NOTHING GIRL || Remus Lupin

-Twenty Three: Thank You to Dust-

"Nicely done, Moony. Real smooth." Sirius said sarcastically.

"Shut up." Remus muttered, dragging himself upright and then trying again, this time successfully, to grab the letter.

Tonight, Moon Boy. Don't be late.

Remus smiled a secret smile to himself. He liked the fact that they no longer had to specify a time or place, even if he didn't exactly know why he liked it. Then he stopped smiling. The Hogsmead trip was tomorrow. What If Helia was having second thoughts? What if she had figured out that he liked her and brought him up to the Astronomy Tower just to crush his hopes? To be honest, he didn't put it past her. At least it wouldn't be in front of the whole school. That would be worse.

"Did you read it?" Remus asked, eyeing Sirius suspiciously.

"As if I would do that to my dear friend after all we've been through together." Sirius proclaimed nobly, clutching his heart as if mortally wounded. Remus' searching glare never lessened. "I didn't!" He insisted. Remus sighed, deciding to believe him just this once. "I mean, I tried." Sirius admitted. Remus' eyes jumped back to his friend's face triumphantly "But all it did was insult me. You wouldn't think a sweet tempered, polite little girl like Blacksmith" (Remus snorted at that description of his friend) "knew words like that."

"Like what?" Remus asked curiously.

"You're a good boy, little Lupin." Sirius said, patting his head. Remus swatted his hand away with an annoyed look. "It's not for your delicate ears."

"Fine. Whatever." Remus clambered out of bed and began pulling his clothes on.

"I'll say this though," Sirius said thoughtfully "When it comes to synonyms for 'dog', she puts my thesaurus to shame."

Remus looked at him through a hole poked in his jumper as he pulled it over his head. "Since when have you had a thesaurus?"

Sirius grinned. "Since my Great Aunt Norberta said that they were 'muggle pilferage' at our last Christmas party."

"She obviously isn't a big fan of dictionaries either." Remus observed.

"How did you know?"

"Whatever she meant by it, it could not have even been close to the definition of 'pilferage'."

Sirius snorted "Nerd."

Finished dressing, Remus reached over and grabbed his Prefect pin from his dresser. He grinned. "I wear the badge with honour."

"Hilarious pun, dude." Sirius rolled his eyes as he checked his watch and then threw his Gryffindor tie at Remus. "Okay, now move. We need to be somewhere."

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

"What are we here for again?"

Helia stepped back from the window where she and Lin had watched the little aeroplane message fly up to Gryffindor Tower ten minutes ago. The warm light of the sunrise spilled through the large windows of the library, highlighting the dust that hung in the air as if it were just waiting for the right book to cling to. Snow still spiralled down to the now frost-heavy ground, dancing and twirling and mocking . Ha, it said, you're going to have to go out into me at some point. And it's going to be freezing. And you left your coat at home in the holidays. Hope you enjoy Herbology.

Lin, oblivious to the bullying that the weather was subjecting her friend to, ran her finger along a thick stack of books, freeing the molecules of dust on their spines. She grinned at Helia. "I'm starting to get why you like this place."