Promise Me

Scars

It wasn't until one-thirty in the morning that the final guest had left. The boys and Valerie filed up the stairs, exhausted. Remus's room was directly across from Valerie's. Sirius and James had already closed their own doors by the time Val and Remus had made it to theirs. At Valerie's door, Remus leaned down to kiss her.
"I had a great time tonight," she said between kisses.
"Me too," he mumbled into her lips.
"Do you want to..." Valerie trailed off, looking at her door. At Remus's terrified expression she quickly continued. "No not that. Just, you know, a little more privacy than kissing in the middle of the hall."
Remus grabbed her door handle, opened it, and they stumbled in, still connected at the lips. He quietly shut the door, and kissed her again, fiercely. He lifted her up and put her on the edge of her bed. When he made a move to undo her dress to reveal her underclothes, however, Valerie flinched and drew away.
"Is everything okay?" Remus asked her.
"My... scars. I'm not... I don't want... I'm not ready for anyone to see them yet." She finished, looking close to tears. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I've ruined the night, haven't I?" She flopped backward onto her bed.
"Not at all!" Remus sat down next to her on the bed and gathered her up in his arms. He held her close to him and kissed her forehead. "I've never shown anyone else my scars either, Val. I know the feeling. It's okay."
"Thank you," she said quietly, into his shirt.
"Of course, Valerie." He could see how tired she was and figured he should let her go to bed. "You should get some sleep, I'll see you in the morning for presents," he told her.
"Okay," she yawned. "Goodnight."
"Goodnight," he said, putting her down and giving her a final kiss.
Once he had left the room, Valerie changed and removed her makeup before getting into bed. No sooner had she fallen asleep, than the nightmares began.

"No, please stop!" She shrieked. The tongues of fire were tightening around her body.
"Shut up you ungrateful child. A muggle? As a playmate?" Her mother loomed over her, holding the other screaming child out away from her body. "Avada Kedavra." Her mother said calmly. A jet of green light shot from her wand and the girl in her arms was dead.

Valerie woke up in a sweat. Her sheets were twisted and her blanket had fallen off of her bed. There was salt on her cheeks and she realized she was crying. The nightmares didn't happen as often anymore, but when they did she usually didn't sleep for the rest of the night. She checked the time. 3 o'clock. She needed sleep, that she knew. Struck by an idea, she padded out her door and across the hall. She let herself in quietly to Remus's room. Ever so gently she shook him awake.
"Huh?" He mumbled, still mostly asleep.
"Rem, it's me. I had a nightmare and I couldn't sleep, and I was wondering if I could sleep here tonight." She sniffled.
"Yeah, of course," he said groggily, before sitting up. "Hop in," he motioned towards the other side of the bed.
Valerie opened the bed and crawled in. Remus reached over and gently wiped away her tears. He put his arms around her and cuddled her. He could still feel her trembling. "Hey, It's okay, I'm here. I'll keep you safe, you don't have to worry," he whispered in her ear. After a while, her breathing evened out and she dropped off to sleep. "I love you, Valerie," he said, ever so softly, and he kissed the top of her head.

Valerie woke up around ten o'clock the next morning. Remus was already awake and had two cups of coffee on the nightstand. He handed her a cup as she sat up and rubbed her eyes.
"Morning, Rem," she said blearily, gratefully accepting the cup of coffee.
"Wooooah," Sirius said, stopping in the doorway. "What happened here last night?" He waggled his eyebrows.
"No, nothing like that," Val told him. "I had a nightmare last night, so I came in here. We didn't do anything," she laughed at Sirius's expression. At that moment, James walked in, too.
"Okay, I'm not going to even ask," He chuckled.
"Hey, James, did you ask Lily to the Hogwarts ball?" Valerie asked him, quickly changing the subject.
"Yeah, but she said no," James said dejectedly.
"What? Why?" Sirius asked him.
"She just said she wasn't going to go at all. Maybe next year, I guess." He sighed.
Valerie gave him a hug before heading towards her room to change. "Sirius, come here a second." When they were alone in her room, she asked him, "So who won the bet? You said he wouldn't even ask, and I said that he would ask and she would say yes so technically we both lost."
"Well to make things interesting, let's both suffer the punishment. The other person has to pick a color to dye the others' hair for one week."
"Hot pink," Valerie immediately said.
"Electric blue," Sirius fired back. "I'm going to let you do the dyeing because I think if I did it, neither of us would have any hair left."
Valerie led Sirius into her bathroom and took out her hair book. Once she had found the spell, she did Sirius's hair first.
"Crinus Muto, pink," Valerie recited, and there stood Sirius with flowing pink locks. Valerie burst into laughter before turning her own hair blue. The hair turned out surprisingly well, aside from them looking like they were utterly crazy.