things were going amazingly during the daytime. The change to Hogwarts was good, the change in friends was amazing and the unexpected change in last name was life changing. October daytime was amazing.

But at night that mask dropped and Ophelia could feel all her worries clambering back to the top of her head. A maximum of three hours of sleep per night was starting to take a toll on Ophelia but somehow the adrenaline and desire to not acknowledge she was struggling kept her going. The bags under her eyes were easily covered with foundation, lies were easily told if she yawned when least expected and caffeine was always there to power her through. Her mind was in so much pain that it wouldn't dare fall asleep because it had to stay awake to keep her safe.

It was 6am on October 7th, a cold Tuesday morning and Ophelia was one of the first in the Great Hall as always. Ophelia took a seat on the Gryffindor table, she was the first Gryffindor there, the fullest table was Ravenclaw with the majority of them reading. The smell from the piles of delicious breakfast food made Ophelia feel nauseous but she needed to be here purely because it was somewhere else to be as well as allowing others to think she was ok. So Ophelia rested her head between her arms on the table but not too long after she sat down she heard the clicking of small heels, a mug of tea placed in front of her and a body join her to the right.

"You've been lying to me young lady."

"What? What do you mean?" Ophelia looked up from her arms to see Minnie looking rather concerned.

"You have been here exactly as the doors open each day and don't try and tell me that it is because you're an early riser. Your makeup and hair is impeccable which tells me you've already been awake at least an hour or more. You are not sleeping are you." The lady frowned, not in anger but rather disappointment.

"I am! I'm managing a few hours sleep each night." This response warranted a rather large sigh from Minnie before she placed a hand on Ophelia's shoulder, noticing a slight jump from Ophelia at the action.

"You're on edge again, Ophelia this isn't good."

"I will be fine, I always have been."

"You were never fine, just merely surviving and only just. Please accept my help."

"Minnie you are a busy lady, all of these students need you just as much I am sure. I can't take them away from you."

"You are not. I am going to visit Professor Slughorn to see if he can brew a mild calming potion for you to take before bed. Not strong enough to change your mood, more just relax you. You will be taking this whether you like it, if not for yourself then take it for me."

"Fine. Sorry Minnie."

"Don't apologise, just do not hide from me again. When I took you in I swore to myself and you I would care for you, and Ophelia I am not one who likes to fail. Now drink that tea and have a biscuit." A small plate of biscuits appeared in front of Ophelia as the lady stood to leave.

"Have a good day dear, I will see you in class." Minnie placed a kiss on the top of girls head before walking over to the staff table.

Ophelia began munching on a few biscuits, she knew Minnie was right to be upset but it didn't help her feel anything but more guilty for being the cause of that. She was so deep in thought she didn't notice the person sit across from her.

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Remus woke up a little earlier than normal today, he was always the first awake in the dorm he shared with the boys but last night he had almost no sleep. Why? Because today was a full moon. A mixture of things keep him awake the night before a full moon; for starters the anxiety of the transformation is enough to make it almost impossible to fall asleep. But its the heightened senses that prevent him to remain asleep, after being bitten as a child all his senses had been heightened however the night before and after a transformation they are at its peak. He can hear everything, a spider scurrying across the floor is like some someone shouting in his ears. So its hardly surprising that sleep is difficult.

Peter, James and Sirius were still fast asleep when the clock chimed 6am. Rather than just stay laying in bed, Remus decided to get up and head down for breakfast early. Everything ached the second he put his feet on the ground, but with a bit of walking around he knew he would loosen up enough to survive the day. Once dressed, he paused for balance before carefully leaving the room and heading down to the Great Hall.

Sat at the Gryffindor was one other person much to his surprise, it was Ophelia McGonagall. He watched as Professor McGonagall seemed to share some stern looking words with her before giving her a kiss and leaving. Remus felt glued to the spot, at first he decided to wait to give them privacy. But he didn't even need to sit near Ophelia, there was an entire table free yet something was drawing him to sit with the girl. What was stopping him? Why is this so different to Potions, they spend time together then? After a mental battle with himself he decided he would spend the breakfast with Ophelia and took the seat opposite.

"Morning Ophelia."

"Oh morning Remus! I don't usually see you here this early." The girl looked up at him, and smiled.

"Yeh I didn't sleep too well. Are you usually here at this time?"

"6am on the dot. Why couldn't you sleep?" Ophelia took this moment and studied the boys face. In the month they had spent together in potions she had never noticed the scar that was across his brow or the larger one across his cheek. In fact she had never found herself looking anywhere else but his eyes when they spoke. But those eyes were different today, they were duller than usual, less alive.

"Not feeling too well." Remus shrugged, it was lie he had got so used to telling.

"You don't look too good at all actually. Do you need to go to Madam Pomfrey? I think that's her name?"

"No I'll be ok. Are you ok? Your discussion looked a little tense earlier with Professor McGonagall."

"Oh, you saw that, yeh she just worries about me." Ophelia needed to change the subject quick, she hated talking about herself. "If you're not feeling well enough for potions I'll happily write double notes so you don't have to come? You really look like you need to sleep."

Remus looked up at the girl, he wouldn't say they were friends so didn't expect this kind of offer at all. Even the boys hadn't offered something like this before, usually it was food or comedic relief.
"You would do that for me?"

"Yes of course! Why wouldn't I? Everyone needs help from time to time." Remus watched as the girls expression changed towards the end of the statement. Ophelia seemed to lose the cheeriness in her voice, as if this was something that meant a lot to her. Her eyes darted down on those final words and she fiddled with the handle of her mug. Remus' observations were interrupted rather suddenly, he hadn't realised he had been staring. "Your jumper is on inside out, are you sure you're ok? Do you want me to walk you back? Actually you haven't eaten, let's get some food down you and a nice cup of tea."

Ophelia began bustling some food onto a plate for Remus. Remus watched as the girl did this so easily without a second thought. "You don't have to do this Ophelia."

"Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to be too much. I wanted to help." The cheeriness disappeared from the girls voice again.

"No I didn't mean it like that, uh, it's the fact you hardly know me and you're being so nice still."

"Well in that case when you're feeling better we should catch up outside of Potions."

"Yeh that sounds good."

"MOOOOORRNNNNING LOVEBIRDS."

"Shut up Potter." Ophelia and Remus turned their heads around to see The Marauders, Lily and Alice walking towards them. Lily was scolding James for his comment, but she had a small smile on her face too.

"That's my queue to leave, look after yourself and please don't come to potions." Ophelia got up and headed down the table a bit too where Lily and Alice were stood.

Remus stared as the girl got up and left before whispering a 'thank you'.

"Remus you'll need to say that louder for her to hear." Sirius had now dropped himself beside Remus.

"Ha. Very funny." Remus returned to looking at Ophelia who was chuckling at something Alice had said. He couldn't help but smile. What he hadn't noticed was Sirius, Peter and James also smile to each other feeling like they had accomplished an impossible mission.

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Much to Ophelia's relief Remus didn't attend Potions first thing, she just hoped he would at least try and get some rest to help whatever bug he had pass by quickly. Today's lesson was watching Slughorn demonstrate how to brew a Pepperup Potion whilst they took notes. It was a potion mainly used to cure the common cold and warm up the drinker, Ophelia couldn't help but think this would be perfect for Remus.

In fact she hadn't realised how used to Remus' company she had gotten, the class felt empty without him. Sticking to her promise Ophelia wrote double notes until Marlene pointed out she was a witch so could just duplicate her copy, but Ophelia continued writing anyway explaining "it wouldn't be the same". When the lesson had finished Ophelia approached Professor Slughorn.

"Ah Miss McGonagall, what can I do for you?"

"I was just wondering if I could have a vial of the Pepperup Potion?" Ophelia asked, before realising she should probably explain why. "Remus is unwell and although I don't know him too well I fear he maybe too stubborn to attend the hospital wing. Maybe this could give him a bit of a pick me up?"

"I see, well there is no harm at all in that. Here." Slughorn summoned a glass vial and filled it with potion from his cauldron. "Miss McGonagall I see a lot of potential in you, you will do great things." He handed Ophelia the vial.

"Oh, well thank you. And thank you for this."

"No problem, I will see you tomorrow."

Ophelia nodded and left the dungeon classroom, failing to notice the smile on the Professor's face for he knew the true reason Remus was unwell.

"What a kind girl."

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"Could I have your attention please? Right, now, today, we will be transforming animals into water goblets. Like so. One, two, three. Vera Verto." A jet of clear mist shot from Professor McGonagall engulfing the raven before it spun into a glass water goblet. "Now, this spell can be rather difficult to perform and could be disastrous if executed incorrectly. Possible outcomes include your goblet becoming furry or having a tail. Your wand movement and posture are both equally as important for this spell. Mr Cooper please could you," suddenly Professor McGonagall's eyes darted to back left corner of the room, "Mr Potter as amazing as your levitating charm of that quill is I must insist you stop tickling Mr Pettigrew with it. 5 points from Gryffindor."

"WHAT MINNIE!" James gasped rather dramatically.

"With those dramatics too I want you here at the front bench."

"Fine." James collected his stuff and dragged his feet to the front of class. There was only one seat on the bench available, next to Ophelia McGonagall. "Well shit."

"MR POTTER. Detention tonight 6pm, I will not tolerate such foul language in my classroom."

James didn't even reply, he just sat down with a huff and edged as far away from Ophelia, almost hanging off the end of the bench.

"Mr Potter, Miss McGonagall, it appears I only have one rat left so you will have to take it in turns." Professor McGonagall looked down her oval glasses at them, no emotion wavered on her face.

"Ok." Ophelia answered rather straightly, as the day went on she was feeling mentally exhausted and wasn't in any mood to have one of her silly confrontations with James, something she still didn't understand the reason behind. "Potter you can go first."

"Fine." James sighed as he reached into his bag for his wand, Professor McGonagall seized this opportunity as a moment to sneak in a wink to Ophelia before heading off to a student who was chasing a rat around the classroom. Ophelia soon realised what this meant, this was a ploy to break the ice between her and Potter. For once, Ophelia wasn't happy with Minnie, she knew the intentions were good but Ophelia just wasn't in the right state of mind. "Uh McGonagall what was the incantation, I wasn't listening."

"Vera Verto." Ophelia sighed, this was going to be a long lesson. James pointed his wand at the rat and Ophelia noticed his hands were in the wrong position. "Wait, you need to hold your wand here." Ophelia placed her wand in front of the rat. "Like this."

"Right, could you go first though, then I can see it."

"I guess." Ophelia tapped the rats back with the point of her wand sharply three times and then incanted "Vera Verto." The mist soon covered the rat and a goblet formed in front. "Wow."

"You're not too shabby McGonagall." James stared at the goblet with awe. Even Lily Evans hadn't managed the transfiguration first time.

"Thanks I guess. Um, I guess we will have to wait till Minnie comes back to transfigure it to its original form for you." Ophelia looked up to Minnie and they locked eyes. She saw Minnie mouth a "well done" before she turned her back and walked further away. So sneaky, Ophelia thought.

"Yeh, hopefully she takes ages so I don't have to embarrass myself." James replied with a nervous chuckle. The tension between them filled the air and an awkward silence followed. James knew this could be his only opportunity to try and make amends with the girl so decided to embrace his inner cockiness. "Uh, well how are you finding Hogwarts?" Ophelia looked up from her notes rather suddenly and faced James.

"It's going well I think." Ophelia answered struggling to say more, she wasn't sure if it was because she was talking to Potter or if it was because of the on edge feeling she had all day.

"You think?" James seemed genuinely curious about this.

"Yeh, I just worry I'm behind a lot of the time and whether I fit in well, it's really different from before I came here."

"Right. Well you're good at transfiguration I can see that and potions I know that from Remus as he told me."

"Did he?"

"Yeh couldn't shut up about how you're a much better partner than me. Broke my heart." James clutched to his heart as he said this, he was starting to relax a bit around Ophelia. Clearly she felt the same as she let out a small chuckle at his theatrics.

"I'm sure he didn't mean it. How is he feeling?"

"Um, at lunch we took him some food but he looked peaky. Think its just some nasty bug." James knew very well what the reason was but he couldn't exactly tell Ophelia the truth.

"He did look rough."

"Yeh." Some silence followed and Ophelia was writing some notes on her parchment, not entirely sure where to go next with their conversation. James hated the silence. "McGonagall?" Ophelia returned her concentration to James. "I-I'm sorry for how I treated you, sometimes I forget that I am not the most important person in the world and well its no excuse but I didn't mean to be so rude. You weren't to know that that was our usual compartment and I shouldn't have let our second conversation start with me implying you were a nerd. Wasn't my finest moment."

"It's ok. We can start afresh if you like?"

"You'd forgive me like that?"

"Well in theory its been a month, but yes. Life's too short and everyone deserves at least a second change. Plus you can't be that bad otherwise Remus wouldn't be your friend." James laughed at the last part.

"Yeh you're right. Well to start with I am going to remember your name is Ophelia and not McGonagall."

"Good start." Ophelia couldn't help but laugh at this, gaining a few stares from the class including Sirius and Peter who looked extremely happy.

"Now I am glad to see you find my class so pleasant that you can't help but laugh, I think Mr Potter you need to practice the transfiguration." Minnie had returned to them and had a slight smile on her face as she transfigured the goblet back to a rat then left again.

"Ok, I can do this. Hold my wand here, tap three times, sharp point and incantation." James reassured himself out loud.

"Yeh you've got this!" Ophelia gave him some moral support.

"Vera Verto" The rat transformed successfully into a goblet. "OH MY GOD I DID IT. MINNIE LOOK LOOK LOOK LOOK I DID IT." James was now stood on the bench cheering like he had won the lottery.

"Very well done Mr. Potter, now please return to a sitting position and think about what my real name is." Minnie called back.

"Bloody hell I did it. Thanks Ophelia." James was now sat back down but still with a gleaming smile across his face.

"Why are you thanking me?"

"Well if it wasn't for you I would have one hundred percent got this wrong." James shrugged. "Hi Five?" James raised his arm excitedly towards Ophelias with his palm out flat. But rather than Ophelia return his hi-five, she instead flinched and ducked her head away. "Um, sorry didn't mean to make you jump." James wasn't sure how it would make someone jump but felt the need to apologise anyway.

"Uh, its ok sorry I wasn't expecting it." Ophelia could feel her throat beginning to close up and sweat build on her forehead. "I-I don't feel too good, tell Minnie I felt sick, I'm gonna go." Ophelia didn't even bother waiting for a reply or even collect her belongings, she hurried off of the bench and headed for the door.

"Miss McGonagall class is not fini-"

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Omg they're too cute!! What do you all think? Of course James ruined the moment😂

QOTC - Ok random because I can't think of one at all. Who would you feel you relate to most out of the Marauders?

My Answer - Again it's probably Remus for me, I'm all Remus. Probably too kind and forget to look after myself!

Also when I posted this chapter I had 503 reads on my book omg!!! I can't believe it!! Thank you to anyone who has read to here x