CHAPTER 15 (part 3/3)
THE GIRLS
(+remus i guess)
"Whats taking you so long, Lils? Writing him a poem or something?" Marlene jokes, getting antsy blowing on her wet fingernails.
Anastasia leaned over Remus' thighs to get a better look at Lily's work. "Actually looks like she is."
"I am not. Remus will like it," Lily said, putting down the marker.
-
"I have love in me, the likes of which you can scarcely imagine and rage the likes of which you would not believe. If I cannot satisfy the one, I will indulge the other."
-
Remus read the quote from Frankenstein with a frown. Of course, he loved the quote. How could he not, but she knew? How could she pick this quote out of them for him and not know?
He looked back into the ginger's eyes, and the reassuring smile on her face. He watched wearily, hopeful she would say something, to teeter the terror in his mind that she had put it together, but nothing.
"Yeah, yeah, I like it." He whispered and in the back of his mind he knew the smart had put it together, but because she didn't confirm verbally, he choose believe it was a mere coincidence. That the girl merely wrote a quote from one of his favorite stories.
Mary went next, drawing a depiction of what looked to be a stick figure, Remus beating up the whomping willow, with big boxing gloves on his arms.
After Peter had let it slip that Remus was in the hospital wing, Anastasia practically yelled at James, demanding he tell her how he ended up there. James knew the second they saw his bandaged arm, the lie he had used so often of a mere fever wouldn't work. He ended up saying Remus got too close to the whomping willow and was embarrassingly cut up by it.
Remus felt lucky he was put in a house where most of the students skipped at least five classes a month, so his usual excuse for missing afternoon classes the day of and skipping almost all of his classes the day after went unnoticed. He felt pricks of anxiety when he knew he shared all of his classes with Anastasia, thinking she was so smart she might see a pattern.
To Anastasia, his timely sickness made sense. She could recall in her childhood him being bed ridden by sickness often. Though she never knew the boy was not bedridden to him dorm of sickness but to one of Madam Pomfrey's cots.
Alice went next, drawing her name with big swirls in all the letters and dainty smiley face at the end before pulling back with a smile moving back to continue her school work.
"Your name Alice!" Marlene scolds the mousy haired girl at her boring use of space on Remus' canvas.
"What?" Alice hands the marker to Marlene. "It's what Lily said they do."
"Pfft" Marlene rolled her eyes, only to have them land on the clock above the large exit door into the infirmary. Her face showed shock as if about to break a sweat before quickly writing a phrase on Remus' arm and pulling back to comb through her hair and pinch her cheeks.
"Are you in some hurry Marls" Mary asked confused by the blonde's sudden flush.
"Nothing.. fuck off. How do I look?" Marlene asked, pulling her bag over her shoulder.
"Fine. Look like you usually do." Anastasia said, oblivious to Marlene's blatant want to look good for someone.
"Ugh." She let out a huff, throwing the marker onto the notebook spread in front of Anastasia, and storming out of the hospital wing.
Ana seemed unfazed, deeming it as one of Marlene's dramatics. While Alice choose to keep her head down with a smirk, continuing her school work. Mary and Lily had already huddled to start gossip of various figures as to what has caused their seemingly uneffected friends' disquiet.
With a beat of the blonde's absence, Ana pulled herself off of the bed,marker in hand. Fox dragged the now empty, thinly cushioned metal chair to Remus' right. Sitting down with her navy two tone hush puppy shoes up on the edge of the chair. She carefully took Remus' injured arm, resting it on her pulled up knees.
"Can I take up lots of space?" Ana asked, finally looking at the limply watching Remus.
"Please..." He took a tick to long before continuing. "Do. Sirius'll probably see this and draw something crude."
Ana smiled, letting out an almost silent laugh and a brief 'okay' before starting.
"Don't look. I want you to see at the end." Ana demanded, lifting the marked after her first diagonal stroke.
Remus listened, turning his head to take special interest in the painting of the Madonna, and child, and two angels, across from him. It was Madam Pomfrey's favorite. She had told him in her tender remedy of talking to distract Remus after a painful moon like his last. He has though the choice was weird considering she had no children of her own and it was one of the few paintings void of movement in Hogwarts.
He heard Ana huff awhile into her work and refrained himself from turning, only hardening a staring contest with the static angel.
"Okay, I've finished, but I'd run out of room so the meaning might'of not come across, but you'll have to let me explain." Ana said, covering her writing with both of her palms, refraining a laugh.
Remus nodded, waiting for her to reveal Lily and Marlene now peaking over to see the finished product.
Her palms moved away to show a huge ANA'S over the front of his arm with the words hero notably smaller than the first word, so much so that a mere 4 feet away you would think that he had been branded as her property.
Lily and Mary burst out laughing, not at the cast but Remus reaction of mouth opening and eyes panning up to Ana in question and almost happiness.
"Don't laugh!" Anastasia curved her body to hit Lily's arm.Turning back to Remus.
"You just seemed so embarrassed when you found out that James told us why you'd gotten hurt. So I just thought if anyone asked you could blame you clumsiness on me."
"Oh, no, no. It- it's nice. I love it." Remus reassured, swooning at her sweet reasoning.
Ana burst out laughing, looking down at the cast.
"I didn't mean to make my name so big. I think I must have horrible space perception. I am so, so sorry."
Remus had been freed of the infirmary cot early the next morning and slipped into his dorm met with jestful bulling from his friends at his arms new look. Peter had congratulated him on Ana's work. James and Sirius had insisted on adding their own touch with a Bowie lightning bolt from James. And Sirius taking a red ink to Ana's name only thickening the already loud statement.
Remus had caught many weird looks at his brand-ment. Even Emma Vanity, who had been a prefect with him the year before he had occasionally done night patrols with, had asked him if he was property now. He answered with a point to the little hero written on the end of his cast.
Authors Note:
chapter 16 pt.1 tomorrow.
Hope you liked the ending. I love Ana and the girls they are just my favorites and this chapter was honestly just a excuse to write all my silly head cannons for them. I mean character relationship plot building to I guess 🙄
Y'all I swear I have bad luck I went on a long trip at the end of June but right before I lost my card so I ordered a new one but I had to leave for my trip and I write everything on novelpad so I couldn't access this story till I repaid my subscription but I didn't have my new card. Long story short the first card I ordered didn't come but the second one did so I am finally able to post 🙏. I wrote like 3,000 words yesterday so chapter 16 and the start of 17 and 18 are all done so hopefully with my luck I will be able to post multiple times weekly again.
Date posted: July 11th, 2023