BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE - REMUS LUPIN

20 - "REMINDERS"

"It's nothing, there's just someone I'm really nervous for right now, and I had a nightmare about her being hurt," he explained quickly, talking with his hands. "Well, not her being hurt, exactly. Her voice, and- it- and it sounded like she had been crying, or-"

Hope raised two concerned brows, watching as her son hastily tried to amend his words.

"Well, I just heard her voice, mum, it's nothing, I promise," he finished finally, resolutely resting his hands in his lap. "There are worse dreams I could be having about girls. You should be grateful if anything, really."

Mrs. Lupin was not having it.

"This does not seem like nothing, Remus," she insisted firmly as she sat on the edge of the bed. "It seems," she said, smiling slightly as she lightly touched his forearm, "like you really care about this girl, whoever she is."

He pulled away slightly from his mother's touch.

"That's what James, Sirius, and Peter told me as well," he sighed, rubbing his eyes. "But I honestly think that we're all just protective over her, because-" Remus stopped. 

Hope gestured for him to go on.

"Because?"

"I don't know. God, it's hard to explain," Remus groaned, swinging his legs out of bed. "I wish I could tell you, but- but just know it's not just me. It's all of us, okay? I don't really care about her, no I do, but- but just not like that. Okay?"

"Wait," Hope said right as Remus began to turn towards the bathroom.

Remus stopped moving.

"Why are you scared for her?"

Lupin blinked a few times, and just shook his head. Hope had no words to reply to his silence, so instead went to hug her clearly stressed son. He accepted her touch this time. To her surprise, she felt a tear land on her pink jumper.

"I'm just so scared for her, mum," Remus whispered onto his mother's shoulder, his voice shaking.

"I know," Hope whispered, gently stroking the back of his hair. "I know."

.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡    +..｡*ﾟ+

Hollis forced herself to get up from the cold marble she had been laying on for hours, knowing that only she could help herself now. Her back was stiff and painful, and she could feel the dried blood solidifying on her skin. She had been expecting this when she got home, for her parents to be furious with her. Still, nothing could prepare her for her that one cut that changed her whole body, constantly lighting it up in pain.

She pressed her fingers, clammy from the flashes of heat and sweat her body had been putting itself through as a hopeless alarm, against the floor and pushed herself up. Every single nerve in her torso was screaming at her to lay down again, but she forced herself not to listen.

Hollis stumbled across the room to her window seat, her muscles weak and twitched from hunger. Her back protested loudly as she dug her fingers under the grey cushion and lifted with as much strength as she could muster.

With a loud thud, the hidden cabinet was revealed, full of creams, ointments, and potions used to help mend cuts, mostly the exact ones that she had used to heal Remus almost exactly a month ago that she had added to only twelve hours ago.

It felt like a lifetime had passed from just yesterday when she was eating taffy on the train with Marlene and Lily.

Hollis reached for a jar and half walked, half tripped over to the floor length mirror by the door. She turned around to examine the cut, tears springing into her eye the second she saw it.

From her left shoulder to her middle lower back, there was a singular white line that had scarred over from six months ago, from the summer. Running parallel, the fresh gash was so deeply red that it bleed into black. Two injuries, both from what her parents deemed punishable offenses.

Punishable offenses of not obeying their every controlling demand, not being who her nightmares wanted her to become. 

She reached for the cloth in the very corner of the cabinet, placing it between her teeth to keep herself from seriously damaging her tongue while biting down. She unstoppered the first bottle and got to work, painful and tediously slow with several breaks to catch her breath.

It became clear how much helping Remus had built up her already present skill, how fluid her movements were even at painful angles. Finally, after what she thought was a few hours later, all of the blood was gone and the cut had been neatly contained.

With a white bandage that reminded her of someone.

Someone who would always stare at her with not just attraction, but a deep kind of curiosity and interest that told her that he really, truly cared more than anyone else, let alone any boy, she had ever known.

Someone who Hollis didn't think that she would miss this badly. His crooked smile where one canine poked out on the left side, his amused, soft chuckles when everyone else was laughing loudly around him. His kindness and chocolate bars he always carried around, causal chivalry that he didn't expect any thanks for. 

But she did.

oh god can we get a rip in the chat for miss rosier over here

also i PROMISE that rollis is coming

we just need to take it one day at a time - no rushing here

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