butterfly's repose ━━ remus lupin

𝐱𝐯𝐢𝐢. the spooky season strain

Madam Pomfrey ahhed in understanding, smiling at the girl's admirable strength despite the tough time. "Any plans for Halloween, then Selene?" The lady asked.

Selene ooed. It was a great question. Because she had no plans whatsoever, only a joke that she had been thinking about for years with Lycanthropy. "Thought I would transform into a werewolf, this year," she said, nodding in thought, forcing seriousness. "A hyper-realistic costume would freak everyone out, right?"

Madam Pomfrey cackled, her head tipping backwards. "Hilarious, dear." After resting a gentle hand on Selene's from where it was resting atop the bedsheets, and giving it an encouraging squeeze, the head nurse left the girl to rest. She left the compartment and headed over to the other side of the ward where she planned to do the exact same thing to a different student.

"Any plans for Halloween, Remus?" Poppy didn't put much thought into her question. She always followed the exact same routine for both of the Lycanthropy students and so she often found herself repeating the same words to each of them.

Remus pushed his palms into the mattress to sit himself up a little straighter against his pillows. "I was considering showing up to a party as a werewolf," he smirked, before relaxing and clasping his hands on top of his lap causally. "Couldn't fault my costume, could you?"

The boy was grinning now, evidently proud of his childish wisecrack despite regularly joking about his condition to mask the pain he truly felt. But Madam Pomfrey couldn't bring herself to smile along like she usually did. Because his answer had thrown her off.

"Hm." She had come to a halt, hovering over the cabinet beside his bed, fresh bandages in hand, but making no movements to do anything with them.

Remus' smile faltered. "Something wrong?"

The nurse had to shake herself out of her momentary daze. "Nothing wrong, dear," she assured him, now beginning to change the single bandage on his hip where the only new scar resided. "Just a shame the timing is off, ey?" She chuckled nervously as she tried to cover up her hesitation with a joke, the same way Remus used humour to heal his own emotional wounds.

Satisfied with her response, Remus' cheeky grin returned. "A tragedy really."

Madam Pomfrey walked out of Remus' confined curtained space still slightly disorientated. Both Lycanthropy patients had precisely the same reply to her question. Different wording, same idea, as if their minds were linked. Neither Selene nor Remus had any idea of the other's presence in the same hospital ward, and yet they had connected on a sort of injured, anguished level.

It must truly be spooky season.

✽

𝐓𝐖𝐎 𝐃𝐀𝐘𝐒 𝐋𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐑, 𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐖𝐀𝐒 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐇𝐎𝐒𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐀𝐋 𝐖𝐈𝐍𝐆, free from her illness until the next full moon came along. Despite still being a little achy, her fresh scars stinging when she got them caught on her robes, Selene was rearing to get out of bed. Being the hard-working academic that she is, she wasted no time getting back on track with not only her school work, but all of her extracurricular commitments that required her full attention as being a werewolf tended to make her unavailable regularly.

Autumn was well underway by mid-October. A blessing if she ever knew one. Selene had scored a window seat in the library, where she sat and waited for Dallas to arrive for their weekly tutoring sessions. The sky rained brown leaves, so tinted orange, that it appeared they were burnt at the edges. The grassy floor was scattered by their masses, and the branches were skinny and spiky with cold. The sky was a grey canvas for sprinkled clouds, which shifted with the distant sun.