Remus <3

17 Poppy

A few weeks had passed and the marauders had fallen back into their old dynamic. James remained overprotective. Sirius was flirty. Peter was shy. And Remus was her best friend.

In between the nights she slept in the library after studying til she couldn't lift her eyelids any longer and the nights she spent pranking with her brother and friends, she was exhausted. Remus was there with her every step of the way, and so he was exhausted as well. That may have been one of the reasons this full moon had been an especially bad one.

It was the last month of their 4th year and Remus laid in the hospital wing with a long gash running across his chest. It was late now. Madame Pomfrey had already attempted to shoo her away multiple times.

"I'm serious, you four have to leave," Madame Pomfrey said with a stern glare.

"Come on Popppy, please?" James mopes.

"Yeah come on you know you'll jusst miss us when we leave," Sirius pouts.

"I promise we'll behave," Peter begs.

Poppy looks towards Ash waiting to see what she had to say. Ash just shrugged and Madame Pomfrey ushered them all out with force. At the last moment Ash burst into tears.

"Oh Godric it hurts. I think I need to have my wrist checked, might have to stay overnight," Ash's eyes brimmed with tears.

Madame Pomfrey rolled her eyes, she could see right through her antics.

"Well then I will have to give it a look," Poppy sighs, she was once a teenage girl after all.

Ash's eyes light up, she hadn't expected it to work.

James's eyes widened as well, "Ah my wrist as well. I think it's contagious."

"Then you had better get some rest and come in the morning."

And with that the door was shut and Ash made her way to the bed next to Remus. She frowned when she saw his wounded chest and the bloodied bandages that covered it.

"He will recover just fine, now let's have a look at your wrist."

Ash contemplated breaking her wrist just for a reason to stay.

"Or I could just give you a sleeping drought and pretend I don't know you are perfectly fine?"

"I prefer the second option," Ash's eyes don't leave Remus.

He was asleep now. She knew it was because of the pain and exhaustion that came after every full moon.

Ash took a seat next to Remus's bed and held his hand as she watched him breathe. Making sure that his breath was steady and that he never missed one.

"He looked at you with that same fond expression a few months ago."

"We are friends," Ash hummed.

"Black has never looked at Lupin the way you do," Poppy pushes.

"Me and Remus are best friends."

"Earlier this year Lupin had faked his own injury to stay beside your bed. He held your hand just like you are holding his. The parrellels of young love," Poppy sighed.

"We're just friends."

"Is that so? I've only had one friend care for me like you care for each other, and then we weren't friends."

"What happened?"

"I married them," Poppy says with a smile, "I don't think you'll find such a different ending with Lupin."

Ash sat there mulling over what Madame Pomfrey had suggested. Her and Remus? More than friends?

Then it was morning and she was awake. Her hand still nestled in his as she resumed watching his eyelashes move with his breathing. She watched him wake up as she traced circles in his palms.