𝗰𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸, remus lupin

˗ˋ 29

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE
✧
-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH HE TAKES A RISK

. . .

That singular line kept Remus up most the rest of the night, even after he had walked Pandora back down to the Slytherin Common Rooms and spotted by Flitwick on his way back to the Gryffindor Tower - he ended up telling him that he was on prefect rounds, even though he hadn't done anything remotely involved with that position for months upon months. 

Why was it always her who kept him up at night these days? Why couldn't it be something amongst his friends, or worry about an upcoming Potions quiz - Slughorn wasn't particularly known for suprising them with one but there was always a good chance of it. 

He had always been under the impression that the butterflies were a good thing. They fuelled her destructive agenda, allowed her to be more powerful than any other human being. But now that he really thought about it, staring above him at the canopy of red that covered his four-poster bed in the dorms, Remus wasn't so sure.

The day when the statue had come crashing down on the Entrance Hall, Remus didn't remember seeing her look up. He remembered the trail of butterflies reaching up to push it off. Every time she did something strange, the butterflies were there. 

It made sense for them to be the cause of things. But then again, Remus didn't know what the hell Pandora was talking about. What did the butterflies do? He had no idea how to find out, no idea how to ask a question like that, and as a result, he came up with a plan.

He barely even got a couple hours of sleep before he was up again, woken by Sirius making a fuss about his hair products. Remus managed to sneak one of his potions made up by Madam Pomfrey that he was really supposed to use after a full moon, and he felt more awake than he had in a while, heading down to breakfast with the boys. 

"Good, they've got eggs." James was leading the way, walking down the aisle to around the middle of the Gryffindor table, sliding into a seat. Sirius and Peter followed, already loading their plates with food. 

Remus, however, stayed standing. 

Slowly, each of the other three realised, looking away from their plates and back up to the Lupin boy, who seemed to be in the midst of contemplating something, his eyes glazed over in the opposite direction. 

"Moony?" Sirius looked confused, almost tuurning around entirely in his seat. "You're not sitting down? Not hungry - it doesn't happen for another couple of weeks, right?"

"I'm..." Remus paused, blinking hurriedly. "Going to sit somewhere else." 

He swallowed and stepped away from his confused friends, leaning over Peter and taking a spare plate before beginning to walk away. "Remus?" James called after him, completely bewildered to what was going on. 

Remus had his sights set on the table further to the left, on the girl dressed in the straightest uniform he had ever seen on a student at Hogwarts. Her blouse collar was secured by a rather large emerald green brooch, a snake clip slid into the immaculately placed hairstyle. As always, she looked perfectly put together.

And as always, there was a metre gap on either side of her where students refused to sit, giving her the perfect amount of space for her neat movements as her knife and fork cut up small bits of her egg. 

Eyes were on him, not just from the Gryffindor table but the Slytherins as well, eyes drawn to the scarlet red tie that hung loosely around Remus' neck. He was like a rabbit in a wolf's den. Which was ironic, really. 

He swallowed, placing his plate down on the stretch of empty wood, sliding into the seat beside Pandora. Her neat movements stopped, fork half way to her mouth when she halted. 

"You don't mind, do you?" Remus asked, watching as Pandora put the knife and fork down on her plate, throat bobbing if she swallowed. He couldn't tell if she was nervous or uncomfortable, watching as she turned towards her. 

Their eyes met, hazel meeting blue. Purely confused blue. Confused on why he was sat with her, confused on why he was doing it to himself. They had barely spoken a word the night before, but it seemed that they had made up. 

Pandora remained silent and for a minute didn't say anything, simply staring. He thought she might kick off, or the butterflies might object to it like they do everything else.

But silently, Pandora reached forward, taking the two ends of his tie and began doing it for him. Before returning to her eggs like it was the completely normal thing for her to do.

✧