𝐆𝐑𝐄𝐘𝐁𝐀𝐂𝐊 ❧ remus lupin

VIII. Zoe's Odd Explanation

"There's no place like home for the holidays."

Juliet's POV

After what seemed like days of waiting, Zoe and I had finally arrived home! I nearly burst with excitement as I walked through the door of my home since I was five years old, admiring everything about the house that I had missed at school for the past three and a half months. I sprinted up to my room with my suitcase in hand to discover that everything looked just as I had left it. The many clothes on the floor and an unmade bed defined my messiness growing up.

Right across the hall from my room, was Zoe's. Unlike me, she was clean, and would nearly freak out if her room was any less than completely spotless.

Anyways, after unpacking and setting our rooms up to be slept in, Zoe and I went downstairs for a lovely welcome home dinner made by Helena and Oliver. All I wanted to think about was the exquisite dinner, but the dream I had on the Hogwarts Express still had me in shock.

I mean, it was my own mother with a knife held to her throat, so I have a right to be weirded out and in shock. I, however, had so many questions about the dream. What house was I in? Why couldn't I move? What was my mother doing there? Why was she being held with a knife to her throat? Who was the man threatening my mother's life? It was just all too much. And clearly, I wasn't good enough at hiding my confusion at the dinner table, as Oliver asked me repeatedly if everything was alright. I just said that I was fine.

"Are you sure honey? You've been acting weird ever since you got home." Oliver said.

I, of course, brushed it off, but that didn't stop Zoe from cracking a smiling and bursting into laughter.

"Oh, and what's so funny that you must interrupt the conversation with that laughter out of place?" Helena sophisticatedly asked the sixth year girl, who was still laughing. She soon stopped, but then spit out something even worse, especially around Helena and Oliver.

"She's acting weird because her friend Remus fancies her!" she squealed, catching all of us off guard.

"Is that so?" Helena said, cracking a smile out of the corner of her lips.

Zoe sat at the table smiling from ear to ear, while my aunt and uncle awaited my response. "He doesn't fancy me," I said, hoping to end the conversation right then and there.

But Zoe battled my statement, saying how he looked at me as if I was the only girl in the world, which of course is false. I feel like Zoe's just making stuff up now. And after a couple 'Aws' from my aunt and uncle, I changed the conversation to something else as quickly as I could. Now talking about our final examinations, hopefully, all of the talks about Remus was over, because I knew for a fact that him, especially after finding out that I'm a werewolf, couldn't fancy me.

After dinner, Zoe and I were exhausted from our day of travel and went to bed shortly. I got dressed into a pair of my old pajamas and got under the covers of my unmade bed. Now that I think about it, Zoe's blurting out of Remus supposedly fancying me isn't the worst thing that could've happened. I mean, the real reason why I was so flustered was having to do with my confusing dream about my mother, but now no one else has to know about it. And with Zoe's 'cover,' Helena and Oliver won't go asking questions about what's bothering me so much.

I went to bed with that somewhat satisfaction.

Pretty soon, the winter holiday simply faded away. We had already made all of the cookies, decorated the gingerbread house, and had used nearly all of the snow building snowmen. After that, the holiday break was over quicker than ever.

And within what felt like no time at all, Helena and Oliver were already on their way to drop me and Zoe off at Kings Cross. On one hand I couldn't wait to see my best friends again, but on the other hand, I didn't want to start up classes again! Oh, the bittersweet reality of going to school.

Sitting on the Hogwarts Express after Helena and Oliver dropped me and Zoe off at Kings Cross was the most boring thing. Just sitting, waiting for the train to reach its destination. And I, being one of the most impatient people I know, was not good at passing the time. I drew faces in the fog on the window facing outside, admiring the pretty snow-covered scene, but that occupied me for all of three minutes. Ugh, Hogwarts couldn't come soon enough. Zoe passed time by sleeping, but I was hesitant to take a nap like she was, since I had such a terribly frightening and confusing dream the last time.

Anyways, I basically sat still thinking of stuff to do on the train for the entire time, and we arrived at Hogwarts sooner than I thought. I gently woke up Zoe from her nap, and the two of us exited the train among those who were also coming back to Hogwarts from their winter holiday.

I couldn't wait to see my friends, who were luckily already back at school. Lily, Sirius, Peter, and Remus had all vacationed to the Potter's house for the holiday, and I was told that they had arrived yesterday night from their trip. So, knowing that they were there, I ditched Zoe and ran into the Gryffindor common room and immediately saw my friends perched on the burgundy colored couches and chairs.

"Juliet! You're back! It's so good to see you," Lily said as she sprouted up from the couch and raced to give me a welcoming hug. Ah, I loved my friends so much.

"We missed you, Jules," Remus said while I hugged Lily, calling me that silly nickname again that only he and Zoe ever say. I chuckled in reply.

I joined the five of them in the common room sitting area, sitting down in the only seat available,  next to Remus. While sitting, we all talked of our winter break and James told me of the silly prank that he had pulled on Lily while they were all staying at his home. She didn't seem all that pleased by it, but they are dating, after all, so she found humor in her boyfriend's extravagant retelling of how he charmed his way to winning a snowball fight against her.

I was thrilled to be back at Hogwarts now with my friends, but I was not so thrilled to have to prepare for the full moon the following week. Now that Zoe has put the idea of Remus supposedly fancying me inside my head, I'm probably going to act more awkward and squeamish than usual around him, which can only result in me embarrassing myself. Oh dear, I better not screw anything up, but knowing myself, I probably will.

Word Count: 1197

a/n: not gonna lie zoe reminds me of my little sis *insert flashback* oh boy