CURSES AND CANDIES - REMUS LUPIN

𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑠𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛.

There were a few moments of horrible, empty silence following the sharp noise of disapparating in which Remus just stared at the blank space in front of him where Hollis had been only a few seconds earlier. His fingers that had been extended to help her fell limply to one side of his leg, purposeless without her hand in them.

"What just happened?" Marlene asked, still trying to wrap her head around how quickly everything had changed in just a few seconds. "Is she-"

"Gone," James finished with a small voice that was close to trembling.

After the shock had worn off, a wave of crippling dread wash over the Gryffindors so intense that Lily and Peter had to sit down on the bed Hollis had just been near only seconds ago. Sirius's eyes fell sadly on the book sitting on her bedside table, open to the picture of them hugging a few hours earlier.

"Is it really going to be three months until we see her again?" Peter asked, rubbing his eyes. "Because the only point of her coming back to school was to socialize, because she didn't have to take N.E.W.T.'s."

"No, we have to see her before that," Sirius said, his voice starting to get desperate. "What if Remus was right, and there won't be any Rosiers next year?"

James looked at his friend and reluctantly shook his head.

"We can't see her again like that, Pads, it didn't work out well either time-"

The time it took James to realize how severely he just messed up was a minuscule fraction of a second, but it had happened none the less. Next to him, Sirius rubbed a hand over his eyes, knowing that this reveal was inevitable.

Their secret they had been keeping since last summer was out.

Remus wasn't sure if he had heard quite right, blinking a few times to register what James had just said to Sirius.

"What did you just say?" he asked in a lethally low tone that he had never used while speaking to either of the boys before. "What do you mean, either time?"

"Wait, what are you guys talking about?" Lily asked, deeply confused. "You didn't go to Rosier Manor, did you?"

The trio that had indeed done this exchanged a glance before James turned to the redhead.

"Excuse us in the hallway for a moment, love."

And before she, Peter, or Marlene could protest, they were out the door in only a few seconds.

"When did you go there before all three of us did?" Remus said coldly. "When?"

Deciding the Lupin was only going to get madder if they tried to lie to him more than they already had, so Sirius just went for honesty.

"Last summer," he replied, running a hand through his dark hair as the nervousness for his and Remus's friendship made the pit in his stomach of Hollis being gone even larger.

Remus raised his eyebrows in complete disbelief.

"Why didn't it go well?" he prompted, almost scared to hear the answer.

James shut his eyes briefly, but quickly opened them again as the scene of Hollis laying on the ground painted itself on the black canvas of his eyelids.

"The same reason it didn't last time, mate," James muttered, and Remus's eyes widened.

"And, let me get this straight, you just left her there?"

Yes, Sirius thought, almost with tears in his eyes. And it's the biggest mistake I've ever made in my entire life.

Remus correctly assumed that their silence was confirmation, and he had never felt so angry towards them in his entire life.