snow white (r. lupin)

three

As predicted, getting the ingredients was ridiculously easy. It was a bit awkward, though, having to try and maneuver about a small closet with both of them in there.

Peter had posted himself a few feet from the door while the two of them broke in. Unlocking the door was simple - Alohomora was a first year spell. Both lighting the ends of their wands, Caroline and Remus stepped into the small, closet-like storeroom. It was a bit bigger than an average broom closet, but the two teenagers were still forced to stand side-by-side.

They left the door open only a crack, so that it wouldn't look suspicious but they would still be able to hear Peter if someone came along. Snow White turned back to face Remus, having pulled the door mostly closed, and her breath caught as she realized just how small the space was. "I don't recall it being this small last time," she muttered, turning her attention to the shelves.

"You were alone last time," Moony reminded her, following her lead and starting to examine the shelves. It was quiet as they grabbed the things they needed, storing them inside the girl's messenger bag.

All that Caroline had left to grab was the boomslang skin, but it seemed to be on a shelf just out of her reach. She could read the label, but her fingers just barely brushed the edge of the shelf. With a sigh, she pushed herself onto her tiptoes, mentally cursing her lack of height. Technically, she was of an average height - 5'3". But her friends were mostly taller than her, and more things than she would like to admit were usually out of her reach.

Her fingers closed around the jar, but as she pulled it off the shelf, she apparently knocked two others down. One shattered on the floor, sending some powdered substance everywhere, and the other managed to hit her forehead before following the other one to the ground, though it luckily didn't break.

"Snow?" Remus turned to her, raising his wand as the boomslang skin joined the other ingredients in her bag. "What happened?" His expression was concerned as he took in the glass on the ground and cut on her head.

"I must've knocked some of the jars down." With her now free hand, Caroline reached up and lightly touched the cut, wincing as her fingers met warm blood and broken skin. "Damn it."

"Let me see." She pulls her hand away, absently wiping the blood on her jeans while Remus stepped closer, brushing her hair back and away from her forehead to keep it out of the way. "Doesn't seem deep - just bloody."

"Head wounds always bleed a lot," Snow said offhandedly, looking down to avoid his eyes. It was probably just their proximity and dimness of the closet, but something about the moment felt intimate, and it unsettled her - mainly because, if it were anyone else, she would've shoved them away. A part of her seemed to relish in being the object of Remus's concern and attention.

"Episky," he murmured, watching as the skin stitched itself together and stopped the flow of blood. He muttered another spell to get rid of the blood, and then lowered his wand. Caroline reached up, running her fingertips over the spot.

She cleared her throat, taking a step back, even though it meant bumping lightly into the shelf behind her. "Thanks," she said with a curt nod. Waving her wand, she repaired the broken bottle and picked it up off of the floor, along with the one that had fallen on her. Not bothering to figure out where they had come from, she stuck them in random spots on the shelves. "Have we gotten everything?"

"Um, yeah, I think we did," Remus answered, mentally running over everything he had been meant to grab and making sure he had actually gotten it. His mind was annoyingly muddled, but sometimes that's just how it was for him around Caroline.

"Good." She extinguished the light coming from her wand and stuffed it into her bag before walking back out into the corridor. He shook himself and followed after her, putting out his own light and shutting the door behind him. He locked it with a simple spell before joining Snow and Wormtail, who were waiting for him.