"I didn't know anyone was in here. Sorry." Remus froze in the doorway.
Moody was afraid Jo might mess up a reconnaissance. So there she was, tracking the Order's minutes and mapping their locations from the last two months in a dusty brown journal.
She shrugged, "That's fine, Mad-Eye assigned this last minute after Emmeline said the records were a mess."
Remus slowly moved inside, his eyes bouncing around the room like a butterfly unsure of what flower to land on.
He let out a breath that seemed to be a laugh. "That sounds about right. No one signed up to do recordkeeping for the Order."
Jo blushed, slightly ashamed she was put up for this task instead of being on the front lines like everyone else. "So, what do you need from here?"
Her fingers pointed at the scattered maps and wanted posters that looked like tangled cobwebs from all the pins and yarn lying on top.
Remus answered, "I was looking for Mad-Eye or Gideon. We're going out today and I wanted to get the file for it."
"Well, I haven't seen either of them. I'll let you know if they come around."
"Err, thanks."
Remus was already walking out of the door with a shrunken posture when Jo called out, "Remus wait," and he turned back around to face her.
This was what she didn't want for them to happen. An awkwardly cordial interaction that erased years of friendship. Nay, years of being a family.
"How... are you?" She whispered, suddenly losing all her courage from before.
"'M alright. What about you?" He was rubbing the back of his neck.
"I'm doing good. You know, it's not the same without you. At the flat, I mean."
Remus merely hmmed with a half-smile. She needed to try a little harder.
"Sirius doesn't make tea as well as you do. It's always either too hot or too cold. Not enough milk or too much sugar," Jo quipped.
That elicited a bark out of Remus. "You're only saying that to make me feel better."
"Trust me, I'm not. I've had to start waking up before him to make it myself because it's dreadful. And he wakes up at the crack of dawn, you know, " she whined.
Remus shook his head. "At least I don't have to be in your early morning line of fire. I've learned my lesson."
Some summers ago, James had invited Remus to a sleepover. In the morning, the boys decided it would be brilliant to prank Jo by waking her up with cold water. That was the last time Remus pulled any major pranks on her.
He cleared his throat for lack of a better thing to do when Jo said, "Listen, Rem, we're still friends. Nothing's changed except we don't have any more midnight rendezvous."
He fumbled for words, "I know... I--", but stopped himself.
Jo was determined to get something more out of him. Some sense of normalcy between them.
"Sirius's birthday is coming up and I'm planning on throwing him a little surprise birthday party. It's not really a party, it's like an intimate... gathering with a few friends."
"Like a soirée?"
"Yes, a surprise birthday soirée. That's the word I was looking for."
A silence hung between them and his eyes were like butterflies again until he mustered up a response, "Okay."
"Okay what?" He had to be more specific. She wanted to hear him say it.
"Okay, I'll come to Sirius's surprise birthday soirée."
YOU ARE READING
The Other One | Sirius Black
Fanfiction"I'm sorry, I just... remembered something," she muttered as her fingers traced the scars on her throat. He placed his hands on her shoulders before whispering, "It's just me." "It's just you," she sighed. ...
