𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎 | remus lupin

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐖𝐎

[ 𝐂 𝐇 𝐀 𝐏 𝐓 𝐄 𝐑  𝐓 𝐖 𝐄 𝐍 𝐓 𝐘  𝐓 𝐖 𝐎 ]

𝓵𝓲𝓮𝓼 𝓫𝓮𝓰𝓲𝓷

"YOU OWE ME a galleon. At least. Or better yet, give me some of those dung bombs or those chocolate frogs from your stash," Sirius said, once he found Winnie sneaking into the common room.

"What are you going on about?" Winnie asked, her mind still racing a million miles, her emotions pulling her every which way.

"I mean the fact I had to cover for you to Minnie. You weren't at dinner."

"Oh," Winnie said, absentmindedly. "Sorry about that."

Sirius gave her a skeptical look. "Alright, Win?"

"Yeah, I've just got a lot on my mind, you know?'

Sirius hummed in agreement and bumped their shoulders together. "You should probably go get some rest then. If you need me, I'll be here."

"Yeah, I know." Winnie forced a joking smile on her face. "I couldn't get you to leave if I wanted."

Sirius stuck his tongue out at her, ruffled her hair, and left to join James in whatever they were planning next. Winnie just glazed over in their direction for a moment before turning and heading up the stairs to her dorm.

She pulled the covers up and over her head and left them there until the moon fell and the sun took its place.

///

The next morning, she was greeted by her four boys waiting for her at the bottom of the stairs.

"'Lo! About time you got down," Peter said cheerily. James and Sirius made jokes about how horrible she was in the mornings over the summer while Remus just smiled at her and tapped his shoe against hers in greeting.

Winnie covered her mouth and yawned, tapping Remus's shoe in return. "What's happening? Did I forget about a Quidditch match or something?"

James rolled her eyes. "I told you she forgot."

"Forgot what?" Winnie asked again.

"Ditch day, obviously," Sirius said.

Winnie furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. "No, that's at the end of the month."

"We changed it, Winnie. Remember?" Remus said. "I'm, uh, visiting my mother at the end of the month. For a Muggle holiday."

"Oh," she said dumbly. She knew they'd moved the day, but she was so caught up in thinking over what Everett had said that she forgot.

"Are you coming, or what? We've a whole plan for the day. Peter and Sirius found a new tunnel we wanted to check out," James said.

"Yeah, of course I'm coming," Winnie said. She hadn't missed a ditch day since they were in second year and she broke her leg during a Quidditch match. They planned the days in advance for the school year on the train up during the summer.

A day for them to have the castle all to themselves and explore.

"Okay, well first we need breakfast," James said. "I didn't see you at dinner, Win, so you better eat a lot."

Winnie rolled her eyes at that and elbowed her twin sharply in the side. "Alright, mom."

Despite the bickering, she followed her brother into the Great Hall and sat between him and Sirius. Before she could begin to filler her own plate, James was already shoveling some of her favorite foods onto it.

"I could feed myself, thank you."

"Sure," James said simply, putting another slice of toast on her plate.

Winnie took a large bite out of the toast and began to chew obnoxiously in James's ear. James shoved her into Sirius and tugged on one of her curls.

Sirius shoved her back into James. "I'm trying to eat here!" Sirius protested.

"So am I!" They both turned and glared at James.

"I hate when you two gang up on me," he said sulkily. Winnie just stuck her tongue out at him.

For the rest of the meal, the five of them talked in hushed whispers across the table about their plans for the day. They were all about to finish up and leave when Winnie looked over at the Ravenclaw table.

She hadn't planned on talking to Everett that day, but she couldn't help the stab of guilt that pierced her heart when they made eye contact.

They'd just gotten into their first big fight about Winnie putting everyone else before him and here she was, the day after, doing just that.

Winnie sighed, already knowing what she was going to do.

"Hey guys, sorry I forgot I can't do ditch day today. McGonagall wanted to talk to me about some really important Quidditch things and talk to me about some career thing we'd briefly discussed the other week."

"Aw no," James whined, pouting.

"You can't ditch on ditch day, Win. That's literally not cool," Sirius added. Peter just frowned.

She turned hopefully to Remus. Maybe he wouldn't be too upset with her. As she expected, Remus just had a small smile on his face, but even so, she could taste the disappointment.

"I'm sorry, but you know I can't miss this."

Before anyone could protest anymore, she stepped over the bench and disappeared out of the Great Hall. She climbed the stairs she knew led to the Ravenclaw tower and waited patiently for Everett to come back up.

///

Remus didn't mean to see Winnie. He was just trying to go back to the dorm room to grab the map his idiotic friends had forgotten to grab when he glanced out the window above James's bed.

In clear view, he could see Winnie's head of curls next to who could only be Everett. Their arms were intertwined as they walked lazily across the path down to the Quidditch pitch.

It was pointless, he knew, for his heart to hurt that much at the sight. They'd been dating for a while now. Winnie was happy. But seeing them together when Winnie should've been with them, him, hurt more than he thought it would.

He knew she was lying when she left breakfast earlier. They all did. She did the thing she always did when she lied—tucked her lip and tapped her ring finger.

Remus didn't think she'd lie to them to spend time with Everett. It hurt.

But Winnie was happy, and that's all he could ask for. 

_____

Lol sorry I keep taking a million years to update. I've slowly been losing a will to live, so if my writing seems to be going downhill, just blame that (i promise i can actually write)