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chapter sixteen;
opera house favoritism
Amaya never realized the wizards in this new world were so backward in regards to werewolves that Remus had been suffering unnecessarily for his whole life—of course, there was nothing yet that could take away his pain during the full moon, but the side effects before and after could be avoided.
Even in the Peninsula, where Muggleborns were hunted down like animals, and just a few years back the Peninsula became less isolated from the rest of the world (after the dictatorships fell through), they were more accepting of werewolves. Well, to a certain extent at least, especially if said werewolf was reputable and rich (in the peninsula, status was bigger than most things).
And so, she dragged James along with her to Sirius and Remus's flat. Now she was standing over the werewolf laying in bed, with Sirius and James on the other side of the bed, watching in amusement, just as Amaya was, as a very exhausted Remus tried not to freak out over the fact that Amaya knew about his condition.
He looked over at James. "Prongs, I know Amaya's your friend—"
"For fuck's sake, he didn't tell me," said Amaya impatiently, as she shoved the flask of Lagrimas de la Luna in Remus's hand. "Take two drops please."
"Uh, what is this?"
"It'll make you feel better, I swear. Or if you want, I can just keep talking while you're suffering from a migraine, and explain it to you while my voice sounds like nails against a chalkboard in your mind—"
Her words died and she smiled smugly as Remus took the two drops to shut her up. Everyone paused for a moment before Remus's shoulders slumped and his face relaxed. "What the bloody hell was that? That's bloody amazing, my wolf just went to sleep."
"They're called Lágrimas de la Luna, Moon Tears," Amaya explained with a gentle smile. "They hone in the effects of the full moon, it dulls your wolf so you don't feel it as much physically. It's still there, and powerful, but it doesn't hurt your body anymore. It doesn't do much during the full moon, or anything not moon-related like exhaustion," she said looking pointedly at him, the circles under his eyes and the lack of energy in him giving him away, "but take a drop or two every day coming up to the full moon and couple of days after and you'll feel better."
All three of them were gaping at her by the time she finished and Remus looked on the verge of tears. He cleared his throat. "How do I get one? How do you have one?"
"Well, you can keep that one for now," she told him, "I can live without it. I usually just use it to calm my emotions."
"Love?" asked Sirius, raising a hand and she looked at him, "You said it didn't work on anything not moon-related."
"Yes, but my grandfather was a werewolf," she explained, casually and it seemed having a werewolf for a grandfather was the least casual thing one could have.
"What?" all three exclaimed.
"He was bitten when he was little and playing out during a full moon in the gardens." She paused. "I'm guessing werewolves aren't a good thing here?"
"They're a good thing in the Peninsula?" asked Remus in shock and Amaya shrugged.
"They're not bad. Because of the Moon Tears, no one notices them. Besides, a good family is a good family and even being a werewolf didn't change my grandfather's status as an influential man."
"Wait, does that mean you're a—"
"No. I just have some traits that grow more prominent with the moon. My senses get heightened slightly and everything really. I get more emotional but I also get stronger. It's odd. But the Moon Tears help with migraines and the—hormones I guess." She shrugged before a devilish smile tugged on her lips. "Plus, that means I'm immune to the bite. So, if you wanna get freaky, Remy, you can bite me all you want."
Sirius burst out laughing as Remus's face turned red and James started choking on air. Amaya let out a laugh.
Remus cleared his throat. "It's a nice offer, but I'll pass." He paused. "Does that mean... If I were to... have kids, would they be... normal ?"
Amaya raised an eyebrow at him, unimpressed. "You think it's a good thing to be normal?"
Remus shrugged helplessly. "I don't want them to be like me."
"Well, then you might have a problem. You see, children tend to take after their parents—" She stopped when Remus looked pointedly at her, and with a soft smile she shook her head. "They wouldn't be werewolves. They'd probably have some traits like me but they wouldn't transform. My father didn't." She refrained from adding that during the full moon, he'd get borderline violent, but she would gather it wasn't something werewolf-y just his personality heightened.
Remus seemed to breathe in relief, his eyes shining with hope as if his whole world had just changed for the better and he smiled. "Thank you, Maya."
"You're welcome. Now show me your wounds so I can heal you."
And so she began healing Remus. He mostly had no wounds aside from a couple of deep scratches on his back, and a couple of bruises. The scratches she couldn't heal without leaving a scar but the bruises were an easy fit. All the whilst, Sirius kept asking her questions.
"How did you find out about us?" he'd ask her.
Amaya had shrugged as she tried to weave Remus' skin back together, pretty sure the boy had dozed off into a light sleep, as sometimes his eyes would open suddenly before they closed again. "I could sense it. Feel the magic, I suppose. I only recognized yours because my father was an Animagus."
James nodded, already having known that fact, but Sirius' eyes widened and he grinned. "What was he?"
She paused for a moment, looking up at the boys, and her eyes met James', he smiled encouragingly and when she looked at Sirius she sighed. "He was a snake. Fitting, really. He uh, he was training me to be one, an Animagus, but he... He died before that."
That made James' brows raise in surprise, and he tried to catch her eye but she just went back to healing the big scratch on Remus' back, she just needed to take away some of the poison from a werewolf wound so that she could heal the rest of it into a faint scar.
"If you want we can help you become one," said Sirius.
Chuckling, Amaya shook her head. "I never wanted to be one. And even if I did, I couldn't possibly risk it now, more trouble with the ministry and I'll be carted off to Azkaban."
"Don't joke about that," said Sirius and James at the same time.
Amaya only shrugged, not answering as she finally finished on Remus' wounds, covering him with the covers, and leaving him to sleep off his exhaustion as she left the room, the boys on her tail.
After healing a couple of bruises Sirius had and a paper cut he decided was important enough for her to heal, James and Amaya went back to the Manor, and went their separate ways to get ready for the day (or in James' case to sleep more). Amaya went on her run, and by the time she returned and took a shower, James had woken up and they had lunch together.
Later in the afternoon, Euphemia and Fleamont returned from their Order mission, with hugs and greetings and telling them to go and dress fancily, because they had tickets for the Opera.
"Someone gave us a couple of tickets while we were on the mission," explained Euphemia with a smile, "They couldn't go anymore, you see. And because we'd finished all we had to do, Monty decided that we should go and see what the fuss the Muggles made about the Opera was. And what a wonderful experience it was."
"We decided we'd get tickets and take the whole family," finished Fleamont with a grin and Amaya tried not to show how affected she was by being considered part of the family.
That's how she ended up, sitting in a seat in the middle of the multiple rows before the stage, next to James and Euphemia, dressed in the nicest clothes she had (which was just a summer dress), and watching the opera. To be frank, she understood around nothing of what was going on, but she'd had a good time.
She'd spend the entirety of the joke trying not to laugh at James's stupid jokes about the performers, and the woman in front of him, whose hair was made up in such a high updo, that James had to lean over to Amaya if he wanted to see the show. And she had to refrain from giggling every time she said a stupid joke and James snorted out a laugh that had his mother look at him sternly, which in turn had James gaping at her.
"It's official," he'd whispered in her ear, "You're everyone's favorite."
"Everyone? Does that include you?"
James grinned. "Depends. Am I your favorite?"
"Can't say that you are," she said with a hiss, patting his hand on the armrest between them. He turned it around and grasped her hand in his.
"Liar."
"I'm not. You're just not my favorite."
"Who is then?"
"Ninny," she answered, smirking.
James only shrugged, smiling when Euphemia tsk'd. "It's alright, Maya," he said, running his thumb over her knuckles, and Amaya made no move to take her hand out of his grasp. "You're my favorite."
Amaya was glad for Euphemia because she found herself blushing and in that moment she would've made a fool of herself with her lack of words if it wasn't for the older woman hexing her son with a spell that silenced him. "Be quiet and watch the show, darling," she said.
James tried to speak, most likely to complain, but he couldn't. Instead, he caught her eye and winked, interlacing their fingers together, and Amaya could feel her heart racing in her chest as she turned back to the stage.
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