maple syrup | remus lupin [1]

81. jealousy is a disease

REMUS COULD NOT read the look on Claudia's face as he asked her if she wanted pancakes and golden syrup on that Saturday morning. It was somewhere between a frown and a look of pure embarrassment and guilt.

"What's wrong?" He asked her as their friends continued to ramble and laugh around them.

"Uh," she said, her unreadable expression turning into a grimace. "Have you, uh, ever heard of this...myth?"

"What myth?"

"About, uh, werewolves," she said.

"Oh."

"One serving of syrup a day-"

"-Keeps the werewolf away," Remus finished with a frown. "You believed in that?"

"One serving of syrup a day keeps the werewolf away."

A silly, silly myth that stated that if a person consumed enough golden syrup a day something about it would chase the werewolves away.

Claudia had no idea what that 'something' would be, nor did she know if it worked.

Well, actually, it clearly didn't work considering she had consumed enough golden syrup for all of the Hogwarts students' lifetimes and longer, and even then a werewolf out of all people had held her, kissed her, made her laugh and made her feel at home.

A werewolf out of all people had fallen in love with her.

Where that myth came from no one new. It was strange, and stupid - but Claudia was afraid and fears make people blind.

And fears had a tendency of making Claudia do stupid things.

So, to keep herself a little less scared of the thought that Greyback would one day come after her, Claudia had started pouring syrup on the pancakes that ever so reminded her of her mum, simply for a little reassurance and a little lie to make her feel safe.

It was to be compared with checking behind ones shower curtain to make sure that no serial killer was standing behind it.

A way to make her feel a little more safe, despite how silly it may have sounded.

"I don't know, maybe I did believe in it," she confessed. "Nolan and Nicolas said that it worked after it happened. My aunt mentioned it once too...because she was afraid. And then I thought, after Gemma, that he would come for me as well. And my mum always made pancakes so I guess it just fell naturally. I'm sorry-"

"You don't have to apologise," Remus said, but Claudia could tell that it made him feel uneasy anyway.

"Remember what I said, Remus," she said softly as she placed her hand on his shoulder.

Remus felt the whole world stop just by her touch.

"I was scared. And stupid. But I'm not anymore. Because I know you. Okay?"