BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE - REMUS LUPIN

𝑜𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑓𝑖𝑓𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑟.

Remus Lupin and Hollis Rosier had both made a habit of staring up at their star over the last week of Christmas Break. 

And thinking about how much they loved each other. 

But Hollis was also thinking about why she could never tell him, especially once they were back at Hogwarts. 

Because Remus was brilliant and beautiful and deeply kind. 

Yet he also held so much hatred for those not on his side of the war.

It had taken Hollis months of proving herself through white bandages, clever pranks, defiant spells, secret animagi lessons, and fierce protection of her friends to earn his trust. Thinking more closely, Hollis also realized that it hadn't been just these good times to get that trait, but also many bad times. The many alarmingly realistic nightmares, trips to the hospital wing, and tiny triggers set off by the tiniest jokes or mentions of exaggerated trauma. 

Not necessarily to earn his trust, perhaps, but to rid the automatic hatred.

Now, after all of that, where they were now, Hollis didn't think that she could tell him that she loved him, ever. Not because she was too scared or unsure of the feeling to admit it to him, not that at all. Hollis had never been so sure about something in her whole life.

No, she was scared that Remus would say that he loved her back.

And Hollis didn't think she could bear that.

It might all be okay if they weren't in the middle of a war.

The prejudice against muggleborns and pureblood Slytherins were much more alike than many people would care to admit. Not in the traits they assumed, but the wide acceptance of the stereotypes. 

Pureblood Slytherins were always predeterminedly arrogant, cunning assholes who would torment halfbloods and muggleborns alike to get the message of their superiority across. Now that reputation had only skyrocketed in its truthfulness during the war, making Slytherins even more hated than usual.

They were all also assumed to be Death Eaters, making the fear of these purebloods increased, along with the loathing. And the fact that so many of them regularly flaunted their Dark Marks didn't exactly help the matter there.

Remus believed in Hollis as the exact exception to this, no matter the cost. It was one of the reasons why he loved her so much. 

So if Hollis proved him wrong with the tattoo on her forearm she was afraid all that love would go away.

If Remus told Hollis that he loved her, then that would only make the truth that he loved only the girl he knew more painful.

Even though it was dull, the letter opener was thrown with such force that it buried itself in the door once more.

.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡　　　ﾟ+..｡*ﾟ+

Ever since Remus's outburst on Christmas Eve, the Lupin and the Potter parents had both truly realized the urgency of the situation. 

Even though their sons did not know it, Fleamont, Lyall, Hope, and Euphemia were doing everything they could to figure out a day to figure out a way to somehow investigate or dethrone the Rosiers from their prestigious positions in the ministry. The Lupins, to James and Sirius's delight, had opted to just stay at the manor for Christmas.

The boys didn't know what their parents were up to.

In Potter Manor, the coffee table had become their unspoken brainstorming place covered in old newspapers and books on magical law. It was a very tricky thing to go after a family like the Rosiers, with their high amount of power and reputation of being loyal supporters of Voldemort. People were scared if they tried to hold them accountable, their families or friends would disappear.