Chapter O1
Remus stood in front of the worned out maple door. He hesitated before knocking it, but the sketchy man that was in the other side of the street was eyeing him suspiciously, even thought he was the one being suspicous. So he brought his knuckles in front of his face and tapped them against the wood, retracting it when a splinter found it's way on his pale skin.
He waited with his suitcase tight against his chest, considered running away until a girl around ten years old opened the door with a scold of annoyance in her face. She looked fucking terrifing for such a small body.
There was the noise of a way too loud TV pouring from inside the house and Remus had to talk louder than usual in order to even hear himself "Oh, hey. Um, i'm Remus. Is Elliot here?" She stared right into his eyes before dissapearing on the right part of the house, leaving poor Remus clueless on the front door "Um"
"Lupe! Who is it?! Lupe?" Someone screamed from a room. It was Elliot's muffled voice. At least Remus was in the right house. After the girl didn't answer the curly head of Elliot popped from a door in the hallway that was directly across from him, so they saw eachother inmediately. "Oh, Remus? What the hell are you doing here?" He furrowed his dark brows and took away the red toothbrush that was hanging from his foamy mouth.
Remus stood there in an awkward manner while Elliot finished washing his mouth and leaving the bathroom. "Um, sorry for appearing here out of nowhere I was just- I- um" Remus grew even more nervous while he watched his friend approching him. What the hell was he doing here? And why the hell was he stuttering so much?
"Lupe! Turn the damn volume down!" he screamed at his sister before setting his warm eyes on the other boy. Soon after, the noise was quieter "Come on in, you must be sweating your ass off"
Remus laughed softly, because he was sweating his ass off. As they both got inside the dimly lighted house, Remus took in Elliot's face. He looked tired but relaxed at the same time, as if Remus was a neighbour asking for a cup of sugar.
The inside of the house was small and crampted. The kitchen was on his left and the living room on the right, the two rooms being separated only by the kitchen counter.
Who Remus guessed was Lupe sat on the washed out brown couch, her back facing them. "Sorry, you were saying"
While Remus talked, Elliot started going around the place, not wasting a second. Moving toys out of the carpeted floor, getting scattered papers and letters in a neat pile on the kitchen counter, picking up tiny t-shirts and pants and folding them.
"Oh, yeah- sorry. Um- I just kinda- It's nice to see you by the way" Elliot smiled at him with amusement, althought completely and utterly confused. "Um, I just need... a place to stay. For a couple days, until I find something more permanent" Elliot offered a soft grimace on his soft face, looking around the messy house. "It's completely okay if you can't. I just- I kinda got, like, an internship at this newspaper company and well, you know, my family is kinda poor and every place in London is so freaking expensive and I just- remembered I asked for your address so I could send you letters over the summer and I kinda thought 'well Elliot lives close enough to London maybe I could stay for- I'll pay of course! For food and stuff, maybe-"
"Remus, Remus. It's okay" Elliot interrupted him and Remus was glad he did, because he was sure he would never stop talking if he didn't "We can work something out. We are kinda cramped in here, I'm sure you've noticed but it's okay. I understand, as you can see, we are not rich either. I mean, I live in fucking Jaywick" Remus sighed with relief.
"That's... really great. Thank you"
"It's fine. I hope you would do the same if I ever have to go to... fucking Wales" They both laughed. "Definitely" answered Remus
"So, this is Lupe, my little sister. Say hi, Lupe" the dark skinned girl waved her hand dismissively and greeted him in the same way with a soft groan. "She's the sweetest kid on the block" he ruffled her hair and Lupe slapped his hand away "Jesus Christ, Eric! I told you not to leave Dom on the sink while you bath him!"
Elliot rushed to the kitchen where Remus followed and a baby splashed water around with his grubby little hands. Elliot took him out of the soap bubbles. "Hold him a sec will ya" he passed the baby to Remus, who held him from under his arms and kept him far away as if he was holding an atomic bomb. The little creature made it's little creature noises and looked almost exactly like Remus imagined Elliot looking as a baby: golden skin, dark curls and the biggest brown puppy eyes he had ever seen. "I kinda hate babies, but I think this is the most adorable one I've ever seen"
Elliot laughed while opening and closing cabinets until he found a towel, quickly wrapping Dom in it and taking him in his own arms. "Yeah, he tends to have that effect on people"
"Eric" Elliot changed his smiled to a stern looking face when his eyes found the little boy that had come from a room in the hallway. He had short tight curls and a comic book in his hands.
Remus had never seen Elliot like that while in Hogwarts. He did keep an intimidating scowl at all times, the kind every muggleborn had to know how to master. But for the most part he was quiet and almost always alone, stayed out of trouble unless someone went looking for it, wich was quite often. Never hesitated to beat someone up if they bothered him enough.
But this- it was almost... fatherly, and strange. Then again, they had never seen eachother outside of school, and this was definitely weird. It felt domestic "Jesus, I told you not leave Dominic on the sink. He could catch a cold or fucking drown"
"Sorry" the boy responded with a hint of annoyance as to drown out the guilty feeling he actually felt. Elliot looked at him with a raised brow and crouched down to the 8 years old level, baby still in his arms. "Hey, look at me. I need you to promise me you won't leave him there anymore. It's dangerous, okay? Like, really fucking dangerous" The boy nodded at him sheepishly and went to sit on the couch next to his sister. "And that's Eric" he told Remus, pursing his lips.
Elliot directed the way to his room. "You'll have to sleep here with Dom and me. Hope you don't mind, but well- you don't have a choice either" he grinned at Remus, who told him there was no problem, and there wasn't. He would sleep on a shed if it meant he could go to internship without paying for a place to stay.
He placed the baby on the bed and started changing him onto his blue and green stripped pijamas "Unfortunately, I have to catch my shift in, like, half an hour. I work at the car factory till seven. You can stay here, I guess. Althought the house is really not the best place to just hang" He said to Remus apologetically. Just now he noticed that Elliot was wearing one of those dark gray one piece suits factory workers were given, the upper bit hanged loosely around his hips with a white tank top underneath, letting the tattoes on his strong arms roam free.
Remus almost laughed imagining himself next to the boy, perfectely ironed dress pants and sweater vest included. He had never felt this obscenely posh.
"I acually have to go to the office for my first day too. I finish at six thirty. That's why the urgency to find a place to stay" He left his suitcase next to the bedroom door, only keeping the brown leather bag on his shoulder "Great. We'll take the bus thogether, then" said Elliot, returning to the kitchen.
Remus felt so helpless just following him around the place, but what else was he supposed to do? Sit down next to Lupe and risk getting his head ripped off his neck? No way.
"Can you pass me that bottle? It's right there on the dishing rack. Thanks" Elliot shaked the now milk filled baby bottle and put it in the microwave "Stop fighting over the remote! Or i'll unplug the TV!" He yelled at his siblings "But Eric wants to watch a fucking movie about penguins!" "It's not a movie! It's National Geographic" Eric enunciated each syllable like he tought her sister had the unability to reach his level of intelligence "That's even worse!"
"Stop it. Eric, you watched TV all morning. It's your sister's turn" Lupe sticked her tongue out to her brother, who rolled his eyes and gave her the remote "And you, don't swear" This was Lupe's time to roll her eyes.
"You always swear" she complained. "That's because I'm a grown up and I'll start getting bald in a couple years" "You are seventeen!"
Remus tried to erase the smile from his face. It was endearing, watching Elliot like this, but he couldn't help but feel bad for his friend. It looked like he was holding way too many things on his plate. Fuck, his plate was about to collapse with how many weight it held.
Remus was so lost in his thoughts he didn't even realize that Elliot had already fed almost all of the warm bottle to Dominic. The baby was fighting against his own closing eyelids.
And that was a battle he couldn't win.
So Elliot took him to the bedroom and carefully layed him on the crane. Well, the homemade crane. It was actually a loose drawer on the floor filled with pillows and blankets. It looked strangely cozy, and Remus wished he was the one sleeping in it. "You all set?" He whispered to Remus, who only nodded at him.
When the boy made sure his brother was fast asleep, he crabbed his walkman from the top of the dresser and closed the door behind them, trying to make as less noise as possible. After putting the thin headphones around his neck and the little box in his back pocket he knocked the door of the room in front of them, sticking his head inside after a second. Remus could see a girl with braids that seemed a little younger than them. She sat on her book filled desk and turned around to the voice of her brother.
"Hey, I'm heading out. Dom's sleeping in my room. Can you keep an eye out for him?" He said " 'kay, sure. Who the hell's that behind you?" She furrowed her brows. "This is Remus. Remus, this is Gia, my other sister. He'll crash here for a couple days" Remus greeted her politely and she did the same, despite her uninterested demeanor.
"Crash here?" she repeated "Dad won't like that" she told him with a worried expression.
"Don't worry about it. It'll be fine" she nodded, still unsure. "Don't study too hard, 'kay? I can see the smoke coming from your big ass head" he joked lightly as to dissipate the heavy air that hung on the pastel room. Before Elliot could close the door she called out for him, seemingly remembering something.
"Oh! Can I have some cash for tonight? Dani and the others want to go to the movies" she said, her most charming smile on her face. Elliot hummed and searched in his pockets for some wrinkled spares. "Here" "Thanks! I owe you"
"It's fine. Be careful. Love you" he placed a kiss on the top of her head, closing the door after she corresponded his words.
Both boys walked through the hallway to the front door. Remus growing more uncomfortable by the second, feeling like an intruder "Mom will be here in a couple minutes, be good and don't bother your sister unless it's an emergency, okay?"
"Okay! Love you!" Both kids said waving his hands at him from the couch. "Love you too. Lupe, stop opening doors to strangers" The last thing they heard before stepping out where the mischievous giggles of the two kids.
"Sorry for that. They'll kill me someday" he told Remus with a smile. They walked down the tattered streets of Jaywick, the summer sun cruel above their heads. "Don't apologize. I didn't know you had siblings"
"Well, you never asked" There were a lot of things Remus never asked about. He suddenly felt extremely dumb. What was he thinking? Showing up to Elliot's doorstep in the middle of the day, asking for a place to stay. He didn't even think they could call eachother friends yet. I mean, they did start talking frequentely last year at Hogwarts, but still. It was clear as day that his house didn't have spare room and he was right to assume that the money wasn't something they could throw in the air either.
How could he call himself a friend when he was just knowing now that Elliot had siblings and was already working at a fucking factory while being seventeen years old. The only people Remus heard worked at a factory were alcoholics and dead beats. Not that Elliot was a dead beat, of course. Fuck, now he felt like an asshole.
And the thing Gia said about their father... Remus had his suspicions. Elliot would show up after the breaks with bruises and cuts on his face and he would always wear long sleeves. He noticed even before he got the courage to even talk to him. And he had learned the signs, after all, he had seen them on Sirius before he ran away from home after 4th year. Even though Elliot always dismissed his subtle questioning by saying that he got into a fight, wich wasn't that hard to believe since he ended up in Minnie's office every other week. But deep down, Remus knew something else was up. And there he was, on the mouth of the wolf.
This was the first time Remus was able to see Elliot's arms and he was sure the boy didn't even notice, or they would be covered by now. He had some cigarrette burns and a couple scars, and tattoes Remus had never seen before. A flower on one of his biceps, the other one had a heart crossed by an arrow that said "Mom" on the middle, it looked like it was written by the shaky hands of a child, a cartoonish picture of a deer on the inside of his right forearm -Remus inmediately thought of James- that looked straight at him, a simple apple above his shoulder blade and one he couldn't quite see peeking from one of the tank top sleeves. Then there was the ones he had seen before: the single spike of a barbed wire on the left side of his neck and multiple on his hands.
"I won't get you in trouble for staying in your house, right?" Remus asked, concerned. Elliot looked at him, something on his face that couldn't be read, but then smiled like he always did. Like he was perfectely fine and walking through life was like a fresh summer breeze. "Don't worry about it"
He did worry about it. But he was also so desperate. Elliot wasn't his first choice, of course. Sirius and the Potters were on a family trip to Spain, even if they let Remus stay with them, Godric's Hollow was almost four hours away from London, Peter was visiting some cousins in Germany. By the time the apology letters came around, Remus coudn't think of anyone else than Elliot. Sweet, puppy-eyed, troubled Elliot.
Remus wanted nothing but to catch up with him. Not only about the month they been away, he wanted to know everything about Elliot's life and tell him about the internship and learn about bending car parts only because he did that at a factory. He figured they would have time for that later and a whole another year of classes ahead of them. Now he had to get to the office in order to actually have something to talk about later.
They arrived to the bus stop in silence. Elliot greeted the driver and paid for both their passes -after an embarassed Remus told him he didn't have anything smaller then ten's. I mean, really?-
Twenty minutes later they stepped out of the bus onto the streets of London "You know how to get there, right?" Elliot asked Remus. He nodded. Elliot gave him a piece of paper "This is the address to the factory. Meet me there at seven and we'll go home together. Okay?" He talked to Remus like he was one of his siblings. And Remus realized that it was something he often did, but never tought much of it. Now it made sense why.
"Okay. See you at seven"
"See you at seven"
They parted opposite ways. Remus turned around to watch Elliot put the headphones over his ears, arms now covered by gray fabric, beated down black boots against the pavement.
He looked beautiful. And so different and far away from him.