black coffee | remus lupin [2]

101. emptiness

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EVERYTHING REMINDED HIM OF HER ON THE SEVENTH DAY. The empty coffee cups on the counter, the ripped out pages of a book and mostly every single room in that house he was trapped inside of. She had been everywhere. Her eyes had seen everything, and he couldn't stop thinking about how every inch of himself was something that she had both seen and touched during her short life.

Remus hadn't slept in days. But he also hadn't been awake. He was always somewhere in between, his eyes open but his mind closed off. He couldn't think about anything other than her eyes. They'd always been his favourite part of her somehow, despite how they came from that evil man who Remus was sure had caused her death in one way or another.

Henry had owled Remus a few days after they had announced Claudia's death. He was as comforting as he could be, but even through his words Remus could tell that he too was too tired to do anything.

He explained it all. Remus knew that it was all in the papers, but he ignored them. He didn't want to see her photos.

Claudia's father shut down some rumours in the process. The media, and especially Witch Weekly, had continuously written about how they thought that Claudia was somehow betraying her family name and that's why Charles had come out and asked for people to search for Claudia and Regulus.

Charles told the Prophet that it was all an misunderstanding, that Claudia wasn't a traitor like they made her out to be, and that all he wanted was for his daughter to come home.

According to him, once her brothers went to get her, that's when the accident happened. She fell into the water, so high up that there was no chance that she survived it. Regulus tried to help, but he only got dragged down with her, not thinking about anything but to protect her.

They drowned. As Nolan ran down there, they apparently weren't even whole; bones had been broken as though they had hit concrete.

Remus didn't understand a thing. And he also didn't want to believe it. Of course, with Charles being the one who made the announcement, there wasn't a chance that that was the full story. Remus himself knew that Claudia was betraying her family name, and that that's why she left.

The drowning part he understood. But he knew that she didn't just fall. Someone had hurt her before then.

He just hoped that it was all peaceful. But, he couldn't help but to think about how it probably wasn't. Claudia once told him that her biggest fear was to drown.

"I always dream about it," she had said. "Whenever I'm at the manor, it's like I'm drowning. And...I don't know, I just hate it. I'm used to other kinds of pain. But drowning...it's almost peaceful. And that scares me."