Chapter Fifteen: Illumination


Prologue to Triumphant Triads: the Most Magical of Romances

I'll be honest: if you think you're going to be part of a Triad, you're probably wrong. It's not that you're not magical, you are! It's not that you're not in love- you probably are! It's just that, well, Triads are rare. Statistically speaking, the people who could form a Triad… aren't you.


"Very helpful, thanks!" Elodie made a face at the book. She'd been at this for less than an hour, after Remus had bowed out of eating dinner with the two of them, claiming he needed some time to himself before the ceremony in the morning.

"I love when you argue with books," Sirius said. He pushed with his feet against the far end of the couch so the top of his head bumped against her leg.

"Yes, well, I hope this book knows what happens if I really hate it, because it is on the path to flames, and it's only two paragraphs in!" she griped. "Seriously, who wants to read a book that confidently declares you aren't the right audience for its content, right there in the introduction!"

"Let me see?" Sirius asked. She handed the thing over. It was a glossy paperback that had definitely stolen its aesthetic from Muggle romance novels. Sirius didn't even sit up, instead holding the book over his face and remaining on his back. After a minute or two he tsked at her. "Everyone wants to be part of an exclusive group, love. Kids want to be Prefects, or on the House team for Quidditch. Pass Seventh Year and you're desperate to get into the Dark bars, the really exclusive ones that take a drop of your blood and make a cocktail magically curated to send you bonkers." He waggled his eyebrows at her.

"You're making that up," she said, snatching back her book.

His gray eyes were full of mischief. "Would I do that?"

Elodie's gaze was withering as she found her place again; it turned more so as she started Chapter One.

"If you hate it so much, why bother?"

"The author is the expert on Triads in the last century, despite the casual phraseology. Apparently she has a guest column in Orion's Belt every three months or so, too."

Sirius sat up. "So you're saying she might pounce on Remus if she finds out he's involved in one?"

"Sirius!" Elodie dropped the book in her lap and started counting back from ten to calm down. He looked defensive until she reached 2, and then winced.

"In my defense, I'm involved in the Order, I've a happy home with Harry, and I'm about to tie the knot with two people I'd leap into Avada for," Sirius said, looking down at the non-scruffy clothes he was wearing. He held up a foot. "It's easy to forget I'm still a fugitive. I don't think I've ever spent this long without holes in my socks."

"No leaping," Elodie said with a shudder. Or falling sideways, or being knocked back by a spell from your cousin, she added in her head. "I need to make sure Triads are not detectable, that's why I'm slogging through all of this."

"If that intro is any indication, most people who luck into Triads probably walk around holding hands in groups, gloating. Which I'm game for once this shit is all over, by the way. We'd have to knock Remus out and use a Zombification Spell, but I'm sure Zonko's has got something-"

Elodie pulled back from the rather vigorous 'shut up' kiss she'd planted on him. "This is in furtherance of 'this shit being all over,' so hush, now."

He didn't say anything, just slid back into his position on his back looking up at her face (or her breasts, sometimes, she'd noticed) as she read. She didn't have any Muggle ink pens on hand, so she kept the inkpot off of her lap even though she had to hurry. The ceremony was set to happen the next day at sunrise, and since Elodie didn't think she'd be able to sleep anyway, the least she could do was research this insane new magical thing she was about to do.

So far her notes weren't as extensive as she'd hoped, but Triads were rare, and the witches and wizards involved in them weren't all that anxious to divulge the weaknesses and advantages they were privy to.


The Triad bond seems to magnify each person's magical power

The power-sharing extends to life-force in some way, enabling healing (this is not well understood. More research!)

The death of a bondmate does not kill the others (given the war, thank goodness!)

Possible heightened physical awareness of each other, but this is so romance novel-y I am highly suspicious


"I'm happy to help with that last one tomorrow," Sirius said as soon as she lifted her quill. "In depth."

Elodie dropped the quill in shock, and Sirius sat up, casting a spell to cleanse away the ink spatter.

"Shit, sorry, it's just- The full moon is the thirteenth! If Parker and his Voldiegoons decide to hit us then, that only leaves-" She couldn't bring herself to say the word 'consummation,' because if anything was romance novel-y, it was that.

"Why do you think Remus went walkabout? If I have to drag the git back as Padfoot, I will."

"Can you drag him back? Though- shit." Elodie did not like the strategy she'd just thought up, but her dismay was nothing compared to what Remus would think if they had to use it.

"Uh oh." He leaned on the back of the couch with his elbow, facing her, with an expression of intense interest. "What? Hit me." Elodie smacked his nose with her notebook. "Yeah, deserved," Sirius admitted. "I like Literal Elodie, though. I have some plans for Literal Elodie."

"If you're going to be distracting I'll banish you to the bedroom." Elodie paused for effect, and then added, "Alone." Sirius started to let himself slide off of the couch like he was more liquid than man, but she hooked her hand into his belt loop to stop him. "This isn't a joking thing. It's… maybe on par with what you did with the potion." She bit her lip.

His brows furrowed as he tried to think of what she might mean, but when she took in a breath to explain, Sirius suddenly looked concerned, and then apologetic.

"Moony," he guessed. "You think if I used Moony's attachment to you as an incentive, Remus would have to come back by morning." She nodded, and he clambered back onto the couch and squeezed her to his side roughly. "Don't fret. You won't have to. This has to be the single best thing that's ever happened to him, don't you see? Not only will his wolf have the bond he wanted, Remus won't have to pretend anymore!" With his lips held close to her ear, he added, "And think of all the fun we'll have!"

Sirius was so caught up in his own narrative that he hadn't noticed that she'd tensed up.

Hadn't he deliberately tricked her into listening in on Moody's Triad pitch because he'd expected Remus to say he didn't love her? In that case, wouldn't this situation be everything awful for Remus? Two partners, when he never wanted to tie himself to anyone. An expectation of intimacy when he didn't reciprocate her feelings. Except, she'd overheard a tacit admission, not a refutation- and it sounded like Sirius was under the same impression she was.

So why had Sirius lied?

"Something tells me you're not picturing it." Sirius was slowly walking his fingertips across the embroidery on her neckline, clearly oblivious to her dilemma.

"I'm trying to decide between two different reactions," she told him. One was to act confused and force him to reveal his lie through more lies, which wasn't ideal. The other was to confront him over the discrepancy… but that wasn't something she particularly wanted to do.

"Close your eyes and just say it," Sirius told her, flattening his hand out and resting it on her chest like a talisman.

"Have you been lying to me about Remus?" Elodie asked. It wasn't hard to keep her eyes shut, because she didn't want to see his reaction. What took effort was keeping still. In any other situation she'd be resting her hand atop his and helping them both through the tough moment.

Sirius was silent, but he blew out a long, frustrated breath. "Yes. On request."

She hadn't expected that to hurt.

He stayed quiet, probably waiting for more of a reaction from her, but Elodie was awash in her own thoughts, surfing through them, trying to stay upright. She could see their arguments like they were written on the wave that threatened to engulf her.

Remus felt like an interloper, forever in emotional limbo, encroaching on Sirius and Elodie's relationship by dire necessity, as Harry's legal guardian. He'd probably demanded Sirius make an exception and agree to push the lie, as a concession to Remus's untenable position- wanting, even having, but not for real. Not in a way that counted.

Sirius had probably responded with a mix of selfishness and guilt, making the tough choice to lie to her out of loyalty and to smoothe over the rough edges of their crazy arrangement. His romantic role models had either died in the war or been involved in a long, loveless siege, so what was a little bit of necessary deception?

"All right," Elodie said. She opened her eyes and started gathering her things, suddenly grateful that her Triad book looked so much like a mundane trash novel. That meant it wouldn't stand out when she went to go sit in a Muggle coffee shop and finish up her research somewhere that didn't make her heart ache.

"Ellie?" Sirius had pulled his hand back when she'd stood up, and Elodie silently commended him for having sat still to see what she was doing before pushing to resolve the conflict.

"I know you both, I'm pretty sure I can figure out what you were thinking, and I'm tired. I don't have time to walk through it, so I'm going to skip ahead, because I need to do this research. I'll be back sometime tonight," she told him, slinging her bag onto her shoulder and heading into the bedroom to grab her money. There were a few places to exchange magical money to pounds, but she'd never bothered to see if any of them were open at this hour.

"Skipping to the part where you storm out, you mean?" Sirius said from behind her. "Fuck, the door's gone. I'd forgotten that," he swore. He had his wand in his hand.

"The fact that your first instinct is to trap me into continuing a conversation I have no appetite for tells me that Remus definitely had the right idea by leaving!" she snapped at him. It was probably just as well that she didn't know anywhere Muggle to go in England, because she was likely too upset to try Apparating there anyway.

"That's not what I was-" Sirius started, his face approximating a thundercloud- but Elodie channeled all of her frustration into conjuring a new door, which theatrically slammed in his face. What she hadn't expected was the four locks which all slid, cranked, or chained themselves into place with clockwork precision, afterwards.

Elodie could never have predicted that magic would be so freaking satisfying . The only problem was, she needed to be on the other side of that door. Either that, or she needed to calm down enough to Apparate elsewhere.

What she needed was to picture her happy place, somewhere that was the embodiment of safe peacefulness- someplace real, even if she didn't plan to actually go there. Oddly, the memories of her life before having real magic were hazy and indistinct now, a string of third-wheel friendships and unfulfilling jobs with the only 'excitement' being unexpected illness or car trouble.

Elodie hadn't driven a car in nearly two years, and she didn't even miss it.

Sirius was talking out in the hallway, but she couldn't really hear him; the door she'd created was more like something you'd install at the front of a fortress. She didn't really want to go to a fortress, though, just a garden terrace of some kind, a place she could settle down into a comfortable chair and-

She gasped. The place she was picturing was perfect, but was she calm enough to attempt to go there?

Elodie pulled in a long breath and let it out. She lifted her wand and pictured the place in her mind, tuning out everything about her current situation.

Then, she Apparated to Hollyfield.

888888888888

It was the 'magic hour,' that time at dusk when the light was naturally beautiful. Elodie was surprised that she didn't feel out of place even though she hadn't lived there for almost a year. It was- she thought back… almost exactly a year since they'd moved to Phoenix House. She wasn't there to catch up with anyone, though, she just wanted to settle in on a familiar chair in a comforting place and read up on binding herself to two wizards she loved more than all thirty-five years of her previous life as a Muggle. That was all.

There were a few figures already seated, but they were scattered around. At least one of them was using a spell she recognized the 'haze' of, which gave the impression of an occupied space without letting the observer know who was there, or what they were doing. Elodie walked past that chair and sat on the next one, which was five feet away and faced the opposite direction. She thought about setting up a Notice Me Not or something and decided against it, instead taking her hair down and extending the chair a bit so she could sit with her knees up. After positioning her notebook, quill, and ink pot (the chair had a little well area one could slide out which could hold a standard ink pot, which was the kind of attention to detail she loved about Hollyfield), Elodie opened up Triumphant Triads: the Most Magical of Romances yet again.

She gritted her teeth and decided to look at the Table of Contents, having skimmed through Chapter One and found it full of warnings to avoid attempting a Triad with losers, grifters, or Muggles. One chapter title drew her eye; it was near the back, but given that Elodie was just under twelve hours from being in a Triad, she decided it was okay to skip around.


Chapter Fourteen: Phenomenal Power, Prudent Preparation

The first thing other than a complicated romance that leaps to mind when thinking of a Triad is the power benefits. The fact is, witches and wizards bonded in a Triad are some of the most powerful magic users around. Scrubs don't end up in Triads, people. You gotta work for it, and not just the kind of hustle that Lex Luthor has going on. Commitment or bust, patience or pshhhht, compromise or get outta here.

As you might imagine, investigation into this shit has been difficult, because who wants to leave yourself and your loved ones open to challenges by some drunk wizard trying to impress his girlfriend (and the side-piece he's trying to make into a Thing)? What I CAN tell you is that, during the rare times that a member of a Triad has shown their true strength, the result is impressive.

There's one very important thing to remember, though. There are DRAWBACKS.

Yeah, I know, you're probably casting patience spells while you're reading this, or looking into a way to send me a Howler, but you really need to understand this bit! The additional power can manifest at any point, not just when you need it, folks. Many an aforementioned drunk wizard has found his hexed-off hair hasn't regrown in five months, even though the spell was meant to last three. So keep this in mind, aspirational lovers, or you may find that the small Lumos you meant to cast turns into a-


"Elodie?"

It was Remus.

"Shit, what are you- I mean, I was- I only came here because-"

"Breathe," he said, flicking his wrist and muttering a spell that brought his chair and its concealment charm over. He rested a gentle hand on her shoulder and Elodie felt a prickling kind of awareness wash over her for a few seconds. Logic told her that he'd encompassed her into the unknown spell's radius.

"That's kind of symbolic, don't you think?" she said, feeling somehow more exposed.

"Seems to be the story of our lives, lately," he said, settling into the chair he'd brought over. Elodie had locked up in shock with her feet flat on the chair when he'd shown up, and now that he was seated, she realized she'd have to swing her legs out over his to get up. He'd undoubtedly done that on purpose.

"No kidding," she said, closing her book and tucking it between her hip and the back of her chair. The other two were in her bag, safely out of sight.

Remus ran his hand through his hair and said, "I assume our housemate wasn't able to muster the maturity not to pester you?"

"Something like that," she said, but then she threw her head back and sighed up at the darkening twilight. "Actually, I was handling the pestering just fine. I left because I found out he lied to me."

"A younger me might have postulated about what that lie might be, thus digging him further into the doghouse," Remus chuckled.

"I rather wish you had," Elodie said, recognizing the not-quite-American cadence to her phrasing and finding it bittersweet. She stared straight ahead, instead of at him, and said, "It was about you, actually."

Remus's tone was careful. "He did feature me quite often in his tales, most of which were exaggerated."

"This one was by request."

"Ah," he murmured. Elodie could see Remus leaning over to rest his forearms on his upper legs, rubbing his hands together anxiously. "That does narrow it down."

"I should hope so," she said, hating the way he'd started to curl in on himself, defensive, rather than combative. "I suppose all three of us have secrets, this just backfired worse than he imagined it would. How ironic, don't you think, that it wasn't a truth serum interrogation that illuminated it, but your best friend's clumsy attempts at reassurance?" She still wasn't looking at him. Even without the camouflage spell, no one observing the conversation could guess they were talking about love.

"Oh?"

"He told me it would be a relief for you, the ceremony. You wouldn't have to hide how you feel, anymore. Maybe it was 'pretend,' actually," she said, risking a quick look over to see his reaction. His eyes were shut, and every part of his body, whether lit or in shadow, looked pained.

Was he pained because he'd asked Sirius to lie to her? Or was he pained because Sirius spoke the truth?

Elodie was fresh out of dramatic exits, but she was emotionally exhausted, and the sun had almost completely set by now, the sky set afire only at the far horizon. When it rose again, everything would be different.

"Did you know, I never asked you to love me," Elodie said evenly, without looking at him. "I never would have dared. All I asked was for a chance to show you love, and you always seemed so painfully affronted by that! How outrageous, this woman who appeared out of nowhere and questioned you over your life choices!"

"Elodie," Remus whispered, but she went on, keeping her quiet, hurt tone, her eyes fixed on the stone wall that edged the terrace.

"I suspect that you've spent some time in your own head constructing scenarios where we've argued about this, Remus, but somehow you've managed to forget that it wasn't actually me. I've only ever argued that you deserve a home, a room to yourself, and friends who don't see caring for you as a burden."

Now she shifted her gaze to him, finding Remus sitting straight up, his eyes cast down to the ground between them. There was symbolism there too, she supposed, because Remus may have thought he was the only one with his feet on solid ground, but she was the clear-eyed one, right now. She took up her wand and expanded her own chair's depth, which gave her enough room to swing her legs down without touching him. It felt like a victory, but it was a hollow one, the kind the author of the book she'd been reading would probably expound upon as exactly the wrong kind of person to be in a Triad.

"If I'm to reap the repressed, angry consequences as if I'm really the Elodie you've argued with in your own head, then so be it," she said, deciding at that very moment that she was going to twist a very specific knife. Just as she'd done when she was upset at Sirius, Elodie started to gather her things.

"I never meant for you to-"

He broke off as she stood up and cast the most powerful Muffliato she knew how. Elodie hated the way his hand flinched toward his wand before he repressed the movement. He was a skilled dueler, but the fatalistic expression on his face told her that Remus wouldn't fight back, not today. Good. Let him remember his reaction to her ensuring his privacy, and feel ashamed to assume otherwise.

Elodie poured out all the things she'd always stopped herself from saying, for fear of driving him away. Remus couldn't retreat anymore, not without risking Harry's life, not without turning his back on Sirius, and he needed to hear this.

"You deserve love. You deserve intimacy. You deserve respect for who you are, even if far too much of it is bound up in self-hatred. The stupid books I've been reading to research Triads say that it's a stronger bond if each pair makes commitments to each other prior to the ceremony, so I'm telling you right now, I am now and always has been committed to your happiness. I'm sorry that this puts us at odds sometimes, and I'll try to make it up to you." Elodie swiped angrily at the tears that had gathered as soon as she'd started speaking. At least they'd blurred out Remus's image in front of her, and that helped. "The only thing I haven't been proud about, as we've pretended to be a couple, is the fact that I was lying to people who were important to you. So please, no matter how upset you are, show up on time tomorrow? I promise you I'll try to make this new union bearable in any way I can."

Elodie hiked her bag up onto her shoulder and stalked away, meaning to head down the path toward the library until she'd calmed down enough to Apparate home, probably to the downstairs bed.

Deep down in her heart she wished that he was the kind of man who would follow her, who would grab her arm and demand that she listen, before confessing the truth of his love in a way she'd always treasure- but step by step, Elodie walked away from their chairs freely, with no called-out imprecation to stop, no spell or physical impediment to prevent her. Those steps drove the point home more than the fact that Lupin had asked Sirius to lie, despite his distaste for falsehoods: Remus's innate self-hatred was implacable, and so was he.

She told herself she wouldn't cry, because if she started, she couldn't stop- and what would that do to the magic they were going to weave in the morning?

It was dark all around her now, and though she was more powerful than a single Muggle woman alone in a forest at night, she wasn't much more powerful, since the things that might threaten her were also magical. Sure, she could cast Lumos, but what was the point? She was only walking blindly into the surrounding woods so she could calm down enough to teleport home, so it didn't much matter how lost she got.

After a few more steps, Elodie reached the place she'd met Padfoot for the first time. It wasn't very dark, for early night, and that's when she realized, of course! It was only two days till the full moon.

She looked up at the sky and scowled at the waxing moon, pouring her scorn upon it like it was a living thing, her adversary. Elodie only looked back at the path ahead of her so she wouldn't trip and end up with some kind of cinematic injury for her big wedding in the morning, and that's when she saw the lanky figure leaning up against a tree.

It was Remus. Beloved as he was, his silhouette was unmistakable. The dratted man didn't even seem out of breath, but he wouldn't be, because he'd likely used his wolf speed and knowledge of the area from his many walks to find a path that took him around and in front of her.

It would serve him right if she Apparated home before giving him the satisfaction of another confrontation- but she had scarcely reached for her wand before she saw Remus push off from the tree and lift his, speaking words she couldn't hear but completely understood as the spell flowered to life.

A flare of white light erupted from Remus's wand, brighter than a torch and more pure. It traveled like a directed beam along the ground between them before it widened and lifted, becoming a column of radiant light that surrounded her and stretched up into the sky. The glow itself held no heat, but Elodie's heart was burning inside of her with the understanding of what he'd done.

Remus had cast Ardi Clare.

Hearing him allude to loving her was nothing compared to this kind of admission, but as Elodie's eyes started to water from the brightness, the warmth in her chest turned sour. Had she bullied him into this? Would he have done it if she hadn't been upset about the lie he'd asked Sirius to be complicit in?

If you loved someone, would you want them to be shamed into saying it back?

The guilt hit her with terrific force, and Elodie sank down to her knees just as the spotlight from his spell started to dissipate.

"Elodie?" Remus said, his voice sounding far away.

"I'm so sorry, Remus," she managed. In her head she was leaping through memory after memory, just as Moody had. The meadow. Kissing Moony. The Draught of Peace kisses- and their time trapped in #12 Grimmauld Place. Each one had a caveat, a twist of circumstance that meant one or both of them weren't participating with their whole heart. To her, this one counted. She was just trying to muster the strength to stand up and apologize with actual dignity when he was suddenly right beside her.

"Must you overthink everything, dear heart?" he said, crouching down to pick her up. The sheer affection in his voice undid her, mostly because he'd never get this moment back. Remus would always have admitted his feelings in an adversarial moment, and it was her fault. "You're still doing it! Elodie-"

"Put me down! I'm a grown woman and I'm capable of handling the consequences of my own actions," she mostly lied.

"Think of this as symbolism," he said outrageously.

She didn't get to do much more than gape at him, because his next action was to Apparate them back to Phoenix House.

His bedroom at Phoenix House, no less.

And he didn't set her down.

Elodie was completely comprised of raw nerves, stunned into initial silence by his joke about burdens, then kept silent by her knowledge that Remus Lupin was nothing if not patient. He'd stand there holding her until he was ready to let her go, and she had no intention of looking foolish by struggling with him or- Merlin forbid -asking nicely to be let down.

She wasn't brave enough to look up at his face, but her neck was starting to hurt. Twice, she pulled in a breath to say something and thought better of it, and finally Elodie let out a little frustrated sigh and rested her head on his shoulder.

Remus took that as some sort of sign, but instead of putting her on her feet, he walked over and sat on his bed. To her relief, he loosened his grip, and she scrambled over to the head of the bed, stubbornly grabbing his pillow to hug to her chest.

"I'm still sorry," she said.

"I suspected as much," he teased, his expression sobering as he continued. "I never intended to marry, but that doesn't mean I haven't spent time observing relationships. Whether the people involved were happy or unhappy, had contrasting personalities or similar ones, whether their marriages were lasting or fleeting, one thing was abundantly clear: happiness and success depends on honesty." Remus looked down at his hands. "Elodie, at first I pushed you away because I wanted better for you—"

He broke off as she smacked him with his own pillow.

"Fair," he acknowledged. "You'll want to hold onto that."

"Better this than my wand!"

"You might want to use that, too," Remus sighed. "I have been deliberately less than honest with you. I was trying to destroy for myself any possibility of a relationship, precisely because deception is anathema. It was my last defense."

"Oh, Remus," she whispered. It was exactly the sort of calculated self-deprivation she could see him employing. He didn't look over, and she realized that she could make choices that destroyed his carefully constructed palace of punishment. "You- You knob."

Remus looked over at her in amused shock. "That's… not what I expected you to say."

"Well, you are. There's no need to corrode your soul and fuck up your friendships because you're so convinced you're unworthy. A better approach would have been, what's 'lover' in Latin? Caveat emptor, but with 'lover,' instead." Her words were flippant, but Elodie was also deeply hurt. Hurt for herself, in the way he'd manipulated his own guilt to shut her out. Hurt for him, to have felt it necessary. Hurt for all three of them, that she'd taken them down a path she didn't see the end of.

"'Let the-'" He stopped translating to frown at her. "Caveat amans, though I'm not comfortable with the implications."

Elodie scooted closer to him, but still held the pillow close. "I'm serious! It's not on you to protect other people from loving you, Remus. How long have you-"

"Don't. You'll- don't."

It dawned on her that she was in the rare position of having the moral high ground. She cast about in her head, seeking a concession he wouldn't reject, but which could also help heal her of how terribly rejected she felt, despite Ardi Clare. "Promise me something?" He looked over, concerned, defensive, and Elodie's wounded heart changed the demand at the last minute. "No more lies? Even if you-" Her throat closed up, and he knew her so well, he was going to lock the door or pick her up or somehow force her to detail how hurt she was, so she stood up and formed as realistic a smile as she could on her face. "Even if you'd rather it not all work out, as you said."

"I want it to work out. I've even made my peace with trying to figure out how," he said, also standing. "I can tell you're hurt, and I know you want to walk out of here angry with me. Please don't."

Elodie threw her head back so her hair wouldn't catch on the wetness of her cheeks, and sighed. "I have to, Remus." She let the moment hang for a few seconds before adding, "It's bad luck for the grooms to see the bride before the wedding."

All the tension drained out of his body visibly, and Remus ran his hand through his hair. "Good Merlin, you're a lit flame tonight!" His brows furrowed. "Did I see a new door on your bedroom?" When she nodded, Remus looked in that direction, even though there was a wall in the way. "Do not tell me that selfish git is asleep in your bed with all the locks fastened!"

"I don't know, but if they are, and I try to go in there, he'll be smug until the end of time, so-"

"Sleep here. I'll take the couch," he said, spinning on his heel and walking over to the bed as if to inspect its suitability.

"I-"

"You owe me the knowledge that you'll be comfortable and well-rested for tomorrow," he said sternly. "I spent a full half hour arguing against traditional obedience spells with Alastor."

"That utter-" she began, but Remus interrupted.

"Knob? Quite."

"All right, but shouldn't I just conjure something against the bookshelves? This is your private space, Remus. I shouldn't be invading."

He'd been gathering some clothes, probably his pajamas, but tucked the bundle under his arm to come over to her and rest a gentle hand on either side of her face. "You've been invading my private space for almost as long as I've known you, and I wouldn't have you any other way. Sleep." He kissed her forehead and let his hands drift down to squeeze encouragement onto her upper arms. "I'll see you at, what? Ten past six?"

Everywhere that his hands had touched was tingling. "Yes, we're to Floo to Albus's office- and I was kidding, about the bride thing. I imagine there are a dozen or more wedding superstitions that are lost somewhere in my memory."

That lie was one Elodie would never regret, because not only did she feel she truly belong in this time and place, but Remus would never feel at home again if he knew the truth about his universe.

"I'm pleased to say I wouldn't know. I imagine they're all nonsense anyway," he said, opening his bedroom door and turning to face her. "Good night."

"I'm still sorry, you know," she murmured, after a yawn.

"You wouldn't be you if you weren't," Remus said, shutting the door behind him.