Cloudy Skies and Heartache

Chapter 10







Remus smiled gently as he watched his four year old daughter working over her little pieces of art at her little table in the corner of the bookshop. Her head bobbed silently as she stuck her little tongue out of the corner of her mouth in concentration as she carefully drew a picture of a golden wolf.







He had been very grateful to have gotten a job, three years ago, at the small cozy bookshop in the town that he lived in. The owners were muggle, though the town’s population was a mix of muggle and wizarding folks, and so were rather unsuspicious of his monthly days off.







The best thing was that the old couple who owned the bookshop, George and Leah, were terribly kind and sweet. They had fallen in love with Adara from the moment they had met her, and were more than delighted to have her in the bookshop all day long so that Remus could keep an eye on her as she was home-schooled by Remus. She had become the unofficial mascot of the shop, with all the regular customers warming up to her almost immediately, and always bringing her little sweets and presents, much to his daughter’s delight.







While the pay wasn’t much, at the very least it allowed him to maintain their little cottage, and keep Adara well-fed, healthy and happy. Though he often felt guilty and sad that he could not afford all the toys and sweets that he wanted to give to his little girl, Remus knew that he should be extremely thankful for what he had now.







Luckily, Adara did take after him, and was a voracious reader, which wasn’t much of a problem as the bookshop he worked in had a wide array of children storybooks, which George and Leah had generously offered to Adara as her own little library. He had started teaching her to read at age three, and she had taken it up quickly, eager to learn all the time.







As Adara’s health and happiness was Remus’ sole focus, he had failed to take good care of his health over the past five years, choosing to give Adara the best he could give, at the expense of himself. He would rather eat bread and butter daily, than have Adara go without anything he thought she’d need to grown up healthy and happy.







This resulted in the twenty three year old werewolf looking skinny and frail, with dark shadows across his face, instead of a young man, full of life, which one would have imagined. It didn’t help either that his pregnancy and the birth had taken a toll on his health, resulting in a rather weak constitution post-birth.







Poppy had warned him of the risks at the beginning, but there was no way he would ever give up Sirius’ child, and now having Adara in his life, he knew that his choice then had been the right one. Even if it meant ruining his health.







There were potions and herbs available for his conditions, but they were extremely pricey and rare. Remus could never afford them in a million years, especially now that he had to care for a growing child with numerous needs. Despite Poppy’s offers for a loan, he had adamantly refused, not wanting to impose on her any longer. She had done so much for him already.







He could live with poor health, afterall, he had been a werewolf for 16 years now, it was just one more thing he would just have to deal with. However, this just meant that he felt the effects of the moon much earlier on now, and it took him a much longer time to recover after that.







Stretching tiredly, Remus could feel his joints click and muscles protest. The full moon was in a few days time, and every muscle and joint in his body was feeling it.







Sighing quietly to himself, Remus quickly finished up with his day’s work, and packed up his stuff and got ready to lock up and leave.







Turning to the corner in which Adara’s table was located, a small smile crept onto his face as he saw his little girl’s head on the tiny table, all burrowed into her folded arms. Her drawing sat in front of her, preciously set aside before she fell asleep, and her crayons all neatly packed into her little pencil case.







Walking over quietly, Remus packed her few belongings into her little backpack, and rolled up her drawing carefully and gently. After putting on her winter jacket and picking up all their belongings, he lifted her gently into his arms where she burrowed her head immediately into the crook of his neck, mumbling softly, ‘Daddy…’







Remus heart clenched tightly at her unconscious word. Daddy was what she called Sirius. Papa for him, and Daddy for her other father.







He had told Adara about Sirius after she had asked about her mummy one day. Remus could never lie to his daughter, and had slowly explained to her that she didn’t have a mummy. Her papa had given birth to her, and she had another Daddy somewhere out there, who loved her very very much, but couldn’t be with them for now.







Surprisingly, his young girl had accepted the abnormal situation of her birth rather calmly, and ever since then, would constantly pester her Papa for stories of her Daddy.







Remus knew she loved listening stories of her Daddy, and somewhere along the way, had started to love her Daddy too. He knew she wanted to meet him one day, but being the thoughtful and sensitive child she was, she could see the sadness that shone through when Remus talked about Sirius too, and so had kept many of her Daddy-related wishes to herself.







But there were many times during the night, when Remus would wake up to hear Adara calling for her Daddy till Remus went over to rocked her gently back to a dreamless sleep.







It was enough to break his heart really, if there was much left to be broken.







Sighing again, much louder this time, Remus shook himself out of his unnecessary depressing thoughts, put on Adara’s little woolen beanie, and flipped his own hood up, before stepping out of the warmth of the bookshop into the cold winter evening.







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Hello hello (: sorry this chapt took so long. I know I promised action in this chapt, but this dragged on too long, so I decided to cut the chapt into two chapts instead. Promise there’ll be something more exciting next chapt though! This chapt is more about accounting for the kind of life Remus & Adara have been living. Thanks for all the reviews (: constructive criticism please! Please do keep reading! xxx