Rose Petals ✿ Remus Lupin - Discontinued :(

Chapter 26

"Remus Lupin."

"Brielle Roux."

"Why are you ignoring me?" She burst, crossing her arms in front of her. 

The boy's eyes widened and he ducked his head, looking everywhere but at the annoyed girl in front of him. James, Sirius, and Peter, all of whom found the situation humorous, placed their heads in their hands and batted their eyelashes towards the wolf boy in a mocking way.

"Yea, Rem-Rem—do tell!" Sirius grinned, though was quickly punched in the shoulder by Eileen who was holding in her own giggles.

The group had thankfully made up quickly, this time both sides apologizing to each other. Everyone had been on edge this year, to which most of the teachers blamed the hormones. Teenage angst, they called it. As much as Belle would like to blame it fully on hormones, it was also due to the fact that they developing their own opinions and were becoming their own people. If someone clashed with someone else, they didn't stay friends. At least not in the wizarding world. Belle hoped that she would never clash with her friends again; she hated the feeling.

Her friends had complied to meeting Aiden, who seemed quite happy to finally be accepted into their friend group. Ironically, he got on quite well with Sirius—both of them sharing the same humor—and had fit in wonderfully. As much as the headstrong Gryffindors would like to admit, Aiden was a nice guy. Aiden still had his own friends he sat with, but every once and while the whole group would hang out together leaving Belle ecstatic. Everyone had been getting along.

Christmas break neared and Belle found herself nervous to go home. She thought about staying at the castle, only to avoid the loud yelling competitions between Uncle Maurice and her father, but her grandparents had requested her to stay with them for the two weeks. She had no idea what they had in store for Belle, considering they only ever contact her on her birthday. She only hoped it wasn't to do with her 'pure-blood training.' She'd discussed with Sirius exactly what that was earlier that week,

"Oh!" He had snorted, placing both hands in front of him, "That's the worst. They make you walk 'round with a book on your head and you learn a bunch of pure-blooded waltzes—oh and table manners! Those have to be the hardest part. Which fork to use, which napkin goes where...you know, the bullshit."

Bullshit was right. 

She had never expected to be yanked into that part of the pureblood world, considering her parents had never been strict in that manner. She wondered if that's what her mother went through when she was younger, table manners and waltzes. It seemed absolutely horrid.

Remus took a deep breath before uttering his first lie ever to Belle.

"I thought you were replacing me with Aiden."

It wasn't a great lie, but it was the first that came to his head. Sirius and James didn't buy it, only because they had forced the real reason out of Remus a couple night ago. They didn't say anything, much to the relief of the wolf boy who watched as Belle's face morphed into one of shock.

"What? You know I would never do that, right? You're my best friend, Rem."

Remus smiled softly at the girl, his stomach jumping into his throat. He nodded his head, moving over to allow her to sit next to him on the leather couches in the Gryffindor common room.

Lily coughed rather forcefully into her hand, her eyebrows raised at Belle's comment.

"Sorry, Lily Flower. You're both my best friends."

"Excuse me?" Rose gasped, a hand over her heart in fake offense, "I thought I was your best friend Belle! We had something great and you just ruined it!"