Obsidian & Bronze {Fred Weasley}

32. The loss of the locket

"I haven't finished clearing out just yet, and we still need to furnish and re-decorate, so you can take my bed Ari" Sirius asserted, stepping past the threshold and motioning for Remus and I to follow.

"And where will you sleep?" I asked as I followed Remus and Sirius, running my finger along the wallpaper leading towards the kitchen, attempting to control my hammering heart as it relentlessly assaulted my chest.

Sirius stammered slightly, not offering a certain answer, just busying himself with taking my coat and pulling out a chair at the table in the kitchen.

I scoffed, "You haven't thought that through then, have you? I'll take the couch and you two share Sirius's bed until we adjust the arrangement" I suggested causally, hoping that if my tone was nonchalant then the setting would feel as such.

"Ardelle don't be-" Remus began with a slightly forceful tone, shrugging off his coat and throwing it over the chair beside him, his tendency to resolve and overbear shining through impeccability without missing a beat.

"I'll be fine Remus" I whispered with a bitter tone I wasn't quite intending, or maybe just failed to conceal, as I made my way over to the kettle and began to fill it with water and place it on the stove.

I felt a steady breath growing nearer as a shadow cast itself across the wall ahead of me and it was evident someone was standing behind me, lingering but not quite ready to intervene.

"Ardelle, let me make that tea" Remus offered with a heavy sigh, his exhaustion evident at the use of my full name, both of us known for clutching to the reliance of tea to dampen the severity of any intensive situation.

"Remus I've got it" I argued back harshly, the sour tone laced in my words creeping up slightly as I stomached the urge to break.

"Honestly Ardelle, let me help-" He began with a defeated and exhausted yawn he attempted to stifle, and had it not been 3am, and had we not just gotten back from the hospital, and had any of us received a decent sleep the night before, and had I not had two panic attacks in the past four hours, maybe, just maybe I could have bit my tongue, but alas that was not the case, and I snapped.

"STOP, JUST STOP" I shouted far more forcefully than I had originally planned, startling Remus and Sirius and well as myself, "I am not a china doll, Remus. I get that you want to help, and I am grateful for that, believe me I am, but I am not going to break at the hands of a kettle and some tea bags. I am capable of making tea, I am capable of sleeping on the couch and I am capable of existing without needing to be wrapped in bubble wrap, I don't need to be mothered, what about that can you not understand?"

Neither one of them said a word for a moment, Sirius hanging his head as he sat silently at the head of the table, and Remus, who had backed away several paces from me now, stood with his hands stuffed awkwardly into his pockets as his eyes grew glassy and his lip trembled.

I hadn't noticed the single tear that rolled down his drained and porcelain skin until Remus lifted his hand to swipe it away and swallowed forcefully to dislodge the lump that had formed in his throat.

A sickening nausea invaded the cavities in my chest, filling me up and making it hard for me to breath, "I'm sorry Remus, I went to far, I shouldn't have-"

"No, you're right" He whispered dismally, continuing to pace backward until the back of his legs collided with the edge of the kitchen table.

He didn't speak again just yet, although I knew he wasn't finished, the endless string of harboured grievances threatening to spill, the remorseful yet somewhat harsh contortion of his features lingering slightly longer than I was sure he intended, as he drew a wavering breath and spoke once again.