War is Over

6.

Dad wouldn't let me go to the trial the next day. I found myself outside Marlene's door, the only problem being, she wouldn't let me in.

"I'm gonna scream." I warned her as I tiptoed to see through the window on their door.

"Don't scream." She pleaded.

"I'm going to scream in five seconds if you don't let me in. I'll scream as loud as I did that day we walked in on James and Lily in seventh year."

"Merlin, Nova please don't."

"Three."

"No."

"Two."

"Nova Euphemia."

"One." I took a deep breath as she fumbled with the lock to let me in. I smiled when we came face to face. She glared at me.

"What is wrong with you?" She asked as I pushed past her into her living room. I took in the sight of empty liquor bottles. I shrugged.

"I'm on trial for the third time this year, mourning the death of my friend, my husband has been disrespected by the ministry, oh and I'm seriously considering taking a teaching position at Hogwarts." She sipped from a bottle before handing it to me.

"If we're going to wallow, we should do it together. I'll dig out a pair of pajamas for you." She walked back to her bedroom, I followed. "You're seriously thinking about going back?" I took a long sip from the bottle.

"Yeah, being an auror is quite hard when you keep having to take leave for trial." She chuckled from the closet. She chucked a pair of quidditch sweat pants at me while she searched for a top that at one point I probably owned.

"Shall we bake?" She asked as she handed me a tee shirt while I changed. I smiled at her.

"I'd love that."

That was how we ended up with about two dozen cupcakes, popcorn, wine and chocolate frogs spread across the coffee table in the living room while we watched romantic comedies.

Evan and Reg walked in a few hours later. They both just stared at us from the doorway.

"Whatcha doing?" Evan asked as he undid his tie. Reggie took off his jacket behind him.

"Movies." I shrugged.

"Baked." Marlene offered.

"Like, you baked or you are baked?" Evan asked as he continued to take parts of his suit off. Had it been anyone else, it would have felt weird to watch a man begin to undress in his living room while admittedly being pretty drunk. But this was Evan. The boy who collapsed in my arms when I told him Reg had gone into hiding. The man who slept in my bed with me on my bad days while Reg was gone. Nothing was weird with Evan anymore.

"We baked, although I would like to get baked if you're offering." Marlene replied. He undid the top buttons of his dress shirt.

"Sure. Let me change and I'll roll one for us. Potters? You smoking?" I shook my head while Reg shrugged. Evan pointed to him. "Taking that as a yes." I looked over to Marlene as Evan left the room.

"How you don't jump into bed with him every night, I'll never know." Reg laughed from the armchair.

"Mm yes, Evan Rosier. Fit as he might be, he was given to me as a best friend," She tilted her glass towards me. "Although who's to say what will happen if we're not married by the time the pact expires." I laughed.

"Settle down with kids, will you?" She let out a loud laugh.

"Yeah, same time you do." I looked over at Reg. He just smiled. We hadn't told anyone if we were going to have kids or not, but after a year of being married and not even bringing up trying most people assumed the answer was no. Even Pandora started to question her prophecies. I rested my head on Marlene's shoulder. "Oh Nova, don't go soft on me and have kids. I will teach them all the swear words and how to be just like us."

"You think she wouldn't teach them all the swear words?" Reg asked through a laugh. "She had Harry say fuck the other day, now he uses it religiously."

"S'true. Heard it myself." Evan said as he walked back in in just pajama pants. I chuckled. Evan handed Marlene the joint he'd rolled.

"Merlin mate! Why do you never wear clothes?" Regulus groaned. Evan have a little shimmy of his shoulders.

"Don't act like you don't like it now. We've lived together since we were eleven and you've never complained once." He bantered as he pushed me over on the couch so I was sandwiched between him and Marls.

"How was the trial?" I asked. He huffee as he wrapped his arm around me.

"Potter, I could scream from the rooftops how Pettigrew was a rat and I've never trusted him and the Ministry would still only look at my last name," He leaned back to look at Marls. "hey maybe I should just take your Mckinnon." Marlene rolled her eyes and lit the joint.

"Changing your last name won't do much. It's the families we were born into." Reg told him with a shrug.

I rested my head on her shoulder again and let the smell fill the room. It was weird, James always hated the smell but I found comfort in it. It smelled like their dorm in the winter. Like I was curled up in Moony's bed while we read classic novels and dramatically recited them to each other for a laugh. Like how the basement at mum and dad's would smell all summer when we were fifteen until mum came down and confiscated our stash. It smelled like all my fondest memories.

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"So you're thinking about it? Really thinking about it?" Regulus asked that night as we got ready for bed. I nodded.

"Yeah, I mean Minnie makes a compelling case and I know she'll only get more persistent." I said as I pulled the covers back. He just nodded with a grin.

"She wants the lot of you back."

"As I recall, you were the first one she asked to do DADA." I pointed out. He climbed into bed next to me.

"I'm the only one of us who can talk about unforgivables without flinching."

"Right, when is that lesson again?"

"Don't do that, Nova."

"I'm just saying, I'm worried about you getting in front of a group of kids telling them about unforgivable curses that you didn't even know were bad until third year."

"That's what makes me fit. I can tell them how to deal with the pain of them, heaven forbid they ever have to deal with it. I'll be able to see it on any of their faces if they're trying to hold back. I may have had Minnie to call me out of a lesson but everyone isn't that lucky." I bit the inside of my lip.

"But who's going to be able to tell by the look on your face that it's going to absolutely kill you to casually teach them?" He cupped my face with his hand.

"You. You always have, even when I didn't want you to in third year. Now, after a long and hard lesson, instead of going back to my dorm with a half naked Rosier, I get to curl up with you in bed mi amor. I'll be fine as long as you're here." I kissed his hand that held my face.

"I love you."

"I've loved you longer."