selenophile || remus lupin

chapter fifteen

Ophelia slowly opened her eyes, blinking away the blurry scene before her.

Madam Pomfrey rushed over to her and immediately gave her a potion to drink. She was in the hospital wing.

Ophelia wasn't completely awake yet before she took the potion. It had an awful, bitter taste to it, and she had to force it down so she wouldn't get sick to her stomach.

Another poor kid, however, did get sick to his stomach, so before the healer could even talk to Ophelia, she rushed over to the sick boy.

She looked around, obviously not used to waking up in the hospital wing. On the right side of her bed were Sirius, James, Alice, and Lily. She lightly smiled at them, before it completely vanished.

Remus.

"Remus. Where's Remus?"

"It's ok, Fia. He's alright," said Sirius, coming closer and gently sitting down on her bed.

"But where is he?" she asked again.

"He's up in the common room with Pete. He wont talk to any of us. What happened last night?"

"I- I don't know. I remember going up to the astronomy tower with him, he left - although I can't remember why. I think I went to the common room before going back to the astronomy tower, and that's all I remember. It's foggy," answered Ophelia, her eyebrows furrowed as she tried to recall the happenings of the previous night.

"That's alright," Sirius smiled softly.

"These lot were drunk out of their minds, so they obviously can't remember anything either," said Lily, and Ophelia laughed a bit.

"Oh yeah? Can you remember anything Evans?" retorted Sirius.

"I can actually. If you could, you would know that I didn't have anything to drink last night. I was completely sober. I don't know much, but..."

Lily's POV

I sigh as I look at the sorry excuse of a common room. It's filthy.

There's no way in hell that I'm letting those poor house elves clean this up by themselves.

Looking at the empty cups, once filled with firewhiskey and butterbeer, I picked each of them up one by one, putting them in a large rubbish bag. I cringe as I carefully watch where I walk, the floor sticky from spilt alcohol.

I see what people act like when they're drunk. I'm never drinking. Those people are animals.

I take another look around the room, my eyes passing from each of those animals to the next. Students lay on the couches, chairs, even some on the floor against the wall, passed out drunk or asleep. Or dead. I'm not entirely sure.

The portrait hole swings open, revealing an angry looking Lupin. Normally, he would probably stop to help me pick up, but I don't say anything as I watch him trudge through the mess and up into his dormitory.

I'm not quite sure what just happened, but I don't think too much into it. He can sometimes get moody and be completely fine the next day. It's weird, but it happens like once a month.

About half an hour passes, and I'm pretty much done with cleaning. I'm about to finish up and head up to my dormitory, but I see Remus come back down. He's still wearing a pair of tan trousers, a white cuffed shirt, and a tan sweater vest that only Remus Lupin would wear, but his hair was a bit messier, as if he had kept running his hands through it.

He looks a bit calmer now, but quite worried. I'm about to ask him if he's alright, but he rushes over to me, and before I can get a word out, asks, "where's Ophelia? Has she come back yet? Is she in her dormitory?"

"No, I haven't seen her since you two left. Why? What's happened?"

Remus ran a hand through his messy brown hair, messing it up even more as he mutters, "fuck" under his breath.

He rushes out of the portrait hole. I run after him, confused yet still worried about my best friend.

"Remus," I call after him. "Remus wait up!"

He turns around and slows his pace just a bit.

"Remus what happened?"

"Nothing," he answers, just a little too quickly. "I just don't know where she is or why she wouldn't be back in the common room by now."

"Where were you last? Like where did you last see her?"

He turns to me, "the astronomy tower"

"Then let's try there first."

Without warning, Remus breaks into a run, I follow closely behind him. I don't quite understand why he's so worried, but I do find it a bit odd that he was in the common room for at least a half hour, and that she didn't go back with him.

We run up the spiral staircase that I've been on so many times in my five years at this school, barely lit up. By the time we get near the end, the only thing illuminating our path is the moonlight.

We get up to the top and we both freeze.

She's there.

Just laying there.

She looks dead.

I look up to Remus, his eyes wide in panic, still frozen on the spot.

"Oh my god," I whisper.

That seems to snap him out of his daze and he rushes towards her, picks her up bridal style, with his arms supporting her back and legs. Her head hangs limp, hair trailing down like a waterfall, blowing slightly in the wind.

We rush her into the hospital wing as fast as we can, Madam Pomfrey hammering us with questions, all of which I answer. Remus is looking guilty at this point, for whatever reason, and soon leaves me alone in the hospital wing, and I have to explain this all to Madam Pomfrey.

"I don't know. We realized that she wasn't in the common room, so we went and looked for her. We thought she would probably be in the astronomy tower, so that's where we looked first. When we got there, we found her passed out. That's all I know."

Madam Pomfrey gives me an unconvinced look, but returns to Ophelia.

I ask Madam Pomfrey if I'm allowed to stay the night with her, and luckily she says yes. I pull up a chair next to her bed and fall asleep.

I soon get woken up by none other than James Potter.

Great.

He, Sirius, and Alice are all there, looking worriedly at Ophelia.

"Good morning, Lily flower! Remus told us that Fia was here, but that's all he said. We came as soon as we heard. What happened?"

I explain the whole thing to the group once again, after having to retell the story to Madam Pomfrey several times throughout the night.

Sirius looks the most worried I think. But that makes sense, she's his twin, of course he'd be the most worried.

Then I look at Alice, "Hey Alice, where's Mar?"

She smirks down at me, giving me a knowing look, "she went with Dorcas last night, hasn't been back to our dormitory since."

I grin at her, for just a moment. Then, I feel movement coming from my left side and turn to look at my best friend, who's just now becoming conscious again.

She tiredly looks up at us, taking a moment to register where she is and who she's with.

Madam Pomfrey immediately rushes over to us, giving her a potion that looks as if it tastes like an old sock. Fia's face proves my theory. The healer rushes away to help another student and Fia looks back up at us, slightly smiling before her face goes blank.

"Remus. Where's Remus?"