Miss Moony ▶ Remus Lupin

Chapter Two

remus

Remus had been in love with Coralie Knight for a long time. It had taken him an even longer time to realize it though, which was likely do to his preoccupation with being a werewolf and his disastrous friends.

Of course by the time he did realize he liked Coralie, she had already began to explore partners. It confused him for a long time, how one person can be with someone for one week and a completely different person the next. Sirius frequently referred to her as the school slag, which irritated Remus to no end. Coralie wasn't a slag, she just wasn't ready for commitment.

The night of Hestia's party was a confusing one. Remus had made the decision to stay sober, taking on the responsibility of babysitting his seventeen and eighteen year old friends. Over the past few weeks though he wish that he had been drinking. That way he wouldn't have to replay the explicit details Coralie had shared.

It was clear that Coralie had been drinking by the way she walked and how her eyes couldn't stay focused on one thing. She rambled on about Everett, purposely eyeing Remus carefully as she dove into her story. It made him frustrated, jealous, confused about his feelings.

Truthfully though, he didn't know too much about Coralie personally. There were some things that were common knowledge about their group of friends. She was a Muggle-Born and grew up in London. Her father was an English professor, which triggered her love for literature. One of her goals for after Hogwarts was to become a writer.

Remus was always tracking down new books for Coralie to try and it was always the most popular ones that she'd never read before. After each book she read they would spend hours talking about them. How entranced she would be when she read and talked just made Remus more attracted to her.

As everyone was getting older, more and more of his peers were entering relationships. James Potter was with Lily Evans, Dorcas was with Marlene, close friends who had graduated a year prior were already engaged to be married.

It made Remus feel quite lonely. He wanted Coralie, but Coralie didn't seem to know what she wanted.

***

In attempts to keep himself busy, Remus found himself preparing for the full moon early. Professor Slughorn and Madame Pomfrey had already brewed and bottled up his wolfsbane potion, and Sirius and Peter helped him bring an extra set of clothes and blankets to the Shrieking Shack.

"What's on your mind, Moony?" Sirius asked as they began heading back up to the castle. "You're awfully quiet."

"Nothing, just thinking."

"That's a very vague answer," Peter commented. "What are you thinking about? Potatoes? Women? Transfiguration? Are you thinking about potatoes transfiguring into women, Moony?"

"He's not thinking of women plural, Wormtail," Sirius said as he saw Remus' cheeks darken at the mention of women. "He's thinking of woman singular."

"Oh, I see," Peter said, immediately knowing who Sirius was hinting at. At one time or another each of them had thoughts about Coralie.

"Stop it," Remus muttered. Clearly, keeping himself busy was not going to properly occupy his mind.

"Just get over it and talk to her," Sirius said. "Even if she's in a relationship you can still be friends and talk about classes and those weird books you two read."

"She never stated that she was in a relationship," Remus countered.

"Did she explicitly say that she is not in a relationship?" Sirius raised his eyebrows. Remus felt lucky that his friends couldn't remember what Coralie had said during the party, they only vaguely remembered that she was seeing someone.

"I know what you're trying to say, Sirius," Remus stopped and turned towards his friend. "Cora is not a slag just because she has casual relationships. There's nothing wrong with that. It's no different than you shagging Marlene for a month in secret before she started seeing Dorcas."

"Uh it's very different," Sirius countered. "I'm not open about my 'casual relationships' with people."

"Slag," Remus muttered. Sirius punched him hard in the shoulder.

Remus wished that he could make all of Coralie's feelings for other people go away. He respected her choices and her confidence in herself to see different people, but he wanted her to see him. Only him.

He didn't want her to see that Muggle in London, or explore more partners. He just wanted Coralie to be with him.

"Eventually it will work out, Moony," Peter piped up. "I mean, it worked out for James and he was pining over Lily for years."

"But she knew about it," Sirius said. "I don't think Knight knows that Moony's completely pining after her."

"Will you two shut it?" Remus mumbled. "It's just making me sad."

Sirius pulled out a chocolate bar from his coat pocket and shoved it at him. "Just make an excuse to talk to you. You're always exchanging books and talking about Muggles. It's not that hard to just walk up, throw a book in her face, and make a conversation. Confess your undying love and then maybe she'll dump that Evan bloke."

Snatching the chocolate from Sirius' hands, Remus rolled his eyes. "His name's Everett."

"Okay, first: don't acknowledge his actual name like you care."