Among The Stars --- Remus Lupin

•nineteen•

As Ara got better and better her friends were able to visit her more often. They came and played cards with her or brought her homework or just talked.

Lily would come and update her on the school's drama. You-Know-That-Girl and The-Guy-In-Potions just broke up. So-and-So and The-Girl-Who-Eats-All-The-Yogurt got in a huge fight and aren't friends anymore. Professor Slughorn accidentally blew up a potion in class and That-Boy-With-The-Weird-Hair in Transfiguration turned his book into a real bear instead of a teddy bear! (That's the rumor at least.)

Mary would come by and water her flowers or braid her hair. Mary was rather quiet, but she was nice company after Lily's constant chatter.

Remus stayed with her more than anyone else. He'd bring most of her homework and his notes from the day's classes and catch her up. She tried to protest, he certainly didn't need to be doing all this, but he continued to help and eventually she gave up trying to resist.

He'd sit in a chair by her bed and go over all his notes with her. Then they'd do their homework together in case she had any questions. When everything was done they'd sit and talk, and when he left she would finish any assigned reading.

One night when Ara and Remus had finished their homework relatively early, Ara had an idea.

"Alright Lupin, to help my troubled conscience I want you to ask anything about me and I'll answer honestly," she offered.

"How is this supposed to help your 'troubled conscience'?" he asked, smiling slightly.

"Well, I pretty much know everything about you now so it's only fair."

"Alright, well, let me think. Hmmm, what's your favorite flavor of ice cream?"

"Mint chocolate chip," she answered.

"Really? You strike me as more of a strawberry ice cream kind of girl."

"What's that supposed to mean?" she laughed.

He shrugged lightly, "Let's see, what have I always wanted to know about you Ara Jones?"

"Ask a good question."

"Opinion on house-elves?"

Ara thought for a moment, "That's hard. It seems unfair that they aren't paid for such laborious work, but at the same time they seem to enjoy it. I'd say it's fine to have a house-elf as long as you treat them with great respect and the creature is completely alright with not being paid."

"Good answer," he grinned.

"Thanks," she replied, looking into his brown eyes.

"What's the real reason you left Beauxbatons?" he asked softly.

"What do you mean?"

Panic flooded her mind, how did he know?

"Come on, Ara. I've read about Beauxbatons and it's a really good school. There's no way they would've kicked you out for doing your hair wrong and I know for a fact they teach more than cleaning spells. If they didn't then why would you already be so good at magic? I don't need to be able to read minds to figure things out."

Although his words could've come out as harsh and accusing, they sounded gentle and curious. He wasn't assuming anything, he genuinely wanted to know. And she would tell him. She owed him that.

"You have to promise to let me explain."

"Of course," he nodded.

"There was a girl in my year named Felicity. She was only in a few of my classes, but I had heard enough about her to know that she wasn't someone to mess with. She only had a few close friends, but somehow everyone knew her name."

Ara paused and Remus nodded to her to continue.

"Well, I used to be a lot different. I didn't have any friends, mostly because I didn't talk all that much, but I did have these journals. Instead of paying attention in class I would 'read' people and jot down whatever I could figure out about them. It got to a point where I had about three pages on everyone in my classes."

Ara took a breath before continuing, "But Felicity was the only one I couldn't read. I couldn't figure out anything about her, and it made me so... angry. Like I could spill the secrets of anyone in the school except her. I got greedy."

At this point it was hard for her to continue, and Remus sensed this. He took her hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

"I blackmailed Felicity's friends into telling me something about her by threatening to tell their secrets. They told me that Felicity had been cheating on all of her tests by using some sort of 'smart quill' she had invented. And this should have been enough to keep me satisfied, but I still held a grudge against her for not being able to figure her out. So I told the headmistress about her quill, which was none of my business to begin with. Felicity was expelled, but not before I found out that she had only been cheating because she hadn't had time to do her homework."

"Why?" Remus inquired.

Ara had almost forgotten that he was there.

"She had been busy sending home magical treatments to her mom to treat her dying sister."

She took a shaky breath, "Turns out that one of her friends had found out about my journals and told the headmistress in revenge for me getting Felicity expelled. She thought that I had used some illegal spell or something to find out all that I had about people. The headmistress wouldn't believe that I had simple 'read' them. She burned the journals and expelled me as well."

There was silence.

"I will never, ever do something like that again. I realized how wrong all of that was and how terrible it was for me to write down all of those people's personal thoughts. That girl is someone completely different. And if I really am a Legilimens, which I guess I am, I will only use that for good. But I think that's why I'm still so upset over what happened with Trelawney, I fell like that greedy girl again."

Remus leaned in and kissed her.

"You're not," he whispered.

He softly pressed his lips against hers.

"I know you're not."

~~~~~

A/N: PLOT TWIST

Thanks for reading! :)