LUNAR (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

Thirty Two. The Crescent Moon.

Sean wasn't quite sure what to do with himself during the day anymore. He no longer had a job to go to, so after Evelyn left for her work, he was left with nothing to do but think about what a crashing combination of events had taken place in the last few weeks, and worse, what had happened over the past few months.

His guilt ate away at him. He had realized, lying alone on the living room couch that night — the blankets were now folded over the arm and his pillow stashed under the end table until it was time to bring them out again — just how much he had taken for granted that he and Evelyn would always be fine.

They had never fought before. Not really, anyway. Nothing more than a spat. She had been around so long, always so patient and understanding and reasonable and constant, that he had grown over-comfortable with the thought that it would always be that way. That nothing he did would ever be enough to push her away. It had always seemed ludicrous that anything could.

And yet, Sean had almost gone and done it. It was only because Evelyn was so patient and understanding and reasonable that she was giving him this chance at all. Caiti wouldn't have, if Marlowe had treated her this way. She could forgive big explosions of anger, things she knew weren't entirely rational, but months of knowingly neglecting her? She'd never have put up with it.

Sean wasn't sure he would have either, if the situation had been reversed. In fact, Evelyn may have been the only person he knew in the world who would.

This thought did not help to assuage his shame.

About an hour after Evelyn had left for work that morning, an owl arrived to add to his guilt.

It was from his dad, and it was quite brief.

I heard you lost your job. Come have dinner with your mum and I tonight. We want to hear what happened.

Sean's stomach felt the familiar acidic twisting he had grown accustomed to during the triwizard tournament: dread. He had not said anything to his parents. Evelyn had been his priority and he was scared what they would say, scared whether he could emotionally handle their disappointment on top of everything else. But now he'd seen Caiti, he should have expected this was coming. Or maybe they'd known for weeks and had been waiting to see if he would reach out and tell them himself. He hoped that wasn't the case.

It was probably for the best he talked to his parents though, because it had been hard to even feel relieved he'd gotten out of this situation knowing he still had to go and defend himself to his dad, who had helped him get the position in the first place.

Sean put his face down in his hands. He didn't know what to deal with first. He wanted to prioritize spending time with Evelyn, building their friendship back up to some shade of what it used to be. But there was this now, too. And there was Marlowe who he had only seen once in the last few weeks and who deserved a better friend than Sean had been to him. And there was the fact that he still had to figure out what else he wanted to do with his life now he was unemployed.

He scribbled back a note to his dad saying yes, he would come that night, and then he wrote another for Evelyn to tell her he had to go and explain what had happened so he wouldn't be home that evening.

Around lunchtime, he got an owl back from her.

Do you want me to come? She'd written. For moral support or to back you up?

—-

Evelyn got home not before they needed to leave to go to his parents. She said a hurried hello and then ducked into the bedroom to change clothes. A short while later, she came out again wearing a blue sweater. She had clipped her hair into a half ponytail.