The road to Hogsmeade was not crowded, since it was winter holiday, and for the most part of the twenty-minute walk, the only thing that could be heard was the shuffling through the slushy snow. They were still tension between them, and the silence felt heavy between them, neither knowing exactly how to move from the relationship hole they had fallen into. Remus opened and closed his mouth several times in an attempt to start light conversation, but found he had nothing to say that might take the edge off of his previous anger and mistrust. He didn't know what else there was to say. He was still turning the events, or what he could remember of them, over in his mind. Glancing over to his right, he stared at a bundled-up Gabriela fidget in her heavy coat over her wings. It clearly wasn't comfortable but cutting vents would defeat the purpose of the coat. With a dry laugh, he threw his arm over her shoulders, pulling her close and kissing the top of her head, reveling at the warmth of her arms wrapping around his midsection as they marched, even as she kept struggling from getting stuck in the deep snow.
Remus chuckled, pulling her out a particularly deep pit where the snow had reached her knees. "Remember last year, during break, when we had that huge snowball fight on the grounds," he commented lowly, arm still slung around her as they neared the entrance to the village.
Gabriela smiled, bouncing a bit around as she remembered the encounter. "Sirius managed to bury Lily under about three feet of snow."
"And James didn't realize it until we were back at the castle!" He finished with a laugh.
"Lily got a hell of flu because of that!" She was now walking backwards, his hand, instead, clasped in hers, facing him as she did so. "I remember you hung me off the spear of that statue in the front grounds! I ripped my coat!"
"Only because you kept throwing tripping jinxes at me, so I'd land face-first in the mushy snow." He pouted as he said this, his tone in mock hurt.
"The objective was to defeat the enemy. You were the enemy!" Her grin spread on her face. "Regardless of how adorable you attempt to be."
Remus' face burned bright red, and not from the frigid wind. "Honeydukes?" He asked, trying to deflect the situation. With a positive nod, they shuffled into the shop and pulled down all manner of sweets. "Do you want chocolate frogs?"
"Yeah. That'd be nice." Remus reached over her and grabbed a handful of frogs for her, while Gabriela strained to get something off the top shelf.
"Here, let me. Atomic cherries, right?" She nodded. They had fallen back into their easy routine, the same way they had done for the past six years. He reached up from behind her. He had one hand on her shoulder and the other was reaching up to the bright pink box with her favorite candy in it. For a second, he swore that his brain was purposefully making him linger beside her of its own volition. "Here you go." His mouth had gone dry and as a result, his voice came out in a hoarse whisper. Remus stepped back before he did anything that he might regret later, making his way to the counter, to pay for both his and her stuff.
"Every bloody time. Lupin, I can pay for my own hecking stuff." Remus chuckled, relieved to momentarily see the Gabriela who didn't swear and basically had the vocabulary of a repressed eighty-year-old alive and well.
"You can also, in theory, follow basic instructions, but that doesn't seem to ever happen, either." He rolled his eyes, leveling his stare with a raised eyebrow, which caused her to smile uneasily.
"I follow those that I deem not utterly rubbish." She replied, trying to push a galleon into his pocket.
"If you try to do that, I will fucking have your fingers in a jar," his easy-going tone was quite the antithesis of the severity of his words.
"You really are quite foul-mouthed, Remus," she muttered, tossing a chocolate galleon into her mouth, annoyed that she couldn't slip the money in his pocket, probably due to a charm.
"I don't know, I rather think it's a charming character quirk, don't you?" His deadpan delivery earned him a shove. "Seriously, I don't want your money." His tone held a gentle finality and with an exasperated sigh, she returned the money back into her own pocket. She would repay him with a butterbeer or a treat from Zonko's. "You ready to go?"
She nodded, leading the way back to the cobblestone path. The silence was amicable as they walked towards the Three Broomsticks. Gabriela was popping Atomic Cherries into her mouth, causing Remus to shake his head in disbelief as he continued listening amusedly at the frankly violent popping in her mouth.
"I can't believe Remus is still hanging out with that demented magpie!" The hushed voices of some Hufflepuff girls did not escape either of them. Although, while Remus chose to ignore the prats and whatever horrid things they were whispering, Gabriela looked absolutely livid and was half a step away from an attack. "I know, she's so hideous! And did you see how she just dumped Parker Crow like that? I mean, it was Parker Crow!"
Gabriela gave Remus a significant look, and with a sigh, he conceded. "Yes, I know, you were right. I got the better half of the monster bargain." Although she wanted to contest his use of monster, she was still more concerned with the urge to pummel the girls into a fine pulp. "I know what you're thinking, and no." She sighed heavily, and a frown appearing on her face, that caused Remus to stop in his tracks. "Wait here."
He smiled pleasantly as he approached the posse, his hands locked behind him. "Hi, just a quick word, girls." He leaned in, charming as ever, drawing them in like moths to a flame. "If you lot dare call my friend anything derogatory ever again, it'll be the last thing you ever do. M'kay? Cheers!"
"We could report you for that!" One of them spat back.
With a sadistic smile, he replied, as he walked backwards away from them. "A prefect threatening a student— who would ever believe you?" He offered Gabriela his hand and they finished their journey to the pub a few minutes later.
"That was rather dark, Remus." The Ravenclaw remarked.
"I am all out of fucks to give today, Gabs. I really am." Remus held the door of the pub open for her and scurried through closely behind. He hopped onto the stool next to her, where she sat at the bar.
"What can I get you, dears?" Madam Rosmerta asked, leaning casually over the counter, a kindly smile on her face. "Firewhiskey, Remus?"
Remus grimaced, trying to push away the memories of the Firewhiskey and heaved a heavy sigh. "No, thank you, Rosmerta. A butterbeer will be just fine."
"And for you, darling?"
Gabriela bit her lip while she pondered about what to order. She looked over the bottles behind the counter with a smile. "I'll have a 'Blood of the Innocent'."
"Be right back with that, dears."
Distractedly, Remus watched Gabriela fiddle with the napkin on the bar top, watching her fold it over and over until a general shape began to form. Rosmerta placed their drinks in front of them with a smile. Gabby, leaned over, concentrated on her folding to drink deeply from the straw in the glass.
"Hey, take it easy with that! You're supposed to be making sure I don't get drunk!" Remus reminded her of the oath she had taken that morning.
"Exactly. If I get drunk you're morally obligated to not get drunk so I can get back safely to the dorm. Now do you see my impressive logic?"
Remus was silent for a moment. "So, what you're saying is, that you get to have all the fun while I get to baby-sit you?"
"Well, it's not as if this whole year hasn't just been you doing exactly that." Gabriela's cheeky grin forced a scowl from Remus, but that was quickly solved.
Remus turned back to the counter and with a charming smile beckoned Madam Rosmerta. "Rose, could you pass the Firewhiskey bottle?"
"Are you sure, Remus? Last time you had a couple of drinks you went a little over-board."
"Oh, I'm positive!"
Half an hour, a quarter bottle of Firewhiskey and four Blood of the Innocent later, Sirius had joined them at the tavern. Remus was trying his hardest to keep himself on the stool and Gabriela had turned into a bubbly, friendly figure, picking up random conversations with every passerby. She was now in Sirius' lap, nursing a drink in her left hand, while her right was wrapped around his hair. "You know, Sirius, your hair is lovely. I mean, it's so shiny and soft and it smells like berries."
His barking laughter filled the pub. "Ok, I think you should stop drinking now."
"No! I just want a couple more. They taste delicious." She hopped off of Sirius with incredible grace, even though she was quite drunk and hopped on Remus, whom immediately tensed and uttered a string of incoherent thoughts. "Remus, do you have any more chocolate?" He rummaged through his pockets until he found a very melty bar of Honeyduke's dark, which she promptly snatched away with a huge grin on her face. Happily, she clambered off the long-limbed man and pirouetted away, choosing a nearby booth as her with the chocolate in her hand and sank into a nearby booth. Sirius slunk towards Remus and patted him on the back.
"Explain to me again why you got her drunk?" His voice was amused, and that devilish grin didn't help much in making Remus feel any better.
"I did not get her drunk. She did that herself." He groaned, taking another swig from a glass of Firewhiskey he now had in his hands.
Sirius grinned, leaning the stool back on its two back legs. "So, Remus, there wouldn't happen to be any truth in the rumor that three Hufflepuffs received death threats from the friendly neighborhood Moony, would there?"
His friend had the good sense to look contrite, a guilty smile wolfishly stretching over his lips. "It was just that little Huffie tart that stalks me. She's never exactly liked Gabby, even when she wasn't, you know, all that," he finished, vaguely gesturing towards his friend, now unwrapping the chocolate bar with clumsy fingers.
"And then, you obviously told her you loved her, and all the sexual tension you built this morning ended with you shagging in the pub bathroom, yes?"
"Do you ever think of anything that is not shagging and, or me getting together with Gabriela?"
Sirius lifted his hand slowly, then, with impressive force, swept it across Remus' face, leaving a red mark on his face. "You are an idiot!" Remus opened his mouth to speak but was cut short. "I am only going to say this once, so listen carefully" He dropped his voice substantially. "It is statistically impossible for you two not to end up together. We've all known this since bloody first year. She loves you, you love her; your bloody werewolf loves her, and on the best of days, he doesn't even tolerate you." He groaned in exasperation, pointing Remus back in her direction. She had gotten the chocolate open and was gently licking her fingers from the chocolate that had dripped down the digits. "I mean look at her. She's really a good kid and she... she should really stop doing that unless she wants the male population to follow her, looking for the encore." Sirius furrowed his brow.
Remus raised an eyebrow and tilted his head to the side. Chocolate and Gabriela. That was a good combination. Gabriela covered in chocolate. That was even better. "I honestly can't tell if I'm hungry or horny." he muttered, surprised that the words had actually left the sanctuary of his mind.
The longer haired boy snorted, sipping from his own glass of Firewhiskey. "I mean, if you play your cards right, it can be both."
"Pads, and I say this with love, you are disgusting." He chuckled before taking another swig of amber liquid. A burly wizard with long blond hair had slid across the booth from Gabriela, who was blissfully unaware as she dealt with the melted chocolate within the candy wrapper. Remus rolled his eyes, surprised the girl had never gotten into worse trouble before. "Gabs!" He called, watching as the witch looked up, and started at the sight of the man across her.
"Stranger danger. Remus, hecking stranger danger!"
Remus whistled, the wizard turning to look at him in challenge. The werewolf simply pointed at his friend and darkly said, "Mine." After a tense few minutes of visual jousting, the stranger shuffled out, leaving the girl to continue licking chocolate off herself. "Gabs, I think you're missing the main issue."
She tilted her head curiously. "Feminism isn't nearly as popular as we thought it was?"
He couldn't contain the bubbling laughter that followed. "Sure, that's as good an explanation as any." He knocked back the remainder of his drink and waved her over. "Let's go home, doll."
