Another chapter! This one was my favorite one to write so far because of the wonderful Avery and Remus interactions! Hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it!


Once it was time to get Lily from the Hogwarts Express, we apparated to the same alley behind the train station I had apparated to with Lily at the beginning of the school year. As we were walking around to the front of King's Cross Stations, Remus grabbed my hand, surprising me.

"Is this okay?" he asked me, I was guessing because of the look I gave him.

"Yes, of course. You just surprised me is all," I said, giving him a small smile.

"Don't worry, I won't hold your hand or anything in front of the students coming off the train. Imagine the gossip they would start with that," he said with a slight chuckle.

"Some of the older girls would have a field day with that. A lot of them think you're very cute, by the way," I said, glancing at him to see his reaction.

"How in the world would you know that?" he asked me, blushing slightly.

"Remus, I'm not stupid. Plus I overhear a lot of them talking in my class. They think you've got a very cute arse too," I said and couldn't help but laugh at his ever reddening face.

"Yes, well, that's a bit inappropriate, don't you think?" he stammered out, very obviously embarrassed.

"Well, I can't help but to agree with them," I said with a smirk and his face got even redder, which I hadn't thought was possible.

"I think for now we should keep my arse out of any conversations that aren't completely and totally private," he said quietly so those around us wouldn't hear us. We were approaching where we would get onto Platform 9 ¾ so I let go of Remus' hand, going through to the platform before him. We only had to wait a few minutes before the train pulled into the station and the students began to file onto the platform excitedly. It didn't take long for Lily to find us in the crowd, though we kept getting many strange looks from the other students. Lily rushed towards us, but surprised me when she nearly tackled Remus in a hug. After being so unsure of how she would feel about the news that Remus was her father, I was happy to know she had processed all of the information we'd given her and seemed to be happy with it.

"How was the train ride, Lilybug?" I asked her as we went to get her trunk so we could apparate home.

"Fine. Nothing too interesting happened. Definitely nothing like on the ride in September," she said, referring to the dementors that had been on the train at the start of term. She skipped along between me and Remus, holding his hand, and I could see how happy that made Remus, even if we were getting many stares from students and parents alike.

"Well, good, then we can have a normal Christmas holiday after all," I said, grabbing her trunk, and Remus apparated the three of us back home. Lily ran inside the house and up to her room, Remus following with her trunk, and I went into the kitchen to start dinner. I decided to keep dinner simple since I knew Lily was tired from being on the Hogwarts Express all day and made some spaghetti. As I was cooking, Remus came back downstairs, leaving Lily in her room.

"Something smells good," he said as he walked into the kitchen.

"Just spaghetti. I know Lily is tired so I stuck with something quick and simple," I said, stirring the pot of sauce.

"Well either way I'm sure it will be delicious," he said, kissing me on the cheek before getting the table set for the three of us. In that moment I felt the happiest I had in a long time, finally knowing the comforting feeling of having my family together and safe. After dinner Lily went to bed almost immediately and I sat on the couch with Remus, a glass of elderflower wine in my hand, a small glass of firewhiskey in his. We sat and talked and drank for about an hour before I was falling asleep on the couch.

"Hey, Avery, come on, let's go to bed," I heard Remus say, waking me up from my dozing on the couch.

"Probably a good idea," I said sleepily, leaving my wine glass on the coffee table to clean up the next day. We walked upstairs together and I suddenly was wide awake and nervous when I realized I would actually be sleeping in the same bed as Remus for the first time in twelve years. I was sure he could sense how nervous I was when we got into our bedroom and I rushed into the bathroom to get ready for bed. I took my time getting ready for bed, not knowing what to expect anymore after the years and years of being completely by myself in this bedroom, but I knew I couldn't hide out in the bathroom all night. I sighed and walked out of the bathroom to find Remus sitting on the side of the bed waiting for me.

"Avery, come here," he said and I walked to his side of the bed. He pulled me closer to him so I was standing between his legs, his hands resting on either side of my waist. "I'm nervous, too. It's been a long time. If it would make you more comfortable, I can go stay in the guest bedroom," he said.

"No, it's okay. You're my husband and I'm your wife, I'll be fine," I said, resting my hands on his arms. It was then that I realized exactly how close we were to each other and I got even more nervous, breathing more shallowly. It seemed Remus noticed the same because he glanced down at my lips and his breathing quickened. He started to lean towards me and this time I didn't pull away. The feeling of his lips on mine was something I hadn't felt in twelve years and this kiss had a feeling to it that I'd never felt before. I knew we were older, more mature, but I hadn't expected the hint of passion and need from Remus. My arms had found their way around his shoulders, his snaking around my waist, pulling me even closer to him, deepening the kiss. I tangled one hand into his hair, not wanting to let him go, but before things could get out of hand I pulled away from him, keeping my eyes closed for a moment before looking at him again. We were both breathing heavily, neither of us having experienced anything like that in years. I smiled softly at him and leaned my forehead against his. Neither of us said anything, just crawling into bed with him, totally enveloped in his arms as we fell asleep. I woke up at one point in the middle of the night, but Remus wasn't beside me anymore. I got up to see if I could find him, finally finding him standing in the doorway to Lily's room.

"Hey, are you okay?" I whispered, not wanting to wake Lily up.

"Yes. Perfect, actually. And so is she. I never thought I would see the day that I could come check on my own child in the middle of the night if I want to," he said, closing the door to Lily's room quietly. "Come on, let's go back to bed," he said, leading me back to our bedroom. I fell back asleep quickly, but Remus was still awake, just watching me as I fell asleep. The next morning I woke up tangled up in the sheets and Remus' limbs and inexplicably happy. I tried to untangle myself without waking him up, but he stirred and opened his eyes as I was getting up.

"Good morning," I said quietly, smiling at him.

"Morning," he said sleepily, propping himself up on his elbow. "I almost thought last night was a dream, but I'm glad it wasn't," he said, pulling me back onto the bed, his arm around my waist.

"I'm glad it wasn't either. But, Lily will be up soon, so I need to go get breakfast started," I said, giving him a peck on the lips and jumping up to go downstairs. I tied my robe around me as I descended the stairs, yawning into my hand once in the kitchen. I got a pot of coffee started and heard footsteps bounding down the stairs as I got some eggs and bacon out of the refrigerator, Lily bouncing into the kitchen.

"Morning, mum," she said, hugging me from behind.

"Good morning, sweetheart. How did you sleep?" I asked her, putting one arm around her and kissing the top of her head. I went back to the refrigerator and got her a glass of orange juice so she'd have something while I cooked.

"Fine. I'm glad we'll be home for a little bit," she said, taking her juice and sitting down at the kitchen table.

"I am, too. I hope you're ready to do some serious Christmas decorating today," I said to her, frying some bacon.

"Only if you are. Where's dad?" she asked, surprising me with her question, not quite being used to Remus being called dad.

"He'll be down in a few minutes, he was getting up when I came down here," I said and just then he came down the stairs, having found his own robe that I'd kept from before he left.

"Morning, dad," Lily said as he walked into the kitchen.

"Morning, Lily. Did you sleep okay?" he said, kissing the top of her head as if it was something he'd been doing her whole life.

"Yeah. You know, I'm glad you came back to us. I was afraid I might never know who you are," she said, already hitting the deep conversation first thing in the morning.

"I am, too. I've missed out on eleven years of your life, I don't want to miss anymore," he said and came over to kiss me on the cheek. We ate breakfast quickly, I knew Lily was excited to decorate the house for Christmas. Remus helped me get all of the decorations down from the attic, Lily already unpacking the boxes once we had gotten everything down. It took us almost all day, plus a small break for a quick lunch, to get the house decorated, but just before dinner time we were done. The only thing we were missing was a Christmas tree, which we would go get the next day, me and Lily having a tradition of cutting our own tree at a muggle farm nearby every year. Since we lived next to a muggle neighborhood, we tended to do a lot of things the muggle way, including ordering a pizza for dinner every once in a while, like we did that night.

"So explain to me what exactly we're doing for dinner again?" Remus said, still confused since this was something he had never done before.

"It's called pizza, I am going to walk to the shop and order it to bring home. You stay here with Lily. And just trust me, you're going to love it," I said, getting my coat on to make the short walk. I bid them both goodbye and my way out to the pizza shop, making sure my wand was tucked safely inside my coat. Once I got the pizza home, Lily immediately dug in, grabbing two slices of pizza for herself. Remus just looked at it and I could tell he wasn't sure what to think.

"Here, just try a piece. It's got pepperoni, sausage, and mushrooms on it," I said, putting a slice of pizza on his plate. He tentatively took a bite of it and his face lit up.

"Wow. That's very good, actually," he said and continued eating.

"See, I told you to just trust me," I said, taking another bite of pizza. Once we were all finished eating, I got everything cleaned up and saw Lily dragging Remus into the living room, spouting something out about playing a game or two of Exploding Snap with him. Once I was done getting everything cleaned up, I joined them in the living room, just enjoying watching Lily and how happy she was with Remus around. While they were playing the card game, I decided to go ahead and write a letter to my parents, knowing I should warn them that we would have an extra person with us at Christmas, but not wanting to tell them exactly who it was. I wasn't sure exactly what to tell them, but wrote this:

Dear mum,

Hope you and dad have been doing well. I got home with Lily from Hogwarts yesterday. She's so excited for you to come for Christmas and she's even more excited about who we have with us. We have a fellow professor from Hogwarts staying with us through the Christmas holiday.

See you soon,

Avery

I sent the letter out with our owl, knowing my mum would have plenty of questions for me about who our mystery guest was, but I wanted to surprise them. My parents were very fond of Remus and were so excited when they found out he had asked me to marry him when we were still seventeen. It didn't take long for Lily to get tired and go up to go to bed, and I wasn't far behind her. Remus had started reading after Lily went to bed, so he stayed up a little later, not even waking me up when he got into bed.


Like I said above, my favorite chapter to write so far! I hope you enjoyed and would love to know what you thought about this chapter in a nice lovely review! And a big thank you to everyone that has already followed/favorited and reviewed so far!