STARS | r. lupin (1)

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

THE RIDE OVER TO HOGWARTS was uneventful. Althea shared some jokes with her friends, has some sweets, and changed out of her muggle clothes.

It was late afternoon when they arrived, and it wasn't until late that night when she finally got out of her bed, and realised that, having skipped dinner, she was starving. After carefully sneaking out of bed, doing her best to not wake up her dorm mates and avoiding Filch (who never actually seemed to sleep), she headed towards the kitchens, by the Hufflepuff dormitories. Her only obstacle was the two sets of footprints nearby.

"Stop!" a female voice giggled. Althea was sure she had heard it before. "Someone's going to hear us!"

"Don't worry love, no one's up at this hour." a distinctively male voice responded.

Is that James Potter?

Before she could get a better look, she felt a hand on her shoulder and would have screamed, had the person not also put a hand over her mouth. She spun around and came face to face with Remus.

"Remus?" She whispered in confusion, "What the hell is going on?"

He took her by the arm and pulled her behind a large column. "Look." he pointed towards two shadowy figures by the fruit bowl painting that led to the kitchens. Silently moving closer, Althea observed the two, and then had to stop herself from gasping and alerting the couple.

"Is that James and Lily?" she asked quitetly in disbelief. Remus nodded.

"Can you believe it? He's with Lily and he didn't even tell his best mates!" he murmured furiously.

"I would think that maybe Lily would tell me." Althea mused. "I mean, we're not that close, but we study together from time to time, and I always ask about this kind of thing."

"Oh, well if you study together, you must be close!" Remus muttered sarcastically. Althea rolled her eyes and peeked over at the two.

"Oh my fucking-"

"They're kissing?"

They were, indeed, kissing. James held Lily by the waist and she hand her hands on either side of his neck.

"Holy shit." Althea gaped.

"Should we interrupt them?" Remus asked nervously.

"Not while they're kissing!"

"Okay, okay, sorry." he looked at his feet. "But I'm seriously starving."

"So am I!" Althea told him irritatedly, "But they don't get the chance to do this kind of thing during the day, so we should leave them be."

*

"Do you regret waiting now?" Remus smirked smugly. Fifteen minutes had passed, but it felt like fifteen hours, and the two lovers were still outside the kitchens, grinning and laughing like idiots.

"Very much so." she nodded vigorously. "But we can't go out now or they'll know we were here the whole time."

"What's so wrong with that?" he asked, eyeing the entrance to the kitchens.

"I plan on using this as some serious teasing material next time I see either of them!"

"Why must bad things happen to good people?" Remus asked to nobody in particular. Althea rolled her eyes.

"Drama queen."

*

Despite the fact that James and Lily clearly didn't want to be discovered, Althea still held hope that they would suddenly come clean and be a public couple. That hope was crushed the following morning, during breakfast in the great hall.

"Can't you ever just leave me alone?" Lily yelled, "You're insufferable!"

"That might just be one of the nicest things you've said to me." James grinned.

"Oh, why don't you shove your head up your arse."

"Lily-pad, that's no way to speak to your future husband."

One look at the two of them, acting and causing a scene, was enough to ruin Althea's mood for the morning.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" she muttered under her breath as she clenched her fists and stomped over to the Gryffindor table, furious after having her whole evening ruined. Her friends tried to grasp at her clothes or yell tlher name to get her attention, but to no avail. None of them understood what had gotten her so mad, of course, since she hadn't told anyone (she was a gossip, not a monster). However, before she could even get within five feet of the pair, she was lifted off the ground and tossed over Remus' shoulder.

"What the hell are you doing, Remus?" she banged her fists against his back. "Let me go!"

"No way." he started walking out of the Great Hall while the majority of students stared curiously at them. "Nobody needs to know what we know."

"They ruined my evening!" she swung her legs in an attempt to break free. "They must suffer!"

"They can suffer when you're not angry and hungry." He assured her as the doors to breakfast closed behind them, and the eyes following them were cut off.

~