stain ☾ remus lupin

TEN

D I S C O V E R Y
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Christmas had rushed by so quickly that Freya had little time to plan what she would say when she confronted Remus. After all, he would be expecting her to say something, right? She couldn't just act as if he hadn't admitted to fancying her.

Remus Lupin, her best friend, fancied her. This left Freya with a lot to think about. Remus had always been there. From her first spell, her first charm, her first crush, her first Butterbeer - Remus was there. Freya had always been there for him, too. From his ballroom dance, his first Zonko's trip, his first bad grade - Freya was there. Freya couldn't help but wonder if she was more firsts for Remus than she could have imagined. Was she his first love? Her stomach fluttered, to her confusion, at the thought of it. Remus was undeniably safe, and undeniably there.

Part of her dreaded going back to Hogwarts, but the other half craved it. Her parents had been driving her insane, between their constant criticism of her school to their comments on her future.

Although the journey back to Hogwarts did not begin until three days, she began packing nonetheless. Her hands wrapped around the giant, heavy science book titled Beginners Guide to Chemistry that had been given to her by her parents on Christmas morning. With a scowl forming on her face, she slid it behind a pile of books messily organized on her protruding book shelf.

She could remember Christmas morning vividly and it still sent raging thoughts into her mind.

"Now maybe you can study normal stuff sweetie," her mother had smiled from beside her father as she unwrapped the second heavy, muggle subject book.

"Normal?" Freya whispered the question with furrowed eyebrows as her gaze stayed locked on the hard back novel sitting on her lap.

"Well, compared to the mumbo jumbo stuff you learn at that school of your's," her father replied gruffly before taking a long sip of coffee as if it was nothing.

Freya closed her eyes and counted to ten, Christmas was her favorite holiday and she was trying her best not to ruin it, but her mother's next comment set her over the edge.

"What is she doing, Paul? Is she doing a spell?" The woman grabbed her husband's wrist tightly as if she needed some sort of protection from her daughter.

"No!" Freya yelled, fists clenched at side, "I haven't mastered wandless magic yet! And anyhow, why would I hurt my own mother?"

"Well, I apologize because that's certainly what it looked li —"

"I was counting to ten to calm down before this," Freya said, voice still high as she gestured between the three, "happened!"

Her mother pushed her glasses further up the bride of her nose, but kept one hand wrapped firmly around her husband's arm, "If you didn't give us reasons to think that whatever you've got yourself into in this Wizarding world was dangerous, we wouldn't be so worried about you."

"You aren't worried about me, you're afraid of me."

The stern woman opened her mouth to object, but Freya's father spoke instead, "Well of course we are! Text books talking about werewolves, goblins, dark magic! Pure bulgerdash, but we've put up with it to make you happy! Excuse us for wanting a little bit of saneness in you!"

The rest of the memory was left behind as her eyes snapped open at the sudden thought that filled her brain. Her father's voice echoed through her mind, but not as it had been for the past few days. Instead of his taunts about Hogwarts, the single word, "Werewolf" was left there instead.