Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter and I don't make any money off this, etc. Blah blah blah
Second Year passed completely without any notable incident. The Marauders played pranks, the Marauders got detention, and so forth.
The Marauders were a notorious group around school by Third Year; the First years were wary of them. The Slytherins, naturally, pretended they weren't worried- most wouldn't survive the year unscathed for their insolence. The pranksters used Slytherins as tests for their new hexes and charms most often, though Remus didn't take much part in that. He was all for integrity when he could resist the call of his friends. He was afraid they'd drop him as soon as they found out about his lycanthropy, I'm sure.
"Lymph! Where's my textbook? Can't you use your own?" Lily shrieked. I sighed. She'd been acting so weird and distant lately. She was even yelling at me, which she'd never done before.
"I don't know where your textbook is, Lily. I didn't touch it. What class is it for?" I replied calmly and evenly. I was careful to keep my temper in check, as tonight was the full moon, and it was on a short leash already. She huffed in frustration.
"Charms. And of course you did something with it! Heather didn't, so it has to be you!" she whined. I grated my teeth together to stay rational.
"Lily, for the last time, I did not touch your Charms textbook. Is it the one sitting on the desk over there? I think it is, and I do not appreciate being blamed for its disappearance," I stated plainly. She sniffed and collected her book, leaving me alone in the dorm. What was going on with her? I walked into the common room, my loose black curls flawlessly intact, for once, though it seemed to me that their tips crackled with the fire of my frustration.
I collected my books for the day and met everyone in the Great Hall for lunch. Lily was talking enthusiastically with Heather about something, and by the look on her face, it was gossip. Remus could clearly hear what they were talking about, and he seemed beside himself with fury. By the looks of it, he wanted to shake Lily until her ludicrous words flew right out of her head. But, knowing Remus, he wouldn't. He had a better handle on the wolf, and a better handle on himself.
"Hey, what's going on?" I whispered, sitting across from Remus. With the full moon that night, I knew he'd hear me, despite the low volume. He looked up at me, and I could see flecks of amber and gold in his eyes. The wolf was seriously ticked off at something.
"Why didn't you tell me you were fighting with Evans?" he replied, just as quiet. I wondered at him calling Lily 'Evans.' He never called her that.
"I don't even know why we're fighting. She just starts yelling at me and blaming me for no reason…" I answered, not bothering to keep quiet. Lily turned to face me.
"If there were no reason, I wouldn't be yelling, now would I?" she announced, her tone snotty and superior.
"Well, I don't know the reason, and you refuse to tell me!" I countered, getting angry. She snorted.
"Of course you don't," she said sarcastically, "because Miss Rhea Lymph is oh so innocent." I gasped at her taunts. She still hadn't insulted me outright since she started acting weird. My eyes narrowed.
"Whatever it is I did, it's about to be dwarfed in comparison to what I'll do if you don't tell me what the fuck is going on!" I yelled. Without waiting for an answer, I stood up and stalked out of the Great Hall, feeling countless pairs of eyes boring into my back as I left.
The moment I reached the empty common room, I sank to the floor. I was leaning against a couch, but otherwise I'd have been lying on the floor. I was starting to feel stabs of betrayal for the first time in a long time. I hadn't felt that since I was barely old enough to understand that my mother had left me and wasn't coming back. Unexpectedly, a pair of arms wrapped around me comfortingly.
"It's okay, Rhea. She'll come around…" a honey-sweet voice soothed. The smell of chocolate and cinnamon enveloped me, and if I wasn't before, I was sure then that Remus was the one comforting me.
"We should probably go somewhere else. People are going to start coming back soon," I replied numbly. He nodded and pulled me up to the boys' dorms.
"I'd take you to your own room, but the stairwell is apparently charmed so that only girls can climb it. Or so I've heard," he explained without needing me to ask the question. We entered a room that was obviously either inhabited by boys or animals. Two of the beds were a mess, one was just covered in food, and the fourth was surprisingly neat for a boy. The only item out of place was a large bar of chocolate on the nightstand. This was the bed Remus led me to sit on.
"Chocolate?" he offered, breaking a chunk off the bar and holding it out to me. I accepted it gratefully. Even at my worst, I'd never refuse chocolate that I didn't suspect was poisoned.
"I hate girls. This is why I never had any friends. I used to be convinced boys had cooties and girls were just bitches all the time." Remus smiled sympathetically.
"I had a similar mindset, though I thought people were just bastards in general," he responded, his tone bitter. I looked up then, as it was rare for Remus to swear at all, and then remembered his childhood was spent alone because of his lycanthropy.
"Oh, Remus, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking-" I started, but he cut me off.
"Don't apologize; it's your turn to sulk now. God knows I do enough of that," he said. The corner of my mouth turned up a bit at that, but I couldn't bring myself to smile.
"I just can't believe she won't even tell me what's wrong!" I wailed, burying my face in his shoulder again. He hugged me tighter, and I swam in his scent of chocolate and cinnamon. I could've hidden there forever, in my own oasis.
To my dismay, tears trickled out of my eyes and down my face, only to be wiped away by Remus' thumb. I hated crying in front of anyone, as I was loathe to show weakness, and now I was crying in front of one of the people I liked the most. Then, there was a disturbance in the dorm.
Uh-oh, trouble in happy land! Yup, The Splintered Moon starts out with a bang! But yeah. I kind of said everything I needed to say in the last chapter of Her Silver Boggart, so if you missed that, go back and look at it.