Mary
The wind crashed into her with full force, nipping at her nose and her cheeks, making her face a bright red.
The knitted scarf forgotten in a box labeled "Lilys knitting" was wrapped around her neck and she was bundled up in wooly jumper, one that had an overwhelming scent of chocolate, tea, cigarettes and...
Old parchment?
Which filled Mary with an odd sense of nostalgia and greif, though she could never tell you why...
The door to "Mary's bread and breakfast" which, by the way, she thought was an amazing name, opened with a ding and softly closed as she stepped over the threshold.
The warm pastries, buns and loafs of bread attacked Mary's nose, making her skins red tint fall away slightly.
"Hey Clarice," The woman greeted, un wrapping the scalf from her neck and setting it on the hook, replacing it in favour for her work apron .
"Hi Mars," Clarise mumbled, nodding Mary's way before going back to the crossword in the newspaper.
No nineteen year old would want to do the daily crossword, Mary would know, she knew Clarise was only pretending because she didn't want to work, but Mary didn't care as long as she continued making Mary's recipes the same way that......
Her head hurt at the thought, something was trying to push it's way forward, trying to be heard, be thought of, be remembered.
"Well..." Mary whispered to no one other than herself.
It was a slow day due to the storm hurdling through England, and of course it just had to come about at the best time of the year for business...
Mary always felt a weird feeling that she could only describe as loneliness on December the 23rd, it was worse in 1981, but even now in 1984 it still hadn't calmed down, the feeling hadn't settled and the tingling in her body and her headaches that she got every year, without fail, on the 23rd hasn't ceased to exist, in fact it was as if she ceased to exist...
Metaphorically or not she still felt like she was missing something, something crucial, something that made her feel this way every goddamn year.
Mary was slumped against the counter, Clarise had gone home before the snow came and she wouldn't be able to, and Mary was just about to call it a day when the door opened with a ding and closed with a slam.
She straightened up, dusting her apron a bit and tightening her pony tail as she put on the brightest smile she could muster as she looked at the new stranger who had just walked in.
Looking at him felt like trying to shove past a thick fog in her mind, she was trying her best to see through it, squinting, but as she opened her mouth to scream in frustration the grey mist flooded into her mouth, strangling her, making it hard to breathe through the overwhelming urge to spew her insides out.
Like Marlene did, Halloween 1976.
The wind whispered in her ear, she tried to ask it who Marlene was, what happened on Halloween 1976, but the fog was enveloping her, cutting off all her senses until her mind went blank...
"Hi, uhm," Mary cleared her throat looking at the man waiting patiently, holding a little present in his hands, he was tapping his foot nervously, taking in his surroundings as if something was going to jump up and eat him like a hungry wolf.
Ironic...
Mary shook her head, tuning the pestering voice out.
"What can I do for you today, sir?"
She started fiddling with the ring she randomly woke up with, it was engraved with a flower, and on the inside of the gold band it read "Happy Birthday love, we can get through anything together, your Tiger-Lily xxx"
Mary always felt bad about keeping it, but it's not like anyone had come looking for it, and okay maybe she was a bit selfish for not giving it to the local neighbourhood watch group and see if they knew who it belonged to, but she didn't have anyone like this "Tiger-Lily" in her life, so fuck it, if it made her selfish, so be it.
The man's eyes widened when he saw what she was fiddling with, his eyes darted down to her finger and then up to her face, she quickly hid her hands behind her back, clasping them nervously, though she missed the soft look in the mans eyes, making his face littered with scars look a lot more softer, why this warmed her up inside she did not know, but it did, and she could have sworn-
"I'm here to get a cake..." He looked at her, a small, pained smile on his lips.
"Please," He whispered.
"Yes, yes of course, uhm," Mary frightened herself, busying her hands with sorting out the menus on the counter.
"What type, sir?"
His eyes dimmed and his smile dropped, he looked as if all the light had been sucked out of him, as if the sun had stopped shining for him, as if the flowers had wilted and died, as if the stars in the sky had disappeared completely, forever gone from his sight, never to brighten the face that looked like it held so many stories ever again.
He cleared his throat, setting the present on the counter.
"A, uhm, going away cake, I suppose..." He looked down, his eyes glossing over as he looked back up at her.
"And please, just call me Remus,"
Mary looked at him strangely, usually customers never told her their name, but as this man with the scarred hand, Merlin this man has a lot of scars, I wonder why?
Wait, did I just replace god with merlin?
She shook her head, placing a small smile on her face as she reached for his hand.
"Mary,"
"I'll uh, look for a going away cake in the back, just wait a few ticks," Mary said, a genuine smile gracing her lips.
"Well I uh, couldn't find a going away cake bu-"
Mary looked up to find Remus, but he wasn't there, it was as if he had disappeared into thin air, sure she had heard a sharp crack, but the bell didn't make that sound...
When Mary looked down at the side her eyes landed on the small present, it was wrapped neatly in brown paper, a white ribbon was wrapped around it, making a small bow, but what really caught her eye was the peice of paper tucked beneath the ribbon that hadn't been there before.
She set the box of cupcakes down as she reached for the note and took it into her grasp.
Mary,
I know you don't remember it, or us for that matter.
But just know we all love and loved you, my friends are dead, our, friends are dead, but maybe you can make more, I know I won't...
Remus x
"What the fuck..."
Intrigued, Mary untied the ribbon as carefully as she could, incase Remus came back for it, realistically she knew he wouldn't, but that didn't stop her from being careful, she slowly pulled the tabs of paper of from either end and unwrapped it.
It was a picture...
In a golden frame...
And at first glance she didn't see it, until she did, her eyes widened as she wracked her head for any memory of these people.
There was a massive tree in the background, and the area surrounding was filled with colourful wild flowers and long, prickly looking blades of grass.
There was a boy with shaggy blonde hair, he was quite short and he was wearing a baggy jumper, much like Mary's own, he had an arm flung over the shoulders of a girl with dark braids and green bows in her hair.
She was staring lovingly at a girl with blonde hair, that girl had star sunglasses perched on her head and a leather coat on over a Bowie shirt, she looked almost identical to a guy with shoulder length black hair, who was sporting a leather jacket and Queen t-shirt, he was laying down, perched on one elbow.
There was a guy with tanned skin and unruly brown hair, he was parallel to the guy with the Queen shirt, he was wearing a red jumper and converse, wire framed glasses perched on his nose.
Remus...He was there, he was lied down next to two girls, he was reading a book with his legs crossed at the ankles, he was looking at the guy with black hair and the leather jacket, he looked at him as if he hung the stars in the sky, and yes Mary could tell even though it was only a photo.
And then a girl, Lily,
"Lily?"
She had fiery red hair, emerald eyes and freckles dotted on her face, she looked beautiful, easily the most gorgeous woman Mary had ever seen, and she was looking down at...
"Me?"
Mary was layed down across the grass, her head in Lilys lap.
They all looked happy, they looked like they had no troubles in the world, as if they would all be together in years to come, all of them safe...
"What happened?" Mary whispered.
Her eyes landed on a little peice of paper next to the picture.
"Summer of 1977, Pete, Cas, Marls Jamie, Rem, Siri, Lils and Mars."
Remus
Remus was leaned against the wall, cigarette perched between his lips as he patted his pockets down for his wand, should he risk being seen? Probably not, but he couldn't find it in himself to give a shit.
He lit the cancer stick, as Lily used to call them and let the smoke waft into the air, he remembered Sirius always telling Lily to fuck off when she berated them on their poor life choices, he let himself smile at the memories, it always hurt to remember Sirius, uncontrollable rage and saddness always filled him up, threatening to suffocate the last slivers of happiness he had left in him.
He had vowed to himself, James, Lily and Peter that if he ever saw Sirius again he would throttle the sense into him, or kill him....Though he knew he could never do that, no matter how hard he tried he knew he could never hurt Padfoot...
And some part of him, buried deep down, beneath all the anger and greif and pain thought that maybe, just maybe Sirius didn't do it, that maybe he wasn't as Black as his family, but the part that was smart, that had some type of sense knew that the chance Sirius wasn't a shitty person was as big as James, Peter and Lily coming back to life....
Remus never liked to linger too long in his thoughts, it never did his mental health any good, so, he averted his attention back to the last of them, the last living one, because she was the last living one wasn't she...
James and Lily, dead.
Marlene and Dorcas, dead.
Peter, dead.
Sirius, may aswell be dead.
And Remus? Remus wasn't living, he was existing, there was a difference, a big one, his best friends, dead, one of them didn't remember him, or them and the love of his life had sold them all out for a psychopathic, bigoted, wizard racist prick.
And to say Remus was living was like a punch in the face...
His eyes crawled back to the window, he watched as Mary covered her mouth with her hand, she was crying, but she didn't recognise it, them, and that was good, Remus decided, it was for the better, one of them would live without the burden of being alone with the memories of all them, and if Remus had to carry the weight of it for the both of them then so be it.
Remus turned away, flicking the cigarette onto the side walk, he snuffed it out with the point of his shoe before walking off, shoving his hands into his pockets as he hummed the tune of Starman.