Redamancy - R. Lupin

Chapter 25 - Tenebrose

Tenebrose - (adj.) dark and gloomy.

E V A N G E L I N E

"Eridanus Crouch is our dad."

For the Love siblings, the statement was irrefutable. The man in the photo was younger, a little different, but undeniably their father. The three kept their eyes trained on the photo. Their father stood next to the woman who tortured their mother.

Knowing Sirius was unlikely to believe them without seeing a picture of Elias Love, Evangeline turned and hurried from the dining room. She did this also to give her body something to do, something to keep her mind from thinking. Thinking would lead to more realizations and she simply wasn't ready to let the reality of what they'd found sink in just yet.

Throwing open the door to her room, she snatched her own photo album from her nightstand- the one she had shown her mother when Remus had gone to the hospital with her- and held it carefully in her arms as she went back to the dining room, her thunderous heart beat keeping her company.

"Look," was all Evangeline said as she dropped back down into her seat, flipping through the pages until she found the one she was looking for. It was a photo of a seventeen year old Evangeline, her smile bright and joyful, dressed in a knee length baby blue dress, her hair cut just below her jaw line. Next to her, with his arm swung around her shoulder and towering over a foot taller than her, stood Elias Love. He wore his usual black and white suit with his usual emerald green tie. "That was taken the day after my graduation," she pointed at the other photo, "they're the same person, Sirius."

Sirius's face had paled as he looked between the pictures, "you're right. It's the same person."

Elio had yet to say a word, his eyes narrowed bitterly at the pictures. Elio and their dad had always their differences, the biggest being when Elio had gone off to the States to pursue a career in music. She could see his body tense, jaw clenched before he abruptly stood and stormed out from the room, slamming the door loudly and with such a force the walls shook.

Tonks promptly took off after him before Evangeline could advise against it. Elio always wanted to be alone when he was upset, never a kind of person to enjoy a soothing touch to calm him down. But, Tonks had already left the room before Evangeline could even open her mouth.

"His hair is different," Sirius stated, his grey eyes still looking between the pictures, "Eridanus always had very proper hair, but now he lets it do whatever."

Evangeline didn't know why he said that, but assumed it was due to shock. He'd thought this one his friends was dead for over a decade, yet here were his adult children showing him pictures disputing that.

The room was silent for a long time, no one moving a muscle as it sunk in. Evangeline, Lillian, and Elio Love weren't Love's. The Love family never existed to begin with. Whether their mother or father chose the name didn't matter. They were Crouch's.

Lillian stood and walked silently from the room, her silk, periwinkle dress too bright for the moment. Sirius threw Evangeline and apologetic smile and took off after her, leaving Evangeline and Remus alone.

Evangeline was in no mood to be alone with him, not after the day she had. Keeping her eyes anywhere but him, she grabbed both photo albums and made for the door.

She heard his chair screech against the floor and topple back, followed by "Evangeline, wait."

Her heart ached at the way he said her name, the way he used to. Remus had only been apart of her life for a short time, not even a year, but she had fallen hard and fast- just like she always does. Evangeline puts her entire being into the relationships she has with people only to have it backfire on her majority of the time. As much as her heart told her to turn around, to hear him out, she wasn't going to be hurt- not again.