Headdesking - Remus Lupin/OC

Chapter 18: Caving

The box was safe. From then on it was just a matter of waiting for a storm so that the boys could drink the potions and hopefully, if successful, the transformation would occur.

In actuality, Hazel had no other business with the four boys she had been so intimately entwined with for the last few months. Still, they kept frequenting her side, despite having reason to.

More often than not, the topic of animagi and the transformation would come up. Even though Hazel had already gone into explicit detail on how the excursion had gone, and where Remus and her had placed the box, they still kept pestering her on that matter too. It was like they couldn't quite put their thoughts of the mission aside while waiting.

Perhaps it was the chant she'd instructed them to perform every dusk and dawn, that kept them constantly reminded of the great feat they were attempting, and which made the whole thing so impossible to let go of.

Hazel couldn't quite compartmentalise either. Every time she saw them she would ask the same question before greeting: "Did you perform the chant last night?"

"Yes." one of them would sluggishly reply.

"And this morning?"

The second reply was usually received with a shoulder-slacking sigh, and another simple "Yes."

The only one who seemed able to detach was Remus, who never felt the need to bring up or join in with this particular topic, and who would often zone out while the matter was being discussed, only to return with a fractured attention at best.

Then there was of course the subject of the kiss, which had not been brought up once in the weeks that followed it. This was not a surprise to any of the parties involved. Hazel specifically had expected nothing else. She knew that there was a problem, and as much as she had enjoyed being intimately entwined (in the most literal sense of the word this time) with this one particular boy, she wasn't labouring under the perception that a kiss was going to solve it. Whatever it was.

Still she couldn't help but ruminate on the kiss, and wonder in secret what the problem could be.

As much as Remus seemed almost completely muted most of the time. She was not privy to the fact that with every new phase of the moon, it became harder for him to detach.

The moon had always and forever a hold on his spirit, steering his emotions to torment him. And come the new moon, he felt a dagger in his solar plexus every time her eyes met his.

During the waxing crescent his muscles would knot whenever she was near, and when he sat down next to her, they would without a doubt start to cramp.

By the time the first quarter rolled around, a tightness in his chest would always follow every encounter with her.

And finally, one Monday during the week of the waxing gibbous, exactly a week before the full moon, was the day when he caved to his own willpower.

Hazel was studying in the library when they came in. Without a word to each other, his friends made the decision to sit down with her. Remus was still standing, beholding them all in that millisecond while he was still contemplating whether to sit down or just keep walking to get away from it all.

He began slowly moving toward them, then sitting down carefully, almost leaning out of his chair, away from her — fully expecting his body to wreak its wicked ways on him.

At first nothing happened, so he relaxed in his seat. When nothing still happened, he breathed out and began unpacking his bag. Hazel sniffled a little, and Remus' stomach turned in fear, thinking that that was it. But still nothing.