'where we are now' remus lupin & regulus black

Friends

"Weird isn't it?" He speaks eventually.

My brows lace together, "Hm?"

"How life changes but everything looks the same," I turn to face him, sure the confusion is written on my face. I've never been good at understanding complicated words or riddles; never had the wit of a Ravenclaw. Amos lets out a shallow chuckle when he realizes I don't understand what he's trying to say. "I just mean, everything is different than how it was three months ago, but the Black Lake still looks exactly the same. If you stare long enough, and forget long enough, it's almost like you're in the past,"

"Huh..." I ponder his revelation. "Never took you for the existential type,"

He chuckles again. "Not existential mate. Just, nostalgic? I guess?"

"Aren't we all,"

☽☽☽

I'd spent majority of my week avoiding conversation with Cordelia. Not that it was hard.

I decided I wouldn't lie about the cure, just...evade the truth.

She's started sitting with us at meals occasionally, and even walking with us in the halls sometimes. Always being near me, but never close.

I wonder a lot why no one else has noticed the slight changes in her behaviour. She just seems overall...different. Better? There's only one solution I can think of, and I don't like it. It has to be because no one else is so aware of Delia. No one else watches her the way I do. It's pathetic, and kind of stalkerish.

However, If Dumbledore was being honest about Cordelia and I having to work together, I must know for sure. I can't let my brain eat me alive with possibilities. I have to know if she's seeing someone else. I have to know if that's the source of this new...contentness.

So, for the last twenty minutes i've been thinking of all the best ways to ask her if she's moved on.

"Can I talk to you for a minute?" I whisper under my breath. She looks at me, her jaw suddenly clenched.

"Lunch is almost over," she says through her teeth.

I glance at our friends surrounding us. "I need to speak with you alone," I press.

She glares—but it isn't the same as usual, it's nearly homicidal, so I just wait. After a second, she gets up and stalks quickly out the great hall. Long as my legs are, I nearly have to run to keep up. As soon as we turn the corner into a short hallway, she spins around to face me.

"What do you want?" she asks, sounding annoyed. Her eyes are cold. Her new unfriendliness intimidating me.

Hey, Cordelia, no big deal...but are you seeing someone?

My words come out with less certainty and more accusing than i'd planned. "You're fucking someone."

Cordelia scoffs, eyes wide and bewildered. "I am not! And even if I was, that's—that's none of your business anymore."

I flinch back from the resentment in her voice. "Why have you been acting like this lately?"

"Remus, you must've hit your head, you don't know what you're talking about. I'm not acting any way," Her tone is cutting. "You just don't know what i'm like when i'm not chasing after you."