selenophile || remus lupin

chapter seventy seven

19 April 1977

5:41 am

Ophelia rushed down to the door it looked like the four marauders would be coming in through. When she got down to meet them, all of them but Remus looked at her in shock for a moment before accepting her help. She quickly understood that Remus needed help and a lot of it, so she ushered them quickly into the nearest bathroom. It was much too early in the morning for anyone to be in there, so she didn't need to worry about making anyone leave.

She had the boys lay Remus down on the tiled floor as she got out her wand. As she went to ask Remus if she could take his bloodied shirt off, she realized that he had fallen unconscious and tore it off right after. There were several large gashes across his chest, clearly made by himself, that were refusing to stop bleeding. She pointed her wand at the largest one and started muttering healing spells that were slowly allowing the gashes to heal. She soon realized that she didn't have enough knowledge to heal him up magically and instead resorted to those muggle healing techniques that Benjy Fenwick had taught her.

"James, I need you to conjure a few washcloths. Sirius, conjure a bowl and fill it with water. Peter, stay here and tell me what the hell happened."

The three boys quickly did as they were told. Ophelia took one of James' washcloths, dipped it in the water, and laid it across Remus' head. She took the other one and put it in his mouth in case he woke up soon. She then took one of them and started dipping it in the bowl of water and cleaning off Remus' wounds.

"Don't explain the animagi stuff right now- yes I know. We'll get to that later, but right now I need to know what happened where he's this injured and why the hell Madam Pomfrey didn't heal him."

"Well, if you already know about the animagi stuff, I'll move past that," Peter quickly said. "But it was just a rough night. I think he could smell some humans in Hogsmeade and that kind of set him off. It was hard to control him, he kept wanting to get out of the shack. We usually go out into the forest and run around, it keeps him from hurting himself, but we noticed his restlessness and anger and decided it would be best to keep him in the shack the whole night. He couldn't really get any energy out by running around so he took to scratching himself. I guess that's what he did when he was younger and before we became animagi to help him."

Ophelia went back and forth between muttering spells and muggle healing. She started stitching a few of the gashes shut and before long, he was about as healed as she could get him to be.

"Phee, how do you know how to do all of this?" asked James. "Like all of this healing stuff. Especially those muggle things you did."

"Regulus," she put simply, not taking her eyes off of her wizard.

"Regulus?" Sirius repeated. "What do you mean 'Regulus'?"

"Shit has changed since you left, Sirius. It's time you got that through your thick skull."

Ophelia knew she was being harsh, but she was tired from being up all night, upset that they hadn't told her about their being animagi, and sick of Sirius' ignorance since he left Grimmauld Place.

"Of course, it's changed. But since when have you been having to heal Regulus? He's their Slytherin Prince, they wouldn't touch a hair on his perfect little head."

"Shut up, Sirius. You don't know what it's like back at Grimmauld Place. Just because you're not living with us anymore doesn't mean Regulus isn't family. And I don't just mean by blood."

Before Sirius could retort back, Remus began to wake up.

"Remmy? Are you alright?"

"Ophelia? What are you doing here? And where exactly is 'here'?"

"First floor girls bathroom. Are you alright?"

"Just peachy."

"Why the fuck didn't Madam Pomfrey heal you this morning?"

"Because Moony here is too stubborn to get help," said James. Ophelia looked at Remus for a moment in silence.

"Is that true?"

"Well, yes but-"

"Remus John Lupin! You could've bled out! I don't care how stubborn you are, you are not above getting a bit of medical help. Especially from a professional, not your sixteen year old girlfriend and my muggle practices."

"Couples bonding?" Remus said.

"You're not helping your case, moonboy."

Remus smirked up at her as he sat up.

"Phee, can we talk?" asked Sirius.

"Yeah, I think we probably should," she sighed. "You'll be okay for a few minutes?" she asked Remus who nodded in return.

The two Black siblings walked out of the bathroom and to a deserted corridor.

"Listen, Phee, I'm really sorry that we didn't tell you, but I need to tell you why we did it first," Sirius said.

"No, I understand why you did it, I'm just upset that no one thought to tell me," Ophelia confided.

"And you have every right to be," Sirius said. "I only want to protect you, you know that."

"I know," she rested her head against his shoulder.

"It's just that I know that you'll want to become an animagus too and that just can't happen. It's too dangerous. It's dangerous for all of us, we get hurt often enough, but if you were to become an animagus and get hurt, I don't know what I would do. To know that you got hurt by something that I could've easily protected you from. It's not like mother and father, I hate knowing that they sometimes hurt you, but it's not like I can protect you unless you leave and that's a decision I can't force you to do. But I can't let you become an animagus, because I can protect you from Moony. Do you understand?"

"Yeah, thank you for everything. As much as I want to, I won't become an animagus like you idiots," she quietly laughed.

"I love you," he placed a kiss on her head.

"I love you too, Siri."

a/n: MERRY CHRISTMAS IF YOU CELEBRATE <333