𝗰𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗵𝗼𝗼𝗸, remus lupin

˗ˋ 73

CHAPTER SEVENTY THREE
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-: sixth year :-

── IN WHICH PANDORA FINDS
SOMETHING PRETTY

. . .

Not for the first time, Remus wished he owned a muggle camera. In reality, doing so would just be nonsensical; they were too expensive for him to afford (and he knew if he mentioned it James would be the first to manage to find a store next time he slipped his parents grasps on the next trip to Diagon Alley), and in Hogwarts: A History it stated very clearly that any muggle technology failed to have any usage on the grounds - meaning that any camera he owned or was presented with, would fail in the very space he made the most memories and spent the most time anyway.

Owning a muggle camera was utterly useless to him, except in that moment he truly wished it wasn't, and he had one hanging from his neck by it's strap ready for him to lift and capture anything he deemed necessary.

Because Pandora was stood in front of him, talking most amicably with the owner of a stand covered in... snow globes.

Her nose was tinted red and her dark hair pushed behind her ears by a pair of hair clips by a woman who knew Euphemia - she had come up to them with a smile and was introduced to Pandora (she had already met Remus, courtesy of one of the Potters parties the previous year) and after only a short conversation that had ultimately revealed Pandora's lack of experience with the season and gifted them to her - and she was holding one of the blue-painted bases in her hand as she spoke to the man selling them.

He handmade them all, you see, and Pandora somehow looked more... open and ready to this conversation than any other with Remus, his friends or anyone else at Hogwarts. She was actually smiling, her face glowing orange, red and green in the image of the various contained fires used to warm the passersby and the lights above them.

"It's pretty?" Pandora muttered, grinning at the man as he explained it to her. "...How do you make them?" Her eyebrows furrowed. "Is it some kind of magic?"

"You could say that, Miss." The man replied with a chuckle, although it certainly wasn't in the context Pandora was meaning. "But a magician never reveals their secrets." He tapped his nose conspiratorially.

"I suppose they shouldn't." Pandora was entirely serious but the man didn't know that and laughed anyway, particularly as she shook the snowglobe once more, holding it upright and watching as the tiny flakes rushed around the glass. She turned towards Remus, after minutes of barely noticing his presence. "Isn't it pretty?" She asked.

"Yeah." Remus hardly even hazarded a glance away from her and towards the actual snowglobe.

Pandora watched him for a moment, before looking pleased. She went back to the man, leant closer and spoke quietly to him for a moment. The stall owner nodded and took the globe from her, and Pandora returned to Remus and laced her arm in his elbow.

"Can we find Mrs Potter, please?" She asked.

"Do you not want to get it?" He looked confused. Remus, although nowhere near rich enough to fund the purchase of a camera, figured he could manage a snowglobe and not look entirely pathetic.

"I do... but I need to speak to Mrs Potter." Pandora replied. "She went to get chestnuts, no?"

"She did." Remus confirmed, and after the girl nudged him he pulled her forwards towards the stand, where the woman was buying two servings of them to share between the three of them. "Are you... are you sure you don't want it?"

"I'm sure." Pandora confirmed, having seen Euphemia and was now practically dragging him towards her. Something akin to confusion now swirled in Remus's chest like the snow in the globe; Pandora never quite gave up that easily when she found something that she liked; something she considered 'pretty'.

The confusion only continued when they reached Euphemia and Pandora shared a similar short conversation as she had to the man with the stall. Remus watched, chestnuts now in hand, as the two girls talked quietly and Pandora took something before disappearing into the crowds.

Remus turned to follow her movements, but Euphemia patted his arm and turned him away. "Leave her be, sweetheart." Mrs Potter advised. "Don't ruin it for yourself."

"Ruin what?" Remus continued to try and turn to look at her, only for Mrs Potter to insist that he didn't. "Mrs Potter... I'm confused."

"She was quite concerned about it, you know." Euphemia began. "Cooped up in that castle for almost seventeen years, her only ventures out to other households with little to no exposure to any other world. In many ways, this is the first time she had been anywhere like this."

"She talked to you about that?"

"Pandora hasn't had many female influences in her life. She has been without a mother for many years, without anyone able to relate to her for years. James told me little of her circumstances before she came but I decided, as much as Pandora might hate to find out about this and discover it was not of her own accord, to attempt to make a concious effort to make her comfortable enough to regard me as a positive female influence." Euphemia said quietly. "I am quite pleased with the outcome, and I can only hope that these holidays serve a purpose in her life."

"That's... thank you. I'm glad to know that there's someone else she can trust." Remus nodded, and was genuinely pleased. "But... I'm still confused-"

"Pandora has been rather worried about the 25th after hearing about the tradition of gift giving. I believe that's why this has been quite eye-opening for her - this is her first Christmas, really." Euphemia continued to pull him forward, away from wherever Pandora had gone. "And although she hasn't the friendship with my son, Sirius or Peter to get them a gift, she certainly worried herself with getting a present for you."

Remus stared. "...Oh." He breathed out.

And something that had been long-brewing in his heart exploded.

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