WHO: Leon Stebbins (& a little bit of his cat; don't worry, the cat is just fine) WHAT: He is stressin’ about Remus and the war and everything stinks WHEN: Todaaaaay WHERE: Scotland, then his house WARNINGS: No, he is just sad and angry.
What would Lily Potter do? kept echoing in his head, over and over like a mantra, or like what should have been a mantra if it wasn’t also haunting him. It’d gotten worse since Remus disappeared. Was kidnapped, Leon corrected himself. There had been no doubt in his mind that something had gone very wrong the moment Tonks told him that Remus wasn’t back yet. Seeing the state of the cabin only confirmed his (their, really) suspicions.
What would Lily and James do?
They would not have rested until they found their friend, first.
They would have taken down those responsible, second.
Leon didn’t know how to do either. Short of barging in on the homes of known Death Eaters and demanding to know what they’d done with him, Leon didn’t know what to do. He was a Healer, not an Auror. He didn’t know how to look at a crime scene and pick out evidence that would lead to a specific person or place. He didn’t know how to ask the right questions to get a lead.
He still tried, though. He wasn’t going to give up.
No one he spoke to in the Highlands before knew anything useful, though, or if they did, they weren’t admitting it. Plenty of them had stories about strangers coming through town now and then, stories that stretched back decades, but there was nothing specific that could lead him in any one direction. (Off-hand, Leon thought about how he’d be included in their stories of odd strangers, and he felt a chill run down his spine. Perhaps he should have worn a disguise.) Remus wouldn’t have made a spectacle of himself over the full moon, though, so Leon really didn’t know what he was expecting out of it when he went back. Maybe that was why, instead of searching for anything, he just ended up staring off into the distance like he was lost. Maybe because he was.
The wind whipped through the alleyway he was standing next to, ruffling his hair and nearly sending his scarf flying. He grabbed one end before it flew across the road and wrapped it around his neck again, tighter this time.
“Fuckin’ hell, Remus.”
He disappeared with a soft pop, and landed outside Godric’s Hollow. He could walk the rest of the way, head down so he didn’t have to see the memorial as he passed by.
Apollo was sitting on the day’s Daily Prophet when he got in, so he gave the cat a scratch on the head and ignored it, waving his wand to start heating up the kettle for a cup of tea. There was nothing good in the paper anymore -- just more purist bullshit, more reporters failing to do their job, more proof that their society was crumbling before their eyes and they were powerless to stop it. It usually became kindling for a fire, even though he didn’t actually need it.
That day was no different: by the time he’d checked his stock of potions ingredients and his greenhouse, and finally settled in to drink his tea, his cat had moved on to sit in the window sill, leaving the Prophet in plain view. Child dead blazed across the page. Savaged by a werewolf. Leon’s stomach turned even before he finished the first paragraph, like it did every time he heard of someone being attacked, like it did every time he watched someone die from their wounds. He didn’t need to continue to know what else was going to be said, but he read on anyway, catching the name of his old friend there in ink.
Once he got to Greyback’s quote about Remus being rogue, Leon was so angry that the paper and his tea cup went flying across the room as he swept his hand across the table. The cup shattered as it hit the wall. His cat hissed and skittered away, probably to hide under Leon’s bed. It wasn’t like him to give into anger like that -- but then again, these weren’t normal times. He was bone-tired, and he felt more and more suffocated by the day.
His hands clenched into fists.
What would James and Lily do, if they were here? Never mind that - what would Remus do, if it was me instead? Leon was afraid to answer it for himself. He already knew, and he wasn’t sure he was ready for that. But they were all out of time, and he knew that too.