Harry Potter Imagines + Preferences

Remus Lupin imagine

Deep down, Y/N knew that she and her brother loved each other. How could you not love your sibling, when you'd gone through so much together?
But it was hard.
How were you supposed to remain close to someone who used to be your best friend when you were gone about nine months out of the year?
When he knew phone calls and you didn't have a good reason why phones weren't at Hogwarts. One that didn't sound like an excuse.
So they had fights. They had big fights. Arguments that lasted for most of the time she was home and required their father to break things up.
Ones that usually resulted in her brother skulking off and not speaking to her until she went back to Hogwarts.
She understood deep down. But it didn't mean it didn't hurt.
What made it all the worse this time, was that her best friends were there for the whole nasty ordeal.
Maybe it wasn't a good idea to invite them over for Christmas. But her father had said it would be good—her brother could meet her friends and maybe it would make him feel more involved in her life.
So now, as she sat on her bed, wrapped up in Remus' arms as James patted her head, and stifled her sobs, she wondered why this all had to go wrong. Sirius sat on the floor and was rubbing her shin—not sure how else he could really hug or comfort her when there were so many all around and Peter sat right next to Sirius, stating that it would all be alright.
That this would blow over.
That one day she'd be able to talk to him and when she was older—maybe even over the summer when there was more time, they could reach an understanding.
It didn't help right now though.
Remus was murmuring something in her ear that she couldn't quite understand through her haze of sobs and sorrow.
He heard her brother enter the house again, their father begin to start what sounded a rather severe dressing down and shot James a look that he immediately recognized.
When James nodded, Remus gently passed Y/N over to him and Peter moved to where Remus had been to rub her shoulder while James squeezed her tight.
Remus took a rather deep breath as he stood outside her brother's room—waiting for the boy to come up. "Daniel."
Daniel, much to Remus' surprise seemed just as upset as Y/N was. His eyes were almost completely swelled shut from what Remus presumed to be tears. "You gonna yell at me just because you're snogging my sister now?"
"We aren't—" now wasn't a good time to go into that. Remus sucked in a breath. It was hard to fight the instinct to protect her viciously or through snark, but that would only do more harm."I don't want to argue with you. I wanted to talk to you."
The young man tried to calm himself, hands still numb from all the anger he'd felt. "I don't know you."
"No—you don't. "
"Are you trying to just make me feel bad? This isn't all my fault. No one even told me you guys were coming. She forgot to write home to me about this. I thought it'd just be family."
"I'm sorry about that."
Daniel's lip twitched, "It's not—it's not your fault."
"Do you miss her when she's away?" Remus watched him swallow air, and Daniel could only offer a nod in response. "You know, it's not really allowed, but you could come and visit her."
When Daniel's head snapped up, he saw Remus give him a small smile and wondered for a moment, just a moment if this was a cruel joke. "How?"
"There's a village called Hogsmeade. We go on the weekends, on Saturday. I could give you some floo powder—" when Daniel looked confused Remus paused, "You toss a bit in the chimney, say where you'd like to go, and step in. You'll go to that chimney. Muggles can use it."
"So—I could go and see her?" when Remus nodded, Daniel took in a small breath. "And I can use that?"
"Yes." When Daniel looked pensive about it, Remus took a step back. "You don't have to decide now. You can write to me. I can get post from muggles at school. You can think about it. But I know she misses you too." He saw Y/N peer out of her room and offered her a small smile. "Want me to leave you two alone?"
The pair of siblings looked at eachother for a moment, before nodding just the slighted. With a grin and a short squeeze of Y/N's shoulder, Remus slipped into the guest room where he was staying.

He was almost asleep, when he heard Y/N slip in and quietly shut the door. "Rem?"
Blearily, Remus looked up— "Did everything go alright?"
She paused, how exactly did she answer that? "It's—it's a bit better." Things were still tense, as they were after an argument. But they were nicer than they usually were after a fight. "I just wanted to say thank you."
"It's the least I could do." After all, she'd taken care of him after countless full moons.
And he was hopelessly in love with her.
That too.
Y/N sat on the edge of his bed and rested a hand on his shin—smiling just a bit as he bolted upright. She snickered, "You okay Rem?"
"I should be asking you that."
"You kind of already did."
Very gently he reached out and rested his hand atop hers. "I just... you're my friend. I want you to be happy."
Y/N traced a scar on Remus' hand and looked down at it with a small frown. It was one of the first things she'd noticed about him, oddly enough. They'd met during Charms, and she hadn't quite looked at him until he'd passed her a paper.
"You're my friend." The words hung in the air, heavy.
Silencing everything out.
The banter of the other boys from the next room over.
Muffled through the wall.
Remus' lip twitched, "Your friend." It was technically true—though at the same time it felt like a complete lie.
She looked up at him, eyes narrowed the slightest bit. There was the slightest hitch in her breath. "I'm glad that you could come over."
"Me too."

It was Sirius, who picked up on the fact that the mood between Y/N and Remus had changed.
It was also Sirius, who on the way back to Hogwarts suggested that he, James and Peter go visit the rest of their year while Y/N and Remus rested in the carriage.
Something had changed that night between her and Remus.
Something had switched.
Pretending had become more difficult.
Y/N's leg bounced up and down, as she stared out the window.
Remus' fist clenched and unclenched as he wondered what in the hell they were supposed to talk about now.
Finally, her head snapped over towards him, and she said the words that had been haunting her mind for a few days. "Just friends?"
"What?"
"Are we just friends? Daniel asked if we were dating. He thought you were my boyfriend. Did you tell him something?"
Quickly, Remus spat out his tea and shook his head so hard you'd think he'd have gotten whiplash, "No! No I didn't tell him anything like that. He asked if we were—" Snogging, actually but he wasn't about to say that. "I told him it wasn't anything like that."
"So it's not anything like that?"
Remus looked quite stunned—speechless even before his mouth opened to speak.
"Because I think you love me like I love you. I think that's why you talked to my brother and tried to fix things."
Y/N was laying everything on the line—more so than she ever thought that she might. Right now though? The odds seemed good enough that she didn't think she could lose.
"You love me." Remus sounded breathless—like she'd sucked the wind out of him. "You're in love with me?"
She nodded quickly, and felt herself becoming acutely aware of the fact that he was all the way over there, across the carriage and not in her arms.
"I am."
He still looked silent, almost in awe.
When he didn't continue speaking, Y/N continued. "Some sort of response here from you would be awesome."
Like he'd been slapped, Remus came to attention, "I love you too." He saw her smile, one of the most beautiful things in the world. "Of course I love you too."
Neither were sure which came first, either her opening her arms to welcome him or Remus rushing forward to kiss her—but as they came together both knew that it didn't really matter.