"damn that girl and her perfect smile."
‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾
December 1975, Year 5
The Great Hall
Remus sat, Daily Prophet in hand, with his fellow Marauders, James, Sirius, and Peter.
After Sirius explicitly explained that he couldn't stand returning to the House of Black for the holidays, the others decided it would only be right that they stayed back too (he had told Regulus a Happy Christmas, but left it at that, deeming his own parents and their house elf undeserving of one).
They had had the courtesy of asking the girls if they would stay as well, but they knew their families missed them and expected them home for the holidays (or in Mary's case, she was just homesick). This was especially true for Evie, who was to attend her brother's wedding over the break.
Remus had made sure to write to Evie– to keep her up to date with what went on at the school while she was gone; which wasn't much other than the occasional prank on unsuspecting teachers.
Evie, of course, wrote back, telling her best friend of what happened at home.
And it was Evie's letter that Remus was waiting for as he sat in the Great Hall at breakfast, hardly caring for whatever it was James and Sirius were conversing over.
At the sight of three owls swooping through the roof, Remus set down the newspaper, eager to read what Evie had written for him.
The Woods' family owl, Artemis, spotted Remus– who at this point, she was very familiar with– and made a beeline to his spot. The two owls trailing her flew off to students at other tables.
Artemis made an elegant landing at the Gryffindor table and dropped an envelope addressed to 'R. Lupin' before the recipient.
Remus took the letter in gratitude and gently stroked the owl's wings. "Thank you, Artemis,"
The owl cooed in response. She was a very loving and loyal owl, Remus knew, in comparison to James' owl who bit your hand if you put it too close.
The owl lingered a moment, as if in wait.
"Oh," Remus understood. "No, I don't have anything to send yet." he told the bird. "You can fly on to the owlery now. I'll send her a letter back later."
As if she understood perfectly, Artemis gave an affirmative hoot as she pushed herself up and flew away, out of the Great Hall through the ceiling.
Remus took the envelope and eagerly ripped it open to reveal the contents. Inside sat a letter, which he quickly identified was written in Evie's neat cursive, and two photos.
The letter read:
My dearest Remus,
Hello again! I'm hoping this letter finds you well– and the same goes for the other three with you.
I'm glad to hear that you lot have been able to visit Hogsmeade frequently– I'd hate to be stuck in the dorms for the entire holiday break.
Jace's wedding was yesterday! It went very smoothly, and both of them were happy with the outcome. My sister and I were made out to be Celine's bridesmaids– which I was really anxious about. Gwyneth was just excited, and she was really excited about dressing up fancy.
Speaking of, I'll enclose a picture of my family at the reception. As you can see, I was quite fussy over the dress I was put in.
The second photo was taken on my mum's muggle camera. I told Sirius I'd show him what muggle pictures look like, so if you could have him see, I'd be grateful.
Have you come up with any good tricks on Peeves yet? I'd love to hear it if you have.
I guess that's all for now. I miss you dearly, and tell the others I say hello. I love Christmas break, but I can't wait to see you again.
Hope to hear from you soon,
Yours dearly,
Evelyn Wood
P.S. My mum says hello and she hopes you're well
P.P.S. I nearly forgot– my dad ordered two cakes for the wedding by mistake. I'll bring some back when I get there!
-
Remus smiled to himself. He loved hearing from Evie– which went along accordingly with his love for the girl herself.
He didn't know what happened. In the first year, she was just a fellow Gryffindor, a good friend the next, and then they were best friends. But somewhere along the lines of year four, his love had grown from a best friend love to a new kind of love.
The kind that Evie wouldn't love him, the werewolf, with.
Very few people knew of Remus' lycanthropy– those of his age were few: James, Sirius and Peter. Being a werewolf was Remus' biggest burden. He found himself immensely lucky to have found his three Marauders– he knew telling anyone else would result in being cut out of their lives out of fear.
And that is why he concealed his hopeless crush on Evie as much as possible; she didn't really know Remus, the monster he truly was. If she knew, he'd be losing the number one person in his life.
So, he kept it all a secret.
Shaking the thought, Remus gave the moving picture a closer look.
It was a family portrait, featuring their newest addition to the bunch, newlywed Celine Gauthier Wood. Jonathan, Evie's older brother who usually went by Jace, stood in the center next to his bride, appearing to be so happy his cheeks might burst.
Hanging onto Jace's arm was Mrs. Wood, whose shoulder was being gently held by her husband. Evie's parents were very kind people, Remus knew, having met them over the course of the last couple summers during visits.
On Celine's opposite side was Gwyneth– Gwen, as Evie called her. Her older sister had recently graduated from Hogwarts, and she looked happy, yet slightly agitated. That might've been at the hands of Evie herself, Remus thought, as Gwen kept nudging her younger sister by the elbow.
At the far end of the picture, Evie wore what one love-struck lycanthropic boy might call a stunning dress, even if it was just a simple pale purple thing that her family definitely forced her to wear. Remus couldn't quite stop staring at how it looked on her, how it brought out the color in her eyes and the rosiness of her cheeks.
Evie, however, clearly wasn't all that happy to be in the dress. In the picture, she was smiling brightly for the camera, but her eyes couldn't seem to agree with the happy expression for a consistent period of time. She was tugging at the dress– first at the shoulder, then at the side– alternating between body parts as she twitched uncomfortably.
But the dress was nothing compared to Evie herself. Remus watched her brown hair move as she elbowed her sister in retaliation, her face morphing as her frown turned into a smile.
Remus couldn't help but sigh at the sight of her. Why did she have to be so perfect?
"What's that you've got, Moony?" Peter asked, brows raised in interest.
Sirius' eyes flicked over as he sighed. "Oh, no. Not this again."
"What?" Remus asked, insult lacing his voice.
From beside him, James snatched the picture from his hands. "Let's see that," he smirked. He took a moment to examine the photo before snickering. "Oh. It's Wood."
"Surprise, surprise," Peter laughed.
"Of course it is," Sirius rolled his eyes. "You're so smitten, Moony, you know that?"
"I am not," Remus retorted, glaring as he pulled the picture out of Prongs' fingertips. He picked up the second picture to hand to Sirius. "This is for you. She says hi, by the way."
Sirius' eyebrows furrowed as he took the image from his friend, but then relaxed in recognition of what it was about.
"These are muggle pictures? But they're so frozen, where's the fun in that?"
James pulled the picture from him to take a look, Remus leaning over his shoulder to peek.
Within the picture, Evie sat cross-legged on the floor of what Remus recognized as the living room in her house. She was holding onto the ragdoll cat she'd received from Gwyneth after she'd graduated, Zephyr. Behind her, Gwyneth's hands held onto her shoulders as she sported a happy smile– one that twinned that of her younger sister's in front of her.
There it was again, Evie's smile.
Damn that girl and her perfect smile.
"Remus," Peter piped up. "It's so clear that you like her... why don't you just ask her ou–"
"NO." Remus interjected, firm. "I'm not going to ask out Evie. Merlin, do you know what she'd do if she knew what I am? What kind of monster she's let into her life?"
The group paused for a moment. It wasn't the first time Remus had gone off into his own angst mindset about the whole 'werewolf' ordeal. It was clearly frustrating him to quite an extent when it came to Evie.
"Remus," James put a careful hand on his shoulder. "We know you've heard it before, from the likes of us, no doubt," he sighed. "But you're not a monster."
"But–"
"And even if you were," Sirius chimed in. "Which you aren't," he noted sternly. "Have you met Wood? She wouldn't care in the slightest."
"She'd do the opposite, really," Peter added. "She'd just wanna help, y'know."
"They're right," James replied, before Remus had the chance to say anything. "If there's one thing I know about Evelyn Wood, it's that she's got a big heart."
"She's the kindest out of all of us," Peter nodded, alluding to the fifth year Gryffndors as a whole.
"Evie would never hold your furry little problem against you," James reassured.
Remus stopped to consider. They weren't entirely wrong; Evie was a very loving person, and she was very warmhearted and accepting.
But would that be enough? Would her kindness be enough for her to stay? And even if it was– even if she could accept his monthly situation– would she even love him back?
The whole thing just seemed unlikely to Remus.
He let out a sigh. "I don't know," he mumbled. "It's just so complicated."
The three with him nodded in understanding.
Remus then gathered his things together, gently shoving the contents of the letter back into the envelope.
"Where're you headed?" Sirius asked.
"Common room," Remus replied. "I've gotta write her back."
"Are you gonna–"
"No, I'm not telling her," Remus cut Peter off. "I'm not telling her anything. Not yet, at least."
‧͙⁺˚*･༓☾