STARS | r. lupin (1)

CHAPTER TWENTY

"Shit." she cursed under her breath.

"Althea?" she heard Peter say from behind her. "What's going on?"

She spun on her heel and faced James and Peter. "I-I need to talk to Remus." she sputtered out.

"Are you okay?" James asked her. She nodded.

"I just need to talk to him."

"Okay, he should be in here." James gestured towards the portrait hole. "Phoenix feather." he told the fat lady, who let them in without a second thought. Althea's eyes darted across the common room, in search of a familiar head of sandy blonde hair, and she found it by the chess board.

"Remus!" She called out to him. He turned to face her.

"Althea? What's going on?" his focus broke and he got up off his chair to join her by the entrance.

"Can I talk to you?" she looked pointedly at the curious Gryffindors who had taken an interest in her conversation. "Alone?"

"Sure, yeah, just up those stairs to the dorms." Remus ushered her up the steps, mildly confused. She opened the door into the room and was immediately greeted with the overpowering scent of some kind of cologne. She assumed it belonged to one of the other boys, since she didn't recognise the smell. Remus closed the door and turned to face her. "What's going on?"

"I got a letter from my mother this morning." Althea started, "she asked me to join her and the rest of my family in France as soon as school ends."

"Is that all?" he raised his eyebrows, "Because you seem to have gone through an awful lot of trouble to-"

"No, Remus. Permanently." his gaze flickered from confusion, to hurt, back to confusion, and then went blank.

"To escape the war, right?" he asked tentatively. Althea bit her lip and nodded. "Are you going to do it?"

Are you going to do it?

One simple question, one very simple, albeit unfortunate, answer.

"Yes. I am." she swallowed a painful lump in her throat, trying to anticipate what would come next. Pain? Anger? Yelling? All of it seemed realistic, but none of it seemed like something Remus would do. Instead, he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her into a hug.

"It's okay." he told her tenderly. "You don't have to fight if you don't want to."

She buried her head in the crook of his neck and closed her eyes, a weight that she had carried with her all the way from the owlery finally lifting off of her chest. "I'm so sorry."

*

It was finally time. The moment she had been waiting for, the final day of school when she would move to France and forget about her problems.

She'd exited the carriage and was halfway to the exit of the train, when she realised she'd forgot her sunglasses.

"Ah, damn it." she cursed, turning to Caroline and Aubrey. "I forgot something in the carriage, I'll be right back."

Turning around, she hurried back to the carriage, where Yasmin and Reina were still packing up their things and opened the door.

"Hey I forgot my- Oh my god!"

There was, of course, a fair reason for Althea's shock, since Yasmin and Reina were lying on the seats, grinning and kissing. They jumped away from each other as soon as they saw Althea.

"I swear this is not what it looks like." Reina said, and Althea scoffed.

"Yes, I'm sure there are plenty of reasons you were making out on top of my sunglasses." she hissed, grabbing her sunglasses from behind the two.

"That's... All you have to say?" Yasmin asked cautiously.

"No!" Althea huffed. "Rei, I thought you were straight."

"So did I." Reina admitted.

"Do you mind not telling anyone?" Yasmin practically begged. "We don't want to ruin anything by letting everyone know."

Althea considered this, pursing her lips thoughtfully. "Alright, but only because Yas didn't give me any shit for kissing Remus."

Yasmin smiled gratefully. "And, um... I guess this is goodbye."

Althea froze. She'd been so obsessed with Remus that she didn't even realise she was never going to see them again. The thought had crossed her mind briefly, but she chased it away as quickly as it came. She loved all of them, and they'd always been there for her, and she had to say goodbye.

"I guess so." she bit her lip painfully hard, trying to stop herself from crying. "I should say goodbye to Aubrey and Caro." she gave them a quick hug, trying to ignore the fact that Reina's bra was on display (nothing she hadn't seen before, they had shared a dorm for seven years), and hurried off to the platform. There, she spotted auburn hair and brown eyes and tried not to yell in front of everyone before Aubrey apparated to her house.

"Aubrey!" She tackled the girl in a bear hug. "I needed to say goodbye."

Aubrey smiled and returned the hug without hesitation. "I wish we didn't have to say goodbye," she whispered, "It feels too final."

"Althea?" she heard a familiar voice from behind her and let go of Aubrey.

Why does this always happen at the least convenient moment?

Althea turned around and faced Remus. "Were you really going to leave without saying goodbye?" a look of hurt flickered on Remus' face.

"Of course not." she lied. In fact, she had no intention of bidding him a sad, awkward goodbye. She'd have rather kept the happy memories they had without adding more miserable ones. Still, she wrapped her arms around his torso and embraced him. "I wish I didn't have to leave you." she whispered. That time, she was telling nothing but the truth.

"You still don't," he added, but she could tell he knew it was hopeless. She'd made up her mind.

"I'm sorry." she smiled painfully. She cupped his cheeks and placed one gentle kiss on his cheek and left, off to find her father and leave behind the miserable war and the bittersweet memories.

I know this is kind of sad, but this isn't the end so please keep reading!
Also, the next chapter will be published in a few days instead of a week because it's shorter.