maple syrup | remus lupin [1]

54. always have a plan b

"You're cute," she cooed.

"This is giving me flashbacks," Peter mumbled as James' eyes widened.

"Shut up," said James.

"So, will you help me with her?" Asked Regulus.

"No," James said quickly. "Why should we?"

"Because we're her friends!" Peter said as both him and Sirius glared angrily at the boy.

"Oh, Merlin," James sighed. "He's not supposed to know that!"

"But you just told him?!" Peter sassed.

"Shit!"

"Don't worry about me, basically everyone knows at this point. And, besides, Claudia has already told me that and...other things," Regulus said nonchalantly. "It's not like you guys are that great at hiding it."

God, it truly was a mess. Nolan knew, Nicolas didn't. Regulus knew, and he was certain he knew why he wasn't supposed to know.

At this point it was hard for pretty much everyone to keep track on what the hell was going on in Claudia's rollercoaster-life. She even struggled with that herself.

Who knew that friendships could be such secrets?

"Maybe we shouldn't be this obvious," said James to his two friends, completely ignoring Regulus.

"Maybe we should," Sirius said. "I mean, it can't get much worse than it already is."

"But the other one doesn't know," Peter said, referring to Nicolas. "I don't think we want to double the trouble."

"Hey, that rhymed-"

"Oh, will you three just deal with that later and help me make sure she doesn't do something stupid instead?!" Regulus then interrupted. "And one of you should probably go talk to Lupin too, because I'm pretty sure he is drowning in jealousy right about now."

"Right," said James as he started walking. "I go to Moony, you guys take care of dizzy lady over there."

"Hi, Jamie," Claudia said sweetly as he passed her.

"Hi, you fool," he said, ruffling her hair before he headed towards the stairs and the dormitory.

"Hey, what the hell! Why do you get to go to Moony?!" Sirius called after him.

"Because I said so, now make sure she doesn't embarrass herself even further!"

They did just that, and oh how they hated it.

Regulus, being his normally anti-social self, was extremely exhausted from all the embarrassment and social interaction he had faced in the past few hours. He was at least grateful to be missing History of Magic, so that was something, but all he wanted to do was go back to his dorm and sleep for all eternity.

Sirius was wearing a permanent frown as he spent time with his brother. It wasn't like they talked or anything, all they did was walk around the school as they tried to make sure that Claudia didn't snog Regulus there and then at the same time as they tried to avoid getting caught skipping class.

Sirius knew deep inside that he missed his brother and that he wanted their childhood relationship to come back, but he was way to proud to admit that.

And as for Peter, he was just glad to not be in class. And also glad to be on map-duty, in order to avoid Nolan, Nicolas, Evan and the teachers, instead of being forced to deal with the giggling girl.

And Claudia was excited to be alive - which, in all honesty, was almost as rare as Sirius and Regulus walking besides each other.

Remus, however, was not excited to be alive as he lay in his bed in the dorm, wondering what the hell was wrong with him and why he couldn't just get over himself.