Bleeding Heart | REMUS LUPIN

Chapter Five

"Okay, I feel like I have to ask, but... is whatever we're going to do illegal?" Ivory asked, following the boys blindly. She had absolutely no idea where Remus, Sirius, James and Peter were taking her, but she trailed after them anyway. She wasn't entirely worried, but she had known these boys for long enough to know that wherever they were taking her was, in some way, forbidden.

Peter sniggered while James replied, "Not illegal, no... but against the school rules for sure. But that doesn't matter since you've got Head Boy and Prefect on your side, huh?" He gestured between himself and Remus.

Ivory smirked as they made their way to the third floor, glancing around corridors to make sure Filch, the Squib caretaker at Hogwarts, wasn't anywhere in sight. Luckily, they didn't encounter Filch; but they did encounter his cat, Mrs Norris, when Sirius almost stepped on her.

The five teenagers finally reached the statue of the One-Eyed Witch. While the boys knew exactly what they were doing, Ivory was incredibly confused as to why they were all gathered around the statue.

"What..." she began to ask, but she broke off when James pulled out his wand and tapped it on the One-Eyed Witch statue, saying as he did so, "Dissendium."

Before Ivory's eyes, at the back of the statue, the stone was opening up. She stepped forward curiously, looking into the space, only to see that it was the opening to a dark tunnel.

James was looking at her expectantly to see her reaction. Her lips were parted slightly and she was just itching to find out where the passageway led.

"Where does it go?" she asked them, voicing her thoughts.

"Follow us and find out," said Sirius evasively, stepping into the tunnel.

Peter followed, then James. Remus was last and beckoned for Ivory to follow him, but she hesitated.

"Are you taking me somewhere to kill me?" she said sarcastically.

"Oh, because if we were going to kill you, this is totally the way we'd do it," Sirius interjected, matching Ivory's sarcasm. "No, Ivory, I suppose we would've come up with a plan better than this; most likely involving some treacle tart, a shovel and a pair of mittens," he continued. His voice was steady and neutral, as if he were simply talking about the weather; then he casually walked off.

"Did I hear him right? Mittens? What in the world is he...?" Ivory asked Remus as she stepped into the dark tunnel.

"Don't ask me, I have no idea. He's delusional," Remus replied, casting Sirius a confused stare.

"Completely mental," she agreed, falling into step beside him.

When the entrance they had walked through to get into the tunnel began closing up, Remus pulled his wand out and whispered, "Lumos." The tip of his wand lit up, emitting a light that looked even brighter than normal as the tunnel they were in was so dark.

As he held the wand up to his face, Ivory noticed the light making the scars on his face more prominent. She averted her gaze from his face quickly, afraid to make him feel self-conscious; that was the last thing she wanted. She was only curious about him.

Remus glanced back at Ivory and he caught her eyes for but a moment before she turned away quickly. Through the wandlight, he could see the brokenness in every feature of her face. He wondered how in the world she was holding up, and just then it struck him how strong the girl was. Her parents had been her entire world and she had found out through a letter about their murders... That had to have been the worst possible way for loved ones to die. She hadn't even been able to sit by their bedsides, caring for parents who had been sick for awhile... Ivory hadn't been able to mentally prepare herself for any of it. Remus couldn't even begin to imagine what any of that was like. He knew she wasn't crying anymore, but he also knew that her mind must've been plagued with sadness and despair.