ᴅɪsᴘᴇʟ ᴍʏ ʙᴏʀᴇᴅᴏᴍ | ᴍᴀʀᴀᴅᴇᴜʀs' ᴇʀᴀ

Chapter 62: New Life

Remus's morning started like any other day. He jumped out of bed, shaved, combed his hair, and took a cold shower. Then he gathered a bag full of fruits and pastries for Emily, grabbed two Sickles to buy flowers, but then picked orchids in Sprout's greenhouses instead. It only left to go down for breakfast, grab a few buns and head to London with another Auror. Dumbledore did not approve of Remus's actions, but he knew that the ban would not stop him. Besides the Aurors daily went to the Ministry with instructions and reports, so that the boy at least remained under supervision.

Remus entered the hall, slapped James on the shoulder with a greeting, shook Black's and Peter's hand, ignoring their conspiratorial sly glances and looked up at the Ravenclaw table as usual.

And froze.

Emily Parker, shaggy, in tattered clothes, with a grim look, was chewing a toast. Here in Hogwarts. She was here!

The bag slid off Remus' shoulder, and James picked it up, laying it next to him on the bench. Orchids fell on Black's head, but he removed them with his wand and continued to watch Lupin with a grin. Peter smiled, exchanging glances with Marlene and Lily.

Lupin launched forward. He just walked on a table in front of him, the goblets with juice rattling from his steps.

"These are strikingly clean shoes," Black drawled, observing the absence of footprints on the snow-white tablecloth.

Remus kept going. The tenacity he was walking with fascinated. Lupin successfully crossed the table, then a bench and continued in the same measured way.

Emily Parker, sensing something wrong behind her back, turned around.

Their eyes met.

Emily rose with uncertainty in her eyes. She didn't look real. She still couldn't realize that she had returned to school, and there was a familiar castle around her, not a hospital ward, a room in London or the Mulciber's dungeon.

Lupin picked her up in his arms and whirled around the hall, dancing between the tables.

James began to applaud first. All of Gryffindor followed him as if on cue, Hufflepuffs joined uncertainly, then Ravenclaws. Slytherins, as usual, remained disdainful and immovable.

Remus continued to dance with Emily in his arms. Sirius watched thoughtfully, without anger and irritation, but the subtle stabs of jealousy scratched him from the inside, and he couldn't help it. He wanted to do it, too, just not with Emily.

"Emily!" the Great Hall chanted. "WELCOME BACK!"

If at first Parker's smile was strained, then with each new second it brightened.

Lily beamed and only the wrinkle on her forehead showed a vague anxiety, but she still did not know what was disturbing her. Marlene continued to clap and chant, flashing with big eyes and exchanging glances with Sirius.

Remus, having danced a lot, set Emily in the place next to himself and the Marauders.

"We were all waiting for you," Lily announced. "Remus especially."

A weak smile emerged on Emily's face just for a second. "I was weak."

She tried not to look at Regulus's back at the Slytherin table. She owed him so much, but he didn't even have the opportunity to share this happy moment with her, because at Hogwarts, there were too many insurmountable walls between them.

"However, we better not bother you, right?" Lily warned their friends from asking questions with her eyes. "Just let's rejoice that you're with us again."

No one ventured to ask about the Hunt or how Emily got out. They already heard Regulus's story; Sirius just pressed him against the wall on the second day after returning to school. Regulus did not resist, he concealing nothing and for some time satisfied their hunger for information, but only for some time.