black coffee | remus lupin [2]

87. a friend to all is a friend to none

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

EVERYTHING WAS SLOWLY crumbling, Claudia was sure.

It had been almost three months since Hope had passed away. Day by day, Remus was picking up the pieces of his heart along with the pieces his mum had left behind.

Claudia had been a wall for him to lean against. He needed her so, and she knew that, so she put in every effort she could to help him.

She talked to him about her. That was the most of what she did. It meant a lot to him, it showed, because Remus wasn't fond of the idea of pushing the thoughts of his mum away, because he had learned that that would only cause him to fall apart.

In turn, Remus had unawarely been a wall for Claudia, who was grieving too, as well. They really worked as a team, even in the worst of times.

But that didn't change the fact that everything was slowly crumbling. Everything was falling apart.

Everyone was falling apart.

Claudia had passed a pub in Diagon Alley and caught a glimpse of Lyall in there on night. She had walked inside and found him as drunk as he could be. He was drinking away his feelings.

Drinking away his Hope.

She had paid for his awfully expensive alcoholic drinks that he probably couldn't pay for on his own, and then she somehow got him back home, and into his warm bed.

And then she had bawled her eyes out as she washed her hands and saw Hope's old necklace with a pendant with an 'R' on it that she always used to wear.

Anyhow, let's state the obvious. Lyall wasn't the only one who was losing it. Remus was, and there was no denying that Claudia was too, even if she tried to hide it.

But they did what they had to do. Took every day as it was and let themselves feel miserable and glum, because what else was there left in the world that they were living in?

One could only be grateful that they all had each other. Sort of.

Claudia wasn't exactly staying discreet no more when it came to the whole betraying Death Eater-thing. She figured that Voldemort would be aware that she was in fact working on the other side after Lucius and the others had almost caught them, assuming that they understood that Lucius had been talking about her and Regulus.

But Voldemort didn't seem to know anything at all about it. In fact, he was even more annoying than ever before. Constantly sending owls Claudia's way and requesting her prescense at his meetings.

Claudia didn't show up well enough, even so. She was rarely there, and if she was she continued to fake a sickness that she didn't have so she'd have an excuse not to show up next time. Voldemort was getting suspicious, that was for sure. But she didn't care, because there simply wasn't enough care left in her at this point.