[In their future, Sirius would say, "A live one, that. Think she fancies you." Remus would pale and answer, "Shove off. She's too young." Sirius: "Fine. I'll get to work for you on McGonagall."]
The shared cultural reference gets a flicker of a smile. The complete lack of understanding (of course! how could she know?) of the moon part makes it fall.
"Well, everyone is," he says, truthfully and evasively. "But… it's kind of by design. I don't want attention. I know there's contradiction… Being linked with them gets me more, but being in their shadow… offsets it."
It was camouflage—she was right: standing next to their glare in order to subsume and mask his own light. Their active and ambient protections meant the attention Remus did get was more plentiful but much more diffuse than what he'd get on his own. The judgments and speculations his clothes and scars would inspire either way, this way were more about what the handsome, talented, powerful Trickster Gods' motives could possibly be, adopting the ratty toadying one and the raggedy scarred one.
(Peter was complicated; they initially accepted him solely for Remus's sake—and Remus maybe acting more than he'd like to admit out of guilt, trying to help Peter where he hadn't been able to help Snape. Pete's continued role in the group was to be something of an audience, someone to be awed and surprised as rehearsal for the masses. It sometimes made Remus uncomfortable, but on the whole, it seemed to please Peter too.
For Remus… The assumption of Remus having been abused by someone got quickly sidebarred into assumptions of Sirius's probable abuses making him want to save and protect another, et cetera. Which wasn't so off the mark; the only inaccuracy being that Remus was his own abuser. It was the same mistake Sirius himself had made the first time he saw the extent of Remus's scars. That was what inspired him to steal Remus's file and find out about Moony and get the other two on the Animagus path.
The irony that Remus's least hideable scars—the ones on his face—had come from Sirius… a microcosm of the rest, but he refused to think too much about. Fair cost.)
He needed out of his own head. And maybe to get Tonks's attention a bit off him, too. That was something Remus was fairly good at, for himself and for the others. Like most of what he'd said as soon as they got on this subject: he was simultaneously tactical (stop thinking about me) and wholly sincere (I want to know about you). "Were you ever roped into to any of Sirius's antics? How much did you two interact?" Both Sirius and Tonks's family had all cut ties with the main Black tree; did that mean they'd refound each other outside of it, or drifted out on their own separate ways?
no subject
Remus would pale and answer, "Shove off. She's too young."
Sirius: "Fine. I'll get to work for you on McGonagall."]
The shared cultural reference gets a flicker of a smile. The complete lack of understanding (of course! how could she know?) of the moon part makes it fall.
"Well, everyone is," he says, truthfully and evasively. "But… it's kind of by design. I don't want attention. I know there's contradiction… Being linked with them gets me more, but being in their shadow… offsets it."
It was camouflage—she was right: standing next to their glare in order to subsume and mask his own light. Their active and ambient protections meant the attention Remus did get was more plentiful but much more diffuse than what he'd get on his own. The judgments and speculations his clothes and scars would inspire either way, this way were more about what the handsome, talented, powerful Trickster Gods' motives could possibly be, adopting the ratty toadying one and the raggedy scarred one.
(Peter was complicated; they initially accepted him solely for Remus's sake—and Remus maybe acting more than he'd like to admit out of guilt, trying to help Peter where he hadn't been able to help Snape. Pete's continued role in the group was to be something of an audience, someone to be awed and surprised as rehearsal for the masses. It sometimes made Remus uncomfortable, but on the whole, it seemed to please Peter too.
For Remus… The assumption of Remus having been abused by someone got quickly sidebarred into assumptions of Sirius's probable abuses making him want to save and protect another, et cetera. Which wasn't so off the mark; the only inaccuracy being that Remus was his own abuser. It was the same mistake Sirius himself had made the first time he saw the extent of Remus's scars. That was what inspired him to steal Remus's file and find out about Moony and get the other two on the Animagus path.
The irony that Remus's least hideable scars—the ones on his face—had come from Sirius… a microcosm of the rest, but he refused to think too much about. Fair cost.)
He needed out of his own head. And maybe to get Tonks's attention a bit off him, too. That was something Remus was fairly good at, for himself and for the others. Like most of what he'd said as soon as they got on this subject: he was simultaneously tactical (stop thinking about me) and wholly sincere (I want to know about you). "Were you ever roped into to any of Sirius's antics? How much did you two interact?" Both Sirius and Tonks's family had all cut ties with the main Black tree; did that mean they'd refound each other outside of it, or drifted out on their own separate ways?