𝗰𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸, remus lupin

˗ˋ 09

CHAPTER NINE
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH HE'S SWAYED

. . .

"Aren't they just." Remus replied, his gaze flickering from the face of the girl only inches away from him, and the butterfly that danced along her fingertips.

Pandora had a rather appropriate smirk on her face, watching as the Lupin boy's light brown eyes grazed over her features, before promptly closing her fist and the butterfly disappeared. She moved away from him, and Remus let out a deep sigh of relief as she did so.

The girl sat in front of him sat back in her seat, brushing off her hands on her skirt and folding them across her chest, crossing her ankles as the heels rested on the floor. "Quite the nuisance, are these butterflies, wouldn't you say?" She began, a flicker of humour crossing her lips but wasn't reflected in her eyes.

"They have cost my family so much. My mother, my father.. him." The sing-song quality to her voice had faded away, and for a moment Remus got a glimpse of a different girl.

Almost every wizarding household knew of the downfall of Dysnomia and Adonis Rosier. Knew that Dysnomia had suddenly gone missing, and the man had gone crazy with the disappearance of his wife. It had drove him to madness, and after.. well - something - happening, he had been admitted into a muggle psychiatric hospital and had never been heard of again.

The tale was almost the same with Pandora. In almost all matters, she had been considered a missing person. The Ministry had attempted to find her - but somehow she had managed to hide herself when they came. The inhabitants of the village below the Rosier manor - labelled as a Cursed Castle to anyone who asked about it - knew that someone lived up in there, and had correctly and automatically assumed it was Pandora. 

But when the mention of the butterflies costing the Rosier family something, it rather admittedly garnered Remus's attention. To everyone, the case was pretty cut and dry; Dysnomia had gone missing, Adonis had driven himself into madness whilst looking for her. It seemed, however, there was something more to the story. 

"They have?" Remus asked, watching as plumes of tiny, black butterflies flew out of Pandora's finger, the girl's completely unnurtured wild and uncontrollable in many sense. And whilst Remus was watching her eyes flicker with something as every new kaleidoscope appeared, he had a sense that the power that came with it wasn't as welcome as she made it. 

"Yes.. but that is a story for another day and for someone who actually finds themselves caring for someone like me." The words were spoken brightly, but behind the tone was something that just seemed to raw and sad.

"Oh." Remus breathed out, and watched with wide eyes as the butterflies that had just appeared from her fingertip burst in the flames and shrivelled into ash, landing on the table and disappearing out of the nearest window. 

Pandora didn't say anything else, seeming to be waiting for Remus to make the next move in the conversation. Instead, she reached over, a single finger piercing the page of his book and dragging it over the tablem turning it to the right way around under her nose. She already knew it was Charms from listening into his thoughts earlier, and glanced to the title across the top of the page to see which spell he was doing homework on. 

Defodio was spelt out in curly lettering across the top - the gouging spell. Her eyes brushed over the contents of the page, Remus only just registering that she had taken his textbook from him and stopped himself from pulling it back, deciding it would just be easier for him to let her read it.

"Is that how you heard me and my friends in the Common Room?" Remus asked, Pandora humming in response. "And you heard everything we said?"

"Oh yes." Pandora practically grinned as she sat up, closing the book as she did so. "It's so nice for a childhood friend of mine to wish I had been crushed by a statue." She mused, and Remus winced, remembering what Sirius had said. 

"James is it? The one with glasses and incredibly messy hair? He seems to think I'm obsessed. I'm nott. Just interested. Sirius called me mental, can't say anything about that really. And the pretty ginger one. I like her, she's smart. And so does James, apparently." Pandora's eyes flickered with amusement, Remus thinking to Lily's point of her wanting attention.

"Of course, she ruined all that with the spiel about me wanting attention. Quite frankly, I'm bored, and I'm just looking for something to take time away." Pandora paused, and the Lupin boy held his breath as he waited for her next point. 

"That moves me on the the most interesting bit. That's what Dumbledore kept you back for, isn't it? To try and 'turn me', whatever that means?" The amusement hadn't left her eyes, a smirk playing on her lips. "Well, are you?" She asked. 

"I.. don't know. I haven't made my mind up." Remus admitted. "I don't even know what he means by that, said that I should go back to him when I had thought about it and if I agreed to do it." 

"Remus, you don't have to. Other than the fact I'm.. me - there's nothing remotely interesting about trying to 'turn me'." Pandora tilted her head. "Although, it would be preferable if you said yes." 

And for some strange reason, that had swayed him.

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