Loving a Snake?

Chapter Four - The Visit

The week in which Tori awaited Remus's arrival seemed like the longest since her pregnancy. She couldn't wait to see him again and tell him how classes were going. She was so proud of her sixth years; they were making so much progress that she often had trouble finding new projects for them. Even Neville had excelled to meet the level of his classmates. After the Crutacious, Tori found it rather hard to find a spell to learn or counteract. She had thought about Avada Kadavera, but that seemed like tragedy just waiting to happen... but she wanted them to be able to counteract the curse, so she often made it a point to tell everyone more than once that some of the counteracting jinxes were effective on Avada Kadavera.

The Gryffindor-Slytherin rivalry had seemed to die down a bit since the first day - at least in Tori's classes. Though she often caught the two houses glaring at one another... she had decided one day to solve this problem by making the students sit in Gryffindor, Slytherin, Gryffindor, Slytherin order and pair each student with a member of the opposite house when doing projects rather than letting them choose their own partner. Maybe the other teachers didn't like how Tori did things, but she found it rather effective. Besides, now that You-Know-Who was back, they were going to have to learn to work together.

~*~*~*~*~

The next Friday evening, Tori sat on the floor changing Josh when she heard someone tapping on the door - a sound she had automatically began to dread since the day that Snape showed up. Sighing, Tori got up, leaving Josh to lay on the floor a moment, and opened the door.

"Hey!" Remus's voice greeted.

"Remus!" Tori yelled as she jumped at him and clung on, her arms looped around his neck to embrace him.

Trying to balance himself, Remus returned the hug and looked around the room. "Wow," he said. "You really did a good job decorating this room. When I was here, it was just full of boggarts and such, but this is nice."

Tori smiled brightly and motioned to a chair. "Sit down," she said. Remus did what was told of him and Tori sat back down on the floor to finish changing Josh.

Remus watched patiently as Tori put Josh's clothes back on him and lifted him up. "Hi, Josh!" Remus greeted as Tori handed him the baby. "How are you?" Remus cradled Josh in his arms and leaned back in his chair.

Tori smiled as Josh played with a button on Remus's shirt. "I wasn't expecting you this late," she said.

"I know," Remus smiled. "Sorry... I thought I'd surprise you... and it's quicker. This way we have all day to spend tomorrow."

Tori smiled and nodded as Remus got up, laid the now sleeping Josh in his crib, and sat on the couch. Tori looked at her watch - 9:17 it read - got up, and sat down beside Remus. Both were silent for a few moments until Remus laid his head on the back of the couch and Tori tilted hers so that it was right next to Remus's.

"So..." Remus began. "How are your classes?"

"Great. They're such wonderful kids," Tori answered.

"Yeah. Dumbledore tells me that you're doing very well."

"Spying on me, Remus?" Tori teased.

"No, never," Remus smiled lightly at Tori. A handsome smile that had always made her heart jump, even as a little girl. "Just making sure you work up to my expectations." Tori laughed.

"That was never hard," she stated, raising an eyebrow. "Give you something to eat, somewhere to sleep, and someone to talk to... been doing that for years."

"There have been exceptions," Remus pointed out. "You kicked me out once."

"Yeah... but you had come home from James's bachelor party so drunk that you couldn't stand. You had to crawl your way back. Hell, you had trouble just doing that!"

"And you kicked me out into the cold!"

"I told you to stay with Peter and that you could come back when you were sober again. I was already sick enough, I didn't need you puking all over my apartment."

"You could have used one of those sobering charms on me."

"And give you a reason to come home drunk again? I don't think so!"

Remus sighed and gave Tori his puppy face. "They made me do it..."

Tori laughed. "Aw... well had I known they were controlling your mind I would have made them stop." Remus glared at Tori and she smiled at him. "You're staying here, right?"

"I hoped so."

Tori got up off the couch, turned to Remus and said "Get up."

Remus blinked and looked taken aback. "What'd I do?"

Tori glared at Remus, grabbed his arm, and pulled him off the couch. "Remus watched, bewildered, as Tori pulled the couch out into a bed.

"Has it always done that?" he asked.

"What? Folded out into a bed? As far as I know, yeah."

"I slept on that couch for a year because I wasn't given a bed and all that time I could have just pulled it out..."

Tori laughed and threw a blanket and some pillows on the bed. When she had finished neatly setting up the bed she looked at Remus and smiled. "Well, there you go," she said. "Knock yourself out."

"But where are you going to sleep?" Remus asked, looking concerned.

"Anywhere," Tori replied, smiling.

Remus smiled and raised an eyebrow, pulling Tori down by her waist as he laid down on the bed. "What...?" Tori began.

Remus laughed. "Just sleep here," he suggested.

"With you?" Tori asked.

"Why not? What could happen? Neither of us is drunk." Tori cringed. "Oh... yeah... sorry." Remus frowned. "Sometimes I forget about that."

"It's alright... it was just a horrible mistake... nothing either of use could control."

"But what about Josh? If it hadn't happened, you wouldn't have him."

"I often think about that... I don't know what I'd do without Josh... but it doesn't matter... there's nothing I can do. Well, nothing I'd be willing to do."

Remus nodded and held Tori to him. For a few minutes they lay in silence until Remus could hear Tori's light breathing as she slept. He smiled down at her and tightened his hold, soon also going to sleep.