REPUTATION • [j.p.] ✔️

[10]

Chapter Ten:
Heartache

•••

IT WAS AFTER a Quidditch match during her fourth year against Slytherin, Gryffindor won. By ten points. It was a victory worth celebrating.

Somebody brought out Fire Whiskey, intoxicating nearly the entire Gryffindor house. A group of fourth years, including the Marauders were playing spin the bottle. The bottle left Jessie to turn to her best friend Remus, and kiss him.

They paused, pulling back only slightly. Then they tackled each other in another sloppy kiss in their drunken state.

And the next morning, heads pounding they had to face everyone as they said that Remus and Jessie were dating. A pit of dread formed in Jessie's stomach. What if her parents heard? She'd be done for.

"Hey, Remus, can we talk? Privately...?"

Remus nodded, standing up from the table and making his way out to the hall way. "Look Jess—"

"The kiss meant nothing. I don't-We're best friends. It'd be so weird." Jessie cut him off, needing to get to the point. "I liked you last year, I'll admit that. But I'm over that and my parents would have my head on a platter, Remus."

Remus laughed softly, hugging her. "I'm just thankful you did that for me. I was worried you did like me and I was going to have to let you down!"

Jessie laughed, hugging her best friend tightly.

It wasn't until Christmas holidays that Jessie learned the rumors had gotten back to her parents.

"There are whispers that you are with that boy Remus Lupin," Jessie's mother said as she did her daughter's hair. "I understand the appeal of being young, having fun... Trust me, we expected you to date someone else between now and your wedding... but at least choose someone decent, Jessie. A Slytherin perhaps. One of Regulus's friends? And certainly not a half-blood." Her mother shivered at the thought of Jessie being with someone like that.

"We aren't—I just mean, nothing is happening there. We'd won the Qudditch match and everyone was drunk. It was a mistake," Jessie watched her mother in the mirror.

There was such relief on her mother's face.

And it was that moment that Jessie decided that she was never going to have a boyfriend. There would only be Regulus for her. Not because of the ring on her finger, but because she saw the reproving look on her mother's face. Despite her mother's cruelty, Jessie sought her praise and approval.

She didn't touch another boy for the next two years, afraid of her mother's disapproval. But now, a few torturing spells and a disowning later, Jessie didn't care.

She didn't care that her normally tight fitting dress was loose, or that Lily Evans looked much prettier than her, or that she was going with James Potter.