Queen of Disaster | 𝑅𝑒𝑚𝑢𝑠 𝐿𝑢𝑝𝑖𝑛

Chapter 28

December had brought with itself a heavy snow that covered the whole castle in white, freezing the Black Lake all over on that beautiful morning. Some had woken up earlier than usual, going to the courtyard to play or to build snowmen, or for ice-skating. But not the Marauders.

    Remus was a patient boy, but it was Sunday so Sirius was still sound asleep in bed and James was taking longer than ever to get ready, trying to make his messy jet-black hair look its best as he stood in front of the mirror.

    Peter, who had fallen behind in doing his homework, was sitting on his bed with his head bent low on his parchment as he tried to finish his Herbology essay, copying some parts of it from Remus's homework.

"For God's sake, Prongs! Could you please hurry up? I'm starving," Remus implored, letting out a sigh of exhaustion.

"Almost done, Moony," said James without looking away from the mirror, and Remus got the feeling that he was nowhere near being done.

The funny part was that his hair never looked any different, no matter what he did. It was always messy, and James loved it that way.

     Remus begged Peter to hurry up as well and tried to wake Sirius up, but it made no difference.

His patience wearing out, Remus grabbed his bag and threw it over his shoulders. "I'm going down to the Great Hall myself. And wake Sirius up, will you? He'll sleep till noon if you leave him."

James waved him off with a lazy shake of his hand and Peter muttered a small 'okay', but the only response he got from Sirius was a loud snore.

    With one of his favorite baggy sweaters on and his hands in his pockets, Remus walked down the marble staircase and into the entrance hall, following the rest of the chattering students into the Great Hall.

     On Saturdays and Sundays when they didn't have classes, everyone usually wore their own clothes. But Remus had noticed throughout the last few week that the only person who chose to wear her school uniform even on the days off, was Diana Greengrass.

     He had never seen her in anything except for her trousers, white buttoned-up shirt, and Slytherin tie. On cold days she wore the school's black sweater or her cloak, but she never seemed to be wearing any clothes of her own, which made him wonder about its reason.

     Remus walked into the Great Hall, taking a seat at the Gryffindor table. He took his bag off his shoulders and placed it on the floor beside his feet, but only after taking a book out of it to read over breakfast, with a cup of coffee in hand as he sipped on it occasionally.

     He was almost done with his meal, but his friends still hadn't showed up. As if losing control of his own eyes, Remus suddenly looked up from his book for a second, glancing over at the Slytherin table. 

    Before he could search the crowd for the person he was looking for, Remus's head jolted up when someone called out loudly, "Oi! Moony!"

     Looking up, Remus saw James and Sirius emerging through the Great Hall doors with Peter pacing quickly right behind them, trying to catch up. They were coming his way with a sharp and knowing expression on their faces that made him nervous.

    He was in trouble.

    "So," Sirius started, dropping himself on the seat opposite Remus and James sat beside him along with Peter, all of them facing Remus. Although Peter was avoiding Remus's eyes for some reason.

    "So what?" Remus said in a controlled voice as he closed his book and placed it down on the table, starting to feel worried and uncomfortable at the way the two boys were looking at him. Although he tried not to show the worry on his face.

     "So when were you going to tell us!?" James demanded irritably.

     "Tell you what?" Remus mused.

     "Don't play dumb, Moony!" Sirius snapped. "We know. Peter told us."

     Remus paled. It took him everything to go on speaking in a casual tone, "Told you what?"

     James rolled his eyes. "He told us that you like someone!"

    Remus turned to glare at Peter's direction, who was now blushing.

    "I'm sorry. It — it slipped out," said Peter, still avoiding Remus's eyes.

     "Well?" James raised a questioning brow at him, ignoring Peter or the furious look on Remus's face. "Who is it? And when were you going to tell us?"

     "There's no one!" Remus retorted, his heart racing as he tried to contain his gaze from wondering over the Slytherin table.

     Knowing his friends, Remus was sure that if they found out, they would either make fun of him in front of her or would tell him that he'd gone crazy for liking a Slytherin girl. Specially a pureblood and possibly prejudice Slytherin girl.

     With that thought brewing in his head, Remus halted, freezing on the spot. He knew that the whole Wizarding world feared werewolves. But only now he realized that families such as the Greengrass family despised halfbreeds such as him.

    He couldn't allow himself to catch feelings for her. If she found out what he truly was...

    Remus shook his head at the thought, an ache going through his heart like a sharp blade.

  "Go on, then. Tell us!" James urged him on, the curiosity almost bursting out of him.

     "I told you! I don't like anyone!" Remus protested helplessly.

     Sirius gave him a look. "Moony, we're Marauders. Do you think we can't detect a lie when we see one?"

     "Yeah, Moony. We found out your deepest darkest secret about your furry problem when we were twelve," said James. "How long do you think this is gonna take us to find out?"

     "Never! Because there is no secret to be found!" Remus snapped with irritation before grabbing his book and bag, getting up to his feet briskly.

     "Where are you going?" Sirius called after him as Remus started to walk away, making his way toward the Great Hall's doors.

     "Library!" he shouted back, disappearing out of sight.

     James sighed in annoyance, making a move to stand up as well to inquire the matter further. "Let's go after him."

      "Yeah... no. I'm not stepping a toe in that library," said Sirius, placing three pancakes on his plate before piling syrup on top of them.

     James rolled his eyes again. "What? You're too cool for the library or something?"

     Sirius smirked in response. "Precisely."