Better - The Marauders

EIGHTY-SEVEN

"I don't want you there tonight." He said, his breath fanning over her neck as his scar-covered chest rose and fell with sometimes steady and sometimes staggered breaths. "You could get hurt and-and I don't...want that."

"I need to be there to make sure the others are okay, too." She tried to comfort him, her hand stroking through his hair. "I don't want to worry you but it's likely to be bad tonight, remember the last time you didn't take a potion and you changed here. He would've killed our friends."

"He?" Remus asked.

"The wolf..." Elladora trailed off, she didn't know whether that was the wrong or the right thing to say, all she knew is that Remus would spiral at the thought of killing his friends which would make the night worse. "He's not you."

"But he is." He told her, shaking his head as best he could and the hairs on his head brushed and tickled against her neck softly. "He is me, I am him, we're both...monsters."

"Stop that." Elladora reprimanded him firmly, hearing him grumble something unintelligible under his breath before snuggling further into her but she wasn't sure if he could go much further. "You are no monster, Remus. Would a monster really dance around the kitchen to Elton John? With me?"

She added the with me to make her question more authentic because if she didn't add it, the answer would be yes. She was a monster and she had danced around the kitchen to Elton John but then again if someone dances with a monster...no. Elladora refused to think of Remus as a monster in any such way, so she just shook her head subtly to rid herself of her thoughts.

Remus hadn't responded, just decided to lay there with the question in mind. He didn't want to answer because he would upset her if he did but at the same time, he wasn't sure. Monsters come in all shapes and sizes, he was just one of the bunch.

"If you're gonna come..." He spoke slowly, her hand making a journey to rub his bare back comfortably. "Promise me that if it looks like it's getting bad, you'll leave. I don't care if you have a wand or if you know every spell that exists, I want you out if he gets overly violent."

"Okay." She whispered softly and felt him shift in their embrace, she turned her head to him as he attempted to prop himself up in a way that he could look down at her with and see her properly without having a crick in his neck at the end of it.

"Promise me." He said, using his effort to hold up a pinkie finger. Elladora smiled and linked her finger with his, watching as he grinned painlessly down at their fingers.

"I promise."

Remus stared at her for a moment, a lazy smile on his lips which she suspected was the only one he could give her with the amount of aching he was going through but it was mesmerising nonetheless. Their pinkies were still linked together as they smiled at each other, both pair of brown eyes glinting with happiness of the other just being there. Elladora had no idea what would've happened if Remus hadn't found her in the library that night and grounded her, maybe her thoughts would've got too much and she would have made her way back up to Dumbledore's office and took her revenge there and then.

But she hadn't because Remus had brought her back to reality when you couldn't just kill someone without any consequences. Dumbledore seemed to have twisted that rule and therefore twisted her mind.

"What are you thinking about?" Remus whispered and moved their hands position so they were no longer liking pinkies but he had her hand held in his, stroking the back of her hand with his thumb.

"Nothing." She shrugged her shoulders. "You."

"Me?" He smiled teasingly, surprising himself with no added pain from the effort of it. His voice was a little strained but overall, he managed to add a teasing tone to it. Elladora smiled and rolled her eyes before looking away from him but he brought her attention back to him when he planted a soft kiss against the back of her hand her head snapped over to it. "Don't worry. I think about you too."