r. lupin (tufty) wrote in silverage, @ 2011-09-16 22:47:00 |
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Entry tags: | !narrative, remus lupin |
left behind
Who: Remus Lupin
When: 10:15 PM
Where: What used to be the Wizarding HouseTM.
What: Remus returns from work only to find chairs and tables and...
Rating/status: ~G/finished.
Crack!
In one final spin, Remus materialized in the middle of his bedroom and dropped his satchel at the side of his bed, where he normally left it until he was called for work, again. In spite of the tension, he was always glad to be home and he demonstrated this as he sighed and slipped out of the light jacket he had worn to work, a response to the weather which was turning chillier as the days went.
And to have his wand in his hand, that was always a relief. His wand meant familiarity, protection, and with his wand, he'd always felt like he could face his problems and insecurities like they were mere boggarts in the dark. With a swish and some flicks, he'd summoned his comfortable, wizard clothes over and had changed easily with his Muggle clothes folding themselves in the laundry basket.
Raking through his freshly trimmed hair, he left his room and announced his arrival.
"I've returned," he said to the house as he closed the door behind him and made straight for the kitchen for a drink. "Lily, have you finished the book? It is due tomorrow," he went on as he waved for a glass to come over and for the pitcher of water to fill it halfway. He finished this and bade them return to their posts. "Lily?" he called again as he stepped out of the kitchen.
And then, staring at the wide space that parted the kitchen from two doors across, he realized...
No one had welcomed him back.
"Lily," he tried again as he marched to her door and knocked against it lightly. "Lily, are you inside?" There was no response, and he pressed his lips closer together. "Lily, can we talk? Are you still mad at me?" he waited...
And then sighing when there was no response, he leaned against her door. "Lily, if you aren--"
It budged. The door had been closed -- but it hadn't been shut and it wasn't locked. Remus hesitated but a second later, he pushed it further open and took a peek. "Lily..."
The bed was made. The dressing table might have some manner of mess on it but there was no clear evidence that she had been there just shortly and when Remus investigated her closet, he found that all her clothes were intact.
Well, most of them...
"Lily?" he called as he left her room and made for the door to his friend's bedroom. "Padfoot?" he said as he opened his door, "Padfoot, have you seen..."
Padfoot was nowhere to be found. Perhaps he'd gone out for the night, again, visited a bar or that girl in the magic shop, but there was something about...the lack of a kind of disordered arrangement in his quarters that made him uneasy. He returned to his room to fetch his mirror and no matter how many times he summoned his friend's face into it -- calling him Sirius, Sirius Black, Padfoot, anything -- nothing came out.
"Sirius!" he tried again as he wandered around the flat, looking from door to door. "Sirius, Lily!" and after some moments of thinking: "G, Ginny..." When she didn't respond, he called louder, "Ginny!"
Not even the step of a foot, the toss of a book or the squeak of a chair. Nothing.
Remus was starting to panic. He was breathing harder and faster as he stared at Ginny's empty room. Where were his friends? Why weren't they responding to his beckons? Could the worst he had been thinking of had finally happened? Could Ginny have-- could a Death Eater have--
He had all but flown out of the door. Remus couldn't stand still, everything was so...quiet and transfixed--
They could have fought...they should have fought. He went around the entire house and noted that their wands weren't present and that gave him some relief. Standing again in the middle of the flat, he forced himself to breathe, unaware that he already had his own wand out in case someone came Apparating behind his back and he would need a quick defense. Think, think... he said to himself as he exhaled. The fight couldn't have happened in the house, there was no sign of struggle, all the furniture were where they were meant to be. If they went out...
If they went out, then there should be a note! Or at least some form of notice for Remus to understand that he was not to expect them when he came home. He turned the entire flat over for a clue but found nothing he could liken to one.
So where were they? Remus wondered as he started towards the couch where a book was left open near the edge. It was almost as if they'd...
Vanished...
He stood stock-still as the realization came to him while he stared at the open pages of the book on Salem Witches. They'd vanished. That was it.
They'd vanished...
Two steps towards the book and Remus sat himself by it to read a few lines, and then close it. The quiet of the walls had then become deafening and overwhelming, and seated facing the empty space in front of him in the company of lifelessness and bare air, he observed that the flat was way too big for a single body to live in.
The realization hit home as he read the title on the book cover: they had vanished.
Vanished, just like that.