Headdesking - Remus Lupin/OC

Chapter 11: The Three Broomsticks

Students were swarming The Three Broomsticks. Rain was slamming against the windows and half the visitors of the small town had gathered inside. The windows were fogged up from the warmth of the stove and the candlelights.

The staff were manically rushing back and forth between the overcrowded tables, trying to maintain a somewhat functioning pub despite the lack of staff available to properly cover a visit by the students of Hogwarts. Every Hogsmeade weekend was like this. The lack of staff and surge in business created complete chaos and it didn't matter that the regular inhabitants of Hogsmeade stayed as far away as possible from the town centre on weekends like this.

But in the midst of it all sat a girl, secreting calmness, currently too swept up in her journal to even acknowledge her housemates around her at the same table, who were drinking butterbeer and laughing with zero restraint.

He watched her big eyes from afar as they darted around the page she was writing on. He liked looking at her while she was concentrating. There was something special about how utterly absorbed she could be.

But no one could ever know how much he enjoyed watching her look at a passage in a book, or at a teacher as they lectured, or out of a window as she was having breakfast, or at her wand as she cast a particularly difficult spell.

Unfortunately for him it was painfully obvious.

"Remus." Lily said for the third time.

"Yeah." Remus blurted and began rubbing one of his eyes with his palm as he faced the redhead beside him.

"Can you stop making eyes at Pembroke and listen to me."

He rolled his eyes. Remarks of that nature had gotten so frequent these days that he no longer had the energy to react more to it. "I'm not making eyes at anyone. And I would pay attention if you could just get to the point!"

Lily was going over her latest story from one of her Slug Club meetings. Usually they were good gossip and he quite enjoyed hearing them. Lily had a knack for telling stories in an engaging way. But she also loved to talk a little too much, and sometimes she could just go on and on until the point of no return. This was one of those times. Which also happened to coincide with a rapidly approaching full moon, and Remus' threshold for how long he could stay responsive was lulling.

"It's hard to get to the point when I keep having to repeat myself because you're. not. listening." She swatted him three times over with the current issue of the Daily Prophet, and Remus' arm went up to protect his head. When she was done attacking him he smiled sheepishly at her. She tried to remain stone cold in her glare, but her lip ended up curling on one side.

The guys returned, hands full with another round of drinks. James and Peter lifted the drinks up as they navigated their bodies inside the booth and sat down. Sirius came after, in deep conversation with a Ravenclaw girl. A loud clunking sound was made when the boys set the mugs down in unison on the wooden table.

"What are you guys talking about?" Peter asked once comfortably situated next to Lily on the couch.

James also leaned in toward Lily to join the conversation, but Sirius was smiling crookedly at something the Ravenclaw girl was saying. He laughed heartily and Lily raised her voice so as to be heard over it and the 20 other ongoing conversations currently taking place in the inn.

"I was telling him about the Slug Club meeting last Wednesday."

"Did you get to the bit with that knob-end Frank?" Peter immediately interjected.

James perked up then. "The one who told you that your slicing method needed some work?"

Lily slammed James with the rolled up paper too. "Thanks a lot! I was just getting to that part."