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Remus was hurrying down the street to the small restaurant he was meeting his healer at. His last class had run a bit too long and even though he had texted Lily he’d be late, she had already been on her way. He knew she wouldn’t be mad at him, she was a very nice, if fierce, woman, but he hated making the few people that he met on the regular waiting.
He turned a corner and finally spotted the restaurant. It was one of their favourites, and as it was close to both their homes, they often chose to have their check-ins there. Remus couldn’t say he was missing St Mungo’s, and he had practically jumped on the idea when Lily had mentioned she’d rather do their meetings outside of the hospital as he wasn’t actually sick.
Remus looked through the windows of the restaurant and soon spotted Lily’s red hair. She was sitting at a table close to the windows and looking at the menu. Not that she needed it, she always ordered the same. He entered the restaurant and made his way towards her.
‘Hello, sorry I’m late, Hunt wouldn’t shut up about nineteenth century Russian literature,’ he greeted her, plopping down on the chair opposite her.
‘Don’t worry, it was nice having a few minutes to myself for once, and I only got here two minutes ago. I stopped by the park,’ she explained at Remus’ raised eyebrow.
‘Well then, should I just leave you to have some alone time?’ Remus teased, stealing the menu from her. He received an eyeroll from Lily, but she let him scan the daily menu in silence.
The waiter came around a few minutes later and they both ordered, then Lily leaned in, her eyes focused on Remus.
‘How was the last full?’ she whispered low enough that only Remus would hear the question.
Remus contemplated it for a few moments. ‘It was pretty okay. I don’t remember much, but it wasn’t even as painful as a few months ago. I just slept well into the afternoon, and when I woke up my bones and muscles didn’t hurt at all. A bit sore, sure, but no pain.’
Lily gave him a bright smile. ‘Oh, good. Looks like the last modification worked wonders, then.’
‘It did. I really can’t complain about anything anymore, maybe just the hunger. I ate two days’ worth of food after I woke up.’ He shuddered, remembering how sick he’d become after wolfing down all that food.
‘Well, I can’t do anything about that,’ Lily said apologetically. ‘Maybe eat more in the days leading up to- you know.’
‘I’m already doing that, but it doesn’t exactly help.’ He stopped when the waiter brought around their drinks and waited until he was gone again. ‘Doesn’t matter how much I eat before, I’m always incredibly hungry the day after.’
‘Hm. I’ll ask my other patients how they are dealing with that and I’ll get back to you,’ Lily promised, then grinned devilishly. ‘Now, tell me all the gossip you have.’
Remus groaned. ‘What gossip do you expect from me? I go to class, only talk to a handful of people, then go home to my flat. I sometimes call Ma because otherwise she says I’m ignoring her, but there’s nothing to say about that.’
‘Come on, Re, there must be something you can tell me!’ she exclaimed. ‘I need some good gossip, and lately no one delivers. Okay, no, my husband’s best friend does have some drama going on, but that’s more troubling than anything. Marls and Dorcas are travelling, Alice and Frank are sickeningly cute, Pete and Mary are getting boringly domestic…’ She trailed off, looking at Remus expectantly.
‘I really don’t have anything for you,’ Remus swore, though the picture of a certain dark-haired, tattooed and pierced man popped up in his mind. Lily would love to hear about that, but he wasn’t sure what ‘that’ was just yet.
‘There must be a cute guy or girl in one of your classes. Or at the grocery shop,’ she suggested, wiggling her eyebrows.
‘Well, even if there were, you know they would ask too many questions about my scars and I would have to break it off sooner rather than later, so there’s no point starting anything in the first place.’ Remus fiddled with his utensils, then took a sip of his drink.
Before Lily could answer, their food arrived, and she waited until the waiter went away. They dug in and ate in silence for a few moments, but then Lily looked up from her plate and dead into Remus’ eyes. ‘You know I can tell you’re keeping something from me, right?’
Remus groaned into his pasta. Lily was always way too observant for her own good.
‘Come on, what is it?’ she went on when he refused to answer, then grabbed Remus’ glass before he could hide behind it by pretending to drink. ‘No, I want the gossip! Promise I won’t tell anyone.’
‘You’re the worst,’ Remus groaned.
Lily watched him expectantly.
‘Fine, Merlin, I can’t eat while you stare at me like that.’
‘Good man,’ Lily grinned, handing his glass back to Remus.
Remus took a sip, then a bite of his pasta, trying to prolong the peace. Lily cleared her throat, and he started speaking with a sigh. ‘Okay, so, I’m not sure if it will lead to anywhere, but I kinda met someone?’
Lily almost screeched but stifled the sound with a hand in front of her mouth. ‘You met someone? Wait, why did it sound like a question?’
‘I haven’t actually met them in person,’ he confessed, ‘so I couldn’t say I properly met them.’
Lily looked gleeful. ‘Oh, but then how? Are you taking an online class, or something?’
Remus dropped his head in his hands and mumbled, ‘They texted me by accident.’
‘I’m sorry but you’ll have to repeat that a bit more loudly because my hearing is merely human,’ Lily teased, even though she managed to decipher the words.
Remus glared at her, but conceded. ‘They. Texted. Me. By accident,’ he enunciated the words in an exaggerated fashion, making Lily roll her eyes at him.
‘People really do that still? I mean, sure, my grandma sometimes mixes up the digits, but she uses a landline, for Merlin’s sake.’ She twisted her fork in the spaghetti and brought it up to her mouth, sucking the long pieces of pasta in. ‘So, they texted you by accident, and you let it go on longer than just telling them they messed up the number and to fuck off? I’m proud of you, young padawan.’
It was Remus’ turn to roll his eyes. ‘I’m not a total knobhead, you know, even if I was working on a paper when they first texted me.’
Lily raised an eyebrow. ‘First? What, have you been texting since… when, exactly?’
‘Week and a half? And no, not constantly. We only texted on three occasions.’
‘Three times in a week and a half? I’m impressed.’ She nodded.
Remus shrugged. ‘Well, they mentioned something the first time, then texted to update me on it for some unfathomable reason the morning after the full, then yesterday I texted them to ask how something they had dreaded had gone on the weekend.’
‘Wow, that sounds thoughtful. You like them that much, eh?’ She wiggled her eyebrows at Remus, pointing at him with her fork.
‘They sound funny over text,’ he said, avoiding her eyes.
‘Remus John Lupin, you fancy this person!’ Lily accused. ‘Though are we using they/them because that’s their pronouns, because you don’t want to tell me their gender, or because you yourself don’t know their pronouns?’
‘Kind of the last two, I guess.’
‘Kind of.’
Remus groaned. ‘Okay, we never talked about our pronouns, even if they used language upon which I have an assumption, but I want to stick to gender neutral pronouns in case my assumption is wrong.’
Lily cackled up. ‘Ever the gentleman, even when he has to put up with random strangers who text him because they aren’t familiar with numbers.’
‘You know we’re here to discuss my condition, and not for you to make fun of me because you’re bored, right?’
‘I’m sorry, but you signed up for this the first time we met outside of a professional environment.’
‘You could have at least warned me what friendship with you would entail.’
‘Nah. Anyway, don’t try to change the topic.’ Lily finished the last of her pasta, then took a large sip of her lemonade. ‘So, texted three times, what else? Do you have a picture? What do they do? What do you know about them aside from being funny, which, really, is subjective?’
‘I know their name, for starters.’
Lily’s eyes lit up. ‘Have you stalked them on social yet? You need to show me a picture.’
‘First of all, no, and I don’t think they’re on Facebook or Instagram as they’re a pureblood. Second, you’ll see them if I ever decide to introduce you. I don’t need you in their DMs interrogating them.’
Lily pouted, then her eyes went wide. ‘Pureblood, you say? Purebloods don’t even use Muggle tech.’
‘Your husband is a pureblood that has a phone,’ Remus pointed out.
‘Fine, true. That reminds me, you should come over sometime, it’s long overdue.’ She waved over the waiter, who took their empty plates and their dessert order. ‘Now, back to Mx. Mysterious.’
‘You’re awful.’
Lily just grinned, sipping her lemonade.
‘I don’t know what you want to know, really.’
‘Their name, maybe? If they’re pureblood, chances are I know them from school and I can factcheck for you.’
‘I’ve already consulted three different books on the Sacred 28. They are who they say they are.’
‘Oh, so Sacred 28.’ Lily smirked. ‘There aren’t many people among the Sacred 28 that have a Muggle phone, thank you for narrowing it down so much.’
‘Lily, please. I’ve known them for a week and a half, let me get to know them on my on a bit because they are actually someone I want to get to know.’
Lily’s expression went soft. ‘Sorry. If it’s any consolation, all the people in the Sacred 28 families that I know have a phone are all pretty great, and whoever your pen pal is, chances are, they’re a decent person.’
‘Yeah, that’s what I gathered from them across the texts.’ He took advantage of the desserts arriving and focused on his chocolate cake instead of looking up at Lily.
‘Thanks, this looks delicious,’ Lily told their waiter and quickly dived in. ‘Don’t think I didn’t notice you avoiding looking at me again.’
Remus groaned and swore at himself under his breath. Lily was way too observant for her own good. ‘I may have told them about my condition.’
This time, Lily did shriek and her fork fall to the plate with a loud clank. ‘You did what?’
Remus rubbed his eyes. ‘We traded secrets, like their name for my condition. And before you ask, they were probably even angrier at the government and their stupid rules about my kind than you tend to get.’
‘That sounds way too good to be true. Next thing you know, they’ll ask to meet up so they can kill you for what you are,’ she scoffed.
‘I think it was genuine,’ Remus mumbled around a mouthful of chocolate cake.
Lily narrowed her eyes. ‘Oh god, you agreed to meet them.’ She rubbed her temple. ‘I’m coming with you.’
Remus shook his head. ‘No, you’re not. I know for a fact that you’ve got another patient catch-up when I’m meeting them. Anyway, we’ll meet at the Leaky Cauldron, I doubt they’d try anything there.’
‘Well, for the record, I don’t like it. At least text me when you go and check in regularly, so I know you’re still alive.’
‘Fine,’ Remus agreed.
Still, the frown took a while longer to leave Lily’s face.
‘How’s the fudge?’ Remus asked a few minutes later when he couldn’t take the quiet anymore. ‘As good as always?’
Lily nodded but didn’t say anything.
‘Come on, it’s not like I can’t protect myself. It’ll be alright. You keep telling me I should meet new people, anyway. Well, you and Ma both.’
‘Yeah, but meeting a pureblood who knows your condition is a bit too reckless. I’ve seen James do a lot of stupid things when we were still at school, but this takes the cake, really.’
‘Your husband is an illegal Animagus even though he’s an Auror! That’s a lot riskier than meeting a stranger. Like, Azkaban-level of risky.’
‘He is registered with his department, he’s just not on the public list for safety reasons,’ Lily protested.
Remus lifted and eyebrow. ‘Since when? Just a couple weeks ago you were worried he’d get in trouble for it.’
‘He told his supervisor about a month ago, I think.’ She exhaled loudly through her nose. ‘I still can’t believe it took him this long, and his bloody brother is still not registered. Quite the examples for Harry.’
Remus breathed out a surprised laugh.
‘It really isn’t funny.’ She pinched the bridge of her nose. ‘Their latest idiocy is that they’re convinced they could spend the full with a wolf even if the wolf isn’t on Wolfsbane.’
‘Where did that come from?’ Remus asked, nonplussed.
‘No clue. My brother-in-law just asked me out of the blue when he came over this morning to babysit Harry.’
‘They really are idiots. Harry’s lucky you have some common sense,’ Remus observed, licking the last of his chocolate cake off the fork.
‘Yes. Now you see why I’m in dire need of some good gossip, because all I get from them is a headache.’
Remus snorted. ‘You speak way too fondly about them for me to believe you.’
She stuck out her tongue but stayed silent, only speaking up a few moments later, when they both had finished their drinks. ‘Now, this was a very successful meeting in my opinion, though I’m still not convinced you’re not walking into your own death when you meet your stranger.’
‘Calm down, Lils, it’ll go okay, and if it doesn’t, I can just apparate away.’
‘You’d better. Now, I’m afraid our time’s up, but I’ll see you soon, right? Maybe you’ll finally meet Jamie and Harry, too, now that you’re in a mood for strangers,’ she teased.
‘I rest my case, you’re awful.’ Ha handed a few pounds to Lily, who took care of their bill, then leaned down to hug her. ‘I’ll be safe, I promise.’
‘Good. See you, Rem.’
‘See you.’