"BOGGART"

BOGGART: a shape-shifting creature that assumes the form of your greatest fear; when Molly had assigned everyone tasks to clean around the house, Lorelei had picked to do the entirety of her floor, she was on the floor with Birdie and Hope, but seeing that Birdie was back from the hospital, she was using the sick girl excuse to stay in bed all day, and Hope was busy helping them clean out together, and Lorelei wanted to be left alone that day, especially after what happened with Regan so she thought she'd just clean out the entire floor.

"You can't continue taking this!" Regan yelled at the older girl who frustratedly sighed, placing the silencing charm on the door without her wand, Regan was impressed but she chose not to say this, "You know how this shit messed mum up, I can't watch that happen to you!"

"It won't!" Lorelei said, she wanted to pull at her hair and scream, but she couldn't and it all was making it very frustrating and harder for Lorelei to breathe.

"This is almost fifty bottles, El" Regan's voice turned soft, she looked at Lorelei who looked away, "This is how it all started for mum — just tell me this, how much do you take at night?"

"I don't fucking know, Reg" Lorelei threw her hands back, "I don't keep track of those..."

"You should be!" Regan told the older girl, "You know first hand how these things mess up your mind, they're harmful, and if you continue using them, I'm gonna tell mum, I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to"

"No, you can't tell aunt Si" Lorelei got up from her bed, "She'll freak out, she'll get worried and then uncle Andrew will freak out too, and then she's gonna get distracted on a mission—"

"Then stop using them" Regan said, her voice sharp, "Just stop and I'm not gonna tell anyone"

"Damn it, Regan, don't you get it?" Lorelei said, and her voice cracked, "I can't fucking sleep — every time I close my eyes I see him, and I see his dead, pale and limp body, and I remember that I'm never going to see him again, and it physically hurts me, and I can't keep doing this over and over and over again at night, it's exhausting and I can't—" Lorelei choked up, "I can't keep doing that"

Regan fell silent, "He wouldn't want you to live like this, El" She squeezed her older sister's hand, "Cedric loved you, and he wouldn't like the way you're treating yourself, what happened to Cedric wasn't your fault in any way, and El—"

"Stop it" Lorelei yelled, and a tear fell down her cheek, "Stop acting like you have any idea what's happened to me, your best friend didn't die, Reg, you weren't the one who lost one of the only people you couldn't afford to lose, so stop acting like you knew him or you knew anything about him, I have no one right now, Reg, Birdie won't talk to me, my father doesn't give a shit about me, and my mother is out on fucking missions, and I can't help but feel like I'm bothering everyone else"

By the end of it Lorelei was full on sobbing, she kept furiously wiping her cheeks but as soon as Regan tried to reach out a hand she backed away, "El, you can talk to me—" Lorelei shook her head, and she kept shaking it as she walked out of the room, her sobs had turned into soft intakes of air, as soon as she walked out into the hall she collided into something hard, someone grabbed her shoulders.

"What?" Lorelei asked harshly, but she was met with just brown eyes staring back at her with concern, "What do you want, George?"

George furrowed his eyebrows, she had called him by his name and not Weaselbee or some weird nicknames that George had grown fond of over the few days, "What's wrong?" he asked with a soft voice.

It was like his voice had broken some sort of barrier behind her eyes, as soon as he said that Lorelei's emotions went haywire, her sobs turned into proper ugly wails and George pulled her to his chest almost immediately, rubbing her back to give us some sort of comfort, "It's ok, it's ok, it's all gonna be fine"

...Embarrassing.

Anyway, Lorelei was doing everything in her power to avoid any kind of interaction at all, any kind. Including her cousin, and her aunt, and her uncle. Well, she could always move to hawaii and dye her hair pink — that could work out? Maybe? Who knows?

Lorelei put on her safety glasses to avoid any dust from getting into her eyes, and wore gloves, she was about to open the cupboard and clean it but she decided to save it for last, who knows what's in there, it's always shaking and creaking. If some rat or a literal bird came out of it, Lorelei wouldn't be surprised.

🫐

LORELEI HAD SUCCESSFULLY AVOIDED CLEANING THE CLOSET UNTIL THE END OF THE DAY. She stared at the long board of dark black wood that shook as soon as she grabbed her wand, she gave it disgusted look and put on a mask before opening it at once. As soon as the doors of the cabinet creaked open— no...

Lorelei stared at the figure of Birdie's pale body in front of her, and watched her drop to the floor, Birdie's eyes were wide open, but they weren't moving. Lorelei closed her eyes, and she backed away, and when she opened them again, it wasn't Birdie that was there it was Hope, and she had bite marks and scratches all over her body and she was also...dead. Lorelei backed away and watched the figure change into one of George, he was covered in rubbles and he laid motionless on the ground.

After what seemed like an eternity, Lorelei opened her mouth, but nothing would come out, she raised her wand her forward — trying her best to think of something funny, but she couldn't.

"Riddikulus!" Lorelei exclaimed, but nothing came out of her wand, not even wisps, she thought about disapparating out of the room, but she couldn't focus on a single destination, and if she did she would risk getting splinched, "Aunt Si! Uncle Moony!"

Lorelei went into a corner and kept her eyes closed as she tried to get her mind to stop, but it wouldn't — it kept reminding her of how much she had to lose, and how everything she had could just leave one day, Birdie already had, what if everyone else is here just because they have to? What if it's because they've spent so many years with her they'd feel bad if they left her alone? What if everyone was just there because they knew how alone Lorelei would be if they weren't? What if—

"El?" Remus barged inside the room to see Lorelei in a corner with her knees pulled up to her chest, she had her head in between her legs, Remus watched the boggart switch to his fear — his friends covered with wolf bites. All of them staring at Remus with the most immense hatred possible, he watched as what once was Sirius turned into Sirene, and for a second he too wanted to fall to the floor but he had to stop the boggart, "Riddikulus!"

The boggart got up and Remus saw James — he had a boyish grin on his face as he wiped the fake blood away and licked it, poking his tongue out at the werewolf, and for a second Remus felt like he was back at Hogwarts, and he had his best mates to help him through everything.

Just for moments like those Remus would fight a thousand more boggarts if it meant seeing his friend again, even though it might just be for a second, but then he remembered that the kid had seen similar things too, he immediately crouched down next to El, putting a hand on her shoulder, Lorelei flinched, but then she calmed down when she saw Remus.

"Ok, it's ok, I'm ok" Lorelei got up brushing the dust off her jeans, she released an awkward chuckle, "Just shocked, that was all"

"It's hard when you see your friends like that, trust me, I know" Remus put his hand on Lorelei's shoulder, Lorelei looked down at her feet, "You've been through a lot, it's ok if you want to scream, shout, cry, it's ok, El"

"I know" El passed him a stiff nod, "I saw your boggart change, it used to be a moon, didn't it? What happened?"

Remus paused, but then released a sigh, he reached his hand inside his pocket and pulled out a chocolate bar, Remus split it in half handing one to Lorelei and then taking the other half himself, "You're lucky, you know, I'm not one to share my chocolate" he joked and she released a chuckle before he motioned for her to sit down next to him, "Have a seat, El"

Lorelei slid down on the floor with Remus, both of them wordlessly took a bite out of their chocolates, "When we first encountered a boggart, it was when I was a first year — we had an incompetent teacher, an absolute moron, I don't know how he landed the job, he thought it'd be great to let a bunch of eleven year old's fight off boggarts, and I knew what mine was going to be — I thought it would be a werewolf, but it was worse"

"It was a moon" Lorelei said quietly.

Remus nodded, "It was a full moon, and everyone made fun of me for it, they thought I was scared of the dark, but your dad knew, and so did James — they didn't say a word to me, though" Remus chuckled fondly at the memory, "At least I think I did, but they insist they found out in our third year, and then we started becoming closer and closer each day, and when we finally learned about boggarts properly in third year, mine changed — it was your aunt, Lily, your father," Remus stopped to ruffle Lorelei's hair, "and James along with that traitorous rat, it kept switching between them"

"Then why did it change to the moon again?" asked Lorelei.

"Through the years, when your dad, Sirene, James and Peter would join me for the full moon, the moon wasn't the fear — hurting them was, and after the war was when I realized that they wouldn't be able to be with me, the worst thing imaginable had already happened to the marauders, I think I realized that there was no way I could hurt them now," said Remus, "but the crazy thing is — I would go through it all again just for a few moments with my mates because when you love someone the fear is always overpowered by the love you have for them in your heart, and though losing someone might seem like the hardest thing to go through, having no one to lose is an even worse feeling, and it makes you awfully lonely."

look what i found lol

isn't that all of us?