You Only Live Once

CHAPTER 14

Remus and Lily did not believe her at first. In fact, they seemed convinced that Mira had finally developed a very warped sense of humor. They looked at her as if she had just told them she was planning to drop out of school to become a professional mountain troll wrestler. To them, the idea was impossible. Their Mira—their sweet, sensible Rosie—could not possibly be going out with Theodore Nott. She had promised she would stay away from trouble, and in the Gryffindor hierarchy of "trouble," Nott was near the top of the list.

They laughed when she first said it. It was a nervous, disbelieving sound. They continued to laugh even as she told them again, and then a third time. It wasn't until Mira's face turned a frustrated shade of red and she practically yelled at them to stop that the gravity of the situation hit them.

The silence that followed was heavy. Remus's expression was the kind of look you might see on someone who had just sat through a particularly gruesome horror movie. He looked terrified, confused, and deeply betrayed all at once. Lily's mouth went bone-dry. The realization that Mira was being completely serious was settling in, and neither of them knew how to handle it. In their eyes, Mira was still much too young for this, even if they were only a year older than her. She was someone to be protected, not someone to be going on dates with Slytherins.

After several long minutes of silence, Lily was the first to soften. she knew Mira well enough to know that forbidden fruit only tasted sweeter. If they tried to forbid it, Mira would only run toward him faster.

"If you're enjoying yourself, then I guess it's fine" Lily finally said, though her voice lacked its usual confidence.

Remus, however, had not yet regained his ability to speak. He stared at a spot on the wall for a long time before his voice finally cracked.

"You mean to tell me" he began, his voice shaking with a mix of horror and disbelief. "That, that filthy scumbag has... touched and kissed my precious little angel?"

Mira spent the next few minutes trying to talk him down from the ledge, insisting that it had only been a few kisses and nothing more. It took Remus nearly two hours to process the news. He paced back and forth across the common room rug until he'd nearly worn a path into it, consumed almost an entire bar of Honeydukes chocolate, and stepped out for a cigarette to calm his nerves.

When he finally returned, he had reached a state of grim acceptance. He acted exactly the way Mira had predicted he would. He sat her down and warned her to be extremely careful. He threatened that if he ever saw a single wrinkle on her forehead—which he would take as a sign that Nott had made her sad for any reason—he wouldn't hesitate to go "full werewolf" on him. At the end of the lecture, both he and Lily pulled her into a tight hug, offering one last warning.

"You make terrible decisions, Rosie" Remus said, shaking his head as they walked toward the portrait hole.

James, who had been lounging on a nearby couch and eavesdropping while pretending to throw crumpled paper at Peter's head, finally chimed in. "She met us and decided to stick around. There were signs from the start, Moony"

Mira caught the look on James's face. It was one of those rare moments where Sirius wasn't around, and James didn't feel the need to be performative or insulting. It was almost a compliment, in his own weird way.

The atmosphere in the Slytherin common room was thick with the excitement of the upcoming holidays. Students were packing trunks and making plans for the weeks away from the castle. Mira arrived in search of her friends, wanting to soak up their company before they all departed.

What she didn't expect to see was Marlene McKinnon. The Gryffindor girl was trying to move stealthily toward the exit, looking like she was attempting to vanish into the shadows of the stone walls. She was failing miserably. Mira knew that Dorcas Meadowes lived in these dorms, and she had wondered why Marlene hadn't mentioned her yet, but she decided to let it go. Everything happened in its own time.