Chapter 8! This chapter has a little more fluffiness in it (hope you don't mind!) and of course that means more action between Avery and Remus. So without further ado, enjoy!
Remus stayed with me in my office the rest of the afternoon, knowing how anxious I was about everything from that day.
"I just don't know what to expect from Lily. And I usually know exactly what to expect from her," I said, pacing in front of my fireplace for about the tenth time that afternoon.
"She'll be fine, Avery. She just needs some time," Remus said, but I continued my pacing, still anxious about the whole thing. Remus got up and stood in front of me, making me stop pacing. "Hey, she'll be okay," he said softly, pulling me into him for the second time that day. I put my arms around his waist, my face in his chest, hoping the close proximity would help me calm down. As tall as he was, he was able to rest his chin on the top of my head and rubbed my back in soothing circles. We stood that way for a few minutes before I pulled back, much calmer than I had been previously.
"Better?" he asked me and I just nodded, going to the window to look out over the grounds.
"I just hope she doesn't hate me for not telling her about you sooner," I said eventually, halfway turning to look at Remus. He came up behind me and put his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder, and I nearly melted into him, having missed his comforting touch.
"She won't. So what are we doing for Christmas this year?" he asked me and I smiled.
"Well, of course once we get home we'll have to decorate and find the biggest tree that will fit in the house. At some point we'll have to do some Christmas shopping, I still don't know what to get Lily. Or you for that matter," I said, leaning into him.
"You don't have to get me a single thing. Being home with you and Lily will be more than enough for me," he said and softly kissed my cheek, making me blush.
"But I have to get you something. This will be the first time in twelve years that we've been together for Christmas," I said, linking my fingers with his.
"Do you still have your rings?" he said, pulling back to look at me and feeling my bare left hand.
"They're at home. Safely tucked away in a box, don't worry," I said, turning to face him.
"Do you still have mine?" he asked tentatively, having given me his wedding ring for safe keeping the night he left.
"Of course I do. It's in the box with mine," I said, placing my hand on his chest, easily feeling new scars under his shirt that I knew weren't there twelve years ago, but I didn't bring any attention to it for the time being.
"Well, I suppose we will need to remember those when we return here after the first of the year," he said with a crooked smile that always left me breathless.
"I suppose we could," I said teasingly and his smile widened. "We should probably go down to the Great Hall. It's nearly time for dinner," I said after a beat if silence, pulling myself away from him even though I didn't want to. We walked to the Great Hall together, talking and laughing and almost feeling like it did all those years ago when we were students. When we got there, I noticed Lily was in deep conversation and barely glanced up when we entered the hall, so I wasn't able to gauge exactly how she was feeling at that moment, but figured she would come to one of us when she was ready. The next couple of weeks went by and Lily never did come to me or Remus about what we had told her and it was now the first day of the holiday break, students buzzing around getting ready to go to Hogsmeade to board the train. That morning Lily came to my office unexpectedly.
"Hey Lilybug. What do you need?" I said as I finished packing up my trunk.
"Is it alright if I ride the train back?" she asked and I had expected this for a week now, wondering when she was going to ask.
"Of course, sweetie. I'll come get you at the train station," I said, closing my trunk.
"And dad too?" she said hopefully and my heart soared.
"Yes, and dad too," I said with a grin and she skipped back out of my office, I expect to go back to her friends. I rushed over to Remus' office to tell him.
"Remus! Lily just came to ask if she could ride the train back with her friends, which of course I'm fine with, but she wants both of her parents at the platform to meet her," I said quickly, not even knocking on the door to his office, throwing him off a little bit. He was finishing up packing as well, but stopped and hugged me tightly when I threw myself at him.
"That's wonderful!" he said happily, pulling away from me.
"So, are you ready to go home?" I asked him, walking out of his office with him, him dragging his trunk behind him.
"I am. It's been too long," he said, following me into my classroom so I could get my trunk. I hurried and got it so we could make our way to Dumbledore's office to use the Floo network to get home. Remus knocked on the door once we were there and it opened by itself, letting us into the office.
"Ah, Remus, Avery. I suppose you're ready to go home for the holiday?" Dumbledore asked when we entered his office.
"Yes sir," Remus said, going to the fireplace. The students had already left the castle to get on the train so I was anxious to get home. We went through the fireplace one at a time, Remus following after me. I bounced on the balls of my feet waiting for Remus to come through the fireplace into our home and grinned when I saw him come through. He stepped into the living room, looking qaround.
"It's like I never left," he said walking around the room.
"I haven't changed much, honestly. I put a few of your things away for safe keeping, but otherwise I kept everything right where it was," I said, dragging both trunks towards the stairs. We levitated both trunks up the stairs and I took mine into my bedroom.
"So, where will I be staying?" Remus asked me and I really hadn't thought about that, assuming he would just stay in our bedroom with me.
"Um, wherever you'd like, I suppose. I guess I assumed you would stay in here with me," I said and could feel my face grow red.
"I think that would be lovely," he said with a soft smile and followed me into what used to be our bedroom, but had turned into only mine when he left twelve years ago.
"I mean, you know where everything is. I would say make yourself at home, but this is your home," I said awkwardly. "Okay, well I'll be downstairs. The train won't be in for a few hours yet. Um, take whatever time you need," I finally said after the most awkward silence I'd ever encountered.
"Yeah, I'll be down soon," Remus said, just looking at everything in the room. I made my way to the kitchen to fix myself some tea, making a mental note that we would need to stock the kitchen for the holiday before the train arrived at Platform 9 . I sat on the couch for about an hour totally alone, not wanting to disturb Remus while he took everything in upstairs. When he did come back downstairs, he simply sat next to me on the couch, not saying anything for a long time.
"Are you okay?" I asked him tentatively.
"Yeah, I'm okay. We have a lot of memories here. I just wish I had the memories with Lily that you have," he said, his voice thick with emotion.
"Now we'll be able to make new memories, as a family," I said, putting my hand on his knee.
"Thank you, Avery, for everything," he said, putting his hand over mine.
"Of course. You're my husband," I said softly, looking down. He lifted my chin back up and I had the urge to kiss him. It would be the first time in twelve years. He began to lean in towards me, but I got scared and jumped up, mumbling about needing to go out to get the kitchen stocked up the for the next couple of weeks. I heard him sigh behind me, but didn't allow myself to look back at him. Instead, I went back into the kitchen to make a quick list of things we would need for the weeks ahead, as well as what we would need for Christmas dinner when my parents came to the house. I wasn't sure if Remus would venture out with me or not, but I decided I would ask him anyway, just to be sure.
"Um, I've got to go get a few things to stock the kitchen for our stay. Did you want to come with me?" I asked him from the kitchen doorway.
"Oh, well I don't see why not. We've got time before we have to get Lily," he said, standing up to face me.
"Great. Let me go get my coat from upstairs and we'll go," I said, hurrying up the stairs to get my coat. I wasn't sure why I was suddenly so nervous around Remus, or why I didn't let him kiss me. He's my husband, I should've expected that at one point or another. Once I put my coat on, I hurried back downstairs so we would have plenty of time to get everything back home.
"Ready?" he asked me as I stepped back into the living room.
"Yeah, let's go," I said and took his hand to apparate to Diagon Alley together. We took our time shopping, enjoying spending the time together with just the two of us. When we got back home, we got everything put away and I made us some quick sandwiches for a late lunch.
"So what are you going to do if the students find out you're a werewolf?" I asked him as we sat at the kitchen table eating.
"I'll have to resign. I won't put any students at risk like that. For now I have a completely safe way to keep this information from any students and I plan to keep it that way," he said, looking a little surprised I would ask.
"What about Lily? The full moon is three days after Christmas. She's going to notice something isn't quite right," I said, sitting back in my chair.
"I have the Wolfsbane potion so my transforming won't be an issue. I was thinking I could just stay in the basement or the attic that night," he said nonchalantly.
"I'm glad you have it. That makes me feel better about it, honestly. I'm sure she'll ask you what's wrong, but we'll just tell her you aren't feeling well," I said, standing up to clean everything up. After we ate, we went back into the living room until it was time to get Lily on Platform 9 . We sat and just talked, my head on his shoulder and his arm around me for hours and I felt the happiest I'd felt in twelve years just sitting with him
Thank you all so much for reading! I was super excited to get this chapter out since there's more action between Avery and Remus! I would love love love to know what you thought about this chapter!
