Dorcas was having difficulty sleeping, what with the thunderstorm roaring just outside her window. The silencing charm had worn off an hour ago and everyone else in her dorm seemed to have successfully fallen into impenetrable slumber.
With a grunt of frustration, she threw her legs over the side of the bed and resolved to seek out the peace and solitude of the abandoned common room. With a quick glance at her watch she found it was 4am, an optimum time to find the common room empty, everyone would be asleep, hopefully no one else had the same idea she had.
Unfortunately someone did.
It was Remus Lupin. The bookish, scrawny boy that hung out with the imps Potter and Black. How he managed to join their ranks was beyond her.
For a moment she stopped at the top of the stairs and watched him silently. He was still in his uniform, sitting on the floor hunched over the coffee table where books and parchment had been strewn about haphazardly. His face was hidden by his light brown fringe but she watched his nose at it twitched slightly and then without warning, he was looking up at the staircase at her.
"Hello?" he asked a little shakily.
Deciding it was juvenile to run back up and hide now that she had been caught, she pulled her robe more tightly around her and descended the stairs. "Hi Remus," she said dully. He gave her a shy little smile and began collecting his things. "Oh! No, you don't have to leave on my account, please," she sat on the sofa directly behind him, "I just came down here 'cause I couldn't sleep." She pulled her feet up onto the sofa, leaning back to rest her head on the arm, she watched the boy with bated breath as he turned to look at her.
"You're Dorcas, right?" he asked. She nodded.
"Yup, we've only sat next to each other in potions for the whole semester."
There was a loud crack of thunder, neither of them jumped.
"Yes," he shook himself from his thoughts, "yes, sorry. Potions is never really my strong suit, I do my best to pay attention."
"Must be hard with Potter constantly chattering in your ear." The boy gave a little laugh at that.
"Yes it gets quite annoying," he said brightly. He drew his legs up to his chest and made to lean his side up against the front of the sofa, he looked at her properly for the first time and she saw how truly tired he looked and wondered how long he had been awake for.
"Did you get any sleep at all?" she asked. He shook his head.
"I get these awful bouts of insomnia. The storm's actually done a good job keeping me up. Did the soundproofing charm wear off up there?" he asked, sounding genuinely curious.
"Oh, do the boys use one too? I thought us girls were the only ones clever enough to use them."
He gave a light laugh, "They didn't until I showed up." Halfway through his sentence she saw his tone and expression warp into something like shame. She frowned at him, trying to riddle this odd little sixth-year out.
"Are you alright?" she asked.
"Yeah! Sorry I'm a little…out of sorts today," he said with a sad smile. She had the feeling that Lupin was hiding something. She couldn't figure out if his being so vague was enticing or annoying.
"You sick?" He let out a breathy laugh and began to nervously fumble with his fingers. She had decided that Lupin was a dreadful liar. "Can't be anything that bad, otherwise what would you be doing here?"
"I tell myself that all the time…" he said softly, more to himself than to Dorcas.
She hadn't spoken to Remus that long and already she was beginning to understand that there was a darkness, a deep sadness to him that he fought hard to never let show. It must have been divine intervention to catch Remus in such a vulnerable state, she thought. He looked truly tired, sitting there before her, and not just in need of sleep, Remus looks mentally and emotionally tired. Maybe what he needed was a friend, maybe someone to talk to that wasn't one of those bumbling idiots he was always hanging around with, maybe he needed fresh ears to listen.
"Remus, you are far more interesting that I originally gave you credit for." He looked up at her with his wide puppy-dog eyes, confusion etched into his brow. "I mean, whatever it is you're going through, if you want someone to…" the words came out before she could stop herself, "talk to."
"Thanks. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable…here you are looking for peace and quiet and I'm here-"
"You apologize way too much, you know that?" she said, smiling at him, he smiled lopsidedly back at her.
