The next week had rolled around far too quickly for Aurora's liking.
She had spent the last few days with her family, talking everything over about the new law and who she was going to be marrying, leaving out the hatred the couple harboured for one another. Her mother, as she suspected, instantly went out shopping for wedding magazines and samples of colours and fabrics, filled with joy.
Her younger sister, who had only recently turned 6 (she was a 'happy' accident as her parents called it), was ecstatic at the notion of Aurora getting married. She believed Aurora was marrying her 'prince' like in that muggle cartoon Snow White or maybe Cinderella.
But the days had gone quickly and now here she was again, standing in front of the Potter Manor, with a bag filled with wedding magazines her mother told her to go through with Remus.
This time, when she knocked on the door, it was Remus who greeted her. He had told her to follow him through to the living room where the rest of his friends were sat.
"'Elo," a small miniature version of James crawled up to her as she entered the room. She was stood awkwardly in the doorway, unsure of what to do, so Aurora decided to greet this friendly little kid.
"Hi," she smiled widely at the young boy as she crouched down next to him. "Who are you?"
The small child grinned at her and tried to put his hand out for her to shake. "'m 'arry,"
Aurora couldn't help the laugh that left her throat as she went to shake Harry's hand. "Hello Harry, I'm Aurora, but you can call me Rory,". Harry quickly tackled his new friend in an unexpected hug, that knocked her to the floor, as she had only been resting on the tip of her toes.
"Alright Harry, that's enough, look what you've done to the poor girl," Lily lightheartedly scolded her child, but couldn't stop the smile spreading on her face at his puppy eyes, begging her to forgive him.
Aurora quickly stood up, it seemed being tackled in this house was going to be something she had to get used to. "He's very cute," She told Lily, as the young boy was now attached to her hip.
"Thank you," Lily smiled softly at her. "Would you like to sit down?"
Aurora quickly scanned the room and found an uninhibited sofa. As she sat down into her seat, she allowed herself to study the room. In the centre there was a large fireplace, which she assumed was for flooing as well as heat, and it was decorated with lots of pictures all along the mantle. "There are a lot of pictures in this house," She said, trying to clear the uncomfortable silence.
"Hah, yeah. Mum and Dad loved filling rooms with them. They enjoyed the liveliness it brings into the house, especially when it was filled with their favourite memories," James told her.
"That's nice. I don't really have any pictures in my flat, just a few of my family. But I like the pictures here, I guess, it's kinda like watching everyone grow in a short time span,"
The group sat in silence for a while longer, no one really knowing what to say to continue the conversation. "Well, we promised to take Harry to his Uncle Padfoot's today, so we'd better get going," Lily spoke up.
James had a relieved look on his face, now having an excuse to be able to escape. "We'll be back in a few hours, try not to kill each other," He joked.
Soon enough the Potter family were out the door, and it was just her and Remus left in the room.
Remus looked around uncomfortably, trying to think of something to say that wouldn't increase the awkwardness. "Uh, what's in the bag?" He asked nervously, unsure if it was the right thing to say.
"Bombs," Aurora replied with a serious expression on her face. Remus' eyes widened at this in shock, until she burst out laughing. "I'm just kidding, it's something even worse,"
"Worse than bombs?" Remus asked, wondering what on earth she was talking about.
"It's wedding magazines," They both grimaced at the thought. "My mum went on a spree, unable to stop herself. And she forced me to bring them with me so we could look through,"
"Might as well," He sighed "Because my mum did the exact same thing,"
Aurora nearly choked on her own breath. "Your mother did it too?"
Remus nodded, with a distraught expression on his face. "Only it's bigger than a bag,"
"No, it can't be?" She questioned. How could his mother have been more excited than her own? She remembered her mother literally bouncing off the walls with how happy she was.
"She brought a whole suitcase," He scrunched up his nose in memory of his mother, barging through the front door, carrying what had to be the largest suitcase Remus had seen, filled to the very brim of wedding ideas. "I had to stop her from bringing another," He said, his face now buried in his hands out of embarrassment.
"Oh my god," She laughed. "Is there a reason why your mother's so wedding crazy?"
Remus knew the reason. He had told his parents that he wasn't ever going to get married. He didn't want to tie someone to him for life and force them to stay with him and the wolf. "She thought it would never happen, I guess,"
Aurora was shocked by that. "Why not? Any girl would be happy to marry you. In fact, I rememberer hearing girls talk about how they wanted to marry you,"
"Hm, should I assume you're on the list?"
"Oh yes, my heart beats for you and only you," She said in a monotonous voice.
"Thought it did," He grinned at her, and she found herself unable to not smile back.
A few beats of silence had passed between them, and yet neither had managed to tear their gaze away from the other. Aurora was wondering about why the man in front of her didn't want to get married. She may not entirely like him, but she can see why others would. Then it hit her.
"You're gay!"
Remus started choking on air when he had heard her accusation. "Why do you think I'm gay?"
Aurora faltered slightly. Maybe he wasn't. "Uhh," She said nervously. "Well you said that you didn't want to get married... and I thought that maybe it's because... it would be a girl you'd be marrying..." She trailed off.
Remus laughed at her accusation. "No, I'm not gay," He paused for a second. "Would you care if I was?"
Aurora shrugged. She had known a few people in school who were gay - even some of her closest friends were , and she never judged them for it. "I think I'd respect you more than I do now," She joked. "Um, but no. I wouldn't care," She gently tugged on a piece of hair that had escaped from its position behind her ear. It was a nervous tic she had subconsciously picked up in school, so she wouldn't feel entirely awkward in these kind of situations.
Remus' lip quirked up into a half smile at her joke, and decided just to tell her the reason why. I mean they're going to get married anyway. And he can see if she really was as awful as he made her out to be in his head. "Well the reason isn't me being gay. I'm..." He took a deep breath to try and calm him down his nerves. No matter how many times people would find out, it always frightened him about how they would react. "I'm a werewolf,"
Aurora was shocked for a second. She had not expected that. But how could she have missed it? Questions were zooming through her mind, and she wasn't aware of the man sitting in front of her, currently waiting for her to say something, anything even.
Once she had all of her thoughts arranged, she realised it would probably be best for her to speak. "Okay. Sorry, that took me a while," She gave him a smile to reassure him that she was really okay with him being a werewolf. "Just, how could I have missed it?"
"I thought you knew, if I'm being honest," Remus rubbed the back of his neck nervously, avoiding the gaze of the girl in front of him. Aurora was smart, and Remus knew that she could have figured it out if she tried.
"I feel so dumb right now," She groaned, causing him to let out a chuckle, as she was beating herself up about not knowing something. "Can I ask you a few questions?". Remus shrugged in response, knowing that his answer would be pointless anyway. It was either answer them now, or be badgered with them later.
"Okay," Aurora took a breath, thinking about what she wanted to ask. "I'm just going to ask them all in one, and you can choose whether you want to answer them or not," Remus nodded at her, a signal for her to continue. "How old were you? Do you know who did it? How did you transform safely at Hogwarts? How do you transform safely now? And is that where all of your scars are from?" Aurora desperately wanted him to answer all of her questions now she realised she had quite a few.
Remus waited a few seconds, thinking over the questions and their answers in his head. "I was 4, a few weeks before my fifth birthday," Aurora let out a tiny gasp of shock. She wouldn't wish that on anyone. All she could imagine was a young Remus, screaming in pain as he transformed, and couldn't help the tears that were building in the back of her eyes. "It was Fenrir Greyback, he wanted revenge for something my dad said. Dumbledore planted the Whomping Willow for me to walk under on the evening of the full moon, and take me to the Shrieking Shack, where I stayed all night. Now, I go into some of the enchanted woods around England, nowhere near civilisation. And yes, my scars are from myself," He had powered through answering her questions, not wanting to spend longer than he should thinking about his condition.
Aurora nodded her head. She had majority of the answers she had wanted.
"Alright then. Should we look through these? My mum will kill me if we haven't started anything,"
The pair had spent the next 2 hours silently working through the magazines, one going through and circling the ones they liked, and the other following soon after with the same magazine, only this time circling the ones they liked from the selection of the first.
They had found that this was an easier method, as they wouldn't have to talk so much to one another. Until Aurora broke the silence.
"I think my family will want to meet you next week,"
Remus wasn't sure what to respond. He knew his family wanted to meet her too, but it all made it seem so real. The thought scared him.
Aurora tugged on a strand of hair nervously, she knew it was probably too soon to be saying something like that, but if he didn't, well, her mother might go nuts.
"Um, yeah, I thought so, my parents would probably want to meet you too," Remus finally managed to get out. And then groaned, realising his mum would want to meet her family as well.
"Oh cheer up Lupin, adults love me,"
"I'm an adult and I don't," Remus muttered.
"You're warming up to me. Anyway, I was thinking, maybe we could do a meal with both our families?" She put the idea forward, knowing that it would most likely be the quickest way to get family introductions over with. "And I know you're really close with the guys, so maybe them?" Aurora was getting really nervous waiting for his response. Neither had actually ever intended to ever meet the other's families at all until this stupid law.
Remus nodded his head slowly, thinking the idea through in his head. "That could work, I'll talk to Pro- uh, James, about doing it here?"
"Yeah, um that'd be great," Aurora said, pursing her lips into a tight smile. "Well, I should probably get going," She started picking up all of the discarded magazines that were spread across the floor and quickly shove them into her bag. "I'll owl you," She shot him a small smile and walked back out through the front door.
AN
thanks so much for reading my story!! i really appreciate it :))
promise it will get better
anyway, hope you all had a great christmas and holidays