maple syrup | remus lupin [1]

39. late night mission

CLAUDIA LAY AWAKE in her bed on a Friday night. She couldn't sleep, because every time she closed her eyes a vivid picture returned.

It was her mum. Though, she didn't really look like her mum in that moment. The whiteness of her face took the place of the big smiles and the normally rosy cheeks. Instead she was pale and expressionless.

Claudia had tried everything that had come to mind. She had counted sheep, read from her book, consumed several cups of Betty's calming tea, and still she could not fall asleep.

It may have been the simple little fact that the next day was the day that would've been her mum's 38th birthday.

She had been thinking about her all day. She normally did, of course, but that day had been even worse. She didn't go to class nor had she been sleeping for two days - all she really did was to attempt to not think about that vivid image that lived so rent freely in her mind.

It was not her mum she saw; all she saw was a corpse. She wasn't really there anymore, not in that image.

And still it was the most recent memory Claudia had of her own mother.

When her 208th sheep had been counted, a tap on the window was heard. Claudia decided for herself that she was imagining things, so she simply chose to just ignore it. But then she heard another tap, and then another one. And then several more aggressive ones.

"Shut up," Betty, who was a very light sleeper, grumbled from her bed.

Claudia got up towards the window and opened it, only to find a huge snow-white owl sitting on the windowsill with a note.

James' owl.

"The hell," she said under her breath as she took the note from the owl, gave it a few treats, closed the window and then opened the note.

Claude,

Come meet us by the one-eyed witch statue.

- J.P

At first Claudia didn't feel like it. She was, after all, not exactly in the greatest of moods. But, as often with the four boys, curiosity and the need for some laughter got the best of her.

"I'm going," Claudia whispered to a barely awake Betty. "To see the boys, wanna come?"

"No, I need sleep," Betty said tiredly with her face squished against her pillow. "Like at least twelve hours after the amount of studying I've been doing."