Mischief Managed || Fred Weasley

14

By the last class of the day, unlike one would usually expect, she had managed to burry the letter from her father in the deep back of her mind, blocking it out of her train of thought as she focused on thinking about nothing, focused in on her breathing, the rising and falling of her chest, in and out, her heartbeat thumping. *This is a reminder to my readers. Take a break. Breath. Meditate. Eat something, stay hydrated :)*

After Defense Against the Dark Arts with Professor Lupin, she stayed after class, slowly taking her time with packing the books in her bag while Fred and George lingered nearby her, waiting to go back to the common room with her.

"Cherry, don't forget our extra session after classes today in an hour," Remus said, pointing to the ancient looking clock on the wall. She had taken up the professor's offer on giving her tutor sessions to help with her defense against the dark arts, since she well, wasn't exactly great at it.

"Yeah alright, thanks dad!" She replied, shoving the last of her books in her bag.

"Did- Cherry did you just call Professor Lupin dad??" Fred asked, laughing a bit, covering his mouth as he looked between us.

"No- what? I said thanks man," Cherry replied, zipping her bag shut and tossing it over her shoulder, blushing.

"Cherry, do you see me as a father figure?" Remus asked, crossing his arms over his tattered robes, smirking the slightest bit.

"No! I mean-" she stuttered, tripping over her words, trying to explain herself out of this one.

"No it's okay, I take it as a compliment," the DADA professor laughed, leaning back against his wooden desk.

Sighing, and laughing, she and the twins left the classroom at last.

Remus stayed, thinking about what had just happened. He felt bad, a bit guilty. He didn't want to steal the glory from the girl's real father, who had just complicatedly happened to be his best friend, which she wasn't quite yet aware of. He was also worried, to say the least.

Sirius had always cared more about Harry than he had anyone else; even his own biological daughter. He'd known all along that Cherry had been well, alive; he'd never acted on it though, even after getting out of Azkaban. But now, now that Sirius needed something from the pink haired girl, he was willing to put Harry aside for his own need.

Remus felt as if Sirius was using Cherry, not really caring about establishing a good relationship with her. He was scared for the sixteen year old, especially if she were to believe her father's lies. And even though Sirius was Remus's best friend, he still hadn't been the best person he'd known.

And Remus knew, that, if it came to it, he'd give up Cherry for Harry. He didn't want that to happen t her. He hadn't known the sweet girl for very long, but it was almost as if she treated him like a father figure sometimes, but that was maybe just because of the absence of her father all these years, it must've been nice for her to be able to have Professor Lupin play that role for a bit, and it was, for her at least.

Remus was afraid of the girl getting too attached to either him or her birth father, because he knew Sirius would abandon her for the sake of someone else, most likely Harry.

He knew about his devastating secret, the filthy deal that he had made with the ministry of magic, something that would scar all his friends if anyone had ever found out.

But Sirius figured it would've been a small price to pay for his freedom from Azkaban, a small casualty that everyone would get over, though Remus had no knowledge of what Sirius was going to do, and no knowledge of what extent the madman would to go to earn his freedom from the dreadful place that had drove him nearly insane.