turning page | A REMUS LUPIN STORY

v. UNTIL THE FAT LADY SINGS

"Come on!" Margo exclaimed from her bed, looking at her best friend with pleading eyes. "You have to come to Hogsmeade!"

"I've already told you, Margo. I didn't finish barely any work last night because of Professor Lupin. I don't have the time." Adeline sighed.

She'd obviously told her best friend about the evening with Remus Lupin in his office, and Margo was simply bewildered. Of course, professors being kind to students wasn't unheard of, though uncommon in Snape's case, but they rarely kept them behind after curfew for a chat.

"And he asked you if you and Alex were dating?" She hummed, looking up at Adeline with a twinkle in her eye. Adeline sighed and turned to the other with a knowing gaze.

"Yes, but not like that. He was merely curious, is all. Most people tend to be about me and Alex."

"Yes, because you act like you're madly in love. Your mum asked me if you were dating when I stayed in the summer."

Adeline had a betrayed look on her face. "Did she? You think she'd just believe me when I say I'm not."

"Are you sure you aren't?" Margo questioned, then held up her hands at Ade's defensive stare. "I mean, you're both clearly interested in each other. About time you both sucked it up and got on with it."

This had been a constant battle for years between the two girls: Margo's adamance that Alexander and Adeline were in love, and her insistence that they weren't. The auburn girl wasn't interested in dating Alex. Both would not deny that there was something there, but it had long passed, and even if it were to remain, it was an unspoken agreement that nothing would happen. They didn't know why - they just knew they wouldn't work well together. Both weren't meant to be in that kind of relationship.

"Margo, I've told you a thousand times, and I'll tell you again - I'm not interested in dating Alex. We're just close, is all."

"Ah, yes. Now we move onto your new love interest, Remus Lupin."

Both girls broke into fits of giggles, and Adeline pushed her best friend, the two descending into a play fight.

Later, they were standing in the corridor near the entrance, and Alexander towered over the small Gryffindor girl, looking down at her with a sad expression. She'd just informed her friends that she simply didn't have time to go to Hogsmeade, and that if she wanted to attend the Halloween party that night, she'd have to get the rest of her work done. Oliver promised to grab her some sweets from Honeydukes before bouncing off towards Anastasia, and Margo had already left in search of Winnie. 

"Are you sure I can't convince you to go?" He said with a frown. 

Alexander wasn't the kind of boy that worried. He was very easy going, sometimes poorly tempered, but Adeline held a soft spot in his heart. It began in first year when she found him crying in the common room because he missed his mother. She'd died only a few months before, and Alex, a small child, was left alone with his horrid muggle step-father. He hadn't felt happy at Hogwarts until a pretty girl, with curly auburn hair, held his hand and promised him she wouldn't leave his side until he felt better. She hadn't left his side since.

To many, Alexander was a nuisance. He clearly had some unresolved issues with his family, and he didn't work the hardest. That small boy had grown up incredibly handsome, and girls in Hogwarts found him as the most unattainable heart throb. It wasn't that he was saving himself for Adeline, or anything of the sort: but none really seemed to compare to her when it came to something genuine. He would play with other girls hearts and then, at the end of the day, come back to his best friend's loving smile. His gaze was rife with worry as he looked down at her. Alexander wasn't the kind of boy that worried, but he always did worry about Adeline Montgomery.