selenophile || remus lupin

chapter ninety four

2 September 1977

10:25 am

Unsurprisingly, the first day back came with Remus and Ophelia's annual back to school picnic. As she walked down the steps to the Gryffindor common room, she spotted Remus sitting by the fireplace reading. He heard her footsteps and looked behind him to see her. Admiring his girlfriend, he said, "give us a twirl!" Ophelia obeyed and spun around, allowing her dress to swirl around her, the silk folds opening up in the air.

"You, my dear, are gorgeous," he said, walking up to her and kissing her deeply.

"Why, thank you, kind sir. You're quite pretty as well if I do say so myself."

Remus grabbed her hand and the two of them made their way down to the kitchens where they were met by a house elf who graciously gave them a small feast to put in their picnic basket. Stepping outside onto the soft grass, Ophelia admired the small blossoms around the grounds and the large trees towering above them. The castle was always so peaceful then, before classes started and before anyone was awake, the cool summer breeze drifting through the open corridors by the courtyard. It was truly beautiful.

Laying their blanket down in a flower filled field on the rolling hills next to the Black Lake, Remus and Ophelia sat down. She placed her head on his shoulder as he grabbed her hand and the two stared out at the lake with admiration and nostalgia.

"I can't believe this is our last before school picnic," she said. "How are we already in our seventh year?"

"Time really has flown. But I'm glad it's almost over. Now we can finally live and start our real lives. We can't stay at school forever and I'm almost ready to leave."

"This time in two years, where do you think we'll be?"

"Well, James and Lily will already be married," he said, looking at Ophelia as she laughed, admiring the way her eyes crinkled up and the euphonic sound of her laugh. "And so will we."

She squeezed his hand as she closed her eyes, listening to the future he envisioned, loving every bit of it.

"James and Sirius will be aurors, as will Mar, Alice, and Frank. Mary will be a best selling author and Pete will be working at the Ministry. We'll take a few years off before coming back here to teach. We'll have a cute little cottage with a big library and a bedroom in the basement for Sirius to sleep in. Am I missing anything?"

"A front porch with two rocking chairs and we can read while the sun rises and sets while we drink tea. And a cat, we should get a cat."

"I'd like to have a cat. I don't know how Sirius would feel about that though."

"We can just kick him out if he doesn't appreciate our family. Let him live on the streets."

"As soon as the war is over, we'll have a perfect life, I promise," he said. "Anything you'd like, we'll have."

"All I really need is you. Material possessions don't matter to me as long as I have us."

Remus leaned down and kissed her, the need for words long gone as all their thoughts were communicated through the kiss. The kiss didn't last long, though, when something hit Remus on the side of his head. Breaking the kiss, he looked down to see a stick, and before he could look up to see who had thrown it, he was tackled by a big black dog, wrestling the stick out of his hand.

"Get a room, you two," James yelled, walking with Peter over to where Remus, Ophelia, and now a human Sirius sat.

"You're just jealous that you don't have your precious Lilyflower to have a picnic with," Ophelia retorted.

"Speaking of, how was last night? Your first night at Hogwarts away from us and sharing a dorm with Lily."

"It was fine, nothing special. It was weird to get used to for sure, but nothing happened. Lily and I had a civil conversation, so that's something."

"You had a civil conversation?" Ophelia asked, not believing the spectacled boy who sat down on the blanket by then. "After what happened on the train?"

"Okay, we argued a little bit, I reckon I probably should have told her I was made head boy before the prefects meeting, but after we sorted it all out, we had a civil conversation about our duties and she even told me to have a good night, in a tone that wasn't sarcastic at all!"

Ophelia and Remus shared a look before Remus looked at the boy sitting beside James. Peter was staring off out at the lake, his face unreadable.

"Alright, Pete?"

Peter blinked a few times, bringing him back to reality and he smiled at Remus. "Just tired. It's too early."

"It's like 11:30," Sirius reminded him.

"I'm used to sleeping in, Pads. It's the first day back from the summer holidays. You've known me for seven years now, I don't like waking up early, you know this."

"I know, I know," Sirius grumbled.

After the marauders had eaten all of Remus and Ophelia's remaining food, the maruadettes found the group and joined them.

"You ate all of it?" Marlene complained upon learning that there was no more food. "I specifically didn't eat any breakfast because I was expecting there to be some here. You pigs."

"Are you a witch or not, woman? Just summon something from the Great Hall," Sirius suggested.

"Duh, I was just going to," Marlene said, pulling her wand out of her robes.

"No, you were not. You would've just sat here complaining unless I said something."

"Shut up, Black. You don't know me."

"It's okay, Sirius, I'm on your side," Alice said.

"Betrayal!" Marlene shouted.

"Stop shouting, Mar. You're disrupting the peace," Lily scolded her.

"What peace, Evans? This is war. You're so on, Black."

"Oh yeah? Try me," Sirius said, standing up.

Marlene stood up too, walking towards Sirius who was inching back from her, not admitting that the girl was quite intimidating. Marlene stopped a few inches in front of him. They both stared at each other with a playful hatred.

"Oh my Godric," Alice muttered to herself, rubbing her eyes in faux frustration.

Suddenly, Marlene grabbed Sirius' collar and brought their lips crashing together.

"I thought they were both gay," Peter whispered to Ophelia.

"They are," she responded, just as confused as the rest of the group.

Sirius pulled back after a moment, completely caught off guard. "What the fuck, Marlene? We're both gay!"

"I know," she said, with a large smirk on her face. "I just needed to catch you off guard so I can do this." She threw him backward and he landed in the Black Lake with a splash, Marlene quickly shielding herself and the rest of the group with a spell.

As Sirius resurfaced, she started running away. "You bitch, McKinnon!"

"Oh no, I'm so scared. It's Sirius Black, he's going to kill me! The little boy who's scared of worms is going to attack me, how could I ever survive?" Marlene shouted in fake terror.

"You dare push me into my own lake? That's low, even for you, Mar."

"Your own lake?" Lily repeated.

"Yeah didn't you know?" Sirius said, quickly drying himself with a charm before sitting back down on the blanket, never stopping staring daggers at Marlene. "The Most Ancient and Noble House of Black and the Black Lake. You guys have never made that connection? Phee, back me up here."

Ophelia, realizing what Sirius was doing, started to play along. "Yeah, our family bought the Black Lake like five hundred years ago, you know, hence the name."

"That is such bullshit," Peter laughed.

"Yeah, there's no way that's true, we would have heard of that before," James laughed. Ophelia raised her arms up in surrender, laughing along with her friends.