Bejeweled

Remus had been dreading this meeting since he stepped onto the Hogwarts Express. The prefects would be getting their schedules and partner assignments for nightly rounds for the semester, and he knew he was everyone’s last choice. Sure, last year Lily said she didn’t mind doing them alone so much because of his “illness”, but he knew she was just being nice. And this time, he wouldn’t get Lily. The Head Boy and Girl had explicitly said no one would be keeping their same partner, looking at Remus and Lily pointedly. 

Now, Remus would find out who was stuck with him. Which could go alright, maybe he’d get a friendly Hufflepuff who would handle it like Lily. Or it could go absolutely terribly. He couldn’t imagine what would happen if he ended up with one of the Slytherins. 

“It’ll be alright,” Lily whispered to him as the Head Girl started reading off the pairs. 

On the plus side, he didn’t have to sit in anticipation and dread for long as his partner’s name was high up in the alphabet. On the down side, the names that were read out were, “Black, Bellatrix and Lupin, Remus. Thursday nights.” 

Remus wanted to die. He probably would soon. 

Of all the horrible possibilities, it hadn’t even crossed his mind that he’d end up with Bellatrix. Usually they kept the same years together, even if they mixed up the houses, and she was a 7th year while he was only in 6th. That was the logic behind his certainty. Though in reality the thought was just so horrific his brain hadn’t even processed it as a potentially. 

He didn’t dare to even look at her the rest of the meeting, and got out of there the second it was over, having processed nothing after that exact moment. 

“Maybe we can talk to them about getting you switched. I mean, they’re kind of afraid of Bellatrix, so maybe she’ll freak out and they’ll switch you anyway,” Lily said with a false optimism as they walked up to Gryffindor Tower together. 

“Or maybe Bellatrix will just end my misery and personally Avada Kadavera me on Thursday,” Remus answered with a false cheerfulness. 

She rolled her eyes. “Come on, I know she’s,” Lily paused, looking for a word to describe the other girl and landed on, “Bellatrix, but she’s still a prefect. Dumbledore wouldn’t have chosen her if she was really as bad as her reputation.” 

“Sirius says he must have been off his rocker to choose her. I’d say Sirius has a pretty good idea of what she’s like considering they're cousins,” Remus countered. He knew he was being petulant, but he’d just gotten what felt like a life sentence to Azkaban. He had the right to be moody! Especially since the full moon had just passed and he was still recovering from the exhaustion. 

“Well, we’ll ask him then. Maybe he’ll be reassuring?” But even she didn’t sound confident in the idea. 

And she had good reason not to be. When they told Sirius of Remus’s predicament the other boy was genuinely concerned. Remus had expected him to laugh or tease, but genuine concern was so, so much worse. 

“I mean it, Moony, you need to go to McGonagall and have her step in. You can’t be alone with Cousin Bella! She’s evil, actually evil! She’s obsessed with You Know Who, met him and everything. She could hurt you.” 

The words echoed in his head over and over for the next three days as he waited for the gallows. He had talked to the Head Girl, who refused to change the assignments, then the Head Boy in a case of ‘mom said no, so ask dad’. Another no. Finally, he went to McGonagall in a last ditch effort and was told he needed to be more open to inter-house comradery. 

James, Sirius, and Peter had offered to follow them around all night under the invisibility cloak--the fact that they were now too big to all fit under it be damned--but Remus had reminded them that he and Bellatrix were both prefects and in the highly likely situation of them getting caught there was no way Bellatrix would let them off easy. 

At least there was the map. They’d ended up agreeing to having the three of them watch the map like hawks until Remus got back. If she tried anything, they’d grab the cloak and be there as soon as possible. It made him feel better that at least someone was watching out for him. Even if, depending on where she attacked him, they could be across the castle and much too late to help. At least they could take his corpse to the medical wing before it cooled. 

“It’ll be fine,” Lily tried to reassure him as he headed out of the portrait. 

“Thanks,” he told her. He did genuinely appreciate her effort, but nothing would make him actually feel better about this. Especially since even if he survived the night, he’d just have to do it all over again the next week. Maybe he’d even start to look forward to the full moon just to get out of it. Hey, that was a bright side! Sorta. 

Bellatrix was waiting for him outside the doors of the Great Hall, which surprised him since he was almost a full ten minutes early. He hadn’t been able to sit still in the common room, so he thought he might as well pace here and not bother everyone else. 

She nodded at him. “Punctual, good. Let’s get going,” she said, tone all business. 

“Of course,” he mumbled, moving to fall in step beside her as she walked past him. Well, about two feet away, but to her left. 

Neither of them said anything as they walked up the steps towards where they’d start their route around the castle. It was awkward just walking in silence, but Remus thought this was probably the best it could go if he was being honest with himself. He was constantly aware to keep some distance between them, but not too much as to be rude. Honestly, Remus was so in his head about being the perfect distance away to not get in her space, but not seem like he was trying to get away from her that he wasn’t sure he’d notice if a student out of bed walked a foot in front of him. 

But he definitely noticed when Bellatrix scoffed in amusement. His eyes darted over to her to make sure he hadn’t done something wrong. 

“You’re afraid of me,” she observed. 

Remus didn’t know what on Earth was the right answer to that, so he gave a quick nod and said, “A bit.” 

“Good,” Bellatrix grinned. 

His mind searched for something to say to that, the correct response, for so long it became an awkward amount of time to still respond to it at all, so he ended up saying nothing. 

She rolled her eyes. “Look, I’m glad you’re smart enough to be afraid of me, but this is a little ridiculous. I’m not going to hex you out of nowhere. Take a damn deep breath.”

“I just don’t want to upset you,” he admitted. “I know I’m…not the ideal partner, and you’re already stuck with me. I don’t want to make it worse.” 

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Usually Gryffindors aren’t so aware of how annoying it is to be around one of you.” 

Remus let out a laugh. His nervousness bubbling up and spilling over, letting out the sound before he could bite it back. As if that was the reason he was a terrible rounds partner. 

“What, is that not what you meant?” Bellatrix smirked a little. 

“Well, no. Because I’m always sick. You’ll have to do this alone a lot…” 

“I know,” she nodded. “That’s why I requested you as my partner.” 

That made him stop dead. “You…what?” Surely he’d misheard her. 

“Well, maybe ‘request’ isn’t the right word. Maybe ‘threatened’ would be more accurate? Either way, I get what I want,” she shrugged. 

“You…me? W-why?” Remus stuttered out, causing her to roll her eyes dramatically. 

“I told you, because I want the alone time. It’s great to have a partner that won’t be here half the time. No one to deal with.” 

“…oh,” he squeaked out. Looking around the creepy corridor with it's dark shadows and strange noises it had never occurred to him that someone may enjoy doing rounds alone. That him being gone so much would be an appealing trait in a partner. 

“Yeah. So if you could just act normal the rest of the time, it’d be great. Keep being punctual like tonight, we’ll be…civil, and it’ll work out perfectly,” she said. 

“Oh…yeah. Okay. That sounds good. I can do that,” he rambled a bit. 

“Great,” she grinned, looking over at him she added, “Though I do like that you’re smart enough to be afraid,” and gave him a smirk and a wink. 

Remus wondered if she’d actually killed him and this was some sort of weird afterlife.