LUNAR (A Harry Potter Universe Fanfiction)

Two. The London Flat.

Looking at Evelyn next to her mum was like looking through a crystal ball and seeing Evelyn in twenty years. It weirded Sean out. He stood between his mum and dad on the front porch step of the old woman they were renting from and was meant to be listening to her about the details of their lease, but he couldn't stop looking at Evelyn and her mum. Their mannerisms were identical. They nodded at the same things, tucked their hair behind their ear the same way, even frowned to the same degree.

"Shall I send you up then?" the woman asked. Her name was Marjorie and she was a sweet old lady with too many cats. She wore a neat floral dress, buttoned up the front and tied off at the waist with a coral-colored apron. She had been baking when they arrived. Cookies as a housewarming gift. Sean was still convinced that Marjorie was the only reason Evelyn's parents had agreed to let their just recently eighteen year old daughter move in with her boyfriend months after graduating from Hogwarts. Evelyn was barely of-age by their terms, but there would still be a parental figure nearby.

The flat was part of a duplex, the upstairs unit in a small red-brick townhome on a quiet street corner in Hampstead. This was a neighborhood in London he and Evelyn had not thought they could afford, but Marjorie was wealthy and widowed with no children of her own. An old school friend of Sean's grandmother, she had heard he was looking to move to London and offered to rent her upstairs at a fraction of what it was worth. They'd have been stupid to turn her down.

Sean was excited to see it again - it had been over a month since they had come to see the place. It was small, but Evelyn had fallen in love with the bay windows in the living room and the natural light. Sean had just liked that he would get to live there with Evelyn. No more sneaking her into his bed in a dormitory he shared with four other boys. No more never being able to find a private place to chat. This was their home. Their first home.

He followed everyone else around the back of the house to a set of iron steps leading up to a small landing, featuring a red door that was the entrance to the flat. Evelyn took out her wand to unlock the door and then pushed through, Sean at her heels. The flat was sparkling clean and their footsteps echoed in the empty space. Sean brushed Evelyn's hand and pressed his lips together. It was only now sinking in that they were moving away from home, moving in together. Their parents were already bustling all around, looking everything over, making suggestions about how to set up the furniture, but Sean and Evelyn stood there, just inside the door, not looking at each other. She twisted her fingers into his and held on tight.

"This is crazy," Evelyn whispered. Sean just nodded.

---

Moving with magic was a much faster process than Evelyn's experience with moving the muggle way. By seven o'clock that night, everything was arranged, unpacked, and put together. The kitchen was stocked with food, the remaining cookies from Marjorie packed in a tupperware. There was even a flower pot filled with mums on the landing out the door that Sean's mum had left.

Evelyn's mum had just walked out the door, the last to leave. She had just finished telling Evelyn how much it felt like a happy home already. But the second she had gone, Evelyn had begun to feel very odd. She could feel Sean's eyes on her back, but she was afraid to turn around and look at him.

She had no memories in this place that stretched back further than ten o'clock that morning, save a few minutes walking through it a month prior. It did not feel like a happy home, yet. It felt very much like a brand new flat. She was not comfortable there. She did not know her way around, did not remember which drawer anything had ended up in. She had also never been quite this alone with Sean before in the entire seven years she had known him. At Hogwarts, there had always been someone within a fifteen foot radius, even if only out of sight. And though she knew Marjorie was only downstairs, it did not feel that way at all. It felt like it was really just her and Sean and a living room she didn't know.