CREATIVE WRITING

Schon wieder ein HP-Fanfic, und auch schon wieder eines, in dem es um Remus und Tonks geht. Irgendwie faszinieren die mich...
vielleicht bald mehr, denn handschriftlich gibt es inzwischen schon ganze sechs Kapitel...

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No Place Like Home

Chapter One – The house

Ever since they had started their relationship, Remus had been the one to come over to Dora’s flat, and not the other way around. But not for the reason most people knew them would have thought they did. It was not that he didn’t have a place of his own, because, in fact, he did. But after having first seen the modern little flat in London Dora owned, he’d felt uncomfortable about showing her his own place.
His mother had inherited the tiny house from a great-aunt of hers he had never even met, and she had given it to her protesting son as a birthday present. And yet, during the two years he had now owned it, he had hardly ever lived there. There had always been something else, something that kept him away from it.
But now, he had decided to take her to see the little house. Although he was almost afraid of what she would say.

It was a sunny day in late September, and the leaves of the trees around them were already turning all shades of red and gold when they apparated in the small wood close to the house. They could have gone straight into the garden, but he had wanted it to remain secret for a few more minutes. It had been a surprise trip for her until now..
”Where are we?” Dora asked, looking around her.
“A few kilometres away from the village, beside the road from this one to the next.” He answered.
”Very precise description. Good thing you guided me, or I might have ended up in – say – China.”
”It would still spoil the surprise if I told you now. Just a few more minutes, okay?”
Actually, he was not entirely sure how much she would be able to find out if he told her the name of the village, but he could not be sure that his mother had not talked about it already. She liked Dora, after all, and had talked to her quite a lot only last Sunday, when they had had lunch with their parents. Who knew if the house had come up.
Dora slid her hand into Remus’, as they continued walking along the street. And as soon as the house came into view, she knew what this was about.
”Is that it? The house that you kept secret from me all this time?” she asked, as they walked through the small gate in the fence that surrounded the house and the garden, and up the little path, towards the front door.
“Yes, that’s it.” Remus said hesitantly. He somehow started to feel like it was not such a good idea, after all. She wouldn’t like his house. The roof looked like it was good for taking a shower when it rained, the paint was peeling off, and everything looked like it was a few years older than it should be.

He opened the front door with a tap of his wand, and they both stepped inside. The small corridor they were now in opened into the living room a few steps ahead of them, and to their left was a door that Remus knew to lead to a small bathroom with broken floor tiles.
They walked on into the living room, and Dora started to look around curiously. She walked past the dirty windows and door that made the back wall appear to be made entirely of glass, opening to the terrace behind and the small overgrown garden, and towards the small kitchen that was not really separated from the living room.
And Remus noticed for the first time that she didn’t seem to dislike the house at all. She liked it.
And after he’d shown her the rest of the house – the kitchen, the storage room, the bedrooms upstairs and even the cellar – this view was confirmed.
They ended up sitting on the veranda in the sun.
“So, why did you not want me to come here?” she asked. “Afraid I’d want to move in immediately, before you were ready for it?”
He knew she was just trying to tease him, but it made him feel strangely content that she would want to move in with him.
“No, of course not. I just thought…it is so very different from your flat, or your parent’s house. I thought you might not like it very much.”
”Why wouldn’t I like it? It’s great – so much space, and the great view, and just think about what a pretty garden we could make out of this.”
She made a hand movement so excessive that it seemed to include not only the overgrown garden, but the entire valley below as well.
“Yes, but you do realise it’ll be a lot of work until it will be like that, and I thought – no, forget it. That doesn’t matter any more. I was wrong. You do like it, and that matters.”
“Yes I do, absolutely.”
For a split second, Remus hesitated, but then he took a deep breath and asked:
”And since I am obviously not afraid of you moving in with me, and you don’t seem to be that afraid either - would you consider it if I asked you to?”
She looked up at him with a smile that warmed him more than the sunshine, and said: “Yes, I would. I’d like that a lot.”