𝐑𝐇𝐈𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐎𝐍 - r. lupin

;26 first love / late spring

She passed the paper to James and he skimmed through it. He looked back up, confused. "If you do well, maybe the last one will actually happen." She teases him.

"Thanks, you're a really great person."

Rhiannon smiles at him then continues smoking, she was a good person. Rhiannon herself didn't think that, but everyone around her did. She helped everyone, all the time. She put everyone else's problems before her own. "Are you okay? You know- after what happened,"

Rhiannon sighed at James' question, knowing she wasn't going to tell him the truth. "Yeah, I'm okay."

"Are you sure? Because you've been through a lot. Your dad, the thing with those Slytherins, everything that happened last month-"

"No need to list everything off." She weakly laughs and takes another drag. James puts his hands on hers, making her look up at him. He knew something was wrong.

"You can tell me anything you know that right?" He tells her sympathetically. Fuck. She really did want to tell him everything but didn't want to kill his happy mood. She took a deep breath in, tears brimming in her eyes.

"No, I'm not okay." She said, her voice breaking. "I really fucked everything up again.". She was taking fast puffs of her cigarette, turning away from James so he couldn't see the tears filling her eyes. "Maybe I'm just a burden."

"You're not a burden." James softly says and Rhiannon looks back at him, eyebrows furrowed. Tears trickled down her face and smoke exhales from her mouth as she cried. James opened his arms, pulling her into a tight embrace.

She sighed, cigarette still burning in her hand. "You're a much better person than I am." She mumbled into his shoulder.

"Are you serious?" James chuckled, "You're the girl who taught me how to make out when I was fourteen." They both laughed at this, and partly at themselves and how stupid they were at fourteen.

It wasn't awkward between them after kissing then, which they both liked. Lily knew also and found it hilarious. Rhiannon was thankful they finally got together, ever since the third year she had been secretly rooting for them.

————

december 4th, 1977. 2:20 AM.

Rhiannon had finished wrapping all eight of Marlene's presents. Lily and Mary were both asleep on their beds, while she was still wide awake. She'd planned to give the first gift to Marlene in the morning.

She opened her drawer to make space for the presents and then found something that made her think. It was the note from Alex that was on the Fleetwood Mac record. She had totally forgotten about him. He was sweet and treated her pretty well.

Half of the time they were together, they were having sex, but he still stayed. He cared, and that's all that Rhiannon needed right now. Someone to care. Not out of pity, like James. But really be there, no matter what. She needed to stay with Alex right now.

Rhiannon closed her drawer and put all the presents on Mary's trunk, leaving a note. I left to see someone, I'll be back soon. Don't worry about me, I'll be okay. Give these to Marlene, one a day. Love you, Rhiannon. She placed it, looking at her sleeping for a second before packing her things.