My heart is a ghost town

TAG: @caerus | OUTFIT

The thunderstorm raging outside was particularly troublesome tonight.

It wasn’t as if Remy had never been on the Estate during a storm. How many holidays had she spent here thanks to the good graces of the Notts (Caerus, especially)? Too many to count. During those holidays, had been storms, of course. But tonight’s was loud and the booming seemed to echo ominously through the stone halls keeping Remington awake. She assumed it had something to do with the humidity and the change of weather, though she wouldn’t count herself among muggle meteorologists.

As she turned over in the overly large canopied bed, the lightning outside illuminated the curtains in the room, sending strange shadows creeping across the floor and bedspread. Rem squeezed her eyes shut. She wasn’t scared, she quickly reminded herself. That would be ridiculous. Being frightened of a thunderstorm was something that seven-year-old little girls did.

They were more than willing to host her so she wouldn’t have to go to that godforsaken orphanage and degrade herself with the rest of those…orphans. Sometimes, the thought of what she was made her sick to her stomach. There were always days when Rem imagined what it would be like if both of her parents weren’t dead. What life would have been like if she was the daughter of two notoriously insane Death Eaters? She imagined her father would be something akin to Rabastan Lestrange — suave, but somehow terribly dangerous. Perhaps her mother would have been more like Andromeda herself…or even like Anicka Wentzell. Or perhaps they were horrible people.

Remington turned over again, restless in her bed. The lightning lit up the room again and this time, she sat straight up. She could feel her skin prickling, the hair on her arm rising to new heights. For a split second, she considered throwing her pillow at the window and demanding that Mother Nature stop this madness, but she knew it would do no good. Nature would continue its course, no matter what sort of tantrum she threw.

Perhaps a glass of water would do her good, she thought, sliding out of bed. Warm feet hit cold floor and she wrapped her arms around her body as she padded to the hallway. Her door creaked and the girl froze, watching Rhea’s door from across the hallway, but there was no movement. The girl was obviously untroubled by the storm. Quickly, Rem darted into the hallway and began her descent down the stairs, but another flash of lightning made her stop. Was Caerus’ door open…? She thought, moving quietly a few steps back up.

Something was definitely moving inside.

Did the castle have ghosts? Surely someone would have told her about ghosts, wouldn’t they? Morgana below, she should have done more research…Remington’s heartbeat quickened as she crept forward towards Caerus’ room. What was she going to do when she got there? She was unarmed — her wand was back in the room — all she could do was scream and alert the rest of the castle…that was a plan, right?

In a few moments, she was poised in front of the door, standing on her tip toes as she pushed the door open with a loud, ominous creak. At that moment, the lightning lit up the room and Remy realized that there was indeed someone standing on the opposite side of the room. She drew in a breath, prepared to alert the rest of the castle that someone had broken in when she realized that mop of hair was familiar…especially mussed as it was. “Caerus?” Her voice was annoyed. “What are you doing?” Her voice was hardly more than a hissing whisper. “I thought you were a murderer!”

ghost town
Tag: remy	outfit

Caerus was finally and officially done with Hogwarts and he had to admit, it felt good. It felt good to know that he would not have to pack up and go to school this autumn. He never had to go back. It wasn’t like he’d hated the place or anything. It had just gotten boring. He didn’t like being cooped up. There were only so many ways he could amuse himself there, and the options were endless out in the real world. Of course, he hadn’t known just what he was going to do with his newfound freedom. His father wanted him to have a plan. He wanted him to have ideas, and ambitions, and they all had to be nice and appropriate. But he was not Ophion. He had no plans in following their father’s footsteps into the Ministry. Oph had finished Lufkin, and what had he decided to do? He had decided to take a job in the department of health and human services. Personally, he could barely even say the name of that department without yawning. The Ministry was just not in his future. His goals were in some ways more ambitious, and in some ways… less. Or at least, less appropriate than his father would have liked. He was going to go to school, sure. He’d gotten into the University of Bangor, which was more prestigious than Lufkin University--which did wonders on his ego. And he was in talks as far as Quidditch went. There was a reserve position open on the Bats, and he knew that the window of accepting that was closing now that the league season had started up. He thought that he really wanted to take it. He just… wasn’t sure yet. Something was holding him back from making a solid decision, and he thought that he really just needed to stop listening to his father tell him that it was a horrible idea. Playing Quidditch professionally wasn’t bad. Sure, it wasn’t joining the most boring department in the Ministry like Ophion had done, but it wasn’t like he was deciding to be a rockstar or something. He would make good money, and he’d have a university degree too when he got done at U of B. He thought that it was a pretty good idea but he still hadn’t made a solid decision one way or another. That was a decision for next week. Hopefully. He was just glad that he was free of Hogwarts and able to actually make those decisions. He was liking freedom so far--and he was glad that Remy was here. The castle was big enough for all of them, and he thought that she was much better off here than at the orphanage. It was just common sense to him. She was sort of like family anyway--not like she was his sister or anything, obviously, but he knew that his parents cared about her and didn’t want her back in the orphanage either. He had to admit that it was nice having her around, especially since she would be going back to Hogwarts this autumn and he wouldn’t be able to see her as easily after that. It would be odd after always having her around. Sure, they’d been in different houses but they’d still seen each other plenty at school and that wouldn’t be the case this year. But it was only June. He didn’t even have to think about that yet. She’d been here all summer--hell, maybe he’d even be sick of her by the end of it. Probably not. But he’d likely get tired of her and Rhea ganging up on him with their little remarks. Somehow their witty remarks were wittier around each other, apparently. They certainly seemed to think that they were amusing anyway. Tonight had been a good night though. Relaxing. Especially once the rain had started. He’d had the window open for a while--with a charm on it to make sure that the water didn’t actually get inside, but it made it easier to hear the thunder, and he thought that was quite a nice way to sleep. But as the night went on, and the storm got stronger, he realized that maybe he should close the window. Or his mum would never let him hear the end of it when the charm’s effect wore off and he ended up ruining something in his room by letting the rain in. He’d been heading toward the window to close it when he heard a familiar voice. “Jesus, Rem!” He hadn’t been expecting to hear anyone’s voice out of nowhere, even if it wasn’t all that loud compared to the thunder and cracks of lightning outside. “Why would there be a murderer in my room? If they were going to kill anyone in this house, it would probably be Rhea.” He added, with a joking grin. “And beside, Risney would fight off any murderer.”

my heart is a
ghost town

❧

“Shut up, shut up,” Remington tried to silence Caerus. She didn’t need Rhea up, too. That wasn’t what either of them needed. Then they would probably have to listen to his little sister explain how she needed her beauty sleep and while Remy would usually agree with her, she wasn’t in the mood to have that discussion. “I don’t know,” she countered, when he asked about the murderer. Why did murderers murder anyone? Why did they choose this house or that? She didn’t know — she wasn’t a bloody killer!

“And they wouldn’t kill Rhea, she’s too clever. She’d probably have them contemplating why they’d even broken in in the first place,” She was already rolling her eyes as far back into her head as she could possibly manage.

Remy was an idiot to have thought someone would’ve broken into Caerus’ house. She was safe here. Hell, she was safer here than she was anywhere else. Even the Orphanage, she assumed. People didn’t just go charging up to Lord Nott’s house and expect to break through a second story window and get away with it. No, there were wards and protective spells that kept even the most vicious murderers at bay…again, assumptions.

Maybe part of it was the storm, but perhaps another part was sheer emotion. For a moment, Remington had to grapple with the idea that Nott could’ve been…dead. The muscles in her neck tightened. She didn’t want to think about it. There were plenty of things that she didn’t want to think about when it came to Caerus. The weird feeling she got when he accidentally brushed against her hand, for one. The way that she couldn’t quite keep her eyes off of him when he decided to go for a swim in the middle of the day. All of it was weird. Especially for them. Sure, there had been a time when it would’ve felt natural. There had been a time when he’d been the first one she would’ve run to. But they’d decided it was better like this — it was better if they were just friends.

They said it every time they got too close. Every time they were dancing at galas making fun of the rest of the world: Merlin, it’s a good thing we’re friends, right Nott? Nights like this, when it was just the two of them silhouetted against the light of the moon. Another crack of thunder from Caerus’ window made her jump, her bare feet padding against the cool hardwood floor of his room. “Shit,” she muttered, putting her hand to her chest.

She hated thunderstorms. Usually, she was able to take a sleeping draught and sleep through it, but tonight was different. The storm seemed to practically rock the house. “Where’s Rinsey when you need her? Do you think she’d whip up cocoa at this hour?”

@caerus

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I got a voice
in my head
that keeps singing

❧

Remy staying in his house was just something that he was used to by now. From the moment that she had become friends, it had been something that just always happened--Christmas after Christmas, she would come home with him instead of going back to the orphanage. It was something that he’d written home about, and his mum had been quick to accept since ‘no one should spend Christmas at an orphanage.’ As they got older, she had gotten a little bit more uncomfortable about a girl staying in the house with him, but Caerus didn’t honestly know if his mum even knew that they had technically been together once upon a time. It wasn’t as if he had told her, since he knew that would put them at risk at being told she couldn’t stay there anymore. And then they had been back to just being friends, and he had known that it was for the best that his parents had never known about that.

But Caerus knew that they cared about her too, these days. She might be a halfblood, and they might be Notts, but the purebloods that thought that they couldn’t even be friends with halfbloods were just… ridiculous. And Merlin, how boring were their lives? How did one exist while cutting out half of the population as friendship potential or even just a-quick-shag potential? It wasn’t as if he was promoting marrying a halfblood--his father would have plenty to say about something like that, but Jesus. Some of the best shags in his life thus far had been with halfblood witches. LJ was his best friend and he was a halfblood. Caerus was a purist, he was an elitist, but those elitists made no sense to him. Their lives were probably the dullest out of everybody in the United Kingdom, poor things. And for what?

He didn’t care what people thought about them taking Remy in over the holidays. She was one of his best friends and way more interesting than a hell of a lot of the other pureblood witches he knew that were the same age. He couldn’t help but laugh at Remy telling him to shut up. With the noise of the rain pounding against the castle walls and arguably the loudest thunder that he’d ever heard, he didn’t think that anyone would wake up just because of them talking. Hell, even the cracks of lightning were loud--they had to be striking relatively close by. “Are you saying that I’m not clever enough to talk a killer down? Because I think I could probably charm them.” He didn’t think that they really needed to worry about murderers breaking in here anyone. No one could even get onto the grounds with the wards alerting his father. It really was a nonissue.

Remy looked a little bit… he didn’t quite know what to call it, but he supposed she just looked a little on edge. It was hard to tell in the lighting, but if he had to guess it would be because of the storm. Not that he knew for sure or anything, but what else could it possibly be? There was nothing else going on, and this storm was probably the worst that she’d experienced at Nott Estate. There was something about a bad storm against a castle that just sounded different than anywhere else. But they were probably safer than anywhere else in the surrounding area. This castle had stood for generations--no storm was going to get the better of it. “You okay there, Rem?” He raised his eyebrows, and then flicked on the lamp on his desk so that they weren’t both just standing there in the dark.

Immediately, he thought that it had been a bad idea. For as long as she had stayed here, he didn’t think he’d necessarily been aware of what she wore to bed. It had been in the winter too, and the castle got cold in the winter months. He didn’t think that he would have forgotten if he’d seen her wear something like that to bed. It was silk and distracting and immediately his thoughts fell right into the gutter. He had to stop himself from letting his gaze wander down her legs and back up again. He cleared his throat. “Let’s not wake her. I can make cocoa… probably?” He didn’t think that it could be that hard anyway, and he felt bad waking Risney up when she’d likely wake up hours earlier than the rest of them to start cleaning tomorrow. They could certainly handle cocoa. Maybe.

@ rem

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my heart is a
ghost town

❧

There had been storms she had weathered here before. After all, this wasn’t her first time staying at the Nott Estate. But usually, she was able to put on a sleeping mask and earplugs or grab a nightcap that ensured that Remy went straight to sleep instead of lying awake and hearing murderers. “You wish you could fend off a murderer. They’d have your sorry arse before you even got two words out,” Remington muttered as she wrapped her arms around her thin frame, trying to keep whatever warmth was left in her body. For a summer storm, it was uncommonly cold. She didn’t doubt that Caerus could take down a criminal or a murderer, but it was much more fun teasing him that he couldn’t. After all, she did love that crestfallen little look he got when she “doubted his ability.”

She had mixed feelings about Caerus these days. On the one hand, she couldn’t imagine her life without him. He was her closest friend, her confidant. On the other, there were times when she wanted more. She wanted to go back to snagging and snogging. But, they’d both decided that they were better off as friends. And that was that. Or was it? Remington looked over and made eye contact with Caerus before she rolled her eyes and walked out of the room. Of course, it took a lot more bravery to march down the darkened hallway then she cared to admit, but she was stubborn. When he asked if she was alright, she immediately stopped and turned around. “It’s not like I’m scared if that’s what you mean,” She said as she gestured for him to go down the stairs. She quickly followed after him closely. Perhaps a little too close to put any actual merit in what she was saying.

Living here had made her quite a bit more spoiled than she had been before. As if Remy’s sense of entitlement wasn’t strong enough already, living in a pureblood castle made it skyrocket. Here, she had access to everything. She had Rhea’s closet, thousand thread count sheets, a house elf that answered to her every beck and call. She was living the perfectly pureblood dream, wasn’t she? Which meant that Caerus should have been her knight in shining armor. But, of course, there she was trying to complicate things again. She stopped at the bottom of the staircase and waited for him to turn the bend to the kitchen. “Can you?” Remington’s disbelief was evidenced in the way she folded her arms over her chest and a quick roll of her eyes, though her voice was little more than a hushed whisper. She didn’t want to wake up the rest of the Notts. “I’ll add that to your list of admirable qualities I keep in my back pocket. Caerus Nott: as good a chef as he is a Quidditch player.”

A part of her was glad that he was here — glad that he was awake. Another part of Remy wanted to punch him in the face for nearly scaring the shite out of her. She took the last landing in stride and followed him into the kitchen. The storm seemed louder down here and the darkness of the house was even starker. Entering the kitchen, Remy immediately flipped the light switch and sighed a breath of relief. Maybe all she needed was a little light. “What do you need for hot chocolate, anyway?” She had no idea. Hell, Remy rarely ever set foot in the kitchen. She’d rather get coffee from a shop and little tea cakes from the bakery. She wasn’t a kitchen and apron sort of girl.

@ caerus

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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I GOT A VOICE
IN MY HEAD
THAT KEEPS SINGING

❧

Purebloods loved their gossip. That was a fact that Caerus had grown up knowing. Even when they hadn’t been in power, even when most families had their vaults frozen and barely had two sickles to scrape together, they had loved their gossip. There was always someone to talk about, someone that had done something inappropriate--even in those times. But he thought that they’d all given each other maybe a little bit more leeway back then. They were all barely making ends meet, unless they were lucky enough to have family that hadn’t been implicated, so the gossips had maybe let a couple of things slide. Maybe they were too busy dealing with actual problems to gossip for a change.

Now, though? Now, the gossips would find absolutely anything to talk about.

They were the petty pureblood women with nothing better to do with their time than to talk about what someone was doing that they shouldn’t be. The pureblood ladies with sticks shoved so far up their asses that it was a wonder they could even walk straight. They would find the littlest bit of gossip, or misbehavior, and they would whisper about it to anyone that would listen. It didn’t matter if there was a good reason behind it, or if there was so much more to the story than they actually knew. Hell, even if they knew the whole damn story, it didn’t matter that it was none of their business to start with. If the gossips got ahold of it, they wouldn’t stop talking about it until someone else had messed up even ‘worse.’

Caerus didn’t know if Remy staying with them was still a topic of gossip. He didn’t pay attention to it, obviously, but he knew that his mother did. In some cases, depending on the subject matter, he knew that his mum was just as capable of cutting someone down for some minor infraction to their traditions as the next gossip. But he also knew that she just… cared about people. She had always liked Remy. From the first time that he’d convinced his parents to let her come and stay with them for the holidays. A part of him wondered if she’d known her mother or something, if there was some reason behind the soft spot she had for his friend. He didn’t know for sure. He just knew that she didn’t care about the gossips and what they thought about them housing a halfblood. The horror.

It was a good thing that his mum didn’t care because if she did, then she would have made it impossible for Remy to stay here. She wouldn’t have let it go until his father let her have her way, but that luckily wasn’t the situation that they were in. They could all ignore the gossips. They would all find something else to talk about eventually--it was literally their only purpose in life. Upon graduating, he knew every female friend he’d had that was a pureblood had a chance of turning into one of those mindless gossips. He always hoped that it wouldn’t happen.

But normally it did.

It was part of the reason why he liked Remy so much. Yes, she loved The Advocate and getting the next story as much as the next person, but it wasn’t the same… it wasn’t the same as the gossips and all the little shit they nitpicked at and talked about. She was different. It was a breath of fresh air next to all of the pureblood witches he knew. “Rem!” He pretended to be offended, shaking his head. “I can’t believe you’d doubt me like that. I’d save everyone in this house from the murderer.” It was just not something that they had to worry about in the slightest. Nobody was breaking in here. Anyone dumb enough to risk it, would not be smart enough to get past the wards. And anyone smart enough to get past the wards, wouldn’t be dumb enough to risk it. It worked out quite well.

Caerus followed Remy out of his room, laughing when she spoke again. “Right. Not scared. You just want me to go down the stairs into the dark foyer first.” Shaking his head in amusement, he headed right down the stairs without hesitation, unfazed by the bright flash of lightning that illuminated the otherwise dark room for only a fraction of a second before it all went dark again. “Does knowing how to make hot chocolate make me a chef?” He didn’t know if he could make anything other than that, though he hadn’t actually tried either. That was what they had Risney for… and his mum also really liked to cook. So there hadn’t ever been a reason for him to do more than make a sandwich. Hot cocoa just didn’t sound all that complicated. He could only hope that it wasn’t. Wasn’t there mix or something like that? “You get the mugs, I’ll get… the rest,” he said, vaguely. It was his best way of not answering her question, since he was hoping that the ingredients would come to him when he went into the pantry and took a look around.

@ rem | Outfit

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ghost town

[attr="class","reasonsmallremy"]I could not enter Walked into the flames Called out your name But there was no answer

[attr="class","reasonbodremy"]“The rest,” Remy said as she walked towards the cabinets in the kitchen, dragging her hand across them as she meandered slowly. She’d never actually gotten anything out at the Nott’s. For the most part, she came to meals when they were ready, sat for tea when asked, and rarely asked the house elves for anything out of their way. She knew that being here was a privilege…something that she didn’t want to lose.

After all, they didn’t have to take her in. She was the poor orphan girl with nowhere else to go. She was the little halfblood annoyance that Caerus had taken a liking to all those years ago. But the street went two ways. Remington hadn’t exactly been too keen on most people growing up. She was very…particular. And though her birth certificate identified her as a halfblood, she knew that she was more a pureblood than most. She knew this world inside and out…and she owed it in part to the Nott family.

No, she knew better than to overstep her bounds while she was living here. She didn’t want to ruin the advantageous situation that they had established all those years ago. Now, however, they weren’t shagging. Which Remy supposed made things a little easier. Not that his parents knew either way. They were sort of oblivious about all of that stuff, she thought with a smile, pausing at a cabinet that she thought looked promising.

Taking a peek inside, she saw a few plates and cups stacked neatly. They were the gorgeous white china that they only used for Christmas Dinner and Birthdays. That probably wouldn’t do for a late night hot chocolate party, she thought, quietly shutting the door and moving on.

Remy tried a few more cabinets, searching desperately for the mugs. “Where does your family keep the bloody things?” She said, hardly above a whisper. She didn’t want to wake up his parents, and she certainly didn’t want to wake up Rinsey.

After walking around the kitchen twice, checking a few cabinets and shelves, Remy’s search turned up useless, especially given she couldn’t use Accio to solve her problem. What she wouldn’t give to be free of the Trace sooner than later. The next few months couldn’t go by quick enough.

Turning around in a circle, she paused, looking down the hallway. Was that…something moving? Merlin, she had goosebumps. She definitely didn’t want to be standing in this kitchen alone, she thought as she quickly skirted into the pantry behind Caerus. “No luck. Rinsey has this kitchen packed away in a way only she could decipher…unless you happen to know how house elves think…How’s that looking for the rest going?” she asked, only a few centimeters from him now.

Remy felt safer when they were nearby. Simple proximity, she argued. It had nothing to do with the fact that he was the one person that always made her feel at home. It also had nothing to do with the fact that sometimes she wondered if there were still residual feelings there between them. They were just friends, now, she reminded herself. Remington couldn’t have feelings anyway. She wasn’t that type of girl. For her, relationships were nothing more than distractions. Simple ways to convince boys to do her homework so they could take her out on lavish and expensive dates. She liked the idea of men fawning over her, but the actual concept of courting someone was daunting. And boring.

[attr="class","reasontagremy"]@ late night snack | 579 | OUTFIT

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[attr="class","ctopline"]Died last night in my dreams

[attr="class","cscriptuni"]all the machines

[attr="class","cline"]

[attr="class","clyrics"]Had been disconnected[break]
Time was thrown at the wind

[break][break]

[attr="class","cbody"]There were certain expectations when it came to being a family apart of the Sacred Twenty-Eight. Sometimes that seemed like a lot of work to him. He liked how the change in regime had benefited him and his family, of course, but sometimes it seemed a little absurd to him that he was held to higher standards than other people because of a list that someone had made years and years before he was even born. It wasn’t like he was going to go cavorting around with Mudbloods or anything but really, why was it a piece of gossip that Remy spent holidays at the Notts?
[break][break]
He supposed it was old news by now, but it certainly had been news at some point. Just because she was a halfblood and he just thought that was a little too strict for his tastes. Sure, he wasn’t going to settle down with a halfblood, but that didn’t mean that he couldn’t be friends with one. Didn’t mean that he couldn’t shag on one occasion. The purebloods that barely allowed meaningful socialization with halfbloods didn’t make much sense to him at all.
[break][break]
But he just knew how the gossips loved to gossip and that was never going to change. He couldn’t bring himself to care all that much about what other people were doing. Gossip had never really been his thing. The worst gossips were the most stuck-up purebloods and he just didn’t have time for that. He didn’t know if that was a Nott gene, but in some ways, he thought that it was.
[break][break]
After all, he didn’t care what people thought about him. His Uncle Dorian didn’t care, Uncle Malcolm didn’t—and even Uncle Theo had brought Sera back from his travels and he hadn’t given a damn what anybody had thought about it.
[break][break]
The family took care of their own, and they didn’t tend to care what other people thought of them. For the most part, anyway. Caerus knew that his father cared more about everyone else’s opinions than the rest of them, and so did his mother. But the rest of them just didn’t care all that much. Even Rhea, who tended to know everything about everybody, didn’t tend to care all that much about what people were thinking about her.
[break][break]
And he liked having Remy around. The family was used to her—his mother might have liked it better when she wasn’t worried about them shagging at every opportunity. Not that they were. They were long past that stage but trust his mother to worry about that way too late.
[break][break]
He headed to the pantry, figuring that what they would need would be in there. Remy would be able to find the mugs, surely. They were in one of the cabinets there… somewhere. “Try the cabinets…” he said, vaguely, hearing Remy’s whisper from the kitchen. They were around there somewhere. How hard could it be to find mugs? That was all that there was in cabinets anyway.
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Hot cocoa mix was definitely something that existed, he knew that. He had just managed to find himself a bag of marshmallows when he nearly jumped in surprise at the close proximity of Remy’s next words. “Merlin, Rem!” He turned around to face her. “I found marshmallows. That’s a start, isn’t it?” Every time Rinsey made hot cocoa, there was definitely marshmallows involved. Cinnamon too, he thought, but Merlin knew how hard it would be to track that down. “Did you find mugs?”
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[attr="class","cnotes"]582 ● @ rem ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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ghost town

[attr="class","reasonsmallremy"]I could not enter Walked into the flames Called out your name But there was no answer

[attr="class","reasonbodremy"]There were nights when Remy lay awake in her bed here at the Notts wondering how different her life might have been if her parents had survived to see her now. Her mother had murdered her father – she knew that much to be true – but the circumstances surrounding her mother’s death were shady, at best. The woman had allegedly been burned alive at the Death Eater Camp. It wasn’t as if she had ever been there for Remy, anyway. Integra Echoes had been much too absorbed in the madness left inside of her following her release from Azkaban. She hadn’t taken her daughter back from the orphanage. Instead, she died the same way she’d come into this world…alone.

Remy liked to romanticize it. Think about how they would have had a loving life together if things had been only marginally different. She liked to imagine that her mother would teach her Dark Arts and Potions instead of reading bedtime stories. Or that she might finally tell her that her life was a lie and her father had been a pureblood. But, none of those things were true. Instead, she had remained an Orphan until the day her mother died. And the days following.

She had the Notts to thank for making sure she didn’t rot into nonexistence at Safe Harbor. Her friendship with Caerus meant that she was welcome to come and go as she pleased. Holidays, especially. They housed her so she wouldn’t have to return to that Merlin’s Forsaken hell hole that they called an orphanage. And, all the while, she got to put on costumes and pretend that she was among the Wizarding World’s Elite.

The Notts were just that. The cream of the crop – the people that everyone wanted to be. They were Sacred Twenty-Eight and rich. They were infamous and simultaneously famous. They were the sort of people that the world turned to look at when they walked in a room. And Remy, though hovering on the curtails of their stardom, was made to feel like she, too, was a part of it all. “Ah, sorry,” Remington said as he turned. “Sorry, shut up, will you? I don’t want your mother coming down here.”

They were doing nothing of suspect. Just grabbing hot chocolate together. But there was no telling what the Nott family might think if they came downstairs to find the two older teenagers in the kitchen together.

“Mugs are probably in the cabinets…” Which she had left far behind. Another clap of thunder made Remy pause, closing her eyes and taking a few deep breaths. There was nothing to be frightened of. It was just a storm. A silly little storm. In a few hours, it would pass as if nothing had happened. She would be fine. Shaking her head, she turned and moved back into the main kitchen, making a direct line for the cabinets.

Slowly, she opened each set of doors, checking what was inside. Mixing bowls, spices, cups…Remy paused and stood on her tiptoes, looking at the top shelf of the cups cabinet. Mugs! “Found them,” she stage whispered as she climbed onto the countertop and pulled two down. “Marshmallows and cups. It’s minimalist hot chocolate. All the rage.” She rolled her eyes as she slipped off of the counter, her bare feet padding onto the hard floor below. “You sure you don’t want to wake her now?” Rinsey surely wouldn’t mind. And it would save them looking for ingredients until the sun came up.

[attr="class","reasontagremy"]@ let's just forget the hot chocolate, amiright? jk | 586 | OUTFIT

[attr="class","credremy"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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[attr="class","ctopline"]DIED LAST NIGHT IN MY DREAMS

[attr="class","cscriptuni"]all the machines

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[attr="class","clyrics"]HAD BEEN DISCONNECTED[break]
TIME WAS THROWN AT THE WIND

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[attr="class","cbody"]Little Remington Monroe had come to Hogwarts when Caerus had been in his second year and from the moment that her name had been called by the deputy head, and he had seen her walk up to the stool, he had been intrigued. Or interested, at least. Intrigued was likely too mature of a word to use for a twelve-year-old’s interest in a new Slytherin. But it hadn’t been long at all until they were friends—friends enough for him to invite her to stay with him for Christmas when he realized that she only had an orphanage to go home to.
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Life had been different back then, though. Durant had been in charge of the Ministry when he had first started Hogwarts. Their estate had been taken from them, his father had been made to work in the work camp in Knockturn Alley. At first, they had all been planning on living in that small flat above the White Wyvern. But his uncle had made such a thing unnecessary. He, Rhea, and Ophion had been carted off to live with Uncle Malcolm with their mother, and his father had stayed in Knockturn Alley alone. For years, that estate had been his home more than his own, and that was where Remy stayed as well, when he’d invited her to stay with him.
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It was strange to think how much had changed in that time. They had gotten older—had dated, sort of, had gotten their home back, and had shagged all over the estate to his parents’ lack of knowledge. And now they had realized that they were better as friends. And they were, obviously.
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But that didn’t mean that he was unaware of how good her legs looked in those shorts. He knew that they’d only look better as summer went on, and as Remy spent more time tanning outside by the pool with Rhea. He was always very aware of how good she looked, but he just chose to ignore it. That was just the choice that they had made. She was one of his best friends, they weren’t going to ruin that with more dating. And he was a Nott. Sacred twenty-eight. Even if Remy was like family to the rest of his family, even if he knew that his parents cared about her wellbeing, it wasn’t like a relationship with a halfblood would go anywhere. Remy could lose his parents’ favor quickly—his mother, especially. He had seen how cutthroat she could be when she wanted to be. A different kind of ruthless than his father. She had the ability to ruin someone socially, and she knew it.
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Caerus didn’t want to think that she would do that to Remy, but he also didn’t know what lengths she’d go to, to make sure he didn’t end up with a halfblood. They were already… more lenient than other families, much to his father’s chagrin. But there were certainly things that even they wouldn’t accept. “Why not? We’re not doing anything bad. Yet.” He punctuated his words with a grin, though thoughts of shagging her in the pantry weren’t too far from his mind, if he was being perfectly honest with himself. They hadn’t made it to the pantry before, had they?
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“Seems likely…” He said, his gaze moving back to the shelves as he looked for the hot cocoa mix. If he’d thought to bring his wand down here, he could just have summoned it and they’d be well on their way to making their drinks by now. Unfortunately, his wand was up in his room and heading back up there to get it, just to summon the mix, seemed a lot like giving up to him. No, it was here somewhere. He would find it. “Yes, I’m sure,” another sweep of the shelves in front of him and he finally got a glimpse of the word ‘cocoa.’ “Got it,” he grabbed the box from the shelves, then headed back into the kitchen to set it and the marshmallows down by the mugs. “The real question is, do we get some rum to add in?” To him, the answer to that one was obvious.
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[attr="class","cnotes"]698 ● @ rem ● outfit

[attr="class","cred"]MADE BY VEL OF WW + ADOX 2.0

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