Sorry for spelling mistakes. I might re-read the chapters later and fix them.
The story will slowly develop and you will learn more about the background of the characters, just be patient.
And prepare for a looooong ride because this will be extra slow Wolfstar fic.
„Remus calm down. It will be ok." Lily tried, but failed to bring some peace into the room.
Remus was pacing up and down the living-room. It was almost seven in the evening and he has been loosing his mind since he came home from the doctor's appointment.
„The neurologist said I need to cut back on work to try and avoid more cluster headaches and since my migraines are getting more and more frequent, he recommended I switch to working only three days a week. I can not afford to only work three days a week, because I will never be able to save enough money to pay for school and the house. Uncle still left me a year loan to pay off." Remus finally sits down and throws himself against the back of the sofa, hiding his face in his hands.
„Ok, let's sum it up." Lily stands up and hands Remus a plate with pizza.
„You need one more year of monthly payment for the loan, then the house will be yours.
You can not work full time because it makes your migraines worse right now, and your doctor thinks it would be better to take a break.
You know switching to part-time will be easy at work. We have more than enough people at the moment and you can just ask Dorcas to work weekends and maybe Tuesday or Wednesday. That way you get a bit more money for the weekend. That could work right?" She looked at him expectedly.
„Well, even with weekend pay I would still be at least 500 short. I could try to sell something..."Remus looks around the room. The book collection his uncle left him would bring some money but he loves those books and it would be difficult to say goodbye.
„The room!" Lily suddenly exclaims, with a pizza since halfway to her mouth. „You could rent the empty room! Or we could even move you up to the attic master bedroom, which we should have done long time ago, and you would have two small rooms to rent. It's perfect!"
„Well, but who wold want to rent empty rooms in a shared house? You know most students are looking for furnished rooms and people who can afford furniture normally don't need to share a house, I don't know Lily..."
„No, it's perfect! At least try putting up an ad. We can hang a flyer at work and you'll see. I'm sure you can find someone who would want to take the rooms. They are pretty small, but you can ask 600 GBP for both of them together and you might find some students who would be happy to rent them! And We can always brainstorm for more options, but who knows, you might find some nice roommates. Hm?" she smiled at him encouragingly and he couldn't help but agree. It seemed like the best solution at the moment.
And so Remus and Lily spent the next two days slowly moving Remus' furniture upstairs to the attic bedroom and cleaning the whole house.
Remus inherited the London house from his uncle a year ago. It wasn't a big house, but it had a fairly large back garden, and was really close to his current job at a university library coffee shop.
The building was narrow and tall. Cozy living-room filled with books from his uncle, who was a professor at the university was connected with the kitchen with large farm-house table. The first floor was divided into two, rather small bedrooms and a bathroom at the corridor. Remus used to sleep in one of the rooms whenever he came to visit, which wasn't that often. The attic used to be master's bedroom and had a small en suite bathroom. All the furniture from the first floor and attic was sold, so when Remus moved in, he slept on the sofa for a while, until he was able to afford a bed frame, small dressed and an armchair for his bedroom.
The first floor was empty now. Bathroom clean and shower curtain replaced. Remus has moved all his stuff to the attic and was currently composing a flyer to try and find roommates.
Rooms for rent:
Two empty bedrooms in a shared house.
Azalea street 17, East London
600 GBP per month, energies included
Contact me to arrange viewing, or if you have any questions.
Remus added a photo of one of the rooms to the bottom of the flyer and e-mailed it to Lily. She promised to print out a copy and bring it to work tomorrow.
Remus was going to start small and decided to only put up the flyer on the cork-board at work. If he had no luck with finding someone, he would expand the search.
Almost a week went by and with the exams approaching, the coffee shop was full of students, making for some busy shifts for Remus and Lily, who worked as baristas.
„Hey Remus, do you want me to come by tonight after work and we can check the replies to your rent ad? Petunia has Vernon coming over and I would prefer not to talk to him if I can avoid it." Suggested Lily.
„Sounds like a plan. I just have to stop in the supermarket on the way home. You can come with me if you want." Said Remus absentmindedly as he was taking another order from a customer.
The Friday afternoon shift dragged on and they only managed to leave around 6 pm.
Lily offered to drive, so they could get things sorted faster.
The supermarket stop was a quick one. Remus just grabbed a new carton of eggs, some oat milk and a package of mozzarella, before heading to the freezer aisle. They spent about five minutes arguing about icecream flavours.
„Ok, omelettes and salad?" Remus asked, dropping the groceries on the floor and opening the door to the garden.
„Sure! I'll help!" Lily followed him to the garden.
They picked a couple of radishes and lettuce leaves for dinner. It was way too early in the season for any other veggies.
While Remus prepared dinner, Lily sat at the table getting the laptop ready. Once they were seated, with dinner in front of them, Remus logged into his e-mail inbox.
„Wait." Lily interrupted, before he could open the first e-mail. „What would be your ideal tenant?"
„I think I'll be happy to find someone that would be seriously interested in renting the tiny bedrooms without furniture, at the end of academic year." Remus replied seriously.
„Come on, use your imagination. If you could pick anyone at all?" she questioned.
„Well, you, obviously." He smiled softly.
„Oh Rem, you know I would love to live with you, but..."
„Yeah, I know, you want to try and build better relationship with your sister, I get it Lily. But you asked." He shrugged his shoulders.
When she kept looking at him, he continued: „ well, I would prefer living with guys? But, you know, like...openminded ones. Just in case they find out about me..Maybe students? And no party animals. I mean...I don't want them to organise party every weekend and give me a migraine."
Lily nodded, and flipped open her notebook. „Ready?"
„Yeah, ready." Remus agreed and opened the first e-mail.
There was a bunch of people interested in renting the space as their office or ateliers for private music classes, but Remus didn't like the idea of strangers coming an going all the time, especially since they would be passing through his home all the time.
One couple wanted to know if they would have their private entrance and kitchen, which made Remus realized he should have been more clear about the living arrangements.
There was a couple of spam e-mails and one which just made fun of his name.
After almost an hour of reading through the e-mails and a couple of promising, but very vague applications, they reached the last e-mail in the inbox. This one had a file attached to it and just a very short message saying: This is our introduction. Nice to meet you Remus!
Lily clicked on the video before he could stop her.
„If this gives my laptop some virus and makes it shut down, I'm going to kill you Lils!" Remus complained but went quiet as soon as the black screen turned bright and they could see two smiling faces appear.
„Hi Remus, we waned to introduce ourselves and hopefully make a great first impression and be the chosen ones!" the boy with black messy hair and tan dark skin yelled at the camera. „I'm James, psychology major and football star of the university." He said with a toothy grin and mischievous spark in his eyes. „ And I'm Sirius. Seriously, that is my name. I'm currently taking a break from uni but I'm going to get back to my master in English Literature in September." The other boy continued. „We have been living with our parents up until now, but mom said she had enough of Jimmy's dirty socks and my gorgeous long hair in the sink, so they are kicking us out."
Jame jumped in „we are relatively clean, most of the time, I mean, Sirius should shower more..." Sirius pushed him out of the picture and the camera shook. It seemed like James caught the tripod as he fell. „We are really nice and friendly guys. Jimmy will promise not to bring too many girls over, and you don't have to worry about girls with me." Sirius winked exaggeratedly into the camera.
James seemed to have finally found a way back and put his arm around Sirius' shoulders.
„We would love to meet this weekend. If you have any questions, we are an open book!"
There was a muffled voice in the background and Sirius looked to the side for a few seconds before adding:" Oh, yeah, we don't smoke, don't have pets and we would like to move in as soon as possible." He added in fast monotonous voice before turning back to the person standing behind the camera. „ Thanks pa, we know you can't wait to get us out of the house and start your second honeymoon with mom!" Sirius rolled his eyes, James screamed „ewww!" and jumped on Sirius, attempting to cover his mouth and silence him.
The screen went black in the middle of the jump.
Remus was sitting there in shock.
„Well? What do you think?" asked Lily, trying not to laugh.
„They can't be serious..." Remus shook his head, still staring at the screen.
„Hmm, well at least one of them is." Lily said quietly.
„You did not just say that." Remus stared at her. „If those guys move in here, you and Sirius would be unstoppable. I know you and your puns!"
„Ok, but in all seriousness...ok, ok, but wht do you think?" she insisted.
„If they are ...serious, then I guess we should invite them over so they can see the rooms in real life before they decide if they'd like to move in. They are a bit too hyperactive though, don't you think?"
„Well, I think they are cute. And they seem like normal, nice guys that could make nice room mates." Lily said, already typing a reply.
„I'll invite them over. How about tomorrow after lunch?" She asked, with tongue between her teeth, quickly writing the invitation.
"You'll be here right? I don't want to meet them alone!" Remus panicked for a while, before Lily reassured him.
„Of course! I need to check them out myself before I let them move in with my best friend!"