NOTHING GIRL || Remus Lupin

-PART TWO: Happy Ending-

"They would punish a star for burning."

-Cassandra Clare

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Helia was wearing black too much.

It used to be the colour that she lived in. It allowed her to withdraw into the background and pretend, even to her own mind, that she didn't exist. But those outfits had been her choice, made up of comfortably big hoodies and jeans, not these starchy dresses and ties that meant something more. People's hats came off in signs of respect as the troops of black clothed people traipsed past, eyes downcast and bloodshot. Too many funerals. Too many families torn apart.

Kadin Bell had not yet fully grasped the fact that mummy wasn't coming home. None of them had managed to quite compute Lin's death if she were honest, especially with Marlene's coming so soon after. Helia hadn't seen Jade in weeks. She didn't respond to letters. Molly Weasley said that she had gone into hiding with Oliver, Devin and Kadin and wasn't speaking to anyone.

Remus, of course, was always there when Helia got home, always willing to go to any length to put a smile on her face. It was nice, but Helia couldn't help but feel like she was being treated as though she was breakable. Sometimes, all she needed was to hold his hand and reassure herself that she was not letting what they had be broken. Sometimes, she needed to feel like she had to be the strong one.

Lilly and James had become Helia's unexpected anchors in the last few weeks. Marlene had been Lilly's best friend in the way that Lin had been Helia and Jade's. Helia couldn't count the number of times she had turned up at the Potter household at some absurdly early time and been invited in, if only to stay up and watch bad movies with a tub of ice cream.

James was the only one who carried on treating her as if she were the same person no matter how many times he saw her shaking and retching over his toilet, or screaming on their sofa after she had woken from a nightmare featuring that treasured memory of her brother's death, except with the added fun of seeing his face twist and change into Lin, into Jade, into Remus. James Potter would keep on making probing comments meant to irritate the location of her hiding spot from their school days out of her.

New friends, new beginnings. Helia wished Lin could've seen it.

The night that you've all been waiting for came later. The month of October drawing to a close with leaves going up in burning colours to light the progressively longer nights. Helia had never felt less festive. Nevertheless, she smiled through gritted teeth and ordered a Haribo multipack of sweets. If she was going to do Halloween, she was not going to let the kids down. She would give them the best goddamn haul they'd ever had.

Remus leaned over the sofa, balancing his head on hers as he watched her sort sweets according to size and Helia's personal opinion of their taste. They were organised into viscously regimented groups of four-by-four, the excess in a pile in the centre. Helia dressed up the lines and glared at the packet of Haribos that had one too many eggs in comparison to the others. She poked and prodded at the bags of Skittles until they all resembled the same shape. She threw out the peanut M and Ms that no one wanted.

"Hel Bel." Remus spoke gently after watching her for a good twenty minutes.

Helia jumped, as if she hadn't noticed his presence on her head at all. "Hmm?"

"I don't think you will ever get that crease out of the Snickers packet, short of ironing it." Remus said.

Helia looked down to see that she had been straightening the edge of the same chocolate bar for the last... she didn't know how long. "Oh."