Chapter 7
Chat: Queens 👑
Marlene: oi! remus!
Marlene: where tf are u
Marlene:remus
Marlene:remus
Marlene:remus
Marlene:remus
Mary:Marlene!
Mary:stop!
Mary:did u have to do this on the gc
Mary:ur rlly rubbing it in here that you guys hve plans without me
Mary:actually hold up a second
Mary:are you trying to say that Remus is late for something??
Marlene:yes!
Marlene:it’s an atrocity
Mary:it’s more than that
Mary:it’s a very high chance that something has happened
Mary:Remus is never late
Mary:Marlene how long will it take you to get tro his flat
Marlene:I’m at the beach
Marlene:so like ten minutes?
Mary:I’ll meet you there in five.
Mary:we will break in there if we have to
Marlene:i mean okay sure but like
Marlene:hang on dont u have work
Marlene:that was the reason that you aren’t meeting us rn
Mary:fuck that this is more serious
Mary:in the six years I’ve known Remus he’s never once been late for anything
Mary:we’ve literally started out till like four in the morning getting exceedingly drunk(BC REMUS WAS DEPRESSED, AVANDINED, AND HIS HEART GAD BEEN BROKEN, BTW)and he’s fucking early for the seven thirty lecture
Mary:im here
Mary:Marlene???
Mary:oh for fucks sake don’t say you’ve both gone and disappeared on me
~
Remus awakes with a start at the incessant banging on his front door. He roots around for his phone check the time, only to find that it’s dead. Fuck. He must have been so caught up in texting Sirius to plug it in. He plugs it in now, hoping it will charge up quickly.
He groans as he climbs out of bed, rubbing his bleary eyes as he staggered to the door.
He opens it to find an angry looking Mary in a rumpled uniform, and a very out of breath Marlene.
“About time! I was about to break the door down!” Mary scolds, as she looks him up and down, his clothes from yesterday crumpled and creased.
“I can tell. Is there a reason for the urgency?” Remus croaks.
“Only that you didn’t show up at the beach at nine like we agreed! You are always early, for everything! Mary started panicking and fucking ran out her work or something and I had to sprint all the way here from the beach!”
“Shit! What’s the time now?”
“Um…like twenty past nine.”
“Fuck. My phone died, so my alarm don’t go off. I’m so sorry Marlene. I-“
“Why did your phone die? I swear you’re the most meticulous person I know with routines.”
“I don’t know…I guess I couldn’t sleep so I went on my phone then fell asleep when I was using it”
“Hmm. Anyway, I’m going to document this momentous occasion, so that I can forever remember The Day That Remus Lupin Overslept,” Mary says, breezing past Remus into his flat, and sitting herself on the sofa. Marlene follows her, giving Remus an inquisitive look as she enters.
Remus excuses himself to go and get dressed. As he sits in his room, his phone reboots and buzzes with all the notifications of the messages he’s missed.
He first reads the texts front the girls, chuckling softly as he does so. Then, he has a couple of texts from Lily. She’d obviously been watching over the girls’ conversation, and opted to ask Remus privately about it rather than on the group chat. He sends off a quick reply similar to what he’s told the girls, and moves onto the remaining messages. There were some from Sirius last night, that he’d obviously missed when he fell asleep, and a few this morning.
Sirius:Haha yeah
Sirius:Moony?
Sirius:You there?
Sirius:I’m going to assume you’ve gone to sleep and not like died or something.
Sirius:So I’m going to text you bright and early in the morning to check up on you
Sirius:If you don’t reply then I’m afraid I’m gonna have to call for back up
Sirius:Night moony
Sirius:Oh shit it’s morning already
Sirius:Oh well
Sirius:Night anyway
Sirius:Good morning Remus
Sirius:Are you there?
Sirius:Remus?
Sirius:Remus im acc starting to panic now
Sirius:I’ll give you half an hour
Remus can’t help but notice how towards the end of their conversation, Sirius had slipped back into calling Remus by his familiar nickname. He hasn’t been called that in four years. Checking the timestamps, Remus notices that he is pretty much at the half an hour mark, and types out a quick message to prevent Sirius from doing something stupid. He doesn’t want someone else banging his door down.
Remus:im alive dw
Sirius:PHEW
Remus:Sorry
Remus:I fell asleep
Remus:And bc of you my phone fucking died and I overslept and missed my plans with my friend
Remus:I woke up to them literally breaking my door doen
Remus:Apparently I’m notorious for never beign late
Sirius:Well at least someone was looking out for you
Sirius:I nearly came and banged your door down but then I realised I dont know where you live anymore
Sirius:Also how dare you blame it in me
Sirius:You were the one to start the conversation
Remus:…fair
Remus:wdym you don’t know where I live
Sirius:I haven’t spoken to you in four years remember
Sirius:I saw someone else leaving your old flat so you mustn’t live there anymore
Remus:Ok…
Remus:1-i have friends. They come to my house.
Remus:2-why tf were you seeing who was leaving my flat
Sirius:I can see it from my hotel room
Remus:Oh
Remus:Are you there now?
Sirius:In my hotel room??
Remus:Yea
Sirius:…yes
Remus:Go to the window then
Remus isn’t sure why he is doing this, but he walks over to his bedroom window anyway, opening it and looking vaguely at the hotel. He stays there for a few moments, regretting suggesting it more and more the longer he did so. He’s just about to give up when the window opens in one of the rooms, right in the middle. It’s hard to tell, but it could be believed that the figure standing in it is Sirius. Remus’ phone buzzes and he checks it.
Sirius:I see u
Remus:Same I think….?
Just then, Marlene bangs in his door asking him what is taking him so long, and he remembers that he’s supposed to be getting dressed whilst the girls wait in the living room.
Remus:Shit gotta go
Remus:I’ll try to text you later k
Remus doesn’t wait for a response as he pockets his phone and returns to the girls, not wanting to tell them he’s been talking to Sirius. He’s not sure why, but it just feels like something they should work out alone.
When he returns the girls are giving him suspicious looks, but he brushes them off, flicking the tv on.
“How do you guys feel about a few hours of binging?” He asks, grinning. The girls agree, as he knew they would, and Remus heads to the kitchen to make popcorn, resisting the urge to text Sirius. He can’t get this obsessed this quickly, it’s pathetic.
Sirius is on his mind all day, and it shows. Despite his best efforts at acting normal, Remus notices the girls exchange Looks on multiple occasions. Thankfully, they don’t bring anything up, although that does make Remus slightly concerned that they are planning something. They normally can’t wait to make him uncomfortable with endless questions.
When the girls eventually leave, disappearing in to the long-dark street, Remus releases a deep breath, as if he’d been holding it all the time he had to socialise. He forces himself to take his time tidying the flat before he picks his phone up. There are few texts from Lily, a series from Sirius, and surprisingly, some from Peter. Remus clicks on that one first, knowing that if he went straight to Sirius he would probably forget all about the others.
God, he’s obsessed.
Peter: hey remus how are you ?
Peter: i meant to text you the other day but i completely frogot sorry.
Peter: i just wanted to check up on you bc of sirius
Peter: i know you two didn’t end on the best of terms and no offence but you guys are shit at working thru problems
Remus: hey Pete I’m actually doing okay, all things considered
Remus: i appreciate your thought and your bluntness and honesty with your accurate portrayal of us. You are completely right and also probably the only one to actually say it like that out of everyone I’ve spoken about this to.
Pete replies quickly with a laughing emoji, whilst Remus is reading Lily’s texts, which are just her finishing their conversation earlier, and checking up on him. She seems to have decided that Remus is incapable of looking after himself and telling her if he’s okay or not. He’s annoyed that she thinks this, because he thinks it not true, but then he realises Lily’s always right. And that annoys him even more.
Finally, he clicks on Sirius’ chat. His name sticks out in his contacts as the only simple one: for all his friends, he’s got nicknames or emojis, but when Remus added Sirius back to his contacts, he was very controlled and kept it simple-detached.
Sirius: abandoning me again 😱
Sirius: u better text back 🔪👹
After that there was a series of increasingly random memes, with the occasional comment from Sirius thrown in there.
Remus:Oop ok calm down
Remus:are you drunk or something Remus:like you can talk about being abandoned
Sirius: ooh hello your back
Sirius: I’m not drunk only sleep deprived
Sirius: actually I forgot I was a little high then 🤫
Remus: u forgot that you were high a few hours ago
Remus: exactly how high are we talking
Sirius: me and Pandora and doracas shared two joints between us
Sirius: idk where Pandora got it but it was good stuff
Remus: well ngl sounds like you had more fun than me
Remus: we binged tv and ate popcorn
Remus: which is fun don’t gete wrong but like
Sirius: I wanna binge tv and eat popcorn
Sirius: I haven’t done that in ages
Sirius: idk why
Remus: do u have plans for tomorrow
Sirius: no
Sirius: are you dong what I think your doing
Remus: what do you think I’m doing
Sirius: asking me out
Sirius: I mean like asking if we want to watch tv together
Sirius deleted a message
Remus: omg how did you guess. You can come to mine now we’ve established that I have not so much as moved house for the last four years.
Sirius: cool!
Sirius: what time??
Remus: um
Remus:i have work from nine till two
Remus:and then I’ll have to leave at like half eight in the evening
Remus:so how about between half three and four?
Sirius: sure!
Sirius:just to check: you mean ‘between half three and four’ as that is when I can arrive
Sirius:not that we’re going to literally spend half an hour
Remus:yes Sirius I mean you can arrive between half three and four
Remus:idk how long for but you have to be gone by half eight.
Remus:shit now I have to actually clean up
Sirius:don’t worry about that
Sirius:you know I’m lit the messiest person on earth and I also know your a control freak so ur idea of messy is legit tidier than by room ever would be
Remus: yea ik but a) I’ve been kinda busy recently and Shit has been happening and b) Mary and Marlene were over today
Remus: so it is actually messy
Remus:I’m sat in my living room rn and I can see at least ten empty/half full/stone cold cups of tea
Remus:and that’s just the cups of tea and that’s just in this room
Sirius:jeez
Sirius:wtf happened to you
Sirius:nvm I think I’ve worked it out
Sirius:I’m not gonna say it bc I think it’ll make it awkward
Remus chuckles dryly as he read that, knowing instantly that Sirius is onto him. It’s strange, how they both seem to be acknowledging the things between them and the things that were between them. Well, sort of.
Remus:…
Remus:i think you just made it more awkward by sayinn that
Sirius:oops
Sirius:now thats cleared up I just realised something
Sirius:why tf do you need an hour and a half from when u finish work from when you get any me over
Remus:well I have to get the train back
Remus:and you know how temperamental the trains are
Remus:and you also know that I’m an introvert and I need preferably an hour but at least twenty seven minutes between any two social interactions
Sirius: okay fair enough tbh
Sirius: which job is it then
Remus: uhh
Remus: it’s with the photography thing
Remus: we’re doing a shoot in the city for some advertisement
Remus:i think anyway
Sirius:cool
Remus:…so what are you going to do tomorrow morning
Sirius:well
Sirius:I actually have huge plans
Sirius:I’m gonna stay in bed
Sirius:ngl I’m probably gonna get up like half an hour before I meet you
Remus:guessed it
Remus would have happily continued that conversation, if it weren’t interrupted by an incoming FaceTime from Lily. That is strange, they are not the kind of friends that call much. Remus picks up, intrigued find out why she was doing it.
“Er. Hi Lily?”
“Hi Remus!” Lily grins at the camera “I got kinda sad just now ‘cause I haven’t seen you in person or heard your voice in ages. So I FaceTimed you!”
“Er. Okay?” Remus says, still slightly unsure. He moves to sit down, setting his phone in front of him and positioning it so the camera sits right. As he does this he can hear James talking in the background of the call.
“Who are you taking to Lils?”
“Remus.”
“Remus? Can I join? I wanna talk to Remus!”
Lily turns back to Remus, raising an eyebrow in question as she asks Remus.
“Hmmm. I’m not to sure…okay fine, James can come talk to me.” Remus says in mock reluctance
“Yay! Thanks Moony!” James bounces onto the screen, grinning childishly.
“Hi James. How are you?”
“I’m good! And I’m glad you’re here-well on call, you know what I mean-because eh was getting really bored. Sirius hasn’t replied to me in like an hour!” James pouts, and Lily gives him a Look. He blushes slightly, but then both seem to turn back to the screen, as if trying to see how Remus reacted to that. Actually, they are one hundred percent trying to see how Remus reacts.
Remus is struggling to hide his grin, and not even attempting to prevent the faint blush he knows to be spreading in his face. Well, honestly, they’d probably find it more suspicious if he didn’t react at all. He keeps his voice level as he speaks. “So you’ve got back in touch then?”
James nods, before giving him a quizzical look “how did you know we didn’t talk much before?”
“Sirius told me,” Remus says plainly. The couple share an unintelligible look, and Remus feels the need to say more. “When he fucking coerced me into speaking to him whilst I was at work. That was one of the only interesting things I got out of that conversation, I always thought you guys kept in touch.” Remus twisted the truth then; he had actually found quite a lot of that conversation interesting.
“Oh. Did he explain to you why we fell out of touch?”
“Some shit about his parents house in wales.”
“Well, that is what he’d focus on. Actually, we fell out.”
“You what?! When? Why?”
“I think you can guess a lot of that. I think he handled some things in a really shitty way, and told him so. It was about a month after everything. Actually he’d been really distant with me before that as well.”
“Oh. Well, it was a shitty time for a lot of people. I never did ask, and this might be a bit awkward since Lily is here but no offence I’ve decided I don’t really give a fuck. What happened between you and Regulus?”
Lily smirks at this, and Remus gets the impression they’ve talked about it before.
“See, he’s where most of Sirius’ story about the shitty house comes from. Reg was the one to really run into those issues, Sirius didn’t make that much of an effort to be honest. Then around the time me and Sirius fought me and Reg started bickering as well and I decided that I could not be arsed. I sent him a very formal and loving letter saying that basically, I feel like our relationship went through a lot of shit making it kinda toxic and also long distance doesn’t really work. I felt awful about it but a few days after I sent it I got a letter from him saying basically the same. We probably sent them at the same time.”
Remus snorts, ignoring the pang in his chest. That split seems to have been as perfect as one could have been given the situation, and only James and Regulus would have been able to achieve it. They really were the most unlikely couple but they were the best Remus knew of.
The three fall into a strange sort of easy conversation after that. It’s mainly Remus and Lily doing the catching up they normally do over text, or would do in person if possible, with James interjecting every now and again. After a while, Lily sends James away, claiming to want time with her friend without him interrupting. Lily’s eyes narrow slightly, and she’s straight into gossip mode, talking non stop for a good twenty minutes. When she does eventually pause, Remus has hardly said a thing before she’s talking again.
“So, Remus, I just remembered that there was actually a reason for me to call. It’s kinda stupid that if forget it, considering how big a thing it is, but-“
“Oh my god, Lily, are you fucking pregnant!?”
The look on Lily’s face is comical. “What? No! No, I wanted to tell you that w-coming-ran-b-t-“
Remus frowns. The call glitches before cutting out completely, leaving Remus to only guess what Lily said. He send her a text asking, and realises as he sees the time at the top of his screen that he really should go to bed if he doesn’t want to repeat this morning.
Before he goes to sleep though, he flicks back to Sirius’ chat. He hadn’t told Sirius why he abruptly stopped texting him, so he quickly amends that.
Sirius:what shall we watch
Sirius:Remus?
Sirius:for fucks sake why do you keep doing this
Remus:sorry
Remus:lily FaceTimed me
Remus:I kinda panicked bc she never does that we always just text
Remus:James joined in bc he was lonely and annoyed bc u weren’t replying to him
Remus:how’s Regulus?
Remus:anyway I’m going to bed now since I have o be up at ungodly times tomorrow
Remus:see you tomorrow