In retrospect, maybe picking up strange looking coins on the ground wasn’t the very best idea, but Julia’s curious nature meant she hadn’t been able to help herself. The intricate markings were in a language she’d never see before. There was nothing like it in all the books about magic she’d read, nothing she’d seen in Fillory or on Earth compared and she had wanted to get a closer look, to study it and try to figure out where it had come from. That compulsive curiosity was why she had one moment been walking toward a pub for lunch with Remus and the next she was waking up in a strange bed.
Curiosity took precedence over panic as she looked around the room wondering how she had got here and just where here was. It wasn’t the first time she’d traveled to another world or even the first time she’d ended up in one without meaning to make the trip. The last time - when she’d woken up of the fucking TARDIS, of all places - had been working out pretty well for her and her first impulse upon waking in this one was to try and learn more.
“No fucking way!!! Seriously?!?” was her reaction to the hologram that popped up and told her she was in Atlantis. This place was a myth, by Fillory had been supposed to be a fucking kids story, so who was she to call bullshit on this shit? If Fillory could be real, why not Atlantis? If you asked her, this was just seriously cool.
Her eyes were alight with excitement when she left her room to start exploring and the smile on her face only grew when she almost walked right into her, well, she didn’t really know what he was to her, but it was Remus and it was someone familiar who she knew would share her wonder about this place. She hadn’t been sure he would be here because you never knew with this kind of thing, but she was thrilled that he was.
Having arrived in a strange place and greeted by a strange would have been a lot more strange had he not experienced the TARDIS already, but it did still unsettle him. Not enough to panic, luckily, but enough to feel lost and alone again. Neither of those things were things that Remus enjoyed, particularly. He didn’t think anyone really did, but after months of his friends’ company again, Remus had almost started to forget what it was like to be without.
It all came flooding back quickly, though, and his focus drifted. Heart racing, he left the building as soon as he could, seeking out fresh air. He was so taken aback by what he saw that he didn’t see Julia until they were essentially right on top of each other.
He reached out instinctively to steady both of them. “Thank Merlin, I was beginning to think --” He knew he didn’t have to say it. He knew she knew what he was thinking. “This is mad.”
“...so fucking cool!” Julia said at the same time as he said mad and then she laughed at their separate and very different reactions. She was sure he would come around to her point of view once he got past the weirdness and the worry about being separated from his friends again. It was different for Julia who’d had months to get used to being without hers. She’d essentially been alone in London, too, aside from the friends she’d managed to find for herself here.
“Okay, mad, too,” she conceded, “but, Remus, we’re in Atlantis. Tell me that isn’t a trip!” It probably ranked a little below getting to actually go to Fillory on her list of best adventures and, well, she and Q had drawn a map of Fillory on the bottom of her table when they were kids. After actually getting to visit as an adult, it was hard to be fazed by things that shouldn’t be possible.
Her enthusiasm was infectious, and Remus found himself smiling despite himself. “Okay, it is a little bit of one.” He looked around them again and then corrected himself, “okay, it is really bloody cool.” But it was overwhelming all the same, and Remus caught himself worrying about the same things he had when he’d first woken up in the TARDIS. How had he gotten there, what did it mean for everyone in London, did anyone in Atlantis have a problem with werewolves.
That last one was more out of his own crippling self-hatred than anything else. He expected the worst, even though he’d been proven wrong multiple times. Logically, he knew that if there had been a problem, they would have already said something. Right? A world that was capable of pulling him across universes should already know what he was. They wouldn’t have given him a job if they believed him unsuitable for the public.
“Have you got a job, too?” he asked.
Julia nodded. “Magic Research, pending an appointment with intake if I decide to stay.” That was pretty much a yes for her. The chance to save the whole multiverse by saving creativity in the legendary Atlantis? Hell, yes. She wanted to do good with her magic and the idea of a research position excited her.
Pulling out the small tablet that had been next to her bed when she had woken up, she’d pointed excitedly to her housing assignment. “Did you see this?” she asked. “We’re sharing a house with Leonardo da Vinci! Do you think it’s, like, the da Vinci?”
Honestly, Remus had been so overwhelmed by all of the information that he hadn’t actually looked closely at his housing assignment at all. Being near Julia was a relief (though he noted it would be wildly different than their prior living arrangements, and he wasn’t quite sure what to make of that), but it made him nervous, too. Now she’d see just how neurotic he really was, he thought, up close and personal.
“I… don’t know,” he admitted, wide-eyed. The other name wasn’t familiar, but he knew da Vinci. “I’m not even sure I’ll know what to say to him if it is.” The thought was more than a little daunting. “Which is about normal for me. I’m in magic research too, by the way.”
“Lucky for you, it’s kind of endearing,” she teased. Julia was the opposite, someone who always went after what she wanted and wasn’t shy about anything, but she’d found Remus’ awkwardness cute. She also maybe sometime liked to tease him specifically to see some of that awkwardness in action. Or just to see him blush.
She grinned when he mentioned his own job assignment. “I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other, then,” she said. She didn’t think that was a bad thing at all. Julia liked spending time with Remus, so she certainly didn’t mind having some built-in excuses to do just that.
If her intention had been to make him blush, she succeeded. Not that it was hard to do around pretty women. Not that it was hard to do around Julia in particular. Even after months of being around each other, Remus still lit up like a traffic light.
“I guess so,” Remus echoed with a soft smile. If he had to work with anyone, he was glad it was her. Having someone familiar nearby so often was a balm; he’d gone so long with hardly any familiar company that now he couldn’t get enough.
“Have you looked to see if we know anyone else here?” he asked next. He already had. It was one of the only things he’d done in the room: check if James or Sirius were there, too. They weren’t, but Emmeline was, and Lily. And two other important people he hadn’t met yet. Without missing a beat, he continued, “Teddy’s here.”
Shaking her head, Julia was already pulling up the list when Remus mentioned his son. She hadn’t looked to see if anyone she knew was here, yet, but wasn’t that surprised to find no one from home when she skimmed the list.
“It looks like a lot of people from your world are here,” she commented, trying not to show her disappointment about one in particular as she added, “including Teddy’s mom. Your future wife.” She wasn’t sure how Remus was going to feel about it, but she knew his future wife and son being here was definitely going to complicate things.
“Yeah.” Remus exhaled, finally allowing himself to feel something other than shock. He was weary - and terrified. What would they expect of him? Would she want him to the man she knew, who was a decade or so his senior? What sort of stories had Teddy grown up on? How old was he? What sort of father did he expect - or want?
“It doesn’t feel like my future, sometimes,” he admitted. He’d known about it, but it was far enough removed that it had never seemed real. “It feels like someone else’s life.” Maybe, in a way, it was. “I don’t know what l’ll say.”
There was a lot in that yeah that Remus wasn’t saying, but Julia was a smart girl and she’d come to know him well enough to figure out what he wasn’t saying. It wasn’t a leap to imagine that being confronted by your own future could be a bit daunting.
She couldn’t answer his unasked questions or really offer much advice on this situation, but she reached for his hand and gave it a quick squeeze to remind him he wasn’t alone in this place. “I think you start with hello and go from there,” she suggested. Maybe she didn’t have experience with this particular situation, but she had experienced having to face her friends after betraying them. She’d had to deal with the awkwardness of trying to move past things that couldn’t and shouldn’t be forgiven. Sometimes the only way you could start was with a tentative hey.
Julia was right, of course. In the months he’d known her, he’d always been impressed by her. She wasn’t just clever; she had a worldly sense about her that one didn’t see often. It was one of the things he liked most. She was wise, and she’d been kind from the start, and he trusted her opinion.
“I’ll start there,” he agreed. And then he’d see how things went. He couldn’t start expecting the worst now. He had to give them a chance. It might not be as bad as he thought. “Thank you. For being here.”
“Of course,” Julia replied with a smile. Having his future wife and kid here was definitely going to complicate things and there was a part of her that couldn’t help being frustrated about that, but more than anything else, Remus was her friend. Maybe it was more than that, but even if she couldn’t really make up for all the mistakes she’d made, she could be a good friend to him. She could support whatever he decided to do.
“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be,” she added before gesturing toward their surroundings. “Come on, let’s do some exploring.”
Remus smiled, then, brighter than he had since arriving in Atlantis. He didn’t know what was ahead for him. He didn’t know what his presence here meant for himself, for Tonks, Teddy, for Julia, or anyone. The only thing he’d learned over the last few years was how precious and fleeting life was, and how easily it could all be turned on end. What he was going to do next, he had no idea. But he could enjoy this moment, right then. He could take the gift given to him -- he might have been without James and Sirius again, but he was alive and he was not alone -- and he could run with it. He’d figure everything else out in time.
He gestured towards the sidewalk leading away from them with a little bow, his smile widening. “Lead the way.”