The Canis Major

C h a p t e r 2 7

My eyes were wide, and I didn't know how to respond. Remus had turned so his body was in front of mine when the person walked in.

"I should have known!" Remus and I jumped apart at the sound of Professor Sprout's voice. I looked up at him with wide eyes since she still couldn't see me. His face was redder than ever, and he was staring at me with an expression that was equally surprised.

"What do we do?" I mouthed at him again.

"I don't know!" He mouthed. I rolled my eyes at our repetition.

"Get to class before I give you two a detention for a month!" Our eyes went wide again. I think the same thing went through our minds when we decided to sprint out of the bathroom. We kept running when we made it out into the hallway. The sound of our heavy footsteps echoed through the halls. We turned down many different hallways before we decided we were far enough.

"Christ," I gasped out as we slowed to a walk. I placed a hand over my chest to feel my heart beating rapidly in my chest. "I don't remember the last time I got an exercise like that."

"Yeah..." Remus gasped out. We were both breathing fast, trying to recover from our sprint through the school. I felt my ears turn red as I recalled the events.

"So... What was that?" Remus' face couldn't go any more red after that sprint, but I'm sure it would have if it could.

"I-I...I," he stuttered and tripped over his words in a desperate attempt to explain. "I panicked..." Even though the situation was stressful and awkward, I couldn't help by laugh. He seemed caught off guard from my response. I giggled at his response. "Wha...?"

"You're not good in stressful situations," I said through giggles. He laughed nervously and frowned at me.

"I'm sorry!" He blurted out nervously. His eyes avoided mine and he looked down at his shoes. I could easily see his awkwardness and laughed again.

"It's fine, Remus. Let's just forget about it." Remus looked a bit relieved and nodded in agreement. I looked around to see where we were. "I guess we weren't really successful in finding James."

"So we skipped class for no reason?" Remus asked grumpily. I rolled my eyes and nudged him with my elbow.

"C'mon. Let's try to find everyone else." We walked slowly down the hallways, trying a lot harder this time to avoid running into anyone. I could tell he still felt awkward about the kiss, so I tried to make it seem more like I was carefree about the entire thing. It was when we turned a corner that we ran into Sirius and Peter. They looked stressed as well.

"Oh good, it's you," Sirius said with a sigh. "Please tell me you found him."

"Do you see him standing next to us?" I asked sarcastically. Sirius rolled his eyes and ran a hand through his long hair. Sirius looked between the two of us.

"What's wrong with you?" Sirius asked Remus since his face was still very red. Remus sputtered and tried to think of what to say.

"We almost got caught," I answered for Remus. Sirius rolled his eyes.

"Of course you'd be red-faced after that," Sirius teased. "Where the hell would James be?"

"Maybe he went to class like a good person," Remus muttered. Sirius scoffed and waved him off.

"James doesn't even go to class when he's not drugged up." I nodded in agreement. "So where the hell-"

"What are you guys doing out here?" We all practically screamed and turned around when we heard an unexpected voice. There, looming over us, was Regulus Black.