Ineffable | Remus Lupin

XVII

Remus stood at the end of one of the many corridors of Hogwarts, leaning against the wall with his arms tightly folded against his chest. He was the only one that wasn't happy with this plan, and was also the only one that had turned up on time to execute it.
As he was calmly and quietly waiting for James, Sirius, and Peter to turn up, chaos quickly arrived.

Suddenly, James barrelled around the corner of the corridor and almost knocked Remus off his feet as he barrelled into him. He stumbled back and took a moment to catch his breath. Looking up, Remus noticed James' dishevelled state in which his glasses were askew, his shirt partly untucked, and his hair oddly flattened down.
"Go, quick!" James hissed with urgency, "Turn and run!"
Before Remus could be come up with which question he wanted to ask first, his wrist was grabbed by James and he was dragged down the hallway.

"Wh-what's going on?" He managed to ask as they started to jog towards the Potions storeroom.

"Well," James pushed the boy around a corner so they were covered in darkness as they stood out of site of anyone walking past, "Everything was going to plan, and Sirius and I were about to cause the distraction..." He trailed off hesitantly.
Remus frowned, "What happened?"
"I saw-well-it doesn't matter. Peter covered for me with the distraction so I had to sprint across the castle to get to you in time." James explained as he straightened up his glasses and hair.

Remus exclaimed, with utter exasperation, "I'd just like it on the record how completely insane you are!"
James paused to hold a hand over his heart, "Awe, thank you," And then flashed a cheeky grin before adding, "Now you keep guard whilst I run in to get the ingredients. I may need you to carry some of the stuff too."

"But-"
Before Remus could even begin to properly protest to actually going through with the reckless plan, James had dashed into the storeroom and closed the door behind him. For what could barely have been a minute, Remus stood alone in the corridor, leaning his back against the door to the Potions cupboard and occasionally glancing both ways down the corridor to see if anybody was coming past. It couldn't have taken long for his attention to waver, however, because shortly after, he was again startled.

Remus almost felt himself jump out of his own skin in surprise, and took a moment to compose himself before lifting his gaze to see none other than Ingrid Temple stood in front of him.

She laughed lightly and flicked some hair over her shoulder as she apologised, "Sorry if I made you jump."
"What's..." Remus glanced around them, then somewhat unnaturally leant back against the door to the storeroom and folded his arms, "What's up?"

Ingrid blinked at him. Not in the way most people blink. Her eyes conveyed an unspoken message of confusion and perhaps even concern. As quickly as that look blinked into her eyes, however, it blinked out. Washed away. She asked, "I'd forgotten to ask you this yesterday, but... Do you think you could ask your father is he knows a Theodore Horowitz at the Ministry?"

Remus thought for a moment about how best to deal with the conversation at hand. Part of him wanted to keep talking to Ingrid, so he could tell her exactly what she wanted to hear. Part of him wanted to ask her a barrage of questions about what she was planning. Regrettably, the third part of him won over. The part of him that was well aware of his need to cover for James, who was still rummaging around in the storeroom.

"Sorry, now-er... Now isn't really a good time. Can we talk about it tomorrow?"

Ingrid's shoulders appeared to slump down and, though she didn't mean to, a sigh escaped past her lips. Catching what she'd done, the girl straightened up and forced out the tiniest of smiles as she replied, "Yeah, sure. No rush."

Bidding farewell to the boy, she pocketed her hands and began to walk away down the corridor. Every now and again she'd deliberately scuff her shoes on the ground. She wasn't walking in any particular direction. Ingrid had been having a nice dinner with only Dorcas for company - which she appreciated - until they'd had a swarm of other Ravenclaw descend on them. It was becoming painfully clear that Dorcas was in fact quite popular. Being around so many people had quickly given Ingrid a rather painful headache, and she hated feeling their judgemental eyes on her all of the time. That, really, was how she'd found herself aimlessly wandering the corridors alone.

Then, as she'd startled Remus Lupin not so long ago, someone rounded the corner and gave the girl a terrible fright.

"Christ!" Ingrid exclaimed as she backed off and held a hand over her mouth, "Quiet, much?"
"Funny." A male-sounding voice replied from the shadows. As Ingrid lifted her head to see who exactly was there, the figure stepped forward so the light of the burning lantern revealed their face.

A frown edged it's way across her features as she asked, "Sirius?"
The boy groaned, "Don't say that."
Ingrid shook her head, "I don't understand. Is this another of your dumb jokes?"

As the boy moved further into the light, Ingrid took proper note of his appearance. He wasn't, in fact, Sirius Black, but he did look eerily similar. Though upon a closer look, the boy was noticeably taller than Sirius, and even had a slimmer build. With a square jawline, bright grey eyes, and styled jet black hair, he did look like a dead ringer for Sirius Black.
"Before you self combust in confusion, I'm his brother." The boy finally greeted, "Regulus."

"Regulus." Ingrid repeated slowly, "Right, well... Hi." She didn't really know what else to say to him.
Regulus didn't mind. He had only one area of interest to pursue in the moment. "You know my brother?" He asked with a raised eyebrow.
She nodded slowly, "Yeah... Somewhat."

Ingrid looked down at the cloak around his shoulders and took note of the fact that he belonged to Slytherin. "I didn't know siblings could belong to different houses." She mused thoughtlessly.
"Well, I don't know what to tell you." Regulus glanced down at the emblem over his chest.

She scoffed and folded her arms. "Must be a real nightmare to be related to Sirius." She quipped with a slight smirk.
For a moment, Ingrid thought she caught sight of the tiniest of smiles flashing across the boy's face.

"What's... What is he like?"
Ingrid frowned, "Who?"
"My brother."
She frowned more, "You want me to tell you what your brother is like?"
Regulus replied, "That is what I asked, yes."

"Didn't realise a Ravenclaw could be so dense."

Ingrid rolled her eyes. Then she noticed Regulus was still watching her, waiting for a reply, so she took a deep breath before doing so. "He's annoying, arrogant, and foolish. Nice hair though, I can't deny that."
Finally, Regulus let out an audible chuckle. "I figured as much." He responded.

"If that's all..." Ingrid glanced about them, "I'm going to get going."
"Do you... Do you know what his plans for Christmas are?" Regulus questioned.

Ingrid was only growing more confused as their conversation progressed. Though, she was massively grateful that Regulus was showing no interest in asking questions about her personal history. "I've no clue. I don't know him that well. Why don't you ask him yourself?" She suggested with a shrug.
"We're not exactly on good terms. Or close at the moment. I also don't want to in case it pushes him awa-anyway... It doesn't matter." He shook his head slowly.

"Tell you what," Ingrid sighed at her own change in attitude, as she offered, "I'll find out for you. I won't mention your name."

"This girl isn't as bad as everyone makes her out to be. Maybe they're all just intimidated..."

Regulus smiled more warmly this time. "That's oddly nice of you." He remarked.
She pocketed her hands and shrugged again as her gaze fell down to the floor, "It's a new thing I'm trying. Anyway, I appreciate actually being treated like a normal person... And not the freak that turned up out of the blue."

Regulus neatened up his robes and then simply said, "No problem."
"Alright, I do need to get going now." Ingrid finally concluded, "But I'll let you know about the Christmas thing."

Whilst meeting Regulus Black had been perfectly fine, Ingrid was in dire need of heading back up to the common room to get some rest. Ingrid had never been to a boarding-style school before, and so had never had to put up with being surrounded by so many people all of the time. At least back at the children's home, when she returned from school in the afternoon Ingrid could lock herself up in her room to get some peace. That wasn't the case at Hogwarts - particularly with the dormitories.
Needless to say, Ingrid needed to recharge her social battery. Even when she was sat by herself simply reading a book somewhere in the castle, the number of people just walking past was enough to make her feel tired.

The thought of finally get in contact with Theodore Horowitz, however, was exciting enough to quash any feeling of exhaustion. It was right around the corner. Finally, there was a chance for Ingrid to get some answers about her parents.

-
a/n
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