CURSES AND CANDIES - REMUS LUPIN

𝑒𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡𝑦.

Even though the students of Hogwarts lived around ghosts and encountered them every single day in the hallways, there was nothing like seeing a person they believed to have been killed standing right in front of them, alive.

Barely alive, actually.

When hundreds of eyes fell on Hollis, their faces paled and eyes widened.

Her inky black, coily hair had been pulled back into a tight bun with a few stray strands that had fallen out to frame her face as if she had been running for hours. The smooth, tawny skin on her face was streaked with tears cutting through the streaks of smoky ash, and her eyelashes were plastered down.

The sweatpants and loose shirt she had been wearing for days were both badly torn, from many stomach turning reasons that were easy to infer upon.

For one, the leg of her pants had been scalded by fire to reveal skin that had been charred and made raw on her shin, evidence of an incredible hot flame searing through her flesh that went along with the streaks of soot all over her body.

There was a tear in the left shoulder of her fabric, with a deep cut with dried blood all around it to show that it had been no simple rip and instead an attack.

Sitting on her chest was a locket no student recognized, but could almost feel the evil energy radiating off of. They all told themselves it was just an odd feeling only they were getting at seeing the Rosier, and shared it with no one.

The only five immune to this confusion was James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, and Lily.

Because to them, it was simple.

Hollis was back.

She wasn't dead.

She was here.

And there were no possible words that could describe the amount of relief flooding their minds like a dam bursting. The hope they had been building up for weeks had been slowly starting to fade, but now they were glad that they hadn't given up on her, even if they might have been hours away from doing so.

Just as they stood up though, two words came out of her mouth in a cold tone that was completely emotionless, lacking even pain they had been expecting from her physical state.

Whatever happened in those weeks had made her as hard as stone.

"He's dead."

Not a single person in the Great Hall knew who she was talking about besides the Gryffindors.

This unknown person made a stream of panic course through the students and faculty of Hogwarts, with shocked whispers and horrified glances exchanged all in the mere fraction of a second that had passed since Hollis opened the doors.

Before anyone could do anything about these words, though, they turned their heads back to her with alarm.

The crippling effect of the bloodroot had been amplified by emotion somehow, perhaps an enchantment Voldemort had added to make the drinker even weaker than before.

Remus snapped out of his shock at both the appearance and news that had occurred in the past second in an instant as he saw Hollis's leg shake slightly, knowing that she was in a severe condition and needed help immediately. 

Scrambling up from his seat faster than anyone thought humanly possible, Remus caught her from hitting the stone floor with only a second to spare.

The relief at her being in his arms was replaced by the dread at how alarmingly limp she was and the way the breath was just barely raking in and out of her lips.