➥COMPLETED
Nova Black hadn't thought she would ever set a toe behind those thick castle walls she had fought to forget about during the past thirteen years, but here she was at Plattform 9¾, staring at the scarlet train in front of her with wobbly k...
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NOVA BURIED the ring deep under her belongings, wrapping it in the ugliest pair of socks she found in her cupboard, her head spinning as she slammed the wooden door shut, wishing that she could just forget about it again.
If Sirius wanted to murder her, she wished he would just do it quick and painless. Being blown up like Peter Pettigrew sounded like a dream compared to this nightmare of a torture Sirius obviously had chosen for his sister.
Like a bloody Dementor was sitting on her shoulder, Nova couldn't get rid of those pictures of her past: manic laughter, torturous pain, flashing green light ...
Her flasks filled with dreamless sleep became her new best friends, but unfortunately, as time passed by, she needed more and more of it to get the wanted effect, and soon her supplies ran dry. By the end of January, Nova found herself once more on her way to the hospital wing during lunch time — unfortunately this time she didn't find it empty.
"Sorry, I — Oh, it's you."
Bumping against Remus Lupin's chest, Nova's cheeks immediately flushed with heat, pictures of her dream flashing in front of her inner eye and she quickly looked away.
"Are you okay?", he asked, and out of the corner of his eyes she could see him tilting his head, but still she didn't dare to look at his face.
"Of course, why should I not?"
"Because you're on your way to the hospital wing", said Remus, sounding amused.
Nova finally found the courage to face him, her lips pursed, as she stared into his friendly face, that looked paler than usual, having his scars appear a little deeper than they already seemed to be ...
"I guess that's none of your business", she coldly replied, her eyes wandering over his lips as he smiled, and the memory of how they felt on hers in this vivid dream crossed her mind.
Remus gave a small shrugg. "Madame Pomfrey isn't there", he said. "You could come to lunch with me and return later. Honestly, I'm starving, and you look like a bowl of chocolate pudding is exactly what you need."
"Still after all those years you think everything could be healed with chocolate, I see?", asked Nova and she couldn't hind the corners of her lips from lifting, as she remembered a much younger version of the man on front of him trying to cheer up her brother with chocolate frogs after he failed his Transfiguration test.
"At least I still wish it could", he said, cracking a smile that didn't reach his eyes. "So what are you saying?"
"No", Nova retorted. "I think I'll wait here for Madame Pomfrey."
With a last nod, Remus Lupin turned around and strolled down the corridor. Nova watched him getting smaller in the distance, until he rounded a corner and was gone. With a last glance over her shoulder, Nova stepped into the hospital wing. It wasn't empty like last time she had been here. Winter's cold didn't spare magical kids, and so two beds were occupied by tiny first years with red noses, shivering under their blankets.
Nova didn't waste much attention on them. Instead she aimed straightly for Madame Pomfrey's empty office, opening it with that well known spell and stepped in. Drawers, shelves and cupboards were still in place, no rearrangement, just like Nova had predicted it to be, and she rounded the desk, pulled open the familiar drawer and grabbed a hand full of those tiny flasks, shoving it into the pocket of her robe.
"May I help you?"
Nova was close to dying from a heart attack, as she looked up and found a pair of dark eyes, almost purple, staring into hers. A tanned face surrounded by wild chestnut curls was peaking around the edge of a high shelf filled with the bigger bottles of colourful liquids, her lips pursed, an eyebrow cocked; that's how she watched a frozen Nova Black trying to figure out if she should just run away or try to explain herself.
In the end, she decided for none of these options, as she asked, "Who are you?"
A woman in her mid-twenties stepped around the corner, her curvy body only being faintly discernible under a layer of white robes.
"Rebecca", she said, as if this would explain everything, but as Nova still looked at her dumbfounded, the woman added, "Rebecca James. I'm Popp— Madame Pomfrey's niece. She asked me to assist her for ... for some sort of special cases."
"I've never seen you here before", said Nova, and the young woman blushed, even though it had been her catching Nova steeling potions. Now she rather looked like she was the accused in a trial.
"I'm only here once a month", Rebecca said. "Tomorrow I'll be gone. Back to London. I'm working for St. Mungo Hospital, you know." She nibbled on her bottom lip. "Listen, you shouldn't even have seen me. So what about I act like I haven't seen you, and you act like you haven't seen me, and we're all just going to be happy?"
There were a lot of questions left whirling through Nova's mind, like what special cases Rebecca was even talking about, and why she was only hear for tonight. But most of all, Nova did wonder if when Remus had been in here before ... did he have been with Rebecca James?
"Deal", Nova said, though all inside her was screaming for answers.
Instead, she chose to find out herself. Rebecca James would be around here for the rest of the day, maybe even the night, and Nova Black had more than enough time, as well as the bittersweet will to find distraction in this little mission to stick to the young woman's heels for the rest of her abidance, and maybe she could lift a secret or two.
Secrets, though, that in retrospect Nova wished she never would have found out.
