↳ CHAPTER SEVEN:

'I HATE YOU' ↵

Seren nestled down in her cozy chair besides the fire in the Gryffindor common room after dinner, ready to dive into her new book that her brother bought for her birthday. The Lupin's birthday ended up in June, after classes ended. Seren had decided never to mention her birthday to anyone at Hogwarts, she just didn't like being the youngest in her grade. Merlin, if anyone knew, Sirius Black would definitely find a way to tease her about it. 

Speaking of, Seren looked up as the portrait door opened to reveal Sirius Black and James Potter, laughing rambunctiously as they stumbled in. 

Rolling her eyes she was about to turn to her book when James noticed the brunette girl all alone on the couch.

"Seren!" James smiled widely, his long stride bringing him to the couch in five seconds. "You missed out, actually. We just pulled another prank on Professor McGonagall!" 

Seren sighed, putting down her book. She knew that for her brother's sake, she should be friendly with his friends despite Potter's obsessive interest in her best friend. 

"What did you do, Potter?" 

"Well, in her class she turned from the board to help a student so I kinda wrote on the board..."

Seren looked exhausted, and both boys seemed to realise that they shouldn't be telling her about their daily pranks. 

"James, you know you are friends with a Prefect, right?" Seren asked James in an exasperated voice. Although Remus was friends with these boys, Seren never fully had a conversation with either Sirius or James. 

"Right?" James answered wearily, not knowing where the Lupin girl was going with this. 

"You know you can get Remus in trouble?" Seren asked James. She knew that James was childish but if she got him to look at it through her perspective, maybe he would change. James wasn't a heartless person, he actually cared about others and she knew that he would for his friend, maybe. 

"Yeah?" 

"Well, why do you drag Remus along?" Seren asked. She was talking about the pranks but in her mind, she was thinking of the boys mischief and how they would go on monthly adventures with Remus.

"Well, he never minds, really."

Seren rolled her eyes, "of course he won't say anything to you boys! You'd make fun of him for trying to stay in good graces with Dumbledore!"

"C'mon, James." Sirius grabbed James who's face had turned thoughtful. "Don't listen to her, she's a loon." Sirius joked, trying to dissuade his friend from turning against pranks. It was their thing– what they were known for at Hogwarts, it was what made his parents hate him (it was fun really). 

"That's it, Sirius!" Seren shouted, standing up and ignoring the book that fell from her lap. "You are a complete arse who doesn't care about anybody but himself! One day you boys will all be in trouble and all the blame will be on you and I hope you will get expelled!" 

Sirius glared at the brunette girl. "Shut up, Seren. It's all fun and games. No one ever gets hurt, you're just too much of a good girl for anything." He walked up to her, his face screwed up in annoyance. 

"No, I'm not!" She hissed, pushing against his chest. She huffed as he didn't move an inch, rather stare down at her small stature with a smirk. 

"You're just jealous that we know about Remus. That we're able to help him and you can't. Admit it!" He laughed, pushing his dark hair out of his face. 

Seren paled at Sirius' words and froze. It was partially true. For the past two years her brother never came to her for help. He never thought to ask how she was. He never wanted to be with her anymore.

She was replaced.

In a way, Seren knew she couldn't hate her brother but at the same time, she despised what had happened. She was dragged away from her old life to help Remus and she got nothing in return. She felt herself getting emotional, she was embarrassed to be showing real emotion to two idiotic boys who didn't know anything about her.

"I hate you, Black." Seren's voice wavered as tears threatened to spill. Sirius gaped, not knowing that she would cry. James stood behind him, also shocked that the Lupin girl had emotions besides anger. 

"I wish I never came to Hogwarts because then I wouldn't have ever met you."

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