numbers » remus lupin

chapter four

When Scarlett sat with Theresa at breakfast the next morning, she was still confused over Remus' behaviour the night before. She wondered why he was acting so strangely und looked so exhausted, while stinging into her scrambled eggs with her fork.

She seemed to be in trance, because her best friend was snipping with her fingers in front of her face, trying to snap her out of whatever thought she was having that morning. "Hey, are you even listening to me? I was talking to you and then I noticed you weren't even listening! So, tell me about your deepest thoughts," Theresa demanded.

Scarlett sighed. She figured she had to tell Theresa really just anything so she would shut up, like, ever. "Sirius wants to set me up with Remus. He even has a plan. But he won't show me, and honestly I'm not too interested in hearing it," she said. Theresa's eyes widened, "What? And you agreed to it?" When she received a nod, she shrugged.

"Well, I've always shipped you two."

"What the hell is a shipping?", Scarlett gave her a confused look. It was probably a muggle thing, she assumed. Theresa rolled her eyes, "Merlin, it's when you really want two people to be together. Like, ever since I found out Remus fancies you, and that you fancy him, I've been really wanting you two to become a couple. But unfortunately you seem to be too daft to even talk to him."

Scarlett narrowed her eyes. "I don't fancy him. And he doesn't fancy me. Stop spreading lies." Again, she received a shrug. "Scarmus for the win. And when you have children, I want to be the godmother. Of all three of them."

When Theresa said the last part, Scarlett looked up and into her eyes for the first time. She wanted to see the date of death that was engraved in her best friend's eye.

22051977.

Scarlett's eyes widened for the fraction of a second. Then, she proceeded to smile sadly at her friend. She wouldn't even be alive to witness Scarlett having children.

Suddenly she wondered why her friend was going to die when she was only 17 years old. What would be the reason for her death? How could she prevent it?

But then she realized, she couldn't trick death. If there was one certain thing in the cruel world, muggle or wizarding, it was death. It would follow your every step, and when the time has come, it would crawl up your neck and you would no longer be alive.

Some people died in vain. Scarlett could only hope that Theresa would be remembered as the girl she was.

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Sirius and Scarlett were sitting in the kitchens, surrounded by House Elves, eating ice cream. Sirius dug his spoon into his enchanted matte black ice cream pack.

"It's cool, isn't it? My ice cream is as black as my soul." Scarlett rolled her eyes, dugging her own spoon into her vanilla ice cream pack. "For Godric's sake, Sirius."

He chuckled. He obviously thought he was being hilarious. "Have you talked to Moony?" he asked. "No," she lied, thinking about last night's incident, "why would I? I haven't seen him in a while." "Well, I have, and he told me that you ran into him just yesterday. You're a bad liar. Don't think about becoming a journalist after graduating. You'd be terrible," he stated.

"Yes, well, anyway. I saw him last night. He looked terrible and ill, do you know what's wrong with him?"

She was genuinely worried about him. What if he had a disease that was incurable?

Sirius paled a bit, before assuring her, "Oh, Remus is perfectly fine. He's just got the flu. Terrible. It's unbearably cold this November, don't you think? No wonder the poor boy gets ill so often." She just nodded in response.

After a few minutes of eating their ice cream in silence, she said, "You're a terrible liar too, you know."

Sirius paled even more. "How-" "Oh, Sirius, come on. I'm not stupid, or daft, like you may think I am. Need I remind you I figured out what I see in people's irises when I was only eight years old?" she interrupted him, but instantly regretted it after the words left her mouth. Why did she never think before she spoke?

He looked at her, confusion written all over his features. The ice cream sitting in their laps was long forgotten, her appetite disappeared as quickly as it came. "What are you talking about? What do you see?" he demanded to know.

She closed her eyes. It was too much for her. She kept this secret for so long, why did she tell him now?

"Death," she told him after a moment of silence. Even the House Elves had grown a bit more silent. "I- I can see when they die, Sirius," she whispered. His brows furrowed. "Everytime I look into someone's eyes, I am reminded when the person in front of me is going to die."

"So you- There's a date? Is there a date in your eyes?" She nodded. "Wow, that sounds so crazy, I don't know if I want to know when I'll die, to be honest," he said. "Oh, I'm not going to tell you. That'd be cruel. I'd take away your joy of life. And I love your joy, it distracts me," she told him, her eyes beginning to water. The thought of Sirius' corpse lying in front of her was a little bit too much for her to handle.

"But Theresa's going to die soon," she stated. It felt good to tell someone, she suddenly felt like there was a little weight lift off her shoulders. "What do you mean by soon? Next month?" She scoffed. "It will happen in May," she quietly said.

Sirius did what he always did when his best girlfriend was sad, he'd put his arm around her petite frame and just stay like that, holding her as if she were fragile, while she was silently in tears.

"I don't want her to die," she whispered, "She's too young to die." "Well, aren't we all?"

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author's note:

this chapter was kinda intense to me idk why

but yeah i'm happy that i have 100 reads!! tysm guys

well i hope you like this chapter and i'd be happy if you let me know how you feel about it

see you next time