CHAPTER SEVEN
Remus Lupin couldn't remember being bitten, he was too young when it happened. But some nights his oldest scar, the crescent shaped bite mark that resided on his left thigh would ache so painfully that sleep seemed impossible.
When he was at home and the phantom pain would shoot up his leg, his mother, Hope Lupin, would make him homemade hot chocolate. But he wasn't hat home, he hadn't been at home for nearly two weeks, so with his heart hammering in his chest and left thigh throbbing he wandered down to the Gryffindor common room.
The room, which Remus was so used to seeing brightly light and filled with noise, was quiet and dimly lit. Though it wasn't the first time he'd wandered into the common room all alone at night Remus still felt off when he stepped off of the boys stairs and onto the soft rug.
The werewolf had to admit though, if there was one perk about being in the common room late at night it would be the fact he got the couch closest to the fire- though at the moment it was dying embers. Remus had just settled himself on the couch when he heard bare feet hitting the stone stairs that lead to the girls dormitories.
Remus peered over the red couchs back to see Ambrosia Harkins emerging from the dark stairway.
"Ambrosia?" Remus called. He was tired- was was nearly two in the morning according to the large grandfather clock in the back corner -but he didn't think he was tired enough to imagine the girl he liked coming into a deserted common room in nothing but her nightie.
Ambrosia, whose hair was put into two messy plaits and a thin nightgown that only reached the bottom of her calf looked startled at hearing her voice being called.
Her eyebrows came together-as did her lips. It took her a second to find the source of the voice. "Remus? Wha-what are you doing up?" The tips of her lips slipped upwards ever so slightly when she caught sight of the him, making the ghost of a smile appear on his lips aswell.
Remus adjusted himself so he was sitting up against the arm of the couch, "I could ask the same of you." Ambrosia's tongue darted out to wet her lips. Her body seemed to tense up at the question and though the small smile never left her face, for a second Remus wondered if she would lie to him and tell him it was nothing, or that she would turn back and head up to her dorm.
"Nightmare," she told him quietly, "You?" Remus felt his throat close shut momentarily because it's not like he could tell her he was a werewolf and that it was the bite that turned him that was bothering him. But it's not like he could outright avoid her question.
"My leg," he said slowly, "I got hurt when I was a small boy and sometimes it acts up." He shrugged it off like it was no big deal, and though she looked like she didn't buy it, Ambrosia nodded anyway.
"Do you mind if I sit with you?" That's when Remus noticed that she was still standing behind the couch.
"Oh of-of course!" Remus when to move his body so that he wasn't stretched across the couch, but Ambrosia saw him wince so instead, with out stretched hands, a concerned smile and a worried look in her eyes she told him not to move.
"I'll just sit in a chair." Remus didn't tell her that he didn't want her to sit in a chair, that he wanted her to sit with him on the couch. Instead he stayed quiet as she sat in the cushioned seat next to him. The chairs cushions seemed to wrap around Ambrosia and swallow her whole.
"What did the baby corn ask the mother corn?" Ambrosia joked.
"What?" Remus asked.
"It's a muggle joke Mary told me," she answered. "So, what did the baby corn ask the mother corn?" Ambrosia asked with a cheesy smile.
"I dunno," Remus smiled back.
"Where's popcorn!" Ambrosia couldn't help but laugh at her own joke, while Remus, with a good natured eyeroll chuckled along with her.
"How do you make an eggroll?" Remus wondered, wearing knowing smile.
"How?" Ambrosia asked, grabbing a pillow and leaning on it.
"You push it!" Ambrosia pushed the pillow up to her face to stifle the loud laughter escaping her.
After a few more painfully corny jokes on both magical teens ends a peaceful quiet fell over the room.
"Hey Remus?" Ambrosia asked after a minute,
"Yeah Ambrosia?" Remus wondered if she would ask how he hurt his leg-which if she did would send him into a panic due to the fact he wouldn't be able to answer.
"Your mum's a muggle right?" Remus raised a honey colored eyebrow at her.
"Yeah why?"
"It's just when I stayed with her, Lily took me to a roller rink over the break and I was wondering if you've ever been to one."
"A roller rink?"
"Yeah," she smiled largely, making his heart squeeze tightly in his chest.
"I've never heard of it, sorry." And he was, Remus full heartedly wished he knew what a roller rink was so he could talk to her about it.
Ambrosia's smile never faltered, instead she shrugged and her cheeks got just a slightly bit wider, "It's this place where you pay people to-" she started to yawn, "-To give you odd shoes with wheels on them and you ride around on them and far out mus-" yawn, "And far out music plays and you can eat cool muggle foods."
"That sounds-" Remus yawned, "-Really groovy." Ambrosia yawned again, only to giggle. To Remus her giggle was so much better than any far out music he'd ever hear. She rested her head on red velvet pillow she was holding close to her.
"I think you're groovy Remus," she murmured with a sweet smile on her face as she drifted off to sleep, leaving a tired Remus on the couch, wearing a love sick grin.
"She thinks I'm groovy," he murmured as his own eyelids became heavy, allowing sleep to quickly take him.