The Marriage Law // Remus Lupin

xxviii. always be this close

Soon enough, Remus was out of the house with his friends, Lily, Aurora, Lois and Regulus (once they had roped him in) inside already building a pillow fort in the lounge with Harry.

"How was work?" Remus asked when they were in the Three Broomsticks.

"No dark wizards today to catch." James said happily. "Wormy?"

Peter had gotten a job as a chef in a restaurant to pass the time whilst he looked for a job in the wizarding world, but had found that he enjoyed making food. "There was a fussy eater today, sent a plate back three times!" He complained.

Remus couldn't help laughing, just picturing Peter's irritated face every time it was sent back, but being too nice to say anything about it. "Sorry Pete." He apologised once he gained control of his laughter, but it didn't last for very long once the others had joined in.

"Remus?" James asked. "How was your day?"

"Yeah, you got up pretty early," Sirius commented. "You never wake up early unless there's an important event happening."

"What did you do?" Peter asked.

"Merlin, guys, I can wake up early," Remus groaned. "We just went to a diner and then the library."

"Mhmm, and you just voluntarily got up early for that."

"Just ask what you want to ask." He told them, he didn't really want to try and make sense of their 'subtlety'.

They were silent for a moment, looking between one another, probably wondering who was going to ask first.

"How...are you feeling...about Aurora?" James asked cautiously.

Remus sighed. He knew this was going to be a question they would ask. Luckily for him, they had held off for a while, but he guessed his luck ran out. "I really like her." He groaned into his hands, elbows resting on the table. "I remember why I used to like her in school."

"You mean before the 'Prefect Rounds of 1975'?" Sirius snorted.

"Yes. Before that." He grumbled.

"Well, you are technically soulmates." Peter said.

"But that doesn't mean shit, does it? At least to her. And just because we're 'soulmates' doesn't mean we should just start kissing and pretending that we're so in love."

"How do you know she doesn't care about it?" James asked.

"Because she hated me!"

"But she was still willing to try, and she hated all of us." Peter countered. Remus wanted to retaliate, but what Peter had said was true.

"And I think she's the furthest thing from hating you." Sirius said.

"What makes you think that?" Remus grumbled again.

"You should have seen her the morning you both fell asleep on the sofa. She didn't make any effort to move off of you."

Remus remembered that morning. He remembered how the night before she sat with him, reading, until he fell asleep. And the next morning she was still there, lying on his chest, looking just as beautiful as she always did.

"She likes you, trust me." James said.

"James, buddy, dear friend of mine," Peter supplied. "The last time you asked for any of us to trust you on something like this, Sirius had his robes set on fire."

"But Lois liked him! I was right!"

"I think Lois only liked him after that." Remus added, grinning.

"Excuse me, Lois has always been charmed by this." Sirius butted in, gesturing to himself.

"I'm sure she was buddy." James patted him on the shoulder, causing the three of them to erupt into laughter, and Sirius pouting.

AN:
was this reread? not really, but when have i ever done that before posting new chapters

4 out of 9 exams done!!! i'm so happy, and thank you all for wishing me luck on them, i'm pretty sure they went well

i think someone had asked for like actual book recommendations so i'm going to put some here for all of you, because we need to reduce our screen times (mine is 10 hours a day yeesh):

—the song of achilles - this really got me out of my reading slump and made me cry
—invisible life of addie la rue - i loved this but my sister found it quite boring so check reviews to see if it's for you
—they both die at the end - a gay romance that owns my soul, it was sad
—when wishes bleed - this was really nice, had a nice love story and magic
—a touch of darkness - would not read if under 15!!! some people found the main character whiny but i enjoyed it (especially the book that came out for the love interest's pov)
—to kill a kingdom - oof i just loved this one so much istg
—red white and royal blue!!!!! - literally reread this once i finished it i loved it way too much
—the maze runner series - i read this because i enjoyed the movies and the books are so great
—daughter of the pirate king - lots of people really loved it, i didn't really but still enjoyed it so if you like pirates it is still really good
—percy jackson, and the heroes of olympus - i would literally die for both series no questions asked loved them when i was 12 love them still

and woah guys, 60k!!!! i love all of you so much, thank you 🥰