Brielle Anderson had always been a happy child, full of questions and a never-ending pit of things to say. But on the evening of August seventeenth, just days away from returning to Hogwarts, a terrific tragedy changed her life for good.
Being sent...
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s e c r e t e l e v e n
Months had passed. Now it was almost time to go home for Christmas break.
The Great Hall was filled with holiday decorations. The ceiling was charmed to sprinkle fake snow down on the room every hour and the walls were full of sparkling lights of every color. Mistletoe randomly appeared above couples and there was always someone singing a Christmas carol.
It was that day, Tuesday the fourteenth, that I was approached by someone for the first time in days. Actually approached and addressed as if everything was going back to normal. It felt odd, so very odd. But somehow it also felt kind of nice.
"Hey," the hesitant voice said from behind where I was sitting at the end of the Gryffindor table. "I—could I sit?"
I glanced up from my food with a confused look, for why would someone be talking to me? "Er—" I muttered. "I guess."
Remus Lupin didn't need to be told twice. He sat down beside me, not too close but not too far. His caramel eyes glanced at me briefly before looking away. He shifted in his seat, hands opening and closing atop the table.
"What do you want?"
He glanced back up at me and blinked. "I—" he said, startled. "I don't want anything. I—well, I just thought you've looked lonely lately and I figured I'd try to make you feel happy. I mean—just to be nice, I suppose."
Remus stared at me for a second before looking away and reaching into his bag. Straightening up he handed me a leather-bound book. "Thought you might enjoy reading a new book," he said, flickering his eyes briefly to the old battered one I was currently reading. "It's one of my favorites."
I blinked at him before looking down at the cover. The Little Prince. My heart panged a little inside my chest and I glanced back up at Remus with a look of surprise. "I've been wanting to read this."
He nodded with a small smile. "Yes, it's a good book. And—I, er, well the moral—" he stopped himself short and shook his head. "Actually, how about you read it first and then we can meet again to talk about it?"
I thought about it for a second. It was really a very kind gift, giving me this book. I had been wanting to read it ever since I had heard a Ravenclaw girl talking to her friend about it. And now here Remus was, offering it to me. I made my decision and turned back to face him with a small smile.
"Thank you," I told him, hiding my flushed cheeks behind my hair. "I'll start reading it right away."
I grabbed the book along with my own and stood up quickly, excited to read something new about a life that wasn't my own.
"You're welcome," Remus said softly, sending me a kind smile.
I think the smile I sent him back was the first genuine smile I had shown anyone since the night my parents were killed. Remus Lupin had unknowingly lit a small flame of light in my world of darkness, and I realized, as I opened the book late that evening, how much I missed being happy.
