CURSES AND CANDIES - REMUS LUPIN

𝑜𝑛𝑒 ℎ𝑢𝑛𝑑𝑟𝑒𝑑 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑜𝑛𝑒.

Despite how relieved they were to see their children back home, the Potters and Lupins were still upset to see how much they had been beaten up by the skirmish by the bog.

Sirius was the least injured out of all of them, walking away from the fight with nothing more than tousled hair and a smear of mud on his pale cheek. He didn't complain about the dirt sullying his complexion like he would have, though, he honestly felt too guilty about all his friend's injuries to say much at all.

The Black watched from leaning in the doorframe with his arms crossed as Euphemia worked on James's many injuries. Lily had been targetted specifically for being a muggleborn, and he had made sure not even half of the spells directed hit her.

As a result, though, many had reached him instead.

Hollis had refused to let herself be helped until she got Remus cleaned up after much protesting, so the tall boy was now sitting on the counter next to James as well.

"Mia, do you have any butober leaves?" she asked, and Mrs. Potter nodded.

"Right under the sink, dear," she replied, gesturing in the general direction of the wide porcelain tub. "I must say I'm impressed, you know your healing magic."

"I would like to think so," Hollis said back, not looking up from the cabinet as she knelt down.

Just as she was grabbing the dried bundle butober leaves, though, she noticed something rather odd. There were two solid bag fulls of wormwood dust, quite an uncommon and expensive ingredient that was completely useless except as fertilizer an experimental remedy to one illness.

Dragonpox.

"Is everything alright?" Euphemia prompted, noticing the young woman's stall. "The leaves should be there."

Hollis blinked a few times as a sinking feeling formed in her stomach as she looked back at James, who was smiling softly at something his father had said.

She couldn't tell him, not now.

"Yea, everything's great," she said, forcing a smile on her face. "I just need to rehydrate these."

"Here, let me do it," Sirius said, jumping in to try and feel helpful. "Do I just need to boil some water?"

"And don't let it scald the leaves, otherwise the useful stuff will evaporate right out of them," she instructed the Black as he filled a pot with water. "Thanks, Pads."

They bumped tattoos.

"So," James started with a mischevious grin, the whole scenario giving him deja-vu. "Did we ever tell you how Hol and Moony really met for the first time?"

Hollis started to wrap one of Remus's shoulder with a white cloth bandage, completely ignoring him besides a glare.

"Please do share," Fleamont said with a grin identical to his son's. "I was wondering how this all started."

Hollis groaned as she threw the roll of bandages at James's glasses, and then smiling as she saw the satisfaction of him going temporarily blind before he found the copper frames near his mother's hand.

"Anyways," James said pointedly, sliding them back onto the bridge of his nose after her excellently aimed throw. "So basically we were being stupid and doing stupid shit as we do."

"As we do," Sirius and Hollis echoed in unison, making all the parents laugh.

This was just a cover up story for the fact it had been on a full moon. Everyone in the room knew about Remus's lycanthropy besides Euphemia and Fleamont, and none of the friends wanted to give away anything without his consent first. These small lies had become routine after years, and the Marauders had fallen into a routine so that they barely even noticed anymore.