black coffee | remus lupin [2]

6. hugs & lockets

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"I LIKED THAT PLACE," said James, tossing the keys to Potter manor on the kitchen counter as he arrived back home from the coffeeshop alongside Lily, Sirius and Remus. "We should go there again."

"I agree," said Sirius as he took off his leather jacket. "It was nice. And so was the coffee. And so was-"

"Are you alright, Lily?" James asked his uncharacteristically quiet wife concernedly, cutting Sirius off. "Is something wrong? You've been quiet for a while now."

"Oh," Lily chuckled nervously, and she just couldn't help but to glance Remus' way to where he had sat down on the couch.

Remus, of course, noticed this, which only led to him growing concerned as well.

"What is it?"

Lily sighed, looking away from Remus to James instead. "You know how I walked to that muggle clothing store with Marlene and Inez, right?"

"Yeah," James nodded.

"Well, after I had said goodbye to them and I left to go meet up with you three, I think..."

"What?"

"I think I saw Claudia."

Lily could feel the way Remus' eyes were practically drilling holes into her face at that moment, so she simply turned to him with an uncertain look on her face.

"Wha- what do you mean 'you saw her'?"

"I think I saw her," Lily explained. "But in case it was her I wouldn't have known anyway, because I was behind her. It just looked an awful lot like Claudia, is all. It was her hair. Shorter, but still her hair. And she was around the same height and...I don't know, it just looked like her."

"Was she alone?" Remus asked, and everyone knew that question was simply asked due to him wondering about Regulus bloody Maple-Black - the boy Remus still believed was in love with Claudia.

"No," Lily shrugged. "There was some other girl with her. But I've never seen her before either, so it probably wasn't Claudia."

"Well, if it was her," said Remus quietly. "Did everything seem fine?"

"Yeah," Lily nodded. "But she was only walking, so it doesn't exactly explain anything."

Remus smiled the smallest of smiles, "If she's out in London she's probably okay. That's all that matters."

"You're not...?"

"I'm not what?"

"Like, sad or frustrated that you didn't meet her?"

"Of course I am," he said. "But I feel that way every day, so it doesn't exactly make much of a difference. I knew she was alive, so it's not that weird that she was around the same place we were...but, yeah, I do wish I had seen her as well. If that even was her, that is."