Chapter Sixteen - We Are Family
or Uncle Moo'y returns
When Snape knocked on the door and we entered the office, I saw that we were the first to arrive. It was twenty minutes to eleven after all and Uncle Severus liked to be early or extremely punctual. I was the same, I guess. I had only been late to a meeting twice in my past life, and I had felt so guilty about being late (even if it wasn't exactly my fault), that I always came early. Better early than late, right?
Rognod greeted us cheerfully (for a goblin) and I spent the next ten minutes asking him all sorts of questions about him and his culture. Then I remembered the question I wanted to ask of Uncle Severus about Dreamless Sleep Potion and was just opening my mouth while looking at him when there was a knock on the doors of the office and Rognod called for them to enter.
I was out of the seat before you could say Quidditch and tackled into the newcomer so hard that we both hit the floor from the collision. I hadn't expected this burst of emotion from myself. I'm usually a pretty calm person. I haven't thought that I would miss my Uncle Moo'y as much as I realized I did just now.
I found myself sobbing into his robes. I'm sure there were a few "Uncle Moo'ys" and "I missed you so much" in-between the crying I was doing. The body underneath me went stiff for some long moments before I could feel his hands curling around me as well into a bear hug. I heard him mutter his endearment for me which made me cry even harder (he used to call me cub all the time because that's what I was to him – and before you go all: it's not a cub, it's a pup. The terms are interchangeable, as in the USA they call them pups while in the UK they're cubs, so they have the same meaning, just different uses in different countries).
Remus shuffled us for a bit, until he was sitting on the floor, which I'm sure was a lot more comfortable than lying on it, with me in his lap. He was cooing into my ears softly as he petted my hair, trying to calm me down.
"Shhh, cub, it's alright. I'm here now. I missed you too," were some of the words I heard as I started to calm down and instead of crying started to hiccup.
"You're still doing that," I heard Remus chuckle at my hiccups. I giggled through my tears and finally, finally, raised my head to look at him. He looked older than when last I saw him. More grey in his hair and a few more lines and small scars on his face. But his eyes hadn't changed – they still held their love for me, which shone as bright as ever, if not more so than before.
I pulled my hands from behind his back and around his neck as I hugged him again.
"Yep, still doing that," I mumbled into his neck. I tried to be angry at him for not contacting me before, but I knew that he either didn't know where I lived or Dumbledore told him not to, so I couldn't really hold a grudge against him. I would hold a grudge against him if he decided to disappear from my life again, though, and I told him so in no uncertain terms when I finally calmed down and just sat there in his lap.
"I promise not to disappear on you again," he said solemnly while helping me up. I nodded while trying to clean my face of the tears and probably some snot as well. In my opinion, I wasn't one of those girls that could cry prettily. My face went all blotchy and my eyes swelled up and I got snot all over my face as well. James used to joke about it when I was a baby, saying that if I grew up and still cried that ugly like, he wouldn't have to be so afraid of a boy taking his baby away since they would be turned off of me when seeing me crying. Yeah. Lily got pretty angry at him after he said it and he slept on the couch for a week.
I felt something cottony on my face and realized that Remus was helping me clean up.
"You haven't changed a bit," he teased me.
"If mum was alive right now, she'd hex you for saying this, you know," I said in reply and gave him a shaky smirk. Remus threw his head back and laughed at that. "I remember how angry she was when James went on about how happy he was about your crying face."
"He had to sleep on the couch for a week," I nodded with a happy smirk. I was finally calm enough that my hiccups stopped.
"Yes, he did come whining to me about it," Remus agreed as he led me towards my chair and sat down as close to me as possible, still holding my hand.
"But how can you remember this? It was so long ago and you were still a baby!" He asked me, looking slightly in awe.
"I have a good memory," I said with a smirk. "I also still remember about that time Uncle Pafoo turned your hair bub-" His hand went quickly over my lips, stopping me mid-word.
"Not. A. Word. More," he threatened me with a lazy grin. "I have much more blackmail material over you than you do of me after all."
I grimaced at that reminder and nodded.
It was only than that I became aware of Rognod and Uncle Severus again. They were watching us in silence; Rognod with a smirk on his face that told me that he was deeply amused by it all, and Severus with a scowl on his face. Yeah, he didn't like Remus that much. Or at least I thought so until he looked up at Remus and nodded at him calmly.
"Nice to see you again, Remus," he went and said, not realizing just what a blow that was to my mind. I knew that this world was different from the books, but this just cemented that fact. There was no trace of hatred in Uncle Severus' eyes when he looked at Uncle Moo'y. Which made me confused. What was he scowling about before for then?
Author's Note: First off, I am so sorry for the long wait. Like I said in a previous chapter when I'm home my motivation is almost non-existent. I couldn't believe myself when we went on holiday and all the 20,000 words just exploded out of me! Really, I was non-stop writing! And when I returned home, I couldn't even look at the story for a while. I've decided to try something new, so let's hope it works in bringing my motivation back.
I've created a poll for who Adaline should end up with. You're welcome to vote and PM me with anyone else you might think of (I'll add their names to the poll!)
I got myself a Beta! So all hail to Child of Music and Dreams for going through this story and correcting it!
