black coffee | remus lupin [2]

68. one of many funerals

a/n: lovelies i'm so sorry for literally never updating anymore but i'm officially done with school for the year so updates will hopefully be hella frequent from now on! i'm working as well for a few weeks but i promise i really am trying to bring back the frequent updates! <3 love y'all thanks for being so patient with me!

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ROSAMUND'S FUNERAL WAS HELD on a Tuesday. It was a gloomy and gray day, and looking back Claudia would probably not remember most of it. Mainly because her mind was completely fogged, but still.

She couldn't help but to feel that it was her fault. That, because Rosamund died saving her, she was the cause of why Rosamund's family gathered around the young girl's casket, feeling nothing but a horrid sorrow. That she was the cause of why Henry couldn't even react as Cho reached out her hand and touched his nose.

That she was the cause of why a young girl's life had ended so soon.

Claudia felt awful. The guilt was eating her up from inside, and it reminded her ever so much of her mother's death, and the way she blamed herself for it then just as much.

It was unfair how she was back on square one - hating herself for something that she couldn't have controlled and something that she couldn't have changed.

And it was also unfair how cold Nicolas was towards her now. How sure she was that he blamed her for Rosamund's death just as much as she did.

Even so, Claudia knew that she and Regulus were all that Nicolas had, so they stood by his side alongside their family throughout the entire ceremony.

And after it was over, and Regulus had patiently waited for the other two to finish staring at the casket in silence, Claudia found her family and heard their awful opinions in the process.

"She despised that family of hers," Louisa said, looking at the Changs with a disgusted look. "What are they even doing here?"

"Gaining pity I suppose," Charles said with a slightly amused smile. "Well, they do not have mine. If anything, Nicolas is the one who should be pitied. He's the one who lost his wife. This family was nothing but awful to her."

"Were you there when she was raised, or what?" Claudia said, apparently out loud yet rather quietly. Of course Charles heard that, which only led to her eyes widening as Nicolas, although angry at her, saved the day.

"I don't need to be pitied", he said sharply to Charles, who looked awfully surprised to receive such rude messages from his stepson.