Chapter 16: Clarity and Chicken Wings

"My my Mr Lupin. This makes it five afternoons in a row, I'm very impressed," Professor McGonagall commented and Remus quietly entered the study hall and took his now regular seat. He nodded in acknowledgement, before removing his belongings from his bag and set them up around him.

"You're not going to stare at me again, are you?" A voice whispered from across the table. Looking up he discovered he'd sat down across from the Ravenclaw 4th year girl again. Seriously, were there no other Ravenclaws in this school?

"If you are just give me a bit of a heads up would you? Coz it's a bit off putting and even though I much prefer this room, I will get up and go down to the one on the second floor if it will make studying easier," she continued, the corners of her mouth rising up slightly. Remus just shook his head silently and opened his History of Magic textbook.

"I was joking," she said when Remus didn't bother to reply, and returned to her studies. Remus lifted his head to answer but thought better of it. He did not need another distraction, no matter how minor. OWLs would be upon them soon and he was determined to do well.

Another person fully aware of the impending doom that was their O W L s was Felicity, who was currently hunched over her books at the other end of the row. No matter how many times she read and reread the history of the Goblin Wars, she could not make it go into her head. She'd tried flashcards and making up songs to remember dates but there was no way she could make the events of Goblins battling other Goblins, with all the blood and guts, interesting.

She groaned, probably a bit too loudly than what was deemed acceptable in a study hall, and smacked her head on her textbook. Very few people bothered to look up, as the noise that issued was what many of them felt at that precise moment, but one such individual did look up when they heard the sound.

"You alright?" Remus asked, recognising the girl. She mentally groaned again before pulling herself back up into the up right position.

"What, now you care?"

"You know what, don't worry about it," Remus shook his head and returned to writing his notes.

"Typical," Felicity murmured and shut her textbook. She was getting no where and another hour of rereading the same paragraph wasn't going to get her anywhere, she'd just have to ask Lily when she got back to the common room.

"Excuse me?" Remus harshly whispered down the table "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Oh nothing, only that you never care about anyone but yourself and don't look at the mess you leave behind," Felicity retorted, shaking her bag quite violently to try and make her belongings fit inside.

"Whatever,"

"My point exactly,"

"What the hell is your problem?" Remus yelled, causing everyone in the room's heads to turn. They may have ignored grumbles but yells were a different matter entirely.

"Mr Lupin, I appreciate your presence here but if you wish to remain so I would have to ask you to please refrain from outbursts in the future," McGonagall ordered, gesturing for everyone to continue back with their work. Felicity just glared at him, her eyes livid, before swinging her bag onto her back and stalking from the classroom. In one swift motion, Remus' belongings were in his bag and he was running out after her.

"Hey! I asked you a question!" He yelled down the corridor at Felicity's retreating figure.

"And with manners like that its no wonder I haven't answered!" Felicity yelled back, beginning to run, but she was no match for Remus who soon caught up with her and grabbed her arm.

"Let go of me!" Felicity cried, trying to pull her arm free but Remus just dragged her across the hall into an empty classroom and slammed the door behind them.

"Ow!" Felicity glared at him as he released and she rubbed her sore arm "I can't believe you just did that – that was so rude and mean-"

"Felicity, just answer the question. Please" Remus sighed, seating himself on top of the teacher's desk, his tired grey eyes watching her.

"What was the question again?" Felicity asked, still rubbing her arm as she sat down on a desk in the second row "Oh wait, it was 'what the hell was your problem', wasn't it?"

"No, I mean, yes, I guess that's what it came out like, but what I was asking about was the meaning behind your comment about me caring,"

"Well it's true, isn't it?" Felicity inquired "You really didn't care. About anyone. I guess me in particular. You didn't care that I was head over heels for you but even though you didn't feel the same you decided to indulge in my fantasy. You could have said yes in the first place because you were unsure how to spare my feelings, which is understandable, but I can tell you that probably the worst way you could have 'let me know' was by kissing my best friend in the common room, and then subsequently, hook up every time I was around, practically shoving it in my face. I know I didn't seem particularly bright but I wasn't thick, I got the message. You just didn't care that it hurt me every time not only when I saw you together, but when I only saw you! I know you're not all to blame, after all it does take two, but I always thought you were better than that Remus. But I guess maybe you two deserve each other,"

The silence hung in the air a while after Felicity finished talking, but neither of them made a move or tried to make a break for it. Instead they sat silently in the empty classroom, Remus looking down at the ground and Felicity soothing her arm with gentle strokes.

"I'm sorry," Remus said finally, looking up and daring to make eye contact with Felicity.

"I appreciate that but it does little for me now,"

"But I was with Claudia first so I guess going out with you was the wrong thing to do, obviously. Isn't it a thing with you girls, no dating the exs?" Remus shook his head sadly and leaned back on the desk with his hands.

"Yes but what if the best friend and the ex love each other and they were meant to be together? It seems stupid that they shouldn't be happy, just because 3 years ago he went out with her best friend for 2 weeks!"

"You think we're meant to be together?"

"Well I obviously don't think so now" Felicity snorted "You don't treat someone you love the way you treated me. Even if you did a complete 180 and decided you couldn't live without me there is no way I could ever trust you again. I had a crush on you for 3 years and it only took you a second to crush me without second thought. But that's alright, I'm getting over you. I'm becoming a better person without you and Claudia in my life. I have real friends in Lily and Jessica for the first time in my life, who love me for me and don't judge me if I do better than them on a test or if I dress better than them and I'm able to speak more eloquently now with all those stupid 'oh my gods' and whiny comments. I've eaten more than a stick of celery at a meal! So even though what you did to me may have been the worst thing that has ever happened to me, because it happened I am in the best place I've been since I started Hogwarts,"

Felicity jumped up off the desk and made her way to the door of the classroom, glad that Remus hadn't jumped to his feet to bar her entry. He remained seated on the teachers desk, following her only with his eyes.

"You really have changed," was his only comment, and she could tell he meant it genuinely.

"Don't get me wrong, what you did was terrible. It sucked. It was complete pants. But thank you," she gave him a small smile and slipped out the door, leaving Remus in a room filled only with his thoughts.

-:-

The group instantly hushed their conversation when they heard the door to the kitchens swing over, but upon discovering the intruder was Felicity they all jumped up in excitement.

"Fe! Where were you! We were looking for you everywhere!" Lily asked, jumping up from her seat and hugging her friend before escorting her over to the table.

"In the study room with McGonagall" she replied as she seated herself between James and Jessica. Sirius nodded knowingly from across the table.

"Oh course, the one place we never thought to look,"

"Are you hungry? We've nearly finished but we could get you some more," Jessica asked but Felicity shook her head and helped herself to one of the few remaining chicken wings.

"No it's okay. If I'm still hungry after the rest of these I'll just fill up on dessert,"

"And that's the one thing we never thought we would hear uttered from her lips," Sirius stared at her in mock horror, which rewarded him with a kick in the shins from Jessica.

"Oww what was that for? It's the truth!"

"Don't discourage her!" Jessica ordered as Sirius bent down to consol his bruise shins.

"So why have you been looking everywhere for me?" Felicity asked as she finished her first chicken wing and picked up another, Sirius still staring at shock due to her willing consumption of food.

"We've put our brains together, well the few of us lucky to possess them, and we've finally come up with the mother of all plans!" Lily revealed gleefully and the others all beamed out of pride. Felicity looked blankly at the members of the group before turning back to Lily and asking

"Mother of all plans to do what?"

"Uh, to finally get Remus to come to his senses and to make Claudia's life like hell? You know, that one? Personally I had a better plan to try and create a slide from the Gryffindor common room down to the kitchens but alas, I was out voted," James sighed, attempting to help himself to the second last chicken wing but Jessica slapped his hand away.

"Oh, uh, well, that was very nice of you guys. But I don't think we need to put a 'plan into action'," Felicity said calmly before continuing on with her chicken wing. Lily swore even the house elves stopped working out of surprise.

"Uh, I'm sorry, must have misheard you. WHAT?" Sirius demanded, snatching the plate of chicken wings away from Felicity and placing them on the other side of the table. Even Jessica was too shocked to stop him.

"Can we ask why?" Lily asked her a little more calmly as they four of them continued to stare at Felicity like she had just cracked.

"Well, because I guess I'm not too concerned about the outcome anymore,"

"Honey, has something else happened? Have you decided that you don't love Remus anymore?" Lily gently asked, her voice becoming hushed.

"I think deep down I'll never stop loving Remus. I don't think it's possible to ever stop loving someone. But yes, I'm no longer IN love with him. What both of them did was terrible, it sucked. But Remus is suffering with his school work and Claudia is suffering from loosing Remus so what's the point?"

"You do remember the whole 'they ruined your life' thing you were crying several times a night, right?" Jessica reminded, tapping her on the head "All the days we couldn't get you out of bed, or even from out under your doona?"

"But we're teenagers! We all make mistakes. And ruining their lives isn't going to make me happy, I'm already happier than I was right here with you guys," Felicity smiled at the group and gently placing the left over bone back on the plate which Sirius was too stunned to pull away again. "I'm not okay yet, I don't think any of us are okay yet, but don't worry, things will fall into place soon,"

And with that Felicity stood up and exited the kitchen, leaving all her friends staring dumbfounded after her.

"Well there you go, never in a million years had I picked her to become the smart one," Sirius said when he was finally back in control of his words, in time to find James' hand pulling away from the plate with the last two chicken wings clutched firmly inside.

"Hey! You only get one!" Sirius yelled, grabbing one back off James and licking it to claim it as his own.

"You think she's serious?" Jessica asked Lily, both of whom ignored the boy's display of food dominance.

"I dunno, she looked pretty calm, but then again she WAS eating chicken…"

"I just don't see how she could let them off the hook like that. I know if it was me that my best friend double crossed and betrayed me and the boy I had been in love with forever did that to me I wouldn't be this nice. And I'd be eating a lot more of these," Jessica gestured to the freshly made banana split with bubblegum ice cream and chocolate sauce and coloured sprinkles that a house elf just delivered right in front of her.

"Maybe she's trying to be the bigger person? And it has been a few months now since the first 'incident', maybe she's finally over it?" Lily tried to reason but James just shook his head.

"Stop trying to analysis Felicity's mind. Even females have no clue how that thing works. But if you two are still pissed off at Claudia, that doesn't mean you just have to sit idly by because Felicity doesn't want to do anything. You can get her back for all the years of mistreatment she's made you two suffer through?"

Jessica and Lily exchanged glances at each other and grinned.

"Yes, I quite like the sound of that,"

A/N: So three years huh… probably some sort of record for someone to go and then to actually post another chapter! I'm not sure how many of my followers are still interested or even still using this site but I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed writing this chapter. Thank you to all my readers who have reviewed over the last few years and asked me to continue, it is because of you and your love for this story that this chapter is possible! I hope it's not much different in terms of flow and character and plot, I've tried to match it as best I could. Unfortunately I have forgotten in which direction this story was initially meant to go in but I hope the path I have decided on now is okay. This story is nearly over, I'd say there's probably another maybe 3 chapters to go? I shall endeavour to post them and promise I will not leave you this long again! If you've just discovered this story, welcome! As always, reviews, comments and criticism are always appreciated!

Moonlight Honeysuckle xox