Until I found you || Remus Lupin

𝕊𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕟𝕥𝕖𝕖𝕟

November 24, 1975

The Marauders sat outside in their regular spot under the tree by the Black Lake. They had decided to take a lazy day out. Remus had done a flame spell that kept their area nice and warm while he leaned up against the tree with a book. Sirius was next to him, his eyes were closed, and he had his hands behind his head. James and Peter were spread out in front of them with their arms behind their heads, chatting quietly to themselves.

"Ah, this is the life. No work to do-"

"You're avoiding your homework."

"No problems-"

"Didn't you just get a howler from your mom?"

"You're killing the mood, Moony."

"I'm being realistic." He shook his head, as his eyes didn't leave his book.

"You know, I wish I was a werewolf mostly because twisting into a horrible beast sounds like it would take out a lot of tension from your back muscles. Free body massage once a month." Sirius said casually.

Remus slowly closed his book and turned to look at him. James and Peter were gaping at Sirius like he fucked up. He didn't know what was up with Sirius lately, he's been more reckless, hexing Slytherins without reason and seeking out trouble. Well, he did know, his family was the problem. It always was. But he was getting fed up with this recklessness.

In a quick motion, he punched Sirius hard in his nose that he rolled sideways. He wiped his nose of the blood then immediately turned into his animagus. Remus stood up with a fire in his eyes that looked golden and started pointing aggressively at Padfoot.

"You punk ass bitch! Switch back and say it to my face, you bastard!"

Sirius, as Padfoot whimpered and grunted. He was lying down and covered his face with his paws as Remus continued to yell at him. Lily and Dahlia approached James, who looked rather amused at the scene, and Peter looked nervous about it.

"Er- James? Why is Remus cussing out that dog? Isn't that mean? Wait, isn't that the dog that you guys found?" She tilted her head at the scene in front of her, chuckling at how red his face was becoming.

James had left his spot by the tree and stood next to her, ruffling his hair when he noticed that Lily was next to her, which only made her roll her eyes. He looked over to see that Padfoot was now snarling in Remus's face, seemingly fed up with being yelled at.

"Oh, don't worry, the dog is cussing him out too."

"Uh, Rem? What are you doing?"

When he heard Dahlia's voice, he snapped out of his anger and straightened up. He blushed and brought a hand to scratch the back of his head while waving his other one to greet her.

"Lia! Hey!"

"Is that Snuffles?" The dog looked over and stuck out his tongue, barking happily. She dropped to her knees and the dog bounced over to her, licking her immediately. "Oh, hello good boy!" she scratched his head and scrunched her face. "Lily, this is the dog I was telling you about."

"Oh hello." She slowly approached the dog cautiously, sticking her hand out so the dog could smell her and he gave a happy yelp and licked her hand and she reached out to pet him. Padfoot hopped over to her licking her face and making Lily laugh in delight.

"That dog needs to be taken to the shelter," Remus grumbled.

"Don't be so mean Remus." She wrapped her arms around him, "Look at him what could this precious, good boy ever do? I seriously want to keep him." The dog barked happily and looked at Remus as if to say 'suck it'.

Dahlia patted the dogs ahead and stood up. "Well we, have to go. See you later guys." She waved to them and walked off with Lily.

"Bye, Lia!"

Remus kept waving, looking at her, her long hair swinging back and forth behind her. He kept looking in that direction for a while lost in thought, while James came up to stand beside him. He looked towards her and him, chuckling when he realized what was happening. He pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"Does our Moony fancy a brown-eyed girl?"

Remus whipped his head around to look at him so fast, his eyes were wide while James stood there with a smug grin, wiggling his eyebrows.

"What! No!" He shook his head. He couldn't like another girl, not after his ex. He didn't want to go through that hurt again. Of having to start over. He just couldn't do it.

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Dahlia had a lot on her plate. She felt the pressure of having to get good grades set by her parents. But Lily suggested they also needed a day off after seeing the boys. This surprised her since Lily was the person who was always studying as well.

"When was the last time you ate?"

She thought about it, she ate breakfast, and she was late for lunch so she had a quick snack and dinner, well she also missed that.

"I had a snack for lunch." She grinned shyly, but Lily gave her a pointed look. It's not like she was purposely skipping meals. She just got so wrapped up in studying that by the time she looked at the time she was already late and figured she might as well keep studying. This is exactly what she told her, but she didn't take that answer as she dragged her down to the kitchens.

They sat at the tables chatting away and waited for the elves to make them a little snack or in Dahlia's case, a whole meal. She just had a lot on her mind, she would be going home soon and that worried. It wasn't that she didn't love her family she did. But she just wasn't ready to face her mom, and the comments she made under her breath. Ever since she became a witch it was always the same, she tried to avoid magic talk when possible. Tried to keep the conversation towards her older sister who was in University, better to keep the attention away from her.

"You know, you can always come to stay at my house whenever you want to get away." Lily studied her face with concern.

"Oh yeah, leave one house that tells me things to another." She sighed. "Sorry, I didn't mean that."

Lily let out a soft chuckle, "I know Tuney isn't the best, it's okay."

"Some families we have, huh?" She smiled at her, and Lily returned it. She suddenly reached out and grabbed her hand.

"Hey, I have an idea! Once we leave Hogwarts we can get a flat, just us two."

Dahlia's eyes lit up, and squeezed her hand tighter, "really?"

She nodded her head excitedly, "Yeah! It's going to be great no one to tell us nasty things, we'll have a peaceful life."

Dahlia looked at Lily as if she was a light at the end of a dark tunnel. Though this year has been hard for both of them, she knew that Lily would be someone that would always be in her life. But for now, she just had to deal with her family for a little longer.

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Let me just say I've had a shitty start to 2023 😭 but anyways as I was writing this scene of the boys just laying under the tree I forgot that they're not in Texas where it's okay to lay in the sun in November and that it's probably cold and snowing already and I was correct. This is also not the best chapter buuut I really needed to post something.

Have y'all taken the King, Poet, Soldier quiz? I didn't go into the quiz expecting anything in particular, though looking back I did tell myself that getting Poet would be cool. I ended up getting King 🥹 then I saw so many tiktoks about how Kings are people who secretly wanted Poet like okaaay stop reading me like that