stain ☾ remus lupin

SEVENTEEN

U N D E R S T O O D
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The first flowers of the season had begun blooming around the grounds of Hogwarts. Peaceful calmness wavered through the almost empty common room as most students had used their break to sit outside and enjoy the warming weather.

The change in both temperature and scenery brought the realization of how near the end of sixth year was. The conversation from dinner seemed to seep back into her thoughts and brought worry of the future to come. She felt like each of her seconds was a grain of sand held in an hour glass and they were falling, falling, falling ever so quickly. Her eyes closed only for a moment to blink and it seemed as if thousands of those grains had fallen without her notice.

The sound of someone clearing their throat and the feeling of a hand tapping on her sock covered foot simultaneously snapped her out of these thoughts and back to the notecards held in her hands.

"You zoned out on me for a second," James laughed from across the couch where he too sat behind a large pile of books that were placed at random on his lap.

"Sorry," Freya shook her head, flipping through the pile of neatly written facts, "Just thinking."

He let out a series of fake coughs before muttering, "About Remus."

Little did he know that Freya had once again tuned the sounds around her out of her mind and instead was making a rather successful attempt to focus on the sentences that scrawled onto the parchment. Love potions, liquid luck, mandrake, different types of mushrooms — all things she would need to know for the test tomorrow in Potions.

However, she did hear James speak, she just did not pay particular interest to whatever it was that he was saying. So with the hopes of temporarily shutting him up for a few moments, she hummed and nodded her head slightly.

As her face was downcast, she missed the priceless reaction that spread across his features. James jumped quickly to his feet from the couch, glasses sliding slightly down his nose as he ran his fingers through his messy hair with excitement. "I knew it! I bloody well knew it!"

Her nose crinkled as she stared up in confusion at the outburst, "Well, I'm happy you knew that," she paused, looking at the notes he had been glancing at that now sat abandoned on the cushion, "Laverne de Montmorency invented the love potion but there's no need to yell —"

"No, I knew that there was something going on between you and Remus! I knew it! Wait till I tell Padfoot," James made a sudden dash towards the door, not expecting Freya's next desperate move. She slung herself onto his back, tackling him to the floor with a thump followed by a loud moan of discomfort.

"Oh stop being so pitiful, you get worse than that during Quidditch practice," Freya huffed, standing over him with her arms crossed. Her hair had fallen down in small blonde curls around her pale blue eyes, framing her face.

"Fine, fine," James jumped to his feet, dramatically examining his body for the slightest injury. He pushed his sleeve up his elbow, which sure enough, sported the tiniest of scrapes.

"Anyways, I fulfilled my part of the plan, I wonder how Padfoot is doing..."

She raised an eyebrow in suspicion, silently wondering if this was an attempt to anger her or if James and Sirius really had planned another ignorant trick.

"And what plan are you talking about?"

"Dunno," James spoke stubbornly, using his wand to heal the small cut. She clenched her firsts in frustration. "But I suppose if you really want to know, Sirius did say something about that bench you always sit on."