moony and wood | r. lupin

from a distance

"It's actually about an old friend of mine,"

‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾

May 1993

Headmaster's Office

It was a quiet Sunday when Evie made her way up to Professor Dumbledore's office, careful not to intrude on any official headmaster business or anything of the sort. She probably would've just gone to McGonagall, but the headmaster would have better control and power to help.

-

The evening prior, Evie was in Hogsmeade Village, wandering around High Street as an excuse to get out of her office. She had left the school at the end of June to return to the old cottage with her family, the summer tradition that carried on even through the passing of her older sister, Gwen, but returned to Hogwarts at the start of August. She said repeatedly that she was only going back for new school year preparations, but deep down, she really couldn't bite back her lust for the castle. It held many memories that she treasured wholeheartedly, and she often found herslef yearning for the environment where things always just felt right for her. 

She was escaping her classroom for the tall buildings that lined High Street in the warm summer sun. Sure, she loved having her own space in the school, but sometimes it felt nice to witness the quaintness of the nearby town, to recollect memories she had made there as a young teen– and of course, to obtain a guilty bag of pumpkin pasties to snack on.

As comforting as the village was, she couldn't help but wince at the posters hung at every intersection and plastered on every shop door– headlined with the word 'WANTED' in harsh, black letters, the face of Sirius Black looked gaunt from twelve years of prison time.

Evie had been alarmed when she found out from the edition of the Daily Prophet that Sirius had escaped Azkaban. And she was rightful to do so– people escaping the world's highest security prison, guarded by dementors, wasn't exactly something anyone had ever seen. On that same note, there was much ado about the speculation of Sirius's motivations now that he was out, the name one being to hunt down Harry Potter.

On the other hand, the small, tiny bit of Evie (not that she'd ever admit it), was secretly relieved to hear of Sirius's breakout. He had been one of her closest friends, those thirteen years ago.

Evie tried to keep her mind preoccupied as she wandered the aisles of Dervish and Banges. 

It was then that she nearly collapsed at the sight of a face she'd never expected to see.

He was still the same in the decade they had spent apart– the scar that crossed his nose, the way his forehead creased as he read the label of the jar in front of him, the way he held himself. But a fair bit had changed, Evie noticed– which perhaps was part of the reason she did a double-take. The circles that darkened his eyes during the war had somewhat faded since then, and his hair seemed thinner than it had been once upon a time. But he was still, nevertheless, as breathtakingly handsome as he was in his Hogwarts days.

It was, of course, none other than Remus Lupin.

The man she had loved.

The man she didn't realize until that moment she still loved.

The man that believed Sirius Black was at fault for the deaths of Lily and James Potter.

Evie's lip twitched at the thought. It had been the core reason Remus was no longer a component in her life– they had strongly disagreed on the circumstances of their friends' deaths. Remus had believed the newspapers, the reporters, everything that said it was Sirius' fault. It was the only logical answer– he knew that there was no way Sirius hadn't betrayed the Potters, if he was their secret keeper.