just like me || remus lupin

what are you so happy about?

Just as Lily expected, Cerise was the last one to get ready out of all of them. She was also the last one to wake up this morning out of all of them. She crashed at some godly hour in the middle of the night and thought no one noticed, but Lily did. She just didn't have the heart to confront her about it. She also didn't have the courage to confront her about the awful smell that was omitted from her.

Cerise quickly cupped a handful of water and splashed it onto her face, not caring that her uniform (also the thing she went to sleep in), got drenched. She quickly changed out of the outfit and put on a sweater vest with a pair of baggy jeans. She attempted to tie her hair up but couldn't as she didn't realize how short her hair actually was. She sighed before quickly combing her hair and walking down to catch up with her fleeing roommates.

The girls talked about small things; boys, homework, clothing. All things Cerise was in fact interested in, but she felt too groggy to insert herself into the conversation. She did like how normal her friends were acting even after last night. It felt oddly refreshing. Her grouchiness partially faded away seeing her very best Slytherin friend walking down the halls looking spectacularly bored talking to some other Slytherins. She let go of Lily's arm and scurried over to her.

"Rosie!" Cerise said jumping up onto the poor Slytherin. They both toppled back with a few people around them snickering.

"Woah, Bug. Why are you in such a good mood?" Rosie said straightening herself up.

Cerise stumbled off the girl with a widened grin on her face. "Happy early birthday, silly!"

Rosie softly laughed. "Thanks, Bug. But you could've waited a day later for the big exclamation. People are staring, y'know." They both turned to see a bunch of other students watching them from afar, more specifically, the few Slytherins Rosie was originally walking with.

"Yeah, people also thought we were dating for at least four years, so who cares what they think." Cerise chuckled.

"Y'know, the offer for that rumor to come true is still available-," Cerise cut her off with a hand shoved into Rosie's face.

"You wish," Cerise joked as Rosie waved her hand away. "As I remember, you smelt a certain Gryffindor boy in your amortentia rather than moi," Cerise clenched the area of her sweater vest where her heart was and dramatically wept fake cries.

"Not true."

"Really?" Cerise smirked.

"Really," Rosie said before walking away from her towards the Great Hall. The Slytherins she originally was walking with annoyingly tapped their shoes a few feet away waiting for Rosie. Cerise saw them waiting but still decided to walk by her friend's side.

"Don't you have somewhere to be, Gryffindor?" One of the green-tied boys scolded. Cerise glanced up and recognized the boy's long black shaggy hair. She recognized his facial structure and immediately put a name to his face.

That name being Regulus Black.

"Yeah, right next to my friend over here so why don't you mind your business, Black?" Cerise coldly shot back.

Cerise used to be friendly with Regulus their first year but stopped once he developed his family's blood prejudice. Now, she gets all her information about him from Sirius, who constantly rants to her about his brother's antics. She was always thankful that Sirius turned out better than his family and rather than resenting Regulus, she felt almost sorry for him. At first glance, the hate in his eyes was the first thing you would see when you look at him, but as you look closer, you can see something different. Something scared. She just didn't care enough to figure out what.