NOTHING GIRL || Remus Lupin

-Nine: Wolf Space Party-

"She's never caught Helia." Jade muttered, sitting upright again. She carefully avoided eye contact with Marlene.

"That's because McGonagall's too scared of me" Helia declared. She glanced over at Marlene with ice eyes. The girl tried not to shrink back in her chair. Helia turned back to her work, very carefully not looking at Marlene again. Helia did everything carefully; her carefully pointed stares and careful stillness and careful way of speaking. It made it abundantly clear that you never knew what was really going on in her mind, and people usually avoided what they didn't understand.

...................................

Jade glanced at Helia, too quickly for the girl to notice. Sometimes, Jade wasn't sure what was a part of Helia's naturally prickly character and what was part of the show she put on, switching outfits as she went, the mask on her face purposefully and abundantly clear with each costume change. Jade remembered the first day, when Helia had been wearing her NONCHALANT mask, held up so everyone could see it. She remembered the next morning at breakfast, when she had been talking to Lin, already breaking the rules to sit with them, and Helia had walked in late, sat down and not eaten anything, eyes bored, focused on the flickering candlelight above them.

"Look at her." Lin whispered in Jade's ear.

Jade glanced down the row to see the Blacksmith girl everyone was talking about, sat there in Ravenclaw robes that were the same colour as her eyes. She wasn't moving. The plate in front of her was empty. As Jade watched, a girl she recognised from their dorm, though couldn't place a name with (Jade had been terrible with names, even then) practically bouncing over to her. The girl sat down across from Helia at the end of the row. She began talking animatedly and was silenced by one disgusted look from Blacksmith.

Jade snorted. "Yeah, right git, that one. Not worth your time. What about her?"

Lin was watching the girl with a sort of pity. Jace hadn't understood then Linette's ability to read people, and animals, and stray dandelions. "She's so..." Lin searched for the right word. "Sad."

Jade gave her a surprised glance, and turned back to Blacksmith. She watched as the eleven-year-old carefully drummed her fingers against the table, a calculated action. The people around her edged away slightly, unconsciously. The girl seemed unworried. The girl seemed nothing.

"Yeah, I can't see it." Jade said, one eyebrow raised.

Lin frowned, her eyes were still on the empty girl. It occurred to Jade for the first time that Helia might have chosen to sit at the end of the bench as a means of escape, though Merlin knows what she was escaping from; there was nowhere safer than Hogwarts.

"Trust me." Lin said quietly, and Jade wasn't sure if she was talking to her or to the nothing girl.

...................................

Remus made it to the Astronomy Tower ten minutes early that night. He didn't know why he was making such an effort to be prompt; the girl was going to spend the next hour grilling him about his lunar tendencies (Lunar Tendencies: Now that was a band name), a subject Remus still felt uncomfortable talking about with new people. And it wasn't like standing at the very top of a tower and waiting around on a freezing night was one of his favourite pastimes.

Despite his concerns, Remus found Helia already present when he ascended the ladder to the roof. She was looking down at something in her hand, though with her faced away from him it was impossible to tell what it was. Hearing his footsteps, Helia shoved the mysterious item into her robes before he got a glimpse.

"Evening Gryffindor. As you can see I have managed to keep your furry little secret for almost twenty four hours now." Helia gestured to her very not dead self.