Angels for Now

A HariPo drabble

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The Harry Potter characters belong to J.K. Rowling, not to me. This pairing is a Mew and Mor's Weird Pairing, which you may find in the M&MWP forum (see my profile for details). Check out and join the forum FUN! Read, review, and enjoy!

- ^-^3

When she was little, he didn't indulge her curiosities in any such way. No, those curiosities were meant to be sated by the answers from her family. Her brothers, her parents, and all the rest… Remus could just be an extra, an add-on in the background.

Once, as a teen, Lily Luna poked fun at him, telling him he was acting like her guardian angel. He didn't mind; he cared for her, so perhaps the ethereal analogy was appropriate. But no matter the questions she asked, he'd turn her back to the others. It just wasn't his place to interfere. As her "guardian angel," he'd already toed the line by interacting with her.

Lily didn't push him over matters. She… She could feel his presence as her guardian angel, and it was both comforting and an in-joke she had with the werewolf. For much of her life, she didn't mind him being her angel for now.

When she was little, Remus was the one person she wished most of whom she could learn more. It wasn't an inexplicable conclusion to draw. Lily had liked him from the start and naturally wanted to know everything about her friend…her "guardian angel."

Once, as a teen, Lily had dubbed him her guardian angel, and he'd taken the moniker lightly, but, as she grew older, she knew he really was that to her. Through her ups and downs, life's loves and losses, she knew one person was the Lily-observer, looking out for her no matter what. It didn't matter that he didn't like answering questions—"Aw, why don't you sing or at least hum, Remus? It's a fun and happy thing to do, right?"—because he never stopped her from asking in the first place. Eventually he'd answer something.

She didn't mean for that opportunity to happen, however, when he and Teddy got into a nasty argument. Not to be invited to his only son's wedding hurt Remus so much that he refused to see anyone else for a while. Lily, the ever-determined one, was the only one who forcefully Apparated into his house. She'd had a rant—er, speech—in mind, but she forgot every word of it when she saw his tall, lanky, for-once-looking-every-one-of-his-years form staring out the window. He'd heard her entry and dropped in a chair, and Lily softened by his sad mood, one of her questions pushed to the back of her mind—"Do you love me?"—as she draped her arms around him and held him tight just so he could ache freely in the safety of her embrace.

"Hey, Remmy…," she'd said quietly. Her husky voice mingled with her old nickname for him had tingled on her lips. Had twenty years really changed "little Lily Luna" so much…? She'd fought that thought, too, as he had tensed in her arms. Yet her question she couldn't voice. It was such a silly, absurd time to ask him again why he didn't at least hum, though instinct told her it was the question to ask, the question to…to get him talking again. Instead, Lily had rested her cheek on the top of his head and sung barely above a whisper:

"…'when I lose control, I can only breathe your name'…"

They were united by the odd thought that Lily was now the adult, the guardian. Until he could answer her question, the one she'd originally wanted to ask and the one he could feel in her caring touch—"Do you love me?"—the guardian she would remain. They were angels for now…but, really, they were so much more.

- ^-^3

I had been aching to write this drabble. The idea of either being the angel for the other…and how Lily became his protector… Just! X3 I mean, angsty when you throw in the passing bit about Teddy, but, hey, drama draws people together. (And yes, I plan on doing another Remlilu fic that involves the Teddy drama—it'll probably be a companion, oneshot piece to this…hmm…)

Thanks for reading, and please review!

-mew-tsubaki B)

2017 note: Yes, I love me some age gaps, and I do still rather like this guardian angel idea from 2011. Though, shame on 2011 mew—I never mentioned that the lyrics Lilu sings come from yet another song by Sixpence None the Richer.