Remus grabbed his tray of food and looked around at the busy Ministry cafeteria, seeing if he could find his companions anywhere. He sighed when he saw no sign of them and chose at random at a tiny table.
Minister Shacklebolt never came down here. Arthur usually went back home to eat, and had stopped inviting Remus due to his persistent refusal until his closest friends - Harry and Hermione - resolved the drama between them.
He felt lucky to have survived but many times he also felt isolated because all of his generation who fought the war were gone.
His best friends now were Hermione and Harry, mostly because he actually worked with the first and because Harry was at odds with Ginny and Ron, so that meant that he was not visiting the Weasleys much in the last two years.
Remus really hoped that the man - who he still secretly thought of as a boy - would be able to fix that relationship, as Molly and Arthur were the closest he had for parents. Indeed they held no grudge against Harry but the young man was reluctant to visit, probably feeling remorseful about what seemed to be developing or may have fully bloomed between him and Hermione.
Remus was far from an expert on the matters of the heart but working with the girl everyday for years had shown him that their friendship went beyond what it used to be. That caused a rift between Harry and Ron because, of course, Hermione broke up with the red-haired and everyone - besides Arthur - knew why she had done so.
Remus just wasn't sure if they were already together or if they were fighting their feelings still because of their friend Ron.
Remus gave Molly's message to Hermione that she would always be welcome but even after such a long time, Hermione still seemed mortified to visit them.
It was a good job for Remus, to be the head of the Department for Magical Creatures alongside Hermione. Werewolves, vampires and others felt quite at ease to open up to him, although Hermione had to leave their office sometimes, when vampires who had been away from civilization for more than a thousand years eyed her like she was a particularly delicious main course.
Shacklebolt, Hermione and him had worked to reform the Ministry having in mind that no dark lord would ever rise and divide their tiny magical population again and that meant to unite and support the cast-outs. It had been because of rejected or dangerous beings that Voldemort almost won the war. Because of Remus, Dobby and Kreatcher, Harry and Hermione spoke up for those rejected in the rare interviews or single-sentenced answers they gave when a reporter recognized and chased after them.
Having a werewolf as a head of any Department in the Ministry already began to change the views of the people, however, full acceptance would of course, take a while still.
To make sure that the Ministry wasn't run by dangerous and in-bred psychopaths ever again, Shacklebolt ruthlessly stripped the Malfoys and other rich and known Voldemort supporters of their money. It had been that or Azkaban and of course, all of the pure bloods involved in the wrong side of the war chose to stay out of jail, unless they were downright dangerous and crazy, such as Bellatrix, who was killed by Molly. And Greyback who Remus took care of. Other dangerous Death Eaters, such as Dolohov and Yaxley who were guilty, would remain in a dementor-free Azkaban. Almost all of the Malfoys escaped prison but Lucius was still in there, and would be for more than 20 years.
Narcissa and Draco now had to work and they lost their obscene mansion too.
Harry seemed to sympathize with Draco even after everything, showing how good hearted the boy was, and this side of him reminded Remus much more of Lilly than James.
McGonagall became Headmistress and she had abolished the houses to promote union and fraternity, doing her part so no child grew up in so much hatred and judgment that they saw no alternative but to join a cult like Snape and Regulus Black had done. The surviving Order members pretended that the other Death Eaters didn't exist, most of the time. Although they didn't consider Draco being one, even if the mark had been forced upon him, thanks to his age and how much Harry defended the boy since the end of the war, even going so far as in helping Malfoy to get a Potion's apprenticeship by convincing Slughorn to take the blond under his wings.
"Sorry." Hermione dropped her tray quite suddenly, almost making Remus jump. "I was stuck with a hag who took us all across London because she couldn't remember where her house was." Hermione blew her unbelievable hair out of her eyes - that were sticking out everywhere - catching her breath. "And then it turned out I think she was lonely and wanting company, so she's been lying to me all morning long."
"You don't have to deal with that. I would be happy to take the tougher cases out of your hands." Remus said, munching on his salad.
Hermione smiled tiredly.
"Remus, you have to begin to act like a head of the department. You are too nice. And of course it was my job, it was my turn to deal with our clients."
"Unless they are vampires." Remus pressed his lips to not grin.
"You are lucky they don't crave werewolf blood. They are usually so creepy."
"Oh, I find them creepy too. Even if they don't see me as a meal."
"Are you guys talking about vampires?" Harry asked, dropping his tray and now making the other occupants jump a little.
"Yes. I leave them to Remus." Hermione said, her eyes shining as Harry looked at her.
There was a second or two of eye contact that was a bit longer than of two friends meeting that made Remus avert his eyes and feel a bit lonely, as he always did. It was not their fault, neither it had been James or Lilly's, long ago. It was just Remus' destiny to drift by while others lived their lives and found their other halves.
"Don't they remind you of Snape?" Harry grinned at both of them, coming out of the spell.
They all smiled nostalgically and there was always a moment of respectful silence and sadness when they thought of the man. Only after leaving the prickly Potions professor did they find the truth about the man and it had been hard for Harry to forgive himself for how much harder he made Snape's spying job.
They didn't know that for Remus, it went beyond sadness and regret.
What had been strange, after that awful war when finally Voldemort just dropped dead, was that the first order of things was for Harry to call in for his friends to go to recover Snape's body but when they got there, he was gone.
Harry jumped through auror training, with all doors to wizarding society open to him while his main goal had been to force veritaserum down every locked up Death Eater's throat until one of them confessed what was done with Snape's body but either they've been obliviated or his disappearance was done by someone they couldn't even fathom.
Hermione suggested that maybe Snape himself had prepared a way for his body to just be relocated to somewhere remote in case of his death, that maybe he was that paranoid, fearing what people would do to his body even after death. And if there was anyone who could pull something like that, it would be him, the greatest spy ever known.
Harry had wanted to visit and then transform Spinner's End into a sort of a monument, just like it had been done to his mom and dad's house but no one could get in. Obsessed more with Snape than he seemed to be about his own father and mother, Harry had asked for Remus, Shacklebolt, McGonagall and Bill Weasley's help to protect the house, saying that they were the most powerful wizards he knew.
Remus appreciated Harry's modesty and unassuming demeanor as he was actually the most powerful of them all.
They continued eating quietly together, their eyes distant as they always became when thinking of Snape or of the war.
"Even after all this time, even after rebuilding in peace, at times, things still don't feel right." Hermione sighed.
Remus' blue eyes snapped back at her. This was exactly how he felt sometimes, but he assumed it was because he had survived while his whole generation had not.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
Harry exchanged looks with her and nodded.
"I don't know. It just feels at times that the darkness is not over. Or that we are being watched. Or something." Harry let out his breath as if he got rid of a weight on his chest.
Discreetly, Remus looked around, noticing that no one was paying attention to them. Well, no more than usual as there were always those who still saw Harry as some sort of saint or savior and his crimson auror robes didn't help much. People still parted as if Hermione and Harry were crossing the red sea and some people were not even able to talk to them normally, while others were too intimate as if they've known Harry or Hermione their entire lives.
Remus nodded and lowered his voice.
"I think it has to do with surviving a war. I don't think it ever goes away as I felt this after the first war too."
Harry and Hermione seemed crestfallen. Remus realized they couldn't know that, having dealt with only one war.
"Sorry." He whispered.
And it was in that moment of peace, and sadness, and routine as well that all hell broke loose.
A deafening sound boomed at the opposite side of the cafeteria, far away from them. For a second or two, all Remus could see was the wall disintegrating, and the windows shattering. Then, debris, people, tables and chairs flew everywhere and the screaming began before all went black.
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