Spells and Handcuffs (Remus Lupin)

Deepening

The next day I felt like I was flying. Remus and I parted in the morning, I had to go to work in my department and he had to go back to headquarters. The smile kept on my face all day, and I suspect that my new boss, Alonso Jones, thought I was going crazy. Even the extra difficult tasks he assigned me couldn't spoil my mood. The happiness started as a warm tingle in my fingers and toes. I felt it pass through me like a warm ocean wave, washing away the stress of my life to leave me refreshed inside. I sat back in my chair and let the happiness soak right into my bones. I closed my eyes and savoured the moments from the night. For the first time in forever, my body and mind relaxed. 

When I returned to the headquarter, quite unexpectedly I came across Remus in the hallway. It was as if he was expecting me to come home at any moment. He pulled me close to him and kissed me gently on the lips.

"I've missed you so terribly today. "

"I missed you too."

"You're just in time for dinner. Come on. "

"Mmm ... actually, are we going to say something to the others?"

"Do you want to? "

"Well, I have nothing to hide in the end. "

He just nodded and walked forward. We entered the dining room, where, as usual, since the Weasleys had moved to live here, it was full and noisy. Almost all the children were sitting at the table, Molly was spinning around the fire, Sirius was talking hotly about something with Kingsley and Hestia Jones.

I decided to help with the preparations for the table. Remus sat down next to Sirius. Apparently, before he met me in the hallway, he had been involved in their conversation, because now he joined in passionately.

"I don't think Hagrid will succeed," I heard him say to Kingsley. " Both giants and werewolves are against the Ministry, which in recent years has been particularly fiercely persecuting us. "

"That doesn't mean we shouldn't try," Kinsley added.

I approached them and would sit next to Remus. But instead, he casually pulled me to sit in him, facing the others without stopping to listen and engage in conversation. The moment he did, there was a moment of silence. Several heads turned to us. Maybe it was only then that Remus and I realized our action because I looked anxiously at the reaction of the others.

"Finally," Bill shouted with a laugh. " Sirius, man, you owe me 10 galleons. "

"What?" I wondered at his comment.

"Your uncle bet you would kill each other after your mission last night."

"Sirius," I said to him, "Really?"

"Well, don't be angry. Yesterday you both came out of here as if you were going to an apocalypse. In fact, these are my sweetest lost 10 galleons. "

"Bill, did you know about us?"

"We all knew," Fred said.

"But how? " I turned to Remus, who just shrugged, smiling.

"I was sitting at St. Mungo's for two months last summer," Kingsley said, leaning back in his chair and winking playfully at me. "Moony came to see me once. He stayed with you every day. "

"And Sirius is not one of the most secretive," Ron said.

I rolled my eyes.

"I even think Dumbledore himself knows," Bill said. "Last night, when I went to see what a curse he needed help with, he just thanked me and apologized. The curse he called me for was a simple hair loss curse, but he didn't understand it at first. Dumbledore himself to call me for something like that? I strongly doubt it. At the end of our conversation, he asked me several times if you two went on a mission together. "