Chapter Sixteen: Gwenog Jones' Good Advice
Series title: Runaway: A Story About Sirius Black and Remus Lupin
Series summary: During the sweltering summer of 1976, Sirius Black leaves one family, joins another, and falls in love.
Series authors: The Runaway Writers
Installment title: Chapter Sixteen: Gwenog Jones' Good Advice
Installment author: magnetic_pole
Word count: 3200
Prologue | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty | Twenty-One | Twenty-Two | Twenty-Three | Twenty-Four | Twenty-Five | Epilogue
Thanks to expositionary for the clear-eyed edit.
Chapter Fifteen: Discord and Dissonance
If Remus Lupin had to make a list-something he does frequently, despite the fact that his friends don’t always like his lists and Sirius frankly despises them-well, if Remus Lupin had to make a list, one of the best things about his summer job waiting tables would be Gwen Jones.
The money would be first on the list, of course. Bloody brilliant, having a few extra Galleons this summer. His mother is always talking about Remus doing well on his NEWTs and getting a good job and keeping hope until they find a cure and that kind of thing, and Remus doesn’t exactly disagree, not really. But privately he sometimes thinks that having a bit of money to spend right now, not at some vague point in the future, is underrated in the Lupin family.
So money would be number one. Getting out of the house and being treated like a responsible adult would be high on the list, too, as would the free milkshakes. But Gwen Jones is unarguably number two, second only to the sounds of coins in his pocket on Monday evenings when the Joneses finished their weekend tallies and paid him for the week. Gwen is twenty-two and pretty and vivacious and confident and talkative. What’s more-and this is the part that impresses James and Peter and Sirius the most-when she is not serving in her parents’ café she plays professional Quidditch--professional, James, that means she’s paid to play Quidditch-for that new all-women’s team, the Holyhead Harpies.
“That’s amazing,” Remus had said shyly his first day on the job, when Gwen had first introduced herself and handed him the mint-green shirt he needed to wear.
Gwen tossed her black curls and squinted at him aggressively. “Are you having me on? Most wizards don’t like the idea of an all-women’s team.”
Remus’ eyes grew wide, and he shook his head vigorously. “No, really. I think it’s brilliant.” He thought about her comment for a moment and then added honestly: “I know not everyone approves, but my mother says that things are changing for the better these days and that we should work hard and feel like we can do whatever we want with our lives no matter what other people say.”
It had come out sounding a little flat--Mrs. Lupin said it so often Remus had more or less memorized this bit of practical philosophy--but Remus still felt it was solid advice.
“Is that what she says?” Gwen smiled sadly in a way that did not make much sense to Remus, but he nodded in response. “And you listen to your mother, Remus Lupin?”
Remus had been quite surprised by this question. “Of course. Don’t you?”
Gwen ruffled his hair and stayed by his side the whole day. She showed him how to balance six plates on the end of his wand and how to spell his quill to take orders--illegal underage magic, Remus worried aloud, but Gwen just winked and reminded him her family had been in Slytherin. She also showed him how to add a Cheering Potion surreptitiously to the drinks of the most demanding customers.
“Don’t fret,” she said when Remus hesitated to add the thick, clear liquid to a Butterbeer. “It’s tasteless and doesn’t last very long, and mostly it’s only the Malfoys and the Yaxleys who need it. They’re so uptight I figure I’m doing them a favor as well as us.”
Remus sniggered and poured the potion. Gwen winked at him when he served it. Mr. Yaxley smiled at him when he brought the bill--something he had never done before--and left an unusually large tip.
Gwen Jones is brilliant, Remus thinks. Let James make disparaging remarks about the sexism of all-women’s teams, and let Pete say whatever he wants about his summer job and the indignity of Hogwarts students waiting tables; they simply weren’t going to have the privilege of hearing first-hand about Gwenog Jones and the Holyhead Harpies. What’s more, Gwen might even give him tickets for a match one day, and James and Peter would be sorry then. He might bring Sirius, though, if Sirius behaves himself with Gwen.
Remus’ heart warms with the thought. Gwenog Jones is not just one of the best things about his summer job, she’s one of the best things ever.
*
Tuesday are the best days of the week, because Tuesdays are the days that Gwen’s parents stay home and let Gwen and Remus run the café. And this Tuesday is even better than most Tuesdays because it’s the day of the Malfoys’ annual garden party, and the café is almost completely empty.
“I love the Malfoys,” Gwen says, collapsing at a table with one of the café’s famous mint milkshakes and a sigh. “They’re so afraid of being left out they invite everyone to their parties. No one left to make our lives difficult.”
Remus has his own mint milkshake. He sips at it happily and nods.
“I went out with Lucius, you know,” Gwen says thoughtfully. “At Hogwarts. Sixth year and part of seventh.”
“Really?” Remus asks. This surprises him. He’s often wondered why Gwen hasn’t married yet, but Lucius Malfoy does not seem her type at all. He’s not sure if it’s polite to ask what happened. He stays quiet. Gwen often tells him things if he just waits.
Gwen laughs a bitter, distanced laugh and sips her milkshake. “Lucius is a Quidditch fanatic, did you know? When he’s not busy kissing arse at the Ministry, that is. In my fifth year I was made the first female Quidditch captain in the history of Slytherin House, and Lucius worshipped me. It sounds silly now, but I thought we might get engaged.”
Remus waits nervously, suddenly anxious about Gwen’s bitter laugh.
“Then one day in seventh year he remembered that my parents work for a living and both my grandfathers were Muggles, and he was engaged to Narcissa within a month,” Gwen says.
Remus tries to imagine why anyone-even someone like Lucius Malfoy-would leave Gwen for Narcissa Black. He can’t quite do it.
“What happened?” he asks meekly.
“Pureblood families,” Gwen says darkly. “Funny how that works. Even when you say you don’t like them, you turn out just the same.”
They sit in silence for a moment, each thinking their own thoughts about Lucius Malfoy. Remus uses his straw to stir the last of his milkshake while he waits to see if Gwen has anything else to say. Gwen frowns and plays with the hem of her mint-green apron, uncharacteristically quiet.
“It all worked out for the best, though,” she says, suddenly cheerful again. “He’s a bit of a prat. I’m sure playing for the Harpies would have been out of the question.”
“Oh!” Remus exclaims. “What would the Harpies have done without you?”
Both of Gwen’s dimples flash, though Remus can’t quite tell if she is laughing at him or with him. “Can you keep a secret, Remus?” she asks.
Remus nods. “I’m good at that.”
“I have another date with the Chudley Cannons keeper this weekend,” Gwen says. “You know, Mills, who just signed on last season? We haven’t told anyone because-well, because he’s with the Cannons. But he’s very nice, and he’s halfblood like me, and he respects women players.”
Remus nods loyally. “Much better than Lucius Malfoy, then, all around.”
“I would have waited for you, Remus,” Gwen says, smiling mischievously. “But you still have years left in school, don’t you?”
Remus blushes so deeply that his ears burn, and Gwen laughs. This time it’s quite clear she’s laughing at him, but Remus doesn’t really care. Gwenog Jones is brilliant.
*
Thanks to the Malfoys, by mid-afternoon there is only one customer in the café, a pale blond girl just about Remus’ age who is sitting by herself at the tables outside. She had ordered a cup of tea and a slice of cake, and when Remus brings both out to her she smiles at him widely.
“My name is Mabel,” she says. She is petite and tidy and well-dressed in starched and fitted robes with intertwined snakes embroidered on the cuffs. She is oddly familiar-looking, but Remus is quite sure they’ve never met before.
“Hello,” he says. “I’m Remus Lupin.”
“I know,” she says.
“Oh,” Remus says, frowning. “How did you know that?”
“I’ve seen you around,” Mabel says, pulling out the chair next to her. “Here, have a seat. No one else is here.”
Remus looks around, but Mabel is indeed the only customer in the café at the moment, and it seems rude to refuse her. He sits after stowing his wand and his order pad and quill in his pocket.
“You’re a friend of Sirius Black, aren’t you?”
Remus nods, uncertain where this conversation is going.
“Do you think he’d be my boyfriend if I asked?”
Remus stares at her. She is pouring milk into her tea with one graceful, thin hand and doesn’t seem to be aware she’s asked anything unusual.
“Do you even know him?” Remus manages after a moment. “I think traditionally wizards get to know the witch a bit, first.”
Mabel smiles. “My family are very direct about these things. I though it might be a good match.”
“Oh,” Remus says. He supposes that she means her family is pureblood, but he is surprised to hear that even teenaged boyfriends and summer romances are something to be arranged so practically. He doesn’t remember Sirius saying anything about her, and he is not happy to discover that he feels a little betrayed about this state of affairs. Probably James got to hear all about it, he thinks more bitterly than usual.
“I met him a few weeks ago, down by the water,” Mabel adds. “He’s quite good-looking, isn’t he? And the Blacks are one of the best families here. My family wouldn’t accept anything else.”
“Oh,” Remus says again, uncertain how to respond. He never forgets that Sirius’ family is…well…whatever Sirius’ family is-pureblood, wealthy, well-connected, crazy-but rarely does he hear this stated so bluntly. It seems impolite to say that he avoids the Black family at all costs, and Sirius doesn’t like it much, either.
Mabel has deep blue eyes and an annoying habit of looking at him very intensely and chewing on her lower lip as if she is thinking very hard about him. Remus squirms a bit under her gaze.
“Perhaps you should ask him yourself,” he says finally. “If he wants to be your boyfriend, that is.”
Mabel tucks a strand of long, blond hair behind her ear and blinks, once.
“He’s not already your boyfriend, then?” she asks conversationally.
“Sorry?” Remus asks.
“Sirius Black isn’t your boyfriend already?” she repeats.
“No!” Remus says immediately, distressed and confused at the same time.
“Are you sure?” Mabel asks calmly, stirring some sugar into her tea and taking a sip. “Ah, steeped too long, I thought so. Really, Remus, house elves know how to do this kind of thing better.”
“Yes, I’m sure!” he says. This seems like the kind of thing that he should know better than Mabel, surely, but Remus is suddenly hesitant and uncertain. “Why do you think he is?” he asks suspiciously, his voice low.
“I saw you at the beach the other day,” Mabel says simply. “You were holding his hand, and I think he tried to kiss you, but you turned your head at the last moment.”
“Shh!” Remus hisses. The tables outside the café suddenly seem very public. “What were you doing? Were you spying on us?”
Mabel samples her cake. “I happened to walk by and see you.”
Remus remembers the trip to the beach, just two days ago. James was teasing Sirius about something, and then Sirius grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the others, back behind the sandcastle they were building, and he hadn’t let go for ages, long past the point when their palms were both sweaty. It seemed harmless enough at the time, in an awkward sort of way.
Mabel glances around the nearby tables and speaks more softly. “You could tell me, you know. I wouldn’t say anything. My brother Simon has a boyfriend this summer, and I haven’t told anyone at all. My parents would be furious. Who knows what would happen.”
Mabel shivers delicately and presses her lips together. Remus is suddenly, inexplicably, very interested in this boy Simon and very worried about the safety of Simon’s secret with Mabel. It also bothers him enormously that he remembers the hand-holding but only Mabel knows about the attempted kiss.
If that’s what it was.
Remus takes a deep breath. He doesn’t actually believe that’s what it was, despite what Mabel says.
Definitely not.
But things look different when he tries to see them from Mabel’s perspective. From Mabel’s perspective things do, in fact, seem a little odd.
“It was a joke,” he explains feebly. “His friends had been teasing him, and…”
Remus trails off and begins to study the table top. He can’t decide if he wants Gwen to come outside asking for him and put a stop to this conversation or stay very, very far away.
Mabel simply looks at him for a moment. Then she takes another sip of her tea. “Your friends weren’t even watching. It didn’t look like a joke to me. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.”
“You don’t understand,” he says firmly. “It wasn’t the way it seemed.”
“Okay,” she says simply. “He’s not your boyfriend. But you don’t think I have much of a chance if I ask him to be my boyfriend, do you?”
Remus shakes his head. “Sirius doesn’t have much time for girls, anyway,” he says.
Mabel lifts her eyebrows. “No?” she says.
Remus feels slightly queasy. “That’s not what I meant. Sirius likes girls. I like girls. We both like girls.”
“Oh,” Mabel says, still staring at him intensely. “Whatever you say. I’ll have to look for someone else.”
They sit in silence for a few minutes while Mabel finishes her tea and cake.
She pulls several Galleons out of her pocket and leaves them on the table as she prepares to leave.
“What about Regulus?” Mabel asks as they both stand. “Does he like girls? Would he be my boyfriend if I asked?”
“Why do you keep talking about liking girls?” Remus demands, folding his arms across his chest. “And why would I know anything about Regulus?”
Mabel’s gaze is making him very uncomfortable. He looks away.
“Ask him yourself,” Remus says crossly, and takes her dirty teacup and plate inside without saying goodbye.
*
“Gwen,” Remus asks as they stand in the kitchens a few minutes later, charming the tea towels to dry the dishes. “Do you think someone holding your hand is a sign that person wants to go out with you?”
“Did that girl hold your hand just now, Remus?” Gwen says, smiling. “Is that why you’re asking me this?”
“Not exactly,” he replies.
“Liar,” Gwen says, rolling her eyes and snapping an uncharmed tea towel at him.
Remus shrugs. “You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to.”
“Yes, Remus,” Gwen says with an exaggerated sigh. “If that pretty young witch held your hand right now, she might want to go on a date with you. In fact, she’s probably waiting for you to ask her, and you’re breaking her heart the way you’re breaking mine.”
“Mabel,” Remus says absently, head spinning. “That’s her name. But, no, I don’t want to go on a date with her.”
He thinks about Sirius and his sweaty palms and the fact that Sirius had not wiped his hand on his swim trunks after he let go of Remus’. He thinks about the fact that he’d much rather have Sirius hold his hand than Mabel. Or even Gwen, as brilliant as Gwen generally is.
Remus stomach now feels the way it did just before OWLS last month. He’s not quite sure what that means. Gwen, however, has already moved on.
“Mabel?” Gwen exclaims. “That was Mabel Malfoy?” Gwen runs to the window to see if she can catch a glimpse of Mabel before she leaves, but she must be too late, because she returns to the kitchens almost immediately. Remus has abandoned the tea towels and the dishes altogether and is now staring at Gwen curiously.
“You do know who Mabel Malfoy is, Remus, don’t you?” Gwen asks on returning, and Remus shakes his head.
“Mabel is Dolus Malfoy’s daughter.”
Remus’ brow furls.
“Dolus Malfoy, the Squib,” Gwen clarifies. “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of Dolus Malfoy.”
“Mabel is a Squib?” Remus asks, sidestepping the question.
Gwen smiles. “I think her parents probably say that she just hasn’t show signs of magic yet. Her father went all the way through Hogwarts without showing many signs of magic.”
“He did?” Remus asks. “How did he get by?” It was possible to be quite slow at Hogwarts-some of his classmates were dismal students, as hard as they tried-but Remus didn’t see how anyone could survive for seven years with no magic at all. That was the kind of secret even he couldn’t keep.
Gwen leans close and whispers into Remus’ ear. “I think his family bribed the Ministry to get the Hogwarts letter sent to him, and then once he was there….”
Remus looks at her, eyes wide. “Yes?”
“He was awful,” Gwen says, her voice dramatically hushed. “All seven years. Rumor has it the family paid off the headmaster every year to keep advancing him. He was ace at arithmancy and runes, though,” she adds, almost as an afterthought.
“What happened to him?” Remus asks.
“He married someone else who hadn’t shown signs of magic yet, and both children turned out to be Squibs, too,” Gwen says. “The family finally cut ties and hadn’t spoken with him since. It was quite a scandal, several years back. Most people haven’t ever seen the children, Simon or Mabel. They’re not received most places.”
Remus frowns, uncertain whether to be outraged on Mabel’s behalf or relieved that the Blacks would have no interest in her as a daughter-in-law. “That’s unfair,” he says, fighting the sense of relief half-heartedly. “Everyone must have known the children would be Squibs.”
Gwen rolls her eyes. “Don’t you know any purebloods, Remus?”
Remus smiles. “Yeah,” he says simply. “They’re all crazy. Each in their own way.”
“Even the ones who want to hold your hand,” Gwen adds, looking at Remus sharply. “Avoid Mabel, Remus. Avoid the Malfoys. Avoid all the pureblood families, if you can. They care about different things from the things that people like us care about.”
Remus nods; Gwen always has good advice. Avoiding Mabel would be easy; she is only interested in purebloods anyway. Avoiding Sirius-
Remus pauses. Avoiding Sirius was another matter altogether. But Remus is also quite sure that Gwen is only talking about holding hands with girls, not boys, and even though Remus has not given this a name yet, he has no intentions of holding hands with girls any time soon.
They finish up the dishes, chatting about the weekend’s customers and the latest sweets they’ve had shipped from Honeydukes, and they count the money in the till twice before Gwen says it is time to go home.
Gwen spells the sign on the door to read: “Closed early. Come again tomorrow!”
They are out on the street when Gwen gives Remus an impulsive hug. After they pull away from one another Remus looks at his feet to hide his blush. This time he’s blushing because he is suddenly wondering if hugging Sirius would be even more brilliant than hugging Gwen. Which is not something she needs to know, and not something Remus necessarily wants to examine more closely himself.
“The next time a pretty girl tries to hold your hand, Remus,” Gwen says, smiling at him, gamely ignoring his awkwardness, “go ahead and ask her on a date. You might even try kissing her if she’s not crazy and pure-blood. That’s usually what hand-holding means.”
Remus does not know what to do with this advice. He walks home slowly, thinking about it.
Chapter Seventeen: At the Crossroads
*
Note: My apologies to the canon purists, but this incarnation of Gwen is about fifteen years older than the one described on the HP Lexicon, and apparently the Holyhead Harpies were not formed in the 1970s. (Though heaven knows they should have been.) Grrr. Where does all this extra canon come from?
Series summary: During the sweltering summer of 1976, Sirius Black leaves one family, joins another, and falls in love.
Series authors: The Runaway Writers
Installment title: Chapter Sixteen: Gwenog Jones' Good Advice
Installment author: magnetic_pole
Word count: 3200
Prologue | One | Two | Three | Four | Five | Six | Seven | Eight | Nine | Ten | Eleven | Twelve | Thirteen | Fourteen | Fifteen | Sixteen | Seventeen | Eighteen | Nineteen | Twenty | Twenty-One | Twenty-Two | Twenty-Three | Twenty-Four | Twenty-Five | Epilogue
Thanks to expositionary for the clear-eyed edit.
Chapter Fifteen: Discord and Dissonance
If Remus Lupin had to make a list-something he does frequently, despite the fact that his friends don’t always like his lists and Sirius frankly despises them-well, if Remus Lupin had to make a list, one of the best things about his summer job waiting tables would be Gwen Jones.
The money would be first on the list, of course. Bloody brilliant, having a few extra Galleons this summer. His mother is always talking about Remus doing well on his NEWTs and getting a good job and keeping hope until they find a cure and that kind of thing, and Remus doesn’t exactly disagree, not really. But privately he sometimes thinks that having a bit of money to spend right now, not at some vague point in the future, is underrated in the Lupin family.
So money would be number one. Getting out of the house and being treated like a responsible adult would be high on the list, too, as would the free milkshakes. But Gwen Jones is unarguably number two, second only to the sounds of coins in his pocket on Monday evenings when the Joneses finished their weekend tallies and paid him for the week. Gwen is twenty-two and pretty and vivacious and confident and talkative. What’s more-and this is the part that impresses James and Peter and Sirius the most-when she is not serving in her parents’ café she plays professional Quidditch--professional, James, that means she’s paid to play Quidditch-for that new all-women’s team, the Holyhead Harpies.
“That’s amazing,” Remus had said shyly his first day on the job, when Gwen had first introduced herself and handed him the mint-green shirt he needed to wear.
Gwen tossed her black curls and squinted at him aggressively. “Are you having me on? Most wizards don’t like the idea of an all-women’s team.”
Remus’ eyes grew wide, and he shook his head vigorously. “No, really. I think it’s brilliant.” He thought about her comment for a moment and then added honestly: “I know not everyone approves, but my mother says that things are changing for the better these days and that we should work hard and feel like we can do whatever we want with our lives no matter what other people say.”
It had come out sounding a little flat--Mrs. Lupin said it so often Remus had more or less memorized this bit of practical philosophy--but Remus still felt it was solid advice.
“Is that what she says?” Gwen smiled sadly in a way that did not make much sense to Remus, but he nodded in response. “And you listen to your mother, Remus Lupin?”
Remus had been quite surprised by this question. “Of course. Don’t you?”
Gwen ruffled his hair and stayed by his side the whole day. She showed him how to balance six plates on the end of his wand and how to spell his quill to take orders--illegal underage magic, Remus worried aloud, but Gwen just winked and reminded him her family had been in Slytherin. She also showed him how to add a Cheering Potion surreptitiously to the drinks of the most demanding customers.
“Don’t fret,” she said when Remus hesitated to add the thick, clear liquid to a Butterbeer. “It’s tasteless and doesn’t last very long, and mostly it’s only the Malfoys and the Yaxleys who need it. They’re so uptight I figure I’m doing them a favor as well as us.”
Remus sniggered and poured the potion. Gwen winked at him when he served it. Mr. Yaxley smiled at him when he brought the bill--something he had never done before--and left an unusually large tip.
Gwen Jones is brilliant, Remus thinks. Let James make disparaging remarks about the sexism of all-women’s teams, and let Pete say whatever he wants about his summer job and the indignity of Hogwarts students waiting tables; they simply weren’t going to have the privilege of hearing first-hand about Gwenog Jones and the Holyhead Harpies. What’s more, Gwen might even give him tickets for a match one day, and James and Peter would be sorry then. He might bring Sirius, though, if Sirius behaves himself with Gwen.
Remus’ heart warms with the thought. Gwenog Jones is not just one of the best things about his summer job, she’s one of the best things ever.
*
Tuesday are the best days of the week, because Tuesdays are the days that Gwen’s parents stay home and let Gwen and Remus run the café. And this Tuesday is even better than most Tuesdays because it’s the day of the Malfoys’ annual garden party, and the café is almost completely empty.
“I love the Malfoys,” Gwen says, collapsing at a table with one of the café’s famous mint milkshakes and a sigh. “They’re so afraid of being left out they invite everyone to their parties. No one left to make our lives difficult.”
Remus has his own mint milkshake. He sips at it happily and nods.
“I went out with Lucius, you know,” Gwen says thoughtfully. “At Hogwarts. Sixth year and part of seventh.”
“Really?” Remus asks. This surprises him. He’s often wondered why Gwen hasn’t married yet, but Lucius Malfoy does not seem her type at all. He’s not sure if it’s polite to ask what happened. He stays quiet. Gwen often tells him things if he just waits.
Gwen laughs a bitter, distanced laugh and sips her milkshake. “Lucius is a Quidditch fanatic, did you know? When he’s not busy kissing arse at the Ministry, that is. In my fifth year I was made the first female Quidditch captain in the history of Slytherin House, and Lucius worshipped me. It sounds silly now, but I thought we might get engaged.”
Remus waits nervously, suddenly anxious about Gwen’s bitter laugh.
“Then one day in seventh year he remembered that my parents work for a living and both my grandfathers were Muggles, and he was engaged to Narcissa within a month,” Gwen says.
Remus tries to imagine why anyone-even someone like Lucius Malfoy-would leave Gwen for Narcissa Black. He can’t quite do it.
“What happened?” he asks meekly.
“Pureblood families,” Gwen says darkly. “Funny how that works. Even when you say you don’t like them, you turn out just the same.”
They sit in silence for a moment, each thinking their own thoughts about Lucius Malfoy. Remus uses his straw to stir the last of his milkshake while he waits to see if Gwen has anything else to say. Gwen frowns and plays with the hem of her mint-green apron, uncharacteristically quiet.
“It all worked out for the best, though,” she says, suddenly cheerful again. “He’s a bit of a prat. I’m sure playing for the Harpies would have been out of the question.”
“Oh!” Remus exclaims. “What would the Harpies have done without you?”
Both of Gwen’s dimples flash, though Remus can’t quite tell if she is laughing at him or with him. “Can you keep a secret, Remus?” she asks.
Remus nods. “I’m good at that.”
“I have another date with the Chudley Cannons keeper this weekend,” Gwen says. “You know, Mills, who just signed on last season? We haven’t told anyone because-well, because he’s with the Cannons. But he’s very nice, and he’s halfblood like me, and he respects women players.”
Remus nods loyally. “Much better than Lucius Malfoy, then, all around.”
“I would have waited for you, Remus,” Gwen says, smiling mischievously. “But you still have years left in school, don’t you?”
Remus blushes so deeply that his ears burn, and Gwen laughs. This time it’s quite clear she’s laughing at him, but Remus doesn’t really care. Gwenog Jones is brilliant.
*
Thanks to the Malfoys, by mid-afternoon there is only one customer in the café, a pale blond girl just about Remus’ age who is sitting by herself at the tables outside. She had ordered a cup of tea and a slice of cake, and when Remus brings both out to her she smiles at him widely.
“My name is Mabel,” she says. She is petite and tidy and well-dressed in starched and fitted robes with intertwined snakes embroidered on the cuffs. She is oddly familiar-looking, but Remus is quite sure they’ve never met before.
“Hello,” he says. “I’m Remus Lupin.”
“I know,” she says.
“Oh,” Remus says, frowning. “How did you know that?”
“I’ve seen you around,” Mabel says, pulling out the chair next to her. “Here, have a seat. No one else is here.”
Remus looks around, but Mabel is indeed the only customer in the café at the moment, and it seems rude to refuse her. He sits after stowing his wand and his order pad and quill in his pocket.
“You’re a friend of Sirius Black, aren’t you?”
Remus nods, uncertain where this conversation is going.
“Do you think he’d be my boyfriend if I asked?”
Remus stares at her. She is pouring milk into her tea with one graceful, thin hand and doesn’t seem to be aware she’s asked anything unusual.
“Do you even know him?” Remus manages after a moment. “I think traditionally wizards get to know the witch a bit, first.”
Mabel smiles. “My family are very direct about these things. I though it might be a good match.”
“Oh,” Remus says. He supposes that she means her family is pureblood, but he is surprised to hear that even teenaged boyfriends and summer romances are something to be arranged so practically. He doesn’t remember Sirius saying anything about her, and he is not happy to discover that he feels a little betrayed about this state of affairs. Probably James got to hear all about it, he thinks more bitterly than usual.
“I met him a few weeks ago, down by the water,” Mabel adds. “He’s quite good-looking, isn’t he? And the Blacks are one of the best families here. My family wouldn’t accept anything else.”
“Oh,” Remus says again, uncertain how to respond. He never forgets that Sirius’ family is…well…whatever Sirius’ family is-pureblood, wealthy, well-connected, crazy-but rarely does he hear this stated so bluntly. It seems impolite to say that he avoids the Black family at all costs, and Sirius doesn’t like it much, either.
Mabel has deep blue eyes and an annoying habit of looking at him very intensely and chewing on her lower lip as if she is thinking very hard about him. Remus squirms a bit under her gaze.
“Perhaps you should ask him yourself,” he says finally. “If he wants to be your boyfriend, that is.”
Mabel tucks a strand of long, blond hair behind her ear and blinks, once.
“He’s not already your boyfriend, then?” she asks conversationally.
“Sorry?” Remus asks.
“Sirius Black isn’t your boyfriend already?” she repeats.
“No!” Remus says immediately, distressed and confused at the same time.
“Are you sure?” Mabel asks calmly, stirring some sugar into her tea and taking a sip. “Ah, steeped too long, I thought so. Really, Remus, house elves know how to do this kind of thing better.”
“Yes, I’m sure!” he says. This seems like the kind of thing that he should know better than Mabel, surely, but Remus is suddenly hesitant and uncertain. “Why do you think he is?” he asks suspiciously, his voice low.
“I saw you at the beach the other day,” Mabel says simply. “You were holding his hand, and I think he tried to kiss you, but you turned your head at the last moment.”
“Shh!” Remus hisses. The tables outside the café suddenly seem very public. “What were you doing? Were you spying on us?”
Mabel samples her cake. “I happened to walk by and see you.”
Remus remembers the trip to the beach, just two days ago. James was teasing Sirius about something, and then Sirius grabbed his hand and pulled him away from the others, back behind the sandcastle they were building, and he hadn’t let go for ages, long past the point when their palms were both sweaty. It seemed harmless enough at the time, in an awkward sort of way.
Mabel glances around the nearby tables and speaks more softly. “You could tell me, you know. I wouldn’t say anything. My brother Simon has a boyfriend this summer, and I haven’t told anyone at all. My parents would be furious. Who knows what would happen.”
Mabel shivers delicately and presses her lips together. Remus is suddenly, inexplicably, very interested in this boy Simon and very worried about the safety of Simon’s secret with Mabel. It also bothers him enormously that he remembers the hand-holding but only Mabel knows about the attempted kiss.
If that’s what it was.
Remus takes a deep breath. He doesn’t actually believe that’s what it was, despite what Mabel says.
Definitely not.
But things look different when he tries to see them from Mabel’s perspective. From Mabel’s perspective things do, in fact, seem a little odd.
“It was a joke,” he explains feebly. “His friends had been teasing him, and…”
Remus trails off and begins to study the table top. He can’t decide if he wants Gwen to come outside asking for him and put a stop to this conversation or stay very, very far away.
Mabel simply looks at him for a moment. Then she takes another sip of her tea. “Your friends weren’t even watching. It didn’t look like a joke to me. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.”
“You don’t understand,” he says firmly. “It wasn’t the way it seemed.”
“Okay,” she says simply. “He’s not your boyfriend. But you don’t think I have much of a chance if I ask him to be my boyfriend, do you?”
Remus shakes his head. “Sirius doesn’t have much time for girls, anyway,” he says.
Mabel lifts her eyebrows. “No?” she says.
Remus feels slightly queasy. “That’s not what I meant. Sirius likes girls. I like girls. We both like girls.”
“Oh,” Mabel says, still staring at him intensely. “Whatever you say. I’ll have to look for someone else.”
They sit in silence for a few minutes while Mabel finishes her tea and cake.
She pulls several Galleons out of her pocket and leaves them on the table as she prepares to leave.
“What about Regulus?” Mabel asks as they both stand. “Does he like girls? Would he be my boyfriend if I asked?”
“Why do you keep talking about liking girls?” Remus demands, folding his arms across his chest. “And why would I know anything about Regulus?”
Mabel’s gaze is making him very uncomfortable. He looks away.
“Ask him yourself,” Remus says crossly, and takes her dirty teacup and plate inside without saying goodbye.
*
“Gwen,” Remus asks as they stand in the kitchens a few minutes later, charming the tea towels to dry the dishes. “Do you think someone holding your hand is a sign that person wants to go out with you?”
“Did that girl hold your hand just now, Remus?” Gwen says, smiling. “Is that why you’re asking me this?”
“Not exactly,” he replies.
“Liar,” Gwen says, rolling her eyes and snapping an uncharmed tea towel at him.
Remus shrugs. “You don’t have to believe me if you don’t want to.”
“Yes, Remus,” Gwen says with an exaggerated sigh. “If that pretty young witch held your hand right now, she might want to go on a date with you. In fact, she’s probably waiting for you to ask her, and you’re breaking her heart the way you’re breaking mine.”
“Mabel,” Remus says absently, head spinning. “That’s her name. But, no, I don’t want to go on a date with her.”
He thinks about Sirius and his sweaty palms and the fact that Sirius had not wiped his hand on his swim trunks after he let go of Remus’. He thinks about the fact that he’d much rather have Sirius hold his hand than Mabel. Or even Gwen, as brilliant as Gwen generally is.
Remus stomach now feels the way it did just before OWLS last month. He’s not quite sure what that means. Gwen, however, has already moved on.
“Mabel?” Gwen exclaims. “That was Mabel Malfoy?” Gwen runs to the window to see if she can catch a glimpse of Mabel before she leaves, but she must be too late, because she returns to the kitchens almost immediately. Remus has abandoned the tea towels and the dishes altogether and is now staring at Gwen curiously.
“You do know who Mabel Malfoy is, Remus, don’t you?” Gwen asks on returning, and Remus shakes his head.
“Mabel is Dolus Malfoy’s daughter.”
Remus’ brow furls.
“Dolus Malfoy, the Squib,” Gwen clarifies. “Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of Dolus Malfoy.”
“Mabel is a Squib?” Remus asks, sidestepping the question.
Gwen smiles. “I think her parents probably say that she just hasn’t show signs of magic yet. Her father went all the way through Hogwarts without showing many signs of magic.”
“He did?” Remus asks. “How did he get by?” It was possible to be quite slow at Hogwarts-some of his classmates were dismal students, as hard as they tried-but Remus didn’t see how anyone could survive for seven years with no magic at all. That was the kind of secret even he couldn’t keep.
Gwen leans close and whispers into Remus’ ear. “I think his family bribed the Ministry to get the Hogwarts letter sent to him, and then once he was there….”
Remus looks at her, eyes wide. “Yes?”
“He was awful,” Gwen says, her voice dramatically hushed. “All seven years. Rumor has it the family paid off the headmaster every year to keep advancing him. He was ace at arithmancy and runes, though,” she adds, almost as an afterthought.
“What happened to him?” Remus asks.
“He married someone else who hadn’t shown signs of magic yet, and both children turned out to be Squibs, too,” Gwen says. “The family finally cut ties and hadn’t spoken with him since. It was quite a scandal, several years back. Most people haven’t ever seen the children, Simon or Mabel. They’re not received most places.”
Remus frowns, uncertain whether to be outraged on Mabel’s behalf or relieved that the Blacks would have no interest in her as a daughter-in-law. “That’s unfair,” he says, fighting the sense of relief half-heartedly. “Everyone must have known the children would be Squibs.”
Gwen rolls her eyes. “Don’t you know any purebloods, Remus?”
Remus smiles. “Yeah,” he says simply. “They’re all crazy. Each in their own way.”
“Even the ones who want to hold your hand,” Gwen adds, looking at Remus sharply. “Avoid Mabel, Remus. Avoid the Malfoys. Avoid all the pureblood families, if you can. They care about different things from the things that people like us care about.”
Remus nods; Gwen always has good advice. Avoiding Mabel would be easy; she is only interested in purebloods anyway. Avoiding Sirius-
Remus pauses. Avoiding Sirius was another matter altogether. But Remus is also quite sure that Gwen is only talking about holding hands with girls, not boys, and even though Remus has not given this a name yet, he has no intentions of holding hands with girls any time soon.
They finish up the dishes, chatting about the weekend’s customers and the latest sweets they’ve had shipped from Honeydukes, and they count the money in the till twice before Gwen says it is time to go home.
Gwen spells the sign on the door to read: “Closed early. Come again tomorrow!”
They are out on the street when Gwen gives Remus an impulsive hug. After they pull away from one another Remus looks at his feet to hide his blush. This time he’s blushing because he is suddenly wondering if hugging Sirius would be even more brilliant than hugging Gwen. Which is not something she needs to know, and not something Remus necessarily wants to examine more closely himself.
“The next time a pretty girl tries to hold your hand, Remus,” Gwen says, smiling at him, gamely ignoring his awkwardness, “go ahead and ask her on a date. You might even try kissing her if she’s not crazy and pure-blood. That’s usually what hand-holding means.”
Remus does not know what to do with this advice. He walks home slowly, thinking about it.
Chapter Seventeen: At the Crossroads
*
Note: My apologies to the canon purists, but this incarnation of Gwen is about fifteen years older than the one described on the HP Lexicon, and apparently the Holyhead Harpies were not formed in the 1970s. (Though heaven knows they should have been.) Grrr. Where does all this extra canon come from?