moony and wood | r. lupin

hard times

"There is no other explanation, Evelyn."

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

November 1981

Godric's Hollow

The wizarding world rejoiced. Finally, after nearly a decade of living in fear of the Dark Lord, he was gone, and wizardkind could live in freedom.

It might have been a time of light, but things were still feeling pretty dark for Evie and Remus.

Yes, Voldemort had been conquered (by a baby, at that), but the matters of who had once been their best friends had them in knots.

Lily and James were buried beside each other, in the cemetery down the road from their home in Godric's Hollow. A small number of people had shown– Evie supposed there would have been more if there weren't lingering suspicions of possible Death Eaters lurking around. Among the people who had shown, Evie had been able to name the majority– Alice and Frank Longbottom, Rubeus Hagrid, Sturgis Podmore, Mary MacDonald– and of course, Remus.

The funeral had, for the most part, been ministry organized, but it was Evie and Remus who took most of the responsibility, sending letters out to their friends and Order members. Evie had even sent one out to Petunia Dursley, Lily's sister. She knew Petunia wasn't too fond of the whole wizarding thing, but she had to have loved her sister, right?

Evie had walked into the cemetery with hopes that she would keep herself composed– maybe a few tears here and there– but she barely lasted a moment. Merely seeing their names etched into a headstone broke her heart, and she collapsed into a mess of tears on Remus' coat. (He didn't mind– he was crying his own tears into her hair.) Through her tears, she thought she saw Petunia stop by, leaeving nothing but a small bouquet of lilies by the stone.

It was hard on everyone– Lily and James were well-known by the entire wizarding community.

Lily had been one of Evie's best friends at Hogwarts– and had continued to be once they graduated. They were both there for each other through everything– their first crushes, their first OWLs, their first everythings. It didn't feel real that Lily was actually gone– hadn't she just written to Evie not even a week ago, telling stories about her life with her baby son?

Evie hadn't known James nearly as well. He was much like Sirius– trouble-causing and jaunty. He had been something of a bully, but he'd also been something of a friend. He was a true Gryffindor at heart– loyal. Remus tried not to show it, but James' death hurt more than anyone else's, through their entire three years of fighting in the war. James was their leader– it was the unspoken rule. It had been his idea to create the Marauder's Map in their sixth year.

What made things worse was that Remus knew James would have wanted all of his Marauders there for his funeral; not just Remus himself.

Remus couldn't quite comprehend what went down on that Halloween night. Sirius, who everyone knew had acted as the Potters' Secret-Keeper, had given away their whereabouts– the ultimate betrayal. And, as if the Potters wasn't enough, he went and killed Peter Pettigrew, along with twelve innocent, bystander muggles. The entire ordeal didn't sit right with Remus– Sirius was loyal to those he loved, and James had been his other half– but he needed to accept it. There was no other possible equation to what had happened.

Evie, on the other hand, was not as understanding. She was confident, adamant, that Sirius wasn't working both sides all along. It made no logical sense– Sirius fought right beside her. To suggest that he was working with Voldemort would be suggesting that she'd welcomed a back-stabber into her home, inviting him for Merlin-knows-how-many meals. On top of that, she knew how loyal Sirius had been to Lily and James. He was James' best man, Harry's godfather. It seemed absurd to her that he would ever, in his right mind, give away their secret.