SOMA
1.
Remus Lupin pushed open the door to Flourish and Botts with a sigh as he thought about the task he had been given. He recalled James Potter's remarkably vague description of a book he had decided he needed desperately. Knowing James had a lot on his plate at the moment, with an assignment that mostly had him out until dawn every night, Remus offered to go pick the book up for him.
That brought him here to Flourish and Botts, where he felt strangely at home among the dusty books and dim lighting. He poked around through some of the obvious places. Biographies, Defense Against the Dark Arts, but there was nothing there that jumped out at him. He made his way over to the register intending to ask for help, delaying only slightly to browse through the section on Quidditch.
After several embarrassing minutes where Remus discovered he had actually gotten lost and couldn't find the check out counter, he rounded a high shelf of self-help books to find the only apparent employee on duty stacking small violet paperbacks onto a high shelf that she could just scarcely reach.
He didn't recognize her at first, it took a moment and then a smile worked its way onto Remus's face.
"Lily?"
Lily Evans shrieked and tossed several paperbacks up into the air while falling off the stepstool she had been teetering on.
"Oh, God!" she gasped, holding onto the shelf and staring at Remus, "Oh, God Lupin, you scared the shit out of me"
Remus blushed, despite himself. Lily was perhaps the prettiest girl he'd ever seen. Perhaps pretty wasn't the right word, but Remus often felt that when he was looking at her he was being poked in the side with something sharp intending to remind him just how pretty she was. Her red hair wasn't long and red like it had been the last time he'd seen her at graduation, it was shorter and curlier now. Like perhaps now she was putting more time into styling it. Her large green eyes were played up with make up—and Remus couldn't remember her wearing much of that either. She had on a fashionable pale blue dress with pleats in the skirt and a deep V down the front with several necklaces draped around her throat.
Remus also did not fail to notice the giant sapphire hanging off her left ring finger.
"Hi," he said quietly, "I didn't mean to scare you. How are you?"
Lily eyed him wearily and bent down to pick up the books she'd dropped. Remus bent down to help but she waved him off.
"I'm alright," she said vaguely. "Did you find what you wanted?" she added quickly.
"Um, no" Remus admitted "But, I see you're engaged?"
She glanced at the massive ring on her finger and Remus saw a secret smile form on her lips. The kind where inside she was positively beaming but didn't want to make a fool of herself. "Oh, yes. I am" She stood up so she was eye level with him and tossed the books carelessly onto the shelf.
"To whom?" he asked
"Thomas McCarthy? Do you know him? He's an Auror." She said it very quickly and started moving away from him back to her desk. "Can I help you find anything, though? I mean, I really have quite a bit to do"
Remus felt his stomach sink. She was clearly trying to get rid of him. He had always liked Lily well enough, and only got the chance to know her for the three turbulent months she'd dated James at the end of their seventh year. His last memory of Lily Evans was graduation day, when she and James had stood stalk still next to each other as Head Boy and Girl, both clearly fuming with rage and frustration at the other. After the ceremony they hadn't said anything to one another and as far as Remus knew, still hadn't spoken since that day.
"Do you think you could help me find something, Lily?" he asked her quietly, not wanting to seem like he was hanging around for the sake of it.
She gave him a thin smile. "What are you looking for?"
"Uhhh…" Remus paused and flushed, thinking of what an idiot he was about to sound like repeating James's description. "Big brown book… about dark wizards and the dark spells good wizards have used to vanquish them. Shouldn't have anything in it from the last three hundred years, I think. About this big…" he moved his hands around empty space to show her.
Lily rolled her eyes and snorted. "Is it for James?"
"Errr…yes" Remus paused "How do you know?"
"Because, I was with him when we found that book her. That was back during the Tom Riddle obsession. I assume he's gotten over that?"
Remus gave her a side-long glance "He's not dreaming about Riddle anymore, if that's what you mean…"
Lily shook her head. "Idiot" he heard her mutter, and assumed she was referring to James and not himself. "Well, it's in our Restricted Section—"
"Flourish and Botts has a Restricted Section?" Remus interrupted, sounding incredulous.
She just shrugged, "You can't exactly leave four hundred year old books on Dark Magik out lying around next to Quidditch Strategies 101, you know. And you would have to have some kind of pass from the Ministry for me to let you go in there." She paused and Remus saw something in her eyes change for a bit. "But I know you're under direction from Dumbledore, so I suppose it's alright."
"How do you know I'm not an imposter on Polyjuice? Or under the Imperious?" Remus grinned.
"Because," she said, her face softening a bit. "You knew about his dreams…"
There was an awkward silence. All Remus could think about that night last June, when it had all fallen apart. Not just for Lily and James, but for all of them. He could see that she was thinking about it too. The first time they had met Voldemort. The first time they'd seen anyone under the Cruciatus Curse. The first of many deaths in the Order of Phoenix.
Lily closed her eyes and shook her head. "Anyway, come with me"
She grouped around behind the cluttered front counter and pulled out a large gold key. They walked to the back of the store where magical cooking books were on display. She pulled out one in the middle and the shelf slid back revealing a door with no handle. She tapped the door with her wand while muttering a spell under her breath and a large lock appeared right in the middle of the door. She inserted the key and it flew open.
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