The Collision Theory | Remus Lupin

08. Blood Traitors' Fame

Quick story time, guys. The house of Novak- until my dad- was one of the purest families in Europe. Naturally, most of them were in Slytherin (Salazar's preference on purebloods and whatnot), but dad got Ravenclaw which bothered his parents a bit. He didn't actually get disowned until after school, when he refused to go along with an arranged marriage and instead married mum, who was a halfblood.

Long story short: big scandal equals fame.

The hall is silent for what seems like forever. Perhaps it's the shock. Miriam's eyes are threatening to overflow with tears as she looks at me. I pull my hand free from Lupin's grip and stand up, clapping with the biggest smile I can muster. Tears threaten to spill from my own eyes, but I just keep smiling, "Go Mim!"

"Whoo!" More clapping joins me, and I quickly turn to see the boys clapping as well. Lily, Marlene and Emmeline quickly do the same, and Alice sends the Slytherin table such a glare that quite a lot of them join us. Soon they're clapping just as they would for anyone else, and Miriam goes to join her house.

McGonagall continues through the list, and I slump back in my seat, feeling kind of empty inside. Lily holds my hand reassuringly, and I can only smile back. It's like I just lost my sister. I mean sure, she's only across the other room, but I can't protect her where she's going.

"May the feast commence." Suddenly I don't feel hungry anymore, and the food seems to have lost its flavour. instead I just play with the mushy whatever-it-is that Lily puts into my plate.

"Cheer up," Sirius smiles, "I heard that the Slytherin common room has a view into the lake."

"Which is pretty cool." James shrugs.

"Yeah well," I say a little more spitefully than I should, "you lost your bet Lupin."

He doesn't say anything, but I think my words hurt him.

*

We leave to go to our dorms after dinner, but I wait till the Slytherins start leaving. I run to Miriam and pull her into a corner, which I realise seems more criminal-y than I intended.

"Hey get off!" I dodge her fist as she tries to attack me.

"Mim it's me!" I hiss.

She stops suddenly, and lowers her head, so her mess of curls form a curtain around her face, "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"Slytherin." She mutters.

I force a laugh, "Yes! The house of the ambitious! The cunning!"

"I wanted to be with you!" I sniffs, wiping her eyes.

I pull her into my arms, "I will be with you, but trust me, at some point you'll look back at this moment and laugh at yourself for being like this. Now go catch up with the first years and don't forget the mirror."

"See ya at breakfast!" She pulls away, and starts jogging down the stairs.

"And Mim!" I shout.

"Yeah?"

"Green suits you." I smirk. Once she's out of sight, I turn to climb the stairs up to Gryffindor, and someone's staring straight at me.
Damn my short-sightedness.
I run up the stairs quickly, and the face becomes clearer, "Why did you wait?"

"I thought Lily might create a fuss," Remus follows me, wringing his hands, "she does care about you a lot."

"So why are you here and not her?" I ask, but immediately wince at how that might have sounded.

"She can get emotional." He shrugs, and he's right, "I thought you wouldn't want to be smothered with questions after..."

The thing.

"Thanks." I can't look him in the eyes. I feel horrible for sounding cold to him.

"No problem." He looks at his shoes, and we wait in silence for the staircase to stop moving.
Bloody uncomfortable silence.
It's like that all the way to the entrance, until I can't take it anymore.

"Lupin." I bite my lip, "I'm sorry."

"What for?" He has a look of ignorance about him, but his eyes give it away.

"I snapped at you in the hall. It was stupid of me." I say quickly, I'm not so good at apologies.

"It's fine, I understand." He smiles, and says the password, letting us in.

I barely even step in when I'm suffocated by a pair of arms that wrap tightly around me shoulders, and red hair that threatens to choke me, "Aylin!"

"Jesus Lily," I pull myself away from the girl to see tear-stained cheeks and puffy eyes. Remus backs away with a look that says, I told you so. I push away a strand of red hair that sticks to her face, "what's wrong?"

"What's wrong?!" She sniffs, horror-stricken, "You looked absolutely distressed about Miriam in the hall and I just couldn't imagine how you felt and Alice and Marlene took me upstairs cos I couldn't hold it back but Remus said he'd get you but I'm such a horrible friend why didn't-"

"Calm down!" I cut short her babbling. I guess all the pressure building since the incident with Snape has finally burst, "I talked with Mim, it's fine. She's fine and so am I."

"In glad she's okay." She smiles weakly and gives me a quick hug.

Changing the subject quickly, I pull her towards the stairs, "Did our stuff arrive?"

"Well the girls went to unpack." Lily shrugs, quickly wiping her eyes on her sleeve. We go upstairs to our dorm, but we hear our roommates before we see them.

"THAT'S NOT THE SPELL FOR MAKING TEA YOU TWAT!"

"I'M NOT A TWAT ALICE IT SAYS IN THE BOOK!" There's a momentary silence before...

"THAT'S TURNING OBJECTS INTO TEA ARE YOU BLIND?!" Alice screeches, and a loud thud resonates down the stairwell.

"What the Hell?" We rush in to find both girls clasping their wands with hot flushed cheeks and eyes burning with anger. Emmeline is seated just out of firing range on her bed, grinning at the chaos. They'll be alright, it happens at least three times a week.

Alice has a big tea strain running most of the length of her pyjamas. "This idiot," she points at Marlene, "turned my bloody mug into tea! Hot scolding tea!"

"Why were you in front of my wand?!" Marlene screeches.

I really can't deal with this right now, "Alright alright. Number one," I point my wand at Alice's burns, "episkey. And number two," I wave my wand over the stained fabric, "reducto."

"You can use that spell for stains?" Lily raises an eyebrow.

"Yeah, mum uses it a lot." I shrug, "Now, can you two just apologise or something? Cos I think you've burst my ear drums."

*

We unpack our luggage, which has already been brought up. Marlene, Emmeline and Alice are usually the first to sleep, so Lily and I take time in unpacking. Maybe it's just savouring the end of summer, but we take twice as long as needed. I'm more than relieved to find my shard in tact. But all I can see is the inky blackness of my sister's trunk.
She'll pick it up, I know it.

"What's that?" Lily asks, braiding her hair.

"Nothing," I put it back onto the pile of books between our beds, "just a way for me to talk to Mim, two way mirror?"

"Oh cool," she yawns, "night then."

"G'night Evans." I bury myself into my duvet, and it's probably the quickest I've ever fallen asleep.