InsaneJournal

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The apparently-untraceable portkey deposited Remus in an abandoned alleyway barely within the town limits. Out from between two grimy walls, a turn left then a small right, he began his walk back to Andromeda's.

He could, of course, apparate straight to Andromeda's doorstep, but walking was always pleasant, especially around this neighbourhood. There had always been quaint little shops with cheerful tinkly bells over their doors.

But not anymore. As with other villages across Wizarding Britain, this one did not escape unscathed. More than a few shops had closed, broken windows like gaping wounds displaying empty shelves and broken hearts.

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The shops still open were a shadow of their own past, each barely afloat. Some seemed to have a permanent line of people, all dark and miserable, bowed and broken, waiting to receive their meagre ration.

He walked past the grocery shop, with its own line of people, his heart heavy with sadness as he heard a child’s wail rose above hushed chatter.

We’re the more fortunate ones, he said to himself.

The streets that were once clean now played host to numerous homeless souls. Small children, elderly women, and others in between, begging for scarce food and scarcer coins.

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He arrived at Andromeda’s doorstep just in time for tea. Andromeda welcomed him, with Teddy braced on one hip. The baby smiled, then reached out to him. His joyful cooing was a balm to Remus’s soul.

Tea awaited him in the small but clean parlour. To it he added a few chocolate biscuits from the village’s sweet shop, once a cheerful place, now almost abandoned as few could still afford such delicacies.

He sat across Andromeda, Teddy on his lap.

“Where’s Severus?” he asked as he placed the empty bottle that Severus wanted on the table next to his tea.

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“He goes away during the day. The back garden, the park, sometimes as far as Mrs. Beady’s shop,” Andromeda said. “He usually comes back in time to help prepare dinner.”

Teddy had gotten hold of the bottle, a shiny odd thing that caught his attention. He made little protesting sounds as Remus took it away.

“Apparently to escape my fussing,” she added. “I keep forgetting he’s not really a child.”

They drank their weak tea, ate their biscuits, listened to Teddy make unintelligible happy noises. Together they waited for Severus to come home.

Only this time, they waited in vain.

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(previous parts here)