Chapter 6

The Honeymoon – Part 1

Cassius woke up to the smell of breakfast wafting up the stairs.  Remus was snuggled close to him. Cassius moved to pull Remus even closer and felt a burning pain in his left shoulder. Suddenly the fog of sleep cleared and he remembered they had mated the night before – and Remus had married him. He rolled to his back, bringing his hand up, touching the bite mark, then the ring that Remus had given to him. Remus stirred, cold now that Cassius had moved away. He slowly opened his amber eyes.

"Good morning." Remus said sleepily.

"Good morning." Cassius leaned in for a kiss. "Tabby's cooked breakfast, come on, let's go tell her!"

He jumped out of bed and went into the closet. He emerged a moment later in jeans and a t-shirt. He tossed Remus a shirt and pants.

"Do you think she'll be surprised?" Remus sat up and pulled on the clothes Cassius had tossed to him. Together they walked down to the kitchen.

"Glad to see you two have made up." Tabby said as she set the teapot on the table along with a pitcher of pumpkin juice.

"We're married." Cassius said happily.

"Really? And when was the ceremony?" She asked Cassius sharply.

"Just after Midnight in our room." He smiled down at her. Remus sat down and Tabby put a plate in front of him. She turned back to the stove to pick up the platters of eggs, bacon, and toast. Just as she had levitated the platters to the table, Cassius crossed towards her quickly and scooped her up into a hug. "Aren't you happy for us?" He swung her around in a circle.

"I am happy for Remus and for you, you idiot.  Now put me down." Tabby was smiling. Cassius set her down.  "Where are the rings?"

"Remus is wearing his, we used his Lupin family ring, the one he wears anyway." Cassius pointed to Remus' left hand which he held up obligingly.

"I see. And where is your ring?" Tabby put her hands on her wide hips as she looked pointedly at Cassius' hands.

"Here." Cassius pulled up his shirt. Tabby reached out and touched the ring.

"It's a Lupin family ring too?" She asked as her finger smoothed around the circle.

"It was my father's." Remus answered as he poured himself some pumpkin juice.

"Cassius Lupin – that has a nice ring to it." Tabby nodded approvingly.

"What?" Cassius looked confused.

"You took the Lupin family ring, that means you're a Lupin now."

"Oh…" Cassius mouthed the name silently as he sat down at the table, pulling his shirt back down.

"And the bite mark? You'll need to make sure it doesn't infected – let me see." Tabby tugged at Cassius' shirt, moving the collar so she could see the bite. "Hmm…looks fine now. Remus, let me see yours, it's probably almost healed." Remus nodded, pulling his collar aside so Tabby could check.

"That's not fair!"  Cassius looked at the bite mark on Remus' neck which looked about a week old, even though it was only about 7 hours old.

"He's a werewolf…"

"Really, Tabby?  Honestly – do I forget everything?!  I know he's a werewolf! I have the bite to prove it!" Cassius suddenly felt indignant – his memory wasn't that bad, was it?

"I meant the mating bite would heal faster than yours." Tabby said patiently.

"Oh. I knew that."

Tabby sat down at the table and poured herself some tea. "When will you be moving your stuff over, Remus?"

"He's going to move in today. I thought we'd go over to his place after breakfast." Cassius smiled quickly at Remus.

Tabby smiled at them both, but Cassius noticed tears in her eyes.

"Tabby, what's wrong?" Cassius felt very alarmed, he'd never seen Tabby cry before.

"It just makes me happy that you two are together – sometimes, even if people love each other…" She picked a piece of toast off the platter in front of her.

"Are you talking about someone you…?" Cassius asked slowly.

"Now, Remus, since you don't work, I'll start serving lunch and tea during the week for you.  Breakfast is at 8, Lunch at Noon, Tea at 4, Supper at 7. If you will be sleeping in, let me know the night before so I don't waste the food." Tabby was her usual brisk self again. "Although I think you shouldn't skip any meals, you are too thin as it is."

Remus nodded.

After they finished eating, they floo-ed to Moody's because Cassius wanted to tell him the good news immediately. After a brief visit with Moody – where he too got mysteriously misty-eyed –   they floo-ed to Remus' house.  Moody had said he would contact a real estate witch he knew and she would handle the sale.  Remus would just need to sign some paperwork and she would do the rest.

"Ok, Tabby told me the spell to make these appear at our house. So you want to take everything?"

Remus nodded. Most of the furniture had been sold in order to buy food, so there wasn't much to move. But there were still all the portraits of his family, and the family table and chairs that were 300 years old.  Then there were trunks of his parents belongings, as well as trunks of James and Lily's stuff. 


"Ok." Cassius pointed his wand at everything in turn and said the moving spell.  One by one, things disappeared from the house. "That's everything then.  I better get to work, I'm only a little late now."

"Ok." Remus leaned in close for a kiss. "I'll see you tonight."

"Yes, you will." Cassius kissed him and then said "I love you, wife." Remus glared at him. "You said yes when I asked you if I could call you that." Cassius smiled slyly.

"I think I was a little preoccupied at the time."

"It still counts."  Cassius smiled.  Remus felt his insides melt at the smile.

"I love you, husband."  Cassius Apparated.

"Mr. Lupin?" A woman's voice called from the front door. 

"In here!" Remus called.

"Hello! My name is Alice Webster, here's my card. Mr. Moody told me you wanted to sell this house?"

"Yes, I just got married and so I'm moving." Remus said vaguely, Alice seemed very friendly but he didn't want to shock her.

"That is wonderful. Congratulations! " She said with a warm smile. "I just have some paperwork for you to sign and then I'll take it from there.  Do you have an idea of how much you want?"

Remus hadn't thought about it. He and Cassius had never discussed finances.  Cassius had come into a large inheritance at 18, he owned Windy Corner outright and also got well paid for his work as an Auror…but Remus wanted to bring some money into the marriage.

"Um…I have no idea…what do you think it would sell for?"

"We'll have to do some repairing spells, some new paint, that's easy enough.  The neighborhood is still good.  It's large enough for a family.  I expect you will receive a nice price for this, Mr. Lupin." She smiled again.

"Where do I sign?" He returned her smile. She produced the paperwork and after three signatures and five initials, he was done.

"I'll need your contact information." Remus wrote the Windy Corner address on her notepad. "And I'll leave you to say goodbye. I'll be in touch." She Apparated.

Remus turned around the room where he and his parents had spent many happy evenings. He took a deep breath, debating whether he should go through every room.  In the end, he visited every room, remembering the happy times. Finally he stepped out the front door and shut it behind him. He walked down the lane, remembering playing on the street, there had been several other wizard families living here when he had been small.  He reached the end of the lane and, after checking that the coast was clear, he Apparated back to Windy Corner. He arrived in the kitchen.

"Tabby? I'm back!" He called.


"I'm upstairs, in the attic!" He heard her voice faintly.

He headed up the stairs and found her standing in the large attic room. He had never been in it before.  He noticed a portrait of Cassius and his family leaning against the wall.  They all looked very cold. Remus shivered…Lucius had been a Death Eater, although he claimed he'd been under the Imperious Spell…Remus didn't believe him and he knew Cassius wanted to believe but didn't. He looked away from the portrait and around the room. All of the portraits, trunks, furniture from his parents' house was now in the room. Tabby was levitating trunks across the room. 

"I noticed the various initials on the trunks and I've grouped them together. I thought we could put the table and portraits down in the dining room. We don't have any furniture in there now. The loveseat can go in the sitting room. Do you want the chair in your room? The matching nightstands are nice, I thought they could go in your room too.  Cassius only has the one and that can be moved back to the guest room - it belongs to the same set of furniture."

"Sounds like a plan." Remus was glad Tabby was there to help. She was very businesslike, he would have felt overwhelmed by it all.

"Very well, I'll move the furniture and portraits but you will have to help me put the portraits up on the walls, how to arrange them and such."  With a flick of her wand, the furniture in question was gone. She led them out of the room and shut the door behind them.

By the time Cassius arrived home from work, Tabby and Remus had put up all the portraits in the dining room and Remus' furniture fit in nicely with the rest of the house.