"Aurelia!"
Aurelia ignored the voice and kept on walking.
"Aurelia!"
Finally, she turned around. Remus was panting, and after having caught up with her, he gave her a brief smile and looked at her hopefully.
"What is it Moony?" Aurelia asked, eyeing the piece of chocolate he was carrying in his hand. "I really don't have much time—"
"This is for you," Remus said, handing her the chocolate. "I thought you might...um... want some."
"I appreciate it," Aurelia said truthfully, "but why are you giving me this?"
Remus gave her a dumbfounded look. "Because I'm your friend."
He then paused, his expression turning into that of panic. "Unless you don't want to be anymore."
Aurelia chuckled nervously. "Of course I'm still your friend!" She looked around the area, trying to spot any of the other members of the troublesome group. "Where's Prongs, Wormtail, and Sirius?"
Remus noticed her bitter tone at the mention of Sirius, and awkwardly fumbled with the drawstring of his hoodie. "They're at the Three Broomsticks. I thought maybe — if you want to of course — we could talk..."
Aurelia hesitated, but nodded, allowing Remus to lead her to a tree by the Black Lake — a place where they often studied with each other. The two sat down by one another; Remus playing through his head how he was going to word everything to her.
"Sirius is sorry."
Silence.
"He says he was a git, and that hopefully he can make it up."
Silence.
"He cares about you."
Aurelia directed her attention to Remus, her eyes instantly hardening. "Doesn't seem to care about his brother."
Remus gave a defeated sigh. "Sirius did offer to take him. He just refused."
"He refused?"
His words caused Aurelia to look at Remus in pure shock. "Why would he refuse?"
"I doubt Regulus believes in the Potters' ideals of muggles and muggle borns being equal. From what Sirius has told me, he reckons their — I mean Regulus' — parents have the right idea."
Aurelia felt a familiar sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. "Oh."
Remus continued, "I don't know why Sirius said that he hadn't offered Regulus to come along with. I guess it was a hard topic. Prongs said that when Sirius showed up to his house, he looked devastated. I reckon it has to do with him."
Realizing he wasn't going to get a response, Remus searched inside his rucksack, finding four presents — three were badly wrapped while one seemed to have gotten a lot more dedication to it, and handed it over to her.
"Not to brag or anything," Remus pointed to the neatly wrapped present, "but that one is mine."
She opened his first, smiling once she saw a burgundy sweater. The material was soft to the touch, and Aurelia knew she would treasure it forever. "Thanks, Moony."
"It's nothing," Remus said softly. He then gestured to the other presents. "Open them."
Aurelia picked another one up. Instantly she could recognize it as Peter's, as the wrapping paper had small little rats munching on pieces of cheese. She opened it, revealing a book called Alice in Wonderland.
"It's a muggle book," Remus said, unknown to him that she knew exactly what kind of book Alice in Wonderland was.
Aurelia greedily scanned the pages. "My favorite kind of crack book. This is wonderful!"
"Well I suppose it's because it's Alice in Wonderland."
Aurelia gave him a look. "That was a horrible pun."
Remus looked embarrassed by his own words. "Yes, yes it was."
Next, Aurelia opened the present whose wrapping paper was decorated with little flying quaffles. Aurelia mentally rolled her eyes at James' enthusiasm when it came to quidditch. Personally she didn't find the game all that interesting.
Inside was a photo of all the Marauders. Sirius was giving Aurelia a piggy back ride whilst James was cracking jokes to Peter, who was laughing so much it caused him to fall over in the grass. Remus was looking at them in slight amusement and in slight humiliation.
Aurelia felt her eyes welling with tears, but she rapidly blinked them away. "Oh Prongs, whatever would I do without you?"
Aurelia opened the last gift. Inside were five charms — a moon, a stag, a dog, a rat, and a feather.