Redamancy - R. Lupin

Chapter 20 - Foudroyant

Foudroyant - (adj.) dazzling, stunning effect.

R E M U S

It's January 1st, 1996, New Year's Day.

As well as Evangeline's twenty-third birthday.

Remus, ever since Christmas, had been planning for her birthday with Lillian. He wanted it to be special, but he was never good with planning things, which made him incredibly thankful for Lillan's help. She'd seen him scribbling ideas on a sheet of parchment in the dinning room three days prior and offered help, help he immediately accepted.

He had spent the whole night prior in the kitchen with her baking. To say Remus was rubbish at baking was a sore understatement.

"Remus, I said two eggs," Lillian huffed, hands on her hips, "why did you put five? And my word, there's more eggshell in here than in the actual egg carton."

Remus blushed in embarrassment, shifting his weight on his feet. The last time he'd baked anything was summer going into his sixth year at James's house, and well, that was a very long time ago.

"Seriously, Remus, do you want her to have an edible birthday cake? Because at this rate, it'll be completely inedible," she scolded with an annoyed sigh.

"Baking isn't my specialty," was all he could offer, an apologetic smile on his lips.

"Clearly."

In the two or so hours he'd been in the kitchen with her, he'd learned she took baking incredibly seriously- scarily seriously actually.

"Alright, I'm going to take this as a sign that vanilla is not the way to go," Lillian mumbled, tapping her finger against her chin, using her other hand to flick her wand, sending the failed cake batter into the trash, "right then, lets make strawberry cake."

"Strawberry?" He questioned. He'd never had strawberry cake before and was fairly intrigued.

"Yes, its her second favorite," she answered, summoning the strawberries from the fridge, "can you cut them? And not mess them up, please."

Remus nodded, stepping over to the counter, he began to chop the strawberries as she worked on the batter.

"So, what's her first favorite cake?"

"Last she told me, its lemon poppyseed cake," she cracked two eggs into a large mixing bowl as she talked, "but, our dad makes it best, so I don't even try."

Remus remembered that Evangeline had a fight with him a number of months ago and hadn't spoke since. "Were they close? Him and Evangeline, I mean."

She nodded, sweeping her hair up into a messy ponytail, "very. They'd never fought before and I can tell its eating her up. But, she's too stubborn to apologize or reach out to him. You better hope you don't end up on her bad side. I did that once and she didn't speak to me for almost a year."

Remus felt like there was a story behind that, but he didn't want to pry, so he didn't say anything else, focusing instead on the strawberries.

"You know, I'm surprised Elio helped you."

Remus gulped just at the mention of his name. Ever since Elio had arrived at Twelve Grimmauld Place, he'd done everything in his power to befriend him, but nothing seemed to work. He'd given up eventually, until yesterday morning.

He had been talking to Tonks, trying to figure out what to get for Evangeline for her birthday, when Elio came over and offered to help. He ended up taking Remus to a jewelry shop in France (via Port Key) and helped Remus pick out a set of earrings for her. Apparently those specific earrings were ones she had wanted since she was a kid. While Elio hardly spoke to him the whole time, Remus was glad to be on okay terms with the man.