Sanctuary

Chapter 96

Saturday, 16th June 1973

'Mum?' Remus called after stepping out of the fireplace in his front room. The place seemed deserted, but a moment later, she called back from the kitchen.

'Remus? Is that you?' He heard the scrape of chair legs across a tiled floor and a few seconds later she appeared in the doorway, a broad smile on her face that was completely at odds with the tight ball of grief and betrayal sitting in Remus' chest. 'Sorry, I was just having some lunch. Are you hungry?'

Remus hummed. 'Starving,' he said truthfully, as he crossed the room to give her a hug. Her arms wrapped around him without hesitation and he let himself relax into her warmth, taking comfort from the familiar scent that felt like home. 'Missed you.'

He could hear the smile in her voice when she said. 'I missed you, too,' and felt the increase in pressure as she squeezed a little harder before releasing him. 'Your things are in your room. A house-elf dropped them off about an hour ago. I let Rieka and Cosmo out of their travel cages, but I left the rest alone. Why don't you go wash up? It won't take me a few minutes to make you a sandwich. Ham and cheese okay?'

'That sounds perfect,' Remus said, forcing a smile onto his face.

She pulled him into another hug with an, 'Ah, I'm so glad you're home,' before returning to the kitchen and leaving him to get settled. He found Rieka and Cosmo in his room, Rieka sitting on her perch, and Cosmo on his pillow, her tail swishing back and forth as they both eyed each other. With a sigh, he sat on the edge of the bed, pulling Cosmo into his lap and giving her a nuzzle.

'I hope you two aren't going to cause me any trouble this summer,' he said, remembering the previous year when Cosmo had made a game out of stalking the poor owl. 'You both live here, and you need to get along.'

Rieka ruffled her feathers and whistled as if to say, 'Well, I'm not the problem,' and Cosmo just rubbed her face against the back of his hand and meowed.

Placing Cosmo back on the bed with one last scratch behind the ears, Remus stood and walked to the window to open it so the animals could get out if the mood struck, and as he turned away, he caught sight of movement in the corner of his eye. When he looked back, there was nothing there, but he would have sworn there had been a wolf creeping through the trees bordering the garden. Shaking his head—it must just be his mind playing tricks on him—he turned to his trunk and walked over.

He'd join his mum for lunch before he unpacked properly, but there was one thing he wanted to move immediately. Once that was done, he could drink one. And he really wanted to drink one. The memories were making it so hard to act normal, and he didn't want his mum to get worried and start asking questions. It was just for the weekend. Once she went back to work on Monday, he would stop and deal with his feelings, but he needed to be alone for that.

As he opened his trunk, he jerked his head around at the sound of a man's scream. It had come from outside, but when he went to the window, he couldn't see anything and after a minute with no more sound, he shook his head again—stress. It must be stress—and returned to his trunk, digging through until he found the stash of potion wrapped in a jumper at the bottom. With a quick check over his shoulder to make sure his bedroom door was still closed, he pulled it out and crossed to the loose floorboard near the end of his bed, grabbing the metal ruler from his desk drawer on the way to pry it open.

He took a swig first, holding it in his mouth while he lowered the bottle into the hole and pushed the floorboard back into place. Swallowing as he stood back up, he concentrated on the memory of biting the man at Easter. He was pulling a face at the taste in his mouth when he remembered the ruler in his hand and moved towards his desk to put it away. Why it had been on the floor in the first place was a mystery. Maybe Cosmo had been playing with it before he got home. He glanced at her and she blinked at him slowly from her position on his pillow.