Hello again wonderful readers! There more tension in this chapter, I hope you all don't mind. I promise we'll get to some good stuff with Avery and Remus in the next chapter or two! Enjoy!


The next morning, Remus was coming out of his classroom to go to breakfast the same time I came out of mine.

"Ah, Professor Stroupe. Good morning," he said with a smile when he saw me.

"Good morning, Professor Lupin," I said, falling into step with him, getting some weird looks from the students passing us since they had all seen me actively avoiding Remus for weeks now. I was sure we would get a few stares since I was actually acknowledging his presence now, and I knew Lily would have some questions for me later. I just hoped she wouldn't notice her own physical similarities to Remus any time soon, those were questions I wasn't ready to answer. I wasn't even sure where my relationship with Remus would even go at this point.

"I hope you're enjoying your time here as professor," I said to him after a beat of silence.

"I am, it's been quite nice being back in this castle," he said as we neared the doors to the Great Hall. We made more small talk as we entered the Hall and made our way to the staff table. I looked over and saw Lily staring, a confused look on her face. I mouthed "later" to her and she nodded understanding that I would tell her at least something about why I was actually speaking to Remus after avoiding him for so long.

"Morning, Severus," I said, poking at him as I passed him, Remus sitting next to him. He just glanced at me, seeming to be just as confused as the students about my interaction with Remus. I went and took my seat next to Sybil, grabbing some toast and butter.

"Good morning, Avery. I see you've quit avoiding Remus," Sybil said as I took a bite.

"Yes, he came to my classroom last night. I couldn't very well run from him there," I said with a sigh, sitting back into my seat.

"I see. Don't you worry, dear, I see nothing but happiness in your future. For now," Sybil said before she stood up to leave. She always was rather cryptic. But nonetheless I had confided in her what had happened with Remus, so she knew how hard the last weeks had been for me. Once I had finished eating, I walked over to Lily, knowing the look on her face very well.

"Mum, I thought you were trying to avoid Professor Lupin," she said quietly as she walked out of the Great Hall with me.

"I hadn't told you this before, but I was at school here with Professor Lupin. We were in the same year and everything. We used to be quite close, actually," I said, not completely lying, but certainly not telling her the whole truth. That would be for a different conversation for a different time.

"Oh. So he knows Professor Snape, then, too?" she asked me, knowing I had gone to Hogwarts with Severus.

"Yes, he does. Now go, I don't want you to be late," I said, nudging her in the direction of the dungeons for her potions class. She skipped off, content with the answers I had given her this time. Remus was standing outside of his classroom, greeting students as they walked in, when I walked by to my own classroom. I wasn't sure when I would stop feeling butterflies in my stomach every time I looked at him, but I wished it would be sooner rather than later. As the weeks approaching Halloween drew on, I became more comfortable with walking to the Great Hall for meals with Remus, with the exception of the time of the full moon, of course. I still kept up with when there was a full moon, knowing Remus had ridden the train to Hogwarts because the full moon was the night before the train departed. There was another at the end of September, and now October's full moon was approaching. There were still a few days before the full moon on October 30th, but I could tell it was already starting to affect Remus. I decided to go to his classroom to see if he needed help with anything since I was done with grading for the night, knowing he wasn't feeling well. The door to his classroom was open, so I knocked lightly and let myself in.

"How are you feeling?" I asked as I walked up to his desk. He put down the essay he was grading and sat back with a sigh, pulling his hand over his face.

"Fine. The moon cycle is much easier to handle with Severus preparing the Wolfsbane for me," he said, getting up to walk around his desk towards me.

"You don't look fine," I said sternly, crossing my arms and giving him a pointed look.

"I'm just tired is all. Come, join me in my office," he said, flicking his wand to close the classroom door and I followed him up the steps to his office, growing nervous despite spending time in his office with him at least once a week. We usually had some tea and just talked about things that had happened in the twelve years we spent apart. He went to put some tea on and I sat on the couch in front of the fireplace.

"What have you told Lily about me?" he asked, surprising me. We had not yet talked about Lily, he hadn't asked so I didn't volunteer any information yet.

"So far just that we were in school together, like I was with Severus. She'd already known I was here with him, so she didn't ask too many questions about it. I did tell her we used to be very close, though," I said as he sat next to me.

"Oh, very close? Don't make me blush, professor," Remus said, teasing me.

"Oh, stop," I said with a grin, pushing his arm. It almost felt like we were the young lovers we once were all those years ago. We sat in silence for a few moments, just being comfortable in each other's presence.

"Avery, I want you to know that I still love you, that I never stopped loving you," Remus said quietly, seeming as though he was going to reach for my hand. My heart stopped and raced all at the same time.

"I know," I said finally, leaning my elbows onto my knees, holding the tea cup he handed me in both hands. That obviously wasn't what he wanted to hear at that point in the conversation. We sat in a tense silence for a few moments.

"And I want you to know, Remus, that yes, I still love you, but I need some time. I had to raise Lily without a father, I couldn't just dwell on the things that had happened for her sake. She's noticed that we've gotten closer, but I think she's afraid to ask me about it," I finally said, nearly whispering.

"When do you plan on telling her that she has a father that's alive and well?" he asked me and I could sense some anger building up in him from how tense he sounded.

"I don't know. She's only eleven, Remus. She is very grown up for her age, but that's a lot to put her through. I want her to know you. You were so scared she would inherit your lycanthropy, but she didn't. She has some trouble sleeping on the night of the full moon sometimes, but she is a perfectly normal, happy young girl. Knowing who you really are, what her last name really should be, that's life changing, Remus. I looked at her class schedule on the first of classes and instead of seeing Professor Lupin and Professor Lupin, I saw Professor Stroupe and Professor Lupin, because that's what you wanted for her safety. I didn't care what your name would implicate for me, but to keep our daughter safe, I did what you asked and changed my last name back to my maiden name, so she didn't have to grow up on the run from Death Eaters constantly just because her father is a werewolf," I said, standing up to pace in front of the fireplace, avoiding his touch.

"She has to know eventually. Like you said, she's noticed we've grown closer, she's very bright for her age, it won't take her long to figure out there's something more to us than just a close friendship," he said, watching me pace.

"But Remus, that is all we are right now. You've got to understand that. We can't have rumors spreading throughout the school about us being involved with each other in any other way right now, and that is for our daughter's sake as much as it is ours," I said, stopping in front of him and hoping I was getting my point across. Of course I still loved him, we had been together since our fifth year in school, we got married the summer after we both turned seventeen. If Remus hadn't had to run the night James and Lily were killed, we would be approaching almost twenty years of being together. We just looked at each other for a moment and when he stood up I had the urge to leave, unsure of what he was going to do. It only took two steps for him to be standing just an inch or two away from me and I could see that he was studying my face, absorbing each feature carefully. He tucked some hair behind my left ear and I waited with bated breath to see what exactly he was going to do.

"I understand, Avery, I promise you I do. So I will wait, I'll wait for you and I'll wait until the proper time for Lily to know who I am. She is such a brilliant child, Avery. You know, she reminds me very much of you when you were her age," he said quietly and I let out a breath I hadn't realized I was holding.

"I think she's much more like you. Hell, she looks like a miniature version of you," I said with a small smile, reaching out to touch his chest lightly.

"She's got your spunk, though," he said, smiling back at me, placing his hand over mine.

"I should go, you need to rest," I said, taking a small step back from him and could see how weary he looked.

"I'll see you in the morning," he said and lightly kissed my forehead, butterflies fluttering in my stomach.

"See you in the morning," I said and left his office. I sighed and plopped down onto my bed when I got to my room, worried about Remus and wondering what would happen when I finally had to tell Lily who Remus really was to her. I wasn't sure how she would take it when she did find out, but I knew there was no reason for me to worry about that yet and fell into a fitful sleep.


Thank you all so much for reading! It would mean the world to me to know what you think about Remus and Avery's story so far! And be on the lookout for some more positive action between these two soon!