Four To The End (prev Shifting Lines) Book Three (Marauders Era)

Chapter Twenty - Flowers Never Bend

Author's note: I just wanted to have a huge shout out to Pip who has been such a dear, wonderful friend and so supportive.

-x-

"Miss Fawley!"

After Divination class, Remus wanted nothing more than to hide in his dorm for the rest of the night and even after a hearty supper, he still wanted to simply disappear. However his day wasn't over yet; he had to meet with Miss Fawley. Not that this was a bad thing, he was just really tired.

"Remus!"

Fawley held her arms out and Remus ran into them, hugging her tightly. The comforting, familiar scent of lavender washed over him and he resisted the urge to bury his face into her chest. One of her hands pressed against his back while the other stroked his hair. Her lips went against his forehead in a brief kiss before they pulled apart, sitting back on the squashy purple sofa that had been placed in the otherwise empty classroom for their lessons.

"How have you been? How was your summer? How are classes going?" she asked, crossing one leg over the other and leaning forward, eager to hear. Her pale eyes were focused on his general area.

"Summer was... summer," he said, slumping down on the sofa. "Boring. I'm very glad to be back."

"Boring?" she asked. "Nothing else?"

He shrugged, plucking at the cuff of his robes. Summer—or rather, home was not a good topic for the two of them to discuss. "Yeah. Lessons have been good. It's wonderful to be in class again. I'm really excited to see what all I get to learn this year."

"Something is wrong," she noted. "I can tell."

He bit his bottom lip, tugging at a loose string. "Divination," he finally admitted. "It was... hard."

"Professor Hawkwood is still the teacher, isn't he?" she asked and when he confirmed that, she said, "So you had tarot, then."

"Mm. Yes." He yanked the string away from his robes and began balling it up.

"What did you get?"

He let out a sigh, squashing the ball and watching it spring back apart, unraveling a bit. "Dave Struthers has a fantastic beasts tarot deck." He dropped the string with another sigh. "The moon card is a werewolf transforming."

"He pulled for you?" she asked softly.

"The moon was my past," he muttered.

Fawley nodded, tucking her hair back behind one ear. Her hair was in a long white sheet cascading past her shoulders and was, in Remus's opinion, very pretty. "That is, unfortunately, very fitting, if I remember what the moon represents. It's been a while since I've used tarot."

"Yeah, it is fitting." He ran his fingers along his thighs, not wanting to talk about this. Not wanting to tell her he was given a card that meant isolation for his future.

"And your other classes?"

He couldn't help but smile. "Oh, Ancient Runes is fascinating! I think I'm going to love that class. Magical Creatures is... um, well, I'm not sure yet, our first lesson was kinda weird. We held a dying ashwinder. And Arithmancy... I don't know, I guess it feels strange to give everything in the world numbers and use those to... find things. Decide things. I—I did like Divination," he admitted. "I think it's... it could be really interesting too. I did like... using the tarot desk and looking up the meanings and trying to figure out what they might mean..." He shook his head. "Muggle Studies is going to be a lot of fun. The others had a terrific time there. I think it's the first time they were given an assignment and were excited to do it."