Lover // Remus Lupin

Chapter IV

Watching someone you love is said to be one of the worst pains in the world. But that doesn't take into consideration the idea of watching someone else hurt the person you love. Sometimes sitting on the sidelines while the person you love is trudging through the depths of hell is worse than witnessing their death. Because instead of knowing that it was the end, there's no way to tell when the hurt will stop.

When the person you love is left to fend for themselves, and you know there's nothing you can do to help, it can drive you mad. It doesn't matter the variety of love you feel for that person or the context of the pain. What matters is the fact that there is nothing you can do about it. No words or actions can be shared to help them escape.

Perhaps that's life's greatest tragedy. Having your hands bound behind your back as it takes out whatever pent-up anger it has on that of the person you love most. It's a cruel world, it's a sad life, but it's what makes being human different. You may believe yourself of impenetrable strength, when, you're as weak as a baby deer, waiting for the doe to return and shield you from the drooling bear.

But sometimes the bruises become too apparent.

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"Do you think she'll show?" James asked as he, Peter, Remus, and Sirius stood to the side of the costume party in the common room.

"If I know Cassie at all," Sirius began, sending a sideways glance to Remus, "I think she will. She's kind of a loose cannon. If she doesn't, we need a new plan."

"Your plan kind of sucked," Peter shrugged, sipping his drink, "You really think convincing her to risk her life at a Halloween party would go over well?"

"I know my cousin better than all of you," Sirius snapped, "I think she would have."

"Why?" Remus asked, sipping his drink pensively as he stared at the door, "From the time I've spent with her, she doesn't appear as much of a risk taker."

"No," Sirius shook his head as a smirk broke out onto his lips, "But she likes to cause a stir."

Remus lifted his eyes from his slightly shorter best friend, following his gaze to the group that just entered the crowded party. The boy glanced down at his costume, the white pants and shirt coinciding with the feathery wings on his back, halo atop of his head. The red of her was a screaming beacon, pointed horns and bloody red lips. The dress she wore had long sleeves and hugged her like a glove, but he could barely register anything past the way the colour made her eyes shine like emeralds. However, he did allow his eyes to slid down her body and notice the slit on her mid-thigh length dress and red fishnet tights. She had devil wings sticking from her back and carried around a pitchfork he had no doubt was really her wand.

She was always the most talented witch he knew.

"Is she with Devna?" Peter asked, his eyebrows perking up as the girl followed close behind in a full-body penguin costume, "She is."

Remus would have made a comment about his close friends crush on the Hufflepuff seer if it weren't for the striking red beauty directly in his eyesight. Correction, he would have if it weren't for the vicious purple mark peeking out from the neckline of her dress. Most would play it off as a love bite, but Remus saw the way she tugged at her sleeves. He saw red, and this time, it wasn't her costume.

"Did you know?" Remus seethed to his best friend.

"Make a comment about it and it will hurt her more."

"You can't keep saying that."

"I can, and I will."

Remus sighed and turned his attention from his overly stubborn friend, focusing instead on the girl that had managed to catch his eyes just like she had his heart. For a fleeting moment their eyes met, and Remus would go to his grave with the notion that a flicker of excitement flashed across her smoked-out eyes. Pandora and a Ravenclaw named Zhen followed close behind both Devna and Cassie, creating an odd, mismatched group that I don't think anyone would have seen coming. Perhaps the reason was because there were zero Slytherins in sight, watching Cassie like hawks to their prey.