Title: Empty eyes
Author: Ligeia
Pairing: SS/RL
Rating: PG
Category: angst, drabble/ficlet
Summary: Lupin is back at Hogwarts, but things have changed
Italian version: Occhi spenti
All characters in the Harry Potter universe belong to JK Rowling. I'm just a devoted fan with an overactive imagination.
He used to be beautiful. Elegant and proud, the centre of my world; he would pass by me and all the rest would vanish. James thought I was hopeless, Sirius that I'd gone mad. Peter didn't understand. Neither did I.
The way he walked, stalking the corridors with such confidence that even the older students gave way to him. The way he rode his broom, graceful and swift, robes flapping like black wings around him. And of course his voice.
He was my nightmare and my dream, and I didn't want to wake up.
But reality hit me like a slap in the face.
Back to Hogwarts, back to him after all those years. I knew he hated me, had ever since that infamous 'prank'. How Sirius could call that a prank and get away with it still escapes me. I was ready to take his hatred, smoothed down by time or not. I was ready to be on the receiving end of his notorious sarcasm, if that meant I would be able to talk to him again.
But I wasn't ready for what I saw.
Sallow skin. Greasy hair. That didn't bother me too much. Spending days - and nights - secluded in a lab couldn't do any good to his looks. His heart had always been there. 'The subtle art of potions' he used to call it. Creating draughts and concoctions had been the only thing that made his eyes sparkle, not even a Quidditch victory had that effect on him. Well, maybe if it was over Gryffindor.
But now there was no sparkle in eyes, not the joy for doing something he had loved more than anything else. There was no love. There was no life. There was nothing.
And that frightened me.