Boys Will Be Bugs

Chapter 20: Selene

There were some bittersweet goodbyes on platform nine and three quarters, particularly from Sirius. Remus saw his face fall as soon as he spotted his parents, standing as stoically and expressionless as ever; Remus felt for sure that if he were to walk over to them, a chill of cold air would settle over him. He gave Sirius an extra tight hug as an attempt at some form of consolation, with a firm promise that he would write, or at least, he'd tell James everything that was happening so James could pass it on— Remus assumed the no-writing-unless-you're-pureblood rule still stood.

Remus waved goodbye to the rest of his classmates and joined his parents beside the barrier, a significantly warmer welcome than Sirius's which actually made him grateful to see his parents in the first place. They were smiling, in a more expectant way than anything, like they were hiding something. Not that Remus had any idea what. Had they suddenly got back together in the two weeks he'd been away? Unlikely. He didn't know what could've happened in two weeks that would have been able to make up for ten years of arguing.

But he didn't have to wait long to find out what all the smiles were about.

Remus had assumed his summer holiday would be like every other, but worse this time round, because his dad would be in London, and they may not even visit his grandparents at all so his parents wouldn't have to lie about their current relationship status.

In the car ride home, however, his mum and dad revealed that not only were they going to visit Hope's parents (only for a week though, in a few days), but that they were going to travel down to Blackpool for a proper holiday, as well as to visit Aunt Selene, who lived just on the outskirts.

Remus lit up at this information, remembering that Peter was going to be in Blackpool as well.

"He's staying in a wizarding community," he explained.

"Well we're staying near your aunt, so don't get too excited. You might not get to see him." Remus would still write to him about it though, and it was at least something to look forward to, since he knew what his parents were doing. He wasn't stupid. They were keeping up a façade in front of their family, or else trying to keep things as normal as possible for Remus's sake, bribing him with holidays. Which was fine, he didn't care, as long as they weren't arguing in front of him he didn't care what they did. But something about them pretending everything was normal when it really wasn't got under his skin for some reason. Made him itchy, metaphorically. Then again, the full moon was tomorrow, so that could have explained any irritation.

Holidays always had to be planned around the full moon, which was why proper holidays to anywhere outside of Wales was usually off the table, so Remus was surprised his parents were bothering to make this sort of effort. They usually went to his grandparents for just under a month, before the full moon, and then maybe a few outings to beaches or city centres; Cardiff if they were willing to stay in a hotel for a few days. Sometimes they went to London, using the floo network attached to the Leaky Cauldron, but his mother hated that method of travel, and the car or train took too long, not to mention how expensive hotels in London were. It wasn't worth it. So journeys outside Wales were rare. Therefore, whatever the motive, Remus couldn't help but be excited for the upcoming trip.

He had to go to his grandparents first though, but it was just after the full moon, so he had nothing to worry about. As for telling his grandparents that he was now taking a potion that made his body more male— something that would eventually become too hard to hide— they decided not to say anything unless his grandparents asked. While Remus wasn't keen on the idea of hiding his transition from his grandparents (making him feel like he was hiding more of his identity from them), he couldn't be bothered to argue. Besides, on the off-chance his grandparents decided to negatively comment on the decision, Remus was keen to avoid that for the sake of his mood.