Chocolate Covered Strawberries [Remus Lupin]

𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗

Chapter nineteen;  Halloween with extra spice

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October was ending and it had students in a jiff about Halloween. Especially the feast at the end of the day and a party all rumours seemed to be about. The holiday fell on a Sunday which meant that prefects had the whole Saturday to decorate the Great Hall and prepare a special list of foods for the feast. The latter was Jasmine's favourite since she could request any dessert from her almost infinite list of ideas. Though this year she had a plan to sneak two cakes of her own, one to appear at the Gryffindor table and one at Hufflepuff.

That part was still to be done since at the moment she was in the Great Hall with all of the prefects. Students were producing spider webs over various places all over the room, lifting banners up and placing moving, not alive, skeletons and spiders. Jasmine was sitting at one of the long tables with a group that was assigned to carve pumpkins. She laughed at Lily who was making a disgusted face while clawing out the insides of the pumpkin in front of her.

''Don't get me wrong, I love all things pumpkin. Pumpkin juice, pumpkin pasties, my favourite pumpkin pie made by one and only Jasmine.'' Lily sighed contently before she turned back to her pumpkin. ''But this is just-'' She proceeded to make gagging noises.

Jasmine let out another chuckle before focusing back on her stencilled face on the pumpkin. She grabbed the knife and forcefully stabbed it into the pumpkin to break the surface. She pulled it out after with a grunt.

''Remind me to never anger her.'' Another prefect at the table commented, looking at Jasmine with wide eyes.

It made Lily and Jasmine laugh both knowing she wouldn't be capable of doing anything alike. After that, they fell silent and enjoyed the peaceful atmosphere while each was doing their own task. Jasmine got a weird feeling while trying to concentrate on the carving. She turned her head to the left and scanned the people working. She frowned seeing everyone be busy. Then she turned her head to the other side quickly noticing someone glance away.

Remus pretended he was fixing some decoration while he prayed she didn't catch him looking at her. Lily also took notice in the short exchange, her eyebrows scrunching up about the weird vibe. Ever since the full moon when Jasmine went out of her way to help Remus, they haven't exchanged any words or conversation apart from one 'hi' and 'hello' in the hallway. It was progress though a teeny tiny one, still not enough to make Remus content about it.

He was deep in the dark about everything and he was still beating himself up for something he thought he was at fault. He finally finished with the decorations altogether and decided to leisurely stroll towards the carving table. He sat down next to Lily smiling politely at her.

''Do you have any more pumpkins to carve?''

At the sound of his voice, Jasmine's eyes jumped up from concentrating on her work. She watched him for a couple of seconds before her eyes quickly searched the table. Lily beat her to it and already pushed a still untouched pumpkin in front of Remus. Even though he asked, he looked slightly surprised by the fast action. His eyes lingered on the girl across from him for a little longer but soon he gave up seeing she wasn't going to pay attention to him.

Lily shifted awkwardly in her seat, her eyes switching between him and her. She kept her lips shut even though she wanted to say something so much that she almost felt it itching inside her. She kept noticing how he kept on glancing her way when she wasn't looking, and she did the same. They just never caught each other. The knuckles on Lily's hand, which was gripping the knife were whitening and if it lasted a second more she would snap.