ROSIER

21

Trust
...

Gwen sat silently on her seat around the table, watching the flames in the chimney flicker. It was warm and full in the moving room. The way they were crowded inside almost made it feel like they were a team rather than four students who wanted to be anywhere but this room.
The blonde let her wand twirl in her hand as she couldn't bring herself to keep an ounce of concentration. Not that it was needed yet. After all, Emmeline still had Remus in a sharp surrogation about right and wrong paths. In her mind, she was retracing her fight with Sirius, letting his words run over her tied tongue until she craved the numbing taste of a cigarette.

She wondered when she began to dread her cousin and if there was a cure against the feeling of disgust. She wondered when she would stop taking his words for gold and if she could ignore his voice when looking at Remus.

It was stupid, utterly ludicrous, but she tasted the truth in his warning like the venom her name was filled with.

"Did something happen?" Dorcas asked quietly. She sat with her at the table, her concentration focused on observing her friend from a distance. She wanted to move closer, unsure if she could.

Gwen pressed her teeth together just when the urge to confide in the brunette was about to overtake her. "Nothing happened." She muttered. Sirius' voice was replaced by Red's memory. The hair taken from her hairbrush. The file stolen. And most hauntingly, their friendship set on fire in the most unexpected blaze. Gwen felt the burn deep into her skin, shedding the layers of growth in friendship until she was covered in ashes. She was willing to look past the pain for the sake of the investigation. In trust of the old lady. But she refused to ignore the hurt and anger in her chest.

The blonde pressed her hand around her wand as she got up from her seat. This room was too small for every emotion she felt. Emmeline was much smaller than Remus, but her personality, and especially her cold eyes, made him look small in comparison. "Listen, we don't have all day. How about we start worrying about the villain in plain sight rather than the possibility of a wrong path taken."

"Fine," Emmeline sent one last glare at the boy. "But don't blame me if he turns out to be evil."

"If that happens, I'll take the blame Vance," Gwen rolled her eyes. She glanced at Remus, who rubbed his temples, making sure to keep her eyes from crossing the new lines. "I warned you."

"Did they warn me not to befriend Slytherins?" Remus muttered as he walked over to the table, making sure to sit far from Emmeline. "Did I listen?"

The old lady never said the formation of their group would be easy, but if destiny needed them to work together so badly, it should've found a different approach. Dorcas was silent, moving in her seat as though she feared the ground would crumble under her feet. Emmeline had been on her own for too long, unable to bring herself from mistrusting everyone in this room. Remus seemed to be elsewhere with his thoughts, drowning everything else out.

And Gwen? She could feel the ceiling pushing down on her.

"This isn't working." The blonde finally let out. They had discussed Red's letter to Dorcas and picked it apart with no solutions to get Ivan's box back. "I have spoken with Red more in the forest than any of you have said in here."

Emmeline let out a dry laugh. "As if you were much of a speaker here. Have you added anything productive to this conversation since it started?"

"In case you forgot, Gwen did more for this investigation than anyone else." Remus argued. He kept his papers of the work they had done so far out of reach from the other two. "All you did was try to sabotage us. One of you succeeded."