CURSES AND CANDIES - REMUS LUPIN

𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑓𝑜𝑢𝑟.

"Yea, that's a good one," Marlene muttered to herself, looking at the polaroid of Remus and Hollis hugging each other through the glass and sliding it into the light pink leather bag thrown over her shoulder.

At those words, Sirius and Lily simultaneously turned towards Marlene with amused yet exasperated expressions.

"Really, Marls?" James asked, shaking his head at her habit of photographing everything.
Well, that hobby had actually come to an abrupt halt when Hollis had been cursed, but now it was back.

"They were having a moment," Lily scolded to Marlene, shaking her head with mirth.

"Which is exactly why I took the picture," Marlene replied with a grin. "They're gonna want to remember it."

"And remind me how they're going to remember it if you hog all the pictures to yourself," Sirius said, jokingly poking her in the side.

"Just wait until Hollis's birthday," Marlene said cryptically with a mysterious raised eyebrow. "And then you'll all see."

"Should I be nervous?" Peter asked, only partially joking.

"You're always nervous," James gibed, wrapping an arm around Lily. "So it wouldn't be new."

Peter laughed along with the rest of them, but he actually felt hurt by James's mindless bullying.

Lily noticed the flicker of sadness in the blonde boy's face and frowned slightly at the boy with his arm on her shoulder. She sometimes thought that James made these sort of comments at Peter so often they had become routine.

"Oh shit, they're coming back," Sirius cried under his breath, shoving the other four Gryffindors back away from the bend they had followed Remus from. "Go, go, go!"

Hollis laughed lightly as she saw her four friends trip over each other in the hallway, scrambling away from where they had been so obviously watching her and Remus.

"I think they think we didn't see them," Remus said with a dubious expression after they broke apart their hug. "As if the combination of James, Peter, Marlene, and Sirius is subtle."
"And then with Lily getting mad at them," Hollis added on. "Because I think the ginger in her comes out then."

Remus felt a smile tug at the corners of his mouth as he heard Hollis joke about her friends like she usually did. It was something he had begun to take for granted before the curse, but now he would never forget how dull the world felt in their absence.

Sliding open the glass door for her, Remus walked down the hallway next to Hollis, their knuckles brushing slightly yet fingers not actually intertwining. As Remus looked down at Hollis, he realized something was missing.

After Hollis had cut her light blue sweatshirt, she had changed into a long sleeved, grey shirt that still covered her false Dark Mark that she still couldn't remove and then the cut on top of it.

Still while walking, Remus tugged off his Gryffindor sweatshirt, making Hollis look over as a section of his stomach was revealed.

That would never stop making a tinge of color appear in her cheeks.

Once Remus was just wearing his brown t-shirt over his torso, he handed the large sweatshirt to Hollis.

"I'm assuming you want this back."

Taking the chocolate smelling cotton from his hand, Hollis let the sweatshirt drown her in comfort as she slid it on.

It had been so long since she felt this warm on the inside and out, that feeling that only came with Remus. And she had missed it desperately with every bone in her body.