Silver
26th March 1978
By the time Solana had woken up that morning she had already missed Potions and Herbology.
She brushed through the knots in her hair with the little strength she had woken up with, staring at her reflection in the mirror, the bags under her eyes looked bruised and purple. She touched them delicately, chewing the inside of her cheek.
When she was younger Bellatrix had taught her a spell to get rid of them, but she had no idea how long Antonin would keep a hold of her wand. So she rummaged through Octavia’s make up bag. She stared at herself satisfied with the cover up. She changed into her uniform, the urge to fall back into bed was consistent but her stomach growled loudly, so she had to get something to eat.
She left the dorm, Antonin was most likely at Quidditch practice this lunch time, she was sure he told her that, but she couldn’t remember. She walked down to the Great Hall, the constant chatter from other students irritated her. She pushed through a group of Hufflepuff’s who took up the entire corridor.
“You can say excuse me!” one of them shouted at her but she just rolled her eyes.
Walk fucking faster then!
She wanted to shout back but she didn’t, she rounded the corner, her eyes met the caramel brown eyes she had seen two nights ago.
Remus stared at her.
She stared back.
Neither of them spoke.
So Solana walked past him with her head down.
She could feel his eyes on the back of her head but she didn’t stop. She had no idea what to say to him.
She sat down on the table, staring at the food. Despite the copious amounts in front of her, suddenly she wasn’t hungry anymore.
☀
Solana watched as groups of friends met up in the courtyard, hugging one another like they hadn’t just seen each other at lunch. Couples walking hand in hand, best friends laughing together at an inside joke.
She wondered if her days had always been so lonely.
When it started raining Solana grabbed her bag and headed towards the green house, the smell of wet moss filled the air. She was quiet as she opened the door checking for Professor Sprout, luckily she wasn’t there, she was still quiet as she entered, heading over to the desk.
“Miss Black?” a voice startled her.
“Professor Sprout!” she exclaimed, jumping up, she saw the Herbology teacher walk in covered in mud as usual.
“What are you doing?” she asked, her eyes narrowed.
“I– I–” she stammered. “I wanted to apologise for not turning up the class this morning,”
“It’s quite alright, you did miss a very good lesson about Mimbulus mimbletonia” Sprout said, taking a seat at her desk. “But there is no doubt you and Mr Lupin will go over it in your sessions,”
Solana internally groaned as the drawer was now inaccessible now.
“Was there anything else?”
“No, Professor,” she shook her head, leaving the greenhouse, she kept walking and walking, she hadn’t realised she had made it all the way up to the astronomy tower. She was honestly surprised her foot didn’t get stuck in the disappearing step.
She paused at the door.
She hated Astronomy class, she couldn’t wait until third year when she dropped it, never to learn about stars and constellations ever again.
She opened the door, the loud creak echoed through the room, the cold air hit her instantly, it was significantly colder up here than it was downstairs, she glanced up at the painted constellations on the ceiling, opting to turn away and walk towards the balcony, she looked down at the students walking around. If anything this made her feel even more lonely.
She didn’t realise she had started crying until she heard footsteps behind her, she turned around quickly.
“Oh– I didn’t realise someone was here–”
It was Remus.
He saw she was crying but didn’t comment. “I’ll just go–” he turned to go back downstairs.
She didn’t hesitate. “Remus!”
He spun around.
She closed her eyes trying to find the right words. “I know you think that I– I don’t know, I just–” she shook her head, she was not saying the right words it wasn’t easy with him staring at her. “You being– it doesn’t–”
She took a deep breath. “What I am trying to say is that I would still like to be your friend.”
Remus gave a sarcastic scoff. “Solana Black wants to be friends with a half-breed,”
Solana screwed up her face. “Oh do you know what, forget I even said anything.” she brushed past him heading down the stairs.
“Lana,” he took a hold of her wrist. His touch was soft and delicate, and unlike with Antonin she could remove her arm at any time but she didn’t, she stared up at him, he had gained more scars across his face, more than usual.
“I would still like to be friends as well,” he spoke softly.
Solana relaxed, letting out a sad chuckle. “Good, because I don’t really have that many friends right now.”
Remus let go of her arm, his face grew with concern. “Are you okay?”
She shook her head. “Not really,”
“Wanna smoke?”
“That would be great.”
He nodded over to the balcony, she sat down on the ground, crossing her legs. He did the same, beginning to roll up a joint. He hit it first then handed it to her with the lighter.
After she inhaled and successfully not coughed she handed it back to him. “You know I just tried to sneak some out of Sprout’s office.”
Remus shook his head as he chuckled. “Did you manage to get any?”
“Nah, she caught me,”
“You know you could have just asked me.”
Solana raised her knee’s hugging them, “I wasn’t sure if we were… talking.”
Remus tapped the ashes off the end of the blunt as he nodded.
There was a short silence between them before she spoke again.
“How did it happen?”
He exhaled a billow of smoke passing it back to her. “I was four. Um, my dad, he hated werewolves, had a whole vendetta against them and everything. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of Fenrir Greyback, but he got sent to the ministry on suspicions of being a werewolf but they decided that he was just a homeless muggle, but my dad decided that wasn’t good enough and decided to put in his two cents.”
She handed him back the blunt and he inhaled again before continuing. “Said that they should keep Greyback in until the next day seeing as it was a full moon and all but the committee didn’t think so and my dad got angry. Saying that werewolves were soulless, evil and…”
Solana saw the lump in his throat grow, but he cleared it away avoiding her eyes.
“They deserve nothing but death. Greyback didn’t like that at all, so he… um, he decided to get revenge on my dad, I think his main goal was to kill me but… my dad got to my room just in time but that didn’t stop the curse.” Remus was now playing with a loose thread from his trousers. “I remember waking up after that night, overhearing my parents talking, my father calling me a monster, I’ve never told him that I heard him. He pretends he doesn’t care but when he’s had a few drinks… it all comes out. So if you want to call me a monster just know my own dad has called me much worse.” he turned his face away to hide his tears.
“Your father sounds like a prick,” Solana finally said.
Remus chuckled dryly. “You could say that,”
She looked up at him, studying his eyes, “Remus, I know the way I was raised… the way I was taught about everyone else that isn’t purebood. I want to unlearn all of the things they ingrained into my head, and I– I can’t make things right with my sister but I– I want to make things right with you and I want to help you in any way that I can,”
He pressed his lips into a smile. “There’s nothing you can do to help, Lana, unless you somehow have access to wolfsbane potion?”
Solana shook her head silently. “No,” she said, quietly.
“How come you didn’t tell anyone?”
“It’s your secret. Not mine. I don’t tell anyone else’s secrets,” Solana told him, although she realised that she couldn’t even tell anyone anyway. “Does anyone else know?”
“Only my friends,” He said, “Oh and Snape.”
Solana furrowed her brows. “How does Snape know?”
“It’s a long story, but he found out similar to you,”
She nodded, she toyed with her ring on her finger then took it off tapping his hand with it.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“Seeing if the legend is true,”
“What legend?”
“That silver burns werewolves,”
Remus stifled a laugh, “You’re trying to burn me?”
“I’m doing research, Remus. And anyway it’s clearly not true because I didn’t burn you,” Solana said, firmly.
“Yeah but you were trying to burn me,” he tilted his head.
“Yeah… but it was for research,” she said, putting the ring back on her finger.
“The ring is fake,” he said, “Silver does burn, but I can usually tell when it’s near, like your earrings, those are real but the ring isn’t.”
Solana breathed a hollow laugh. “Of course,”
The ring Antonin gave her would be fake.
“Sorry,” he winced.
“It’s not your fault,” she smiled at him, she went to take out her earring.
He raised his finger. “Don’t you dare,”
She grinned at him, glad that they were friends again.