You're Beautiful
20th May 1978
She had kissed every one of his scars.
And he had kissed every one of her bruises.
Solana lay next to Remus, her head resting on his shoulder as he used one hand to stroke her head tenderly and the other holding her hand.
She looked up at him with a giant smile across her face, he mirrored it and kissed the top of her head. Solana sat up reaching for his jacket and put her hand into his pockets.
“What are you doing?” he asked, making no effort to stop her.
“You always keep your cigarettes in your right pocket.” she told him, “and your lighter in your left,”
She held them up as if they were a trophy before lighting the cigarette, offering it to him after she pulled from it, she leant back against the bed, her hand slipped back into his, he strummed it with his thumb softly.
“Lana?” he started, she knew that tone, she knew what he was going to ask
“Where are we?” she asked looking around the room, their bed was covered in white sheer curtains.
“Lana–”
“I’ve never seen this room before, did the door appear out of nowhere?”
“Solana–”
“Lupin–” she turned to face him, but his eyes were full of sadness which made her look away quickly.
He leant forward, “Lana, please let me help you–”
Solana shook her head. “There is nothing you can do–”
“The full moon is the day after tomorrow, please –”
She sighed looking at him, he didn’t know.
He didn’t know that Antonin had too much power over her.
He couldn’t help her.
It would be impossible.
“Okay,” she said, nodding. “After the full moon.”
“You’ll let me help you?”
“Yes,” she lied, then she took the cigarette from his hand and smoked it.
She could feel his eyes on her.
“What?” she asked, softly.
“You’re beautiful,”
Her cheeks tinged red, chuckling as she leant back, her head resting on his shoulder. “You’re full of shit, Lupin,”
Remus wrapped his arm around her, she fit perfectly beside him, almost as if they were made for one another.
Solana wished that there was a way for them to be together.
She snuggled next to him. “Can you hold me for a bit?” she asked quietly.
Remus didn’t say anything as he kissed her head again. “Of course I can.”
For a moment Solana was okay. She wasn’t worried. She wasn’t scared. She was content. She’d never felt content in her entire life.
She hoped she would find a way.
No.
She would find a way.
She wanted to stay by Remus’ side for the rest of her life.
☀
21st May 1978
Gryffindor had won the Quidditch Cup, which meant Antonin was in a foul mood. She’d managed to avoid him all day seeing as he wasn’t at breakfast nor at lunch and she hadn’t wanted to bump into him so she kept an eye out as she walked down the corridors towards the library.
She saw Remus sitting by the window, where he usually sat, he had his nose in a book but had sensed that she was there, he looked up at her, smiling softly. Solana walked towards him, taking a seat opposite.
“Hey,” he said, setting his book down.
She smiled at him, “Hey.”
She resisted the urge to hug him, she wanted nothing more than to run into his arms, she didn’t know this but Remus was thinking the exact same thing.
“Could we go somewhere quieter?” Solana asked.
He furrowed his brows. “Quieter than the library?”
Solana tugged him a smile. “Preferably with less people in it,”
“Come on,” he said, closing his book and getting up from his seat, she heard the tapping of a cane, she looked down and saw he was walking with his stick.
“Oh we don’t have to go if you’re in pain–”
Remus shook his head, waving her off. “I’m used to it,”
She followed behind him, he was leading her back to the room they were the day prior but it looked different.
Instead it was filled with rows and rows of bookshelves stuffed to the brim.
“Is this where we were yesterday?” Solana asked.
He nodded. “It’s called the room of requirement, it shows you what you require–”
“So yesterday you required a bed?” she raised her brows.
“Uhh–” Remus’ cheeks tinged bright red as he fumbled around to answer. “I mean–”
Solana gave a playful chuckle, “You’re cute when you’re nervous,” she closed the door behind her and took his hand as they walked through the masses of book shelves.
“I used to come here a lot in first year,” he told her as he touched the spines.
Solana furrowed her brows. “I thought you would have been hanging around with Potter and Pettigrew?”
He noticed quickly that she didn’t mention Sirius’ name but didn’t comment.
“I sort of tried to avoid everyone so that no one would ever find out about me,” he said, his eyes fixed on the window.
“Oh,” Solana muttered. “But it was okay when they found out?”
Remus nodded. “They were really supportive, I really couldn’t ask for better friends,”
She smiled at him, “I’m glad,” she walked in front of him, looking at the books. “You know I used to love reading.”
“You did?” Remus asked, surprised.
She nodded.
“Me and my sisters had our thing, Bella’s was painting, Andy’s was embroidery, Cissy’s was piano and mine was reading. You remember me telling you about the library?”
He gave her a nod.
“That was my little safe space. I used to spend hours on end there,” she picked out a book, she didn’t recognise it, she assumed it was muggle.
“Why’d you stop reading?” he asked.
Solana shrugged, “I guess I thought I was too grown up. I got engaged and thought that it wasn’t important anymore.”
Remus looked down at her hands, reading the title of the book.
“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” he looked at it fondly. “That used to be my favourite book when I was a child.”
“It was?” Solana asked.
He hummed a reply. “My mum used to read it to me after the full moon, apparently it was the only thing that would stop me from crying and then it stuck.”
She handed it to him. “Could you read it to me?”
Remus hid a smile as he walked round the corner, she followed him and saw that he had made himself comfortable on a sofa, she positioned herself next to him, her head rested on his arm as he began to read.
She felt so warm next to him, so calm next to him, again like the previous day she didn’t want this to end.
“Do you think we could hide here forever?” Solana whispered as he turned the page to chapter three.
“Well there is a major thing to remember.” Remus looked at her. “I will have to leave once a month,”
“I can live with that,” she snuggled more into his arm, he stroked her head staring into space. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” he shook his head.
“Tell me?”
“It’s stupid,”
She kissed his freckled arm. “Nothing is stupid,”
He let out a small sigh. “It’s the first full moon that I will be alone at the school,”
“Why?”
“The boys have an astronomy test, a full moon test,”
“Oh,” she said, smally.
“They tried to get out of it but they didn’t have any luck, they’ll be there all night” he said, “So now I’m nervous that I’m going to do something or hurt someone.”
Solana brushed her thumb against his hand. “You’re going to be okay,”
He put on an unconvincing smile. “Sure,”
“No one knows about it though, so how could you hurt someone?”
Remus shrugged. “I just get worried.”
“I wish I could be there to help you,” she told him softly.
He shook his head. “I don’t want you to see me like that,”
“Does it hurt?”
“I’m used to it,” he shrugged.
“Is it worse than the cruciatus curse?”
He looked at her, his eyes filled with pain for her. “I don’t know,”
“I hope not, you don’t deserve that,” she said, she closed her eyes resting on his arm, she hadn’t realised she had fallen asleep until she felt Remus nudge her.
“Lana?”
She mumbled a yes.
“It’s late,” he told her.
“What time is it?”
“After ten,”
Solana looked up at the clock. “Oh, why didn’t you wake me?”
“You looked too peaceful,”
She sat up watching as he massaged his arm, wincing slightly. “How long have you had a dead arm?”
“Three hours, give or take.”
“Remus!”
He raised his non dead arm up in the air, “My mam told me to never wake up a lady–”
“She also told you not to do drugs yet you do them–”
“Well sometimes I do listen to her, and especially when you looked so calm that I didn’t want to wake you, so I didn’t mind.”
Solana shook her head but kept a smile on her face, “You’re so annoying.”
“No, I’m not,” he grinned at her.
“No, you’re not.” she picked off his jumper that he must have used as a blanket in the middle of her sleep. “Thank you,”
“You also looked a bit cold too,” he said, sheepishly, putting his jumper back on.
“One day I’ll buy a jumper so you won’t have to give me yours,” Solana told him as they both stood up.
“But what if I like giving you my jumper?” Remus asked, placing a hand on his hip.
Solana narrowed her eyes, “Do you?”
“As a matter of fact I do actually,”
“You do?”
He nodded. “I do,”
She walked towards him wrapping her arms around him in a hug.
He hugged her back. “What’s this for?”
“I just wanted to hug you,” she whispered, closing her eyes. Outside of these walls they couldn’t do this, so she wanted to make every second count.
Remus kissed the top of her head, “Just one more day and everything will be okay, alright?”
Solana took a deep breath, “Can I visit you after, when you’re back in the wing?”
“Of course,” he nodded.
“Will you tell Sirius so he doesn’t get mad again? I don’t really fancy causing an entire scene.”
Remus nodded once more, “I will, and I shall tell him you will be staying,”
“I don’t want to let go,” she whispered.
“Neither do I,” he whispered back, kissing the top of her head. “But we have to,”
Solana sighed as they let go at the same time, she looked up at him, a smile etched across her lips.
“What?” Remus asked softly.
“If you had told me months ago that our tutoring sessions would lead to this, I would never have believed you,” she told him.
He let out a chuckle, “Me neither,” he kissed the top of her head once more before they left the room, taking the long way down to the Slytherin common room. “I’ll see you tomorrow? I won’t be going to the shack until about half seven,”
Solana nodded, “I’ll see you tomorrow,”
He gave her another smile and waited until she was in the common room to leave, it was as if all her happiness had left her once the door was closed.
She didn’t feel content anymore, she longed for Remus’ company despite him just leaving her. She scanned the common room for Antonin, he wasn’t there. She felt a small relief as she went up to the girls dorm, everyone was asleep in their beds beside Alecto, her bed was empty.
Solana walked into the bathroom, where she found Alecto looking into the mirror. She noticed redness on her cheek, she looked away from Solana in shame.
Solana swallowed hard, she knew that it was Antonin who had done it, she grabbed a towel running it under the cold tap, once it was drenched she ringed out most of the water, walking towards Alecto and placed it on her cheek.
“I’m sorry, Lana,” Alecto choked up, her eyes glossed over with tears.
Solana didn’t say anything,
“I didn’t know he was like this,”
“At least you’re not the one engaged to him,” Solana breathed out, her heart faltering.
She was still engaged to him. He still owned her, and she was stuck. No matter what Remus tried he would never succeed.
She wiped a tear from her face quickly.
“Keep this on your cheek, it will help with the redness,” Solana told her, walking out of the bathroom. She pulled back the curtains of her bed, furrowing her brows as she saw a box wrapped up with her name on it.
She couldn’t recognise the handwriting, as she pulled the ribbon and took the lid off. Inside was a rusty bronze key, but she wasn’t sure what it was for, she reached down to pick it up but before she even touched it she felt a twisting lurch into the stomach as the floor was pulled from underneath her, the room distorted then stopped as she fell to the ground with a thump.
Solana looked around, she wasn’t in the dorm room anymore. She wasn’t sure where she was, it looked like a dungeon, and a cloud of condensation filled the air as she breathed.
She regretted giving Remus back his jumper as she used her hands to warm up her arms.
“Hello?” she called out, but an echo of her voice replied back.
At the end of the long corridor was a giant oak door, Solana looked down at the key in her hand then sped up to the door, wasting no time to put the key in the hole.
The door creaked open and she poked her head through the gap.
There she saw the silhouette of someone familiar, his arms were chained up above his head, stumbling on his tiptoes, wincing at every step.
Her first thought was to shout out Remus’ name. But it wasn’t Remus.
“Bellamy?” she said, running up to him.
He murmured something as she tried to unbuckled his arms.
“What?” she asked.
“Behind you–”
His warning was too late, she felt arms grab her pulling away from him.
“Hello, my love,”
Her body went cold and rigid as Antonin’s voice growled into her ear.
“I’ve been waiting for you,”