Remus had been avoiding Ophelia. This Ophelia was sure of. Even if it wasn't made obvious because they sometimes had to share words, like in Potions class where they sat directly next to each other; Ophelia just knew something wasn't right. Anytime they had the opportunity to study together, Remus had managed to create an excuse and leave. At first, Ophelia thought he was being truthful, such as getting detentions for pranks. But then when she visited Minnie at a time Minnie was running detention and spotted Remus wasn't there, she then knew he was lying.

Three weeks had passed since their small confrontation in the library; at least Ophelia thought it had been small since Remus had apologised almost instantly. But Remus must have had other ideas and Ophelia was devastated.

She missed their conversations about books they'd read.

She missed how intelligently he would explain anything.

She missed how he would sneak a block of chocolate to her in the middle of potions.

She missed that deep chuckle he would make after a joke.

But most of all, she missed his eye contact. Ever since the library incident he refused to keep eye contact with Ophelia. Maybe he believed Ophelia wouldn't notice this; but Ophelia really did notice everything, especially when it came to how others were feeling.

Right now, they were both sat listening intently in Potions. Slughorn was explaining the theory side of how a Beautification Potion would work, the students therefore writing down notes. Any conversation Ophelia attempted to begin with Remus was short lived, similar to all of the ones they'd had over the past few weeks.

"Now, feel free to discuss between yourselves the negatives of using a Beautification Potion." Slughorn spoke with that usual extra chirpiness.

Ophelia turned to speak with Remus, but Remus had already left to sit with Peter and Sirius.

"You seem to have lost one of your worshippers McGonagall." The deep and slow voice was easily recognisable to Ophelia, bringing her out of her short moment of despair.

"Severus, I forget you're in this class." Ophelia turned to see the long haired boy was stood next to her desk, a notebook clasped in his hands.

"That is because I do not feel the need to make my presence unbearably known."

"But regardless of that, you're incredible at potions you should speak more." Ophelia offered her usual friendly smile, something Severus had finally began to get used to seeing.

"I wouldn't want to make the rest of this class look like the bunch of dunderheads that they frankly are." Severus spoke flatly, no change in the tone of his voice. This, mixed with the comment itself, caused Ophelia to laugh.

"Why is Snivellus with Ophelia." Sirius spoke in a whisper a few tables away from the pair.

"Why is Snivellus making her laugh, he's not funny." Peter spoke next, his last comment causing Sirius to bark in laughter.

"Moony, why are you here anyway." Sirius questioned Remus, who sat with his back deliberately facing away from Ophelia.

"No reason." Remus hummed the response, pretending to stay focused on his work.

"Trollshit." Sirius flicked Remus' head, earning a groan. "You're still avoiding Fi. It's ridiculous and quite frankly this is ruder than how you acted in the library."

"Please shut up Sirius."

"No. I'm only telling you the truth."

"My mum told me that hearing the truth is harder than a lie." Peter added his little bit of knowledge in to the conversation.

"Exactly Pete, see Remus. We are your friends, our job is to tell you when you're being a dick and that's exactly what you're doing right now."

"I'm not talking about this now." Remus tried once again to concentrate on his work, but hearing a wholehearted laugh from Ophelia again made him stop. "I miss her. As a friend." Quickly Remus added in the latter.

"Then be her friend, no one is forcing anything else." Sirius shrugged. "I wish James was here, he'd tell you what to do better than us two, but he's too busy giving the death glare to Snivellus and another boy who looked at Lily earlier."

"Moony." Peter spoke over Sirius, something that the group weren't used to. "You, you say you're scared and I get that and that's ok. But by being her friend you won't hurt her and you're furry self is super far away anyway and there's protection. Fi is really lovely and I don't think she'd judge you anyway and she'd just want you to be happy and yeh that's it." Peter let out a long breath after almost vomiting the words out. Sirius looked at Peter with his mouth comically wide open, then gawping between Peter and Remus.

"Uh, yeh what Pete said." Sirius stumbled the words out.

"Thanks Pete, I think you're right." Remus smiled as he spoke, like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"I am?" Peter smiled too, but more out of pride for himself because the Remus Lupin had told him he had done something right.

"Yeh. You are. I'm not going to tell Fi about, uh, my time of the month. But I shouldn't shut her out, being friends with her isn't any different to any other person. Right?"

"Right." Peter nodded his head firmly to agree with Remus.

"Can someone tell me why the fuck Snivellus is with Fi?" James had finally joined the table, taking a break from his intense session of death glares.

"No idea, why don't you go ask them yourself." Remus wasn't really bothered by Ophelia speaking with Severus, if anything it just reminded him of how kind she truly was. "No, James don't, wait." James had already begun to walk over to Ophelia, ignoring any opportunities for common sense.

"Oi, Snivellus. Get away from Fi." James took the seat next to Ophelia that was originally Remus'.

"James, are you kidding. Severus don't go." But, like all previous times this had happened, Severus had already left. "James why do you insist on being so horrid to him?"

"Come on Fi, you can't tell me you don't get a bad vibe from him?"

"No, I actually don't. But regardless no one deserves to be treated like that for goodness sake James." Ophelia shook her head in disapproval of James' actions. Just as James began to reply the classroom door opened to reveal the Gryffindor Head Girl.

"Sorry for disrupting your class Professor Slughorn, but I have been sent by Professor McGonagall to collect Ophelia McGonagall. She says it is urgent."

"I see. Miss McGonagall, I shall get Mr Lupin to finish your notes for the day. You may leave."

"Thank you Professor."

Remus watched as Ophelia began to pack away her things, curious as to what may have been so important to deemed necessary that she leave Potions early. What confused him further was the fact that they actually had Transfiguration's next lesson. Deep in his thoughts, he hadn't heard Sirius call his name twice.

"Moony." Sirius waved his hands in front of Remus' face as a final attempt to gain the boys attention.

"What?"

"I was saying at least you now have a reason to talk to Fi. When you give her the notes, you can just have a chat."

"Yeh, you're right. For once." Remus smirked, a bit of joy relighting inside of him with the prospect of rekindling his friendship with Ophelia. "So, shut up and let me concentrate."

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From the second Ophelia had stepped inside Minnie's room, she knew something serious was about to be discussed. But even that didn't prepare her for the mention of Mr and Mrs Montgomery.

Prior to Ophelia arriving, Minnie had received a letter from Dr Weber to explain that a court date had been officially set for the Montgomery's trial. Whilst this may have seemed positive because it meant that justice would be served, it also meant that Ophelia would have to return and face them.

After a delicate conversation on the matter, Minnie allowed Ophelia to be dismissed from classes the rest of the day. Which is what brought Ophelia to where she was now.

Sat on the grass, rubbing the petals of a purple bell shaped flower, Ophelia listened to the birds sing whilst breathing in the scent of the fresh water lake. There is something about nature that is so calming. When surrounded by nature ten minutes was a long time, so the rest of Ophelia's day stretched out like a small eternity. Honestly, she didn't even know what time of the day it was now. The only source of time was the sun that still sat in the sky. Returning her attention the flower in her hand, Ophelia let out a sigh.

"Pasqueflowers." A velvet voice broke Ophelia's quiet retreat, causing her to turn around to look at the source.

"Rem-us." Ophelia quickly added the remainder of his name to her usual nickname.

"Hey Fi." Remus softly smiled whilst he spoke,

"I'll go. This is your place, I'm sorry." Ophelia began to push herself off the ground to leave, but a gently placed hand on her shoulder kept her from moving.

"Please stay, I was looking for you actually."

"You were?" Ophelia felt a little hopeful at these words.

"Well, everyone was. No one knew where you went and Minnie told James to keep his antlers out of others business."

"Oh." Ophelia turned herself back around to face the water, Remus sensed something was wrong that might not just be simply due to him.

"Um, I got your potions work. I mean they're no where near as good as the notes you write for me when I'm, uh, away." Remus scratched his neck, he wanted to keep a conversation flowing but after a few weeks of almost unbearable silence between the pair, it was proving difficult.

"Thank you." Ophelia continued to absentmindedly feel the petals on the flower.

"Did you know pasqueflowers open up in the sunshine and close again at night or if the weathers bad?" Remus stood watching Ophelia, his hands tucked deep in his pockets.

"I didn't, I hadn't seen them before until today. They're really beautiful."

"They're rare in the UK, I think maybe the magic around Hogwarts is what keeps them alive here."

"The magic here is indescribable, I can't believe it even exists sometimes."

"I agree with you on that." Remus decided to finally take a seat next to Ophelia. Both sat in a comfortable silence, watching the nature pass by.

"Remus?" Remus responded with a hum. "Did I do something to upset you? If I did, I am truly sorry. I never meant to upset you and-"

"Fi, stop. It's me who needs to apologise, I took a bad day out on you, which I know isn't an excuse in itself either."

"It's ok, we all have bad days."

"Yes we do, but we don't go on to push people away. That's what I did to you. I did it because I was embarrassed of my actions and I can't apologise to you enough." As Remus continued to explain himself, he pulled out a bar of chocolate from one of his pockets. "I'm such a dick at times."

"You're not a dick Rem, quite the opposite actually." Ophelia turned her head to face Remus only to be greeted with a huge smile. "What?" Ophelia shook her head lightly in confusion.

"Nothing." Remus tried to shrug it off.

"It's not nothing. Did I say something funny?"

"No, you called me Rem. You'd stopped doing that."

"Oh, I hadn't even realised to be honest. Sorry."

"You apologise way too much." Remus did that thing with his eyebrows, they would furrow in a mocking reprimand sometimes.

"Sorry." Ophelia winked as she played on the joke. "How have you been? I've missed these chats."

"I've been ok. What about you? What caused the disappearance today?" Remus cracked a chunk of chocolate off and passed it to Ophelia, who received it gratefully.

"Oh, it was something about my life before I came to Minnie. Something not too nice but I'll be ok." Ophelia munched on the chocolate, letting the chocolate melt in her mouth before she took another bite. "I just needed some time alone after, it reminded me of some bad memories."

"I see." Remus knew not to press any further, if Ophelia wanted to talk she would. Quite frankly, Remus knew he didn't deserve the trust from Ophelia to discuss a sensitive topic after he had avoided her for so long. "I had a feeling I'd find you here."

"It's perfect here, I can't thank you enough for showing me the place."

"It is beautiful."

"There's a quote in Mansfield Park by Jane Austen that reminds me of this place."

"What is it? I haven't read that one." Remus asked, slightly embarrassed that Ophelia knew yet another book he didn't.

"It's something like this - 'to sit in the shade on a fine day, and look upon verdure is the most perfect refreshment.' - I feel exactly like that when I'm here. I think I've got a copy here at Hogwarts with me, I'll let you borrow it."

"That would be great. What made you read so much? Was it your time in the muggle school?" Remus asked.

"The mug - oh." Ophelia had completely forgotten the white lie that she had created when last here with Remus. Part of her wanted to just spit out the truth to Remus, he seemed like the person who would understand. But the other part of her was afraid, letting down those walls would be creating a bond she wasn't sure she wanted to create. A bond built on pity. There was nothing Ophelia hated more than people pitying her. "No, it wasn't. I've read for a long time. It allows you to escape, without actually having to run. What about you?"

"Similar; my mum read to me. Especially when I was poorly, it used to be the only thing that could soothe me." This was true, Hope Lupin would always read to Remus. Especially on the days leading up to the full moon, reading to him fairytales with happy endings.

"That sounds lovely. Sometimes Damian would read with me, he hated books but if it calmed my nerves he would read them." Ophelia explained, not noticing the visible shiver that left Remus' body at the mention of this boy.

"Is this the Damian who sent you Valentine's Day cards?" Remus asked, slightly afraid of the answer. None of the boys had dared bring up the Valentine's Day 'fiasco', so Remus hadn't heard who Damian truly was.

"Yes, he always loves to cause a scene." Ophelia laughed as she spoke of Damian, again causing Remus to grimace slightly at the fact she already had someone to make her smile like that.

"Is it hard dating someone so far away from you?" Remus let the words spill out his mouth without a second to think. But before he could panic and apologise for asking a personal question, Ophelia let out a snort followed by a full belly laugh.

"Sorry I'm not laughing at you Rem. It's just the idea of me and Damian dating." Ophelia wiped away the tears forming under her eyes.

"You're not dating?" Remus scratched the back of his neck, trying to contain the smile he was wanting to hold in.

"No, he's as straight as a circle for starters."

"Oh."

"We've just been best friends for a long time, he wouldn't even mind me saying that. No, I'm as single as a Pringle."

"A Pringle?"

"Doesn't matter, it's a -." Ophelia's belly let out a loud grumble after the mention of Pringles. "Oh my gosh, how embarrassing." She covered her eyes with her hands, chuckling at the moment.

"I think it's time for dinner." Remus chuckled, standing up first before reaching his hand out to help Ophelia up.

"I think you're right." Ophelia took Remus hand who effortlessly pulled her up, despite the tingle that shot through both of their hands at the touch. "You know, you're the only person who that happens with."

"The tingle thing?"

"Yep." The two began to walk through the woodlands, enjoying those final moments between them.

"Interesting." Remus didn't say anything else. He had read something only a couple weeks prior to Valentine's Day that had been pushed to the back of his mind. Now it had resurfaced, it brought a new feeling to the mix, a state of disquietude laced with excitement. One thing was for sure, he had to go reread that book.

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