Fire Whiskey in the Moonlight (Remus Lupin)

Chapter Fourteen: Rose Colored Glasses

"Viv!" I turned around and waited for Katie as she ran up behind me.

"What's up?" I asked, laughing at how strange her run looked well she held all of her textbooks.

"You need to talk to Tyler." She huffed as she reached me.

I rolled my eyes and kept walking, regretting waiting for her to catch up.

"He feels bad about what happened. He misses you, we all do. So you two need to talk so I can have my friend back."

"What are you talking about Katie? We sit together for every meal, we talk every night before bed. I just don't hang out in the common room anymore."

"But you're distant, when we are at meals you hardly speak and at night I feel like you hardly say anything of importance about your life!"

I sighed, and pulled her to the side of the hallway, out of the way of the rest of the students trying to get to class. "I was attacked by a murderer less than a month ago Katie. I'm not distant because of Tyler or you or anything else. I'm just processing."

She smiled lightly, "We are your friends Viv, let us help you. You can talk to me about anything."

I groaned internally, knowing that now that I said it she wouldn't drop it. So much for an excuse that would make her back off. "I know. I'll try talking to Tyler if you think it will help." I smiled, hoping if she got what she wanted I wouldn't need to give anymore excuses for why I've been 'distant' as she had put it.

I wasn't distant, I just couldn't talk to her about Remus, and since I spent most of my time with him I couldn't talk to her about most of my day. She was right about me being quiet at meal times and that was, in large part, due to Tyler.

"I think it will help." She hugged me, and we headed towards our next class.

I smiled as we walked into class and saw Remus talking to some other students. He glanced at the door and shot me a quick smile. It gave me the courage I needed to go over to my table where Tyler was already sitting.

"Hi Tyler, how are you doing today?"

He looked up at me, not at all trying to hide the surprise on his face. "I'm good, better now. How are you Viv?"

"I'm alright," I said sitting down. "I think we are getting our essays back today."

He groaned, "I am not looking forward to that. I don't think I did too well."

"Me neither, I put it off until the free period we had right before it was due."

"Me too!"

I couldn't help but laugh thinking about how many students probably did the same thing and how frustrated Remus must have been while grading them. He was cute when he was frustrated, but he was cute all the time. As much as I tried I couldn't stop thinking like this.

Tyler started laughing too, which only made me laugh harder because he definitely was not laughing about the same thing that I was. Remus gave me a strange look when he handed me back my essay, probably because I was laughing with one of his least favorite people.

Tyler was right, he did do poorly on his essay, as did I. Of course, I already knew how I did since I was with Remus while he was grading. The class started and I'm sure if anyone was to look at me they would think that I was absolutely captivated by banshees. But it was the professor I couldn't take my eyes off of, which I hated. I knew that we couldn't be together, and we were trying so hard to be friends, I just had to shake it off. I turned my attention towards Tyler hoping that my disdain for him could knock me out of my daze.