Dreading Thursday [open!]

[Remus John Lupin]

Status: open to anyone!
Word count: 397
I looked up the full moon, lol, how's that xD

Bugger, bugger. Bugger! Remus clenched his jaws and scribbled furiously. The only sound that softly echoed though the deserted library that evening. Ten days. Ten days, he had. Ten days before full moon. Thursday, 18 December. The very day before the Yule ball. Damn. He had been asked by some Hufflepuff girl Sirius had arranged for him as a way of 'surprising' him, but Remus would not be attending any damned Yule Ball if it were up to Madam Pomfrey, now was it? Not if that ball was the night after the night of full moon, or he'd have to go through one hell of a speedy recovery!
Oh, not that Remus cared about the Yule Ball much. It was fun, usually, and Sirius and James often came up with some elaborate joke (last year's was hair-colour-changing-punch), but he felt bad about letting the girl down. She probably couldn't care less who took her to the ball, but if he cancelled now, ten days would be far too short a time for her to find a new date, probably. Oh, he felt immensely bad.. Even if he could feign sudden illness (and he probably could) it would still be so unjust of him. He actually should try and arrange someone else for her, but to do that he needed a reason not to go with her. Remus Lupin was usually a fast thinker, but at the moment he couldn't come up with a decent and plausible excuse to save his life without hurting or insulting the girl.

He tapped his pen on the paper impatiently. What to do, what to do?
"Ugh!" Annoyed, Remus got up to gather his books, then sat right back down as he couldn't leave before he had solved this matter, he couldn't. It was now or never and he feared that if he left now, he'd never think of something.
Calm down. Take a few deep breaths. Think.
You can't go to the ball because.. you're parents are going on a christmas holiday early and want to take you along? Not plausible, they had no money. His mother fell ill? An old, stupid excuse and that would give him no time to arrange another date for her. It had to be something that was premeditated, but also something he would've been able to overlook and something he couldn't get out of.. But what?