NOTHING GIRL || Remus Lupin

-Sixteen: Become of Us-

"So. We're in a Forest. Filled with murderous monsters. And ice. And your first instinct was 'I think I'll throw my wand down this thirty foot drop'?" Helia gasped as they methodically searched the ground underneath the tree for Remus' wand.

Remus grinned. "I didn't want to break it climbing down."

"Well, I-" Helia dropped her own wand, and it fell dark. Her fingers were numb and she fumbled trying to pick it up again. "Dammit. Lumos." Nothing happened. She felt a familiar ball of frustration grow in her ribcage. "Lumos! "

A pitiful flare of light emanated from the magical instrument and died almost immediately. Magic seemed to have retreated into the furthest part of her, going numb with her fingers. She scrunched up her face in concentration. "LUMOS!" Finally, the output of magic returned to normal. She glanced up to see that Remus had stopped searching and was watching her with a frown on his face. She turned away from him, unwilling to let the wizard see her failure moulded onto her expression. Helia hated losing at anything.

She feigned interest in a patch of ground for an unconvincing amount of time. Until a pair of shoes came into view. Helia glanced up to meet Remus' brown eyes with her own. He was holding his wand. "Come on." He gestured in the direction of Hogwarts.

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

"Twenty Questions?"

Remus shrugged, ducking under an overhanging branch. They were almost an hour into their trudge and so far he had (unsuccessfully) tried to get Helia to play I Spy, Truth or Dare (which didn't really work in the Forbidden Forest, since they were pretty much on the Dare of all Dares as it was) and even briefly mentioned spin the bottle (maybe a bit of wishful thinking). Walking with him was like going to a nine year old's sleepover. "Yeah."

Helia almost laughed again. "You had the whole world of travel games to go for and you pick twenty questions?"

"I'm curious." Remus decided to be honest with his motives. One of them had to be.

"About what?"

"About you."

Helia sighed dramatically. "Fine. Twenty questions. You start."

Starting easy was probably the best way to go. "Favourite animal?"

"Octopus." Helia said confidently.

Remus laughed. It was a short, surprised laugh. The kind only the people who know you so well they can make you happy without even trying pull out of you. "Octopus?"

Helia shrugged, mirroring Remus' earlier actions almost exactly. "I like octopi. I like the fact that, when you have more than one, it's not octopus's, it's octopi. It's like they're too awesome for normal plural noun endings."

"It's a unique answer, I'll give you that." Remus said.

"You?" Helia said. Remus took a second to answer. "Oh, please don't tell me it's wolf. That would be too perfect."

"...No." Remus said reluctantly after a pause.

"Oh my God. It is, isn't it? Oh God, Remus." Helia was laughing- actually laughing- and Remus had to hide his delight at the sound it made, like tinkling bells and children and Christmas. He winced instead.

"I think you just blasphemed, like, I dunno. A lot." Remus said, grinning. "And my favourite animal is not the wolf."

Helia was still gasping, letting her wand dip a little in her hand, and casting illumination in the twigs that littered the earth beneath them. "Aw, man. You're no fun."