AUTOPHOBIA - G. WEASLEY

Summer, 1994: Like Father, like daughter

A few things to note before reading this chapter:

- There is a conversation about an addiction to cigarettes/nicotine, it's not heavily detailed, but it is detailed. And there's a scene with two adults smoking, too.

- This chapter isn't fully written in Estella's perspective. Idk if this is going to become a repetitive thing, it's just something I wanted to try out, but if it does it won't be common. This fic is obviously still very much from Estella's pov -- but I do think the part of this chapter that comes from someone else is EXTREMELY important for the plot. Pay attention to it. There's things you might want to remember, but that's all I'm telling you.

Anyway, that's all I have to say for now. Enjoy!! :)

✯ CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR ✯

24th July, 1994.

The summer break was so far uneventful, but not in anyway boring. Estella had tasked herself on the first week to finish every single piece of summer homework that she had, because that way she could enjoy the rest of the break without having to worry about rushing it all at the end, and it would stop Remus pestering her everyday to get it done.

With it all being done in the first week, she'd managed to invite Hermione over, and also meet up with Ron on the second. And the rest of her time had just been spent at home, chilling, enjoying not having to worry about school or anything to do with it.

She'd developed a new interest -- one that if you'd told her about a year prior, she would've laughed in your face -- and that was reading.

Estella had always been the type of person to pick up a book to help her fall asleep, but she'd never actually been an avid enjoyer of the contents of books until now. It had started when she'd read Pride and Prejudice, which she'd grown insanely attached to and used as a form of escapism during everything that was happening at Hogwarts -- she'd finished it, moved on to The Bell Jar by Sylvia Path (another book borrowed from Hermione), and now found herself rummaging through her godfather's bookshelf every few days, finishing book after book.

Remus wasn't home very often. He'd found a job at a local muggle primary school, helping out at a summer club they were running, where he would work for four hours a day either in the morning or afternoon, Monday to Friday -- though very occasionally his shifts were a bit longer.

It was only a temporary job that he would finish at the end of the summer holidays, but at least it was something to keep him going for now.

It was at the beginning of the third week, while Remus had been out at a shift, that three members of the ministry of magic had shown up. Estella had answered the door to them telling her they had a warrant and had been asked to check the house and make sure Sirius Black wasn't hiding it, and they'd shown zero cares when Estella had explained that she was fourteen years old and home alone, and so it wasn't the right time for them.

They'd raked through everything; from the living room to the kitchen, Remus' study to the bathroom, Estella's bedroom to Remus' bedroom, to every last cupboard they had in the house -- but of course, they hadn't found anything suspicious; so they left, one of the members looking heavily disappointed, as if he'd desperately wanted to have found something.

Remus was beyond angry when he'd returned home that day. He didn't care that they'd searched the house -- he kept telling Estella he'd expected it-- it was the fact they'd done it with only his innocent teenage goddaughter in the house that had really got to him.