NOTHING GIRL || Remus Lupin

-Eight: Pinky Promise-

"So? What now?" Remus' voice was a little rough around the edges. He coughed to correct it.

Helia stared at their joined hands in concentration for a moment and then removed her wand from inside her robe. She placed the tip on their intertwined fingers. Remus could feel the magic moving in the wood, gathering itself like a coiled snake, preparing the be released. Helia glanced up at him.

"We don't have a Bonder, so I'll have to make a few small adjustments. You're going to have to ask the questions, okay?" She spoke quietly, as if just by doing so she was interrupting a sermon.

Remus frowned again. "What?"

Helia sighed dramatically. "Honestly, Lupin-"

"You called me Lupin." Remus said, just as quietly as she had before. He watched her face. It didn't move an inch.

"What?"

"Not Gryffindor, not Lion, not Brave One." Remus was building up his voice now, a grin back in place. "Lupin. As in my name."

Helia broke eye contact, returning her dark blue gaze to their clasped fingers. "Congratulations. I left the certificate at home, do you mind? Of course, we wouldn't want anything getting in the way of this Unbreakable Vow-"

"Unbreakable Vow?" Lupin's voice was uncharacteristically high. "You know how dangerous that is, right?"

Helia rolled her eyes. "I want to know about werewolves, Moon Boy, and I think you'll find it will be me taking on this risk. You should be fine, if that's what you're worried about. You can't break a promise you never made." She tapped the side of her nose with her wand.

"I'm not worried about me-"

Helia rolled her eyes again. "You Gryffindors and your insufferable honour." She muttered. "I don't want to die, either, okay? So it's a good thing I wont break the vow." Remus looked at her for a minute and then nodded tightly. "Good? Okay. Let's start."

"I think I liked Gryffindor better than Moon Boy." Remus grumbled, but made no attempts to dissuade Helia as she began muttering incantations. Remus noticed for the first time how cold it was on the rooftop, ice creeping up the sides of the building and stealing it's way into the air. Helia's hand in his was warm, like a heartbeat between his fingers.

Remus coughed awkwardly again and began talking. It felt oddly intimate, with their clasped hands and lowered-in-prayer speech, like a proposal. "Um, okay." He cleared his throat. "Will you, Helia Blacksmith, promise to keep the secret that I turn into an ungodly bundle of fur once a month?"

Helia looked him dead in the eye, and for once Remus could see the absolute frankness in them. "I will."

A tongue of flame flared from the end of Helia's wand, and curled around their hands like a snake. Was it his imagination, or did Helia wince as the magic poured from her wand?

"And will you promise to never tell a living soul, without my permission, what transpires to my body on a full moon?" He didn't know where the words were flowing from, or why they sounded so formal, but Helia looked unabashed. Steel in her eyes.

"I do."

A second serpent of flame was released, linking with the first as it twisted around their skin, casting the kind of light Remus expected to see leaping on the stone walls of cavemen. Remus found himself momentarily transfixed by the glowing trails. He snapped himself out of it.

"And do you understand to consequences if you break this agreement?" Helia's eyes reflected the streams flowing from her wand. Blue fire; the most dangerous of them all.