swim || remus lupin

puddles

As the week progressed, Remus's spark died out rapidly. It was the small things that I noticed first: his loss of appetite in the mornings, the drastic difference at night as he devoured his meals, his slow and slippery handwriting in Astronomy, misplacing his glasses which were only two feet away from him, the silence in Charms class due to the lack of soft humming from the chair beside me. It wasn't until Thursday morning that I really analyzed his deterioration.

He stumbled into Divination a few minutes late, having no doubt slept through his first period free. He seemed to be swimming in his robes, which he generally filled, mismatched socks showing at the bottom due to a recent growth spurt. His hair was staticky and patchy, he had a rough looking stubble growing across his chin, and his dark eye bags were visible across the room even with the class's odd red lighting. He just looked entirely fragile, an extreme contrast from his normal, bubbling self. I could see now why the three boys did their best to make 'Wolf Week' run smoothly.

He gave a small wave to Professor Giando and shuffled over to the circular table where Sirius and I were sitting, doing his best to avoid attention from the other students.

"Page 92," I whispered, tapping my textbook. He shot me a small smile of gratitude and flipped his book open to the chapter on Ovomancy.

I found that I wasn't paying much attention to Giando's lecture, I didn't exactly believe that our futures could be foretold by an egg yolk - though Sybill seemed to linger on each word the professor spoke, her eyes wide as saucers. I droned out her mystery-filled voice and instead spent the class eyeing the brunette across from me.

His frown seemed engraved in his mouth as he scribbled down key points to cracking eggs, his handwriting messier than ever. I knew that there was no way he was invested at all in this lesson, but that he was likely keeping his head down to seem as inconspicuous as possible; it's what I would do.

I ripped off a scrap of my parchment and crumpled it up into a tiny ball, no bigger than a chocolate chip. I quickly surveyed the class; Giando was obliviously ranting about the color of the egg-white, Sybill was writing furiously, already on her fifth piece of parchment, a few Ravenclaw boys were passing notes with the girls at the table behind them, and Sirius was asleep beside me. I nudged the black haired boy and he peeked one eye open.

"Watch," I mouthed, nodding towards Remus. Sirius sat up a little straighter, glad to have some entertainment.

I took the small ball and placed it on the table. Closing one eye to aim better, I flicked the little paper at Remus and hit him right on the temple.

"Did you just growl at me?" I whisper-shouted. "Did he just growl at me?!" Sirius placed his hand over his mouth to muffle his laugh. I tore off another piece of paper and repeated the procedure: crumple, scan, set, fire.

"Oi, watch it," Remus whispered. I grinned.

"Or what?" He looked up from his paper, a smile spreading across his face as soon as his eyes laid on mine. He created a small ball of his own and threw it in my direction, missing by a mile.