SCREAM | ginny w.

SCREAM | three

Vera listened to a clock tick for enough seconds that she lost count. She couldn't see the source of the ticking now that she had sat down, but she assumed there was a rather large clock somewhere in the house. She sipped her tea every 20 ticks and shifted in her chair every thirty-five.

Remus cleared his throat as he finished his tea. He smiled at her and stood. "I could show you around if you'd like?"

Vera nodded and left her remaining undrunk tea on the small kitchen table. She started to really look at the place now, staring at the photographs as she picked up her bag. Even the furniture choices screamed tidy and neat, though they also reminded her slightly of an old woman who owned six cats, which was even more amusing considering she knew Remus was a werewolf. It was the most nineteen-fifties styled room she had seen, and she had seen many people's homes. It was interesting, and terrifying, to Vera, how easily people let strangers into their homes.

"This is the kitchen and the living room, obviously, help yourself to anything in the fridge, I don't know if you know what a telly is or not-" Remus gestured to the telly in front of the sofa and turned to her. She nodded "-then you're welcome to use that as well." They moved through the archway that separated the kitchen and living room and he gestured to a doorway.

"Basement?" Vera asked, turning to look at Remus, who confirmed her suspicions, impressed. "It's got a lock on the outside."

"You're very observant," Remus complimented, moving up a set of stairs to their left now. "That's usually where I transform when I am not amongst my kind." His smile was tight and pained now, and he hurried to avoid her eye contact.

"It is how I have stayed alive," Vera said shortly. Remus stared at her slightly, pity threatening to fill his eyes, before stopping on the top of the stairs. There were two doors down a short hall.

"This door is my room," he said, pointing to the room on the left, "and this one is the spare, which I suppose is your's now. If you want to decorate it in any way, I am not quite the hand at transfiguration as I once was, but I think I can still spruce it up. It's quite bland right now."

"So I am I," Vera said shortly, smiling. Her smile could only be described as sharp as if even her gratefulness was holding a knife to the throat of its target. "Thank you, Mister Lupin."

"Remus," he said, shifting his weight again but smiling warmly. "After all, we're housemates now. I'll let you get settled in. Feel free to roam around the house, I'll call when I've made dinner." His smile twitched before he turned and hurried back down the stairs.

She stared after him for a moment and tentatively put her hand on the knob to the right-side door. When she was sure it wouldn't burn her, she opened the door slowly, revealing a bland guest room. Vera felt the corners of her mouth lilt, she had forgotten what it was like to sleep in a room that was hers. In the compound, it had always been steel walls and woolen cots: comfort was a weakness. She had slept in plenty of hotel rooms as she had been recruiting people or spying on them, where she had to stay in places for extended amounts of time. But none of it was the same as having her own room, in a place she could call home.

The room was carpeted in a cream colour, the walls white. The bed was wireframed, with four pillows, two that matched the white sheets and two that matched the grey comforter. There was a green velvet chair in the corner and a wooden chest at the foot of the bed. She took a step into the room and closed the door behind her, locking the door with a satisfying click that made her feel instantly at ease, despite the fact that she knew anyone with a wand or knew how to kick down a door could get in anyways. There was a window facing the south, with a bench upholstered in the same green velvet as the chair, the early afternoon sun spilling into the room and making the whole place seem to beam back at her. Across from the bench, there were two doors, neither of which she had come in. She set her bag down on the bench and slipped her shoes off, marveling in the feel of the carpet against her bare feet. She tiptoed her way over to the two unknown doors: one held a tiny bathroom that, though small, was a full bath, minus a tub, the other being an empty closet, even smaller than the bathroom.

Her smile slipped across her lips uncontrolled as she shut the door to the closet and let her fingers drift over the walls until they reached the chair, her fingers painting patterns in the velvet. Her feet ran over the carpet, the sensation sending tingles up her legs. She ended up laying on the bed staring up at the ceiling, holding back a giggle.

Dinner passed in great silence, though Vera enjoyed the spaghetti nonetheless. She bade Remus a quick goodnight and hurried back into her room. The initial excitement of the place had worn off and she felt uneasy as the sun had gone down. She grabbed her favorite switch blade and her wand, which was only useful to her in a fight. She knew spells, just not ones which she would ever want to use on another person, at least, not unless she had to. She still much preferred muggle weapons. Perhaps it was because she understood their danger more wholly than that of magic, which still felt foreign and unknown to her. There was comfort to her in knowing that if she held it to close, it would cut her too.

She lay on the bed for an hour, watching the stars in the night sky. She had never slept in a bed this comfortable before and now it seemed unnatural to her mind to try and sleep when in such an unfamiliar environment. Eventually, she pulled a pillow and the comforter off the bed, slipped her knife under her pillow, and lay down on the carpet, blanket pulled up over her waist. The stiffness of the floor was a comfort in the unfamiliar world she had found herself immersed in and eventually, she fell asleep.

a/n:chapitre trois! uh Ginny's gonna get introduced soon, so y'all can get hype abt that. also in case any one was wondering, this story is not abt how much of a bad ass assassin Vera is and oh wow she had this mysterious training and now she's the token bad bitch character who's gonna save everyone: this story is an exploration of vera's trauma and how she can't find her place in normalcy after spending so much time away from it (and of course, how Ginny helps her wink wink).

ok I'll go back to writing Dursley now 🥱 ik all the people reading this read that too

ok bye now my lovelies xoxo gossip girl or whatevah