AN: I know it has taken me AY-JEZ to update anything. Life is a fickle whore. Anyway, not that you're terribly interested in what has kept me from my author duties it's school. I've a GPA to maintain and that is not conducive to creative writing of any kind, so I found out later. My only forays into anything enjoyable where Harry Potter and Doctor Who between Statistics assignments, exorbidently slide-padded powerpoints for Microbes and Society, and the general reading and paper writing that comes with college. Joyousness and rapture, I'm getting an education. Bah, anyway, I also have been working with the college's chapter of Habitat for Humanity and we went on a trip to build a home in New Mexico. By 'working with' I mean that I was drive-by-voted into the VP position, and the pre-emptively voted into the Prez position for next year. I digress, for this is not a blog, this is the latest installment in Annealing Emmaline. I know I'm a bit rusty but it DID get the ball rolling again. One cannot move forward unless that proverbial ball is moving with them. I'm rambling. Just read now. Thank you so so so so so so so so so much for coming back to me, readers, and having faith in me.
Emmaline wasn't entirely sure she'd ever truly felt angry, as mad as she'd been the past few days. The fact that she'd allowed herself to spend Christmas as a pity case had spread her anger around quite nicely, she thought bitterly as she jammed books into random crevices in the stately bookcases along the walls of her store. She pushed her glasses up her nose and let out an exasperated sigh as she pointed her wand at a rather large box of books and furrowed her brow.
"Levicorpus." She scorned it, as if the box had been the culprit all along. She floated it up to the very top of the shelf and slid it back, not feeling much like dealing with stock and inventory. For three days she had been beyond a state of anger into almost blind rage. Edgar mewed at her from the front counter, watching his human with great interest. "I must look a right mess, don't I, darling?" she said in a brief moment of warmth before levitating the second box and jamming it into a free spot next to the one before it. After feeling dissatisfied even with these acts of what amounted to violence in Emmaline's eyes, she skulked to the counter and fished from her bag a well worn copy of a muggle work of fiction titled 'Cell' by a rather accomplished writer named Stephen King of which Emmaline was becoming a fast fan. She was just three pages into reading before the bell above her shop's door rang. Emmaline waved her wand absentmindedly, causing the sign on the counter to rotate and flash 'The shop keep is reading, please do not disturb.'
"Er, Emmaline." Emmaline's eyes rolled up slowly to meet the eyes of Ron Weasley. Her brows furrowed in intense confusion. Ron was not, by any means, an unintelligent person. However, he was rarely seen in any book shop without Hermione within three or so feet of him.
"Good day, Ron, how can I help you?" she asked as politely as she possibly could. Ron dropped a package onto the counter and gave a slight nod.
"You forgot those from Christmas. Thought you'd need a few days to cool off, bye." He said quickly before turning on the spot and apparating. Emmaline sighed heavily, lips pursing as she untied the neat package to see the gifts she'd been given. Slipped inside the cover of 'Songs of the Sorceress' was a note in neat, masculine but wispy handwriting that read:
Emmaline:
I'm sorry to have upset you as much as I did.
I honestly did not assume that our reasoning
might anger you so much and for that I would
very much like to apologize. Please let me know
that this note found you and whether you would
like very much to have tea with an insensitive
old coot.
Respectfully,
Remus
Emmaline could not help her facial expressions. First she frowned. The she smiled a deep, warm smile. Then she frowned harder. Then her brows furrowed in anger, as she was still quite angry, and her lips expressed the second half of her complex emotional state by giving a sad smile. She was very much unable to decide how she wanted to handle this. What would she possibly wear to tea with a former teacher that made her angry, happy, and depressed all at the same time? How could she even allow herself to consider such prospects. She shot a glance at Edgar, who seemed to be reading the note over again over her shoulder. He gave a mew and looked up at her in a sense of understanding before nuzzling her arm.
"What would you do? Would you go to tea with him?" she asked desperately. Edgar stopped nuzzling her long enough to nudge the paper with his nose before nuzzling her again. "Really? You'd go?" she asked incredulously. Edgar stopped again. The look he gave her would speak nothing to anyone else but to Emmaline it screamed 'I've answered once, just take the answer.' "Alright, dear, you're the final voice of reason around here." She sighed in defeat before scratching behind his ears. She waved the 'lunch' sign, locked the door and headed up stairs for tea and a nice bowl of stew. Edgar knew this as well and was hot on her heels.
Emmaline pulled a bit of parchment from her box of scraps and stared at it, swirling the quill around the lip of the inkwell. She'd closed the shop up and was welcoming the darkness outside her windows with a slight yawn. She nudged up her glasses with her knuckles and continued her stare-down with the piece of parchment. Edgar watched her intently from the counter in front of her.
Remus,
She stared at his name and froze up. Edgar gave an encouraging mew and she sighed heavily as she touched quill to parchment again.
Stop by the shop.
"What a cute rhyme I've made." She glanced up at Edgar with a nervous smile. He stared at her without expression and gave a solemn mew. Emmaline sighed once again and turned back to the parchment.
Stop by the shop at lunch time on Friday and we'll have tea over lunch. I believe that I may have overreacted a touch.
For that I apologize.
Sincerely,
Emmaline
"Are you happy, Edgar?" she asked him. He replied by bending to clean his paw. "You are too smart for your own good."
Friday came quickly, and Emmaline noticed that days where she might see Remus had started to sneak up on her quite unkindly. She sat on the edge of her bed and stared at her closet, waking herself a full hour earlier than she normally would have to make sure that everything was in order. She tried to decide between the sea of dark-colored cardigans, dark colored jumpers, and dark colored pants that almost dared her to choose wrong. Finally deciding on a pair of grey pants and an emerald jumper, she made her way to the kitchen to make herself a cup of coffee. She toted her rather large 'Proud Kneazle Mom' mug around with her as she double, triple, and then quadruple checked that her lunch of poached plimpy on salad only needed basic assembly. With that she rushed to the front desk to start her day. It did not take Emmaline long to lose herself in a book as the sparse customers usually cared for themselves.
At around 11:30, Edgar began rubbing Emmaline's leg quickly. She glanced away and shot him a look of confusion before catching the time. She flipped the sign and ran upstairs to septuple check everything. With nothing left to do she sat at her table and debated whether she was really willing to invite Remus into her home until she heard him coming up the stairs. Emmaline opened the door with a smile, fake or not, and motioned for him to come in.
"Thank you for having me, Emmaline." He said with a warm voice.
"Thank you for coming." She said automatically. Edgar brushed himself against Remus's leg before trotting over to his dish to wait patiently for his lunch. Emmaline gave him his ample servings of kneazle food. She washer her hands and placed the large bowl between herself and Remus at the table. "Tea?" she asked.
"White." He smiled. She nodded and served him his tea wordlessly. Still without speaking, she took a seat and served them both with salad. "Emmaline, I truly am sorry." Remus finally broke. Emmaline stared at him, in shock at his abruptness.
"No harm done." She said with eyes still wide in surprise. She shook herself from her daze and gave her best smile. "How is the salad?" she asked.
"Is this plimpy?" he asked slowly. Emmaline frowned.
"You're allergic." She sighed.
"No, not at all! I've just not had plimpy in quite a long time." He smiled brightly. "I wasn't aware that you were a fisher."
"I'm not." She said in a flat voice. Remus nodded quickly.
"Or that you could buy it." He added. "It's delicious. Best fish there is." He said good-naturedly. Emmaline gave a slow smile and continued eating. "You're so quiet and reserved, I didn't think you'd say yes, let alone have me over."
"It seemed like the right thing to do. To clear the air." She smiled back at him. "I was quite angry, if I'm to be honest."
"Understandably so." Remus said. His smile was apologetic and warm as he patted her hand with his own. Emmaline flushed down to her neck at the contact.
"I'm glad to see that your scratches are healing nicely." She managed to say.
Remus touched his face and blushed as well. He smiled kindly. "I had a good nurse."
"You're very kind to me." Emmaline blurted. Remus's eyebrows raised in surprise and his lips tugged into a bigger smile.
"I've no reason not to be kind to you." He chuckled incredulously. "I consider you a friend, Emmaline." Emmaline bit her tongue, literally, so as not to spoil the moment. "You're dwelling on things that none of us can change, Emmaline, and you're blaming yourself for things that were far beyond your control."
"You shouldn't be comforting me." She blurted. "It's selfish of me."
"You think that since it was my wife that gave her life to save you that you should be comforting me." Remus said casually. Emmaline gave a curt nod. "It's been three years and I spent those three years roaming about on my own to make peace with things. To be honest, Emmaline, I blamed you at first. But only at first and only because I was trying to heal. I realized quickly that I'd have done the same for you. Dora was a brave woman that made a choice. I won't say it doesn't still hurt me that she's gone but she didn't throw her life away for someone that wasn't worth saving." He explained passionately. Emmaline sniffled back her tears and wouldn't bring her eyes to meet his.
"Part of me knows all of this, Remus, but it's very hard to think I'm worth a human life." Emmaline shrugged.
"I think what you need is to spend more time with me. You keep yourself locked up here in the shop with Edgar. You need someone to talk to and I won't take no for an answer because I care about you." He said firmly. Emmaline blinked a few times and couldn't help but give a snort.
"What?" she asked incredulously.
"You need someone with similar interests to talk to and spend time with." Remus nodded.
"You're absolutely sure about that?" she asked reluctantly. Remus gave her a slight smile and nodded.
"We'll start tomorrow by meeting for lunch and then perhaps we'll go on a hike. Do you like to hike?" he asked as he finished his salad. Emmaline could only gape at him.
Finally she found words. "I… suppose hiking is…. Acceptable?" she mumbled what sounded more like a question than an answer.
"It's settled then." Remus said firmly. Emmaline noticed the time and sighed.
"I need to go re-open the shop." She hoped that this was enough to drive him away and give her time with her thoughts. Remus glanced at her black-cat wall clock and nodded.
"So it is." He smiled warmly. He stood and pulled out her chair. Emmaline's head was spinning and some part of her felt that she should be more angry at him while another part of her felt that this was really a good thing that would only benefit everyone in the long run. With a nagging feeling in her stomach and a headache coming on, she politely said her good-byes to Remus and took a seat behind the counter. Edgar hopped up to face her. Emmaline gave him a scowl.
"You are a very bad, very deceptive, very mean little kneazle." She groaned.
I could hug you all for making it this far. I give you cookies. Mine come two fandoms now: Bad Wolf, TARDIS, Nimbus, and Aragog. =)
