"Laura, wake up!" Lily said, shaking me roughly.

Groaning, I rolled away from her and hid my face in my pillow, muttering, "Five more minutes."

There was a moment of silence.

Suddenly, my blanket was ripped off of me and I was pushed to the floor. I hit the cold ground with a loud thud.

"No, Laura! In ten minutes, classes start."

Jumping up off of the floor, I started running around, trying to get ready.

"Why didn't you wake me sooner?" I exclaimed.

"I tried," Lily said as she left the dorm room. "But you wouldn't budge."

Fair enough. Now alone, I undressed and put my uniform on in record time. Running to the bathroom, I brushed my teeth (and did some other  girly things) and threw my messy hair up into a ponytail.

Not even bothering to check my appearance, I rushed out of the dorm (grabbed my bag) and through the empty common room.

****

A few moments later and I was skidding to a halt in front of Professor Flitwick's Charms classroom. Running in, I sat down in the only available seat (thankfully, it was next to Sirius) and slumped onto my desk, thoroughly exhausted from running throughout the entire castle.

I had made it with only a couple seconds to spare (literally). As soon as I had sat down, Professor Flitwick had appeared and started class.

"Here," Sirius whispered as he handed me a thermos. "You weren't at breakfast so I thought you might like this."

Taking it from him, I sniffed it cautiously. It smelled uncontaminated. Lifting it to my lips, I took a huge gulp. Hot coffee, made exactly how I like it. That's what was in it.

Sighing contentedly, I whispered, "Thanks, Sirius."

"You're welcome, Potter."

Relaxing against my chair, I took out my favorite quill and a piece of parchment and  began to take notes.

****

An hour later, Charms was over. Thankfully, Professor Flitwick hadn't assigned any homework. Packing up my stuff, Sirius and I headed to our next class, Transfiguration.

Pushing and shoving our way through the massive crowd of students, I held Sirius's thermos in one hand and gripped Sirius's arm tightly with the other so I wouldn't lose him. The usual wolf whistles and sexy remarks were thrown my way but Sirius silenced them all with a glare.

Walking through Professor McGonagall's classroom door, we spotted Remus, James, and Peter already seated in the back of the classroom. I sat down by Remus while Sirius sat down between James and Peter. A few minutes later, Lily(with her prefect badge gleaming) walked in with Severus and sat down on the other side of the classroom with him. I heard James sigh in disgust.

"Why weren't you at breakfast?" Remus asked me.

"Overslept," I answered simply.

Before anything else could be said, Professor McGonagall walked in. The rowdy classroom shut up immediately. Walking to the front of the classroom, a bewitched piece of chalk began to write on the black chalkboard.

O.W.Ls.
Ordinary Wizarding Level exams

After reading what the chalk had written, everyone groaned. OWLs were said to be extremely stressful and I was not looking forward to taking them at the end of the year.

"The OWLs," Professor McGonagall began, "are what every fifth year student takes at the end of the year."

Downing the rest of my coffee, I pretended to listen while I doodled idly on the corner of my parchment. By the time class was over, my paper was covered with snitches and other random symbols. The only note I had actually taken was about the homework McGonagall had assigned.

As class ended, we realized that we had a free period. Remus and I headed over to the library to start on the Transfiguration assignment while James, Sirius, and Peter went off to do God knows what.

Finding our usual table, we sat our stuff down and split up to find Transfiguration books. Five minutes later, I returned to our table with two books and saw Remus already sitting down and reading.

Sitting down next to him, I pulled out my quill and parchment and began to write.

After a couple moments of comfortable silence, I said,"Remus."

"Hmm?" He asked, not looking up from his book.

"Sirius has been acting slightly...different lately. Do you know why?"

A small smile appeared on Remus's face as he said, "I have my suspicions."

Recognizing the look on his face, I let the conversation drop and turned my attention back to my homework. It was the look that said he knew something that I didn't and wasn't about to tell me what it was. Its also known as the Lupin Look.

Finishing up my homework, I stood up and declared, "Lunch time!"

Nodding in agreement, Remus closed his book and stood up as well. As we walked over to the library doors, I jumped onto Remus's back for a(nother) piggy back ride.

"You're crazy, you know that?" Remus said, adjusting my legs so I wouldn't fall.

"No I'm not!" I protested as I wrapped my arms loosely around his neck. "I'm unique."

"Sure, we'll go with that," he muttered, entering the Great Hall.

Surprisingly, James, Sirius, and Peter weren't at the Gryffindor table. In fact, they were nowhere to be seen. Shrugging it off, Remus and I sat down by Lily.

"Did you make it to your first class on time?" She asked me as I began to eat.

"Barely," I answered through a mouthful of food.

Pulling Sirius's thermos out of my bag, I filled it with another cup of coffee. At that precise moment, Sirius, James, and Peter walked in looking smug. James sat down by Lily, Sirius sat by me, and Peter sat next to Remus.

Leaning back, I reached around Lily and pulled James back. As he gave me a curious look, I whispered, "What are you looking so smug about?"

Glancing at Lily nervously, he whispered back, "I'll explain tonight."

Raising upright, I turned to Sirius and said, "You can have your thermos back as soon as I finish this cup of coffee."

Smiling down at me (as much as I hate to admit it, I was a bit shorter than him), Sirius said, "You don't have to. You can keep it, Potter."

Not knowing how to react to that, I took a drink of my coffee.

"So, Lily," I heard James say. "There's a Hogsmeade trip this weekend. Would you care to join me?"

"In your dreams," she spat.

I had to cover my face with both of my hands to hide my grin.

****

My afternoon classes had passed rather quickly. I had Muggle Studies with Remus, Herbology with James, and Potions with all four of the boys. Thankfully and surprisingly, none of those professors had assigned homework.

The five of us were currently alone in the Gryffindor common room. Peter was reading in one of the fireside chairs. Remus was helping Sirius with his Transfiguration homework at one of the tables. James and I were sitting on the couch.

"So why were you looking so smug at lunch today?" I asked him.

Smirking slightly and running his hand through his hair, James said, "Did you see Snivellus in Potions today?"

Thinking back, I realized that I hadn't. "No," I answered.

"That's because he was probably hiding or visiting Madame Pomfrey. We turned his greasy hair red and gold." James said, obviously proud of himself.

Laughing, I high-fived him and said, "Absolutely amazing."

"Thanks."

Remus, who had apparently heard our conversation (most likely because of his werewolf senses), sighed his disapproval. But when I looked over, I saw that he was trying to hide his smile behind a book.