Thorn | Neville Longbottom

Chapter 22: Like That's Possible

Briar was currently riding with the others to Hogsmeade. She and Potter had arranged a way for her to meet up with Lupin there, so that she could have a private meeting with him to discuss things. She sat in the carriage with Potter, Granger, and Weasley, and an uncomfortable silence had settled over their group for the entire ride.

At one point, Briar was staring out the window and noticed the carriage's other occupants were making some exaggerated facial expressions at one another. She began to observe them from the corner of her eye and saw when Ron raised his eyebrows and then jerked his head towards her questioningly to Harry. Hermione sat stiffly in her seat, but she slowly turned her head to look at Harry with raised eyebrows.

Harry shot them both a warning look that Briar realized meant that Harry didn't want them to upset her. She guessed her reputation preceded her, even with Granger and Weasley, who she'd barely spoken to in her time at Hogwarts thus far.

She slowly looked at them and sighed, "You don't have to be quiet or whatever. Just pretend I'm not here."

Ron raised his eyebrows and grumbled, "Like that's possible."

"Because I'm a Slytherin? Or am I just too pretty for you to ignore, Weasley?" Briar bit back while she leveled a stare at him.

Ron blinked rapidly and opened and closed his mouth. He finally turned pink and muttered under his breath, "Blimey."

Hermione slowly covered her mouth to conceal a laugh, but Briar noticed something else flashed in Hermione's eyes. She figured that Hermione didn't love her latter comment.

Briar rolled her eyes and admitted, "Don't worry, Weasley. I wasn't flirting with you. I'm not interested."

Harry and Hermione openly laughed at Briar's blunt rejection. Ron glowered in his seat, but a smug smile came over Briar's lips as she gazed out the window again. She noticed the way the three of them stole glances at her, but she didn't look at them, not wanting to hear the questions they seemed nervous to ask.

Their carriage arrived at Hogsmeade before long, and Briar popped out quickly, already hurrying to the Shrieking Shack for her meetup with Professor Lupin. She slipped into the abandoned building and ignored the gnawing feeling start in her chest from being in a place so eerie. For one horrible moment, she wondered if this was a place that death eaters had gathered at.

She slipped upstairs and found Professor Lupin standing awkwardly in the middle of the room with his wand drawn. He let out a breath when he saw it was her. He grinned, "You made it."

Briar nodded and murmured, "Thanks for meeting with me. I just had some questions."

"Of course. What are they?" He wondered and shoved his hands into the pockets of his trousers.

He looked at her with a warmth in her eyes that reminded Briar of Neville and her mother, so she exhaled and confessed, "I learned some surprising news over the summer, and I wanted to see if you knew if it was true."

Lupin's eyebrows rose on his forehead, but he didn't say a thing as he waited for her to continue.

"I, um, I don't know if you remember my boggart, but it's related to that," Briar started hesitantly, feeling as if her throat would close up any second. How could people do this so easily? They could just talk about these things as if it were nothing. This wasn't easy. It was near impossible.

Lupin's gentle nod stirred Briar on. She licked her lips and tried again, "Well, um, it turns out that I was mistaken because I thought that my parents were..."

"Soulmates," Lupin finished with a gentle smile casted in Briar's direction.

She blinked a few times and took a deep breath. She looked down at her doc martens that stood amidst the heavy dust that coated the floor. Somehow the filth reminded her of the Davies Manor, despite knowing that her father would have a hissy fit if it ever looked remotely like this in his house.

Briar looked back up at Lupin's patiently waiting expression and sighed, "But my father told me that they were not soulmates. Do you know if that's true?"

Lupin blinked and nodded. He admitted, "Yes, that's true. Your parents weren't soulmates, but your mother's parents forced her hand to your father."

Briar took a shaky breath to contain the rage that was starting to billow up inside her. She pressed her fingernails into her palms and wondered, "So she told you that? You knew that they weren't supposed to be together?"

"Yes, I knew that," He nodded, and Briar recognized a sort of discomfort on his face. This conversation was making him uncomfortable? Did he not trust her?

"Did the other members of the order know?" She wondered with a sort of guardedness edging its way into her tone.

Lupin nodded and began to say something else, but Briar interrupted him to say, "I'd like to meet them."

He blinked and clamped his mouth closed. He repeated, "Meet them?"

Briar nodded firmly and declared, "Yes. I want to meet them. This Christmas. My father won't be suspicious. I never go home for the holidays, so I can come without him noticing."

"I'm not so sure that's a great idea..." Lupin started, but Briar raised one black eyebrow and stopped his arguments before they had fully formed.

She hissed, "Of course it is. Tell Potter to escort me there at Christmas... I want to meet the people that my mother died for. They must be extraordinary for her to give up her life and her peace for them."

Briar turned from the room and started to hurry away, but Lupin's next words made her come to a complete halt in her escape. He sighed, "Briar, she died for you, not for them."

She looked back at Lupin with her eyes rapidly blinking and a watery haze beginning to coat her vision. She nodded meekly before turning and fleeing the Shrieking Shack even faster than before.

How could her mother's actions have been to save her? Her mother lost everything because of her allegiance to the order, and so did Briar.

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