CHAPTER TWENTY;
❝ BROTHERS KNOW BEST (EVEN
WHEN THEY ACTUALLY HAVE NO
CLUE) ! ❞
⠀⠀⠀"James, you idiot, OPEN UP!" Manon shouted as she banged her hand on his dormitory door. It was one in the night and she was completely so-not-sorry for the ruckus she was making. It's not like they were all sleeping anyways. The first to fourth years were in their dorms several floors below her and the rest were partying it up down in the Gryffindor Common Room, in constant attempts to lighten up Hogwarts mood.
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⠀⠀⠀Manon knew for a fact that he was in his room, along with the other two idiots and the only sane person they had, because she'd asked around and they'd said that they'd been avoiding going to their weekend parties since they'd been moping around like Moaning Myrtle for several weeks in a row.
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⠀⠀⠀There was some mad shuffling behind the door.
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⠀⠀⠀"DUDE, GET YOUR FAT BUTT OFF OF MY HANDSOME FACE!" A strained and muffled yelp came, followed by the unmistakable sound of someone dying from laughter and falling off of a moderately high place, presumably a bed.
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⠀⠀⠀"WHAT HANDSOME FACE? I ONLY SEE A HUGE VOMIT BEAN!" retorted the unmistakable voice of Sirius Black, in a painfully screechy tone that Manon was sure would've earned himself a slap, if he was anywhere near her.
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⠀⠀⠀"Remus, just please open the goddamn door!" Manon shouted, sighing out of annoyance. This was not what she broke the rules as a Prefect and snuck into the Gryffindor Tower for.
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⠀⠀⠀There was no answer in any form, just plain, muffled insults, accompanied by hysterical laughter, that most likely belonged to Peter, since usually, in Sirius' and James' illogical and useless banters, he'd be the one laughing and Remus would be the one trying to break them apart with sighs spilling out of his mouth like he was a single, working mother with three uncontrollable toddlers.
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⠀⠀⠀Manon fought back her desire to set the door on fire and instead, calmly flicked her wrist over the door knob, using her non-verbal skills. The dark brown dormitory door opened with a click, which Manon pushed back, lips pursed, right eyebrow perked up and left hand on her hip. The door revealed pure madness, chaos and mayhem — like a dozen Charlottes had gone crack high on sugar and alcohol.
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⠀⠀⠀Feathers everywhere, scarlet quilts and gold sheets falling onto the floor, two empty bottles of firewhiskey and several butterbeer ones rolling on the floor and another in which a quarter of the alcohol sloshed around, gripped tightly in Peter Pettigrew's hand who was red in the face from either the alcohol in his system or the laughter he was dying because of — Manon was unsure. Further inspection lead to discovering a lone sock hanging from one of the posts of one of the Gryffindor four poster beds and about five inches of the scarlet curtains ripped out of their placement from the bed James and Sirius were wrestling on. Forgotten Berttie Botts Every Flavour Beans rolled on the floor, which made Manon feel very offended as they were her favourite candy.
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⠀⠀⠀Remus looked up from his place on another one of the beds, this one littered with feathers and pillows from the other beds, where he was sitting with his head in his hands out of dismay.
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⠀⠀⠀"Make it stop," he whispered as if in pain and suffering from a sensitive headache, "Please. I beg you."
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⠀⠀⠀His ginger brown hair was a mess and robes were ruffled out of shape. Manon gave him a pitiful expression and gave a short nod, then turned to the three hysterical boys with a ferocious scowl to show her irritation over their careless behaviour.
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⠀⠀⠀"HEY ASSHOLES!" she yelled, waving her hand in a complicated gesture that sent the mad pair in an argument about whose ass was better, and the almost declared dead-from-laughter boy, tumbling onto the floor.
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⠀⠀⠀Peter, that sly but not sly enough boy, immediately sobered up, slowly sliding the bottle behind him, under the bed as if she hadn't noticed it before and by some miracle from Merlin, wouldn't notice it again. The two trolls though, James and Sirius, brightened up when they saw her like she was Merlin in reincarnation.
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⠀⠀⠀"Oh, sissy!" yelled James, glasses askew and almost snapped in half in the middle, as he crawled over to her to hug her legs, "When did you get here?"
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⠀⠀⠀Before she could answer him with a sassy retort, Sirius started giggling like a five-year-old girl who just saw some couple kissing at the park, his look complete with a hand over his mouth like he was a modest and pure little servant of God who didn't even know what sex was.
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⠀⠀⠀"Jaaamesie!" he drawled, hiccuping at the end, "Don't look uuuup! Our lil' Mannie is wearing a skiiirt!"
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⠀⠀⠀The said Ravenclaw turned her head towards Remus, gesturing towards Sirius with a strange expression as if asking 'what the fuck is up with him?'
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⠀⠀⠀Remus sighed, falling back onto his comfy fort of pillows. "Don't ask me, I'm still shocked out of my wits. I was simply tasked with bringing the Berttie Botts Beans and Butterbeers from downstairs and I came back to Hell on Earth. For a lad like him, Sirius has an astonishingly low alcohol tolerance."
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⠀⠀⠀Manon grimaced, sighing as she shrugged a blabbering James off of her legs. Sirius — that ass — had dozed off on the floor, his mouth on an almost full bottle of butterbeer.
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⠀⠀⠀"Merlin, help me," she muttered as she cleaned up things with several flicks and twists of her hands and wrists. One thing though, this entire scenario was a perfect opportunity to practice her non-verbal spell usage skills.
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⠀⠀⠀Once done with the mess, she got Remus to drag Sirius up onto his bed as she supported a pair of drunk dimwits to theirs. While James pinched her cheeks, saying she was so incredibly cute when pissed off which only pissed her off more (this was not why she sneaked into the Gryffindor Tower), Peter was oddly fascinated with her hair and suddenly asked if she had a veela ancestor.
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⠀⠀⠀Shaking her head, she pulled the quilt up onto his skinny body. "I love you Peter, I really do, but please don't make me punch you in the face."
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⠀⠀⠀The boy only giggled before he was knocked out cold. Exhausted, she turned around to see Remus eyeing her carefully.
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⠀⠀⠀"You didn't seem to be in the mood to babysit three, seventh year Gryffindor boys. What'd you come her for?"
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⠀⠀⠀Immediately, as if she had been under an Imperius Curse which had been broken, Manon returned to her previous state: confused, frustrated and hurt. She guessed it all had flashed on her face for a second before she could mask her feelings or Remus had deciphered the code to the vaults of her emotions. Either way, he understood something was wrong so he just spread out his arms.
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⠀⠀⠀Lips quivering because of tears she had held in like dam gates would do with rainwater, Manon dove into the comforting embrace of Remus Lupin, something she had just realized she had been missing, somewhere deep down in her. Remus was like this type of an older brother to her, the one who'd comfort her to sleep whilst listening to everything Manon had to say, without interruption, and sliding in his advice at the very end. James and Sirius were shit at this sort of fluffy and deep stuff with her, instead completing her life as brothers who'd prank, tease, insult and annoy her to the point, where she would be ready to rip hair out — hers or theirs, was something that impulse decided. Peter was the sweet one, the one who'd give her small little gifts and sweets to show his affection, and would discuss books and these muggle things called movies, usually with Remus.
⠀⠀⠀As Remus listened to her tell him all about Regulus Black and his annoying smirk, and his attractive starry name, and his stupidly soft and dark hair, and icy grey eyes she'd memorized like a prayer because of the amount of times they had had staredowns, Manon realized with a massive jolt that she'd idiotically and embarrassingly started to fall for his 'HEY, I'M THE SLYTHERIN RESIDENT BAD BOY AND I'M SEXY AND CAN MAKE YOU SCREAM LIKE A BANSHEE BUT ALSO CRUSH YOU LIKE A FLOWER IN MY FIST!' ass.
⠀⠀⠀"I think you don't even need me to sum things for you," Remus chuckled as he slowly ran his hands through her raven-toned hair, "You've already realized, haven't you?"
⠀⠀⠀"But I don't want to fall for him of all guys!" Manon complained, "Why can't I fall for you or something or become asexual?"
⠀⠀⠀Remus laughed harder. "Me? Why me?"
⠀⠀⠀In response Manon rolled her eyes, "Oh, the question is why not, Remus Lupin. You're kind, considerate, caring, thoughtful and cute as heck, by the way. And you love books and like attaining more knowledge, you stay up with me at night, when you come over for Summer and stargaze with me as we discuss conspiracy theories, make the best coffee on this planet, help me with schoolwork when I'm at a block. The list could be equivalent to the length of all the homework I've done over my years at Hogwarts and still be incomplete!"
⠀⠀⠀"Sure, Mannie, but there's loads of boys out there who would love to do all of this with you," he smiled, bending down to softly kiss her forehead, "And those who aren't monsters. Like me."
⠀⠀⠀His words hurt Manon so much, she couldn't help but leak out several droplets of tears. "Shut up, idiot. You're no monster, Remus, you're a beautiful person, inside and out. Someone who's a monster wouldn't turn his pain, his ailments and afflictions to help other people. When the full moon is near and your senses are heightened, you change everything that you suffer through into something beautiful and needed for others. You tell James when Lily changes her shampoo or tries on a new perfume so he can compliment her.
⠀⠀⠀"When you smell the cuts and marks of pain under the student's sleeves and robes, you go out of your way to do something, anything, to give them a ray of hope, however small it maybe. You hear an argument between a couple, so you stick around to comfort the one who stayed back and cried. You smell and trace the scent of lost pets and anonymously return them. You occasionally sense fear rolling off of Sirius when he receives yet another ugly letter from his shitty parents, so you do these little, beautiful things to cheer him up, without being obvious about it.
⠀⠀⠀"You're a beautiful, beautiful person, Remus Lupin," Manon said softly, cupping his face in her hands as tear after tear of anguish slipped out of his bluish grey eyes, "You're so beautiful, every little thing you do is beautiful, and you don't even have a clue. Instead, you drown yourself in self-hatred and call yourself weak, incomplete and a monster and it hurts me, and James, and Sirius and Peter so much, Remus, so so much. If I could, I'd take your illness for myself because someone as ethereal and good such as yourself, doesn't deserve this misery. You deserve better, Remus, you deserve the best. The absolute best."
⠀⠀⠀And then Remus laughed this little, broken but hopeful laugh that broke and healed Manon at the same time. "No, you, are an angel, Manon Potter and you have no clue."
⠀⠀⠀In answer, Manon smiled and leaned up to kiss his cheek. "Whatever I am, we can discuss it later. Now's the time for us to ditch our stupid pains and cuddle to sleep."
⠀⠀⠀"I second that," Remus laughingly murmured as the girl snuggled closer into his chest. Surprisingly, she fell asleep in a matter of seconds.
⠀⠀⠀Dozing off himself, the Gryffindor boy brushed away a wispy lock of hair from Manon's face. "You're wrong about one thing, Manon Potter. You deserve the absolute best."
{ ☆ ━━━ AUTHOR'S NOTE }
⠀⠀⠀OH MY GOD, you guys this chapter got me so emotional that I'm exhausted and sleepy because of crying too much.
⠀⠀⠀Everyone in this fanfiction (except for Voldemort because there will only be his dark side in this) is an absolute gem. From the beautiful starry named brothers, the arrogant but boyish stag, the self-hating werewolf, the red haired girl who knows how to put James Potter in his place to the lost Peter Pettigrew, the hurting and misunderstood Severus Snape, and the Ravenclaw Potter who tries her very hardest to tell beautiful people that they're beautiful.
⠀⠀⠀Beautiful is such an overused word, I am aware. It's used all over the place like a regular word but this is it's mistreatment. Because beautiful is one of the most beautiful words in English history, on it's own. Nothing can represent the absolute and actual beauty of things more than this word. It's actual meaning is so deep that it can penetrate the soul but it is overlooked when thrown into simple, everyday conversations and getting banned in the unofficial Writer's Dictionary because of it's overuse. This is so wrong.
⠀⠀⠀Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, beautiful people. Comment and vote, if you wish to make me happy. Stay blessed, safe and healthy. I literally love you all. No exaggerations, in pure honesty.
⠀⠀⠀ALSO: WhenTheFireComes I HONESTLY LOVE THIS CREATURE OF GOD SO MUCH OMG LOOK AT THIS:
⠀⠀⠀LOOK AT IT. LOOK AT THIS BEAUTIFUL PIECE OF ART. This is the first time someone has created something for ANY of my books (including Clashes, the Draco Malfoy one that I'm rewriting which for some unknown reasons got double-digit thousand votes and I still don't know why). She even got my name and the spelling of TRAGEDIES right omg I'm still so touched (she sent this in a while ago)
⠀⠀⠀Thank you so much ♡♡♡
from
dvrkcoffee