𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐆𝐎 | remus lupin

𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 𝐓𝐇𝐑𝐄𝐄

[ 𝐂 𝐇 𝐀 𝐏 𝐓 𝐄 𝐑  𝐓 𝐖 𝐄 𝐍 𝐓 𝐘  𝐓 𝐇 𝐑 𝐄 𝐄 ]

𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓵𝓾𝓭𝓮

THE DAYS OF the month seemed to simultaneously fall away like leaves and pass like molasses. Like sand slipping through her fingers and trying to claw out of an ocean in wet, baggy clothes. It was too fast, but too slow, and Winnie was tired.

Tired of trying to keep up with speeding time.

Tired of trying to move forward against it.

One day she was skipping ditch day, and the next she was skipping Quidditch, missing out on meetings with Minnie, and spending hours a day with Everett. And before she knew it, the month had passed.

It was a month of arguments. It was as if that first fight they had in the tunnels below the school she called her home had opened the floodgates, loosened their tongues. They were quick to fight over the smallest things.

Everett didn't like all the time she spent with the other guys in her life, she didn't like how competitive and mean he got on the field.

He made a passive comment about her hair being a mess, and she purposefully didn't brush it for a week.

She didn't like when he always asked where she was going and who she was with, so he started to use tracking spells.

But it wasn't always bad. They still danced in the kitchens and kissed in the air.

They watched the sunsets and traded whispers in the halls.

They laughed and they loved.

Because Potter's love with their whole being. They put their heart, soul, and spirit into all their relationships; be it romantic, familial, or platonic.

That month was a hurricane of emotions, of ups and downs, but Elowen knew when it passed—and it would pass—her love for him would still be standing.

///

Remus wasn't jealous.

It wasn't jealousy that burned bitter against his tongue when he saw them together, it was concern.

He would let Elowen date a million other guys if it made her happy. He would learn to live without her by his side if that had to be the price for her happiness. But she wasn't happy.

He knew Winnie like he knew the back of his hand. He knew that when she smiled her left eye scrunched more than her right. He knew she tossed her head back and laughed to the heavens when she found something funny, but she laughed downwards if she was being polite or conversational.

He knew that he had never seen her hair so tame as it had been a week after she refused to brush it after a comment from Everett, knew that even though she'd fought it, her inner insecurities had won out and she had surrendered.

He knew that she had spent more dinners than not gazing longingly at her old spot between James and Sirius from her new one at the Ravenclaw table.

Remus knew Winnie, and he knew this wasn't her.

James could tell something was wrong too, probably the first to notice it. It wasn't until the week before that he said something to Winnie. When he saw her push away her food for the fourth night and walk out of dinner without eating, he'd chased after her.

No one could make out the words, they were softened in the distance, but everyone could hear the yelling from their argument from the Great Hall.

Since then, he'd been sending nothing but glares at the Ravenclaw. The boys had even begun to conspire with Lily and Marlene when she wasn't there, something they were doing that moment at dinner.