Teddy Lupin was late for Transfiguration, again. As he rushed through the empty corridor toward his classroom, he heard an empty growl come from around the corner. Slowing down so his feet weren’t pounding against the hard, stone floor, he listened. There it was. Just around the corner from where he was standing he heard the growl again. His eyes searched for a movement, a flash of a shadow across the wall, but there was nothing.
Cautiously pulling his wand from his robes, he edged around the corner. His eyes darted around the dark passage, searching for the source of the noise. A faint glimmer caught his eye; there on the floor was the apparition of a werewolf dressed in a zany costume, bound by chains.
He halted, feet planted where he was standing, allowing the illusion on the floor in front of him to seep into his mind. Blood pulsed through his hot veins, a dull pounding developing in his head. As he stared down at the gaseous form, he caught the minute movement of a shadow shifting on the far wall.
He heard a snigger and the quick shuffle of feet, but nothing more.
It had been sixteen years since his parents’ death. Most told him he was lean and sinewy like his father, only with his mother’s bright eyes and ability to morph at will. He didn’t remember the bubblegum pink of his mother’s short hair that everyone always joked about, or her inclination toward tripping and falling. The way his father was modest and quiet were traits that Teddy was never exposed to; he only heard stories and anecdotes from the Weasleys and the Potters.
As a young boy, he had grown up under the loving care of his maternal grandmother, Andromeda, and he had frequented the house of Harry and Ginny for dinner every so often.
But he had never had parents.
Growing up, he didn’t get his first toy broom from his dad; instead, he received it as a birthday present from his godfather. When he fell and broke his arm at seven, his grandmother had rushed him to St. Mungo’s, not his mum. As he said goodbye to the Weasleys and the Potters on the train station platform when he was leaving for Hogwarts, he’d wished to see the unfamiliar faces of his parents, but he had known that he never would.
At Hogwarts, it was not much of a secret what his father had been. He was, after all, the boy with no parents who had the legendary ‘Boy Who Lived’ as a godfather. Scything Slytherins loved to jeer at his father’s blood.
Today was different though. It was his mother’s birthday, and whoever did this very well knew that by taking this opportunity to taunt him.
As he le looked down at the form, Teddy’s fist gripped his wand to the point that it was leaving grainy imprints on his hot palms. He knew not to give in; it was the reaction that the person who made this had wanted, and he wouldn’t let him or her have it. Those shuffling footsteps were meant to lure him into a trap, make him follow them to a secluded corner and jinx them, then lose points, and make a fool of himself in front of the school.
But he wouldn’t do that. Shakily slipping his wand back into the waist of his jeans, he glanced down the corridor and saw the flick of a heel turning a corner, but choose to turn his back.
When he reached the classroom door, he slowly opened it. Glancing up at Professor McGonagall’s turned back, he crept over to the last row and slid silently into his seat.
“Nice of you to grace us with your presence, Lupin.” Her back remained to the classroom, and she continued dictating notes to the blackboard.
He mumbled a quick apology before pulling out a quill and parchment. Noticing the reflection of transparent ink on his parchment, he cast a revealing spell. Long, spindly cursive wove its way across the thick paper. It had become a habit for him to search for hidden secrets these days.
T-
I just wanted to surprise you and say hello. So, surprise! I know that today won’t be a fun day for you, but just think, only two more days until the Christmas holidays when we can sneak off into as many broom cupboards as we want…
Anyway, that’s all I had to say. I hope your day goes well, and I will be seeing you at lunch!
Yours always,
V
A sloppy grin formed on his face as he laid the parchment back on his desk. Victoire had been his girlfriend for just a few months. He had known her his whole life, and just recently he had convinced her that he was the right choice. Growing up, they had been friends, since the other Weasleys and Potters were quite a bit younger than they. Sharing secrets, talking about which band was the best, The Weird Sisters or The Crumplets?”growing to know each other completely.
It had been a long day, she was right in that, but he could handle it. This was the seventeenth December 19th that he had experienced, and he hadn’t once broken. Each year getting more difficult for him to fathom as the date approached- he himself was growing so close to her dying age.
He continued to stare hard at the parchment, willing the unwelcome thoughts from his cluttered mind.
“What do we have here?” The sharp voice of Professor McGonagall shook him from his thoughts completely as he realised Victoire’s letter was no longer lying on the desk in front of him.
Immediately remembering what she had written he made an attempt to retrieve the lost parchment. “Oh, really nothing. It’s just””
“Inappropriate, I dare say.” She glanced over her thin spectacles at his reaction before reassessing the letter. “Please do keep your personal life out of the classroom, Mr. Lupin. Ten points from Gryffindor.” She laid it back on his desk before making her way to the front of the room.
“Everyone, begin! Remember swish and jab! No, no, McLaggen, it’s swish, jab, not jab, swish. Come on, boy.” She fluttered down to the Hufflepuff’s side, giving Teddy a moment of opportunity.
He hastily cleared the incriminating words from the parchment and stuffed it unceremoniously into his bag. Standing up, as everyone else was, he pulled out his wand. He looked around the room at the students transforming an umbrella to a butterfly and realised he had no idea where to begin.
Leaning over to the Ravenclaw, Geoffrey Swingle, he asked, “What exactly has she got us doing?”
The short boy looked up at him, “Didn’t you listen? Do you know the incantation?”
“Er”no.”
“All right, well, all you do is move your wand like so, and say””
He felt the patronising stare before he heard her words. “Detention, Lupin. Tomorrow at 8 o’clock sharp in my office. If you cannot be kind enough to show up to my class at the correct time, you ought to at least learn the spells.” She paused before announcing to the class, “That will conclude our short class. Prepare a two feet of parchment on the affects of transfiguring delicate wings and how it can go terribly wrong.”
The class began to shuffle around him, grabbing books and parchments to hastily shove into their bags. The teacher’s stare was lost in the movement, and he took the opportunity to gather his things and rush from the room.
As he began to walk toward the Great Hall, he noticed a huddle of people standing at the corner of the corridor. Walking over to the group, he heard the clanking of chains, and he ceased movement.
The apparition. The joke.
He watched as the crowd grew. He overheard one girl whisper to her friend, “Why is this here? Shouldn’t stuff like this be banned in the hallways?” Her friend shrugged her shoulders causing Teddy to walk over and confirm his suspicions.
Sliding around the swelling mass of people, he forced his way between the stone wall and a small blonde boy before reaching the centre of the throng. Looking down at the fading picture he sighed. Every year since Noah had been at Hogwarts, he had taking it upon himself to make sure Teddy remembered what his father had been. Previously, he had paid older students to perform grandiose tasks that wouldn’t fade as easily as this one. The lean muscles could be seen straining under the translucent skin, the chains where beginning to twinkle away, and the bark had turned into no more than a lame rasp.
He took one last look at the pitiful prank that writhed at his feet before muttering, “Finite Incantatem.”
As he strode away, he heard an uproar from the people standing around his father’s replica. Heads were turning frantically around looking for the escaped beast, but it was nowhere to be seen.
“Where did it go?”
“Did you see that? It just disappeared!”
He wasn’t going to stand for having his father’s blood ridiculed in front of the whole school. Playing a prank was one thing, but leaving it up for show was another.
When he reached the Great Hall, he immediately found her sitting alone at the end of the table. Walking quickly between the benches, he slumped onto the seat across from her, throwing his bag down on the table with frustration. He folded his arms and buried his head away from the world, only to feel her burning stare on the back of his neck.
“Hi, Teddy,” she said in a sweet voice, slightly masked by a half-stuffed mouth. The sound pulled his head up to look into her beautiful face.
“What?”
He continued to stare at her. She was stunning, just like her mother, but with a bit of her father’s warmth mixed in. Her long blonde hair fell over slender, pale shoulders, pouring down her body. Looking into her eyes, he saw love and compassion in their dark centres; her soft, freckled face was staring questionably back at him.
“Teddy! What in the blazes are you staring at?” She asked as she waved her hand frantically in front of his face.
Slowly raising his head from its reclined position, he answered, “Oh nothing. Sorry, it’s been a long day.”
Her eyes broke with emotion when he went silent. She reached her hand across the table, placing it in his to allow some of his world to crash on her. The warmth of her grasp was freeing and consoling; it allowed a gentle feather to settle on his chest as the weight was lifted.
A small smile appeared on his face. “McGonagall saw the note you left me.”
Jerking her hand back to cover her mouth, she let out a small squeak. “She didn’t. Teddy Lupin, you’re joking!”
Her eyes were round with astonishment. Teddy grinned and shook his head before saying, “I wish I were, V, I wish I were. I’ve got detention with her the night before we go home.”
Her brow furrowed with confusion. “You’ve got a detention because I mentioned that we meet in broom cupboards?”
His wide grin easily grew into and lackadaisical laugh, “Yes, she’s got me in trouble for that.” He paused for a reaction, but only received a stern glare. “I arrived late to class today, so I didn’t know what we were doing, and on top of that your letter distracted me.”
Victoire now wore a look of utter confusion. “Well, why were you late in the first place? When you left me, you were set to get to class right on time!”
This time, Teddy paused. Stirring for a moment to think of the right answer, he wore a hard look of determination. His lax shoulders tensed up, and his happy eyelids widened. As he thought of the useless prank in the hallway earlier, he was reminded of what today was. He knew that Victoire would want to know what had happened, and that she would understand. Her father was, after all, Bill Weasley, and he had many of the same characteristics of a wolf. He just was not one like Teddy’s father had been.
Looking sadly into the eyes of his love, he remained silent. The earth was tilting around him. For years, this time of year had been the hardest on him; his mother’s birthday and Christmas were sandwiched into a fortnight. A time for family, celebration, rejoice, and love for normal people were a time for regret and loss to Teddy. Watching Victoire’s large family was joyous, but it did not fill him like being with his own mother and father would have. He dreamt of them on the cold, dark nights of the holidays as the sanguine bodies slept around him. This year would be no different from the past ones. He would spend it with the Potters at the Burrow, exposed to the familiarity of a family; something that Teddy never had.
Breaking from his thoughts, he looked into the concerned eyes across from him. “Tradition happened today.” He laughed sadly, rubbing his eyes. “Although, I must admit, it was a rather poor show compared to previous years.”
Feeling her forced smile from across the table, he kept his head down. He felt her shift as a small stutter erupted from her mouth. Looking up, he noticed that her head was also lowered in a melancholy manner, and this time, he reached across to grab her hand. They continued to sit in silence, heads bowed, for the rest of the meal. Neither spoke a word; they knew that their presence was enough.
--
He sat in front of the crackling fire, arms lazily splayed beside him. It had been the last day of the term, and it had been rather uneventful. In Charms, Marie McDougall had accidentally Levitated Professor Flitwick instead of her pillow, during Care of Magical Creatures the Unicorns fell asleep, and on his way to dinner, the girl’s bathroom on the second floor overflowed. He lazily tilted his head back to rest on the soft cushions of the couch as he impatiently awaited the clock to strike 8 o’clock. Eyes closed, he listened to the ancient clock tick loudly on the mantle above the fireplace. He felt the cushion sink next to him and allowed he head to roll lazily over to meet the shoulder next to him.
“Do you not have detention?” he heard the light voice ask as he allowed his heavy body to sink closer to her.
Squinting one eye open he glanced at the clock to see the time.
8:04.
“Bugger.” Slowly lifting himself from the sunken position, he stretched his arms above his head, letting out a groan of satisfaction.
“I knew that would be your response,” she sighed and bent over to prod his tense leg. “Go! McGonagall is going to have a hippogriff if you’re any later.”
Shooting her a look, he unwillingly began his trek towards McGonagall’s first floor office, muttering a quick goodbye and exiting through the portrait hole. As he walked down the dark corridors, passing by the small windows, the bright moonlight flashed across his face in intervals, reminding of him of who his father had been. It always did.
He arrived at the classroom a few minutes later and firmly knocked on the door. There were a few moments of silence before he heard, “Come in, Lupin.”
Grasping the knob, he shook his head in attempt to wake himself before slowly opening the door. When the door opened wide enough, it revealed an unbelievably stern looking woman sitting rather stiffly behind her desk, thin hands folded neatly in front of her. He closed the door quietly behind him and moved into the room.
“You’re late.”
Allowing his eyes to flicker up to the clock, he noticed he was indeed ten minutes later than he should have been. Shaking his head once more in and attempt to rid his head of tempting thoughts of one very comfortable four-poster, he said, “I’m very sorry Professor, I fell asleep in the common room. It won’t happen again.”
He noticed her studying him through his dangerously drooping eyelids. Her severe gaze was something that he always found rather amusing, because the Professor McGonagall he knew was much more amiable than others believed. A chuckle bubbled from his lips at this thought, and McGonagall’s eyebrows shot up with shock.
“Something funny, Lupin?”
As quickly as the smile appeared on his lips, it was gone. “No, not at all, Professor.”
“Very well, then. Bed pans tonight for you, no wand. Get going. You’ll be done at twelve sharp.”
Nodding his head at the professor, he turned on his heal and walked out the door. When he arrived in the Hospital Wing, the door to Madame Pomfrey’s office was cracked, so he walked cautiously up to it, unsure of what to do. He saw her petite form moving through the distorted glass. Wrapping his knuckles on the door as he pushed it open, he peaked his head through the crack.
Clearing his throat to get her attention, he glanced up to see if her bustling form had noticed him and was disappointed to see that she hadn’t. Shifting his weight from one foot to the other, he chose his next move of action. He cleared his throat, just a bit louder, but she continued to move things about on her unbelievably cluttered desk.
Rolling his, today, dark blue eyes he called, “Madame Pomfrey?”
The old woman scratched her wiry head of hair and attacked an unknowing pile of papers lying haphazardly on the corner of her desk, shuffling madly through them. When she apparently reached the one she had been looked for she the let out a squeak of excitement and threw her hands up in the air, and in this exact moment, she noticed Teddy.
She jumped back, knocking her chair over, and judging by the noise that escaped her mouth, she had no idea anyone had been in her room. Clutching her chest she let out a slow breath before saying, “Yes, yes, Minerva said you’d be serving a detention with me tonight. You know what do you, Lupin, I dare say, you have been here a fair share of your Friday nights.” She cast me a rueful glance before continuing, “Well, go on. You’ve got quite a few to clean tonight.”
“Yes, Madame Pomfrey.” Sighing, he turned and walked back into the Hospital Wing, ready to begin scrubbing the waste from the dozens of white-sheeted beds.
He slipped the first one from the foot of the bed. Sitting down on a worn, wooden stool, he began his wandless work. He moved from bed to bed, doing the slow, monotonous work. Each bed was the same, narrow and wooden, worn around the edges, with a slender window jutting above it. As the moon began to glow brighter, it illuminated his scrubbing hands. With every bed he did, he checked the clock. When he reached the last bed, the slowly ticking minute hand showed that he had precisely ten minutes to go. Bending down to pull the cold metal pan from the bed, he noticed a signature scrawled into the wood.
Looking closer he saw, ‘Moony was here’.
“Moony…”
--
Two men were sitting around the beaten table, a fizzing mug of Butterbeer in hand. The dim light cast harsh shadows across the faces, hiding the eyes and illuminating the mouths. The dingy fireplace was unused due to the warm weather, and the floor had layers of grim, even after the many failed attempts of Mrs. Weasley’s cleaning charms. The stale smell of the room rose into the men’s nostrils as they breathed in the silence; this house had not been used in years.
The younger of the two spun his mug around on the rough wood, causing a bit of the drink to slosh over the side. The elder cast a scouring charm and it vanished. Suddenly, the younger stopped his movement.
Looking at him everyday was a surprise. Some days it was brown hair, some days it was orange, but his signature was blue. He had the heart shaped-face of his mother, and the skinny bones of his father. The hair today was the colour of pale straw; it actually really wasn’t a colour at all, and his skin was pale and his eyes were light.
He looked up at the older man with hurt and adoration in his eyes. He knew that Harry had been in the same seat as him his whole adolescent life, sans parents. He knew that, but he still felt like he had the emptiness inside of him that could not be comforted nor replaced by anything or anyone.
They had come here to escape from the Burrow, just for the night. He knew that Harry had been watching him all day; he knew that everyone had been watching him all day. He hadn’t been himself, and he knew it, but he couldn’t change that. Today was different. Teddy had been sleeping in Ron’s old, bright orange room when Harry had come and rather easily convinced him to leave for the night. When they had arrived at this musky house, he had been confused, especially when Harry handed him a piece of paper that read the address before entering, and then when he was hushed when he walked into the entrance hall, but he had been grateful for his godfather’s actions.
Now, sitting at this dust-ridden table across from the man, he was very thankful for the silence, but it allowed his thought and emotions to swirl behind his burning eyes. It was the day. The last day of their lives. Today was one of the hardest days of everyone in the Burrow, but Teddy had never known what he had lost. He had no memory of his mother or his father. He didn’t know what it felt like to lay in his mother’s arms as she rocked him to sleep. He didn’t know how it sounded to hear his father say goodnight to him, or how he smelled as he leaned down to kiss him goodnight. He had never known these things, and he never would. Harry and given him bits and pieces of his father’s past: an old record player, a book titled The Werewolves Bindings, his old wand, amongst other paraphernalia.
“Want to know something funny?” Teddy jumped from his thoughts, throwing his head up from its reclined position to look at his godfather.
“Sure.” He took a swig of his warming Butterbeer and listened.
Harry leaned in on one elbow and began to rummage around in his robes with his other hand. Finding what he was searching for, he brought out a worn piece of parchment and threw it out on the table.
“Your father and mine were absolutely brilliant. Have a look.” Bringing out his wand, he gave it a small nudge before poking it and saying, “I solemnly swear that I am up to no good.”
Lines immediately began snaking across the parchment, and his eyes widened with shock. “Your dad and mine made this?” His eyes followed the fading footsteps of Nearly Headless Nick.
“Them and Sirius and Peter, of course. They were quite the bunch, really. Always coming up with pranks and spells of their own. This was just something they made up in their spare time. Allowed for easier mischief, I suppose.”
Teddy continued to stare at it with wide eyes and pulled it to him for a closer look.
“Where is that? That is definitely not a corridor I have seen”Oh, it secret, am I right? It’s under the Whomping Willow? What’s that about…?”
Teddy heard Harry chuckle at him, but continued to stare in awe at the map of the castle. There were so many passageways he had never seen before.
“Who are Mssrs. Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs?” Teddy asked as he noticed the greeting at the top of the map.
Harry leaned over the table the study it and replied, “Well, your dad, Peter, Sirius, and my dad, respectively.”
Teddy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion, “Why those names? That’s kind of ridiculous.”
Harry let out a sigh before replying, “Get comfortable, Teddy, you’re in for a quite a story.”
Teddy smiled; he enjoyed hearing stories about the parents that both he and Harry had lost. It was comforting to know that he was not alone in this, even if Harry was sixteen years his senior.
Smiling more to himself than to Teddy, Harry began, “Ever wonder why my Patronus was a stag?”
Teddy shook his head. He hadn’t really. He’d just taken it for a stag, and let it be.
“Well, Dad, Sirius, and Peter found out about your dad being a werewolf soon after they became friends. Your dad didn’t tell them because, being the anxious young man that he was, he was worried they wouldn’t want to be their friend. When they found out, they decided they would do anything in their power to help him on his monthly excursions the Shrieking Shack, hence the secret passageway from the Whomping Willow. The tree was planted the year your father came to Hogwarts so that he could have a barrier between himself and the school when he transformed.
“They went over so many different possibilities. Maybe extend Dad’s Invisibility Cloak to make impenetrable by werewolves? But then how would that even have helped Remus during his transformations? Perhaps there was a Potion they could take once a month, but no, it would be far too advanced and risky.
“Finally, they found the solution when they were in class one day. McGonagall transformed in front of the class, and began explaining the characteristics and properties of Animagi, including immunity to werewolf bites.
“Of course, they spent more waking hours than not searching for the way to become and Animagi, and finally they achieved, however long it took Peter. And that’s where they came up with these names. Moony, for your dad, because of the moon. Wormtail, for Peter, because he was a rat. Padfoot, for Sirius, because he was a great, black dog. And Prongs, for my dad, because he, Teddy, was a stag.”
Teddy was smiling the broadest smile he had had on all day. The stories of his father’s childhood that filled in the blanks always had this affect on him. Straightening his shoulders, he ran his broad hands over the crinkled parchment.
“So, I can have this, then?” He asked, sounding a bit too hopeful.
A surprised laugh escaped Harry’s lips. “What, you think I’m teasing you with it? Of course you can keep it! It’s only right to hand it down to the noble line of troublemakers.”
Teddy smiled to himself as he looked down at the same parchment that his father’s hands had once touched. The writing of his father twirled across the paper causing Teddy to question the way his own hand moved with a quill.
--
Teddy ran his fingers over the dented writing on the bedpost, lost in thought. His stomach lurched with an internal laugh as he thought of the night that he and Harry ran away.
“Time for you to go! Oh, and you almost finished. Well, I can do that one in just a minute. Off you go! Shoo shoo!”
Teddy gladly left the Hospital Wing and made his way back up to Gryffindor Tower. As he expected, Victoire was awaiting him on the couch. Flopping down, he kissed her on the cheek before letting out a low groan. “I never want to see a bedpan again in my life.”
“You say that every time you come back from a detention in the Hospital Wing, Teddy,” Victoire said faintly, her head bobbing to rest on his shoulder.
They fell into silence. Teddy rested his head against the soft couch, and it began to swirl with thought of his parents. His father must have spent many mornings after the full moon in the Hospital Wing. One of the other Marauders probably carved that in the bedpost as joke because it was probably his usual bed.
He felt Victoire jolt beside him. “V,” he whispered.
She didn’t respond.
Her head was lying heavily in his shoulder, and her legs her curled underneath her in a very uncomfortable looking position.
“Victoire.” Prodding her in the side with his finger, he managed to get her to sleepily bat his hand away, but not awaken.
“Nombghf.” She shifted a bit, causing her head to tilt dangerously in the other direction, and in effect, she jumped awake.
“What, what? What were you saying to me?” Smoothing her hair from her face in attempt to beautify herself, which was something that Teddy really found impossible, she opened her eyes sleepily.
“You dozed off. Why don’t you go up to you dormitory? I’ll see you tomorrow on the train.” He grabbed her hands away from smoothing her hair.
“I like the sound of that plan. See you then. Goodnight.” Both standing up, they kissed briefly and tenderly before turning their separate directions to walk to their respective rooms.
Opening the door quietly so as not to disturb the other sleeping bodies, he walked to the furthest draped bed. Sliding off his trainer, and pulling on his pyjamas, he got into his bed.
“Lumos.”
Twisting his body, he leaned over to open the drawer to his table, pulling out a cracked, folded picture.
Shining the radiant light across the fading image, he smiled, running his thumb over the one-dimensional faces. A man with a jagged scar running the length of his face was sitting contentedly at a table, only to be interrupted by a bright haired woman. She tripped into the picture, fell into his lap, he gracefully caught her, and they looked at each other lovingly before turning and facing the camera. Teddy had stared at this image for hours on end, watching as his mother moved, studying the way they looked at each other, wishing he could have once witnessed this for himself.