Illicit | 𝘚𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘶𝘴 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬

Chapter 5

Eleanor had no idea what to do. The three of them were staring down at her, waiting for a response, but she just couldn't think of anything to say.

"Well?" James pushed on.

She shook her head, "H-How- How did you-" then her eyes widened when she figured it out, "You!" she pointed at Sirius, "You followed me!" 

"And I had my reasons!" he yelled, slamming his fist down on the table, "I knew something was up the moment you said you were going to pay Remus a visit!"

She buried her face in her hands, tears rolling down her cheeks. This was getting too much for her, this wasn't how she planned things to go. They were never supposed to know!
More Gryffindors were walking in and out of the common room, throwing annoyed glances at them. They had to go somewhere else.
Like the boys had been reading her thoughts, Peter got her bag, James grabbed her stuff from the table, and Sirius helped her out of her chair. They walked up a flight of stairs and she was sat down on a bed. Sirius sat down next to her.

"H-He'll never f-forgive me," she sobbed, shaking a little.

Sirius gulped and put an arm around her, "Hey, hey it's okay," he said softly, "I-I'm sorry if I scared you, Ella, that was a bit foolish," he bit his lip.

"You don't say," Peter mumbled. 

James shot daggers at him with his eyes, "Yeah, I also want to apologize, Ella, I was being a bit of a git," he sat down on his bed. 

She looked up, not even bothered to dry her tears. Their dorm was an absolute mess. Clothes were everywhere, literally everywhere; on their beds, on the floor, on top of their desks, even on the windowsill. Not to mention their school supplies. 

"It looks like a pigsty in here," she said in between tears. 

"Hey, hey, that's our pigsty you're talking about okay?" Sirius said in an offended tone, which made her chuckle.

Sirius grinned, "Ah, see, she can laugh again!"

She smiled and shook her head. 

She sighed, "How did you even find out?" she asked, looking at Sirius. 

"Well, when I told you in the Library that Remus had left you said you were going to visit him," he explained, pulling his arm away from her, "Which was strange, because Remus had told us your mum had fallen ill again, and he was going home to look after her with your dad." 

Eleanor had a moment of realization and then nodded, "So you followed me to the Hospital Wing and eavesdropped on Madam Pomfrey and I talking." 

"Exactly," said Sirius. 

The four of them fell silent. 

"How did it happen? You know - the thing," Peter asked softly 

"Er, well," she cleared her throat, grabbing the attention of the others again, "When Remus was about five, dad had a case on Fenrir Greyback, who supposedly had murdered two children, but he portrayed himself as an innocent Muggle tramp. Only dad knew what he really was and he said 'the only thing werewolves deserved was death'," she gulped, "So when Greyback was released because there was no hard evidence on him, he took revenge on my father and he attacked Remus in the middle of the night." 

James looked down at his feet, feeling a bit uncomfortable. 

"Merlin..." Sirius whispered, "That's horrible," he looked up at Eleanor, who had been staring ahead of her all this time. 

"I don't understand why he didn't just tell us though, instead of coming up with those excuses every month," James frowned. 

"Well, it's quite obvious isn't it?" she said, "He's scared you'll leave him, and don't want to be his friends anymore." She wiped the last tears from her face.