Note: Refresher for readers: Elodie is in the HP universe after swapping with her magical self, who she calls 'Mellie' in her head. Mellie was the one who underwent Potions Master training under a magical contract apprenticeship. Her mentor refused to release her from her contract when the time expired, and Mellie was rescued after meeting Albus on a trip she and her mentor took to the UK. Elodie figured these things out from Mellie's journal and conversations with Albus. As far as everyone in the HP world is concerned, Elodie's mentor cursed her to experience 15 years of Muggle memories and aging as punishment for leaving him. This explains Elodie's age disparity from Mellie.
Chapter Nine: Worry Never Robs Tomorrow
Sirius was sitting on the couch with Elodie not long after dinner when Remus came back through the Floo. They knew it was him immediately, because he had the correct spell sequence to lower the Floo shield. When he walked through, though, he looked harried, his suit jacket was off and hanging over one arm, and he had confetti in his hair.
"What the bloody hell happened to you?" Sirius demanded, standing up and brusquely brushing off Remus's hair. The white iridescent confetti fell off. Clearly magically enhanced, it floated in elegant spirals to the floor before disappearing. All three of them watched with varying levels of amusement (Elodie and Sirius) and frustration (Remus). "You need tea," Sirius stated, looking back up at Remus's face. From the kitchen, he shouted out, "I'm putting firewhiskey in it!"
"Good," Remus said as he sank into his chair without removing his shoes.
"Gonna have to echo Sirius on this one," Elodie said to him. "What-"
"Part of being a good newspaper company is being aware of what other publications have put out. So Orion's Belt has subscriptions to quite a few other newspapers. Including The Daily Prophet." Remus must have seen her continued confusion. "I can tell that you haven't seen it yet."
Elodie didn't want him to have to get back up, so she went outside to the box the newspaper was delivered to daily. Because Hogwarts prohibited certain kinds of travel inside its walls, and because the newspaper subscriptions arrived using what was essentially magical travel, students there had their Prophet delivered by owl. She'd always wondered, when reading the books, just how many owls the newspaper could employ, and how much work they went through! The answer, as often happened, was more mundane, however. The papers were delivered magically to the boxes of subscribers, and the one for Phoenix House had the paper waiting there to be collected.
Elodie opened it up as she shut the door. There on the front page, with a byline by Rita Skeeter, was a large moving photograph of Remus leaning over and kissing Elodie, her hand lifting up to hold him there, then smiling when he pulled away. The action repeated, and Elodie lowered the paper to see Remus looking at her from across their living room.
"They'd had no idea," Remus said. "I got no work done today. Everyone wanted to come by and congratulate me on my secret marriage and new son. Nearly half of them knew someone who had been targeted by Death Eaters the first time around." He pinched the bridge of his nose and spoke again. "The journalists all knew what Harry alleged after the Third Task. I don't know why I didn't think that would be the case. I suppose I just haven't been paying attention."
Elodie folded up the paper, resolving to read the actual article later. She could tell that Remus was quite affected by what he'd been through, but what she couldn't figure out was whether he was more upset about having their fake relationship outed at work as real, or whether he was upset about Voldemort's influence on coworkers he'd come to like and respect.
"I didn't know his reach extended that far into Europe," Elodie said. "I guess I thought of it as a British problem?"
"That's purposeful," Remus said. He took his alcohol-enhanced cup of tea from Sirius, who came over and gave Elodie a cup of her own, trading it for the paper.
Elodie cast a quick spell to hover her cup and pulled Sirius down for a quick kiss.
"I don't feel threatened, love," Sirius said, seeing the look in her eyes.
"I wouldn't be so quick to-" Remus called out, but Sirius opened the paper, held it up, and whistled.
"Very persuasive," he said. "Good. Thank you." He set the paper down on the back of the couch, pulled out an actual flask from his back pocket, opened it, and took a long pull from it. Elodie stared. Remus stared. "What? I don't want to stay at Grimmauld. All of us talked about this. I'm fine, don't make it stranger than it has to be."
From outside, Buckbeak made a noise, which was very rare.
"Shit, I'm late to take him out. I promised. You!" he walked over and put both hands on either side of Elodie's face. He leaned over to look her in the eyes. "Don't fuss. Remember what I asked earlier today?"
Elodie remembered. She would never be able to forget. She felt like, even if she woke up in her own universe the next day as an elderly woman with Alzheimer's, she'd still remember that Sirius Black had asked her to marry him. Even if it was a secret, and technically a formality until his name was cleared.
"There it is," Sirius murmured, kissing her briefly.
"Did I go all…" she waved her vaguely in a circle.
"You did. It was very good for my ego."
Elodie watched Sirius go outside without his shoes, and right as she shut the door behind him, she heard him holler something insultingly affectionate at the hippogriff.
Remus walked up beside her to toss his shoes on the mat by the front door.
"Confetti?" Elodie let herself ask, raising her eyebrows at him.
Remus wilted. "They were… quite happy for me. I used the line about saving up, I assume you don't mind."
"Not at all," she assured him. Leaning her shoulder against the door, Elodie asked if there was anything else she ought to know.
"They might try to get in touch with you, actually. I added you to my employment record as an emergency contact, instead of Albus. Apparently there are additional benefits for married employees, which I declined."
"Thanks for the warning," she said. She bit her lip against the instinct to apologize for the trouble he went through.
"All in all, a very unproductive day, and I have to assume the next few in-house work days could be similar. As I expected, were fewer people at work today, because of the start of term for multiple different schools," he said, walking away to settle back in his chair. "Don't!" he cautioned her, when she opened her mouth to speak.
"I- okay," Elodie said. She pushed off of the door and walked over to the couch. Maybe she had overdone it, at the restaurant? It wouldn't hurt to express a little regret, would it? She sat down, looked over at Remus, and said, "I'm sorry."
"I knew you wouldn't be able to stop yourself," he said, looking cross. Then, he seemed to remember what she'd said about that, and he rubbed his hand over his face as if trying to clear away the expression entirely.
"I'm sorry about that, too," Elodie said, impishly. In response, Remus opened a book that he had on the end table and held it up in front of his face, which had Elodie laughing out loud.
After about ten minutes of quiet reading on both their parts, Remus set his briefcase on his lap and opened it to look for something. Then, he muttered under his breath. Elodie looked up but he was focused on the briefcase and didn't seem to notice her curiosity. She went back to her book about Fiendfyre and heard Remus swear under his breath, louder than his earlier outburst.
She peeked at him, and saw he was pinching the bridge of his nose again.
"Work meddling?" she hazarded.
"How did you know?" he said sarcastically. "They wrote you a letter and slipped it into my briefcase. I am nearly speechless."
"Hand it over, then. I'm guessing you'll be fully speechless after I read you some of it!"
He shut the case, then walked over, but didn't hand it to her. "I recognize the handwriting. How about we set it on fire, instead?"
Elodie's wand was already in her hand, as she had recently started tracing the carvings on it with her fingertips. The repetitive action was effective when she needed to settle her mind. She cast a quick Accio, and the scroll holding the letter zipped free from Remus's grasp.
"You know, if it had been addressed to Mrs. Lupin, that wouldn't have worked," Remus pointed out.
Elodie stuffed away thoughts of 'Mrs. Black' and waved the scroll. "Chalk that down in the column of 'upset about equality for women' for what I'm betting is the first time in your life, Mr. Lupin,' she told Remus.
"I've never liked the diminishment of self that is wrapped up in viewing women as property. No one who has spoken to you, Elodie, would ever think you are somehow lesser in intellect or ability simply because of your gender."
She blushed. It was quite a compliment. "Thank you!"
"You're welcome. And knowing you, I sincerely doubt you'd be willing to submit yourself to any kind of relationship where you'd be considered property."
Elodie blushed harder. "Mmmhmm," she said.
The truth was, she had really liked the way Sirius had marked her as his. The two of them had talked about it, and she was firmly convinced she had a pretty strong kink for possessive behavior in her partner. She'd even told Sirius about the way Moony had spoken to her directly, when he'd said he would make her 'ours.'
It wasn't near the full moon, but Remus was still a perceptive man, and she felt his eyes on her as she slid off the outer scroll with her name on it so she could unroll the parchment that had been inside.
Dear Elodie,
I hope you don't mind my imposition! Remus is a lovely colleague and I'm pleased to manage someone with his level of dedication and intelligence. He's such a private man that we had no idea of your existence. Imagine our surprise and delight in seeing the Prophetand the revelations therein!
He has resisted all of my attempts at offering him accommodations that by contract are his for the taking, so I am appealing to you. We understand that he does not wish to raise his salary, but we weren't able to inform him of the other, lesser options available for married employees, and those with minor children. He let slip a small description of your personality, and I assume that if you are as kind and intelligent as he implies, you'll find a way to inform him of these perks in a way that doesn't set his teeth on edge.
We really do mean well.
1. Our 'Express Owl,' Bartholemew is available for emergency, confidential messages. Employees without spouses or children must use a request form, but these are waived for married parents.
2. Certain restaurants in our distribution hubs have standing reservations for employees of Orion's Belt. London is one of these. Should you wish to have another romantic dinner without the hassle of showing up on the front page, please request more information from Beatrice in Social.
3. Complimentary subscriptions to Orion's Belt are available for age-eligible children of employees. Harry Potter certainly qualifies for this, but we would never presume to send anything to him without your permission, of course.
Please forgive my meddling ways. I do want the best for Remus, and today that included going over his head to a higher power, as it were.
Have a lovely day, and I shall await the inevitable wrath of your husband;
Ira Snelling
Chief Editor of Weeklys
Orion's Belt
Elodie set the scroll of parchment face-down on her lap and looked over at Remus. He looked irritated.
"Well?"
"They demand to attend the wedding en-masse, and offer their services in planning it. The seamstress will be arriving in two hours, I should go have a shower!" she said in as serious a tone as possible. She busied herself with the book she'd been reading, conjuring a bookmark and setting it on her side table.
"You-" Remus practically choked on the word, and she looked up to see him staring at her in incredulity.
"Yes, I'm teasing you. There are a few no-nonsense perks your editor wanted to tell me about. Things like an express owl and a free subscription of your newspaper for Harry, if he would like one," Elodie said, twisting the scroll back into its tight spiral. "They don't sound nearly as bad as enforced wedding planning, now, do they?"
"No," Remus said begrudgingly.
"Well, Ira is prepared for you to express your extreme displeasure at his high-handedness." She said this in a reassuring voice as she walked past him to secure the scroll in her bedroom. Remus's boss had said nice things about him, and she wanted to keep the letter safe.
"Why did you have such a strange reaction to my comment about being considered property?" Remus asked right before she left the room. She was so startled that he'd bring it back up that she dropped the scroll. She dropped to one knee to pick it up, and he called out, in an alarmed voice. "Elodie?"
"I'm fine!" Elodie said, feeling mortified. "Just dropped the letter like a dumbass, that's all," she said in an embarrassed whisper.
When she straightened up, she saw that Remus was walking over, one hand in his pocket. When he saw she was clearly fine, he put his free hand into its pocket as well. He still looked concerned, though.
"I'm just going to put this in the bedroom, I'll be right back," Elodie said.
Remus looked her in the eyes, his expression grave and compassionate. "You know I'm not one to pry, but I feel like I ought to, this once. Is the 'property' comment related to your mentor? You've said in the past that he refused to end your contract, used you as slave labor-"
"Oh!" Elodie said, relieved. "No. That's perceptive and kind, but no. My reaction was personal, not related to that at all."
"It was a very obvious reaction, Elodie," Remus said.
"Are you trying to distract me so you can snatch the letter back?" Elodie narrowed her eyes at him.
"No, I'm trying to make sure you aren't having a bad residual reaction from being abused!" Remus nearly yelled.
"It's not about abuse at all, it's just a freaking possessive partner kink!" Elodie yelled back at full voice.
It was only after she had spoken that Elodie fully processed what Remus's comment had been about, and she slammed her hand over her mouth as if she could take back what she'd said in response.
"God, I'm such a child sometimes!" she groaned. "I'm sorry."
"Not a child," Remus said in a low voice. His face looked flushed.
"Thanks for checking. For caring, even if it wasn't what you were worried it was," Elodie said, twisting the letter scroll she'd picked up into an even tighter curl.
Remus nodded, looking very uncomfortable. Elodie tried not to feel so disappointed that she wasn't able to bring back his easygoing smile. She turned and power-walked into her bedroom, tucking the letter away in her bedside table, as it was the closest drawer she could access. When she came back into the living room, she saw that Remus was standing motionless with the book she had been reading in one hand, the notes she'd made about Horcruxes and Fiendfyre held up in the other. He was clearly reading them.
Elodie hadn't considered that Remus would read her notes! She usually hid the ones that related to spoilers for future book events, but the act of putting the scroll from his boss in her room was a short enough action that she hadn't bothered.
"Remus?" she called out, the couch still between them.
"This is your theory? That Harry has a piece of soul in him?" Remus asked bleakly.
Elodie's heart sank. She hadn't meant to tell him like this. The deed was done, though, so she nodded. "I haven't even said anything to Albus yet. I'm probably wrong."
"I hope to hell you are," Remus said with uncharacteristic vehemence. "I've only read about the spell once, and that was quite enough."
She wanted to ask where he'd found the information, because her research had been limited to a single pamphlet with little information and a lot of fear mongering. From the books, she'd gotten the impression that it was a very rare, not often understood spell, but since that was Remus's specialty, it made more sense that he would have heard of it, she supposed.
"Elodie, I know you would never hurt Harry, but-"
"But there's a page of notes on how to destroy a Horcrux?" Elodie interrupted. "I know. I don't want to hurt Harry, I promise. I just don't think Harry is the only one."
Remus sat down on the couch rather quickly on hearing that. She came over to sit beside him, gently taking the book from his nerveless fingers. He looked like he needed some reassurance, so she tried.
"I wasn't going to tell you like this, you know."
"No, you were going to amass the evidence first and break it to us gently, I imagine. I had to go and be a terrible housemate and snoop and ruin your plans."
"What did you think it was, when you picked it up?" Elodie had to ask.
"I honestly wasn't thinking very clearly. I needed to think about something else, and when I saw the title of the book, Forging Fiendfyre, I was curious." He handed her the notes, frowning. "If that's what happened, that could explain how he survived the rebound of Avada." Suddenly, he gasped, grabbing the notes back from her and pointing to a line she'd written halfway down the page.
The spell to make a Horcrux is cast AFTER the murder, as far as I can tell. If James's death was what he used as the catalyst, that still means Voldemort would have to be with baby Harry casting the spell to embed his soul in front of Lily Potter
"You were looking into how to destroy a Horcrux, but don't intend to hurt Harry," Remus said, his tone urgent. "You stopped writing here. What was the conclusion you were about to make?" he asked, looking almost as if he were frightened of her answer.
Elodie didn't have enough time to frame what she was thinking in terms of someone who shouldn't know about the spell to the extent that she did. She was flying by the seat of her pants, and she hated that feeling. Still, isn't this what she'd wanted? To introduce the idea of Horcruxes to the Order, so they could all destroy them, instead of Harry, Ron, and Hermione in a few years?
She went over his words in her head, trying to look at the words she'd written out in that context. "I was just trying to work out how he did it," Elodie said.
"What if he didn't?" Remus said. He grabbed her notebook and ripped out a sheet of paper. He folded it in half and strengthened the fold with his fingernail. Then, he opened up the paper and folded it the opposite way on the same fold, again using his nail. He then repeated the process. "What if he had done it before?" Remus asked, holding the paper up as flat as he could make it. He tugged on either side of the fold, and the page began to tear. "What if he had done it more than twice?"
Remus tugged on the paper, and it tore further. "What if he was so used to doing this every time he committed murder-" as he said this, he tore the page further, a bit at a time, "-that his soul was just ready for it, by the time he came to Harry's parents?" Remus asked, his voice hushed. "So he kills James, he kills Lily, he reaches out with his magic toward Harry, and-"
Remus let go of one side of the ripped paper, and the weight of the other side, almost ripped all the way through, tore the rest of the piece in half.
The display was masterful, an example of a born educator at work. Elodie was so proud of him she could almost burst.
"How many times do you have to rip your soul to do it by accident?" she let herself ask.
"Enough to probably need Fiendfyre to destroy some of the remnants."
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Elodie and Remus broke the news to Sirius when he came home from his outing with Buckbeak. As she had expected, Sirius was not happy with her having left out this aspect of Harry's life from what she'd told him about the book. She had told him about destroying artifacts that were bound to Voldemort, but not what exactly they were, and not Harry's position as one of those artifacts. The conversation lasted late into the evening, and at one point, Sirius stomped off into the hall and into the bedroom, slamming the door loudly.
"I don't understand why he is so specifically angry at you," Remus remarked.
"Everything regarding Harry is his business, and I kept my suspicions to myself," Elodie said, shrugging. "I understand completely, I just wanted more information to give, for when I did end up telling him."
"At least you know the couch is comfortable, if you have to sleep on it?" he offered.
"If I were wise, I'd stay out here and sleep, but I am, sadly, the opposite of wise," she said, taking a deep breath and squaring her shoulders in preparation to knock on her bedroom door and see if Sirius would talk to her.
He let her in, but he didn't want to talk. As soon as she walked in, he pounced, pushing her back against the door and kissing her. She pulled out her wand and cast silencing spells between kisses, but she felt like he was using her attraction to him like a weapon to change the subject. When he took her hand and slid it down below his belt, she resisted.
"You'd really rather get yelled at?" he asked, his lips against her earlobe. He nuzzled down her neck and mouthed at her breast through her shirt fabric.
"Unresolved… equals bad!" Elodie managed.
Sirius started laughing, backing away from her with his hands in the air. "Fine! Talking it is!" He walked over to the window and looked out for a little while, and she took that time to change into her oversized pajama shirt. She came up behind him and waited, knowing he could see her reflection in the window because it was dark outside.
"You kept something really important from me," he finally said.
"I did. I'm sorry," Elodie told him.
"Did you do it because you didn't trust my reaction?" He turned to face her and his eyebrows were furrowed, his eyes bright and manic. "Did you think I would hare off to Hogwarts half mad, and try to do something about it?"
"No," Elodie said. She left out the thought that followed the denial, the 'I wouldn't put it past you, honestly' part. "I worried about that, but no. I was ashamed," Elodie admitted.
This clearly surprised him. "What?"
"I can't remember everything. I think there are six Horcruxes now, and I know what some of them are, but I don't remember them all and it's important and I feel like I've let you down and I've let Harry down and I've let Albus down and there's nothing I can do to remember!" she said, the words coming out fast and desperate. "I don't even think he's made the sixth one, and Harry's destroyed one already-"
"What!" Sirius stepped forward and grabbed her hand in a strong grip.
"Did he tell you about finding the Chamber of Secrets?" Elodie asked. He nodded. "Saving Ginny, destroying the diary?" Sirius nodded again. "That was a Horcrux."
"No one knows?" he asked, gentling his hand around hers.
"It's a crazy rare spell. You'd never heard of it before Remus and I told you, and Remus only knows about it because he's obsessed with rare spells, probably," Elodie said. "The idea that someone would cast it more than once is horrific, apparently. It isn't so much to me because I read the books and it's a major part of defeating Voldemort, but-"
"Harry has to die, doesn't he?" Sirius said, staggering backwards to sit on the edge of the bed. "I was so focused on… Harry's got to-"
"Yes and no," Elodie said, sitting beside him and brushing his hair back. He was sweating, and she reminded herself that these things were shocking and directly related to the person Sirius loved most in the world. Knowing the ending didn't help that much when it was all still in the future, especially since the parts of the ending that Elodie knew about weren't first-hand. She'd stopped reading before that final confrontation, but she'd read some spoilers.
"Ellie, please," Sirius said, and Elodie realized she'd stopped speaking right at the point that Sirius needed her knowledge the most.
"I told you before, I didn't read the whole chapter, the one with the battle. I read what other people said happened, but I didn't read it myself," she said, covering her face in her hands. "I would have, if I could have possibly known-"
"Tell me what you do know?" Sirius asked plaintively.
"Right. Lord Git kills him somehow, but he doesn't stay dead. I assume that the first death is the Horcrux. There's something about an Elder Wand after that, but I told you about that, what I could remember, anyway," she said. They'd talked about the Elder wand once or twice, Sirius probing into Elodie's memories of reading spoilers about it. They had both agreed that they should talk to Albus, but finding a way to bring it up was daunting, and had been shelved in favor of preparing Harry for the Third Task.
"You did a great job of avoiding the Horcrux angle," Sirius griped.
"Like you didn't avoid telling one of the other Marauders when you realized you'd screwed up and didn't quite know how to break it to them?" Elodie said pointedly. "I know, it's not comparable. I feel awful about it. The only thing that helps is to imagine how much worse it would be had someone who wasn't a die-hard fan ended up here, instead." She threw herself back on the bed. "Or worse, an obsessive die-hard fan with no tact!"
"Oh?" Sirius lay back beside her, his hand stretched out between them, playing with the hem of her sleep shirt.
"Can you imagine, someone who just wants her favorite two characters together, and damn the consequences?" she said, looking over at him with a grin on her face. "You and Remus would be locked in rooms together constantly, maybe even with a lust potion."
"Would a lust potion stop you from talking about this?" Sirius asked, tugging her sleep shirt up all the way up her hip.
"Try me," Elodie said, arching a brow at him.
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The next day, Elodie, Remus, and Sirius decided to have Remus send an owl to Albus suggesting a Horcrux as the reason why Harry's scar pained him. While Remus wrote the letter out, Elodie had a thought that had her head spinning so much she slipped outside for a breath of fresh air. Sirius followed her a few minutes later.
"Tell me," he said, coming up beside her where she was standing beside one of the trees on the property. The rock where she'd told him about the books was feet away, and when Elodie glanced at Sirius, he looked very similar to the windswept look from that day.
"What if this is the original way that Albus decided to look into Horcruxes? Remus doing research on his own, which he has done, and then sending him a message like this? What if the two of us are purely incidental to this?" she asked, the bark of the tree her hand was resting on digging into the skin of her fingers.
"Why would that be bad?" Sirius asked.
Elodie's hand tightened against the tree, and the sting told her she'd probably cut her finger. "What if we can't change certain things?"
"You say that as the person who broke Moody out of that chest halfway through the year? As Harry's official guardian? After his Muggle family died?" Sirius said, rubbing her shoulder with a light, comforting touch.
"Who couldn't save Cedric? Or stop Umbridge?"
"It's the second day of term, give yourself a break!"
"Aren't you worried?" Elodie asked, spinning around and hugging herself for comfort. "I don't want losing you to be one of those touchstones!"
He threw his arms out and tossed his head back, stepping back out of the shadow of the tree into the morning sunshine.
"At this point in the books, was I able to do this?" he asked, spinning around in a circle.
"Maybe? You were stuck at Grimmauld." Elodie felt the chill of her fear, and walked out into the sunshine with Sirius, her arms still wrapped around herself.
"Hiding, yeah?"
"This isn't-" she stopped. She couldn't argue that Phoenix House, a place he had his own things, in a bedroom he designed himself, with a fiancée, was the same kind of hiding as Book Sirius. "Hiding and miserable, yes."
"So. This is better."
"Losing you is not better!" Elodie shouted.
Sirius started to laugh. She stamped her foot, and he covered his mouth, his shoulders shaking.
"I'm the calm one!" he said, between giggles. "You've lost it, and I didn't!"
"Oh!" Elodie didn't know whether to kiss him or smack him.
"You're bleeding," he said, walking over and drawing his wand. "Hands?"
She held her hands out and he looked at the back of them. When he turned them over gently, she remembered the bark. Her ring finger on her left hand had a cut, and her right arm had a smudge of blood where her hand had rested. Sirius healed her cut with a steady hand, casting a blood removal charm so expertly there was no trace left behind.
Elodie hugged him in thanks, holding for longer than was polite, longer than was necessary, but not longer than either of them wanted. After she finally let go, he raised her left hand to his lips and kissed where a ring would traditionally go.
"You know I'll fight fate with all I have, whether or not I'll win, yeah?" he said, his grey eyes direct and honest.
"I know," she said.
"We can't spend the time between now and then, whenever 'then' is, worrying about it. I won't live like that," he said.
"Okay," Elodie agreed.
Sirius leaned over conspiratorially. "So, your list said basilisk fangs can destroy Horcruxes- does that mean I can sneak into Hogwarts and have Harry help me find the Chamber of Secrets so I can make a dagger out of one?"
End note:
"Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy."
– Leo F. Buscaglia
Also: thanks for your patience as I wrote The Longest Distance. I'm immensely proud of it, and if you like this story, I think you'd like it!
