black coffee | remus lupin [2]

61. a rough night

｡･:*:･★,｡･:*:･

"BLOODY HELL, NICOLAS!" Claudia screeched as soon as she spotted his bloodied up self there on the ground in that random alleyway nearby Number 12 Grimmauld Place. "What the hell happened?!"

"Well..." he said, grimacing in pain as Remus quickly came to Claudia's side with his wand lit as well. "I've had a rough night."

"We can see that," Remus mumbled as Claudia bent down to check Nicolas' painful-looking wounds.

Her stepbrother, however, refused to let her do so, for immediately he swatted her hands away.

"I'm fine, Claudia," he said. "I just need to...I just need-"

"What happened? Are you hurt? Who did that to you?"

"I..." he began, but it seemed that his throat closed up on him, and suddenly every hint of sarcasm or amusement went away. "Can you please take me home, Claudia?"

"Of course," she said. "But maybe I should call on Rosamund first?"

"No," he instantly said. "Take me to your home."

☾

"What the hell happened?" Regulus asked in a hushed tone a while later.

Claudia and Remus had brought the suddenly weak and distraught Nicolas to Grimmauld Place, and now the blonde boy was sitting in the couch in the drawing room, staring straight ahead and refusing to say anything to any of them.

"I'm pretty sure he's having some sort of psychological episode or whatever Muggles would call it," Claudia whispered to him, looking back at the boy who was further away from them.

"What do you mean?"

"When I found him he was actually kind of joking around for about a minute, and then he just completely shifted his ways and turned into what he's like now," she said. "It was so weird."

"It's probably a coping mechanism," said Remus, causing Claudia and Regulus to stare at him for a moment before they both nodded.

"Uh, Claudia?" Regulus said.

"What?"

"Didn't Nicolas have...plans for the night?"

"What are you on about?"

"He said he was doing something," Regulus said, trying to sound as casual as possible. "Maybe something happened."

"Oh, yeah, maybe," Claudia nodded, getting the message and suddenly grabbing Remus' arm. "We'll be right back."

The two of them disappeared out of the room, leaving a quiet Nicolas and a worried Regulus behind. Claudia led Remus into the kitchen without explaining anything, which of course caused him to ask questions.