Carina McGonagall is named after the constellation containing the second brightest star in the sky - and it just so happens one Sirius Black is named after the brightest. They've always had an interesting relationship throughout the years - pranks...
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✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧
For the first and last time in her entire time at Hogwarts, Carina wished she had classes on Sundays. That would have given her an opportunity to avoid Remus, and to mull over what she had seen.
There had to be another explanation, another logical answer.
But all Carina could think that made any sense at all was that Remus Lupin was a werewolf.
Last night had been circled on his lunar chart. Last night had been a full moon. And last night, he shows up surrounded by teachers; cut and bruised like Hell.
Remus being a werewolf would explain so much: why he left every month, why he also looked so hurt and tired at least once a month, why he also had some injury in him somewhere that he usually blamed to clumsiness. Rowena, it even explained that blasted note; what else could 'Code Furry Little Problem' mean?! Everything pointed to it. Carina almost felt stupid for not noticing it before. However one thing was still bothering her:
Why hadn't Remus just told her?
They were always there for each other. They told each other everything. They were practically brother and sister. Carina had truly believed she knew everything about Remus. He knew everything about her. So why hadn't he told her?
Maybe she was wrong. She might be wrong. She didn't know whether she was being assuming or whether it was very obvious. She didn't know whether what she had would be considered enough evidence or whether there was blatantly enough for her theory to be true. She just... didn't know.
She didn't really want to know.
Pushing the thoughts to the back of her mind, Carina walked towards where she normally met Lily before breakfast on Sundays - just outside the girls' loos on the 6th floor. As soon as Lily saw her, she grinned and walked over.
"We should probably move this meet up to outside the Prefects' bathrooms, you know," Lily said with a giggle. Smiling back, Carina linked her arm through Lily's. "So how were your patrols?" Carina asked as they walked towards the staircase.
"Quiet. I was in the basement, so all that really happened was a few Hufflepuffs trying to sneak into the Kitchen. It was quite funny actually. I was on first shift too, so I got some sleep."
"Lucky!"
Laughing, the girls walked into the Great Hall. As she unintentionally caught Remus' eye, Carina weakly smiled before turning to say bye to Lily and heading to the Ravenclaw table.
Carina spent the next couple hours after breakfast trying to find things to do. These had so far involved organising her belongings, trying to convince her mother to teach her more about becoming an animagus (ending up with a lecture on proper use of such skills and that she would consider it, as extra credit for homework) and helping Pandora perfect a new charm designed to calm and relax people and animals - this led to an interesting result on the new Head boy, who curled up on the couch beside them, along with about fifteen cats from the collective Ravenclaw dorms upstairs.
Lunch had passed, and as everyone else filed out, nausea filled the pit of Carina's stomach. What if she was right? What if Remus really had been suffering every month, tearing at his own skin regularly? How long had this been going on? Had it been happening while Carina had been complaining to him about her stupid, petty teenaged problems?
She felt like an awful friend if that was true. And even more awful for ignoring him all day.
Still, she couldn't face him. She couldn't think.
Quickly, Carina hurried out with the last remaining stragglers leaving the Hall. While Lily and Mary were at a Slug Club party, Dorcas and Pandora were doing some Charms tutoring for third years and Marlene was in detention, Carina decided to take a walk around the grounds for a while.
"Hi, Hagrid," Carina said, when she saw him sitting outside of his home. Although she didn't talk to Hagrid often - as she very rarely walked near his hut and so didn't see him often - she did enjoy speaking to him. He was very kind, if a little... Eccentric in his ways. "'Ello, Carina, how are ya?" She sat down next to him. "I was hoping you could help me. You give a lot of good advice, you know." "Well, I'll see wha' I can do. What's botherin' yer?" "What would you do if you thought a good friend was keeping something from you? Like, a really good friend who you were really close to and something really important?"
"Well, Miss McGonagall, I would be honest 'bout my concerns. And I would try to talk to them' bout as soon as possible, yeah?" He patted her shoulder sympathetically, gave her a kind wink and helped her up after standing up himself.
As he went back into his hut, Carina heard a small noise behind her. She turned around to see a very awkward, very embarrassed and very injured Remus Lupin.
