maple syrup | remus lupin [1]

128. connecting the dots

WITH THE ARRIVAL OF the first day of June came the arrival of two very cheery boys as Claudia sat alone outside in the courtyard with a book in her lap.

"How does it feel to be two weeks away from freedom today?" James asked with a smile, sitting down next to the girl and feeling the sun soak on his skin as he referred to the Mandrake leaf that had for two weeks been tormenting Claudia so that she could finally become a damn Animagus.

So, with that out of the way, let's catch up a little.

Since returning after Easter, Claudia had been doing everything in her power to heal and get back to her old ways after everything with Evan.

And it had worked rather well considering the circumstances. Why? She had no idea.

Maybe it was because Claudia was an expert at healing and moving on since shitty thing kept happening to her, or maybe it was because of the endless conversions that she had had with Ingannamorte. Or, maybe, it was the fact that Evan had been punished plenty by being pranked nearly every day by the Marauders, getting his prefect position removed and having to stay a certain distance away from Claudia at all costs.

Which meant that Claudia for once felt grateful for her headmaster since, thanks to him, she was left alone by the boy who she despised more than she could even describe with words.

Still, she wished that he would've been expelled. But, he only had a few months left of Hogwarts and he was a boy, so the sad truth was that it wasn't exactly very likely that he would.

And she tried not to think about the fact that they were still engaged. But at least, for a while, she had gotten rid of him, she had people to talk to and she was kind to herself, and somehow that just made everything feel lighter as she continued the process of getting comfortable in her own body again.

Things were overall pretty good.

But, she couldn't help but to wonder when it all would go to hell again.

If she herself would guess, she would say that the living hell would start in about a month - when she would return home - and then be over by September 1st.

And she would definitely be right about that.

Pushing those thoughts aside, Claudia really was doing better. Her friendships were stronger than ever, and so was that strange relationship that she had with Ingannamorte, who she would honestly call her friend if that even was appropriate.

As James asked and reminded Claudia of the Mandrake leaf in her mouth, she sighed audibly considering that she had spent at least thirty minutes not thinking about it for once.

"Every day that I'm closer to getting it out is a blessing," she said, grinning at Sirius who sat down on the other side of her. "Where's the rest of you?"

"Peter's with Inez I'm pretty sure," said Sirius. "And lover boy will probably get here as soon as he's done tutoring that boy in first year."

Claudia smiled faintly at that, because whenever Remus tutored that boy with glasses and jumpers to big for him, a fluttery feeling arrived in her stomach and she suddenly loved him even more.