GALAXIES | r. lupin (2)

CHAPTER THREE

"WHERE ARE YOU GOING?" Remus asked groggily, his voice hoarse, staring at Althea who already had one foot out of the door. It was ten in the morning on a Saturday, so he was sleeping in. Unfortunately, his new roommate woke him up.

"I need to buy some things." She replied as casually as she could, trying to ignore the fact that he was in his pyjamas, which consisted of some joggings and nothing else. "I packed too quickly and forgot about half the things that I needed to bring."

"Alright." he smiled, his eyes barely open as he stepped back into his room to catch up on the sleep that Althea had deprived him of. She pulled on a jumper and closed the dorr behind her, going to meet some old friends.

*

"Fuck, this is cute." Althea turned around in front the mirror.

"You know, when you said you wanted to go shopping I thought you meant we could all pick out clothes and see what we like best." Yasmin grumbled, sitting down outside the fitting rooms. "Not just watch you try on tons of stuff."

"But you have to admit, I look hot." she grinned, not even slightly deterred by Yasmin's pessimism.

"You do." Reina, seeing Caroline's boredom and the fire in her eyes, cut in before she could get snarky. "But we should probably leave. We've been here for ages."

"You're right." Althea collected the clothes that had piled up and grabbed a credit card-- something she'd swiped from her mother before she'd left-- and went to the registers. It was only a matter of time before her mother realised it was gone and cut it off, so Althea had to make the most of it while she still could.

"So, erm..." Yasmin started, trying to find the tact she'd lacked her whole life. "You moved in with Remus."

"Temporarily." Althea clarified, but Yasmin still looked uneasy.

"But you do realise that if you don't like him... I mean, not like you used to... Then he's probably getting the wrong idea."

"Who says I don't?" she hummed.

"If you do, why not tell him? You already know you'd make a great couple and that he feels the same-" Caroline started.

"Used to feel the same." Althea corrected. "Besides, we're in the middle of a bloody war, Caroline, I can't tell him that I love him."

"So now you love him?" Reina raised an eyebrow.

"I'm exaggerating to make a point! Did you all learn nothing from the Ravenclaw stereotype students?"

"I mean, no, because I liked to block out their incessant droning." She returned. "It gives me migraines."

"I'd be mad but that's pretty fair." Althea admitted.

"Exactly." Caroline smiled. "Now, where can we buy some lingerie for your sex with Remus-"

"Caroline, I swear to god-"

*

The more Althea thought about it, the more uncertain she felt.

Normally, she didn't like feeling anything. Emotion was unwelcome and uncomfortable. She loved the thought of it, she loved the experience, she loved how it could guide people or blind them, but she did not love emotion. It made her weak, vulnerable. She could not afford vulnerability, certainly not in the middle of a war. She wasn't stupid.

She took a long sip of her coffee and pursed her lips. "If I were to tell him how I felt," Reina gasped, a smile forming on her features, "Not saying I am," Reina visibly deflated. "How would I go about it?"

"Get a bottle of champagne." Caroline started as if she'd been expected the question, "Put on some sexy underwear, and the rest will come naturally."

"No." Yasmin shook her head. "No! That is not how you admit your love for someone." Yasmin shook her head, narrowing her eyes at Caroline, "Ask him out on a date, and then tell him on the date. Guys love it when a girl takes the initiative."

"And you know that how, exactly?" Caroline rolled her eyes.

"I read!" Yasmin looked almost offended. Truly, Althea wondered how they had gotten people so different to get along so well, and shove them into one friend group. From the start, they didn't approach problems in the same way, they had none of the same interests, and, for Ravenclaws, they had very little care for school. Though, regrettably, that chapter of their lives was over. They were adults, they had to get jobs and apartments and pay taxes, and all the things Althea had dreaded from the moment she turned seventeen.

"I don't doubt it, but there has to be another reason." Caroline mused, and Yasmin looked away. It didn't seem that she wanted to talk about it much, but no information can escape Caroline's grasp.

"Aubrey used to vent to me about her boyfriends."

Suddenly, they all went silent. Caroline wasn't probing for information anymore. They had been desperately avoiding the subject of their old friend, for the reason that they did not want to remember her. Not because they didn't love her, not because they didn't miss her, and certainly not because they didn't want to. Simply because none of them wanted to be the person who broke the carefully crafted peace they had made.

"I miss her more every day." Reina croaked out. Yasmin put an arm around her waist comfortingly.

"I know, love." Yasmin smiled sadly, almost wistfully. "So do I."

"I wish she didn't have t-to leave us." Caroline's lip trembled. Althea fleetingly thought that it was the first time that she'd seen Caroline show an emotion besides anger of mischief. Aubrey would've been thrilled to have been the one to bring it out.

Althea tried to speak, tried to make a sound, but it came out as a strangled cry. She stared down at the ground, her dark blonde hair falling around her face, obscuring her vision and hiding the stinging tears in her eyes.

"Let's not do this. Aubrey would've hated us crying over her." Reina sniffled, letting out an airy laugh.

"She would." Althea brushed her hair away from her face and smiled, trying her best for it to not look like a grimace, but from the looks of the other girls, she had to assume that she'd failed.

"Let's all go back home." Yasmin suggested, looking at the teary and noses reddened from crying. Althea didn't like that word. Her home was Hogwarts, but really it was with her ex-boyfriend on his sofa-bed.