MOON AND STARS, fred weasley

five

tw: implied mentions of suicide

Remus sighed as Adhara left the room. He James, Sirius, Lily, Ron, Harry and Hermione remained. Those three never seemed to leave unless they needed to — the same could be said for the twins, though they had trailed after Adhara like a cat to a mouse.

"I don't know what's going on with her," Remus admitted out loud. "She's been out of it lately. I thought maybe it was with Sirius finally being back, but I don't think that's it— She won't talk to me about it either."

"Sounds like someone we know, Moony," James quipped. "From that earlier, maybe it's about her furry little problem."

"She's never said anything about it before."

"I think maybe she doesn't want to offend you since your a werewolf too, but we've noticed it getting worse," James said, referring to Lily and himself.

"How?"

"She's around a lot asking for my potion to remove her scars, which I have no problem in making," Lily began. "But she never used to care about them. I remember the days when she'd actually boast about her scars, thinking they'd make her look, and I quote, cool and badass."

He almost chuckled. That sounded like his daughter.

"She's just got a lot more insecure about them recently. There's been a couple of times where she's been on the brink of tears because of a small scar on her face. Something's really knocked her confidence."

Rationally, Remus thought that maybe it was just because she was growing up. Teenage girls cared about that sort of thing, as far as he was aware. He assumed that maybe she just wanted to look a bit more presentable, that was all.

Then Sirius spoke.

"She called herself a monster upstairs."

The room fell deadly silent.

"She's never called herself that before," Lily said, James nodding with her. "Something must be wrong."

The three teenagers that they'd conveniently forgotten about for the time were seeming very fidgety at the other end of the table.

Hermione, of course, was the first to break. "They make fun of her. The other students. There were some rumours about her being a werewolf when Professor Lupin stopped teaching at Hogwarts so suddenly, but Snape shut it down."

That shocked them all, even Lily.

"Now they say she's a lunatic," Ron said.

"Really, Ron?" Hermione asked. "There were rumours of it though, that she'd scratch her face in her sleep or in a manic episode. Snape didn't shut those ones down."

"Harry?" James asked, the sternest voice he'd had to use with him in a while. "Did you know about this?"

"She made me promise not to say anything, and I thought it was fine, you know? She preoccupies herself with the pranks."

"George caught her crying after a full moon once," Ron admitted. "I overheard them talking when I was on my way to the kitchens. She'd considered doing something... Stupid. I think the pranks distract her."

It was silent again as Remus put his head into his hands, taking some rather laboured breaths. He'd tried something similar when he was younger, he just never thought that Adhara, who always seemed so happy...

Then again, Sirius always seemed happy in his youth too and he had one of the most miserable home lives of people he knew at the time.

"Why don't you three head up to bed too?" Lily asked quietly. "You've got a big day at the ministry tomorrow, Harry, you need to get a good nights sleep."