Doctors, pies, and mad urges

[iesika]

Went to the neuro-opthamologist today, who was unable to tell me anything conclusive but had 10 vials of blood drawn for various tests. She was very nice, though, and answered all my questions that could be answered at this point. I went to her on my usual eye-guy's referral, and had to drive waaaay out to the outskirts of town, almost to Scottlandville. The hospital was really neat, though - it's in a rather poor, predominantly black part of town (Baton Rouge has been a predominantly black city for quite some time now, but it's very segregated, and nearly all recent development and expansion projects have been in the more affluent white parts of town). What makes it really cool, though, is that it's a co-op. The hospital is owned by the doctors who work there - who are mostly young black professionals. My doctor, for example, is one of four M.D. sisters who own a stake in the building. The area needed a hospital, and nobody wanted to invest, so the doctors got together and did it themselves. I learned all this from a series of posters and photos in the halls and waiting room, which made for much more interesting reading than the out-of-date Parent magazines. 

Before and after the doctor thing, I was at the bakery boxing hundreds of pies for Thanksgiving. This might have sucked more if they hadn't informed me halfway through the day that I got to pick two of the pies and take them home. Yay for free pie! I got a pumpkin cheesecake (omg so delicious!) for my birthday, too, so I'm making off pretty good. All the goodies will be traveling up to Bastrop (or Rayville, not sure yet, probably depends on my cousin's chemo schedule) for the holiday. I picked a strawberry-cream-cheese and a key lime pie. They are also, apparently, giving us a turkey and a bottle of wine for xmas. This would be more exciting if I ate meat or drank wine.

As for mad urges - aside from my mad urge to play Oblivion again (which I can't really do, because my computer is broken, and the one I get to use doesn't even have the DVD drive required to load the game, let alone the horsepower to play it), I was thinking today about how desperately I would like to write something, and how little time and, apparently, ability I have currently got for such. Everytime I sit down to write something, I go blank, and it's killing me. So I'm going to babble a bit about the story in my head right now in the hopes that this way I can't forget about it by the time I have a moment to myself. Feel free to not read it. It's pure ramble/brainstorm.

What I want to write, and so very badly, is a story where Remus does not die in the final battle, and he is left a widower with a small child (and I am convinced, btw, that Teddy was not concieved on purpose, and was probably the impetus for the wedding). He's grieving, his mother-in-law is grieving and possibly Not Quite Right ATM (because OMG, she lost her husband, her daughter, and her crazy estranged sister in a very short period of time, and she's a Black, so she potentially has crazy-genes). Somebody's got to watch Teddy during the full moons, and Harry is godfather, so that makes sense. (He sends Kreacher to care for Andromeda, as no one is quite comfortable leaving her alone). When he sees how exhausted and isolated Remus is he moves in with him (and out of Grimmauld, where he's been living with Ron and Hermione. (Before all this, he has been occupied with retrieving the Dursleys from hiding, making peace with Dudley, and taking the Malfoys into turning 'state's evidence' in return for probation of some sort for Draco and Narcissa, instead of a trip to Azkaban). 

Meanwhile Ron and Hermione are finally properly together (perhaps the move occurs while they are in Australia retrieving her parents), and living together at Grimmauld Place and Harry feels awkward at the Weasleys' because of Fred's death and Percy's presence. Ginny goes back to Hogwarts. Ron and Hermione argue a lot about whether they should all go back. Harry uses taking care of Teddy and Lupin as an excuse not to have to go back and face a lot of what happened. He is surprised, when Lupin brings her up, how infrequently he thinks of her (at this point, he'll have seen her a handfull of times in the last year, including Bill's wedding, the final battle, and the aftermath). Hermione teaches him household spells.

After a horrible collicky night, they both crash on Remus's bed, with Teddy between them. Sharing a bed becomes a habit so that they won't both get up to check on Teddy every time he cries. When comments are made about he and Lupin locking themselves up, Harry finds a babysitter (Hermione or Molly, or maybe a healthier Andromeda) and drags Lupin out for drinks. Afterward, and after the babysitter leaves, they are chilling on the couch or in the kitchen, still buzzy, and Lupin kisses Harry, who is very startled, and then apologizes, reminds him they're drunk, and tells him to please forget it ever happened. He then flees to check on Teddy, while Harry flees to R&H's to freak out a little. Hermione points out that Lupin's lost his wife and now Harry has kind of taken her place, in helping with Teddy, and that raising a child builds a bond between two people.  She also tells Harry she believes Harry had a crush on Lupin in 3rd year. Harry freaks out even more. Ron lets slip that Ginny has been fishing for info on Harry, because he never writes her. Ron thinks she might be seeing someone at school. They both advise him to move out (and in with them) and try to be a normal teen/young adult. Harry considers it until he gets home and Lupin is not in the bed - and he finds him asleep in the nursery with Teddy on his chest, and realizes that he's happy here. He wakes Lupin up so he won't get a crick. Lupin was worried he wouldn't come back, but doesn't say it expressly, and they go to bed and pretend it never happened. 

But, now the can of flobberworms has been open, and Harry notices Lupin more and in different ways. He's very aware of the body beside him in bed, at night, and of Remus glancing at him when he thinks Harry isn't looking. He thinks a lot about how he's sleeping where Tonks slept and basically stepping into her life, doing 'wife' things like laundry and cooking and midnight feedings, until they have a bit of a blowup about it and Remus reveals that Tonks couldn't boil water and he's used to doing most of the indoor chores (she liked herbology, which Harry can easily do without). Harry starts focusing on all the things that are different between him and Tonks, which makes him feel less weird. He realizes that Remus fancying him doesn't make him feel weirded out now that he knows he's not a replacement for a dead woman. He starts seriously considering how he feels about a bloke fancying him, and realizes Remus is really nice about it and he kind of likes the feeling he might be attractive. 

There's more than that, but I haven't gotten it really thought through, yet. I know I definitely want a moment where Teddy is learning to day Da and it hits Remus that he won't be learning to say Mum the same way. And I want Harry to make the move on Remus when the time finally comes, and Remus to have had no clue Harry's been working all this through for months. And I want Teddy's hair to turn red whenever he is surrounded by Weasleys, and for him to start to resemble Harry more than his mum, since he'd be modeling his face on his primary caregivers. And people need to be awestruck by Harry and rather afraid, thereby isolating him further. Mostly I want the scene where Harry comes back and finds Remus and Teddy asleep. 

ETA: For the love of Pete, eljay, how many times does your crappy spellcheck need to tell me that you don't know what a Lupin is?

Comments

[moonypadlover.livejournal.com]

Awww. ^^ Sounds cute Jess. I can't wait to read it as a finished Masterpiece. ^^