Throughout her life, Diana Greengrass was raised to hate all Muggles and Muggleborns, fear half-breeds such as werewolves, believe that Divination was a useless class, and to detest the idea of romance and falling in love. Although Diana never expec...
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The walk to the library was spent in silence. Diana cursed her luck over and over again in her head, trying her best not to steal a glance at Lupin who was strolling down the corridor beside her.
He was wearing his black Gryffindor sweater which was neatly tucked into his trousers, with his Prefect badge pinned proudly over his chest. But the thing that stood out the most was the numerous scars on his face and the dark bags that always seemed to be underneath his eyes, some days more visible than the others.
Though she was grateful that they didn't come across any more Prefects or teachers on their way to the library, Diana still wasn't sure if she could go to the Divination section with Lupin there. He was smart enough to connect the dots and figure out what she would be looking for and why.
Diana didn't want him to know that she was still thinking about the incident which had taken place between them in Diagon Alley. And more so, she certainly didn't want him to figure out that she had felt the same thing for a second time.
"Good. Madam Pince isn't here," Remus said in a quiet voice as they entered the dim library, looking around cautiously.
Silence reigned the stone walls of the old library, and the only thing that was lighting up the place was the illuminating moonlight, beaming through the enormous windows.
Remus then took out his wand from his pocket, whispering, "Lumos!"
On cue, a light appeared from the tip of his wand, brightening up the place as they walked among the shelves. Diana glanced down at his other hand, seeing that he was still carrying the blank parchment.
"What's that?" Diana asked curiously, failing to see the reason as to why a Prefect should be needing a paper during his patrolling duties.
"Nothing." Remus shrugged the matter off carelessly. "Just a spare piece of parchment."
Diana spared a moment longer to keep her gaze on the parchment before looking away, her mind racing with possible ways to get rid of him so she could search for a Divination book in peace. But she knew there was no way she could out-smart him.
"All right, let's see what we can find," Remus started, leading her toward the history section. He held his wand higher and flickered its light over the shelves in search for a good book.
"I'll go search in the Ancient Runes section," said Diana, leaving Remus's side before he could answer or stop her.
Taking her wand out of her pocket to light the way, Diana made her way toward the shelves which contained old or new books about the Ancient Runes. She took three of the books that she thought would be useful. But then, checking to make sure Lupin wasn't around, she sneaked off to the Divination section, trying to be quick in finding a book that might answer her questions within it.
After taking out a book from the shelf and hiding it in between the three Ancient Runes books, Diana walked out of the aisle. She found Lupin sitting behind one of the round tables in the library, close to the high window. He had already chosen a few books and had placed them down on the table.
"Got anything useful?" Remus asked, his brown eyes wandering toward Diana as she approached him, placing her books down on the table as well.
"Hope so," Diana said wearily, drawing out the chair beside him and sitting down.
She then saw Lupin flick his wand, muttering, "Accio Candles!"
A few moments later, five candles floated off the shelf nearby which contained many more candles, flying toward them and at last landing on the table before them. Remus gave his wand another twist, and the five candles lightened.
"Wasn't sure if you would come back after saying you were going to the Ancient Runes section," Remus said without meeting her eyes, a hint of a smile playing on his lips as he reached for one of his books, opening it.
Diana rolled her eyes in frustration. "Would you let it go already!?"
"Let what go?" Remus asked obliviously, the smile still tucked at the edge of his lips.
"Never mind," Diana mumbled gloomily.
She then decided to ignore him and read through the contents of the book for the ancient Egyptian runes.
From the corner of her eyes, she could feel Remus's gaze linger on her for a few moments longer before he cleared his throat and looked back at his own book.
"I think this is good," he said after a minute or two, flipping through the pages. "Here. The Curse of King Tut's Tomb."
"What does it say?" Diana asked, craning her neck to take a better look at his book underneath the candle-light.
"It says: In Ancient Egypt, a tomb was not merely a place to store a corpse. Rather, it would serve as the eternal home of a soul," he read. "Which is why the Pharaohs took it upon themselves to protect their eternal homes to the best of their abilities, hiring witches and wizards to do their bidding."
"What are those shapes underneath the text?" Diana questioned, pointing at a series of drawings at the bottom of the page.
"These were the words written on King Tut's tomb," said Remus, reading the description silently. "But it doesn't say what it means. Can you make sense of any of these shapes?"
He handed Diana the book and so she placed it before her on the table, observing them. "I only know a few words of them from what Professor Kumar had been teaching. We should translate the rest ourselves."
With each other's help, Diana and Remus searched the Ancient Runes' books, trying to make sense of what was written.
"I think I got it," Diana finally said, looking back at the drawings again as she began to translate. "Death shall come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the King."
"Woah..." Remus drew in a breath. "That's creepy."
"Not as creepy as what happened to the Muggle who actually discovered the tomb after three thousand years," said Diana, reading through the book. "It says the scientist died by a mosquito which bit him on the same spot that the Pheroah's mummy had a scar. After him, anyone else who entered the tomb died tragically as well in a matter of days."
"The Pharaohs probably had the wizards and witches of the time to help place the curse on their tombs," said Remus. "They believed it was their sacred homes, after all. They wanted to protect themselves from intruders."
"Yeah..." Diana whispered, her eyes flickering over the drawings once more.
But she shifted uneasily on her seat as she felt Remus's eyes on her again, as though he was seeing through her thoughts.
"Stop that," she muttered, her gaze fixed on the book without reading.
"Stop what?"
"Looking at me like that!"
Remus chuckled. "Like what?"
"Look," Diana's head snapped up toward him, "I know what you're thinking about, and I know that just a few minutes ago you've been hinting at what happened at Diagon Alley — just forget about it, will you?"
There was a long pause, before Remus spoke, "No. I'm not sure if I can."
