Ineffable | Remus Lupin

XVI

"Moony, mate, you listening?"

Slowly, Remus lifted his chin up from the palm of his hand and dragged his gaze across the table to where Sirius sat opposite him.
"With bated breath." He replied, forcing out a small smile.
Sirius scoffed, "Yeah, right."

"If you don't listen closely, then this plan is going to fail." James warned as he turned to each of his friends in turn.
Remus sighed, "That's okay with me. I don't like the whole idea."

James, sat beside Remus, swatted him over the shoulder. "Stop being so gloomy!" He complained, pausing only to push his glasses back up his nose before he hit Remus again.
"Yeah," Peter chimed in, "What's up with you today?"
Sirius nodded his head in agreement, "You do seem down, or something, today. This isn't somehow to do with Temple, is it?"

"No." Remus replied quickly. Perhaps a little too quickly. His peculiar mood wasn't exactly to do with Ingrid, per se. Well... Perhaps it was. His mind was very much occupied by thoughts of the story Ingrid had told him the other day - the story of the car crash she ended up in, alongside a friend of hers. There was no way to articulately, succinctly express his thoughts; they were in too much of a jumble in his brain to make sense of it all.

"Is that code for yes?" Sirius partly joked, though the other part of him suspected he was actually right.
Remus retorted, "Shut up." His own harsh tone caught himself off guard, perhaps more so than it did anyone else.

Normally he wouldn't have lied so blatantly to his friends, but there was something about Ingrid... Something about his interactions with the girl and what little information he knew about her... He wanted to keep it just to himself.

A frown carved itself into Sirius' features, but his chose to brush past his concern. "James has come up with a plan to steal the most of supplies we need from the Potions storeroom." He explained.

Upon hearing his own name, James tuned back into the conversation at hand. "Oh, yes!" He exclaimed with sudden delight, "It does rely on at least two of us most likely getting detention for the rest of the month, though."
"I vote not me." Peter chimed in quickly.
Remus shook his head, "I don't even want you guys to become animagi, and I'm a Prefect, so it sure as hell isn't going to be me."

James and Sirius looked at each other and smirked. "Told you that'd happen." One of them told the other - it didn't really matter which.

"So..." James continued, pausing for a moment only in order to run a hand through his hair and spike it up in all directions, "Tomorrow night, during dinner so most people are occupied, Sirius and I will cause a commotion to distract Filch, Slughorn, and anyone else around. Remus and Pete then break into the storeroom and steal this list of ingredients." He slammed down a strip of parchment on the table, "But make sure one of you keeps a lookout."
Remus lifted the parchment to inspect the list of ingredients. "You know we won't find mandrake leaves in the storeroom?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.

Sirius held up his hand and, with a shake of his head, chuckled, "Oh, don't worry, I've got that covered."
Peter and James both snickered.
This only concerned Remus, who further pressed, "What do you mean?"
"Don't worry about it." Sirius insisted, "I'll have it sorted by the weekend."

"I don't know why, but you saying that actually makes me worry more."

Even with his genuine concerns about the trouble James and Sirius were setting them all up for, Remus couldn't get his wandering mind to focus. He kept thinking of the thestrals from the first day back at Hogwarts - how Ingrid had seen them. He thought about how she'd spent all of those years lost in the muggle world. He wondered about the hardships she's faced... The car crash in particular.
Then it clicked.

With a start, Remus immediately rose to his feet and startled the boys still sat down at the table.
Peter frowned, "What are you doing?"
"I think he's finally snapped." Sirius snickered.

"I've just got... Got to go do something. I-I'll be back." He stammered and abruptly turned on his heels, leaving before anyone could get a word in edgeways.

Before reaching the door to exit the Great Hall, Remus nearly bumped into Dorcas Meadowes. Her usual braided her had been taken out, and her coiled locks were tied up at the crown of her head. As usual, she was grinning from ear to ear, and she parted ways from her other friends when she saw Remus looking at her.
"Hi, Remus." She gave him a half-wave, "You alright?"
He nodded in response, "I'm, er, good thanks. How-how are you?"

Dorcas laughed, "What did you really want to ask me?"
"You... You don't happen to know where Ingrid is, do you? There's just something I need to tell her."

She laughed again and nodded her head in a knowing way. "She's just down the corridor on the left. Sitting on a bench, alone, if that's even a surprise." She explained.
"Thanks." Remus replied before shortly bidding farewell and making his way down the corridor, as Dorcas had instructed.

It wasn't a far walk until he spotted Ingrid sat on the bench with her knees hugged up to her chest as she appeared to be blankly staring at the wall opposite her.

"Ingrid, hi." He greeted, "How are you?"
She lifted her gaze to meet Remus' and dropped her feet to the floor so she could shuffle over to make some room for him beside her on the bench. "I'm just peachy, thanks. You?" Ingrid replied as she pushed her light hair behind her shoulders.
Remus nodded, "Yeah not bad, thanks."

A silence settled between them for a moment. Not uncomfortable. Just sort of there. Neither of them really minded it.

Remus took a deep breath before admitting, "There is something I came here to tell you."
She turned to face him and raised an eyebrow, "Oh, right?"

"I really hope I'm right about this. I really hope I don't upset her."

"Feel free to tell me to get lost, or... Whatever..." He began, somewhat hesitantly.
Ingrid scoffed, "I hardly think that's likely."
"But I just wanted to say... Only because I don't know if anyone has ever said this to you, but I'm sorry about what happened to your best friend. I'm sorry about your... loss."

Ingrid immediately turned away from Remus. She clutched the bench beneath her, her knuckles turning white, and glared intensely at the plain wall opposite her. This made Remus panic - he worried he'd crossed a line. He suddenly stood up and prepared himself to leave. Then Ingrid turned back and looked up at him.

"I don't think anyone has ever said that to me."

The sadness laced in the girl's tone of voice almost caused his legs to weaken as he sat back down beside her.
She forced out a slight laugh, "You're smart, huh?"
"It hardly took a genius." He confessed, "I just suddenly put together a few bits of information."
"Like what I told you the other day? About the car crash?"
Remus nodded, "Yeah, and then the fact that you can see thestrals. It sort of all made sense and... I just took a leap, hoping I was right."

"Proper clever." Ingrid mused, "She was called Willow, by the way, my friend. I'm not sure the two of you would have gotten on - she was a wildcard."

"I think-"
"Look who it is!"

Remus was cut off rather sharply by the arrival of none other than Sirius Black. He marched towards them and came to a smug halt in front of them. "Temple." He bowed his head mockingly.
"Arse face." She replied with a smirk.
"Charming as always."
Ingrid rolled her eyes, "Only for you."

"I've come here to steal Remus away from you. He has important business to attend to." Sirius reached forward to yank Remus' arm and pull him up to his feet.

Ingrid smiled slightly at Remus, "It's alright. See you around."
"Yeah, bye-" Was all he managed to say before Sirius pulled him away and dragged him down the corridor.

"I had a feeling you'd left to find her." Sirius told him as they walked back to the Great Hall.
Remus felt a slight heat rise to his cheeks. "I just had to tell her something quickly." He hurriedly insisted.
Sirius hummed through a smirk, "Yeah, mhm, sure."

"What-what is that supposed to mean?"
Sirius scoffed, "That means: nobody talks to a girl that pretty, just for the sake of talking to her. Trust me."

Remus muttered under his breath, "You're just the worst."
"Oi!" The other boy exclaimed, "I heard that!" And he whacked Remus' arm in retaliation.