Chocolate Covered Strawberries [Remus Lupin]

𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚢-𝚜𝚒𝚡

''Dumbledore explained it all to me.'' Smirnitsky cleared his voice. ''It explains a lot of things that I saw by teaching you guys this semester. And you can tell your boyfriend that his secret is safe with me. Now you can go back to him, I'm sorry I ruined your moment.''

Smirnitsky didn't know where to put his hands as he appeared almost nervous. It was a new look on him and Jasmine chuckled again softly as it wasn't usual of him. If she dared say he didn't know how to handle this situation as a professor but more as a friend, or a friendly older mentor. Then again this was his first professor's job and he was a lot younger than all of the others.

''Thank you, professor,'' said Jasmine. Then thought back on their conversation and decided to return a compliment. ''As a student myself, I feel entitled to tell you that I very much enjoy your lessons and have learned a lot in Defence so far.''

Finally, Smirnitsky let out a laugh and what looked like a breath of relief. A clear smile, the usual for him, stayed on his face and Jasmine knew she nailed it with the compliment. Without anything else to say she turned on her heels and walked back to the occupied hospital bed. She arrived to a scene where James was animatedly explaining one of the last Quidditch games (which notably they all saw, but he wanted to re-enact it) and was flailing his arms to exaggerate.

Jasmine stepped between Lily and Robyn, hugging both of them around the waist pulling them closer to herself. She received smiles from both sides. Remus stopped paying attention to James' story and smiled at her as well, which she returned.

''What did Smirnitsky want?'' Sirius asked to stop James' ramble.

''Nothing special.'' Jasmine shrugged. ''He was apologising for last night and wanted to see my point of view, made sure I was okay.''

''He won't tell anyone about –?'' Peter started the question and again Lily cleared her throat loudly before he could finish it.

Jasmine felt Robyn stiffen beside her. ''No, he won't. He promised.'' Jasmine reassured. ''Besides, who could he tell it to? He's from another country, I doubt he knows many people outside Hogwarts.''

''The Dark Lord?'' James asked, heightening his voice at the end.

Lily scoffed. ''I can't believe you're still on to that. He is not a Death Eater.''

''But he's wearing a black cloak all the time!'' James argued back.

''Why don't you research what black cloaks mean in Russian traditions and then come back with a better argument?'' Remus looked at James.

''If I may say something from a fashionable point of view,'' said Lily, ''his is black and gold, I doubt Death Eaters look this good.''

Jasmine watched with amusement how their group seemed to be able to talk about a hard topic with such lightness in their voices and jokes. I guess it was better since all of it was hypothetical, it all became too depressing once they thought but what if it's true?

''Lily Evans just called Smirnitsky good looking. Having a crush are we Lily?'' Sirius smirked.

''I do not!'' Lily protested.

Everyone's heads turned to James to watch his reaction and for the first time, he fell quiet. But to a keen eye, it was clear that jealousy was bubbling inside him.

''I'll back up Lily on this one, he isn't that bad,'' said Robyn.

Lily smiled at her thankfully by looking past Jasmine. Then both she and Robyn turned their heads expectantly towards Jasmine. She looked left and right with confusion on her face. ''God no! He's old.'' She never thought about it, but the answer was fast and clear.

''Okay, all jokes aside, Smirnitsky is a good professor and we're lucky to have him,'' Sirius concluded, stopping whatever argument would arise otherwise. Everyone agreed with the murmurs and nodded their heads.

Jasmine felt a nudge on her left side and looked at Robyn who was looking at her with an impassive expression. The light brunette raised one brow in question.

''What are you hiding from me?'' Robyn asked quietly and sudden sadness appeared in her eyes.

She didn't need to say anything else for Jasmine to know exactly what she meant by that. Jasmine sighed as well and looked away from her. She didn't expect Remus to already be looking at her but when she locked eyes with him, he nodded slowly. She guessed he heard the question and decided it was bound for Robyn to know as well.

''Do you want to tell her?'' She asked.

Remus shook his head. ''You have your way with words.'' He smiled cheekily.

Jasmine muttered an 'okay' under her breath before she looked back at Robyn, grabbed her arm and pulled her away from the group a little.

''Now you're scaring me,'' said Robyn with widened eyes. 

Once they stopped Jasmine gathered thoughts on how to reveal this big secret. ''It's a long story.'' 

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