crushed - remus lupin

-seventeen-

"Remind me to never drink again."

The common room was filled with laughter, talking, and so much noise. Celeste felt as if her head could explode on impact.

"I can try, but I can't promise that you'll listen." Remus chucked, and Celeste could feel the vibrations of his laugh through her body, since she was laying on his chest.

"Oh, Sirius, could you hand me one of those hangover draughts? My head is killing me." Celeste paused for a moment at the very un-Sirius-like manner he was behaving in.

For one, both he and James were squirming in their seats, looking as if they wanted nothing more then to escape the conversation they were in. They were awful at keeping a secret.

Both of the boys worried about how they could possibly tell their two friends something so huge. Remus could be scary when he was mad, but even more frightening was seeing him break down, and they had only seen it twice in their lives. He was always the rational one, always the mature and responsible one, so to see him break down was far scarier than any anger. And as for Celeste, she was always so strong. The only times she ever let her tough facade fall was when it came to her family. All of the friends had their breaking points.

James and Peter's were when anyone disrespected the people they love.

Sirius and Celeste's were when their family was mentioned.

And Remus's was when he feared that his loved ones would get hurt from his condition.

The difference was that Celeste and Remus were the best at hiding their hurt and their sadness.

That was why James and Sirius were scared. They were afraid to risk the chance that they could cause their friends to break.

Celeste, while noticing their strange behavior, was completely oblivious as to why it was happening. She just figured that they needed some space from her, which came as a huge relief to Padfoot and Prongs.

As a result of this, Celeste decided to spend some time away from the group. After all, the last thing she wanted was for the rest of the marauders to grow sick of her.

At first she wasn't sure what to do with this time, she rarely wasn't with the four boys, so Celeste wasn't really accustomed to being alone.

Her first thought was to hang out with the girls, but it seemed they were all preoccupied at the moment. Lily was doing her prefect rounds, and everyone else was either stressed for tests or completing mounds of homework, so that left her with no one. Celeste had finished her homework two days prior, since Remus kept the marauders on a tight schedule.

So, since she had nothing else to do, she headed up to the Owlery, to go and look at the sky.

The sky had always been a safe haven for Celeste. It was like the moon in that sense. When Celeste was caged in Malfoy Manor, she had discovered a way to climb onto the roof from her room. As a result of this, to cope with the horror of her day to day life, she would imagine the qualities of the world to be people. People who would look down and watch over her, and never let her be harmed. The beautiful strokes of clouds and color seemed like an all too perfect painting, with red yellow and pink splattered around the sky.

"Watch out, I wouldn't want you falling off the edge."

Celeste turned from her place on the ledge to see a strikingly familiar face.