14. The Morning After
She had stayed in her Aunt's house only long enough for the funeral before selling it to a lovely young couple with a new baby. She could feel the weight of death hanging in the house, the same way it had when her family had died.
She moved to a flat in the heart of London, barely big enough to turn around in but situated in the busiest section, full of noise and people. It was leased under the name Violet Addams, making it almost impossible for anyone to find her.
And luckily that almost meant Lily, who of course could find her anywhere. That's what best friends are for after all. She stayed for two days, fussing over her and waiting for the breakdown she was sure was to come, but in vain. Vi seemed normal, almost too normal, like she was trying too hard. Lily left her number and stopped in from time to time, occasionally coming with Remus who had taking to hanging out with Lily on weekends. It seemed the Marauders were spending a weirdly separate summer.
Vi had taken to working at a local coffee shop on mornings for something to do. She had to keep busy somehow or she thought she'd go mad. Like the time she thought she saw him at work, how the man who bought the small coffee and bagel's hair was over-long and flipped just the way his did. He had looked at her as though he recognized her, but she had run, calling to the other girl working there that she was feeling ill, that she needed to go home. She had rushed home, taking the back way and double locking the door as she threw herself in, breathing hard. She looked in the mirror hanging in the bathroom. He recognized me. She thought. I still look the same, he saw me. She looked sadly at her waist length waves before slicing them off with a flick of her wand. With another flick her hair was shoulder length and black as night.
She wasn't sleeping. At least not at night. She couldn't, not with all those images swirling around in her brain. She could barely stand to see Remus, with all the memories of him intertwined so thoroughly. It was unfair; he had been nothing but kind to her whenever he came, but she couldn't help it. She saw his face swimming beside his. Instead she walked the streets, staying awake through sheer willpower and caffeine, sometimes staying awake for days on end. Sometimes she could forget for a while, until the next letter came.
They started coming on a Tuesday. At first she just ignored them but soon they piled up and at last in a fit of frustration, she stuffed them all under a loose floor board and resolved to burn them at the next possible opportunity.
She didn't know how to handle this; the pain, the heartbreak, the betrayal. So she simply didn't, allowing it to bottle up inside of her, eating her away.
It was during one of her night time wandering that she'd met Euan, who in turn had introduced her to the wild nightlife of London.
Euan was tall, with longer hair than her. His was blonde and his hair looped down his back in lazy spirals. He smelled like cigarettes and leather and whiskey. He wore band t-shirts displaying titles like Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, and the Beatles, bands she'd never even heard of. He was a Muggle and she knew he was trouble.
That suited her just fine.