UNDER THE MOON, Remus Lupin

xiii.

BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY

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Fred showed up to class the next day. The day after Zephyr's weirdness. The day after Alice had mindlessly teased the sanity out of Remus. The day that she'd also decided she would make Remus her bitch, while becoming his. While Fred had no idea of this, it was still as though everything hurt twice as much more than it did lately.

Alice was caught off guard by the violet bags under his eyes. And the messy way his clothes had been put on. For the first time since their breakup, she was almost regretting it. Seeing another person in so much pain made her feel cruel. Especially since it was her fault.

She ignored the reparative guilt in order to pay attention. Though with Zephyr poking her with his quill every five seconds, it was deemed impossible to retain any information. That was the sometimes frustrating part of befriending someone who constantly needed your attention. Zephyr didn't get the female attention he wanted, so he sufficed with what he got from Alice. If you'd asked Zephyr three years ago why he wasn't dating Alice, he'd shrug, then get up and ask her out. But now it was different. They knew parts of each other too repulsive to even look at each other in a romantic way.

At this point in time, Clint was finally letting what happened with Angelina go. A part of him still wanted her back, but a bigger part of him was moving on. He'd spent too much time chasing after her affections. Clint also spent too much time on himself. Telling her that he couldn't be with her to focus on schoolwork. At the end of last year, he'd told her that. Angelina spent the summer heartbroken and confused. The real reason Clint dumped her was hard to admit. Mostly because he wasn't completely sure what it was. Something just persuaded him to break up with her. And he listened.

"Alice." Fred cleared his throat and nodded his head at her. A passive-aggressive greeting.

She breathed in sharply. "Fred..."

If his goal was to make her uncomfortable, he was certainly achieving it. He wanted to keep talking to her. With a small ounce of hope that they'd get along again. But he didn't know what to say. Alice intimidated Fred unknowingly. That's why he never got the courage to ask her out before she asked him out. Maybe if it had been Fred making the effort, their relationship would've worked out.

Remus saw the discomfort in Alice's body language. She was basically crying out for an escape. So he decided to start class a few minutes early. The things he did for his stupid feelings. They were taking this class to review what they would do the following day. A test. It was a spontaneous thought, but Remus realized Alice would pass with flying colors. Without even lifting one of her delicate, dainty fingers.

"How would you deflect a blackout spell, Miss Lafitte?" Asking was pointless, seeing as Remus knew damn well that she could show him. He was walking around the classroom and stopped directly behind her.

"By using the same spell against them, Professor," she answered without looking up from the additional notes she was writing.

"That's my girl," he whispered proudly and rubbed her shoulders firmly.

Hearing Alice inhale as though she was passionately kissed weakened his knees just a little bit. Remus took another stroll around the classroom, finding it difficult to remove his eyes from Alice. Her grin was twitching as Zephyr muttered nonsense to her about how stingy Fred was being.

Fred took it upon himself to switch seats with Angelina at the beginning of class. Now he was far across the room, unable to hear anything Zephyr said about him. Zephyr had never been as rude to Fred as Clint had been, but he was also more immature than Clint and Fred combined. Alice only laughed because maybe the jokes were a little funny. A large part of her still felt bad for laughing.