Ineffable | Remus Lupin

XXI

Ingrid had begun to miss her old high school. It may have been falling apart, overcrowded, and got abysmal results, but in a weird way that was what made it good. There was no point in her putting in any effort, because she'd probably fail either way.
Hogwarts, on the other hand, was a whole lot of stress.

Not only was she four years behind her classmates, Ingrid was stressed about the letter she'd posted to Theodore Horowitz a couple of days ago. It had taken approximately fourteen draft letters and two days of procrastination before Ingrid sent the letter, and every waking minute since it had been on her mind.
How quickly would he reply? Would he reply at all? What would he say?

On top of all of this, Ingrid was also battling an increasing amount of headaches. Not only was this generally just a pain to deal with, it also wasn't helping her academic progress as it often resulted in her missing lessons - sometimes days at a time.

Now there was another source of stress for Ingrid. Professor Flitwick had asked her to stay behind after the day's lesson. Sure, it could have been worse. Flitwick was perhaps one of Ingrid's favourite teachers, mainly because he'd stopped calling on her to answer questions in class and he generally left her to her own devices. Sometimes she'd even read textbooks completely unrelated to the lesson she was in, and begrudgingly Flitwick would let this slide as long as handed in her work on time.

Anyway, that was were Ingrid found herself that afternoon. Sat on the top of her desk in the empty Charms classroom, waiting for Flitwick to emerge from his office.

As if sensing her growing impatience, Flitwick emerged from his office, spotted Ingrid waiting for him, and made his was over.
"There's something I want to ask you, though I don't expect you to have an answer right now." He began, somewhat ominously.
Ingrid frowned at her Head of House, "Well why ask it then?"

Flitwick clasped his hands together in front of him and took in a deep breath, maintaining his patience, before he asked, "What career do you envisage yourself having?"

"Career?" Ingrid had not been expecting that. She'd been expecting to be shouted at for being generally terrible at magic. She stammered, "I have never thought about it. What do wizards do for jobs - besides teaching?"
A glimmer momentarily appeared in Flitwick's eyes. He'd wanted to chuckle at the girl's remark, but thought better of it. "Lots of people pursue ministerial careers." He explained, "Or there are careers in sports and the arts, similar to muggles, or you could work at St. Mungo's."

Ingrid frowned. She wasn't particularly keen on any of those suggestions. The Ministry sounded like bureaucratic nonsense. She didn't like sports, and was no good at and had to patience for the arts.
"What's... What's St. Mungo's?"
Flitwick explained, "A... Wizarding version of a hospital."

Ingrid frowned more severely. "So they just wave their wands and cure people?"
"It's more complicated than that." He explained, "But that is a small part of their practice, yes."

Slowly, Ingrid could feel something bubbling up in the pit of her stomach. It wasn't quite anger... It wasn't that extreme. It wasn't quite a sense of regret either... More a feeling of quite sadness at the injustice.
"What about normal people? A-about muggles?" Ingrid asked.
"Muggles?"
She clarified, "Why don't you guys use your-your magic and whatnot to help muggles? To heal them?"

"It's of the utmost importance and safety that the wizarding world remains a secret from the muggles. Particularly at this moment in time."

Really? Seriously? A couple of hours later, as Ingrid wandered the corridors by herself, she couldn't shake those thoughts from the front of her mind. She couldn't stop thinking about the hundreds, thousands of muggle lives that could have been saved with the help of magic. Ingrid wondered if she'd known she was a witch at the time, could she have saved Willow?

"Hey, Temple! Hold up!"

Ingrid didn't need to turn around to know that it was Sirius Black coming towards her.

"I was just-just going to see James and Pete, but... What are you up to?" He asked as Ingrid finally, and slowly, turned to face him.
She didn't answer the boy, and asked her own question instead, "Where is Remus?"

"Remus? What do you want with him?" Sirius asked, and then held a hand over his collarbones as he cleared his throat.
"Well, he offered to help me with some studying and... Turns out I could really use that right now." Ingrid explained, "I've just had another lecture from Flitwick."
Sirius replied, "Oh, well, Remus isn't around."

Ingrid frowned, "I can see that," she gestured to their surroundings, "But where is he?"
"Busy." Sirius blurted out, "He's-he's in the common room and really, really doesn't want to be bothered."

"Hope that sounds believable."

Believable? It wasn't. Well, Ingrid thought, clearly Remus was avoiding her. In which case, he could get lost.

"Right..." She tutted.
"Can..." Sirius combed a hand through his hair, "Can I help with something?"
"Everything, preferably." Ingrid replied.

Then, Sirius had a rather cheeky lightbulb moment.
"I'm sure I can manage that. Some say I'm as smart as I am handsome." He shrugged nonchalantly.
Ingrid raised an eyebrow, "So you're not smart at all?"

"Don't-" Sirius pointed at her, but couldn't help smirking, "Don't try to be funny."
She scoffed, "I don't need to try; it just comes naturally."

"Anyway... Back to what I was going to say. I can offer you some tutoring, if that's what you need. Then, maybe, you might say yes to a date with me?"

Ingrid raised an eyebrow. "That sounds awfully close to blackmail." She remarked as she folded her arms across her chest.
"What? No! Don't be stupid - it's not blackmail." He retorted.
Ingrid was pretty certain she didn't want to date Sirius. At all. But she also couldn't afford to flake out of Hogwarts before she got all the information she could from Theodore Horowitz. And in that moment she was annoyed at Remus, and she'd forgotten completely about Marlene.
So she said, "Ok, alright. You get Flitwick to leave me alone and I'll agree to a date. Just one."

Sirius beamed and chuckled, "It'll be more than one date just soon enough."
Ingrid grumbled under her breath, "Just shoot me now."

"Right, come on then, I might be able to steal a few textbooks from Evans." Sirius smiled smugly, "Then maybe we can plan... Oh! What about Hogsmeade on Sunday?"
Ingrid frowned, "Is Hogsmeade that stupid little nowhere you guys all go to on the weekend?"
He chuckled, "That's the one."

As they began walking along the corridor, Ingrid shook her head and explained, "I don't have one of those permission slips to go."
"That's alright." He nudged her gently in the side with his shoulder, "I know a way of getting there without anybody knowing."

"Really?"
"Really. Trust me."

"Alright, nerd," Ingrid smiled at last, "You tutor me today, and you buy me drinks in four days."
Sirius sighed, and then agreed, "Deal."