𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐄𝐍𝐎𝐏𝐇𝐎𝐁𝐈𝐀 // Remus Lupin

(𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐞 𝟏𝟕) some things never change

She remembered that Marlene had turned to her and said that she believed that 1981 would be a better year. Athena's first thought had been that the girl would be in for a surprise, however this wasn't what she had expected. Marlene had been even more naive than Athena if that was possible.

However nothing happened in February, it wasn't even worth talking about. Athena had heard from Lily and James a few times however their letters had lessened since Marlene had passed away, Athena wasn't surprised by this but she missed getting photos of Harry to put on her fridge.

Other than that Athena had been working, she'd started looking into becoming an animagus again. However everything seemed so fruitless now. Sometimes Athena would be lying in bed wondering if she was even going to make it to the end of the war.

She hadn't expected Marlene to die, this had thrown her completely off course and now she felt as though she had no idea what was going to happen. Athena felt as though she had been left in the dark by fate, it had given her a small taster and she'd taken this to be the entire meal.

Now she was back in the depths of uncertainty and she was just wading further and further out to sea. Really, she had no idea what was going to happen which left her wondering who else she was going to have to lose before this war was complete.

She'd been to see Dumbledore to tell him that she finally understood clearly what he had been saying. How could she not? Marlene died for no reason, her death would never benefit the war. Therefore Athena wanted it over, she was sick of people dying pointlessly. She realised that Marlene, Fabian, Gideon and Archer were proof that the end of the war was what everyone should be working towards.

Of course she wanted to keep Lily and James alive for longer, of course she wanted them to have more time with Harry. Athena would be completely broken when they died and nothing would change that but she couldn't protect herself, she couldn't protect Lily and James by throwing others into the fire.

Dumbledore had seemed pleased that she'd change her viewpoint, not that she gave a shit what he thought. Athena still cursed the fact that it was her who had to know these things, her who had to work with Dumbledore but it seemed she had been given no other choice.

Towards the beginning of March, Athena visited Frank and Alice again. She had promised to visit more regularly however with everything going on with Marlene, she had neglected this promise.

Alice had been excited to see her. The last time she had seen her was at Marlene's funeral and it's not as though they could catch up there. Alice very rarely went to the order meetings these days and instead got Frank to tell her any necessary advancements. However there's wasn't really anything happening in the order so it wasn't as though she was missing a lot.

Athena loved spending time with Neville. Frank had been right, the young boy was very clumsy. He was always dropping his toys or his food. However he had the sweetest little smile. Just like Harry, he just kept growing and Athena couldn't believe how fast the time was going. Maybe this was a good thing.

Alice looked more like a mother every time that Athena saw her. She didn't know how to describe this but she just had that warm, motherly air. Their home did too. It looked more like a family home since Neville had been born, more colours and more light. Needless to say, Athena loved spending time there.

Athena and Remus had their birthday the first week into March. Just like the year before, they didn't do anything to celebrate. It didn't seem right in this time. Athena had made a stack of pancakes and stuck a candle into them on the tenth and Remus had been very amused by this. On her birthday he'd played her a few songs on the bass. His favourite to play at the moment was changes by David Bowie and Athena would occasionally fill in the vocals even though she didn't pretend to be an amazing singer.