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Tweak says, "Shampoo me."

Remus Lupin (fears_the_moon) wrote in indarkness_logs,
@ 2010-09-30 19:19:00

Entry tags:

!complete, 2032 09, lily evans, remus lupin

RP: Strange
Characters: Remus Lupin, Lily Evans
Time/Date: late afternoon, September 30
Location: His room, then the hallway
Warnings/Rating: None
Summary: Remus arrives, is confused, sees Lily
Status: Complete

Remus didn't know what to think about waking up in a bed that wasn't his. Perhaps if it had been a couple years ago, he would have immediately blamed the marauders, but they were all gone and even that brief thought about them brought up a pang of loss. With Voldemort dead -- or disappeared at least -- it didn't make sense that he'd been taken by the Death Eaters, either. The moon wasn't until next week and he hadn't been drinking the night before.

Truly, he was at a loss. Luckily, there was a helpful note which seemed to bring up almost as many questions as it answered. There was also unfamiliar (and annoying) music playing in the background which he did his best to ignore for the moment. The one comfort so far was that he had his wand.

It took him a few moments to figure out the little Muggle device he had been supplied with, but when he did, reading through the network was ... unbelievable. He saw Lily's picture first. His breath caught and he could almost hear her voice in the worlds that were written. He scrolled down, ignoring unfamiliar faces until he read the Dementor patrol schedule and furrowed his brow. Not only was his own name there, but James, Sirius, Harry Potter? He set it down on the bed before standing up, gazing down at it warily.

He was inclined to think this was a very elaborate and cruel joke, and he did his best not to hope that somehow Lily and James were here, and alive. Kidnapped, apparently, but ... no, he shouldn't even entertain those thoughts. Leaving the device on the bed, he let himself out of the room and exhaled a sigh as he looked left and then right. As he tried to decide what he was doing, he spotted a familiar figure out of the corner of his eye and turned towards her.

"Lily?" He called uncertainly, raising his voice enough that it would hopefully carry over the music. Starting towards her, he studied her as intently as he could given the distance between them, searching for some sign that he was hallucinating.

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emerald_eyes
2010-10-01 02:49 am UTC (link)

Lily turned when she thought she heard someone calling her name. She started to smile, and then she frowned. That ... was Remus. But it was a Remus closer to her own age and not the much older one who'd been here before. She did recall that Jaime had remarked there'd been a room change, but Lily honestly hadn't thought much of it beyond that.

They'd moved Barney once, after all. Granted, he'd been missing for two months between, but ... still.

She ran her fingers through her hair before she shook her head. Her lips parted a few times but she really couldn't figure out what to say. At least Barney had been the same age, and recalled his first time around. There was no way this Remus could.

So instead, she stepped toward him and eased her arms around him to embrace him. "Oh love," she said gently. "I'm so sorry they brought you here again." She hadn't exactly meant to add the 'again' but she reasoned she'd have to try to explain later.

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fears_the_moon
2010-10-01 03:06 am UTC (link)

A noise escaped him that was close to a laugh, but without the humor. He returned the embrace and logically, he assumed her use of the word 'again' had something to do with him seeing his name on that post, but none of that mattered right now. Right now, it only mattered that his friend was here.

He took a half step back to gaze down at her, lifting both his hands to gently cup her cheeks, searching her eyes with his. Perhaps absurdly, he wanted to kiss her, but on the off chance that he hadn't just lost his mind, he refrained.

"I think I'm having a psychotic episode," he murmured with a wry smile. He opened his mouth to go on, but what did he even say? You're dead. I went to your funeral. "It's good to see you," he settled on instead, his voice catching before he cleared it.

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emerald_eyes
2010-10-01 03:13 am UTC (link)

Lily realized with sudden, crashing clarity, how much she had to tell him about everything that had happened here so far. The thing about that though was that there was no easy place to start and the music was highly non-conducive to carrying on such a conversation anyway.

"You aren't," she said as she studied him. He definitely looked older than her, which meant ... perhaps he knew they'd died, her and James, and that Sirius had been sent to Azkaban. Which ... she realized ... meant Remus had been essentially alone. She tightened her arms around him briefly before she stepped back.

"So ... there was ... ah. Before you happen to browse through the network, if you do, there was a version of you here for ... a little while. A couple of months, really. He ... was older though. Significantly so. I'm not ... sure why they would have ..."

Lily shook her head. "James and Sirius are here. More recent arrivals. They're both ... sixteen though."

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fears_the_moon
2010-10-01 03:47 am UTC (link)

No, he didn't really think he was, either. Somehow being crazy made more sense to him than being kidnapped to a place where his dead friends were, though.

"I saw," he admitted. "Well, I saw my name."

Letting some of the other information sink in, he shook his head. James and Sirius were both sixteen? She did not look sixteen. He put a hand on her shoulder and frowned, squeezing gently. There was also the issue of Sirius being here at all, though if he was sixteen...

"Lily.." he began, once again sounding uncertain. If an old version of himself had been here, surely he had shared that Sirius had betrayed them. "I don't know where to start. I imagine it might be the same for you." He paused for a beat and frowned, "What is this music?"

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emerald_eyes
2010-10-01 03:54 am UTC (link)

Lily smiled gently and shook her head before she swallowed. "It isn't ... I mean ..." she sighed. "It's nothing we've chosen. Every week they throw something different at us. Last week it was dementors. Before that ... some people had gone missing for a few days. Before that, they were flashing our private lives around on the telly. Things I ... don't recall ... having done, but it was either a very good staging or ..."

Lily shook her head again, because that was irrelevant, really. "The point is, they like to mess with us. I suppose that's the entire point of us being here. To be put through a series of tricks and trials and see how we react, what we do."

Lifting her hand, she cupped his cheek gently. She hated that they had to go through this again. That she had to reintroduce one of her friends to this madness. "There's another werewolf here," she offered. "And Severus, so ..." she trailed off before her smile brightened. It wasn't likely he knew, was it? "There's a potion that was invented sometime after ... after my time. It helps a wolf to keep his mind when he's in his fur. It works well enough. Tristan -- he's the wolf -- was playing with Dug. Dug's a talking dog."

Lily had a feeling that every thing she was saying was just leading to more and more questions, and she laughed faintly. "This must all sound like some mad dream to you."

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fears_the_moon
2010-10-01 04:47 am UTC (link)

So they were just rats in a cage here. That's more or less what the letter had implied, wasn't it? They were here to be observed. Observed while they tortured people with dementors and ... loud music, apparently.

The potion sounded almost too good to be true and he wondered what it meant for werewolves after it was invented. Of course, there would still probably be werewolves who didn't take the potion or who attacked and turned others even if they had it. So he couldn't imagine things changed all that much, as far as acceptance went.

"Are we sure Severus brewing something for me is a wise idea?" He asked doubtfully, assuming that's why she had brought up the other wizard's name. Unless Snape had also become a werewolf, but his first assumption seemed more likely to him.

"It does all sound mad," he agreed a little distractedly as he decided he just needed to spit it out. "How much... well, do you know what happened to you and James? With Sirius here... he ... he betrayed you both. I don't know... if he's sixteen ..."

But he didn't think he could look at Sirius without thinking about what had happened, even if it hadn't happened for the other boy yet. Who knew, really, when Sirius had turned sides.

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emerald_eyes
2010-10-01 04:56 am UTC (link)

She knew it was probably best to let Severus do his own explaining on that matter, but she should at least clear up the major points. Lily's fingers threaded lightly through Remus' hair as she gazed at him, and she shook her head slightly. "He's ..." She dropped her hand to Remus' shoulder. "It's a hellaciously long story, and I'm not certain he'd want me sharing all of it. But he's ... he was on our -- your -- side through the war, spying. The older you ... knows ... knew that. He made the potion for the older you, and I'm sure he'll continue to do the same once we run out of the doses we've got made."

Lily shook her head quickly. "Love, it wasn't Sirius. It was Peter. Peter was our secret keeper, and Peter sold us out, and then framed Sirius. You ... no one found that out until ... oh, lord. Harry was well in school, if I recall the story right. His third year, I think you -- older you -- said. Sirius broke out of prison and came after Peter, who was ... posing as Harry's mate's rat." She smiled a little sadly. "It's ... complicated. I don't understand all of it or know all of it, but ... Sirius wouldn't. He'd never betray James, love. Never. It wasn't him," she assured Remus.

Her smile softened into a sadder one. "I know... I know what happened. I know how and why it all happened, and it was ..." She looked away. "It was a prophecy that set him on us in the first place, and ... it never should have happened."

She smiled though. "Harry defeated him, in the end. He's here," she added, brightening a little. "And my granddaughter. You'll have to meet her."

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fears_the_moon
2010-10-01 05:35 am UTC (link)

There was an odd mix of relief, and sadness, and guilt that rushed through him as she told him the truth about Peter being the secret keeper. While some part of him had always disbelieved that Sirius had had it in him to betray James, when presented with the 'facts' that Sirius was their secret keeper, that he had murdered Peter in front of tons of witnesses, it was difficult to hold on to.

As good as it was to know that Sirius was innocent, it still hurt that Peter had betrayed them. Perhaps if they'd been better to the other boy... he shook his head lightly.

His hands slid from her hips to the small of her back as he tightened his arms around her briefly, closing his eyes as he attempted to digest all of that. Apparently he decided not to feel strange about having this conversation in the middle of the hallway.

"A lot of things shouldn't have happened," he agreed quietly before smiling down at her softly. "I'd like to meet your granddaughter and see Harry. I imagine he's a bit bigger than the last time I saw him."

It was ... easier to focus on that. He had so many questions about everything else that he didn't even know where he wanted to start.

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emerald_eyes
2010-10-01 05:46 am UTC (link)

"He's brilliant," Lily agreed as she pressed closer to Remus, resting her head against his shoulder. She thought she should be a little more careful with her displays though; she didn't want Balthazar to think she was messing around with other guys. Guys closer to her age. But still, this was Remus ... closer to the Remus she'd known at home ... and she was glad to see him. Very upset he was here, because none of her friends should be here, but she was still glad to see him.

"My granddaughter is ... remarkably chatty," Lily admitted. "Blunt as a spoon at times, too," she added with a soft chuckle. "But she's lovely."

She thought she'd have to pop up something in the network to let the others know about the ... new situation, but she couldn't fathom any reason they'd do this. But then ... she couldn't fathom the reasoning behind a lot of things.

"Which room did they put you in?"

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fears_the_moon
2010-10-01 06:26 am UTC (link)

Remus slid a hand up and down her back as she rested against him and while he really wasn't the public display sort, he currently had no complaints at all about the affections they were displaying. Probably because they were completely innocent, even if he had fancied her quite a bit when they were in school. Now he was just happy she was alive and comforted by her presence.

Glancing briefly over his shoulder, he hooked his thumb in the direction of his door, "That one," he replied before clarifying, "Two-oh-seven. Come in with me for a bit? If you don't mind answering more questions. I don't want to make you stand around in the hallway for ... however long you can put up with me asking you things."

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emerald_eyes
2010-10-01 06:37 am UTC (link)

Lily nodded and slipped her Blackberry out. She sent a brief note to Balthazar in case -- for whatever reason -- he need to get a hold of her to let him know where she'd be, and who she was with, and why. Repocketing the device, she linked her arm through Remus'.

"It's nothing new. I and two others are ... the welcome wagon. I've been here for three and a half months, minus the four days I went missing," Lily murmured. "I think I have the question answering thing down to a science."

She pressed a soft kiss to his cheek before squeezing his arm and started along the hall with him to answer whatever questions he could come up with.

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