maple syrup | remus lupin [1]

48. the map

CLAUDIA WAS READING with her special quill in her hand. Inez was away practicing Quidditch, or something along the lines of that. Pandora was away doing god knows what, and Betty was to Claudia's surprise in the dorm with her.

But, the simple little fact that the blonde girl was too busy with applying pink lipstick than to notice her friend staring at her proved that she wasn't really there.

"Betty, can I talk to you about something?" Claudia asked. She was determined to once and for all rip the bandaid off and inform the girl of everything.

However, this determination was several weeks old at this point, and Claudia had her doubts that she once again wouldn't be able to tell her anything due to some sort of disturbance - such as Betty being late for something, that something being secret.

And, that ended up being the case on this very evening.

"I'm sorry Claudia, but I have somewhere to be," the girl said without even looking her way. "Can we talk later?"

"Where are you going?"

"Out," the girl shrugged as she fixed her hair.

"Where?"

"Doesn't matter."

"Okay," Claudia said with a small sigh, hoping to catch Betty's attention, but she didn't. "Is something wrong?"

"No," Betty said whilst she took some final looks in the mirror. "I'll see you later."

"But-"

"Later!"

Claudia sighed heavily this time around, doing so as she fell down on her bed completely.

The girl felt lonely. It almost reminded her of being at the manor, which was something that terrified her. Hogwarts had always been her escape away from everything, but now she was always left alone to her thoughts all the damn time, which exhausted her completely.

Sure, she had her boys and her homework and her books. But, she missed her girls. Spending time with the Marauders couldn't change that simple fact, despite how much they all tried.

She was confused and she felt almost abandoned. She had no idea why they were never in their dorm, why they barely spoke to her or each other or why they never told her anything anymore.

Claudia knew that with age often came drifting apart. It was simply a natural human force. But, she never thought that she would be in the position where she didn't understand why they were leaving. Why they slowly drifted away, and why they wouldn't let her fix it.