WHO: Remus Lupin and Severus Snape WHAT: Severus’ garden is a mess, so Remus brings him tea WHEN: Backdated to Saturday, December 29th. Afternoon WHERE: Severus’ house RATING: Daisy friendly STATUS: Complete
Remus and Severus had never been particularly close and mostly only knew one another through Lily, despite having gone to school together, but that didn’t mean that they needed Lily around to see one another. Upon hearing about Severus’ problem with his tea garden because of the snow, Remus had seen an opportunity to help; maybe not with the garden itself, but he did have quite a lot of excess tea that he could bring to Severus if he wanted it, which was why he was on his way to Severus’ house now. Unlike a lot of the residence of Orange County, Remus was used to driving in snow because of having lived on the East Coast quite often during the winter, so he had absolutely no problems maneuvering the roads that were covered with snow and ice.
Reaching Severus’ house, Remus parked, grabbed the box of assorted teas that he had put together and headed to the front door, pulling his jacket closed tighter around himself as he reached the door and rang the doorbell.
Severus was not a fan of James. Or Sirius, truth be told. But he loved Lily dearly, and put up with her friends to maintain their friendship. Actually, he had no problems with Remus, he found the man to be educated, intelligent and unoffensive. It was almost as close to friendship as he got.
Severus hurried to the door to open it and admit the other. A very small, dark-haired girl, his two-year old daughter Daisy, was right behind him, wrapped around his leg. "Hello, Remus. Come in where it's warm."
“Thank you, Severus.” Remus stepped inside and unraveled his scarf with his free hand. While he knew he wasn’t the only person who had lived outside of California, he was probably one of the only ones who had, had winter clothes easily accessible since he had only just moved back. “This weather is absolutely insane. I know it snowed in Las Vegas about a year ago, but I don’t ever recall getting snow here.”
After removing his coat and scarf, he picked up the box of teas and offered it to Severus, “I hadn’t realized just how much tea I had until I moved. It has become clear to me now that I have a problem in which I buy boxes of tea every time I go to the grocery store, even if I’m not out.” Remus would have to make it a point to not buy anymore tea for awhile, because he was pretty sure that even if he drank two cups a day, he’d still have enough to last well in March.
Severus had been hiding away inside his house with Daisy for most of the snowy days. Romana was a confident woman, and could do what she wanted to do. But Severus was content to call in and spend the snow days with Daisy. His wife was more than welcome at home, of course, but that wasn't a necessity. Besides, it was good if they both didn't spend all of their sick and vacation days at the same time.
"At least you're not in denial about your tea purchasing compulsion," Severus said. He reached forward for the box of tea and gave a gentle, "thank you," as he accepted it. "You have no idea how much I've been itching without my garden." Even now the yard was covered in snow. Severus had no idea which of his plants--if any--would survive it.
Remus laughed as Severus took the box, “If I buy anymore, I may need a tea intervention,” Of course Remus knew that there was no such thing, but he knew how to joke around on occasion; he had spent quite a lot of time with James, Sirius and Peter after all. It was only logical that some of their humor would have rubbed off on him eventually. “Have you been able to check your garden yet or is there too much snow to do that just yet?” While Remus knew the basics of gardening, he didn’t exactly have a green thumb and had never actively tried growing anything as a hobby. Remus’ hobbies were more of the book reading variety.
“Too much snow so far,” Severus said, turning down to Daisy to hand over one of the individually wrapped tea bags from the box.
She thought it was a cool toy, and unwrapped it as she ran off into the living room, to put it in her (empty) toy teapot. They could hear her calling from the other room, “‘Would you like some tea, Teddy?’ ‘Why, yes, I would love some tea!’”
Severus led the way into the kitchen to put the kettle on. “I’m sure I’ll be able to repair it, but it’s going to take several months. Until then I don’t know what I’m going to do for tea. I suppose I’ll have to try different brands to see which is best.”
Remus smiled as Severus gave Daisy the tea bag and she scampered off to the other room, “She’s adorable, Severus.” Children had never been a part of Remus’ future; at least not for himself. Remus loved children, but none of his relationships since Sirius had ever been serious enough to consider marriage or children. Besides, as far as kids went, there was Harry and now Charles and the children in his classes, so it wasn’t as if children weren’t a part of his life at all.
“Well, there are quite a few different brands in there. As I said, I appear to have a tea buying problem.” Remus smirked as he followed Severus into the kitchen, “And I must say, Daisy is absolutely adorable, Severus.”
And Daisy. Severus was fairly picky about the adults that he let into Daisy’s life. He was going to have to be less so, now she was getting a bit older, a bit bigger. But Remus was on the short list of people Severus would let care for his daughter, if push came to shove. “Thank you.”
Severus turned to put the kettle on, filling it with water from the tap and turning the burner on to heat it up. “She enjoys her tea parties. Though, I’ve stopped giving her water in her teapot. She makes an awful mess if I do.”
“I would imagine that would get rather messy,” Despite the fact that he was still relatively young, Remus couldn’t imagine running after a small child all day. Of course he’d enjoyed playing with Harry when he was small, whenever he wasn’t away, teaching, but it had been so long since he’d really been around any small children, that he wasn’t even sure what he would do with one, which he was sure would change now that James and Lily had another little one. “So, besides running after Daisy and growing your own garden, what have you been up to, Severus?” Remus felt so out of the loop with just about everyone and he’d only been on the other side of the country as opposed to another planet.
Severus had a lot of patience for his daughter. He wouldn’t have much patience for anyone else’s child, he was sure, but Daisy had stolen his heart. He thought he loved Lily. He knew he loved Romana. But he didn’t know what love was until Daisy was born.
“I work for a pharmaceutical company,” Severus said, turning around to lean against the counter while the water started to heat. “It serves my purposes. Romana and I do fairly well for ourselves. It gives me enough time to spend with Daisy outside of work.” When the next baby was born, though, Severus would absolutely be taking quite a bit of time off of work to spend with his family. Not that that would be happening too soon. They’d only just started talking about trying.
Remus was glad that all of his friends and acquaintances were doing the things that they enjoyed and no one was struggling; at least it appeared that no one was struggling, which in this day and age was rare. “It certainly seems like you’re doing well and that you’re happy, which is really the only thing that matters,” Now if only Remus could say the same on both accounts for himself. He had no complaints on the job front, but when it came to being happy in his personal life, well seeing Sirius again had certainly thrown a wrench in those gears. “And what does Romana do?” While Remus had met Severus’ wife once or twice, he’d never actually gotten the chance to speak to her for more than a few moments, but he hoped that now that he was going to be in town longer than a few weeks that he would be able to actually get to know her, considering he hoped that he and Severus would become better friends as well.
“She’s a CEO,” Severus said with a nod. “We’re lucky that both of our companies have in-house Day Care. We can take turns bringing Daisy with us to school. Though, that will change if she gets into a Preschool for next fall. We’re already doing research and interviewing. I never knew it would be such an involved process.” Severus added, giving a little sigh. The kettle began to whistle, so Sev reached around and took it off the burner, then poured a couple of cups of hot water over teabags.
“It is amazing, what it takes to simply get a child into preschool these days.” Before Remus had become a teacher, he’d simply thought that parents went into a school, signed some papers to get their children enrolled and that was that; after all, it had seemed that way to him when he was a kid. Not to mention, he’d received that scholarship for private school so there had been no need for interviews until he began applying to colleges. “Are you looking at any schools in particular?” Remus may have just come back to the OC, but he still kept in touch with a few teachers at other schools in the area who he had worked with in the past.
“Tell me about it.” Severus said, dipping his tea bag into the hot water a couple of times to steep the leaves. It would have been fine just sitting, but he wanted something to do with his hands. “I’m rather fond of the Montessori teachings. There are a few of those schools around, but we’re looking into all of the different schools in the area. It’s bizarre to me how important the emphasis is on preschool education. How it leads to the right kindergartens, to the right elementary, and so on.”
“Personally, I think a lot of people put far too much emphasis on preschool. When we were children preschool and kindergarten were for learning the basics and being children,” Remus said, taking a sip of his tea. Of course, when Remus was in kindergarten he had already learnt to read and by the time he reached first grade, he was already reading at a level higher than the majority of his class. That, however, had, had nothing to do with the school he had gone to and everything to do with his parents. “But, I’m sure you’ll find the correct school for Daisy in time. I’m sure that whichever school you choose, they’ll be lucky to have her.”
“Indeed.” Severus agreed, nodding softly. He lifted the mug and blew across the top of the hot liquid, then sipped from it. “Daisy’s pretty brilliant. We never push, but she seems to want to learn more than anything else. She makes learning a game.” He added, the obvious pride in his child shining through with every word. “And thank you. This interview and visit process is just as much for us as it is for them. We need to make sure that it’s a good fit just as much as they do.”
Remus couldn’t help but notice similarities between himself and Daisy, “I was the same as a child. When I was six, we found out that I had diabetes and my parents got a book to try and help explain it to me and for one reason or another, after that, I wanted to learn as much as possible about everything.” He knew that he had driven his parents crazy on more than one occasion by asking for more books. “It sounds like whichever school you end up choosing will be lucky to have her.”
“Thank you.” Severus said, sipping his tea. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to raise a child with an illness like that, and prayed to whatever God was listening that Daisy would remain happy and healthy. He set his mug down, the tea now gone. “I should get back to her,” he said, softly. “You’re welcome to stay and join the tea party. We’re all mad here.”
It had certainly been a learning experience for Remus and his parents, but as Remus got older he had been able to take complete control over every aspect of it, which included finding the perfect diet that would also allow him to still have chocolate on occasion. No matter what age he was, giving up chocolate just seemed like a travesty. Setting down his own cup, Remus laughed and nodded, “I think I may stay. I haven’t been to a tea party in a very long time.” If he remembered correctly, the last time he attended a tea party, he was probably in kindergarten; after all, the only other child Remus had been around after elementary school was Harry and he certainly never had tea parties.