Almost 30 minutes after Benjy had left, Aurora had been bribed downstairs by Harry, and was currently sitting on an armchair in the living room with Harry on her lap poking her face, while Lily, James, Peter, and his wife (Emmeline) talked among themselves.
Aurora was half listening into their conversation, they were talking about the other upcoming weddings, and Aurora wasn't particularly interested in contributing to that.
The only other person not joining in the conversation was Remus, who was sat on the other side of the room, alone on a sofa reading Pride and Prejudice and wearing black framed square glasses that Aurora thought suited him.
Occasionally she moved her focus from Harry to glance at him as he read, and she was aware that she wasn't being discreet about it at all, as sometimes he caught her gaze and they held contact until one of them looked away first (it was usually him).
After a while, Aurora decided to listen into the other's conversation as she was growing bored, but did not want to put Harry down as he was clasping his tiny fingers around hers, and she felt her heart expand at the sight.
"Mary's marrying a who?" Peter exclaimed, sounding surprised. She supposed that was fair enough. They had dated for a month in their fourth year, if she remembered correctly
"She wasn't shocked by it," Lily told him. "Her parents were though."
"Who's the girl?" Emmeline asked.
"I think she said her name was Georgia Reid,"
Surprisingly, Aurora actually knew Georgia. Well, knew of her. She was a Ravenclaw two years above them, she had been their Head Girl during their fifth year, and had been dating the Head Boy, a Hufflepuff named Matthew.
"It's this weekend," Lily continued. "I'm meeting up with her tomorrow, along with Marlene and Dorcas, to help. Thank dear god for magic."
"Ugh. I can't wait for the weddings to be over. I don't think I've felt my feet since they started," James whined, and Peter nodded, agreeing with him.
Times like these, Aurora was thankful she just had Benjy, and now Caradoc. She really didn't want to imagine how many weddings the others had been to.
"Rem," Lily called out, pulling the boy from his concentration. "Are you alright to watch Harry tomorrow?"
Remus looked at Lily. "Yeah, I'm good to watch him," His gaze then shifted to her. "Maybe Aurora can help." He grinned.
"Only if you're up for going to the zoo. I'm looking after Rosie for my parents," She told him.
"The zoo! Why do I have to work tomorrow?" James protested, crossing his arms in front of him. He must really like the zoo, Aurora thought
Aurora laughed at James, who was currently acting like a child that had been denied pudding. "It'll be Rosie's first time going. Lois can't take her due to 'upsetting reasons'." She laughed again, remembering why the zoo haunted Lois.
"What are these 'upsetting reasons'?" Remus asked, having now put down his book and paying attention to the conversation. To her, an extremely unhelpful part of her brain supplied.
Pushing back the thought, she explained. "When we were 10, we went to the zoo with our parents. Lois was excited to see the monkeys - she used to love monkeys. And it was a really hot day, so we got ice cream. With the ice cream in our hands, we went to see the monkeys. One monkey decided that they desperately wanted Lois' ice cream, so it tried to take it from her. They fought over the ice cream for nearly five minutes."
They all stared at her with blank looks on their faces. "That's why she's so protective of her ice cream! She hexed me when I ate the remainders of her ice cream!" Lily said.
"It was extremely funny," Aurora said, standing up and handing Harry over to James. "Only got funnier when the ice cream fell on the floor. The look of betrayal both her and the monkey had was brilliant." She smiled fondly at the memory, Lois looking at the monkey, screaming 'traitor' in Russian as it retreated back into the trees. "Since then, she decided she preferred magical creatures. Hasn't been to a muggle zoo since."
Knowing she'd need the rest if she had to wake up earlier than usual tomorrow to deal with her sister, she quickly said goodnight to everyone and went back up the stairs towards her room.
----
The next morning, Aurora found that she woke up much later than everyone else. Well, apart from Remus. Before Lily left, she told her to let Remus wake up on his own. Apparently it was safer that way — for everyone involved.
Aurora was meant to pick up her younger sister at 11 and it was already 10. So, throwing Lily's warning out the window, she knocked on Remus' door, and didn't receive any response.
Despite that, she opened the door to his room and stepped inside, laughing quietly at the way Remus was covered by his blankets, much like a burrito.
"Come on sleepy head," She said, walking over to what she assumed was his shoulder and shaking it lightly. Sadly for him, however, Remus didn't budge - not like she'd expected him to anyway. Aurora grinned to herself and picked up the only corner of the duvet she could access, and gave it a few large tugs, watching as he fell off the bed in amusement.
"What the fuck," She heard Remus mutter, assuming that he had now realised he was on the floor.
Aurora moved so she was sat on his bed and looked down at him. "Hi," She said, still grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
Remus turned his head slowly, still tired, and her eyes connected with his. Remus' eyes were a shade of amber, and if she looked closely enough, there were a few flecks of green. Aurora suddenly found herself unable to breathe, and looked away quickly, taking in deep breaths. "That was very amusing." She told him.
"I'm sure it was," He grumbled, standing up and placing the duvet back on the bed. "But my ass did not find that amusing."
"Sucks to be your ass then." She smiled innocently, rolling off of the bed and leaving Remus in his room on the floor. "We're leaving in 40 minutes!" She shouted as she walked back to her own room to change out of her pyjamas (a very stylish combination of dirty joggers and an oversized stained t-shirt).
She came back into Remus' room 10 minutes later, dressed in a black wrap dress and her hair tied back in a loose braid, a few stray hairs framing her face.
"Remus! Get out of bed!"
The werewolf had moved from his position from the floor and back up into the bed, yet again wrapping the duvet around himself in a futile attempt to fall asleep.
"'M sleeping. Go away." He mumbled into the pillow.
Sighing, Aurora left the room and went downstairs to the kitchen, deciding to leave Remus to it, where Harry was on the floor playing with his toy blocks. "What have you got there?" She asked the toddler, picking him up and resting him on her hip. "Have you built a tower?"
Harry nodded at her, and pointed at the blocks he had stacked on top of each other. "T'wer." He repeated.
Aurora smiled at the boy and placed him in his high chair next to the island. "We're going to the zoo today, yeah?" Harry started clapping his hands together. It was the cutest thing she had seen.
Aurora always knew that at some point in the future she wanted kids. She loved helping raise her younger sister, and kids seemed to love her for some reason. Now though, she wasn't sure if kids were even in the picture. They could always adopt, but were werewolves allowed to? Did Remus even want children? And did she even want children with Remus?
The sound of Remus walking into the kitchen pulled her from her train of thought. If she had thought he had been attractive at the wedding, he was definitely attractive now.
He had walked over to Harry, copying her position from earlier, placing him on his hip. His hair looked like he had just rolled out of bed, and he probably had, yet still retained some neatness about it, making her knees go weak. He had pulled on a pair of light blue jeans and a green sweater, the same one he had worn when they met again.
It made him look so domestic — something that she was apparently attracted to, or maybe it was just Remus — bringing her back to her previous thoughts.
"When are we picking up your sister?" He asked, smiling down at Harry who was trying to grasp Remus' nose in his hands.
"Uh," She floundered, trying to remember, but the way he looked had completely thrown her out of orbit. He raised an eyebrow at her, as if to say 'well I'm waiting'. "We need to be there by 11." She managed to get out.
"Okay," He nodded. "We should probably get going now then. If we want to make it in time."
Aurora glanced at the clock. It read 10:50. Her first thought was where had all that time gone. And her second — had she really been thinking about Remus for 30 minutes?
Not trusting herself with any words, she nodded her head, picking up her purse and jacket.
She rattled off her address to Remus, and then followed after him into the fireplace, coming out on the other side to her parent's living room.
"Rory!" Her sister yelled, jumping into her arms for a hug.
"Hi Rosie," She smiled at her younger sister, pulling out of their hug. "Have Mum and Dad left yet?"
Rosie shook her head. "They're still getting ready."
Her parents had apparently become the best of friends with their neighbours, and were planning to go shopping together. Shopping. Her parents. Shopping.
"Why do they need to get ready to shop?" She said out loud.
"You get ready to shop all the time," Rosie told her. "And you take eeeeven longer." She drawled out, emphasising her point.
Remus looked at her, quirking an eyebrow. "If you raise any more eyebrows at me, I swear to god that I will shave them off." Aurora stated, glaring at him.
"Dad said swearing is bad." Rosie said.
"What Dad doesn't know won't hurt him." Aurora grinned wickedly.
"What won't hurt me?"
Aurora lifted her gaze from her sister and saw her father entering the living room, a bemused look on his face. "Nothing you need to worry your head about,"
She smiled at her father, walking over to give him a hug. "We should get going. We're going to have a great day at the zoo," Aurora took Rosie's hand and walked towards the door. "I'm taking the car!" She shouted, walking away from her Dad, Remus following with Harry. She faintly heard her Dad telling her to stay away from the monkeys, and that he didn't need anymore children to fight him so he can eat some of their ice cream.
After a surprisingly minimal amount of effort to get everyone in the car, Aurora sat down in the driver's seat, reversing out of the driveway.
"How long is the drive?" Remus asked, sitting next to her.
"It's only 10 minutes. Won't take long."
AN:
a nice longer chapter for you guys today :))
SO. I was thinking, due to many being sad about Regulus being dead (who isn't though?), as I have not mentioned him in the story yet, I was thinking of, you know, making him alive instead of dead. What do you guys think??
and thank you all so much for over 1K votes and 30K reads! that is crazy! I really didn't expect this story to get all the love it has, so thank you so so so so so much :))
I will try and post more regularly!!! (lol, don't I always say this?)