numbers » remus lupin

chapter eleven

In the Gryffindor Common Room, Lily and Scarlett were chatting the night away. It was already 9 o'clock and the majority of the House was already in their beds, although it was Friday.

The two girls were sitting on one of the sofas, Scarlett had her legs spread out over Lily's. The latter had shown Scarlett how to paint her nails the Muggle way, and Scarlett was thrilled.

So, that was what they did.

"It looks so pretty," Scarlett stated, eyeing her beige colored nails. She reached for the nail polish, and Lily screamed.

"Don't touch anything when your nails aren't dry!" She exclaimed.

Scarlett lay her hand down on her thigh. She looked around the Common Room while Lily told her what she thought about the Charms exam.

She spotted Remus finishing whatever homework he had to do. He was on his own, the other three were probably already in their dormitory.

Remus looked up as if he felt someone was staring at him, and he grinned and winked at her. She blushed and turned around again.

She thought about how Remus and her hid in a broom cupboard earlier that day, and what they did once they locked it.

She remembered Remus telling her how he felt like Sirius in there, and she laughed and then they were kissing.

She also remembered arriving at the Great Hall with disheveled hair and swollen lips, and how Sirius teased her. She told them she had been napping.

Lily shook Scarlett's shoulders, "Hey, have you been listening?"

She blinked at the redhead, "Were you talking? Sorry, I must have zoned out."

Lily rolled her eyes and Scarlett snorted. "Sorry."

"Anyway, I was asking you why you and Remus are ignoring each other. What happened?"

"He, um, he– he said something and it wasn't very nice. I don't really want to talk about it," she lied. She wasn't comfortable lying to her friend about Remus, or anything for that matter.

"Scar, I really don't want to force you to tell me anything, but you need to get it off your shoulders. I've noticed that neither of you have hung out with us as much as you used to. Is it because you don't want to be around him? You can tell me," she encouraged her friend.

"It's really bizarre, to be honest. But if you must know, he said something about my sister being in Hufflepuff, and it really annoyed me," she lied, "Now that I think about it, I might have overreacted. Oh Merlin, I've turned into Sirius!"

"Well, I hope you sort it out soon. I can't stand my friends being in a fight," Lily smiled, standing up, "I think I'm heading to bed. Are you coming?"

"No, I'll stay here and finish my homework, I think," she denied. She actually finished her homework at lunch, she just wanted to be alone with Remus.

"Right, see you," Lily yawned, disappearing out of her sight.

Once Scarlett made sure that nobody else was in the Common Room, she skipped over to where Remus was studying and sat down next to him.

"I can't stand this," she groaned. He smirked, "Eager to be with me all day?"

"Very," she smiled, "But really, I can't keep lying to them. It makes me feel bad and it's only been what? Four days? Ugh. Lily asked me what's wrong between us and I didn't know what to say."

"So?" He asked. "I told her you made fun of my sister being in Hufflepuff. What a stupid reason to be mad," she groaned again, slamming her head on the table.