Wednesday 21st April 1982
Privet Drive, 17:30
"I don't want those freaks around my boy!"
"And you think I do, Vernon?"
"Freaks! Nothing but freaks! I won't put up with such nonsense!"
"You won't have to!"
"We're just going to have to stop them from coming around."
"I don't think they're giving us a choice!"
"Well, this is my home and I make the decisions here."
"I know, Vernon but look, maybe this could be a good thing. It would get them out of our way for a few hours at a time. We can be a proper family then."
"I never wanted those brats around anyway!"
"We weren't given a choice there either."
"Well, we should make them give us a choice."
"Then you can go say that to them!"
Then there was a lot of grumbling noises which usually came before more shouting. Harry walked over to Rylli's cot. She was standing up and trying to look over it. She was making that sad, whimpering noise that meant she was about to cry. She couldn't cry or else they'd get shouted at. They didn't like being shouted at.
"Ree!" She whimpered but didn't cry.
Even she knew not to cry any more. Most of the time. Ree was him, Harry. Because she couldn't say Harry yet. Because she was still little. Not big like him. He knew a lot more things than her. Like how to crouch down really small so people didn't see him and how squeeze under th9ngs to get toys that Dudders couldn't reach so that he wouldn't cry. Crying Dudders meant that he got shouted at. He didn't like being shouted at. He didn't like shouting at all. Which meant they had to be quiet.
"Shhh, quiet," he said to her, putting his finger to his lips.
They were supposed to be quiet. Vernon and Tuney didn't like them making noise. They shouted at them if they did. They didn't shout at Dudders if he made noise. He made a lot of noise. He cried much more than Rylli and he was never told to be quiet. That wasn't very fair. But being fair didn't seem to matter anymore. If things were fair then Dudders would get shouted at and have lots of scary faces pointed at him just like they did but that didn't happen. He got silly voices and smiles. They got frowns and shouts. Harry liked getting smiles and he was sure Rylli would too so why weren't they getting them?
Saturday 24th April 1982
Remus and Dora's Flat, 13:00
He had felt odd for the past week or so. Since Connie had left, if he was being honest with himself. And it was all her fault too. She was the reason for this weird feeling in his gut. And it wasn't weird. Je knew the exact feeling he was feeling. He just... he just didn't want to think about it, okay? Except that he had to because the reason he had this feeling was because he had a lot to think about.
Maybe if he didn't think about it for a while then Everything would make more sense. He would know what to do. Like Connie. He could think about Connie. It sucked that she had to leave but she had only taken a week off work. He tried not to feel too jealous that she had work. Even if the work was simply cataloguing potions ingredients. Definitely not exciting work. But it was still work and she enjoyed it. Neither of which je was currently experiencing. Being jealous about things outside his control never got him anywhere and it certainly wasn't going to get him somewhere now.
But he still wanted to think about jobs. Because Connie had brought up the differences between how he could get a job here and in Italy. In Italy there would be no need for all the secrecy around him. In fact, he could be quite open. It was just a medical condition over there. One that still couldn't really be treated, they just locked you up for the duration of the full moon, but you were helped. Not treated like a pariah. Like a criminal.
His hands clenched into fists and he took a deep breath before relaxing them again. Thinking about the unfairness of the all wasn't going to help anyone. That didn't stop him thinking about it though. How much easier it would be. No. He couldn't think like that. Just because he was half-Italian didn't make Italy his home. His home was here. In England. With Dora and Teddy. And Marlene and Chryssie and Severus and... And everyone. Here was home. He just wished home was better. He buried his face in his hands.
He was nervous, okay? That was the feeling he was feeling. Nervousness. Anxiety. However, you wanted to call it, he was feeling it. Which was a bit stupid of him really. This was nothing to get nervous over. He was just overthinking this, like usual. Unfortunately, knowing that didn't exactly make him stop it just made him feel bad while he was doing it.
Because of course going to Italy was completely out of the question. He could just do that. Of course, he couldn't. Even to learn. He didn't even know if any qualification je got over there would transfer over here. Which didn't matter because this was just all him thinking. It wasn't just him that this affected.
How was he supposed to tell Dora what he had discovered? Was there even any point? Was he going to do anything about it? Did he want to do something with this new information? Oh, there was a part of him that definitely did, of course there was. He loved learning and he wanted to do more of it. Get a Mastery. Something that he knew was out of his grasp here despite knowing he was capable of at least starting it. But he couldn't. There would be too many absences on his part each month, even if it was only a few days. It would be enough for people to be suspicious which risked them finding out. And not everyone was as kind as the Marauders when it came to werewolves. Barely any were, in fact. There was even a high chance of him being arrested even if he hadn't done anything and it wasn't the full moon. Some people thought his kind were dangerous no matter what day it was. That was just the way the world was. How society was. He knew that. He accepted that. There was nothing he could do that would change that.
Except do his Mastery in a different country. One he already had citizenship in. Like Italy. Which was not here in the UK. Eurgh, all he was doing was thinking around and around in circles, not coming to any conclusion or decision.
Had he mentioned before how much he disliked being nervous? Because he didn't. Being nervous made you all jittery and far too award of your surroundings which was made even worse by his enhanced ones. It was like he couldn't filter out any noise at all. Everything was at the same volume. Which made it harder to think. Which made it harder to control himself which made everything louder and it was just a self-feeding cycle. Fantastic. All over something that he shouldn't even be that worried about. Hesitant, yes, but not nervous. They were all adults here, after all.
He buried his face in his hands. He was going to have to talk to Dora.
Sunday 25th April 1982
Longbottom Manor, 15:00
Frank was worried about Alice, he really was. How could he not be when she acting the way she was? She thought that he didn't see it but he did. The sudden smiles when she realised, he was in the room or the way that her expressions seemed a little bit forced. Or even the way she sometimes stared in the distance, seemingly not processing things around her. Granted, that last one had really only started recently. That was the reason why he had gone from confused to worried about Alice. This wasn't like her. This wasn't like her one bit.
He wasn't even sure what was going on, it wasn't like they had received bad new recently or anything like that. They were barely in contact with anyone these days. It wasn't like they could.
This was hard, he had to admit. Of course, it was. The world was moving on and they weren't. But the threat was still out there. Voldemort might be gone but his Death Eaters weren't. Especially his high-ranking ones. No, he was not going to take his family out of hiding until the Inner Circle had been rounded up. It just wasn't worth the risk.
Which meant that they were isolated. Something that obviously wasn't helping Alice but he didn't know what to do about it. Why couldn't she just talk to him about things? Talking made things better, didn't it? That's what people always said. And Alice liked to talk. She was always chatting to someone. Granted, it was always to another girl and since they'd gone into hiding it wasn't like she could chat to someone else who wasn't him, that kind of defeated the whole idea of being in hiding away from everyone. But he was right here, she could chat to him. Though, she never really did chat to him, did she? Not the same way she had with her girlfriends. He frowned at that. How was he supposed to get her to talk and gossip when he didn't really like to do either of those things?
[xxxxxx]
Tuesday 27th April 1982
Azkaban, 12:00
Sirius was staring, just staring. He did a lot of that these days, it wasn't like there was anything else to do. It got pretty boring but that couldn't be helped. This time it wasn't so boring because there were actually eyes staring back at him. And no, he wasn't imagining things or hallucinating them they were actually there. They were eyes he was very familiar with actually because they were Remus' eyes. Remus' almost amber eyes. They almost glowed in the gloom of Azkaban. And yes, they were away from the cells and there was actually a lamp overhead but even that couldn't get rid of the gloom that Dementors created, not completely. Though, he definitely felt a lot better here but that was because he had walked past a Patronus that was guarding the other end of the hall. It was a nice relief, if a little weird. He wasn't used to the absence of Dementors so he felt kind of numb without them?
He tried to not to think about the fact that it had been a long time since Remus had first visited. With Marlene. Marlene hadn't come back since but he wasn't going to think about that. There could be no end of reasons why she hadn't come back yet. She worked full time. She was Cassie's only parent who wasn't incarcerated. Life in general. He was sure visiting him in a horrendous prison wasn't the top of her list of things to do.
"Nice to see you again," Remus said, breaking the silence.
Impressive considering Sirius had expected him to wait for him to.
"It's not like I'm going anywhere," he said with a self-deprecating chuckle, trying to raise his arms.
Key word try because you couldn't exactly raise your arms when they were chained to the chair you were sitting on. A brief smile flitted across Remus' face at that but it soon became sober again.
"I guess not," he said quietly. "How are you."
"Been better."
He tried not to make that come out as snarky but he knew he didn't succeed when Remus flinched. He sighed heavily. Somehow, he felt like this was going to be a long visit.
Potions Lab, 17:00
Was it embarrassing that he had almost forgotten his whole cover project for his research on werewolves and how to help them? Just a little. Was it awkward that the only reason that you remembered it was because the person you were apprenticed under asked for some of your preliminary research notes. Preliminary research notes you technically should have no more need for because you should have moved forwards into actual research by now? Yes. That had been awkward.
Blood types, blood types. He was supposed to be researching something on different blood types. Or pretending to anyway. Though technically werewolf blood was a different type of blood so technically je wasn't lying... just stretching the truth a little. Hiding certain aspects of it. But not lying. He was good at this sort of thing. He just needed some evidence to back it up.
"Are you finally going to tell me what you've actually been working on?" Master Andrews asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Sir?" Severus asked with wide eyes.
What in Merlin's name was he talking about?
"Don't take me for a fool, Severus."
"I would never think that of you, sir."
Definitely not. Potion Master Andrews was one of the most celebrated Potions Masters in the United Kingdom. Severus was still amazed that the man had taken him on as an apprentice. There was no way he would ever think poorly of the man.
"Then why do you think that I can be fobbed off with such a simple explanation to work you are obviously not doing?"
"I am researching blood types!"
"Yes, but not for the reason you gave."
That was a statement, not a question. Dammit. He thought he'd been better at hiding it than that. He was a Slytherin for Merlin's sake! He was supposed to be good at hiding things. Master Andrews stared at him. Right through him. He squirmed in his seat like some sort of child.
"Well..."
Friday 30th April 1982
St Mungo's, 10:30
"Evans!"
Chryssie jumped and turned around sharply. It definitely wasn't a good thing when a senior Healer barked your name like that. Especially Healer Fitzpatrick. He was a grumpy old sod in the first place never mind if you'd actually done something wrong. Which she didn't think she'd done.
"Yes, sir?"
She winced at her pandering tone but it had to be done.
"What the hell did you think you were doing?"
"Excuse me?"
"Moody!" He exploded. "Auror Moody?"
"What about him? Is he back in today?"
"No. But you treated him the last time he was in?"
"I gave him a check-up," Chryssie said, confused.
"You?"
Sending like his sneering tone.
"Yes."
"Really, someone as unqualified as you?"
"I'm allowed to do those check-ups. They don't even require me to get a Healer to sign off on them." She said indignantly.
For liability's sake, certain exams and healing done by Trainees had to have a Healer sign off on them. Mainly to ensure the Trainee didn't screw up in some way. But the ones that she had performed on Moody weren't ones like that. They had been checking that skin and muscle were healing like they were supposed to and making sure that there was no infection present.
"But this was Moody," Fitzpatrick hissed. "Auror Moody."
"Yes?"
Now she was confused. What did it matter what his name was? She knew what his name was! Honestly.
"Auror Moody shouldn't be getting checked up by some Trainee."
This was said with such a sneer that Chryssie couldn't help but bristle at it.
"I am fully capable of performing an examination like that and I am also fully capable to call for help if I noticed something untoward, which I didn't. There was nothing to suggest that healing was going wrong in any way, he said that he was not in pain so I cleaned the area again just to be sure even though that was unnecessary and let him go."
Fitzpatrick opened his mouth to say something but she beat him to it.
"And anyway," she said, drawing herself up to her full height (which really wasn't much). "He asked me to do it."
"He asked you to do it?" Fitzpatrick repeated sceptically. "Auror Moody asked you to do a check up on him."
"Yes."
"And he knows you're a Trainee?"
"Yes. I told him that. He still wanted me to do it because he knew that Trainees did such things."
That actually stumped the man. Finally. He just wouldn't give up. Look, Moody had come in for a check-up, he had asked her to do it instead of waiting for someone else, she had done it because that was a part of her job, had confirmed everything was okay and they had both gone on their merry way. It was really that simple.
She knew she couldn't mention that she also knew him through the Order so there was a level of trust already there. Kind of. As much as Moody did trust someone. And it didn't matter anyway because he asked for her and she had done it. He had even had another check up in the meantime which confirmed that all his healing was still going well. So, there was nothing she had missed. Fitzpatrick was going to just have to get over himself.
"Well, fine," he huffed, crossing his arms. "I'll make sure to grab him this time."
She rolled her eyes. "You do that. Can I get back to work now?"