Chapter Text
December 1987
Remus looked at the nearly empty shelves at his local shop, he was looking for a gift to send to his sister, Vanora, and her fiancé, Malcom. He had only started talking to Vanora again around two years ago, when he got his life back together, and he couldn’t blame anyone but himself for not responding to the letters, postcards, gifts, or even him falling out of contact with anyone, because he didn’t know how to handle his emotions.
Even though he can barely remember his life between late 1981 and early 1984, he remembers when Mary would stay at his flat, and try to help him take care of himself even though she was also grieving the loss of multiple people, she helped him, and he never knew how she was able to, and he admired her for it. It had been almost eight years since he had seen her, it amazes him that she was strong enough to deal with the deaths of almost all of her friends, and help Remus try to get back on to his feet.
Yes, she left an address for him to send letters, but that was lost within the first week of her being gone, it most likely fell off the table, and gotten lost with one of the alcohol bottles, and it was way too late to reach out now anyway.
There was not much at the shop he was at so he left and started going on his way to the shop down the street, when his nose got a hit with a hint of magic. He looked around, trying to find the person but couldn’t identify who it was. He had missed the smell of the magical world, even though it made his heart ache a little, just like the way he gets when he passes by a Chess store while on his way to work and gets reminded of Peter, or when he sees a muggle sport he thinks James would like and tell himself to tell James about it, but then remembers he can’t anymore, or when he sees a shop he thinks Lily would love, or when the radio plays a song that Sirius used to blast on his record player at Hogwarts.
Apparently Remus wasn’t paying attention to where he was going because he had bumped into someone who was digging through her bag. He walked right into them, knocking the bag and a few of their belongings onto the ground.
“Oh shit I’m sorry, I wasn’t loo-“ Remus was cut off “Oh no it’s fine” Remus picked up a few of the “stranger’s” things from the ground, and went to give them back when he noticed the scent of magic was lingering from them, “No it’s my fault-“ He was cut off again. “Remus?”
What the fuck? Why did this “stranger” know his name? Why does that voice sound so familiar? Like he had heard it years ago. When he got a good look at the stranger he realized that it was no stranger, but it was in fact someone he was friends with for years.
“Mary?” Remus questioned, even though he knew who it was, he mostly said it as he realized who he had bumped into.