Chocolate Covered Strawberries [Remus Lupin]

𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚝𝚢-𝚘𝚗𝚎

Chapter forty-one; The cigarette therapy

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The halls in the night were dark and cold and every little sound bounced off the walls. Jasmine decided against going to the kitchens as she spent every night there for the past couple of times. Every night she sat at the counter with hot cocoa in her hands and waited. She didn't bake as there was no one there to enjoy it with her, she just sat and watched the dark part of the kitchens. Remus never once showed up. She was stressed, she was losing sleep because of it, she didn't listen to classes because she was usually daydreaming and she could in no way concentrate. She couldn't even message him as he was in possession of the parchment and he didn't send her anything since. The source of the problem was clear, but the solution was nowhere to be seen.

There was a thumping sound that echoed through the halls and it made Jasmine stop walking. She hugged her torso to keep a bit warm as she turned her body around and inspected the source of the sound. Nothing was coming closer to her, which meant she avoided Filch entirely. She furrowed her eyebrows and slowly turned around again. Then she was met with a figure of another person. She screamed very loudly not expecting anything.

''Fuck you, Sirius!'' Jasmine shouted and put a hand over her fast-beating heart. She narrowed her eyes at a cackling Sirius in front of her, who found that it was fairly easy to scare Jasmine.

''Nah I'm good, Robyn already did that,'' Sirius replied before more chuckles escaped him.

Jasmine needed a few moments to get what he meant with the joke. Right after she groaned and practically refrained from hitting her forehead at the stupid joke. Once Sirius' laughter died, Jasmine thought took a more confusing turn.

''How did you know I was here?'' She asked raising her eyebrows at the Gryffindor who then took his place next to her as they walked further down the hall.

Hogwarts was enormous, with many halls and many secret passageways. There was a very low chance of running into each other at the same time of the night at the same place.

''I heard your footsteps a bit away and came to check.'' Sirius shrugged nonchalantly.

Jasmine furrowed her eyebrows even more. It sounded like an excuse because she was certain she walked silently through the halls at night. She perfected that skill a long time ago. Unbeknownst to her, a folded parchment was sticking out of Sirius' back pocket of his jeans. She decided to drop the subject and they fell into a comfortable silence. She had her head turned away looking out the giant windows at the dark sky.

''Smoke?'' Sirius asked.

Jasmine looked at him only to see a cigarette hanging out of his mouth and he was offering her an open pack. She scrunched up her nose and lightly shook her head, declining the idea. ''Since when do you smoke?'' She asked as Sirius lit his cigarette up with a lighter. She watched him puff out the cloud of smoke with a curious expression.

''Only when I'm really stressed or something,'' Sirius answered vaguely.

Jasmine nodded and looked away from him. His answer only produced questions in her mind of what could make Sirius be so stressed currently. The fact that he was out of bed was another factor, which meant he couldn't sleep due to his excessive thinking, something he and Jasmine shared. She thought back at their last encounter and let out a sigh.

''I'm sorry for yelling at you the last time.'' She apologised, feeling guilty for being so mean towards him.

Sirius looked sideways at her with a small smile tugging at his lips. He took another pull at his cigarette. ''It's fine really. I know you didn't mean it.''