Charms and Broken Noses
Remus Lupin x Hufflepuff! Reader
Warnings: slight cursing, mentions of bullying, and mentions of blood
Word Count: 2,770
A/N: I wrote this no joke 2 years ago I am so sorry
The air was thick at the Hogwarts Castle and the smell of rain washed over the young students’ noses. The sixth years were studying for their O.W.Ls, which seemed to be a lot harder than it had been in the past years. (Y/N) (L/N) was a Hufflepuff, who seemed all too stressed for the horrid exams. Her professors were of no help when she asked them for advice on how to pass the tests. She was most frustrated with her charms teacher, Professor Flitwick, who had completely ignored her presence when she had stayed after class. She had obviously needed help, and no one was willing to give it to her. After her last class, which was Transfiguration, she decided to call it a day and went back to the Hufflepuff common room to hopefully study some more. However, a Gryffindor was, unexpectedly, worried when she hadn’t shown up at the Great Hall for dinner.
Remus was all too worried about the Hufflepuff and less worried about the smug faces that were on his friend’s faces. “Hey, Remus, you okay? You seem to be staring at the Hufflepuff table, is there someone that you maybe, I don’t know, fancy?” Sirius said jokingly. It wasn’t like Remus hadn’t heard that statement before. His boisterous friend had been asking him this a lot lately.
“No, I absolutely do not fancy anyone, you git. Quite the opposite. That Hufflepuff girl, (L/N), she always asks too many questions. She just goes on and on about how she doesn’t understand the simplest of materials. It’s rather embarrassing if you ask me.” Remus said with a slight scowl on his face. But, in reality, Remus didn’t feel that way about the girl at all. He actually pitied her since no one seemed to care enough to help her, not even the Professors. Sirius had decided not to push the subject any further, as Remus seemed to be in a foul mood. The boys were shocked by how he had responded to them, it was almost painful to watch the boy try to ignore his quite obvious feelings for the girl. Remus seemed to notice how his friends’ faces were all smug. “What is it? Are you stupid? Why is it so hard for you to realize that I don’t want anything to do with girls right now?” The boys knew Remus had made a valid point. It was clear that he wasn’t ready for a serious relationship, after all, he did have some rather unique problems of his own. “Hey, Remus, we’re sorry, we didn’t mean to be so intrusive on your life. Just know that we’re here to talk if you ever want to, just saying.” James had said with a low, almost sad sounding voice as the boys stood up to leave.
“We are going to leave you alone for a little bit, but we’ll talk in the common room before bed?” Sirius asked kindly, making sure that Remus wasn’t too mad at them. “Of course, I’m sorry for being so rude.” Remus felt bad that he had made the boys upset, but he wasn’t ready for a relationship. He was afraid of simply talking about the small interest he had in the Hufflepuff. Remus watched as the boys strolled away, leaving him to his thoughts for a little while. He questioned why he was nervous to tell the Mauraders about his fascination with the girl when he had told them he was a werewolf within the first two weeks of meeting them. He was frustrated that he doubted himself so much. He wanted to open up to his friends about how he felt, but if he opened up, his so-called “infatuation” would become a real thing that he wouldn’t be able to deny.
------- The next day, (Y/N) had woken up in a good mood. Even though she had got a grand total of 4 hours of sleep and hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before, she felt that something good was going to happen.
She kept her head down as she walked, a habit she had developed in her second year when some Slytherin Purebloods bullied her. She was almost at her Care of Magical Creatures class when she rammed straight into Remus. She was absolutely horrified when she realized who she’d run into, he was the smartest student in her year. “I am so sorry, I should’ve been paying attention. Are you okay? Do you need to go to the Hospital Wing? I’m so stupid, I apologize,” She was cut off by a small chuckle that came from the taller boy.
“It’s ok, (L/N), no harm done. Are you okay, though? That seemed like a pretty hard hit.” He looked at her worryingly as she had a small drop of blood running from her nose. “Bloody hell, you’re bleeding! And here you are, asking me if I needed to go to the Hospital Wing? Are you mad?” He exclaimed loudly, causing people to look over at the pair.
“Well, I didn’t really feel any pain so I assumed I was okay. Anyways, I better go to the Hospital Wing, before it gets too bad. See you around, Lupin!” She grinned at the Gryffindor and was about to walk away, but he grabbed her hand before she could actually take her first step. “Can I walk with you? I mean it was my fault anyway. Peter made my notes fly this way, and I was just running to get them. I’m sorry about running into you. And about your nose.” Remus said nervously. His stomach flipped and he went red in the face, and he had only said a couple of words!
“It’s okay Lupin, I’m just glad that my nose isn’t actually broken, from what I can tell. I’ve had to get it fixed and the process is absolutely horrendous. Also, thank you for walking with me, I wasn’t expecting you to want to walk with me.” (Y/N) said softly, so softly it caught Remus off guard. They walked quietly to the Hospital Wing where they were met with Madam Pomfrey, who looked over (Y/N)quickly before shaking her head.
“Again, Ms. (L/N)? I thought you said you took care of it last month? I cannot believe the nerve of those kids! I must have a serious talk with Dumbledore if this happens again-” Madam Pomfrey was quickly interrupted by Remus, who was trying to figure out what exactly had happened for Madam Pomfrey to be so worried. “I’m sorry to interrupt, Madam Pomfrey, but what do you mean, again? How often do you come here, (L/N)?” Remus turned to (Y/N) swiftly, very concerned about her well being.
“Madam Pomfrey, it isn’t what you think, I actually ran right into Mr. Lupin here, and to answer your question, Lupin, it was in the past. As I said, I’ve been here for many broken noses.” (Y/N) said carefully, trying not to put the image of the Purebloods bullying her into the boy’s brain. She was embarrassed by the fact she couldn’t even protect herself against the majority of the school. Madam Pomfrey hummed slightly and started tending to the girl’s nose. “Luckily, it isn’t broken again, Ms. (L/N). However, there still will be some bruising, just to let you know.” Remus looked down, feeling very guilty for causing a mark on the beautiful girl’s body. (Y/N) seemed to pick up on his guilt and smiled at him.
“It’s okay, Lupin. It could have been worse. Not to mention, we both weren’t paying attention to where we were walking. No harm done.” She stole the boy’s words from earlier; he smiled at that. “Lupin, you should probably head off to class, I don’t want you missing a whole lesson just for me. I know you prioritize school work. Besides, I’m all good, I’ll be up and running by potions. I’ll see you there!” (Y/N) exclaimed before he could protest. He got up slowly, to make sure the girl wouldn’t change her mind and walked towards the door. He turned around to give her one final look before she waved him off. After the rest of their classes, Remus noticed more of the Hufflepuff’s features. How her hair flowed when a breeze flowed through the classroom, how her eyes sparkled in the light, how she scrunched her face when she didn’t understand something, which was a lot, and most importantly, he realized how often she stared at him. At dinner, his friends promptly realized he was staring at the Hufflepuff table again. They decided not to push it. “Hey, Remus, where did you go before Care of Magical Creatures? You disappeared on us, I mean Peter probably shouldn’t have made your notes go flying, but you still could have told us!” James exclaimed, being overdramatic. Remus looked over at Peter who looked slightly remorseful for what he had done, but still wasn’t saying any apologies. Remus sighed. “I actually ran into (L/N). I was chasing after those damned pieces of paper and ran right into her! She got a bloody nose, so I walked her to the Hospital Wing because I felt so bad. Now she has a bruise on her nose because of me. I feel terrible.” Remus cried out, feeling angry towards himself. The first boy who recognized Remus’s inner turmoil was James. James had always been a bit more mature compared to Sirius and Peter. However, James decided to let Remus talk to all of them in his own time. The boys walked back to their common room, Sirius and Peter were playing around as they normally did. James stayed back to walk with Remus. “I know about your secret Remus,” James whispered lowly into Remus’s ear. “No need to hide the fact that you like (L/N). I won’t tell the boys though if you don’t want me too. I just wanted to let you know that I know and you don’t have to lie to me.” James said. Remus knew that he was better off just agreeing with the boy, rather than trying to deny it. “ I know, I should have told you, but I’m afraid of the idea of actually liking someone. If we get together then that means at some point she is gonna find out about you-know-what. What if she leaves me? I don’t want to have that attachment to someone just yet. It’s very intimidating.” Remus said solemnly. James shot him a knowing look before catching up to Sirius and Peter since they had stopped running around and were now waiting for the pair.
-------- The week passed and it was now Sunday. (Y/N) had finally gained the courage to ask Remus to tutor her in a few classes. She had already prepared herself for rejection the night before since she thought it was likely to happen because Remus and her barely spoke but the one time. She walked up to him right before he could enter the Great Hall and pulled him aside.
“Hey, Lupin! How are you?” She asked with slight enthusiasm. “Hi, (L/N), I’m doing pretty good, how’s your nose?” Remus asked with worry laced in his tone. “You can barely even see the mark. Anyway, I was wondering, maybe you could tutor me in charms? It’s ok if you don’t want to, but I thought it wouldn’t hurt to-” She was abruptly cut off by the amused boy.
“Oh, shut up (L/N), of course, I’ll tutor you. Do you want to meet up in the library before dinner?” He asked smiling slightly at her shocked face. “Um, yeah. Whenever works for you. Thank you so much Lupin.” She quickly walked off, before the blush on her cheeks would have been noticed.
-------
Lupin walked into the library, later on, seeing the Hufflepuff reading her Charms book. He thought she looked rather cute, but he quickly shook the thought out of his head. As he approached the table, the girl looked up at him and smiled.
“So, what do you need help with?” He asked caringly. “I don’t know, just about everything? Charms has always been the hardest class for me.” She said looking down, a disappointed feeling washed over her as she realized how stupid she sounded. Remus seemed to quickly pick up on the disappointment in her tone.
“Hey, it’s ok, last year, I thought I was going to fail herbology, it took me a while to finally get to the average grade.” He said, trying to make her feel a bit better about herself. Luckily for Remus, she laughed and then replied with a short thanks. Remus continued to tutor (Y/N) for about an hour before they needed to leave to get dinner. “Thanks, Lupin. I already feel a lot better about the subject.” She smiled softly up to him while brushing a strand of hair out of her face.
“It’s no problem (L/N), also you can call me Remus, only if you want to.” He looked down at her nervously waiting for her response. She chewed on her lip for a moment before smiling at him again. “Of course, Remus. Also, you can call me (Y/N), only if you want to though.” She said repeating his words. Remus loved it when she did that, he felt that he was really being listened to, rather than him just talking to someone and then them nonchalantly agreeing.
“Well, we better get to dinner, I’ll see you next week!” (Y/N) said happily, finally having made a real friend, not only a friend but a really cute friend.
~a month later~ Remus waited for (Y/N) at their spot in the library. He was concerned, she was never late. He decided it would be best to go and see if he could find her in the halls. What he wasn’t expecting was to see the girl he liked, curled up against the wall right outside of the library. Blood was flowing out of her torso and her nose. He hurriedly picked her up to run to the Hospital Wing. Once he reached the wing, Madam Pomfrey looked shocked to see the state (Y/N) was in. It was always bad when she came in, but this time, it looked gruesome.
“Mr. Lupin, do you know what happened to this poor child?” She asked panicked, trying to find the right supplies to fix up the girl. “No Ma’am, I was waiting for her to come to the library, as we have been studying together, but she was 10 minutes late. So, when I went to look for her, she was up against the wall passed out.” Remus said out of breath, having been winded from running the whole way. Madam Pomfrey quickly worked on (Y/N) as Remus watched nervously from the side. He couldn’t bear the thought of her being seriously injured.
“It seems like you got to her just in time, she has a few bruised ribs, and her nose is broken, again. Thank you for finding her Mr. Lupin, those Slytherins have been threatening her again, I suppose.” She shook her head with disappointment as she went to find Professor Dumbledore. “(Y/N), why didn’t you tell me people were hurting you? It hurts me when you’re hurt. Please try to keep yourself out of trouble.” Remus whispered to her.
“Glad to know you care about me, Remus. I didn’t tell you cause I’m not super important, I didn’t want you to go and start worrying about me.” (Y/N), had woken up to hear Remus’s little confession, and was ecstatic to hear that he cared.
“(Y/N), I’ve been worried about you ever since you started asking around for help in classes, is it not ok to worry about the girl you love?” He quickly said, but his hand clapped over his mouth once he realized what had actually just said. Just as he was about to speak, (Y/N) spoke up. “I love you too, Remus. I’m kinda glad that we ran into each other, or else I would have just been a hopeless romantic.” She sighed, happy with how her life was going, even if she wasn’t popular amongst most of the students, she always had Remus Lupin.He quickly leaned in to give her a kiss, it was short, but it held all the feelings they had for each other. He connected his forehead to hers and whispered,
“I love you to the moon and beyond.”