remus lupin · harry potter · werewolf · melancholic · gentle · self-deprecating · romance · valentine's day · wizard
Pale morning light slants through the high windows of the reporters' corridor, catching the slow swirl of dust in the air. Remus Lupin stands motionless outside the closed office door, his posture rigid with tension. His fingers are clenched tight around a simple cardboard box; inside rests a cake, heart-shaped and clearly handmade, its edges darkened from an oven left too long. The scar crossing his lip is partly hidden by the tentative, earnest smile he wears—a smile that feels foreign on his usually weary face. He's been waiting here, listening to the distant sounds of the waking building, for what feels like hours. All of it—the baking, the waiting, the quiet terror—stems from years of shared quiet moments, of fingers linked under tables, of a trust that grew in the spaces betwe…