Chapter Text
From what Mary had been told, Remus had been locked in his apartment for the past three weeks. She'd been putting off visiting since she'd gotten back from her little holiday, and just now managed to show up to his apartment building. She stood outside the door now, cloaked in a black winter jacket and woolen hat due to the November chill. She’d paced the hallway for a good five minutes, down to the staircase and back to Remus’s door. A fat little man with a cigar hanging out of his mouth came out of his apartment, and coughed loudly.
“Who the hell are you?” he asked, stopping at the top of the stairs.
“I’m a friend of the man who lives in this apartment,” Mary said, carefully, “I’m here to visit him.”
“The one with the long hair or the one with the scars?” he asked. Mary didn’t feel like responding. So she let him go down the stairs, the smell of cigar smoke following him as he went. She stood at the thin wood door for a few more minutes, studying the lines of the cheap wood and the little metal-and-glass peephole. She lifted her arm with a sigh and knocked on the door, relishing in the shake of the thin frame.
“Open up, Remus Lupin!” She shouted, rapping smartly on the door, “I know you're in there and I know where the spare key is!”
Another one of Remus’s neighbors came out to see the racket she was causing. A thin woman in her fifties and a ugly blue sweater.
“Are you one of his girlfriends?” she asked.
“He doesn't have a girlfriend,” Mary told her, “I'm just checking up on him.”
“Why are you checking up on him?” She asked, leaning on the door frame. Mary ignored her, and hit the door harder.
“Your annoying neighbor is interrogating me!” Mary shouted to Remus. A horrible thought sprouted in her head. What if Remus was dead on the other side of the door? What if he’d decided that without Lily, or Marlene, or James, or Sirius, this life just wasn’t worth living. Mary couldn’t say she hadn’t, especially after Marlene had been found dead with the rest of her family. She made a promise to herself right then, outside of Remus’s shitty apartment. Whatever fate Remus Lupin met, she would follow in his footsteps. If he was dead on the other side of the thin wooden door, then she too would die. With that, she charmed the door open.
He was there, and he was alive, but barely. He lay on the couch, surrounded by empty bottles and cigarette butts. His eyes were open, but red and puffy. The whole room smelled awful.
“Oh, Remus,” Mary’s voice was low and shaky. Remus looked so vulnerable at that moment, “What have you done to yourself?”
The lanky man sat up, “Mary?” He croaked, “What are you doing here?”
She sighed, “I’m here to check on you. Arthur sent me,” She took a deep breath and blinked furiously, “From what he said, you’ve been locked up here since Halloween.”
“Where were you?” He asked, looking around the apartment, “Who told you?”
“I went to Jamaica,” she said, “didn’t really feel like sticking around here. But I see that that was a mistake now. You needed the support.”
“God,” He put his hands to his temples, “I’ve the worst headache. What day is it?”
“November 11th,” She said, gingerly moving an empty bottle of fire whiskey to sit down next to him, “They’ve been-” her voice broke, “well, you know.”
He put his arm around her shoulder, and rested his head on top of hers, “yeah.” They sat like that for quite a long time. One of them began to cry first. It didn’t matter because at the end of the night, both of them were sobbing on the floor.
“Why was it us that was left,” Mary hiccuped into the sheer sleeve of her winter jacket, that she still hadn’t taken off. Remus embraced her, an unlit cigarette in his right hand. He’d been unable to light it because he’d been shaking so bad, “We don’t love each other. Half the time, I don’t even want to be alive.”
“It should’ve been Lily and James, if there could only have only been two to survive. They were the ones with the-” His voice trailed off, “What happened to Harry?!”
“What?” Mary looked at him.
“What did they do with Harry?” He asked, shrugging Mary off of him, and standing up, “Arthur said he was alive, when he came to tell me. Where did they put him?”
It was moments like these that Mary wished she was taller. She was only 5’3, and was sure that Remus was going to do something stupid. She wanted to be able to stop him from doing whatever it was. He was in that sort of state of mind where anything he’d do couldn’t be good. If she were taller, if she were stronger, if she were a man, she’d be able to stop him. Sirius was typically the one to stop him, but he was- Sirius was unavailable.
“Remus,” she stepped in front of him, “what are you doing?”
“Where is Harry?” He asked, “What did Dumbledore do to him?”
“He’s with Lily’s sister,” Mary told him, “Petunia Dursley.”
Remus grabbed his jacket off of the kitchen table, and pulled the apartment keys out of the pocket, “Where does she live?”
“I really don’t think that’s-”
“Mary,” Remus looked at her, a pleading look in his eyes, “Please.”
She sighed, “Anything for our Moony.”