Bend & Break.

[r_moony]

ooc: A bit delayed, but this is Remus' reaction to his best friends/brothers being taken by Carrow. Takes place after this; the night before this.

Cut for some language and length.

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[pinkhairedauror]

She's just finished her shift around the castle, taken again now (as well as a part of the watch around Malfoy Manor), so she's up and about when Remus walks back to their rooms. She doesn't catch him quite after he's out of the Room of Requirement, but manages to see his face smoothing out for an instant as she approaches him from a shadow-cast side corridor.

She doesn't understand the face, she can't, but... she can see the way he's walking. Exhausted. And her heart flutters. Was it too soon? But home... wouldn't have been more restful for him...

"Remus?" She calls out to him before he passes on, his eyes fixed ahead.
Seems to her he's concentrating on walking without falling down, actually.
Not very good.

[pinkhairedauror]

So she continued to caress his face and hair, soothing, easing. Not caresses that meant to lead to something. Just for their own sake, for touching him, being close.

Thing was, she didn't think it was right for him to stand in readiness to go aid those in trouble - but they were his friends, his... brothers, and she would understand his drive to be alert

[r_moony]

He did listen to her, and it did help him in staying awake. At first he didn't open his eyes right away, though, he just listened.

After a moment, quietly and still with his eyes closed, "This is my third war and I still don't know what I'm supposed to be doing." His eyes opened then, staring up at the ceiling, and just how there had been a fire burning in them just minutes ago, now they revealed the exact opposite. They seemed empty

[pinkhairedauror]

His eyes, when he opened them, seemed like two wells, two dark holes that drew her down, and down, very slowly. In the end, she realised she was actually bending down, so she finished the movement and pressed her lips to his forehead. Then she straightened up again.

"In the beginning. In the beginning I was so upset... and then just the fact that we were back made me think things would be so easy. Too much too lose. Too much lost. Too many ideas held firm, shattered." What do they want this time? To just break us... all?

Then another thought made her eyes in turn grow distant.

What do we want?

A normal life.

But didn't it negate what they think would be a normal life for them?

Sure. But her normal life would not include anybody who'd not harmed innocent people.
While Remus would be subject to ...
While the previous war, her father was killed for being muggle-born.
While her son, for Merlin's sake, had been...

Her eyes threw sparks in turn, like two pieces of flint hitting together.

"It's not the same."