Selenophile // Marauders

|116| The Apartment

13th of August, 1978

Riley talked to Dumbledore after the day she faced Voldemort, and Dumbledore seemed satisfied.

Besides the war, there were exciting things going on in the Marauders' lives.

With the money Sirius' uncle had left, Remus and Sirius had decided to move into a flat of their own. It was in London, a bit far away from everyone else.

It was the day they were moving. Euphemia Potter seemed a bit upset to see Sirius go. Although, Remus couldn't be happier to leave his house.

As far as Riley understood, things weren't very good at the Lupin household for Remus and Lyall. She had heard Remus talk about his father and him arguing. Even though Lyall Lupin didn't want his son moving in with Sirius Black, Remus couldn't care less.

"It seems like everything here is done," said Sirius as he looked at the empty room at the Potter Manor. "Books—"

"Books? You read?" asked Peter. "Since when?"

"Since forever!"

"Since Moony got him the book for Christmas last year—" said James but was shushed by Sirius. Riley chuckled a bit.

"Oi! Crim is laughing! We got Crim to laugh!" said Sirius. "That was the hardest task today."

Everybody had noticed that Riley wasn't the same old Riley anymore. She hadn't been the same person since her mother died, she never laughed or told a joke. Furthermore, she had to keep the mission a secret from everybody else.

"All right," said Remus as he entered the room at last. "My mum says hi, also, my stuff are already at the flat. I got to avoid my dad, best feeling."

"That's nice," said James. "But... why?"

"He didn't take it very well, I mean me being gay and dating Padfoot. He hasn't looked at my face properly since he learned about it."

"I don't get your dad," said Sirius. "But I also don't get my dad..."

"Padfoot has been packing for two days now," said Peter as he tried to change the subject. "Seriously—"

"Siriusly," said Lily briskly as she walked by the room.

"That's the love of my life," said James.

"I'm gonna leave you lovebirds alone," said Peter. "I can't take James or Sirius talk about Lily and Remus for hours again..."

***

The flat was filled with boxes. Everyone in the group was there, trying to help out — meaning that they sat around as they looked at the stuff inside the boxes.

"Lads," said Peter. "I found baby Remus."

"No way!" said Marlene and took the photo in Peter's hands. "You look so small, look at this everyone!"

"Great, embarrassing baby pictures..." mumbled Remus. "Continue digging in there, maybe you'll find naked baby pictures of me."

"Already found it," said Riley as she held up a photograph up high to ensure that everyone saw it.

"That's amazing..." mumbled Remus once again. "I should've left those there to my mum."

"How old are you in this?" asked Mary as she looked at the photograph.

"I'm..." said Remus and looked at the date behind the photograph. "I'm about two in this."

"Awe," said James sarcastically. "You're completely naked in this."

"Enough," said Remus and took the photograph away from them. "Go and look at Padfoot's embarrassing photos!"

"No," said Sirius. "I never took them from Grimmauld Place. I was too busy escaping alive."

Peter laughed, earning a deadly look from Lily. He shut up.

"And that's a big old lie," said Dorcas as she pulled out a photograph out of one of Sirius' boxes. "I present you..." she looked at the date behind the photo. "Two months old Sirius!"

"Fucking hell!" said Sirius but Dorcas was quick to pass the photograph to James.

"Too late, Pads," said James. "Oh look, there's another one. I think this is Regulus next to you."

There were two kids in the photo, one of them about six and the other one about five. Sirius' hair was neatly combed to one side, he had a frown on his face. He was trying to take his little, dark green bow tie off. Regulus was trying his best to smile, but he didn't look very happy either.

"Ugh — give me that!" said Sirius and took the photograph away from James.

"Y'know what? That gives us the right to look at you guys' baby pictures," said Remus as he made some forks go into the drawers by floating them around.

"Hell no!" said James. "No way! For the record, we didn't find them intentionally, we found them accidentally!"

"I'm okay with it," said Lily.

"I'm not!" said James.

"I bet you look cute," said Lily smilingly.

"Get a room!" yelled Marlene. "And no, you cannot look at my photos!"

"You can look at mine," said Peter.

Riley thought about the photo albums at her house; filled with pictures of her and her family as a whole.

"We don't need your permission," said Sirius.

"You sorta do," said Riley. "Since you cannot break into our houses and steal them. And I don't even know where they are."

"Lies!" said Remus from the kitchen.

It was a lie. Riley knew exactly where the photos were; locked up in her parents' old room.