viii. Even More Secrets

                                    

                                          

                            

                                
                            
                              
                                  
                              
                              
                                
                                  
                                  
                                
                              
                             
                            
                            
                          
                          
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Fall is creeping over the castle as the students of Hogwarts start to bundle up and leaves begin to change to hues of orange and red.
October has finally rolled around and Florence has begun to feel the full effects of the 5th year workload. All of her professors seem to be in cahoots, plotting their student's demise together. It's only been a month into the semester and she's gone through 15 quills, and multiple scrolls of parchment, and her fingertips are perpetually stained with ink.
On top of the endless essays and assignments, she and the rest of the Ravenclaw team are being worked to the bone by Delilah in preparation for their first match this Friday. Coincidently, it's the first Hogsmeade weekend as well. The match on Friday and the promise of peppermint toads have been her biggest motivators for survival this week.
Classes have already ended for the day so she's made herself comfortable in the library; it's another hour and a half until dinner and this is the only time available for her to get some studying done and try to finish her Potions essay. Slughorn had told them to research and write about possible alternative ingredients for a potion of their choosing. She's currently nose-deep in a book about Billywig wings, trying to figure out if there'd be any effect if she added them to a potion of dreamless sleep. 
Speaking of potions, Remus had moved back to his spot next to her in the class after their intense first week. They had mutually agreed to go back to being friendly acquaintances, occasionally studying together and trading notes. 
After a few weeks of that mutually decided distance between them though, she had begun to feel a bit empty- despite her previous insistence that she needed to 'get back on track for her future'. She thought it would make her feel better, returning to her normal boring life as a diligent student. 
Florence doesn't know quite how to explain it, but it felt like she was missing him in some way, which is odd because she barely knew him before this year. Something about learning his deepest secret had left her feeling a little torn about not making a greater effort to get to know him more.
Like- how could she explain that she knew something so deeply intimate about him... but she hadn't the faintest idea what his middle name was? 
And on the topic of friends; she isn't normally one to care for making new ones, but she couldn't help herself from wanting to this time. It didn't help that Amelia had become close with Remus and his entire friend group, and they all decided that they'd pester Florence whenever she was around. She'd eaten dinner with all of them a few times over the last month and the group of Gryffindors were all very keen to involve her in their shenanigans. 
Even Amelia's dormmates Mary, Lily, and Marlene seemed to be speaking to her more recently. She had shown up to dinner one Saturday night in some jeans and a dark cherry red sweater and the girls had all told her she looked 'Foxy'. Florence had always been on friendly terms with the three girls -by virtue of them being Amelia's only other closest friends besides herself, but that comment had stuck with her for some reason.