Insomnia | Fred Weasley |

9. The one where I set my sleeve on fire by accident

Alex sat quietly in one of the seats of Remus's office as he busied himself with preparing the tea. She glanced around the room at all the different items in there, which mostly consisted of magical creatures. It was certainly a step up from the previous year when Gilderoy Lockhart had the walls covered with portraits of himself.

At the beginning of the year, Alex had been like many of the girls at Hogwarts, swooning over him until the incident with the Cornish Pixes happened. Even she had to admit that a fully capable wizard would've been able to handle the situation with no problems. She didn't care much for Lockhart after that, especially when he tried to wipe their memories in the Chamber of Secrets.

A minute later, Remus placed a cup of tea in front of her, as well as laying out milk and sugar for her to use freely. She thanked him before preparing her tea the way she liked. Remus watched with an amused smile as she poured the milk into her cup and added one too many spoonfuls of sugar.

"You drink your tea just like your mother," he told her with a chuckle.

Alex smiled as she stirred the tea. "Yes, I've been told that by those who knew her."

Remus nodded. "She just always hated her tea being bitter," he told her. "We often made fun of her because her tea sometimes overflowed and she would spill it on herself quite a bit."

The thought caused the both of them to laugh because Alex had adopted the same idea. Alex's smile slowly faded as she thought about the unknown whereabouts of her mother.

"Professor?" She spoke softly.

"Hmm?"

"Have you been in contact with my mother at all over the past few years?" She asked.

Remus simply shook his head. "The last time I saw you and your mother was after your father was sentenced to Azkaban without a trial," he told her. "I remember how upset she was when that happened. In fact, that was when she stopped speaking to me."

"Why?"

A heavy sigh left Remus as he took a sip of his cooled-down tea. "I think your mother thought your father was innocent, despite the mountain of evidence against him," Remus responded, causing Alex's eyes to widen in shock. "But I don't know because I never got the chance to speak to her about it."

"Not even a letter?" Alex asked, somewhat desperately.

Again, Remus shook his head.

Alex sat back in her chair, slightly defeated as she hoped that Remus would have been able to tell her more. The only communication they had had in the past few years was the letter she had received a few weeks prior and even that wasn't much to go on. She took her cup into her hand and sipped thoughtfully before looking at him.

"Will you tell me your fondest memory of her?"

After another sip of tea, Remus smiled warmly. "She and I met on the Hogwarts Express," he told her. "It was the start of our third year and I hadn't been able to find the compartment my friends were in. Luckily, she saw me wondering and offered to share the compartment since she was alone. It was only the two of us the whole train ride."