turning page | A REMUS LUPIN STORY

xxvii. PAST LIVES

Her thoughts should have been on her upcoming trip. Around her, things went on normally: Margo had arrived and was sat on the cushion sofa, and Esme fussed over her. Alexander sat to her left, hands holding another muggle novel she wasn't familiar with. It was evening now, and soup cooked on the stove, everything acting the way it always had.

Adeline couldn't listen to whatever they had to say. Such trivial matters of what shoes they would be bringing away were the absolute last thing on her mind – her head clouded and fogged by the thought of Remus Lupin.

Surely it was bizarre that he made her so dizzy. Seeing him once was enough to distract her entire being from the reality around her, wondering silently when she'd see him again, and whether he was glad to see her in the first place.

Did he think about her? Adeline felt like a silly schoolgirl, acting the way she had around Charlie Weasley, except it felt much more mature. She had to remind herself of how he wasn't interested, how he'd pushed her away.

Head rested on her hand, and she blinked slowly, the conversation around her blurring into one long, uninteresting sound. She thought about how she felt around Remus, more like herself than ever.

"Are you going to bring your trainers too, Ade?" Her mother's voice somehow pierced through the muffled noise, and she snapped out of her trance, eyes averting to Esme and Margo.

"Hm?" Adeline offered an expression of confusion, with one long blink, before nodding. "Oh, yeah. Probably."

She stood, walking towards the kitchen to avoid any questions. More recently, it seemed common practice to leave somewhere to prevent more interrogation. Adeline hadn't wanted to be around her parents, positive of their lies, and she didn't want Alexander probing her about Lupin.

To her dismay, she was followed into the room. Alex and Margo grinned towards her, seating themselves at the kitchen island. She turned to face them, offering a smile.

"Aren't you just so excited? This time tomorrow we'll be in Paris!" exclaimed the dark-haired girl, eyes bright.

"Of course, I am." Adeline said in return, lifting a hand to turn the spoon in the big metal pot of soup. She moved absent-mindedly, clearly with a scattered mind. Alex furrowed his brows as he watched her, and Margo observed the two in curiosity.

"Alright, what's going on with you two?" She shouted suddenly, clearly unable to handle the uncomfortable tension much longer. "You're acting peculiar, both of you."

She shook her head, and Alex shrugged his shoulders. Margo snorted.

"Nothing." Adeline said quietly.

"Adeline's been acting strange all day." countered Alex.

She gave him a look. "No I haven't."

Had she? Perhaps she wasn't as good at masking her emotions as she'd once thought. Eyes darted down to the pot to her side, nervous to face the gaze of either of her friends - Margo, of course, knew about Lupin. Alex didn't. In that moment she felt foolish, blushing over a man who had such little interest in being in her life. Was she a fool for caring about somebody who made her feel a way she never had before? 

"I've just had a lot of stuff going on at home." Adeline urged her friends, looking towards the door to see if they were alone, and satisfied that they were, she continued to tell them about her arguments with her parents. "Mum - she knows Sirius Black. I'm not sure how - she won't tell me. And she knows Lupin. They're both hiding things from me."

Margo's expression was one of surprise, and Alex looked troubled in response. "What?" said her best friend, and she leaned forward to hear more. "How do you know?"