It was always difficult meeting new people. The last few years in particular, though he couldn't regret taking the position at Hogwarts, not ever, not when it had given him so much… Padfoot, Harry, a year of Wolfsbane, decent food, decent lodgings, a full-time income…
By the turn of the wheel our fortunes rise and fall.
Still, it wasn't easy meeting new people, and Sirius's little cousin, with her punk hair and her boots and her somewhat unsuccessful attempts to look in control, and adult, and like she wasn't at all intimidated by Emmeline's calm and overwhelming competence… Sirius's little cousin had spent the entire evening trying not to stare.
Quite possibly she had never met a werewolf before.
In fairness, she had stared at Sirius at first too, but seemed to have come to some conclusion about him relatively quickly, because a decided look crossed her face, and after that Remus felt her gaze as an intermittent but constant pressure.
It was quite exhausting.
Fortunately, the meeting was over and everyone was leaving. As it was Sirius's house, and he was thoroughly enjoying being lord of the manor and joking and seeing people off, it was an easy matter to hang back and begin the process of fading away.
Mad-Eye had brought her.
Remus found himself rather wishing he hadn't.
It was bad enough with Molly being kind-but-uncomfortable every other day. She was trying so hard not to be terrified that her children might catch something off him. It was the pauses. The little moments when he could see she was reminding herself that Dumbledore trusted him, and that lycanthropy wasn't contagious outside of a full moon.
Molly was a good woman, and she was trying.
But there was something about the steady, complex gaze of a young auror… he let the shame wash over him in waves. It would pass. You can only do what you can with the moment at hand.
He tidied away the tea things without magic, using the methodical concreteness of mugs and spoons and sugar bowls to lead his mind down safer avenues. People made their way out into the hall- though Dung looked like he was hoping to be invited to stay back for a nightcap… Remus summoned a handful of silver teaspoons out of one of Dung's capacious pockets and let himself be soothed by the ridiculousness of Dung's apologetic protestations.
She was up, she was going away, Mad-Eye had Sirius by the shoulder, telling him something very intensely, their noses bare inches apart, and she knocked over a mug, and caught her boot on a chair leg, but caught the chair before it crashed to the floor, and she was about to leave, she had her coat over her arm, she was walking towards-
She paused, pivoted, face scrunched up like she'd been dwelling on it all evening, whatever it was…
"I'm sorry," she said, "I'm so sorry, I just can't leave like this."
She tossed her coat back over the chair and in a few determined strides she was right there and then somehow he had silky pink hair brushing his cheek and the kind of full-body hug that just doesn't leave anything to the imagination, it was a proper hug, she was holding on to him, with her chin over his shoulder, and her palms smoothing over his shoulder blades, and she holding him close, and she was talking to him and what on earth-
"-just so sorry that the wizarding world is so shit. Like I know that doesn't mean anything really, but. Whatever, anyways, mum said you were an absolute sweetheart and I see that was a major understatement," She gave him a squeeze, let out a little sigh of relief, and let go.
Uhhh…? What…?
"Sorry, didn't mean to- anyway, I just thought, you know, people probably… well. Nice to meet you, Moody says you're- anyway, not the point, sorry, I'll um…"
She waved awkwardly and hurried towards the door.
"Coat!" Moody barked.
"Bloody hell," she muttered, blushing, retrieving her coat, and stumbling as she stepped on the hem, "Oh, also," She struggled with the coat for a moment, grabbing handfuls of it to feel for something in one of the pockets, "I was super vague but I did ask mum hypothetically if she had any messages or anything that she would like passed on," she fished a crumpled paper bag out and held it out to Sirius, "She got in a bit of a flap, but yesterday she turned up and said I was to give you these if ever I happened to meet you. Apparently, you were mad keen on them as a kid,"
"Dromeda in a flap? I'd pay to see… oh! Jelly slugs! Ha! Brilliant!" Sirius held a writhing orange slug aloft and put it in his mouth with quite possibly the same amount of glee as he would have had as a child. "Sweet squidgy heaven! Thank her for me- and tell her it was me who nicked her cigarettes that time,"
She opened her mouth in mock shock.
"Mum! Smoking! How scandalous!"
"I know! Absolute blight on the noble house of Black,"
She grinned.
"Aren't we all?"
There was something a lot less intense and a lot more… familial? In the hug she gave Sirius. Like she assumed he would accept. It was shorter, not as… not as close? More like a greeting, less like a message.
Remus wasn't entirely sure what the message was. He had misread the staring. That was obvious. Stupid really. He'd been too rattled to realise. She had been wrestling with the problem of how to make it clear that she considered herself an ally. Fine. But that wasn't all that… why had she said… what was…
"… next week, Dung, once I've found where they put the whisky- yeah, have a good one…"
Remus put the kettle on.
Tea.
Sirius clapped and rubbed his hands together.
"Went well,"
"Yes,"
Sirius searched in the little paper bag and fished out a green slug. He made a satisfied sucking noise as he ate it.
"So, Andromeda thinks you're a sweetheart, eh?"
"Apparently,"
Sirius grinned.
"She only met you once or twice. Bodes well,"
Remus passed him a cup of tea and said nothing.
He had the oddest feeling that he was… defrosting?
No, that made no sense.
She had been right though. He did feel that she meant it. She'd picked the right thing to do to make him believe he could trust her.
Don't be a fool.
"Life is going to be very cruel to Nymphadora Tonks," he said slowly, turning it over in his mind.
"What?"
"She's too kind. It's going to get her killed." He met Sirius's startled gaze and held it. "The only Hufflepuffs to become Aurors in the past five decades were killed quite…" He took a sip of tea to cover up the sudden surge of despair.
Sirius paused, then held out the paper bag.
Remus took a purple jelly slug and let the sugar slime onto his tongue, sickly sweet and tragic with the memories of post-moon treats as a child.
"I don't think so," said Sirius, "Strategic little minx, I think."
"How so?"
Sirius flashed a crooked grin at him.
"Just befriended a hardened criminal and a werewolf, didn't she? Go on, tell me you're not going to be hypervigilant if you're sent on a mission together."
"You're not a hardened criminal,"
"Well… I'm not exactly sane."
"Fortunately, that is not yet a crime."
Sirius grinned.
"My point, you evasive jerk, is that she made sure you've got her back."
"As I have for any member of the Order,"
Sirius paused, eyebrows furrowed. Then his expression cleared, light amusement banishing the severity.
"I see. This has never happened to you before, has it Moony,"
"What has never happened to me before?"
The amused look grew.
"Oh, this is going to be entertaining," said Sirius, in a tone that Remus remembered well from their school days, "Oh, I'm going to enjoy witnessing this very much. Don't worry, I won't start roasting you until it's had a few months to sink in,"
"I really don't know what you're talking about, Sirius,"
Sirius sighed.
"You really don't, do you Remus? Ah well, life's full of surprises. Hopefully, this will be a good one."
Since Azkaban things had been a little jumbled in Sirius' mind, and he did occasionally lose the thread. But he clapped his hands and declared he'd say no more on the subject (whatever the subject was), and they spent the rest of the evening trying to remember the rules to various card games, and making short work of the jelly slugs. And if, occasionally, Sirius paused and looked thoughtful, well, there was nothing terribly suspicious in that. Besides, as they had established, thinking wasn't a crime.