CHAPTER FIVE
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i. rumours and fairytales !

— THE BRILLIANT MORNING SUN BLED QUICKLY INTO A BREEZY AFTERNOON, and before anyone knew it, it had begun to diminish and fade into an evening of cascading warm hues, the setting sun painting the sky with a thousand wonderful colours and shades, blending together and dotting tiny pinpricks of light into the early twilight.

There was hardly a crowd to be spoken of along the castle grounds, apart from a huddled trio of boys, two maintaining a playful-sounding argument about some underground wizarding band they had opposing opinions on, and laughing boisterously as the other stood silently between them, ignoring the constant chaos before him as his eyes remained almost permanently glued to the large textbook in his hands.

"Twenty-One Warlocks is so overrated-" Dorian stated easily.

"Overrated? I can count the amount of T.O.W fans on ONE hand, and I personally know BOTH of them, you pretentious Twat." Sirius returned, sliding his messy, unknotted tie from his shoulders and using it to lightly smack Dorian across the face.

"Oh, don't start with the pet names." The Hufflepuff rolled his eyes in a joking manner.

"Why? Does it get you going?" Sirius voiced with a smug smirk tugging at his lips.

"You're an asshole."

"You're a dick."

"No, mate, that's you."

"What?"

"You are what you eat."

"Stop being mean to me or I swear to Merlin, I'm gonna fall in love with you!"

It had been going on, back and forth like this, for the past fifteen minutes, and Remus had somehow remained completely ignorant to the whole thing, retaining an unbreakable focus on the herbology book he had gotten so close to finishing. Nothing could tear his attention away from the page of spindly wiggentrees he had fixated on.

"Wendy!" Dorian greeted, causing Remus' head to snap up at neck breaking speed and his book to slam shut with an unexpected booming sound that nearly startled him.

There she was, in all her glory, rosy cheeked, frizzy haired, and slightly tripping over the front of her robes as she proudly held an ugly handmade necklace in the air.

"Told you I'd get you one, Doris." Wendy grinned, approaching the trio and standing on her tiptoes to toss the gaudy, colourful necklace over the boy's head. "Xenophilius had an extra, so now we can match!"

"Brilliant, that is." He laughed, fiddling with the plainly unattractive string of beads now around his neck and throwing an arm over the girl's shoulder.

"Looks lovely." Sirius agreed with a boyish smile, despite how very obvious it was to him, and anyone with eyes, that both necklaces were equally awful in design. Though it was also clear to him that Wendy loved the ugly little beads and bottle cork charm, "You should get me one."

"Ah, piss off, mate." Dorian huffed, placing a hand on the Gryffindor's head and ruffling his dark curls as he pushed Sirius away, "Her and I are matching now, and there's no room for three, you've gotta get your own thing."

"Not the hair!" Sirius swatted the hand away in an mockingly indignant manner.

"Why not? I thought you liked that." The Hufflepuff stated smugly, grabbing the red and gold tie from Sirius' hand and playfully swatting at his side with it.

"Oh, you wish."

"Well, I expect it's dinner soon, maybe we should get heading." Dorian swiftly moved past their lively and argumentative state and instead addressed the group as a whole, tossing the tie into Sirius' face with abandon.

"Actually, I was thinking I'd grab something from the kitchens." Wendy admitted, still hugged close to her fellow Hufflepuff's side. "There's a book in the library I've been wanting to check out, and Madam Pince has already set it aside for me."

Dorian frowned slightly, looking down at his dear friend, "Well, if she's set it aside, you can get it any time you like. Why don't you come to dinner with me?"

"With us." Sirius corrected, throwing his own arm over Wendy's shoulder so she had their arms awkwardly stacked and resting on her, though she didn't seem to mind, even as Dorian glared at the smirking gryffindor from just over the top of her head.

"I really wanted to grab it tonight!" Wendy responded, leaning into the boys in response to them resting their entire weight against her.

"But didn't you hear about that Samuel, the Slytherin fellow with the huge nose?" Dorian brought up, seemingly in a completely random fashion.

Wendy gently smacked the boy's chest reprimandingly, "Don't be rude, Doris."

"I'm not being rude! Moira said he's literally marketing himself out like that now that he's broken up with his girlfriend. Apparently he was trying to chat up some girl in their transfiguration class, and he was specifically referencing his massive nose." Dorian explained, a glint of humour in his eyes, "Which, to be fair, you know what they say about guys with big noses."

Wendy tilted her head in innocent curiosity, scrunching up her face in her momentary confusion, "What d'you mean?"

The trio of boys all shifted their gaze to the floor, or exchanged glances that confirmed they had all thought the exact same thing, and landed on the same conclusion. We're not telling her.

"Nevermind that." Dorian steered them away from that particular idea, and began to instead dramatically complain, "Point is, Moira was gonna tell me more tonight- something about poor idiot Samuel getting his nose broken- I can't go running off to the library and miss out on some interesting and vital information."

"You're a gossip mongrel." Wendy shook her head.

"Wait- why'd he get his nose broken?" Sirius butted in curiously, earning a pointed glare of amusement from the girl between them, ignoring the utterance of 'you're just as bad as he is'.

"Well, I'd find out if I went to dinner."

"I think you're forgetting, I never asked you to come with me!" Wendy laughed, shuffling out from under the boy's arms and finding a place at Remus' side instead, not seeming to notice that Remus had hardly been able to tear his eyes from her since she had arrived, his own book practically forgotten as he held it to his chest.

"Yeah, but I'm not letting you wander off on your own!" Dorian argued, in that overly worrisome sort of way.

"I'm not wandering, I'm going specifically to the library!"

"I-I could um- I could go with you." Remus finally spoke, trying to disguise his eagerness as he explained his reasoning and held up his large textbook. "I'm nearly finished with this one, I could grab the second edition tonight if I tag along."

Dorian snorted in a partially amused manner, "What, the first one wasn't boring enough?"

"Well, the second one's expanded- so it's got all sorts in it. More about trees, I think..." Remus trailed off, realising there was no convincing the Hufflepuff of how truly interesting the textbook had been, deciding to simply agree with his sentiment instead. "Yeah- no. Not boring enough. Gonna need the other one."

"Fair enough." Dorian shrugged, as his and Sirius' now free arms easily gravitated towards the other's shoulders, leaning against one another in a lazing fashion, "You keep safe though, the both of you."

"Will do." Wendy looped her own arm around Remus' and tugged him away, "Stay off the pineapple at dessert, by the way, you're still allergic to it, and I'm not there to stop you this time."

"Please." Dorian scoffed, "I do what I want."

"Sirius, restrain him." Wendy called jokingly over her shoulder, being met by an equally spirited response.

"With pleasure, ma'am!"

— AS REMUS AND WENDY WALKED THROUGH THE HALLS OF THE CASTLE TOWARDS THEIR DESTINATION, Remus couldn't help but mentally pat himself on the back. He'd done it. He'd created an opportunity to speak with the girl he was completely enchanted by. He could finally talk to her. Truly get to know her. Maybe even attempt to dazzle her in some form, in the way he'd always wished he was brave enough to do

"I um... I like your necklace." Yes, that's been said already- and with less stumbling, on Sirius and Dorian's parts.

"Thank you." Wendy smiled, hugging the boy's arm a little closer.

"It suits you." Remus tried again, giving his mouth complete control of whatever it wanted to say, hoping that it would be easier to talk if he didn't first overthink every single word. Some Gryffindor. He thought bitterly.

"Do you think so?" She asked, using her free hand to fiddle with the cork charm.

Remus nodded, his book knocking against his hip slightly as he held it to his side "It's colourful."

A silence fell over them for a moment, as the Hufflepuff looked curiously at the beaded string in contemplation, and Remus observed her for any signs that he could have possibly said the wrong thing. Merlin forbid he did.

"Today, some people told me... well, they thought it was... strange." She shifted her gaze to the floor as the implication of her comment infiltrated the space around them in the empty, echoing halls.

Some people found it strange. They thought she was strange. Perhaps Remus thought the same.

"Maybe a little." Remus had voiced, before he could stop himself.

That was exactly the 'wrong thing' he'd been worried about. It wasn't that he was naturally rude, but consistently and unforgivingly clumsy with his words. They tended to betray him, and say things he didn't truly mean- or come up with all the wrong ways to say things he really did mean.

"Oh."

"No- I didn't mean it like that." He rushed out at her crestfallen expression, "I- truly, I didn't mean it like that... I just meant- You-... I like the necklace. It- It's only a little bit strange, and it's the nice kind of strange, really, the kind that you think is compelling, and... and unique, and unthinkably fascinating. It's- that's your kind of strange. It's that kind of strange that's really quite lovely."

Remus shrivelled in the hush that followed, cursing himself for having bothered to open his mouth in the first place. He could have just bathed happily in the quiet with her at his side, relishing in their synced footsteps echoing about in the stone halls, and the hand wrapped carefully and kindly around his arm.

"Can strange really be lovely?" She asked after a while, tilting her head and slowing them both to a stop in the middle of the hallway, turning her attention to a great framed portrait on the wall before them.

Remus could hardly look away from the girl, as Wendy's steel blue eyes began to glisten in the warm, enchanted torchlight, appearing as bright, glittering oceans that filled his heart with that twisting, clenching, wonderful feeling he'd grown so accustomed to in her presence.

"When it's you." Remus stated plainly. "When it's you, there's no other way for strange to be."

"You think I'm lovely?" Wendy finally looked up at him, her friendly, fire-filled eyes causing the boy's breath to catch slightly when they were focused solely on him.

"I think you're brilliant."

Wendy smiled, nervously picking at her robes with her free hand as she studied the boy at her side, her gaze running along every scar and freckle, and the light pink colour of his cheeks. Before silence could pass over them again, Wendy spoke.

"Thank you."

It was a simple phrase, yet in their moment of pure connection, they both knew it ran deeper than that. Thank you. Thank you for the study notes, and the nice comments, and the steady, easy-going companionship. Thank you for knowing me. Thank you for trying.

Remus grinned, albeit a little lopsidedly, "So, what book were you looking to pick up, anyway?"

This one was a more complicated disguise, but just as easy to translate.

'Of course.' It read. Just beneath the surface of his excitement, mirroring her own growing enthusiasm as she launched into an explanation of one of her favourite children's stories, and how their library now had an enchanted copy with moving pictures. 'Who could ever wish to live without the privilege of knowing you?'

author's note

this is a chapter brought to you by our Thankmas fundraising efforts!! $150.00 on day one is unfathomable and unexpected I literally thought I'd have more time to prepare before you smashed that goal, but remind me not to underestimate you guys 😭😭

more chapters and more fundraising incentives are on their way, I prOmise, so keep up the amazing work <3