Falling, Fallen || Remus Lupin

Chapter Three

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"Rosie, It's your turn."

Remus' voice had snapped her out of her thoughts, as they sat in the Gryffindor common room for the evening playing a very boring game of Wizarding Chess. The other boys were out somewhere roaming the halls with the cloak of invisibility no doubt, doing Merlin knows what this late at night.

Remus and Rosemary decided to stay behind this time around, as the full moon was approaching in a few days and Remus wasn't feeling up to pranking just yet, while Rosemary just didn't feel like being part of the action tonight, her mind clouded.

"S-sorry." She mumbled to herself looking down at the chess pieces and pondering on her next move, although she already knew Remus was going to attack her pieces with a counter move that he probably thought of exactly seven moves ahead.

"Everything alright?" He asked more sincerely as she absentmindedly moved her Rook four spaces to the right, not realizing she left her King wide opened, ready for checkmate. Remus noticed this of course, trying to hide his smile and ignoring her poor game move while pretending he didn't see that happen, moving his Bishop diagonally to the left of the board instead.

"Something is bothering you, isn't it?" He said quietly, making sure nobody would hear of their private conversation. She shook her head, trying to concentrate on the game before her, but she just couldn't. In return she moved one of her pieces on the board to a random spot without even thinking.

The truth was, something had been bothering her. Ever since the beginning of summer break until now, she's had the same ominous feeling lurching in her stomach, and it wasn't even because of Sterling that she was feeling this way. Word was getting around that a certain wizard who-must not-be-named could potentially be rising to power, recruiting mindless followers and targeting people like her.

She felt safe inside Hogwarts, that wasn't even a question, but it was the fact that she was so far away from her family that made her feel completely and utterly helpless. What if they would go missing like the rumors of other muggle families that were heard of in the corridors and she couldn't do anything about it? All because of her blood status that she was starting to feel ashamed of...

"I'm just tired." She tried answering nonchalantly, but she wasn't as confident as she hoped she'd sound.

"Rosie, you are a very bright witch, but you are such a shit liar." He said rather softly, before moving a pawn of his and stealing one of her own on the chess board. The figure moved forward and kicked her pawn so hard it crushed into a thousand little pieces. Rosemary thought to herself that's how her heart currently felt, before looking up at him.

"And how would you know?" She asked teasingly, clearly trying to prolong the conversation so she didn't have to tell him her reasons.

He knew what she was trying to do, but Remus was never the type to pry impatiently. At least not with her. He understood her too well, she always felt uncomfortable expressing her feelings especially when something was troubling her. She never wanted to burden her issues onto others, she'd rather help the ones she cared deeply about than to face her own problems.

"Well, I know when you're actually tired." He started patiently as she moved her Knight on the board, blocking her Queen from being exposed yet leaving her King open for another attack absentmindedly.

"You can't seem to keep your eyelids open for the life of you, and you are extremely clumsy." He finished smirking, looking at her in a challenging way. He knew he'd won the game they were playing once again. Looking down he realized he couldn't keep the chess game going for much longer, eventually reaching to a point where he had to take her King without making it completely obvious that he'd been trying to let her win all night.