BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE - REMUS LUPIN

86 - "ANYONE ELSE"

The destruction and outlet of fury at Remus's ignorance and how much he didn't deserve all that Hollis had given up for him had helped Regulus for one red moment, but as he walked away, he felt more empty than ever.

.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡　　　ﾟ+..｡*ﾟ+

"So, if we practice the Silencing Charm for Transfiguration for forty-five minutes and then work on those wrist movement for Flitwick for another thirty, then that should give us enough time to finish the diagram for the chrisallyis of a flobberworm before their dues date tomorrow morning," Remus said with a sigh, dragging a finger along their schedule for the day to double check that this timing would work.

Hollis let her forehead fall onto the open pages in front of her containing drawings of hands and arrows and which of them went along with each extremely complex charm. James had a small amount of drool coming from the corner of his mouth where he was passed out half on top of Peter. Next to him, Sirius was absentmindedly doodling the snakes and lions he had seen Hollis draw on her essay a few days ago.

None of the five Marauders had any energy left in the to do another ounce of work.

"I need to stretch my legs," Hollis declared, standing up from her wooden chair with a start. "We're going to go crazy if we force ourselves through this any longer."

"Same," Sirius agreed, getting up from his chair was well and setting down his quill.

With a sudden jolt from the sounds, James woke up and banged his head on Peter's shoulder. He had to blink more than a few times in order to gather his surroundings, disorientated as if he had woken up in the middle of the quidditch pitch on his broom.

"We can finish this later," Potter reassured once he had gotten a grip on his reality to a slightly nervous Peter who didn't want to attempt classwork without the help of his much smarter friends. "Our hands will break if we keep writing."

"Sleeping, you mean," Hollis corrected, giving James a sideways grin as she threw her quill down on Remus's notes.

"Oh, fuck off."

The Marauders made their way out of the library, abandoning all of their scattered study things to resume the tedious work later after they had regained some energy. Turning down the a open air corridor and jogging down some stairs, Hollis led the others underground to one of her favorite places to relax, a passage she had marked to the Map from near the Slytherin commons that ran underneath the Black Lake and to the back of it's mossy levi.

However, Hollis couldn't take another step forward from shock when she saw what someone had done to the oriental, beautifully shaded tapestry that hung in the hallway a few yards over from the secret passage entrance.

"What is it?" Peter asked, rounding the corner a few seconds after Hollis.

All at once, the Gryffindors halted their slight jog to stand behind her and look up what had happened.

The usually richly colored, bright tapestry now had yard long rips down it's middle, cutting the elegant scene into a hundred pieces beyond repair. The thick, bumpy fabric had several threads hanging loose at all these tears, the weight of it made it slump defeatedly where the rips were. Large sections of the stone wall were made visible by the slash, exposing the dark grey stone beneath.

Reaching forwards, Hollis gently dragged her fingertips across the destroyed tapestry.

"Who would do this?" she asked, a frown on her face.

Remus's  hand joined hers on the shreds.

"I dunno, but they must have been in a right furious state," he muttered.