Remus Lupin Comfort 🤎

sorry

when y/n woke up, she didn't remember where she was at first. slowly, then all at once, the details flooded back to her. hermione. the library. lupin... oh god lupin. he knew. he knew everything. why the hell did she decided to burden him with all of her problems? god, she was disgusted with herself.

her heart rate doubled as she quickly stood up, grabbing her belongings. it was still early in the morning, somewhere around 5ish. she looked in the next room to confirm that lupin was still asleep. he was. y/n scribbled out a short note, and left it on his bedside table.

thank you for listening -y/n y/l/n

she quietly slipped out into the corridor. still deciding where she wanted to go, y/n wandered for a little while. finally she settled on heading back to her dorm to shower.

she turned a corner, and immediately came face to face with none other than hermione granger.

"y/n! where have you been? padma said you never returned to your dormitory. i've been looking everywhere for you. are you ok?" hermione gave her a suffocating hug.

"i'm ok 'mione, promise," y/n grunted from under the chokehold. "i'm sorry for getting mad at you, you didn't do anything wrong."

"no i'm sorry, i should've realized you needed space, and i shouldn't have said all those things at the end. but what's going on? you're my best friend, and i want you to be able to tell me things!"

in her heart y/n knew hermione had a point. she had kept hermione at arms length for as long as she could remember. never letting her in, never taking off the mask.

"i-" y/n's voice turned all high pitched and wobbly. "i feel like shit."

don't cry, don't cry, don't cry.

"oh y/n, you don't have to carry this all by yourself." yes, she did. she couldn't burden anyone with her problems.

"i don't want to put that on you."

"i want you to let me carry some of the load. that's what friends are for." hermione took a deep breath. "there's therapy, also. and not just muggle therapists, wizard ones too. it helps. it might not seem like it will, but they know what they're doing."

"how do you know all this?"

"sweetie, i'm like the most anxious person on the planet, you must know that my parents have had me in therapy since i started school," she said exasperatedly.

y/n stared. it never occurred to her that hermione might also have mental health issues. it probably should have, but she'd been so focused on her own issues, that it completely flew under her radar.

hermione observed y/n's shocked facial expression and stifled a laugh. "or maybe you didn't know."

"well in my defense-"

"it's fine y/n, i just forget that most people don't observe patterns like i do. so what do you say? do you want to look into therapy?"

she considered. "i guess i can ask professor lupin about it."

hermione smiled. "lupin's a really great person. i'm proud of you for letting him help you last night."

and for just a second, y/n allowed herself to be proud too.