moony and wood | r. lupin

learning again

"More hot chocolate on the counter if you'd like!"

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

February 1982

Turtle Shore Cottage

It hadn't taken Evie long to move out of the flat.

She was a witch after all. Magic made everything happen faster.

Except for maybe heartbreak.

She and Remus agreed that they both left on mutual terms. Not because of each other, but because of the difficult lives they'd been handed.

Since then, Evie had taken up temporary residence in the Woods' cottage on Turtle Shore. It was surreal stepping into the place– she hadn't been there in years, yet it still had the same smell, the same feel.

She lived alone, for the most part. Her parents hardly took the trip to the cottage, unwilling to be in the unheated house in the middle of freezing cold winter months. Jace, however, was a little more willing, visiting every other weekend or so to check up on his sister. A few times, he'd even brought Oliver along, who had been eager to present his aunt with his brand new broomstick (he'd quickly been forbidden from riding it around the house). Jace worried for her– isolation wasn't good for the mind, and after experiencing such trauma, he knew Evie living alone called for bad news.

Evie brushed it away though, insisting she was set on her own. She'd gotten a job at the bookshop in town, and was brushing up on her textbooks. She wanted to become a teacher.

-

One weekend, as expected, Jace and Oliver turned up at the door, kicking off wet winter boots and hanging up snow jackets.

Evie welcomed them in, running to the kitchen to make some hot chocolate. Sure, the two had only traveled from Puddlemere to Turtle Shore– having apparated, at that– but it had become tradition to make a warm cup whenever they first arrived.

The kitchen was probably the coziest part of the entire cottage. There was something about the old, faded yellow paint and the tattered steps to the backdoor that made the Woods' hearts feel warm. It was a collage of memories, the crayon pictures on the fridge, the burn on the counter where Evie once set down a hot pan, and the crack in the wall from where Gwen once hit her head, trying to run away from her older brother who was chasing her with a frog he found near the beach.

Oliver took his usual spot at the round table, waiting patiently for the drink Evie was stirring. He glanced around, noticing something was off– the pictures that had once been on the top of the cupboards were moved, placed down the counter from where Evie worked.

Jace stepped in, sitting beside his son.

"So, Ev, how's everything at the bookshop?"

"Ah, same old." She replied, not looking up. "Old Yvette's still pushing along. She threw out her back, though, the other day–"

"Auntie Evie?" Oliver interrupted. "Who's that?" He pointed at the frames on the counter, peering at the one in the center.

Evie walked over, setting down the mugs as she took a closer look at the photo.

"That's your Auntie Gwen," Jace answered, giving his son a small smile. "And there's Auntie Evie, and me,"

The picture had been taken years ago– the one year that all three Wood siblings were at Hogwarts. Their mother had made them sit still for a picture in the living room before they left to catch the Hogwarts Express. Jace had been in his seventh year, labeled head boy; Gwen in her fourth, and Evie in her first, not even sorted into a house yet. The three had been impatient taking the picture, and in each one her mother snapped, one was making some odd gesture, blinking or frowning or scratching their face. Eventually, Mrs. Wood had given up and told them to make a silly face, letting that be her final product of the photoshoot. The picture had been framed for years, but the pictures had often gotten overlooked, sitting at the top of the cupboards.

"That's you?" Oliver asked, grabbing the frame as Evie handed it over for him to get a closer look.

Jace let out a laugh. "Yep. And that's Artemis, you remember? Grandma and Grandpa's owl?"

Oliver gave a small nod, still enticed by the photo. "That's Auntie Gwennie?"

Jace and Evie shared a look. The sorrow in their eyes transformed to care when they turned back to the small boy. "Yes. That's your Auntie Gwen." Jace put an arm around his son.

"Pretty, isn't she?" Evie let out a smile. "She was always fussy over things like that, silly Gwennie."

Gwen had inherited blue eyes from their father, unlike her two siblings, whose hazels came from their mother. Her dark brown copper hair was almost always tied back in a neat do, and she always wore a pair of earrings wherever she went. Remembering the small things about Gwyneth was painful– the way she curled up on the couch during rainstorms, her favorite white jumper that she only pulled out on special occasions– but it was a different kind of pain than Evie was used to. It was almost bittersweet, she'd describe it.

"Do you remember those muffins she baked?" Jace recalled, laughing. "It was after I graduated, and I was visiting the house– no, I was visiting here–"

"And Gwen made the muffins to give to her friends when we got to school," Evie knew the memory her brother was referring to.

"But she knew you and I would get into them, so she baked a second batch that she left out on the counter and bewitched them to turn our tongues blue," Jace laughed. "I was lucky enough to witness her cast the spell. You, on the other hand–"

"My tongue was blue for three days." Evie made a face. "Mum got so mad at Gwen, told her to bake a regular batch for everyone to share."

-

Evie ran up to the attic, where she found an old photo album of her mother's that had long been forgotten since the three siblings were children. It was composed of various photos, some taken by a muggle camera, others bewitched to move. She brought it down to the kitchen table, sitting on Oliver's opposite side as they flipped through the countless memories.

Nearly half an hour had passed when Evie glanced up at the clock, forgetting not to swear next to her nephew. "I'm late!"

"What're you late to, Ev?" Jace watched as she grabbed her coat from the coatrack beside the backdoor.

"I told Yvette I'd be 'round the shop at five," Evie explained. "She wants me to pick up this book on ancient runes."

"Ancient runes?"

"Yes! For teaching!" Evie slipped on her boots, waving her wand to have them lace themselves up snug. "I'll be back in twenty minutes! More hot chocolate on the counter if you'd like!"

Jace let out a chuckle as the backdoor slammed behind her, letting a gust of cold air hit their faces. He recalled Evie saying something about tutoring Ancient Runes to other students her age when they were younger– he knew she would probably be excellent at teaching it, too.

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾