SEA, SWALLOW ME, remus lupin

fichead, solace under the stands

CHAPTER TWENTY
solace under the stands

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  COVE HAS BEEN ACTIVELY AVOIDING Remus for almost a week, going as far as to arrange spontaneous appointments with Madam Pomfrey so that she can steer clear of Care of Magical Creatures. Whenever she spots him in the corridors, she turns the other way and runs upstream through the oncoming torrents of students — her professors are beginning to grow sick of her late comings after the third day with a detour or two around the castle. She doesn't quite know what's come over her, but she's fairly certain that talking to him would inexplicably overwhelm her. Choosing between two of her worlds is less asphyxiating when she avoids the main problem in question at all costs.

This means that she's been dreading the upcoming Gryffindor vs Slytherin quidditch match, well aware that she'd see him cutting about in the stands at one point or another. Cove supposes that it's easier to avoid someone in a crowd, but the rest of the student body has no spacial awareness and it's like sardines trying to navigate anywhere, especially seeing as it's one of the bigger games of the season. If she runs into him once, trying to tear herself away may prove to be more difficult than she had imagined.

Eventually, Mary and Fallon manage to coax her out of hiding, dragging her down towards the pitch the second that she's stepped one foot out of the common room. They couldn't risk her getting all twitchy on them and running away. Not again.

"Oh, c'mon. It'll be fun!" Mary reassures.

"Yeah, you'll have the time of your life!" Fallon chimes in.

Cove grumbles something unintelligible.

  "That's the spirit!"

  It's not the most pleasant day to be playing quidditch, what with the overcast skies and spitting droplets of glacial rain. Her predictions of a storm came true the night before, the clouds erupting with lightning and battering against each other thunderously all the way through until dawn, leaving the grassy hills underfoot slick with mud. Just her luck, too, as it's coming on to rain once again. By the time they've actually reached the field, Cove's trousers are dirtied at the hems and she's really starting to reevaluate why she decided to come in the first place.

  The stands are full of students ranging from first year to seventh, overflowing onto the benches that are having to be magically multiplied to accommodate them all. It's an explosion of red against green, gold warring with silver as anticipation builds for the main event. Everyone's already beginning to grow restless, desperate to see the brawl for victory between the teams, especially since it always gets more violent than usual when it comes to Gryffindor-Slytherin matches. Who knew the student body could be so bloodthirsty?

It's just as the three of them are trying to push through to get good seats that Cove spots Remus heading in their direction with Peter at his side. He hasn't spotted her yet and she wracks her brain for a hiding place before it's too late, head whipping from left to right. Mary and Fallon shoot her two very concerned looks, continuing to chat amongst themselves as she spirals further into hysteria.

Cove panics, searching in every surrounding direction for somewhere to hide. She isn't ready to talk to him yet and she can't for the life of her explain why, that unexplainable feeling in her heart being integral to the explanation. Before she can properly register what she's doing, she has pulled back the scarlet tapestry hanging off the stands and ducks in between the wooden foundations, disappearing under the packed benches until the roaring sounds of the crowd are faded away behind the fabric that's acting as her invisibility cloak. She sighs as the burden of her worry fades, taking in the oaken skeleton of the quidditch stands above her head.