serendipity - r. lupin

SIXTY ONE

"Oh, don't pout now," Rosier criticised with fake sadness, his bottom lip jutting out, "A pretty girl like you should be smiling more."

"And an ugly boy like yourself shouldn't be seen in the public eye," she retorted, a cunning smile on her face.

Rosier's grip on her arm tightened. "That's not fair, doll, and you know it," he said sternly, "I was paying you a compliment."

Genevieve tugged her arm from his hand. "If I wanted compliments then they wouldn't be from you," she snapped, "What use would compliments from filth be to me?"

Something unreadable flickered in Rosier's dark eyes. His jaw tensed. As he raised his hands, Genevieve closed her eyes and shrunk into herself in fear that he might hit her, but she never received the sharp blow of a hand on her face. Instead, he irritably ran a hand through his well-groomed hair and slicked it back. A short, malicious laugh spurted from his lips as he took in her stance.

"Look at you," he said, eyeing her with what could only be tragic hilarity, "You call me filth, yet you flinch at the raise of a hand?" He laughed again at just the thought. "How sad."

Genevieve's face burned with abhorrence, but the sting of his words left a mark on her skin just as deep as the scars she now wore. Never once had she flinched at the hand of a man out of fear he would hit her. Her mind wandered back to the night of the incident. The raising of a frail inhuman hand, and the feeling of its claws sinking into her flesh. It'll go away, she reassured herself, the feeling will go away.

But will it? a part of herself asked.

Growing bored of talking, Genevieve looked down at her bare wrist as if a watch accessorised it and gasped. "Look at the time! I must get going. While I would love to stay here and waste a valuable amount of breath talking to you, I have plans elsewhere."

"Don't leave me now because you're offended, Gorgeous."

Genevieve rolled her green eyes and groaned irritatedly. "When will you get that I don't—" she shoved her way past him "—like you." She glanced over her shoulder. "Leave me alone if you know what's good for you."

With that, she swiftly carried on in the direction of the library while Rosier watched her with a grimace as she walked away.

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:*

Sirius watched as Genevieve drummed her fingers against the oak table in particular rhythm in concern. Her ruby red nail polish was chipped, like always. Genevieve had been doing this for the past twenty minutes all while keeping a sharp eye on the common rooms entrance. She was waiting for Remus to get back from his prefect rounds. Besides them, the common was empty.

"And you're sure this is the right way to do it?" Peter repeated again unsurely.

"I'm absolutely positive." The determination in Genevieve's voice was far from unrecognisable. "If I want Remus to talk, this is the best way to do it."

"By cornering him?" Peter said with furrowed eyebrows. "But what if Moony doesn't want to talk?"

"You're really killing her optimism here, Wormtail," James said with a sigh, pushing his slipping glasses back up his nose.

Genevieve began to tap the rhythm to a song. "Guess," she tested, glancing only momentarily at Sirius to send him a challenging smile before her eyes went straight back to the entrance.

"Easy," Sirius scoffed. "Black Dog, Led Zeppelin. If you're going to test me then at least make the questions worthwhile."