The Girl Who Cried Wolf || Remus Lupin

CHAPTER FOUR

Things had been looking up since Astrid and Sirius had broken down in each other's arms. Both of them were looking happier, everyone could see the life springing back into their eyes and Astrid had even put on a little more weight.

'Merlin, I'm so hungry!' The girl exclaimed, shovelling food into her mouth at dinner.

'Oh really?' Sirius asked sarcastically from across the table and got a punch in the shoulder from Remus. 'Merlin, Remus, every time someone seems to go near Astrid you freak the fuck out.'

'It's not my fault if you're being a git.'

'Astrid doesn't mind, sure you don't?'

She absent-mindedly nodded, still wolfing down the food that was dwindling on her plate.

If it was any other girl, the marauders would've been shocked or maybe even slightly disgusting at the amount of food on the girls plate but this was Astrid. Over the two weeks that had passed since Sirius and Astrid's little breakdown the girl had started to fill out again. Gone was the '12 year old boy body' as Astrid's bag of bones was filling out more and more, creating more curves along her skinny figure.

Later in the evening, the marauders and the Astrid's female Gryffindor friends – Lily, Marlene, Mary and Dorcas- all sat in the Gryffindor common room. Lily was, of course, busy being pestered by James who had been winking at her persistently and insisting on holding her hostage in conversation every time he caught that golden snitch he always seemed to be throwing into the air. Peter and Mary sat playing a game of wizard chess, overseen by Dorcas who took to cheering on whoever was winning the game in that particular moment. Sirius and Marlene sitting side by side on the sofa across from Astrid, casually flirting as Sirius stretched an arm around the back of the sofa in a mock yawn.

'Merlin, I'm so bloated,' Astrid held onto her stomach as she rolled on the top of Remus who sat beside her. He patted her shoulder in mock pity and went back to reading the book that had been knocked out of his lap when Astrid had rolled onto him.

'You're damn comfy, Remus,' she snuggled her head into his lap and he hummed in reply but a small tell tale sign pulled at the corner of his mouth told her he was still listening to what she was saying.

Astrid stared up at Remus, she didn't think she'd ever really looked at him this up close. She'd only began to notice the silvery flecks that swam in his light brown eyes which were currently trailing along words on the page. It seemed that Remus' mood had lightened with hers over the last few weeks, the purple bags like bruises under his eyes had eased up and even his scars looked less visible in the warm light of the fire place.

His scars. She had almost forgotten they were even there.

Astrid's hand brushed over her own scars that adorned her arms. Morbid curiosity took her over and she reached her hand up to Remus' face and brushed her fingers over the 2 long scars that had driven themselves into his face.

'What are you doing?' Remus sounded slightly offended but a light tinge of pink adorned his cheeks as he looked down at her.

'I don't know, I'm tired.' Astrid slipped her hand away and continued to snuggle her way into the abnormally warm boy.

'Merlin, get a room,' Sirius called out and removed his arm from around Marlene's shoulders before taking her hand.

'Like you can talk,' Astrid replied.

'Well, now that you mention it, me and Mar are going to find one right now,' he replied and led the girl out of the portrait hole, not missing the gagging noises Astrid had sputtered out.

'Oh Merlin,' Remus sighed before going back to his book while Astrid stared up at the ceiling.

The two had been left alone and Astrid hadn't even realised that the rest of the group had left in the first place. She hated to admit it but she had been too enraptured in Remus, it seemed. In her mind she wasn't really sure if what she was feeling in that moment was romantic or platonic, just admiring someone who she happened to be close to.

Staring at the ceiling soon got boring and she started to poke Remus every so often. 'Astrid, what are you doing now?'

'Nothing, Remus,' she replied in a sing song voice and continued to poke him until he gripped onto her wrist, getting slightly annoyed at her. 'Sorry...'

'It's fine,' he sighed and turned back to his book.

'Well, you can't just go back to your book now, Rem. I want attention,' she dragged her voice out and poked him even faster.

This time he gripped onto both of her wrists and pushed her back into the sofa with a small smirk on his face. Astrid squeaked, left breathless as Remus was now leaning over the top of each other.

To any onlookers, if there were any, this would've been a very compromising position.

Astrid found herself trapped under the cage that was his surprisingly muscular arms for someone who did no exercise and she didn't seem to mind, which surprised her even more. Both of them were leaning closer to each other, breath hitting each of their faces as their lips were slightly parted.

And the moment was ruined by the return of Marlene and Sirius through the portrait hole. Quickly springing apart, Astrid scoffed at the two, 'you certainly didn't take long, did you?' Remus chuckled as well.

'Very funny, you must've lost track of time staring at Remus,' Marlene retorted back and kissed Sirius on the cheek, wishing him a goodnight before climbing the stairs to the girls dormitory.

'That's my girl,' Sirius muttered under his breath, watching Marlene's hips sway back and forth.

'Merlin, were those words of commitment coming from the Sirius Black's mouth?'

'I couldn't see it happening, dear Remus.' Astrid replied, 'in fact, I hear he's meeting a poor Ravenclaw girl in a broom cupboard tomorrow.'

Sirius repeated her words in a high pitched voice to mock her before uttering an 'I'm away to bed.'

Astrid smiled softly at Remus.

'I should probably get going to bed too,' Remus said to the girl and they awkwardly embraced each other, remembering their almost kiss. When they pulled away Astrid went to kiss his cheek but Remus turned his head at the wrong time and the girl ended up placing an awkward kiss on the corner of his mouth.

They jumped apart for the second time that night.

'Okay! Night Astrid,' Remus ran not-so-subtly to the marauder's dorm and looked back at her.

'Night, Rem.'