crushed - remus lupin

-eighteen-

Something was wrong. Celeste could feel it.

And this time around, it wasn't a premonition, or a feeling about the future. The something wrong was with her. Now, don't worry, it was nothing serious... as far as she knew.

Celeste was, truthfully, feeling like shit. For one, it was her time of the month and those were always especially bad for her. And as for what else was bothering her, Celeste couldn't exactly figure it out. All she knew was that she felt like a weight was holding her down, and she didn't want to get out of bed.

She couldn't even stand up. Celeste was laid in her bed, curled around her pillow in a sort of fetal position. Celeste's roommates were very concerned, but they understood the circumstances. Emma, Lily, and Marlene were the best possible dorm mates you could have, they had all sent word to the professors and were staying in the room with Celeste, occasionally taking turns to leave the room and gather the things that were needed.

This time around, it was Lily's turn to make a run to the kitchens to grab some tea and chocolate.

She skipped down the stairs, hurrying past the couch, wanting to get back to Celeste as soon as possible.

"Wait! Lily!" A voice stopped her from climbing out of the portrait. There, sat in front of the couch, were the marauders, minus Celeste, looking very concerned.

"Is Celeste okay? None of you guys were in first period!" Remus looked frantic.

"Oh, yeah," Lily laughed awkwardly. "It's just... y'know... that time of the month."

The lack of education about this was obvious on the boys' faces.

"Wait... so it's true?!" James exclaimed loudly, causing Sirius to cover his ears.

"What's true?" Lily raised an eyebrow.

"That you all get it at the same time?!"

He didn't receive an answer, only Lily laughing loudly and wiping tears from her eyes.

After a moment, she had calmed down enough to answer. "No, we don't James. We're all just staying in because it's a particularly bad one and she needs some distraction."

"Is she going to die?" Sirius jumped up from the couch.

Obviously, Remus was educated enough to know she wasn't going to die, but when it came to Celeste, it somehow overrode his logic, so he started to worry. Remus was very freaked out for someone that dealt with a life-threatening condition once a month but again, he didn't seem to have any frame of reference for pain when it would affect Celeste.

At Remus' worried eyes, Lily rushed to reassure him that she was not, in fact, going to die.

As Lily left to go to the kitchens, Remus felt a little less stressed, but he couldn't help but worry about how she was feeling. Was she scared? Was she sad? Was she worried? Was she in pain? Oh, Godric, Remus hoped she wasn't in pain.

He had enough of waiting around with his thoughts.

"Sirius, do you remember how you got up to the girls dorms?"

"I like where this is going."

-

Lily, with armfuls of chocolate and mugs of tea, hummed as she entered the portrait.

Good thing that Lily was so quick on her feet, for if it was anyone else, they most likely would've dropped the things in their hands at the sight in front of her.

Remus, at this moment, was standing on a carpet.

Nothing out of the ordinary until you consider the fact that said carpet was five feet above the ground and slowly moving up the stairs.