Is It Over Now?

Chapter eleven

The cottage that Pandora had given Remus the coordinates to was small, or at least appeared so on the outside the Gryffindor soon realized as he walked inside.

There were a total of three floors that made up the 'cottage', two above and a basement down below that the wizard had already mentally set aside for Dora to use for her experiments. The front door immediately led one into a well light, but rundown and tarnished kitchen that was only thinly divided from the large living room by the flooring left open so that one could freely walk between the two and the door to a rather large office that was off to the left, the stairs - going both up and down - to the right.

The upstairs had three rooms, each much too large for there not to be an extension charm somewhere in play. The rooms were rather dark looking, worn down and dirtied by so many endless years without use, but Remus knew that it would all change soon enough.

For the time being he only cast a few cleaning and repairing charms and slept in the bed in the room farthest from the stairs, but with the largest windows, his Hogwarts things at the end of the bed, all that he had to his name. The starlight kept him company at night as the sunlight woke him with the morning.

—-

Two days later there was one loud crack outside of his house, the scent of wild magic belonging to an elf coloring the air as Remus walked out to meet the newcomers, the Fidelius Charm thick in the air around the cottage as he could see them, but only Dora could see the lion.

Remus could tell the moment that this changed as Evan and Barty's eyes went wide, almost comically so, and the Gryffindor could tell that the secret had been shared.

"The cleaning crew is here to help!" Dora called brightly as the three drew close, wands in their hands as the elf - Evan's house elf - popped away to return later once the boy called for it.

Remus would never know how the wizarding world could look down on such creatures, but the wizarding world seemed to look down on anything and anyone that they deemed other, he knew that about as well as anyone.

No one mentioned the third snake that they were missing, the one whose rings matched Remus's own that he wore on stark display for all to see now that summer was here. They didn't have to, they all felt the absence like some sort of serverince charm.

"Then I suppose we should get to it."

And they did.

The four started with the study, the least damaged place within the former Ravenclaw home as it was spelled with protective charms. The boys set about moving all of the books and furniture from the room as Pandora casted repairing charms on the walls and the bookshelves that sprouted from them like limbs from trees. Muggle music played through the air as the four painted the room a soft gray, a miniature version of the sky bewitched on the ceiling as it was at Hogwarts.

Remus felt the itch to flip through the books, magics of all kinds staring back at him from the spines of each of them, but he only shelved them with the others to be looked at later.

Next were the bedrooms. Dora took the one nearest to the stairs, painting it a deep blue, while Evan and Barty took the middle room turning it the same shade of green as the Black Lake during the day. The Gryffindor let the trio do whatever they wished with the rooms as he painted and repaired his own - the walls were a warm gold with silver linings - it was theirs after all.

As the four met in the hall on the way to go down the stairs, a feeling of tightness fell over the group, the wall opposite to the rooms staring back at them as if they had offended it. The magic worked was hesitant, but soon a balcony that overlooked the living room was where the wall had been, one that opened the space and allowed those upstairs to see any that dared come through the door with the advantage of height.