CHAPTER SIXTEEN
"the last straw"
tw - attempted suicide
its not hollis yall.
O.W.L.'s preparation was getting more intense by the day. Marlene, Lily, and Hollis had fallen asleep over their breakfast because of how late they had stayed up doing Defense Against the Dark Arts homework, and the rest of the Gryffindors were highly enjoying the scene.
Lily's usually smooth red hair was tangled, and it was draped partly over Hollis's face. Hollis's hand was still loosely gripped around her silver fork, which was attached to a waiting golden roasted potato. Marlene was on Hollis's left, and her toast was currently being used as a pillow. All three of them had bags under their eyes and were completely relying on each other's weight not to fall off the bench.
"Do you think we should wake them up?" asked Peter, shoving a sausage patty in his mouth.
Remus looked at Hollis. She looked oddly peaceful for being sitting up while asleep, a sign of just how exhausted they were.
"Nah, I think they're going to kill us if we do," Sirius said wisely.
James nodded his head feverishly, agreeing. He had woken up Lily once in his third year, and he ended up with a fractured jaw from her alarm at seeing his face right above her.
"But," said Sirius grinning with one side of his mouth. Remus groaned, that look was not good. "We could try to beat Hollis's record."
James and Peter's faces split into grins. Hollis had the record among the five of them of how many objects she stacked on a sleeping person before the hodgepodge fell over. On a hungover Sirius Black, Hollis had placed eight pillows, a wooden stool she stole from the spare Transfiguration room, a cauldron full of experimented on butterbeer, Peter's dinner plate, an equally hungover Marlene, and nine full cartons of Bertie Bott's Every Flavored Beans.
"I dunno, I think they might wake up," observed Remus, scooping a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.
Marlene let out a loud snore.
"On second thought, maybe not," said Remus, standing up. He nodded his head with mock seriousness at his three best friends. "Let's do this, boys."
Hollis felt an odd amount of pressure on her back, half asleep across the Gryffindor table. Her dark eyes fluttered open, partly obscured by red strands. A huge circle was around her, Marlene, and Lily. Hollis sat all the way up in confusion, making her head spin. Several loud crashes startled up Marlene and Lily as well. Lily's eyes were wide and alarmed, and Marlene was brushing brown crumbs off her cheek. Hollis turned around to see a splintered chair, Sirius, shards of glass from goblets, a white splatter of milk, and several pairs of shoes scattered across the table and stone floor.
"Huh?" Marlene asked, rubbing her blue eyes.
"Goddammit, we were so close!" cried James, tangling his fingers through his black hair in exasperation.
Lily swung her legs out from the bench.
"Was all that stuff stacked on top of us, Potter?" she asked, helping Hollis and Marlene up as well.
The three girls stared at the Marauders, both amused and irritated with being woken up.
"I mean, technically, only a third of it was stack on you, so-" James started, but Lily walked past him before he could finish. Marlene followed, not really sure what was going on due to the fact that she was still half asleep and stumbling her way across the floor.
Hollis stayed and knelt down to count the various toppled objects. She got back up after a few seconds, a disappointed expression on her face.
"Pathetic. You know that rounded objects don't work," she sighed, shaking her head. It makes her hair look like there's wind, like she's in a commercial or something, Remus noticed. "And I'm a light sleeper."
James and Sirius both threw an arm around her shoulder as they walked out of the Great Hall and towards the dungeons for Potions.
"I guess we still have to beat you, then, Rosier."
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No matter how hard they tried, Hollis and the Gryffindor boys could not all fit under the cloak. Remus was too tall, Peter too clumsy, and the other three were just a mess in general. After Sirius's foot slammed into the back of Hollis's knee, she ducked down and pulled up the silky cloak with a swift motion.
"Hol, what are you doing?" asked Sirius in a low tone.
He had started to use his old nickname for her that Marlene, Lily, and then the Slytherins had caught onto again. Maybe because she was turning back into her playful, bold self once more, or maybe it was because he thought that his name was the only one with six letters in it worth pronouncing.
Hollis turned back to see no one to claim the voice she was hearing. It was undeniably eerie, there was no doubt about it. No matter how many nights they were out she would never get used to it.
"You four fit under just fine, I'll watch ahead. I'm the quietest and smallest, anyways," she replied, turning back forward.
"Don't get caught," muttered Peter, accepting that Hollis would be leading them back to their dorms.
"Don't be ridiculous," she replied, partly to herself.
Remus smiled at her confidence from under the cloak. He was glad the other Marauders couldn't see him. He knew Sirius would instantly tease him about fancying Hollis, and James and Peter would immediately follow suit.
Which he didn't.
Remus just liked her smile, and the way she got so angry so quickly when her friends were the ones she had to defend. And also how she continued to so easily help him on the full moon and not care about how he was getting all of his cuts, and somehow managed to-
Lupin wondered if it was normal for someone to force themselves to stop thinking about someone this often.
Hollis peeked her head around the corner, grasping a rough, steel torch holder to remain balanced.
"Lumos," she whispered, making several paintings cry out as her wand let out a bright white light from the tip.
"Put that light out, girl!" an elder wizard with purple robes and a braided beard sternly commanded. "Can't you see that we're trying to sleep here?"
Hollis ignored him as her ears picked up on fast, anxious footsteps coming from around the next pillar.
"Rosier, are you deaf? Someone's coming!" exclaimed James, living up the cloak to reveal four pairs of legs and his bent over face. "Hurry up!"
Hollis held a finger up to her mouth, silently instructing silence. James shook his head, exasperated, before obediently getting back underneath the cloak and wondering why he always found himself listening to her.
What are doing? Remus thought, eyes darting all over her and trying to read some form of body language as a clue.
Growing up in Rosier Manor had taught Hollis how to accurately read footsteps on the basis of both temper and person causing them. It was helpful to know when her parents were in an irritable mood, so she knew when to keep her door shut and wand tightly gripped or when she could safely get some sleep.
These footsteps weren't a professor's or prefect's ready to get them into trouble.
They were quiet, trying to sneak but failing from some kind of severe nerves and desolate emotions inflicting sloppiness onto their pace.
So when a Ravenclaw boy in her year with a blank, sad expression on his dark face rounded the corner, Hollis was expecting it. She had seen him in Potions earlier that day, failing to prepare a Cheering Concoction and breaking down into tears before rushing out of the room.
Neither said a word to each other, but when their eyes caught a pit formed in Hollis's stomach. He rushed past too quickly, a sniffle fading into the distance.
Without a glance in the Marauder's direction, Hollis followed him.
Four boys watched speechlessly, blinking a few times in confusion.
"What, in the name of God, is Rosier doing?" asked James, his eyes following her until her short shadow flitted away from them as she disappeared to the next corridor.
No one answered, but Lupin intended on finding out.
This question, at least, he could find an answer to even if the others remained as unresolved and tantalizing as ever.
Hollis didn't waste her breath on calling out to the boy, she knew that he wouldn't stop. Her thighs burned as she ascended the spiral, wooden staircase to the Astronomy Tower, the highest in the castle.
She was so focused that she didn't hear a third set of footsteps behind her.
The boy slammed the heavy oak door behind him onto the roof, but Hollis caught it with one arm before she could get stuck behind it. The instant she stepped out onto the top of the tower, a huge gust of November wind hit her like a sucker punch through her thin Slytherin jumper.
The Ravenclaw boy looked back at her as one foot went onto the ledge, his brow furrowed. Hollis took only one step forward.
"Hey," she said softly. "Get off there, okay? Now. It's not safe, and I think you know that. You don't want to do this."
"You don't know me," he replied, voice shockingly hoarse from crying. "How can you know that?"
"If you really wanted to, you wouldn't have turned back to look at me," Hollis replied. "You wouldn't have looked back for someone to help if you didn't have even a little hope left. It's here, okay? I'm here. Hope and help and everything. Just.. just get off the ledge."
Rosier gasped at the sudden force of his weight as he barreled into her with a hug, sobbing. He couldn't seem to want to get to safety fast enough.
It took her a moment to adjust to the embrace, but the second she did, she returned it as forcefully as she could. Her hand slid up and down his back as the violent tremors of his ribs slowed, his breath steadying.
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked into his shoulder.
"No," he shook his head, pulling away suddenly. "No, I- I- how did you even know?"
"I've seen that look in the mirror before, love," she said softly, pulling him down to the closest bench near one of the telescopes. "You do want to talk about it, I can tell. Please. What's going on?"
Remus watched through the cracked open door as the boy instantly opened up to Hollis with her promise of confidentiality, all of his emotions spilling out into her waiting arms and carefully listening ears. He had been wrong about this providing him with more answers, only questions.
And a new, fierce determination.
I've seen that look in the mirror, he repeated. No. The letter, the howler, all of the threats from those Slytherins. This is the last straw. I- we have to do something. She can't go back home with her parents and to that ball now that I know that she wanted to kill herself while she was there before. She might not have had me - us, god, before, but she does now.
His gaze steeled over. All of the bonding and friendship, all of the secrets and hidden pain building up for the past months had solidified into this one statement, one neat decision to sum it all up.
She does now.
.｡*ﾟ+.*.｡ ﾟ+..｡*ﾟ+
James, Peter, and Sirius plopped onto the cushy orange couch, removing the cloak.
"That was close," gasped Sirius, breathless.
McGonagall had rounded the corner a few moments after them, and the trio sprinted away as fast as they could. Clearly, the summer had put them out of their maximum 'running away from professors' potential.
"Wait a minute," cried James, looking between Sirius and Peter with animated panic in his hazel eyes. "We lost Remus."
But before they could panic anymore, the portrait hole clicked open and shut. Remus's auburn hair was flecked with snow, and his cheeks were tinted red like they had been slapped by the wind. His green eyes were looking down, then quickly back up as he found the words he was looking for.
"Remus, where-" began Sirius, standing up from the warm armchair he had relocated to after taking off the cloak.
"We need to go research Communication Charms."
All of their eyes widened at the determination in his voice.
"Now."
i promise that rollis is approaching, but we cant rush things
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