NOTHING GIRL || Remus Lupin

-Fourteen: Calcifer-

Hogsmead weekend.

Yay.

If you thought those opening two lines were too sarcastic to belong to Remus Lupin's wolfy little mind then you would be sorely disappointed. You would be right, of course, in thinking that Remus would usually grin in excitement at the prospect of another day at Zonko's, another day listening to James and Sirius try and persuade Madam Rosemerta to let them try Firewhiskey, ridiculously failing the entire time.

But today was not the usual day.

He received The Letter the night before. He went to bed at normal time, surrounded by the soft sleeping sounds of his friends, but- as you might imagine from something so ominously capitalised- The Letter kept him awake, charging into his thoughts like an unwanted guest every times he felt the tug of sleep on his exhausted mind.

Eventually, he gave up.

He wasn't surprised that he couldn't find Helia anywhere, he had tried several times in the past, but it seemed as if she only appeared when she wanted to, vanishing and reappearing at will. Remus guessed that, in the enormity of the school, with all it's secrets crawling up the sides of the corridors, Helia would have found somewhere secluded enough to hide herself away. She was smarter than he gave her credit for.

"Are you okay?"

At first, Remus wasn't sure if it was a memory or her voice, speaking from behind him. The sun was just beginning to break over the Forbidden Forest, and he found himself sat on the stone stairs of Hogwarts. It was only when he felt her calm presence settle down next to him that he realised Helia was there at all. He turned to look at her. She was watching him closely, eyebrows pulled together slightly in a frown.

"I'm, er... I'm fine." Remus said, watching the rays of light dance over the dew clinging to the grass.

"What did I say before, Wolfy?" Helia's voice was low, fighting to be heard against the noise of birds hollering, yet nevertheless locking his attention onto her. "Never lie to a liar."

Her tone was slightly teasing, letting Remus know that she wasn't going to push him any further.

She reached out and took his hand, a silent show of support. It was a casual gesture, no sense of the charged intensity of the night of the Unforgivable Curse, but it sent a current running through Remus all the same.

Neither of them said anything after that. Just sat with intertwined fingers watching the sun rise on the castle steps.

And it would have been okay if one of them had let go.

But they didn't.

..............................................

"What do you mean you aren't coming with us?"

Helia watched in amusement as Jade stared at her in abject horror, as if she had just announced that she would be leaving Hogwarts to become a Ghostbuster.

"I'm just not going to Hogsmead." Helia clarified, in the unfortunate case that her friend had somehow managed to lose all ability to comprehend what was being said to her in the last five minutes.

"How can you not go to Hogsmead? Everyone goes to Hogsmead. Even I'm going to Hogsmead, see?" Jade waved a slip of parchment in Helia's face theatrically, leaping off her bed in the process.

Helia blinked and took a step back to avoid any life threatening paper cuts that may come her way.

She shrugged. "Stuff to do."

"But whyyyyy?" Jade whined. "I'll have to go with Lin and all she'll want to do is stock up on Pygmy Puff food and not go in the Three Broomsticks. At least when I'm with you we can go to Zonko's and listen to those idiots from Gryffindor try and chat up Madam Rosemerta while drinking a refreshing pint of Butter Beer."

Helia raised her eyebrows. "A 'refreshing pint of Butter Beer' ? You're starting to sound like a really bad ad, you know that, right?"

"Bad ad." Jade sung, easily distracted. "That rhymes."

"You truly deserve your place in Ravenclaw, my friend, with a mind like that." Helia sighed, rolling her eyes.

Jade scowled at her, looking suspiciously close to sticking her tongue out, and got up to leave the dormitory. As she passed Helia, the other girl shot out her hand, catching at her robes.

"Are you okay?" Helia asked quietly. She was doing a lot of asking that particular question recently. It felt unnerving. "I mean, after what happened in the Great Hall-"

Jade blushed and looked down. "I'm fine. I'm just... not ready, you know?"

Helia watched her friend for a minute. "She shouldn't have pressured you like that."

Jade's eyes shot up to Helia's "No, it's not that. She was absolutely right. I needed a push."

"You should be able to do it in your own time-"

"Maybe" Jade murmured thoughtfully. "But maybe I just need to get it out. Quick and fast. Rip the bandage off. Watch all hell break loose. Torch the houses."

"Sometimes that's the only way to win." Helia couldn't help quoting, her eyes never moving from her friend's "Burn it all down."

Jade nodded once, and then again, as if to convince herself. "Yeah."

She started moving again, but Helia wasn't quite done. "You know, if everything does go down, you can stay at my place as long as you need."

Jade shot Helia a quick, grateful look. "I know."

..................................

"What happened?"

James flopped onto the sofa next to Remus, who had been too caught up in a staring match with the fire to notice him previously.

"My mum got worse again." He admitted in a soft voice. His mother had been sick for a while now, teetering closer and closer to the brink of that cliff he couldn't pull her back from.

He sensed James slowly absorb that information.

"Mate..." He began, sounding unsure of himself.

"You know what he needs?" Sirius called from across the room, indicating Remus' expression.

James shot Remus an apologetic glance. "What?"

"He needs to get out and have some fuuuuuuuun. Hey, do you think you could do that sad-eyes thing with Rosemerta? She would totally fall for it."

James winced. If Sirius had known about Remus' mother, he would have reacted the way he normally did to bad news, churning out relentless pranks with James until they could get him to crack a grin. But Remus didn't want that today.

Remus snapped his focus to Sirius, and plastered a fake smile on his face. "Nah, I think I'm going to stay back here, actually."

Sirius immediately gaged that something was wrong, but also that he shouldn't mention it. "That's cool mate. Maybe when we get back we could figure out how to make that fire sentient, since you like staring at it so much."

Remus raised his eyes to the ceiling.

"I saw it in this muggle movie. It had, like, a talking fire that was actually a star and this house that walked around and this awesome bird guy and-"

"And," Remus emphasised. "I am leaving."