the gentle moon / george weasley

none of that actually happened

Thursday morning came and August was contemplating her day already. She was tired even though she had just woken up and was already dreading her night in the shack. Even though she had her curtains closed on her bunk, she already knew it was a rainy day. She could hear the rain hitting the window. For a brief moment, she considered bringing a sweater for the night in case she got cold, but quickly realized it wouldn't really matter.

"Moon?" She heard Angelina call for her on the other side of the curtain, "We have potions in a few minutes? Shall I wait for you?"

"No," August sighed, "uh, I'll see you in Lupins."

"Are you sure?" Angelina asked, "Snape gives detention when people miss his class."

"It's okay, Ang. I'll talk to him later."

"Are you sure though, Snape can be ver-"

"Angelina!" August shouted, "Just leave me alone, for Merlin's sake!"

There was a beat.

"Sorry, Moon." August could hear the pain in her words, and just as August ripped open the curtains to apologize, the door to their dorm was closed and Angelina's footsteps faded away.

August finally made her way out of bed just in time for Defense Against the Dark Arts around 10:30. Her scars appeared even more pink and fresh than they did earlier that week and her eyes were dark. She made her way through the almost empty hall, and only a few students lingered as they ran to their next class. Lupin's classroom door was closed, which surprised her because he always waits outside until the last student arrives for his classes.

"Sorry I'm late, Professor Lupin. I —"

But it wasn't Professor Lupin who looked up at her from the teacher's desk; it was Snape.

"Shit." She mumbled under her breath

"This class started ten minutes ago, O'Keefe, but my time clearly is not important to you since you skipped this morning's lesson, so I suppose we'll go with 10 points from Gryffindor. Please have a seat."

"Where's Professor Lupin?" she said.

"He says he is feeling too ill to teach today," said Snape with a twisted smile. "I believe I told you to sit down?"

George and Fred slid down a seat as George grabbed August's sleeve and pulled her into the open seat next to him.

"As I was saying before Miss O'Keefe interrupted, Professor Lupin has not left any record of the topics you have covered so far —"

"Is he okay?" August interrupted again.

"Be quiet," said Snape coldly. "As I was saying,"

"Today we shall discuss —" Snape went to the back of an old textbook, and August knew exactly the chapter he was on. "— werewolves, turn to page 394," said Snape, the back of August's neck felt like it was burning, and she swears her vision turned black for a split second.

"But, sir, we're not on the werewolf lesson yet." said Angelina, seemingly unable to restrain herself, "We were revisiting the pixie lesson this week, we have an essay due next week. Professor Lupin said we were going to go over th- "

"Miss Johnson," said Snape in a voice of deadly calm, "I was under the impression that I am teaching this lesson. And I am telling you all to turn to page 394." He glanced around again. "All of you! Now!"

With many bitter sidelong looks and some sullen muttering, the class opened their books. But August stayed frozen in her seat, staring at the professor. It wasn't like she could open to the page anyways, she ripped it out when she got the book.