A girl, not very noticeable to most, sits at the end of the Gryffindor table and eats her breakfast in silence. Her black hair curtains around her face as she keeps her dark blue eyes fixed on the sketchbook in her lap. The quill in her hand dances across her paper as she sketches a small bird, not looking away from the drawing even to take another bite of her toast, or dip her quill in ink. She doesn't indulge in the many conversations going on around her, choosing instead to immerse herself in the sketchbook under the table. The girl is a natural wallflower with her petite frame and seemingly weak appearance, and many of the other students around the hall overlook her easily. All except for one friendly redhead.

"Salus!" Lily Evan calls as she enters into the great hall, "Why didn't you wait for me?"

"You were asleep when I left," Salus replies, not looking up as Lily sits down next to her. Salus' quiet voice matches her small size, and even though she tries to speak in a mock-scolding voice, the small smile tugging at her lips gives her away, "Next time get up with me."

"At the ungodly hour you wake up? No thanks," Lily jokes.

Lily is one of the few people that converses with Salus, but the quiet girl has no problem with that. They grew up in the same area, sticking to each other even from a young age, and after sharing a dorm room as well they've become very good friends. The other Gryffindors either ignore Salus because of her brother, or don't notice her. Sitting at the Slytherin table for dinner to be with her brother doesn't help her reputation, but luckily Lily doesn't mind. Especially since her brother is Severus Snape, who Lily used to be close to.

The snickers of the group of boys further down the Gryffindor table catches Salus' attention, and manages to break her away from her drawing. The four boys; James Potter, Sirius Black, Peter Pettigrew, and Remus Lupin, speak between themselves with hushed excitement. Their muffled laughs catch Lily's attention as well, and her friendly expression quickly turns into a frown. Salus easily picks up her friend's sour mood and hums a silent laugh.

"That Potter boy still fancy you?" She asks already knowing the answer, closing her sketchbook and returning to her breakfast of plain toast, trying to ignore the boys laughs.

"Yes," Lily replies bitterly, "Though I think fancy is a bit of a stretch. I think the arrogant toerag just enjoys infuriating me."

"Yes, that must be it," Salus says, the hint of sarcasm on her tone. James has fancied Lily for a while now, going to the extent of publicly declaring his love for her in the Great Hall more than once, and hearing Lily complain about him has become a daily occurrence. Sometimes it becomes difficult to tell whether Lily despises James, or loves the attention but is trying to hide it. Salus decided to go with despise, as the latter decision seems unlikely. But lately she has begun to wonder if Lily was beginning to fancy him, but was trying to deny it, or hadn't realized it yet.

"What do you think they're up to now?" Lily grumbles, ignoring the silent girl's comment.

"Who knows? We'll just have to wait and see." Salus lies easily. She had seen Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter sneak into the Great Hall early that morning before anyone else arrived, and put sticking charms on all of the slytherin benches. They didn't seem to see her enter the Great Hall shortly after them, as they made no indication they had seen her.

By now Salus had been witness to countless number of the boy's pranks, to the point that she knows when they're coming, but had never actually talked to any of them outside of a classroom. And even then it was only short questions on an assignment or group work. At most, her and Remus sometimes studied together during class or in the library, but Salus doesn't consider that any kind of real friendship as they never speak about personal matters. Simply, they have an understanding of priorities.

Usually most of the boy's pranks and jokes were directed at the Slytherins so Salus' never had to deal with the other three directly, but she usually has to try and warn Severus when she sees one coming. Well, at least the ones directed only at him. If it's Slytherin as a whole then she doesn't bother, but when they start to bully Severus she usually tries to stop them before it happens. Unfortunately she doesn't always stop them fast enough. Luckily, they haven't yet noticed her small sabotages to their pranks, even though she'd be an easy suspect. One of the advantages of being an extreme wallflower.

None of the Slytherins have tried to leave their table yet, so no one is yet aware of the charm holding them in place. Salus muses at the image of the Slytherins once they try to stand up; tipping over the benches and falling to the floor, cursing loudly and angrily at all of the students laughing at their misfortune. As entertaining as that would be, Salus decides, there are more important things to be doing. Salus stands from the table, and quickly finishes off the rest of her breakfast.

"Where are you off to?" Lily asks.

"Dorms, forgot my potions book. See you in class," she replied simply before leaving the Great Hall. Most find it rude when Salus talks with short, to the point, responses, but after knowing each other for so many years, Lily has grown used to it. She's also used to the short girl disappearing for different lengths of time, but no longer questions her about it. Especially since Salus used to be much more silent and secretive then she is now.

Salus made the trip up to the seventh floor of the castle at a leisurely pace, thankfully with no interruptions, and she made it up into her dorm room. Salus' bed is set against a wall next to Lily's bed, and unlike some of the other Gryffindor girls, both Lily's and Salus' parts of the room were exceptionally tidy. The only form of clutter on Salus' part of the room was a stack of sketchbooks piled on her bedside cabinet, along with a few pictures attached to the stone wall. Most of the drawings on her wall were of different kinds of birds or magical creatures, and most had been enchanted to move. Two of her favourites being a black hippogriff that would rear up flap its enormous wings, and one of a small red hummingbird that flew around a purple flower. Salus' interest in magical creatures showed through most of her drawings, and she always got top marks in Care of Magical Creatures no matter what the assignment was. Her sketchbooks, however, were usually filled with darker themes that she would not show anyone else.

Salus abandoned her sketch book on her bedside cabinet with the rest, so she wouldn't get distracted by it in class, and quickly grabs her potions textbook and old rucksack with quills and parchment in it. She exited the dorm and went down to the common room only to find four unexpected people waiting for her. Waiting at the bottom of the girls stairs were Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter. James and Sirius were whispering amongst themselves, Peter cutting in to add a comment or two, and Remus was standing to the side with an uncaring expression, but they all stop once they notice Salus coming down the stairs.

"Salus, right? You're one of Lily's mates?" James ask, trying to pull a friendly smile on his face, but Salus can easily tell its strained.

"Yes?" she asks, folding her arms across her chest uncomfortably.

"I, uh, I wanted to talk to you about Lily," he says uncertainly.

Salus responds by raising one black eyebrow as a signal to continue, but kept her expression emotionless and cool.

"Well, I just wanted to ask you some questions," he says, stuffing his hands in his pockets uncomfortably, "Like why she seems to hate me?"

"Even someone as daft as you should be able to figure that out, Potter," Salus responds, a small, complacent smirk tugging at her lips. Salus has never really liked the group of boys, an exception being Remus, because of their targeting of her brother.

Peter's face scrunched up angrily, "I told you she wouldn't help! She's Snivellus' sister, after all."

Salus fixes her glare on Peter, her least favourite of the group because of the nasty attitude he's shown her, who sneers back at her, "If you're trying to get my help, you're not doing a very good job of impressing me. Are you?"

Salus steps around them and heads for the exit, no longer interested in whatever they had to say. She's stopped abruptly by a hand lightly grabbing her forearm, just tight enough to stop her. She spins to meet James who looks at her pleadingly, and rips her arm from his grip.

"Please," he says, "Just some kind of knowledge, something she likes or dislikes maybe? Something to at least start a conversation?"

Salus is about to snap at him, but stops herself when she sees his pleading face.

"Fine," she sighed, instantly regretting her decision, "Your immature. Lily thinks you act similarly to a child, which I agree with, and won't consider dating you unless you grow up."

"Immature?" Sirius repeats.

"Well you did put a sticking charm on the Slytherin benches just this morning, so yes," Salus says, her eyebrows scrunched together, "Plus you constantly target Severus, who was close to Lily. It's not that difficult to figure out, Black."

James looks a little surprised that she actually answered his earlier question and says, "Thanks, I think?"

"I don't really care what you do with this information, but if you hurt Lily in any way I'll insure you never see her again," Salus says, the intimidation in her voice cut in half because of her short stature.

"I won't." James says, a little taken back from the feistiness of the usually silent girl, "Thanks, I owe you one."

Salus simply nods in response and leaves the dorms, feeling tired of the three boys and James' ridiculous attempts at impressing Lily. Salus didn't know why she bothered telling James when it's obvious Lily won't fall for something like that. It takes a lot more than that to sway Lily, even if she may fancy him a bit already. It's probably because he looked so pitiful pleading her like that.

Remus finally speaks up and asks the other three boys, once Salus had left, the question none of them had realized, "Was Salus even in the room when the Slytherins stood from the table?"

The other three Gryffindors looked at each other, none of them knowing the answer.