The next couple of days flew by and before I knew it, I was in Dumbledore's office, getting ready to floo home. I had sent an owl to Remus early that morning telling him about what time to expect me and was excited to see him again, even more so because now we were finally a family again, despite it now being public knowledge that he's a werewolf. Word had gotten around about our marriage too, which I suspected Severus had a hand in, just like he did about the news of Remus' lycanthropy getting out. At the moment, the only positive thing I could see from everyone knowing I was married to Remus was that me and Lily could finally use his last name without having a million questions thrown at us about it. When I told Lily that she could start using the last name Lupin she was so excited. Once I went through the fireplace to go home, I could smell something in the kitchen, wondering what exactly Remus was doing.

"Remus? I'm home," I called as I stepped through the fireplace, trunk in hand. He walked out of the kitchen and was covered in spots of flour, even having some in his hair. "What in the world are you doing?" I asked him before he kissed me.

"I'm making pumpkin pasties. I know they're your favorite," he said, grinning at me before going back to the kitchen.

"You what?" I said, leaving my trunk in the living room and following him into the kitchen. There were several cans of pumpkin empty on the counter and I could smell them baking in the oven. He was right, they were my favorite, had been since I'd first tried them on the train in first year.

"You heard me," he said, starting to gather up the trash he'd left behind and smirking at me.

"But why?" I asked, helping him by taking some of the dishes he'd used to the sink and filling one side up with soapy water.

"Because I love you and wanted to. Is that so bad?" he asked, still throwing trash away.

"I mean, no," I said with a shrug, starting in on the dirty dishes. "They're Lily's favorite too," I said casually with a shrug.

"Yes, she told me. That just means you can't keep them all to yourself this time," he said, walking past me and kissing me on the cheek.

"You're in an awfully good mood," I commented as I rinsed the bowl he'd used for the pastry dough.

"I'm just glad you'll both be home and we'll all be here for the summer, just as we should be," he said, walking up behind me and wrapping his arms around my waist, kissing the side of my neck.

"We'll have to go get Lily in a few hours, you should have seen how excited she was when I told her that she gets to go by Lupin instead of Stroupe now," I said with a grin, which Remus returned.

"Good, I'm glad she's excited by that. I just hope she doesn't run into any trouble because of it," he said, leaning on the counter next to where I was standing.

"I hope she doesn't either. I know Harry and his friends, but particularly Harry, will help stick up for her if she does have any trouble," I said, finishing up the last of the dishes as Remus pulled the pumpkin pasties out of the oven. We went and got Lily from King's Cross Station that evening and I couldn't help but smile as I watched her and Remus in the living room, playing wizard's chess and talking animatedly to each other. After about a month into the summer break, I noticed that Lily hadn't gotten any letters from any of her friends and decided I ought to ask her about it.

"Hey Lily, could you come here for a minute?" I called into the living room from the kitchen, making some tea for all of us.

"What's up, mum?" she said, coming into the kitchen.

"I don't want you to think I'm trying to invade your privacy or anything, but I noticed you haven't gotten any letters from any of your friends yet this summer. Did something happen?" I asked her, handing her a cup of tea.

"Oh, um, kind of," she said and suddenly didn't want to look me in the eye.

"What do you mean kind of?" I asked her, sitting at the kitchen table with her as Remus walked into the kitchen, helping himself to some tea.

"Well," she said, drawing the word out before continuing and just looking down into her cup. "Romilda kind of called dad a filthy half-breed. So I hexed her," Lily said with a shrug and I looked at Remus, completely shocked.

"Excuse me, you did what?" I asked her in disbelief, looking back over to her in shock.

"I hexed her," she said, finally looking up at me and Remus. "It was just the bat-bogey hex. I absolutely refuse to hear anyone say things like that about dad," she said, looking back down and even though I was a bit angry at her, I was oddly proud. I looked over to Remus and he just sighed before saying anything to her.

"Lily, while I appreciate you standing up for me, you can't go around hexing people like that. You could get into some serious trouble doing that," Remus said, giving her a stern look.

"I know, I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking," she said, still looking down into her cup.

"Go on up to your room, Lily. I'll call you down for dinner," I said to her and she just nodded, getting up and walking upstairs to her room.

"Well, that was rather interesting," I said after a moment of silence and I could see Remus smirking slightly. "You think this is funny?" I asked him, slowly starting to smirk myself.

"I wouldn't say that necessarily," he said, smiling sideways now. "But it seems very much like something one of us would have done at that age," he said and I knew he was right.

"It does, doesn't it," I said with a sigh, leaning back in my chair. "We can't just let her get away with this, though. Can we?" I asked him, suddenly questioning all of my parenting choices up until that point.

"Well, I think perhaps the loss of her friends might be punishment enough for her," Remus said and stood up, walking to the living room where we could hear a faint tapping on the window. I followed him and there was a white snowy owl at the window with a letter clutched in its beak.

"That's Harry's owl, isn't it?" I asked as Remus let the owl in, taking the letter and it seemed the owl would be waiting on a response.

"It's for Lily," he said, looking at the front of the letter.

"Here, I'll take it up to her," I said and he handed me the letter. I walked up to Lily's room and knocked on her open door quietly, walking in when she turned around to look at me.

"Hey Lilybug. This just came for you," I said, handing her the letter.

"Oh, thanks mum. I wonder who sent it?" she said, opening the letter.

"I believe it's from Harry. He has the snowy owl, doesn't he?" I said as she read the letter quickly.

"Yeah, he does. Oh wow, he's going to the Quidditch World Cup with the Weasley's. I didn't realize it was so close. Wait, they want me to go with them!" she said happily, looking up at me expectantly.

"That on Monday night, isn't it," I said, leaning against her door frame. "Well, let me and your father talk about it before you send an answer, yeah? I know you're twelve now, but that's a huge event and there will be tons of people there. I don't want anything happening to you," I said and she just nodded, reading through the letter again. I walked back down stairs to tell Remus what was going on.

"It was from Harry and apparently he's going with the Weasley's to the Quidditch World Cup on Monday night," I said, sitting down on the couch next to Remus.

"Oh, well good for him," he said, stroking the white owl on its neck.

"They've invited Lily to go along as well," I said and he glanced at me sideways, obviously not quite knowing what to say to that.

"Well," he said and stood back up, walking to the window slowly. "Are we going to let her go? I know tickets for that are extremely hard to come by," he said and I leaned into the back of the couch with a sigh.

"I don't know, Remus. That's one of the biggest events in the wizarding world. There will be people from all over the world there. I don't want anything happening to her," I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"I'm assuming Arthur would be there, plus I'm sure Harry and Hermione both would help keep an eye on her. I don't see why we shouldn't let her go," he said and I knew he had a point.

"You're right. I know she would love being there. I'll go tell her," I said and went back upstairs to Lily's room and she looked at me expectantly when I got to her doorway.

"So? Can I go?" she asked eagerly, nearly bouncing out of her seat.

"Well," I said, drawing the word out and I could see she was already getting a little disappointed. "Yes, you can go," I said and smiled at her. She jumped up and hugged me tightly, very excited to hear that we would be allowing her to go.

"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you!" she said quickly and excitedly, nearly jumping up and down in her excitement.

"Go ahead and write back to Harry that you'll be going. His owl is waiting downstairs," I said and she raced back to her desk and pulled out a quill and some parchment, quickly writing the letter and we went downstairs together for her to give the letter to the owl.

"Aw, hey Hedwig," she cooed to the owl, stroking its feathers. "Here you go, girl," she said and the owl took the letter, flying back out the window to take the letter to Harry.

"You'll have to tell us all about the World Cup, got it?" I said as I sat on the couch next to Remus, Lily still grinning.

"Of course, mum. I'm going to start packing," she said excitedly, rushing back upstairs.

"You have all weekend to worry about all of that!" I called after her, laughing at her as she hurried up the stairs and shook my head. It was still just Thursday night, but I knew how excited she must have been.

"She certainly is excited," Remus said, smiling back at me when I looked at him.

"I'm not sure what she's more excited about, seeing the World Cup or seeing Harry again," I said, settling into the couch next to Remus, his arm around me. The next two days went by quickly and before we knew it we were getting Lily ready to go through the floo network to the Weasley's house the day before the World Cup. I had sent Molly a letter not long after Lily had received Harry's letter and it was decided Lily would stay with the Weasley's until the full moon was over, both so they could get a bright and early start the day of the World Cup and have no delays getting there and so Lily wasn't home when Remus transformed into a werewolf.

"You've got everything you'll need?" I asked her as she hugged Remus goodbye.

"Yes, mum, don't worry," she said and came over to hug me.

"I'm your mother, I'll always worry," I said, smiling down at her as I hugged her back.

"I'll see you soon," she said, gathering up the backpack she was taking with her.

"Love you, Lilybug," I said and she stepped into the fireplace with a pinch of floo powder, calling out the Burrow to get to the Weasley's house. "What are we going to do now that Lily isn't here?" I said to Remus, sitting on the couch.

"I don't know, but I know the house will be a little quieter. I could certainly suggest a couple of things we could do," he said, sitting next to me and wiggling his eyebrows at me suggestively.

"Remus, I'm shocked," I said, laughing at him.

"It's four days before the full moon, do you really blame me?" he said, his arms going around my waist tightly.

"I know it's four days before the full moon, which means you need to be resting," I said, trying to get out of his arms, but he wouldn't budge.

"Speaking of the full moon, I'm glad one of us is good enough at potions to make the Wolfsbane," Remus said, finally letting me go.

"Potions never was your strong suit in school. I just hope I can get enough of it made to last you through at least Christmas. If I have to, I can always send some through the post, but I want to try to avoid that if I can, especially with how careful I have to be when making it in the first place," I said, standing up to go to the kitchen and get dinner started. We spent the rest of the night just talking and enjoying being with each other alone. I did worry about Lily, but I knew the Weasley's would take care of her.


Thoughts? I'm so glad to finally get back into this story and appreciate all of the follows/favorites/reviews! And be on the lookout soon for a prequel of this story!