Chocolate Covered Strawberries [Remus Lupin]

𝚘𝚗𝚎 𝚑𝚞𝚗𝚍𝚛𝚎𝚍 𝚝𝚎𝚗

Chapter one hundred ten; Waiting on Smirnitsky

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Jasmine leaned her head back on Remus' shoulder, especially aware of his hands tight around her waist. He was sitting on a desk and she was standing in front of him in his embrace. She closed her eyes for a moment, feeling how heavy her eyelids were and she didn't want to open them again. The tiredness was unreal, she thought that she was lacking sleep during the time she, Remus and Sirius were in a ruse but after it all settled down she had to start focusing on school again. Assignments took time, she had to study and she didn't want to, her insomnia was worsening every week that went by.

Speaking of school, this was the part of the day when she had time for extra lessons with Smirnitsky. She already passed numerous of his exams, taking her back on track with Defence's curriculum but she was still lacking in some points and Smirnitsky never said she was quite done with the lessons. She remembers a particular one from not long ago where he made her cast her Patronus. And no matter what she did she couldn't fully perform the spell, she just wasn't feeling happy. Smirnitsky, being the angel of a professor sent from above, told her they'll try next time and that she can bring her friends, saying that working in a familiar environment with the people she loves is going to help.

Jasmine didn't even know what her Patronus was, she never fully performed it. And that's why she was here today, with Remus, Lily, James, Peter and Sirius in the Defence classroom. They were all waiting for Smirnitsky to show himself as scheduled.

''Are you okay?'' Remus leaned his head gently next to Jasmine's.

She only hummed in response and fluttered her eyes open. She could have fallen asleep in his embrace, even though she was standing. It was so warm and cosy, and she loved when he was hugging her so she felt calm enough to doze off. Then she straightened and looked ahead of her to get some more energy for the upcoming lesson. James and Lily were sitting side by side on a table across from them, while Peter wasn't far off and Sirius was pacing around.

''I've been wondering something,'' Remus spoke up, breaking the unusual quietness of the room. He successfully got everyone's attention. ''Do you remember that first Gryffindor party last year?''

''You mean the one where we all drank Peter's mixtures and suffered from memory loss?'' Lily asked. The whole group then pointedly looked at Peter and he looked like he wanted to dig a hole and climb in.

''That's the one. Well, before all that memory loss happened, I know we played a game, in which Jass and Pads also participated and Pads failed to answer a question.''

Jasmine's hand flew up over Remus' arm around her and squeezed him lightly. Careful, she thought. Lately, Remus has fallen into a habit of testing Sirius on different levels, because of what happened. Either he angered him, embarrassed him or asked him just the uttermost stupid questions. No one knew what Remus' deal was but everybody felt the sting of the drama still dragging on even though the group started hanging out together again. Jasmine was the one feeling it the most. Remus was almost having a personal vendetta against Sirius and probably will as long as Sirius still has feelings for her. Every time she tried to talk to him about it, he only says it was a joke and that it was something for laughing with him. Remus was never the jokester of the group and this new agenda didn't exactly suit him either.

''Oh, that's right.'' James played along, like always. ''She asked you your body count and you rather drank than answered the question.''

Sirius stopped in his tracks, face falling and not knowing exactly how to react.

''So my question is, what is your body count then, Pads?'' asked Remus.

Jasmine turned her head a little to look at her boyfriend and nearly cringed at the smug smile he was wearing as he asked that question. Sirius crossed his arms over his chest and looked up from the floor. It was like there was no one else in the room, only him and Remus as Sirius kept narrowing his eyes on him and Remus patiently waited for an answer. Patiently might have been an overstatement, he was shaking his leg consistently.