yellow (remus lupin.)

fifteen.

FIFTEEN.

Monday rolled around with its depressing aura shrouding the school. It was still dark at breakfast times as winter drew close, along with constant rain hammering the large windows. But, absolutely nothing could bring Cara's mood down.

After she had finally managed to prize herself away from Remus's bedroom on Saturday morning, she headed straight back to the Gryffindor common room with a smile that was hurting her face. The man was encroaching on every millimetre of her brain space, and she was doing rather a similar thing for him.

Once he had overcome his initial panic at what he had done, Remus felt like a lovesick teenager. Every second that wasn't spent teaching the seventh year class felt like it was dragging on forever. He was always hoping that whenever he turned a hallway corner he would bump into her and be able to forge some excuse of a reason to pull her aside and kiss her. He craved to be around her.

And it wasn't just Cara and Remus who were skipping around the halls on cloud nine. It seems Anastasia had been ever so busy on Friday night with a certain Oliver Wood.

"Does it show?" Stassie pushed her robe aside as she gesticulated to the large purple mark on her collarbone.

"No, you're grand." Cara inspected it for her as they waited outside the muggle history classroom. "You know, I never would've had him down as a lovebiter."

"Me neither." Stassie joked, a look of embarrassment in her eyes. "Can you tell me who it was you shagged now? Please?"

"I told you! Just some sixth year I met." She lied. "I doubt I'll see him again so it doesn't really matter."

The class began to file into the room, with the two girls close to the back of the classroom. As it reached their turn to enter, a strong hand clasped the top of Cara's arm and began to pull her away.

"Professor?" She asked in confusion as McGonagall was dragging her away. She quickly shot Stassie a shrug as the girl was left alone outside the class.

"Dumbledore has requested to see you urgently Cara." McGonagall explained, seeming more downcast than usual.

"Is everything okay?" Cara began to panic, her mind instantly flying to Lupin getting sacked for their rendezvous.

McGonagall didn't answer. The rest of the journey was held in complete silence, giving Cara's overthinking brain centre stage to fill the quiet in her head. All she could think of was how she had caused Remus to lose his job. He must absolutely despise her by now, but how did it get leaked? Cara didn't have any enemies, and it didn't seem that Remus did either.

The women were swiftly ushered into Dumbledore's office, being greeted by the headmaster as he sat at his desk. However, the biggest surprise was yet to come.

"Mum?" Cara scoffed in disbelief.

Andrea and Tony — along with tiny baby Sadie asleep in her mother's arms — were sat beside Dumbledore. Cara wanted to run over and scoop Sadie up and smother her in love, yet the lack of enthusiasm in the room told her to be quiet.

"Take a seat love." Andrea told her daughter with a reassuring smile, yet she couldn't look her in the eye. There was almost guilt in the way she spoke. Cara perched on the chair opposite them all, feeling as though she was at a tribunal.

"Miss Fitch, we need to have a serious discussion about a grave matter." Dumbledore told her sadly.

"That should have taken place years ago." McGonagall snapped.

"Minerva, please." Dumbledore held his hand out to stop her. "Now Cara, I'm sure you're no stranger to Sirius Black being escaped from Azkaban."

Dumbledore placed one of the wanted posters for Sirius in front of her on the desk. The sight of him screaming into the camera was burnt into the retinas of most Hogwarts students, with the photo being disturbingly familiar.