Rilee
Over the next few weeks during the summer, the Order were making slow and frustrating progress, it was difficult to say whether anyone really believed Voldemort had returned, especially with the Daily Prophet denying it. Argus Taylor who had written some very complimentary articles about both James Potter and Angelina was fired for continuing his support of the both of them. It left very little in the way of positive publicity for the Tornadoes and the shop, both of which saw James sitting on the bench for most matches and really only the regular customers coming back.
Remus could see Angelina was stressed when she was away from the house, she was still meditating with Darren and trying to explain things to Remus in a way he could understand, but it was a very hard thing to wrap his head around. As far as he could understand it, she was trying to put an orb in a cage.
‘The brothers don’t exactly live inside our souls,’ she tried again one evening when he brought it up after dinner. ‘They live as a separate entity next to our souls, but very visible inside the expanse of them, it looks like an orb floating in the sky. Darren’s is a little thinner than mine because he has been allowing his brother access, what I’m trying to help him do is cage it off so that the brother can’t get to him.’ She sighed and looked out at the forest. ‘The problem is that I can’t stay for very long and expect to maintain the concentration needed… this is really old magic we’re tampering with, but if we don’t do something soon…’ She let her head hang a little lower and Remus immediately stood up to wrap his arms around her waist.
‘Angelina, I know I don’t understand this as well as you’d like me to,’ he said, quietly into her thick blonde hair. ‘I know that I may never understand it at all, but I believe that you are the only one who can figure this out and do what is best for your family.’
He felt her still for a moment. ‘Our family.’ She said and turned her head towards him. ‘You’re my family as well, you keep forgetting that.’
Remus sniggered into her hair. ‘I don’t forget, I just keep remembering you’re still a Lockwood, not a Lupin just yet.’
Angelina half laughed, relaxing back into him and thought for a while. ‘Angelina Glamora Lupin. It sounds right, doesn’t it?’
‘I think so.’ Remus frowned, thinking on what a name really meant. What did being a Lupin really mean? He suddenly felt like Angelina deserved so much more than that and wondered very briefly if this was one huge mistake.
Angelina turned in his arms to face him and smiled, gently leaning up to kiss him as softly as she could. ‘I’m in love with you, Remus Lupin.’ She whispered, he could feel the outline of her ring against his neck. ‘Never forget that.’
Remus gently stroked her cheek. ‘Never.’ He promised and pressed a much firmer kiss to her. He stayed against her for the longest time, not caring that they had the house to tidy before going to bed, not really caring either that she had her plants and research equipment to deal with. All Remus cared about was how good she felt in his hands, how soft her skin was, how warm her mouth felt and how wonderfully she was responding to his thumb tracing over her hip beneath her shirt.
He suddenly stopped and smiled against her mouth.
‘We’ll never get the house clean if you carry on.’ He chuckled, kissing her lightly once again.
‘It’ll still be messy tomorrow.’
‘As tempting as you are, you’re still technically recovering.’ Remus reasoned, not wanting anything to slow her spine’s repairing. ‘Two more days and I’ll make it up to you.’ He kissed her again, hating that he was being the responsible one. ‘I promise.’
‘Fine.’ She pouted and Remus just laughed at her reluctantly moved away to start tidying the kitchen.
They spent the evening cleaning and relaxing in bed. Remus read out loud after Angelina complained her eyes were too sore, he didn’t mind it, in truth, he liked her resting against his shoulder, following along with what he was reading. She smelt wonderful and he couldn’t wait until her back was fully healed.
The next day Remus finally went to Diagon Alley to pick up Angelina’s new owl, she was ready to be taken home and Remus couldn’t wait for Angelina to see the beautiful young barn owl in the new owlery beside Ruben. Remus didn’t dare name her, not before Angelina had the chance to see her.
When he returned, his fiancée was only just waking up properly, she was making some tea and brought down an extra mug hearing him enter through the front door.
‘There you are,’ Angelina yawned, her hair was up in a loose bun, exposing her slender neck. She wore his green cardigan hanging loosely around her elbows, probably being too tired to wear it properly, her thick beige socks barely covered her calves and the loose grey t-shirt stopped at the top of her thighs. Stunning. ‘I got your note. What was so urgent in Diagon Alley?’
Angelina turned to see the cage Remus held in his hand. She stopped in her tracks, a huge grin started to appear on her face and Remus knew he’d done well that morning.
‘Well, I see you have been busy this morning.’ Angelina said, carefully moving the morning paper out of the way so that Remus could place the young, nervous owl on the kitchen table.
‘I just thought, seeing as you said she was ready to be picked up, it might be nice to wake up to.’ Remus shrugged and stood back to let Angelina get a closer look and open the door to the cage. ‘She seems a little nervous?’
‘That’s okay,’ Angelina opened the cage door wide and allowed the little bird all the room in the world to come out. ‘I’m sure Ruben will help her out of her shell in no time.’ Ruben was busy drinking large quantities of water from a bowl in the corner of the kitchen, he was old now and needed more water than when he was a young owl with her at Hogwarts. ‘Jocelyne is coming over today, by the way.’
‘Oh right?’ Remus finished making the tea.
‘Yeah, she wants to talk about the wedding, I said we’d be around.’
‘I see.’ Remus took a breath which didn’t go unnoticed by Angelina. ‘I’m nervous.’ He admitted.
‘Me too.’ Angelina chuckled, finding a smaller bowl to fill with food so that she could tempt the new addition out of her cage. ‘Look, I know Jocelyne can be full on, but she really loves this stuff and you know she’ll be able to plan a better wedding than either of us could.’
‘I know,’ Remus nodded placing the tea down next Angelina, while he sat next to her. ‘It doesn’t stop me being nervous though. While her wedding was beautiful and exactly what she wanted, I am worried that ours will be… crowded.’
‘It won’t be that crowded.’ She reasoned. ‘Family only, I reckon.’
‘Family?’ Remus frowned, didn’t she want her friends to see her marry?
‘Yeah, Lockwoods, Lupins, Meyers, Potters, Sirius and David. Family.’ Angelina smiled and refocused her attention on the owl.
Remus couldn’t help but watch her at work, she was so focussed and patient with the creature, he wondered how she had become so controlled since her time at school when she was erratic at best. Remus sipped his tea and simply absorbed the way his fiancée had changed over the years, he remembered that curious young girl from first year, the one who was never afraid, just curious and begging to understand the things she didn’t, to the woman before him, brave, smart, inquisitive, focussed and filled with a deep and unbreakable love for her family. Remus was certain now more than ever that she would go to any length to protect her family. It was a somewhat frightening concept.
‘We need a name.’ She said, quietly watching the owl eat from her hand. It had taken a while, but Angelina wasn’t going to give up on the tiny bird.
‘What name do you think seems appropriate for such a brave young owl?’ Remus swallowed the last mouthful of tea and gently place the mug down.
Angelina smiled, gently biting her lip in the most desirable of ways. ‘What about Rilee? A brave name for a brave owl.’
‘Ruben and Rilee. Sounds like quite the pair.’ Remus nodded.
The older owl in question had hopped onto the table startling young Rilee and it took a while, but eventually she was calm enough to accept Ruben into her space.
Remus soon helped Ruben into the Owlery, following Angelina with Rilee in her cage. She felt it was best while the new owl was so nervous to give her a place to hide should she have needed it.
Jocelyne was beyond excited to plan Angie’s wedding, she knew exactly what to do for her best friend. She turned up at the apparation site and sighed hating that it was so far away from the house, why couldn’t she just put it at the end of the garden like everyone else?
Jocelyne trudged all the way to the front door, noting that it was open and simply let herself in as per Angie’s instructions.
‘…alright, well, just get dressed and I’ll take care of it.’ Remus called as he quickly descended the stairs. ‘Jocelyne.’ He smiled, gesturing for her to head into the kitchen ahead of him. ‘How are you? I trust it was a safe trip over.’
‘It was a long trip,’ Jocelyne sighed while Remus began making her some tea. ‘Why can’t you guys have a site closer to actual house? You know, like normal people?’
‘I’m afraid that’s Angelina’s doing,’ he chuckled. ‘She feels we’d be safer in the long run.’
Jocelyne just rolled her eyes putting her bag down and settling at the table. ‘Of course, she does, that’s our Angie, always thinking of safety above convenience.’ Remus just smiled and brought down a couple of mugs. ‘How long will she be?’
‘Not long, she was drying her hair when I came down.’
‘Right, well, while I’ve got you here, have you got any thoughts about the wedding that you want kept from Angie? Any little things you want me to take into consideration? Place? Time? People? Honeymoon? Anything like that.’
Remus seemed to glance upwards as if Angie could hear him thinking about it. ‘Actually, I had rather hoped we could go back to Reykjavik. I know she enjoyed her time there… I think it would be nice to go back for a while.’
‘Reykjavik.’ Jocelyne nodded, noting it down in a small notebook. ‘Okay, I’m sure we can work something out.’
Angelina soon descended and greeted Jocelyne like a sister. They talked about the wedding a little more and both Angelina and Remus suddenly looked as though they’d hardly thought on the ceremony itself, but rather the actual marriage. Jocelyne had paused for a moment to realise that that was what it was all about, it was never about a single day, it was about the rest of their lives and the time they were going to have with each other.
Jocelyne watched the two of them move around their home together and she suddenly had the perfect idea for the wedding.