AN: alright. I had this stuff written out. I can add interludes. I saved the epilogue that I originally wrote, but there were many things I didn't like so I'm rewriting it. I'm just peppering it in. I mean, we all know this is just a fun little fic. If it doesn't suit your taste, I totally get that :)
Mid 2020, four years after Remus's death
Elena Lupin was hunched over a trash can in the hallway, vomiting. Her hands were violently shaking and hot tears were rolling down her face. It was dusk and she had just checked into work. She was yanking out her shirt to breathe, loosening the surgical mask from around her neck. The lycanthropy ward was always peaceful on full moons. It was always as the sun peaked when the chaos ensued, but it was hardly dusk now.
"Lupin? Are you alright?" Her superior approached her. He was an older man with white hair and a white beard and large glasses that occupied most of his face. He had pulled his own mask down.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good." Elena replied. She was pulling her hair back, tossing her lanyard over her shoulder. Her stained second-hand lab coat was too big and she was struggling to roll up her sleeves.
"Are you feeling sick? Do you need to leave?" He was keeping his distance from her. She had been very close to throwing up on his shoes. "Do we need to take your temperature?"
"I'm not sick, I'm just... I'm in shock." Elena remarked. She gave up, rubbing the tears out from under her eyes. "Excuse me, I'll be fine."
She was over a year into her certification process. She passed her tests, spending nights avoiding sleep to study until she saw the sun came up, and she had flying colours on every exam. She did all of her labs, she studied the maths rigorously, she even went to every single office party to suck up to her leaders and she would even take some of her grandmother's recipes. She had taken so many tests. She spent time with patients with boils, extra limbs, extra eyes, patients with severe chemical burns, patients who were shrunken to the size of teacups, and patients that had transfigured themselves into dozens of different inanimate objects (this did accidentally lead to an awkward mixup where she took a man transfigured into an umbrella home with her for the night and didn't realize until the next day). She wasn't even given her own professional lab coat yet.
In all of these months, she was finally selected to dip her feet into the lycanthropy ward. Tonight was her first full moon in the lab.
"If it makes you feel better, you're not the first to narrowly miss my shoes and you won't be the last." Her mentor replied. "With these new blasted rules though, you never know, they might have you locked in a cell if you cough too hard."
Elena was at a loss for words and simply nodded, still trying to steady herself. "I'm sorry. I'll... I can go back. I can stay away from the others or—or you can test me if you need to? I feel fine though, just overwhelmed—"
"Is this too much for you?" He asked skeptically.
"No—No!" She exclaimed, brushing her hands on her pants. "I'm great. I'm just—"
"Give me your badge." He demanded. "Go home. You're not meant to be here."
"I'm fine, I just need a minute—"
"You won't be able to complete your assignment anyways." He informed her.
Elena took a deep breath. "Sir, I'm sorry, this was a personal incident, I promise it won't ever happen again."
"Lupin, we both know you can't control your gag reflex, so stop apologizing and go home for the night. I'll write you an excuse from this lab." He persisted. "You might get a bad grade on this one, but it won't mess you up enough to kick you out."
"Don't." She snapped. "With all due respect, that's not fair. I'm here to work, Sir."
The man was silent. He sat down on a nearby bench. "I see so many kids like you. You were a Slytherin, right?"
"Humph." Elena fell down beside him, her badge still securely thrown over her shoulder. Her head thumped against the wall. "I'm... I'm so f—freaking sorry. I've been studying for weeks. I looked at all the diagrams, I studied all of this thumbnail by thumbnail, I could've rattled off each of the phases of a transformation, I was having dreams about tonight... and then I couldn't stay."
"Who did you lose?" He asked.
"My dad." Elena said. "Four years ago. Room four, actually."
He patted her hard on the shoulder, standing up to leave her sulk. "Go home. Maybe you'll do great with the transfigured patients."
"Cool." She huffed. "Cool."
xxxxxx
Teddy and Victoire were just getting home.
Victoire's curly blonde was sticking out at wild angles despite being tied back by a scarf. Her freckles were hiding behind dirt and soot smudges. She flung her brown leather jacket onto the floor. "You don't think nine is too late for dinner, right?" She said dryly.
"I don't really care, I'm starving." Teddy yawned, hanging up his bag and stretching his back.
"Hrmp... do you have the phone number for that Thai place? Because I'm not cooking anything." She sighed. She lifted her shirt and rolled her eyes. "I smell like a fireplace. Give me a minute to get changed, but you know what I usually get."
They had a phone in their kitchen. It was old, and wasn't used very often. They weren't anywhere near up to date on modern muggle technology. "Resetting a router" wasn't a term either of them could pick up on, but they were more aware and welcoming to knew tech than previous generations. Tonks was still trying to get hers figured out and Harry had almost carelessly dropped it as a concept until Lily Luna got really interested in having her own cell phone. Teddy and Victoire simply didn't make many calls. Sometimes they would call just so Henry would get excited at the thought of someone being on the other end or to order dinner after they spent long shifts at the Ministry. Most of their incoming phone calls were telemarketers and the like.
So seeing the flashing number "1" was a little bit weird.
When Victoire came out the bathroom in her robe, her hands shoved in her pockets. Teddy had dropped the phone right out his hands. "Something wrong? Are they closed?"
"We had a message?" Teddy replied, holding the receiver to his chest. "I'm trying to call back—"
"Who was the number from?" His wife asked.
"Harry, but I thought maybe it was maybe Lily playing a joke? But she's at school too, right?" He swore under his breath. "Vic, something happened." The phone didn't pick up.
"What happened? At the auror's department? Do we need to call your mum?" She asked. The weight of his panic hadn't hit her yet.
Teddy was shaking a bit. "No, no, something bad happened yesterday..." He completely froze up. "Vic, I think something happened with Albus."
"Like... what?" Victoire tried to maintain her composure. She was too afraid to suggest what it might've been in case it was worse than she thought. Inevitably it was.
"He—he um..." He shook his head. "Harry wasn't making much sense, he was all confused, he was talking about... he was talking about them having to find his body?"
"What? What do you mean his body?"
"Vic, he jumped off the train."
xxxxx
"Mom! I'm home!" Elena called. Her eyes were squinting with exhaustion. She got kicked out of her lab, but she had too much dignity to go straight home and instead made herself busy elsewhere in the hospital just to save her the walk of shame at ten pm where she had to explain throwing up in a trash can.
Tonks was at the table, setting down a plate of breakfast for a small boy at the table. Her eyes weren't as bright as they were when Elena was younger. They looked mostly normal between the three of them. Without Teddy's flaming blue hair, the three of them had plain hair and plain eyes. Both of the older kids had strong, distinct features from their parents, but little Henry had such a strong resemblance to his mum. Except for his eyes. Not even Teddy, who was more and more frequently mistaken for his father nowadays, didn't have his father's bright blue eyes. "So... how'd it go?" Tonks stole a bite from the boy's plate.
"You didn't sleep at all?" Henry asked, his jaw dropping.
"Not a wink." Elena grimaced. She kissed the top of his head ruffling his hair. "How'd you sleep?"
"Good." He replied, taking a big bite of food. She kissed his head over and over and he was squirming away from her.
"Make sure you get some breakfast." Tonks reminded patiently, leaning back in her chair. "So how'd it go?"
Elena looked over towards the stove and shook her head. "I'm not really hungry, my appetite's pretty dead from all the coffee I drank last night—"
"Lena—" Tonks said.
"Can't wait until I move out—" Elena said under her breath. "I'm fine, Mum. I'm cool. I'm just tired."
Tonks leaned back in her chair disdainfully. "Elena, I know you're going to want to go to bed, but if you're going to sleep through lunch—"
"Listen, I spent last night puking." Elena snapped at her. "I don't feel great, I had a rubbish pile of a night. Please just let me go to bed."
"Ewwwwww—" Henry scrunched up his face.
"Yeah." Elena nodded. "Goodnight, kiddo."
"Are you going to be asleep all day?" Henry chimed. "We can't play later?"
"Maybe later. Maybe when my stomach settles." Elena couldn't shake off the feeling on the back of her neck. She threw herself on her bed, hugging a pillow to her chest. Sleep wouldn't come for her. She couldn't shake off the look on the werewolf's face as they looked up from the floor, their last moments before they lost their control as a human.
Her door creaked slowly and painfully open.
"Henry..." She groaned. When he was a baby, he would come into her room and play peekaboo behind the door or shout so his voice would echo and they would play that back and forth. She didn't like babies that much, but once he was big enough to walk, she finally came around the idea of him. Now they were nearly inseparable to the point that she had been asked several times in public if she had been a teen mother. She started saying yes just to make her mum laugh. "I'm trying to sleep." He got on all fours and crept across the room, pretending she couldn't see him. He crawled up on the backside of the bed, already pulling her sheets back and creeping up behind her. Elena rolled over to face him. Henry cracked a smile. She made an exaggerated angry face at him and growled. "You're such a brat."
"No I'm not!" He exclaimed.
"Are too." She pushed him. "Mum's gonna come find you if you don't go eat your food, do you better go."
"But I wanna stay with you." Henry whined. "When's Teddy coming home?"
"I dunno." Elena replied. "You know, I'm gonna leave one day too. Then it's just gonna be you and Mum."
"When?" He frowned.
"Dunno yet." She sighed. "I just want my own place soon. I don't like it here."
"You don't like me?"
"Nah, I like you." Elena laughed. "I don't like Mum." She whispered, pressing a finger to her lips. "But you can't tell her that."
