I claim the rights to nothing but Brede and Rosemary.
A low moan issued from a huddled heap ungracefully slumped on the dusty hallway floor. The mass of robes, dark, wavy hair, and pale, freckled limbs stirred experimentally. A face suddenly emerged from the jumble, and the bemused features belonging to a female student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry known for her "cool as a cucumber" personality quickly adopted an expression of concern, then horror. A watch was hastily whipped out, and a louder groan sounded, followed by several thumps as the frizzed mess of hair was gently banged against the millennia aged wall.
A teenaged girl's figure soon materialized in place of the lump, and newly wrinkled and dirty robes were ineffectually straightened and cleaned off. Brede sighed, and coming to terms with the fact that she would return to the Griffindor common room looking like a tornado victim, she slowly sauntered off to face the inevitable questions and snickers.
As she put one foot before the other, she considered the events of the day. Her panic attack, Remus's concern and discovery of her hiding place... What must he think of me now? was a primary question haunting her mind. Another pressing matter was the explanation she would be forced to give to the rest of her housemates. She had missed dinner, and no one had seen her, excluding Remus's five minute attempt to rescue a damsel in distress, since early afternoon. She was known for random disappearances, but as her empty stomach was now reminding her, she never missed meals.
As the odds that a flippant and ad-lib explanation would be taken at face value sunk in, Brede's steps slowed to a stop and she felt about ready to cry again. She forced herself to breathe deeply and slowly and desperately attempted to coagulate a reasoning that included Remus's unintentional interloping and a missed dinner. "I was snogging with Snape" just didn't cut it, and her little tendency to fall off the edge several hundred feet into a ravine at a moment's notice was also an unacceptable inclusion.
She sighed, and decided to allow her renowned acting skills to explain for her. Picking her reluctant feet up once more, Brede imagined she was back in muggle school in the US, lacking a care in the world other than that night's homework, or whether to be the mother or the daughter in a game of house, or even how many tanks to launch against her brother's opposing army.
That thought was quickly quenched, and Brede vowed, for the thousandth time, to never recall a fond family memory again. She fervently beseeched her patron saint, Bridget, for support and inspiration in her present state of confusion and traumatized nerves. The urge to simply crawl into a hole and die was virtually overwhelming, but Brede, a procrastinator of the worst kind, forced the powerful inkling to a deep, dark corner of her brain, to be carried out at a later date.
With a start, she realized she was approaching the portrait of the fat lady. Taking several deep breaths and focusing on Potions and the library, Brede greeted the fat lady in a voice that betrayed nothing even nearing her true feelings. After pronouncing the password past an increasingly clumsy tongue, she hoisted herself into the...empty common room?
In the center of the large chamber, a terribly confounded Brede slowly rotated in place. Suddenly, the fifth year students burst from their respective dormitories. An earth-shaking roar of "Surprise!" reached her ears, and the last thing she saw before consciousness fled was a cake sporting the words "Happy Birthday!" in a violently cheerful shade of pink.
"It's been so long...D'you think the yelling was too much?"
"She's been looking even paler than usual recently, she matches the sheets a little too well."
"I didn't think a non-albino could be any lighter than she already was."
Brede's eyes suddenly snapped open, and as she raised a shaky hand to rub her throbbing forehead, she muttered, "Alright, alright, no more comments from the peanut gallery regarding my skin tone..." The pair of faces hovering next to her bed chuckled quietly at her dry comment, but both bore tinges of concern. "Don't look so worried, m'dears. I'm sure it was just low blood sugar. Seeing that mountain of sugary fatness probably shocked my system...who selected that beautiful shade of Barbie pink, by the way?"
Lily Evans and Rosemary Coffey laughed once more and shook their heads in tandem. Just then, Madam Pomfrey bustled in, expressing quite passionately, her opinion on visiting those in a "delicate" condition. Brede, equally vehement, argued on her dorm mates' behalf, and earned a five-minute reprieve and a stern look.
Lily and Rosemary's expressions turned serious once more after the nurse's departure, and both eyed her penetratively. Lily spoke first, "I don't buy it, Miss Kearney." Her no nonsense tone made Brede flinch inwardly. Had she been that obvious recently? Rosemary's inquiry was no less suspicious.
"What has been going on with you lately. I mean, you've been sleeping erratically, you've been a million miles away during classes, you haven't been eating, and frankly, we're all very worried about you."
Here it comes... thought Brede. I'm sure Remus immediately ran to everyone, only out of innocent worry, of course, and related the tale of their strange encounter that afternoon. Speaking of which, she wondered, What time is it? She echoed this question out loud, causing the pair before her to flinch slightly.
"Well, that's just it, really. You see, I mean to say, it's, well, it's..." Lily stuttered, choking on her own words.
Rosemary elbowed the currently incapable speaker, and said "I'm sorry, dear, but you were out for, well...it's Tuesday."
Brede lay there, stunned. "You mean to tell me, I mean...well, my God, what happened...I've been out two days?" She seemed to have acquired a similar condition to Lily's, but the two girls didn't notice.
That's why we've been so worried, you know," said a partially recovered Lily. "You were out so long, and you've been so out of it recently..." Brede noticed, however, there'd been no mention of any unusual conversations with certain male members of their class, and she thanked Remus mentally many, many times.
"I've just been really stressed recently, you know that. With the OWLS and all." As she crossed her mind's imaginary fingers, Brede knew this sounded lame, even to her own ears, because she was Brede Kearney, famed slacker and non-stressor. She took one of the most relaxed attitudes towards school possible, and still managed to earn good grades. Hopefully, however, they'd buy her explanation, and then she could just resume her typical behavior and pretend nothing strange ever happened. Except that encounter with Remus...she groaned internally. How could that be explained away? Although he hadn't told the girls, he could have shared the experience with the boys, and even if he kept it completely to himself, he was still probably very suspicious. There were simply too many unknowns. She'd have to do a bit of detective work when she was released from the land of white sheets and Madam Pomfrey's mysterious potions.
This point was moot at the moment, however, as the people she had spent the majority of the last four and change years with stared her down. They did not look convinced. Rosemary raised a single eyebrow, and echoed Brede's own thoughts of only a moment before. "The famed slacker worried about school work? Since when? Not that we would discourage such thoughts in that mysterious mind of yours, but come on!"
Lily's expression was slightly more forgiving, but only just. "We'll buy it for now, Kearney, but if you want to talk, we're always here." Brede again felt an almost irresistible urge to simply give in, reveal all, get the crushing burden off her chest, but then she recalled what the probable result would be, and she quickly squelched the thought.
"I'm really and truly fine, I promise." Lying got easier and easier, she found.
"If you're sure..." Rosemary didn't seem wholly convinced, but she also seemed ready to let it slide. Temporarily, anyway.
"We should get back. It's almost nine o'clock...Unless you'd like us to stay, we could probably wheedle some more time out of Madam Pomfrey." Lily didn't seem terribly enthused to leave Brede alone.
"Really, you two. I'll be absolutely wonderful tomorrow. Right as rain, and all that. Sleep well, and I'll be as chipper as ever for double Potions, first thing." Brede pasted a incredibly large and immensely false smirk upon her face as they both cringed and said, "Now scoot."
"If you're sure..."
"I am" she promptly inserted.
"We'll see you tomorrow then. Get rested up for classes."
"G'night. Don't let those bed bugs bite!" The pair chuckled once more, and departed.