TW AND CW: light to heavy cursing

"I don't get it," sighed Marlene. "You kiss him on the cheek and he doesn't talk to you at all?"

Ana tutted. "We're in different houses, Mar, we don't talk all the time. And the kiss on the cheek was a friend thing."

Lily rolled her eyes. "Remus is being a little arse-hole for ignoring you."

Alice cleared her throat loudly.

"Sorry," muttered Lily.

"But she's right," said Alice. "Even if it was meant as a friendly action, Remus probably wants to ignore it because he's not accepting his own feelings and you, Ana, probably are denying it to yourself too."

Marlene blinked. "We're studying in the library. Not many people expect this as the time to be deep."

"My mum watches too many rom-com movies," said Alice with a light blush.

Ana snickered, then her smile faded slightly. "You're right. I haven't talked to him in so long." She threw her books into her bag. "I'm going to go see him. See you guys!"

They waved.

Ana strutted out of the library. It was 4:30, which meant they had a free period.

And Remus always went to his common room during free periods.

So Ana walked to the Gryffindor common room.

"Neo purpura," she said loudly to the Fat Lady, remembering the password from last time.

The portrait swung open and Ana stepped inside the warm common room to find Remus laying on the couch, book in hand.

"Rem?" asked Ana.

Remus turned around and turned a deep red. "Oh- er- hello. I need to go to the bathroom, I'll be rig-"

"I'm not an idiot, Rem," sighed Ana, sitting down next to him. "I can tell you've been avoiding me. Why?"

Remus sighed and sat back down. "It's just- when you kissed me on the cheek, I thought it might lead to something, and I didn't want to have one of the people I'm closest with be endangered by my condition."

Ana blinked. Then she laughed.

Remus thought it was a beautiful sound, like a piglet being tickled.

"Remus," she said, finally stopping her laughter. "1: that was a friendly kiss, like I peck Al, and Lils, and Mar on the cheek sometimes because they're my friends. And 2: anyone you're getting together with anytime, they're gonna love you for who you are. You're a great person. You're kind, gentle, sweet, smart, overly sassy- the greatest person I've ever met."

Remus blushed at the compliments. "You- I- thanks."

"Come here," said Ana, stretching out her hands. "A Hufflepuff's specialty is hugs."

Remus scooted forward to hug Ana, who squeezed him tightly.

"Friends?" asked Ana.

Remus grinned. "We were always friends."

Ana smiled and nodded, but she felt something drop weirdly in the pit of her stomach at the word, 'friends'. 

"Now come on, dipshit, let's read," said Ana eagerly.

Remus flipped open his book and scooted closer to Ana.

Their shoulders poked each other as Remus started to explain what had happened in the book so far.

"OW!" yelped Ana, feeling a burn on her shoulder.

Remus jumped. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"I just-" said Ana. "I felt this burn on my shoulder. I swear I did."

She checked below the hem of her shirt.

It was a tiny burn mark.

"Now, that's odd," muttered Remus.

"No shit, Merlin," mumbled Ana, still gaping at the burn mark.

"Wait here," said Remus, running upstairs to his dorm.

Ana stayed on the couch.

Remus ran downstairs quickly with a book in his hands. "It's about all kinds of magical afflictions," he said, flipping through the pages to find the index. He sat down. "Let's see... carpet burns, dragon burns, dragon pox burns, aha! Burn marks!"

Ana quickly flipped to that page, her other hand still clutching her tingling shoulder.

"'Sudden appearances of burn marks can be caused by several mild magical illnesses that can fade in time. You can contact your Healer for more information," read Remus out loud. "If symptoms such as diarrhea and fever follow, then it is a direct sign of dragon pox.'"

"Dang," muttered Ana. "Well, I'm feeling completely fine. And I know only people over 60 get dragon pox. I'm good."

"Good," Remus agreed, and kept reading. "'If no symptoms like these follow, it may simply be a sign of early Figuramagus abilities.'" He glanced at Ana. "Any idea what that is?"

"Nope," said Ana in confusion. "You wanna go to Madam Pomfrey and ask her or something?"

Remus nodded. "I think we should."

They packed up their stuff and Ana checked the time. "We have class in 5 minutes."

"I can ditch class," said Remus. "First, we ought to check what a 'Figuramagus' is."

Ana scrunched her eyebrows. "Are you sure? You can't miss a class!"

"I can't let you go alone," said Remus, starting towards the portrait hole. "You may need an emotional support wolf."

Hope you liked this chapter! The next one will probably be out tomorrow! Thanks for so many reads!

- Jui Weasley