so in love with you // sirius black

chapter 40

12 years later

  There was a soft dinging sound as someone pushed open the door of the bookstore. I glanced up from my spot behind the desk and saw Remus Lupin standing in the doorway.

  "Morning," I said, setting aside the book that I had been reading.

  "I have good news and bad news," He announced walking up to the desk and leaning on it.

  "Do tell."

  "I got a job teaching at Hogwarts this year"

"Remus that's amazing, you've wanted this forever!" I hugged him.

"I'm not sure how long it will last, with my condition and everything."

"Remus it will be fine, you'll be amazing," I reassured him. "So I'm assuming that was the good news, do I want to know the bad news?"

  "Probably not," Remus said dropping today's newspaper on the desk. 

There staring up at me from the front page was Sirius Black. I fell back onto my chair, my hand immediately reaching up to the necklace that was hidden behind my shirt.

  "He escaped?" I whispered. Remus just nodded. "Really?"

"Really."

"I can't deal with this today," I muttered. "I can't deal with this ever."

   I was hit with a sickening wave of memories. The strongest was the feeling of betrayal as McGonagall broke the news. There's always been a small part of me that thinks he could be innocent, that's why I still wore the necklace he gave me, why I had put my engagement ring on the chain of it, but I knew he had to be guilty. There was no other explanation.

  "They say he's after Harry," Remus said a couple of minutes later. My head snapped up.

  "Are you serious?"

   "I wish I wasn't."

   "We have to do something."

  "Maude there's nothing for us to do. Harry doesn't even know who we are, let alone who Sirius is.  And the ministry is sending Dementors, we can only hope that will be enough."

  "Dementors! Are you serious?"

  "Unfortunately." We fell into silence for a moment until a customer came up to the desk. "Well I should get going"

  "Bye Remus"

  I turned and got the customer checked out, and soon the store was empty and I was lost in my own thoughts.

  I glanced around the small bookstore, it had basically been my life for the last twelve years. After Lily and James's death, I had returned home and lived with my Mum for about a year. She tried her best to help me through everything, but it wasn't something that went away in a summer. After that, I came to Hogsmeade and got a job here in this very bookstore. The darkness followed me and I spent years alone, not even talking to Remus, which may be my biggest regret. Five years ago the owners of the book shop passed and left me in charge. I went to therapy and reached out to Remus, I wasn't recovered, not even a little bit, but things slowly got better.

  I truly spent most of my time working, or at home, which was basically the same thing seeing as I lived above the shop. Any free time I had, I spent with Remus, I helped him at the full moons, he helped navigate the store, and together we worked through the death of our friends. The two of us had tried many times to get in contact with Harry,  but the Dursleys never let us see him. 

The past two years had been hard, knowing Harry was up there at the castle and I could do nothing to go see him. I knew that this year he was old enough to visit Hogsmeade so I was hoping he'd stumble into the shop one day, but that seemed unlikely now that Sirius was on the loose.