Orphic » Sirius Black

Chapter 13 - Tittle-Tattle

CW: homophobic slur

The next week, everyone at Hogwarts speculated about what had happened to the Marauders. Not only because the atmosphere was quieter than usual, but also because the group was now reduced to three. It was an unsettling sight for all, including the professors, to have James Potter, Peter Pettigrew, and Sirius Black without Remus Lupin.

Rumours spread like a virus through the air. Some said that Remus got tired of doing their schoolwork, that he finally had enough and decided to take a break from their rubbish. Others thought that, in the middle of planning a prank, something had gone wrong, causing Remus to storm out of the Gryffindor tower right after the yelling from the dorm reached the common room. A few even believed that Remus had betrayed James and had been dating Lily in secret for a while, that's why he had been around her more often than the rest. Juniper knew any of those were true.

It took her a while to comprehend what James and Peter told her when they cornered her before class and blurted out what happened after Remus got back to the dorm a couple of nights ago. James was particularly worried because Sirius hadn't spoken a word since he woke up, and was afraid that Remus had gone too far. Luckily—for all of them—the raven haired boy had just been overwhelmed, and had decided to remain quiet until later that day.

Juniper was preoccupied. It was odd seeing Remus without his friends, and even though he tried to hide the fact that he was deeply affected, he treated her as usual whenever they were at Ancient Runes class, the only one they shared that the rest of his friends didn't.

Several times Juniper had asked Remus how he was holding up, but she was sure he only said that he was fine so she would stop worrying. She had also kept in touch with James, who had almost the same level of concern as her. But simply there was nothing either of them could do to get Remus to open up about it. He seemed fine avoiding his friends at the maximum, even if it was breaking him inside.

She had noticed that he was not completely alone, though. Lily had been accompanying him, which caused that ridiculous rumour about them dating to spread. Juniper had never heard such an absurdity before, yet it was good to see Remus with someone else rather than his own company. However, she felt like she had to do something, too. They were friends, afterall.

And so she proposed something to him. She didn't even wait for the class to dismiss; she wasn't listening, anyway.

"Remus, would you like to go to the Great Hall with us after class? Just Judson, Maverick and I. It might be fun."

Remus stared back at her. "What for?"

"Dunno," she shrugged. "Just hang out. We may even study a bit. Or just talk."

"I'm not sure," he said. "I don't want to intrude or anything."

"No, it's completely fine! Right, Jud?" Juniper elbowed Judson, who was sitting on her right. He looked up, smiled, and nodded.

"Yeah, sure," he said, chuckling. "You're not disruptive."

"Alright," he agreed. Then, the three of them turned to pay attention to the rest of the class.

Once it was finally over, Judson and Juniper were the first to get up, and she grabbed Remus by the arm. "Let's go."

They walked down the stairs and to the Great Hall. Remus walked a little behind the pair, who were immersed in a conversation about Lou Reed's latest record.

"Finally!" Maverick yelled from the far end of the table once he saw them walking down to him.

"Sorry for the delay," groaned Judson as he dropped his bag to the ground, sat down and took the uniform's pointy hat off.