CURSES AND CANDIES - REMUS LUPIN

𝑠𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑦 𝑛𝑖𝑛𝑒.

There were too many nevers to count.

Tears didn't do her any good, it was just a waste of energy that she couldn't afford to lose.

Enough was being wasted on keeping her alive.

.‌｡‌*‌ﾟ‌+.*.‌｡‌　‌　‌　‌ﾟ‌+..‌｡‌*‌ﾟ‌+‌ ‌

Sometimes, the students of Hogwarts would wonder if the remaining Marauders would ever play a prank again.

Or if James Potter would keep carrying around that snitch.

If Sirius Black would stop looking at his tattoo.

If Peter Pettigrew would be able to look at her old desk without tears welling in his eyes.

If Lily Evans would not send a letter to nowhere every night.

If Remus Lupin would even just damn smile.

The thing that had kept the best friends above the surface before was that not all of them would be in a synchronous low point. One of them would always be able to pull the others up at all costs, even if it meant a month straight of detentions.

And under the circumstance that pulling the others up had drained the one too much, they would do everything in their power to refill them with warmth from their own hearts until everything evened out once more.

That balance had never been thrown so far off the edge.

The five friends had been summoned by McGonagall to her office, and they were all dreading whatever surely painful words were to come from the meeting.

Her light oak wooden door creaked shut up an empty click on its steel hinges, and they silently walked in without the stream of jokes and ridiculous theories as to why they were in trouble that might have occurred if Hollis was there with them.

Looking sadly at the five with an expression she herself was trying to keep stable, McGonagall made sure that all of their attention was on her before speaking the words that had been coming for weeks.

"I have asked you to come here because I want you to hear this before the rest of the school does," she said softly, truly unable to look any of her students in the eyes. "I think that it is time to accept that Miss Rosier is not coming back."

Even though they had been expecting this sentence, it still hit the Gryffindors like a blow to the heart. 

Remus looked up from where he had been staring at his hands pressed between his knees with heavily watering, faded green eyes at his professor. 

His nightmare had come true, and this time, he wasn't going to wake up.

"Please don't say that," James whispered slowly shaking his heads as he was the first to speak after several minutes of heartbreaking silence as they were all lost deep in thought. "Not you too, Minnie."

"We thought you wouldn't give up on her like everyone else has," Sirius added on, tracing the ink of his tattoo with his opposite thumbnail. "Please don't give up on her."

Taking in a shaking breath, McGonagall wrenched her hands together.

"No one is immune to war, Mr. Black," she replied as confidently as she could when a girl she considered a daughter was dead. "Just because you care for her does not mean that she is gone."