𝗰𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸, remus lupin

˗ˋ 74

CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH FAMILIES 
COME TOGETHER

. . .

Christmas day came quicker than they expected. It was in the beginnings of the second week of the holidays, so by the arrival of the day of celebration it was almost bittersweet; they knew that not so long after, by the time New Years had passed, they would be returning to school and thus, to lessons and the isolation of the Scottish Highlands.

But there was also a lightness to it; Peter and Remus's families had joined them.

It was a suprise curated by Mr and Mrs Potter on the the behalves on not only the two boys missing from their families homes, but their friends too, who had grown friendly with all families (excluding one in particular that neither currently present relatives wished to hear from) connected to the group. It allowed them to celebrate the holidays with an exaggerated exuberance that could only be accounted to the looming darkness in their worlds. 

And Remus had never been so glad. He had heard James's words of surprise as he had excused himself from their breakfast of a certainly festive fry-up to answer the surprise knock on the door, which spoke only his parents names and all of a sudden he was out of his seats and rushing away from the kitchen, Peter too. 

Sirius and Pandora had joined them there a minute or so later, and the latter, with quite the expression of surprise on her face, had been introduced to his parents. It was a meeting that Remus couldn't have much expected; he was unaware of whether or not it would happen at all, on account of Pandora's... qualities that could set her apart from the usual. He had no idea whether his feelings would be made known at some point or even expected and if she would be impartial to being introduced but it appeared as though his worries had been needed not; the slight tension in her jaw had dissipated having spoken only a few words to Hope and Lyall Lupin and Remus got the strange notion that she was just as anxious to meet them as he was presenting the idea to her. 

They had all settled for Christmas dinner - which really wasn't dinner on account of it being eaten mid-afternoon, but according to those more well-versed in the religious aspect of things it was something to do with togetherness that Pandora seemed to take quite an interest in - and ate in the midst of laughter, mindless conversations happening between several seperate groups up and down the table and heavy compliments to the chef. 

A magical take on things had led to the traditional Christmas cake being lit by a spark from a wand, and after the following uses of cheeseboards and coffee to allow the hearty meal to settle, they migrated through to the living room, where the Christmas tree was twinkling merrily and lighting up a number of wrapped gifts.

When they sat to open presents, Pandora was allowed the courtesy of getting to know the Pettigrews and the Lupins more. Gift-exchanged had commenced with the presents beneath the tree, which had been heartily stacked and sat waiting since that morning with James and Sirius attempting on several occasions to open them without finding out, and the new arrivals being to delve into their seemingly never-ending and most certainly magically extended bags to retrieve seperate gifts. 

The Pettigrews were an ironically mousy family. Specifically plain and dull. Enid was a half-blood and her husband a muggle-born, both of whom reserved particular dislikings for, apparently, Sirius and Pandora. With her mousy-brown hair and faded cardigan, the woman had apologised with a forced, tight-lipped smile that she didn't know Pandora would be there (Peter insisted she in fact, did, as he had written about it just days before) and thus didn't have a gift for her, and had given Sirius a tea-caddy for his none-existent kettle. Her husband, Tim, was passive and didn't seem to say much else than discussing the recent weather and the state of affairs within the Ministry, where he worked. 

Both he and his wife seemed to share the same opinion on the two, it did not seem to matter that the both of them had been invited by the perfectly respectable and liked Potters, their family name and shared blood hosted much more of a problem to them.

Hope and Lyall Lupin, on the other hand, had the opposite effect. Hope had delivered, with a smile on her face and interrupting her husband's conversation with Pandora on the current status of Potions lessons at Hogwarts (which was his once favourite) to hand over her gift. It was a blanket, as she had heard that it could be quite cold in the Slytherin dorms. Neither of them held the same prejudices against Pandora and most certainly not Sirius as the Pettigrews did and Pandora believed that, even if they didn't seem to get on with her well enough, Hope and Lyall would try and like her anyway, simply on the premise that their son seemed to be... something with her. 

It was blatantly obvious, as much as Remus tried to hide it, that he felt something for her. She was there at the Potters' Christmas after all, sitting beside their son at the hearth with a smile on her face that was recieved with the image of devoted gentleness by the aforementioned boy. And thus, Hope and Lyall decisively liked Pandora.

But, despite the easy analysis of how his parents seemed to be quickly growing fond of the girl that son felt the same for, Remus could see... something. It was odd, something was different, strange, completely changed.  

"What?" He asked, when he caught his mother looking at him with a different expression than he knew. She waved him off without any kind of explanation. 

There was something looming, something confrontation, something entirely earth-shattering on the horizon, and from the look in Pandora's eyes, it seemed she already knew. 

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