crushed - remus lupin

-fifteen-

The Hospital Wing was never somewhere a student wanted to be. They went there for various reasons, a mishap in class, a bad hex, a regular cold... a bludger incident. The last one wasn't very common, but happened nonetheless.

The bludger incident had left Celeste Malfoy in a state of duress. A concussion, two broken bones, and a sprained wrist. She felt like hell. And looked like it too, she was sure.

The walls of the Hospital Wing were starting to look more and more like prison bars each day to Celeste. She had been here for a week now, and had spent the entirety of it wishing to be out. Hell, she'd even take Potions class over this.

To keep her sanity, Celeste had taken to conversing with every person that entered the ward. Thankfully, Remus joined the Hospital's ranks, keeping her sane for a bit longer. Of course, she was upset that he had gotten hurt on the last full moon and she wasn't able to help, but she was happy for the company.

His wounds were noticeably worse then they had been on previous moons, and Celeste figured they were because he was stressed about school or something, she didn't want to pry.

What she didn't know was that the reason he was worse than usual was due to two things. One, without Celeste with him this past time, it didn't feel right, causing his transformation to be more difficult than usual. And two, the stress of holding in his feelings for a certain someone was starting to affect his mental health.

But he wouldn't tell her that.

"I've come to the conclusion that hospitals are worse than torture." Celeste explained fervently to Remus.

"I heard that, Miss Malfoy!" Madam Pomfrey called from across the room, while tending to a very sick looking first year.

"Love you too Poppy!"

Remus chuckled, shaking his head. Her dramatics might annoy some people, and by some he meant most, but he never found himself annoyed by it. He would even say he found it endearing. Even James and Sirius got tired of it at times, but Remus never could manage it, not when anything she said sounded like music to his ears, and he could listen to her talk about Herbology for hours on end, despite the fact that detested the subject. At least he used to.

Remus wasn't quite sure he could bring himself to hate it any longer.

Not when anytime the marauders got remotely close to the greenhouses, Celeste's face would break out into a smile. How could he hate that?

Madam Pomfrey entered the curtained off section of the Hospital Wing that was used for Remus exclusively and said, "There's someone here to see you, a girl by the name of Veronica Bluebottle," Celeste tensed up at the she-devils name. "Does she know about your situation?"

Remus shook his head timidly and Celeste was shocked. She had figured that she had been told, and Celeste felt guilty for the slight glimmer of happiness she felt in her stomach. It was a horrible thought, but if she didn't know, then maybe Remus wasn't planning on this being a long term thing. It was probably stupid to get her hopes up, but she couldn't help it.

"She's asking to see you, Celeste. I told her that Remus wasn't in a place to have visitors, but somehow she knew that you were here with him, and she asked to see you."

Celeste's mind spiraled with reasons that she would want to see her, none of them being good. She decided that things would only get worse if she ignored her, and so she went out to greet the reincarnation of the devil himself.

Remus had no idea what was going on. As usual. For someone so smart, he could be awfully dumb at times.

He just figured it was good that they were getting along. He had gotten the feeling that maybe Celeste didn't like Veronica. In fact he had gotten that from all of their friends. Huh.