Ineffable | Remus Lupin

XV

Staring at herself in the mirror, Ingrid could feel her confidence dwindling. She had been thinking about doing this for some time at this point, but had kept putting it off.
Yesterday, Remus had seemed to reappear around the corridors of Hogwarts, and this had finally prompted the girl into action.

"Well..." Ingrid pushed her bright hair behind her shoulders, "Time to suck it up."
She couldn't keep sitting around with this idea swimming around in her mind - she was too impatient for dawdling. So, she adjusted her jacket over her shoulders, turned away from the mirror, and exited the bathroom. It was a Friday afternoon, and Ingrid knew exactly where Remus would be at that time of day.

It wasn't a long walk down to the library, but it did take her a long time to located Remus - tucked away in a far, shadowed corner of the library.

After another night confined to the Shrieking Shack, followed by a couple of days in the Hospital Wing, Remus Lupin was finally back up and about. He had been trying to keep out of the way for one very obvious region. That moment, he caught sight of his reflection in the window to the side of him and saw the vibrant red cut that ran down the side of his face - carving its way from his temple to his chin.

"Hey, Remus."

He looked up. Connected his gaze with Ingrid's. Lifted his right hand to up to cup half of his face and propped his elbow up on the table. "Hi." He greeted with a faint smile.

"I know this, er... This might seem a bit weird." Ingrid pulled out a chair and sat down opposite him, "And you can tell me to piss off if you want, but I just wanted to tell you this."

Remus frowned. He adjusted his hair to mask as much of the cut down his face as he could, and then lowered his hand as he tilted his head to the side slightly. "I don't think I'll tell you to piss off." He replied.
"Good, because that would not actually go down well." She let out a slight laugh.

"So," Remus rubbed the back of his neck, "What was it you wanted to tell me?"

"About... Two years ago now... Ish - I was fourteen. Anyway, I'd been living in this one home for over a year. It was the longest I'd stayed anywhere, and it was where I met my best friend..." Ingrid paused for a moment and, as she thought about what she wanted to say next, she twirled a strand of her hair around her finger, "One evening we were in the backseat of this car and some other kids from the area were there too. I didn't know the guy who was driving the car - he was older and... Anyway... The details aren't important here, but there ending up being this horrible car crash."

Part of Remus wanted to say something. He was tempted to interject and tell Ingrid she didn't need to tell this story if it was uncomfortable. Part of him wanted to inform her that he was sorry for what had happened, even though he'd played no role in it. But, more importantly, the smart part of him could see that Ingrid needed to tell this story, and that she needed to spill it in one go. So he sat patiently and waited. He listened on.

"My best friend... She was called Willow and.... Was. Well, that's... That's not the point of this." She stumbled over her words and forced her gaze down to the table, "I ended up hurting my leg pretty bad - it's fine now, obviously - and I've got this pretty big scar that runs nearly the whole way down my leg. I used to absolutely hate it but it was pretty easy to cover up. Then, I thought about it and realised it was nothing to deliberately cover up or be ashamed of. It just reminds me of how I survived, and now I think it's pretty badass."

Despite the sadness that was swimming in Remus' eyes, he couldn't mask the small smile that had grown across his face. It finally lit up his expression as he turned to face her fully and allowed the red scar down his face to come into the light. "I get what you're trying to say, I do, but-"