CURSES AND CANDIES - REMUS LUPIN

𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑡𝑒𝑒𝑛.

^ just picture everyone with this expression

i would advise reading this chapter carefully and slowly.

On March the seventeeth, Remus Lupin, Peter Pettigrew, Sirius Black, Lily Evans, James Potter, and Marlene Mckinnon walked into the Great Hall and saw Hollis Rosier with a new, tragic yet hopeful, light. As per the new normal, Hollis was sitting by Narcissa and Bellatrix, with Lucius, Regulus, Roldolphus, Evans, and Theodore sitting nearby.

Now, instead of looking at her with confusion and hurt, though, all the Gryffindors could see was their friends trapped in a mindset that she couldn't get out of. Maybe if she knew that she was under the Imperius Curse, Hollis might be able to, but not being instrcuted to break out of it like they had been before in Defence Against the Dark Arts was a whole different scenario.

They had been trying to figure out a way to get the idea in Hollis's mind without being too obvious or her lashing out at them that she was under the curse. 

And if seeing her returned essay hadn't done it, Remus didn't know what would. Well, a small voice in his head was telling him that Remus really did know, but he just didn't want to put Hollis through any more than she was obviously already going through.

If Hollis were to really hurt Remus, she might be able to resist the curse for long enough for them to get the message to her to transform into an animagus on the full moon so they might be able to talk to her as long as she could hold it that way before whoever had cursed her tightened their grip on Hollis's free will.

The male Marauders had privately decided, without Lily or Marlene that is, that the full moon would be the best time to try and test their animagus theory with Hollis. That way, instead of making a whole new plan and meeting spot, Hollis would already know where to go and when to meet them. 

The full moons also tended to be a very emotional time for the five of them, making the window for Hollis to resist seemingly larger. The four of them believed that Hollis might have already done this if she hadn't been with Theodore on the last full moon, or if she just hadn't had a detention in general. It was just another reason for the Gryffindor boys to hate the Nott.

Once they had made this discovery, or theory that wasn't quite solid yet and had many holes, that Hollis was under the Imperius curse, there had also been a great amount of debate about what to tell Regulus, or what not to tell him. That discussion hadn't been quite settled, and the argument was continuing at the Gryffindor table this very moment.

"As I have said what feels like a dozen bloody times, we just can't tell him!" Sirius told Lily in an aggressive, low whisper. 

Lily's light green eyes narrowed.

"You have to stop seeing the worst in him, Sirius," Lily said firmly in a calm tone.

Rolling his brown eyes dramatically, Sirius let out a long sigh.

"And you have to stop seeing only the best in people!" Sirius replied, and Peter piped up timidly.

"But that's what Hollis would want you to do."

His words were met by a smile from James and Marlene and frown from Remus as he gripped his gold fork tighter.

"Can we stop talking about her in the past tense, please," Remus said under his breath so no one eavesdropping could understand, but just so the others could still hear him. "She's not bloody dead, for Merlin's sake, she's still in there somewhere."

At these words, all six heads turned towards where Hollis was sitting at the Slytherin table. Before, Hollis had filled all of the Slytherin traits, except one (self preservation) in the best ways possible.