So...I've never written anything for the Harry Potter community before... But inspiration struck and I had a couple snow days and so this is what happened. I hope I haven't butchered anything. I absolutely love Lupin and Tonks together, so naturally I was always very interested to see Teddy with his parents.
I hope it's alright!Tell me what you think with reviews!
Under the Full Moon
Hogwarts, Spring 2014
Teddy Lupin found it impossible to sleep. He threw the covers off his bed and rolled over to grab the lunar calendar from his bedside table. He didn't need to check, not really; he just needed something to do. Sure enough, it was the full moon. He chuckled quietly to himself, completely unsurprised. His monthly case of insomnia was a leftover side effect of his father's lycanthropy.
Frustrated with the activity buzzing in his head, Teddy decided that the only thing he could do was take a nice, long moonlit walk. He knew it was dangerous- there could be werewolves in the Forbidden Forest at that very moment- but something drew him outside, as it did once every month since he was very little, that was more powerful than sense.
Teddy slipped on jeans and an old plaid button-up shirt and trainers and crept quietly to the round door of his dorm room, making sure he didn't trip over anyone's trunk or discarded shoes. He looked behind him at his dorm mates, making sure they were all sleeping deeply, before he shut the door carefully behind him. He hurried across the common room, strung with yellow and black, and through a back hallway, up a flight of stairs, through a forgotten side door he liked to use to get to the Quidditch pitch. Within a matter of minutes, he was running freely over the long, dew-covered grass.
The night was cool, but Teddy didn't mind the slight chill. He could taste the promise of sunshine and warmer weather in the crisp, clear breeze. The sky was dark blue and the golden moon had a white glow around it. Teddy could see clouds in the sky, a darker, more solid black than the sky around them. He breathed in the fresh air deeply, feeling alive and overflowing with energy.
"I could run for miles," he said aloud to himself. "I could run anywhere." A mischievous smile spread across his face as he started out at a jog. He slowly picked up in speed and soon he was flat-out sprinting as fast as he could across the field, his turquoise fringe blown up from his face. He stopped at the edge of the forest and leaned against a tree to catch his breath. He couldn't stop smiling.
Teddy stood up straight again once his breathing had returned to normal. He looked at the castle in the distance, all dark except for a couple lights. It was beautiful silhouetted like that in the darkness, with the rings of the Quidditch goals set lower against it. Teddy looked back at the forest. He thought it was beautiful too- dark and mysterious and beckoning him forward like some sort of Siren's call.
He hesitated momentarily before giving in and loping between the trees at an easy pace. Normally, it would've been too dark to see in there, but the full moon was bright and Teddy's vision was always good in the dark, especially around this time of month. His friends referred to it as his super power.
He skipped easily over the large, twisting roots of the trees that continued to grow bigger and bigger as he delved deeper into the forest. There were wide patches of nothing save roots all over. Each monster tree had a berth of about twenty feet around them in which Teddy could run. He stumbled only twice, much to his surprise. All the while, he kept the school firmly at his back.
Teddy was unsure exactly how far he had gone, but he decided to sit down against the truck of one of the huge trees and take a short rest. He was still as alert and awake as ever, but the physical activity had relaxed him a great deal. He plopped himself down on the cool, rough bark and merely sat there listening to the sounds of the forest.
An owl screeched. A long time later, he thought he heard the faintest howl. He wasn't concerned for it was very far away. Another howl. The werewolves would no doubt be meeting each other in combat. They would not travel near him.
Teddy picked up a stick from the leafy ground and began to scrape the mud off the bottoms of his trainers when he thought he spied something shiny on the forest floor. Curious, he dropped the stick and carefully pushed the needles and leaves away. There, reflecting the light of the moon was a smooth, dark stone. He grinned as he picked it up. It looked carefully cut, like the sort of stone in a ring. He wondered if it was valuable.
Teddy turned it over once to clear off the dirt that encrusted it. There was an inscription. He scrubbed the dirt off on his shirt and turned it over again. He held it up to the light to see. There was a triangle with a circle inside it and a line running vertically from the top point. Teddy had never seen such a symbol. He turned it over a third time to inspect the back.
He did not notice them until he heard the rustling. The faintest movement of a leaf…Teddy jumped and pulled his wand from his pocket, brandishing it in front of him.
"Oh good, he has the reflexes of an Auror," a man said. His mouse brown hair hung over his forehead, not a trace of grey in sight. His face was lined, but less so than in the pictures Teddy had seen. Next to him stood a young woman with shoulder-length pink hair. She grinned at him. Teddy felt as though he had forgotten how to breathe. He shook himself.
This isn't real, Teddy, he told himself. This can't be real.
"Who are you?" he demanded, his wand pointing right at the chest of the man that looked so much like his father, Remus Lupin. "What do you want?"
The woman next to him grinned even wider. She looked almost…proud…of him.
"Wotcher, Ted," she said. "Calm down. It really is your father and I. Let us tell you about that stone you found." Teddy did not lower his wand.
"It's called the Resurrection Stone, Teddy," his father said. "The last time it was in use, was when Harry Potter walked through these woods to face Lord Voldemort. He used it to come to terms with dying. He summoned me and his parents, and Sirius Black. Now, you have found it, and you turned it over three times, and we are here." As he talked, Teddy's let his wand slip lower and lower.
"But you're not here," Teddy said. He glanced down at the stone in his hand. "You're not really here; you're dead."
"Yes," his mother said. "We can't stay, Teddy. We're sort of in between life and death right now. When you drop the stone, you won't be able to see us anymore, but we will always be in here." She put her hand over his heart. Teddy gasped sharply. He could feel her touch, but it wasn't like the touch of another living person. It was like pressure, cold pressure, and nothing more. He suddenly felt like crying. "We've always been with you, son."
"The last time this stone was ever seen was in the Forbidden Forest," his father said, giving him a look. "Son, why are you out of bed, alone, in the Forbidden Forest, on the night of a full moon, may I ask?" Teddy looked at him sheepishly.
"I can't sleep the night of the full moon," he said. "I guess that's what I inherited from you, Dad. But fear not, I don't sprout a tail or anything."
"There are other werewolves around, Teddy," his father admonished.
"Don't worry, Dad, I heard one howl. It's miles away for sure." He grinned. It was strange being reprimanded by his parents. For Teddy, it was a novel experience.
"What house are you in?" his mother asked after a moment of silence.
"Hufflepuff, of course," Teddy said proudly. "I'm studying for my O.W.L.s this year." Suddenly, he felt the need to gush, to tell his parents everything that had happened in his life so far. "I'm hoping to get all of them so I can be an Auror. I'll probably fail History of Magic, though- Professor Binns is the worst! Harry's an Auror, you know. I've gone into the office with him before and he showed me around. Harry says being a metamorphmagus will really help me out." His hair turned red in his excitement.
"That's wonderful, honey," his mother said. "Gosh, I want to know everything about you. What color is your hair, really? Have you changed your face any? You look so much like Remus. How about your eyes? They look to be the same green as your father's."
"Woah, Dora; give Ted a chance to breathe." They all started laughing and Teddy felt again that he would cry, but this time it was from joy. There he was, standing in the middle of the Forbidden Forest underneath the full moon, laughing with his parents.
"My hair's really brown," he said, letting the color slip away. He let his usually quaffed look slip away as well, so he was left with a long fringe that hung slightly over his eyes. "I don't like to change my face much because it reminds me of pictures I have of when you were young, Dad. And my eyes are like this normally, too." His mother giggled at him as he turned his hair bright pink. "And now we're matching, Mum."
"How is your grandmother?" his mother asked quietly, sobering.
"She's well," Teddy said. Softly, he added, "She misses you." Something like a sob escaped Tonks before she could stop it. Her eyes glistened.
"I'm so sorry, Teddy; I shouldn't be the one crying!" Remus put an arm around her and held her close to him. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head.
"It's ok, Mum," Teddy murmured. "I can handle myself." She looked up at him, holding her hands together as though stopping herself from reaching out to her son.
"Of course you can," she said. "Gosh, you're so grown up now." Teddy blushed, his eyes fixing on his muddy trainers.
"Son, it's getting close to sunrise." His father's voice jolted him and made him turn to look at the moon, hanging heavy in the lightening sky. The light was deep grey now. His father was right- the day was quickly approaching.
"Do you have to go?" Teddy winced at how childish he sounded. He had just met his parents, but he felt that, if they were to go then, he'd be torn apart. It was like they'd been together all his life, like he knew them, in his heart, as well as he knew himself.
His father nodded sadly, stuffing his hands in his trouser pockets. "We don't belong here…Not anymore."
"But…" Teddy took a deep breath, willing his voice not to quaver. His lip was already shaking though, and he could feel the familiar burning in his jaw that always announced the arrival of tears. These were things he couldn't morph away. "Can I keep the stone and talk to you again?" His parents shared a worried look. His mother bit her lip.
"Have you read the story of the three brothers who met death?" Remus asked. Teddy shook his head. "Go ask Harry and Hermione about it. Keep the stone if you must, but remember that we are not supposed to be here. This- your mother and I talking with you- is not supposed to be possible. So, Teddy, you cannot live in this in-between world with us and waste away the life you have in the real world." Teddy did not quite understand, but he nodded his head seriously.
"So I guess this is goodbye?" Teddy held the stone out in his palm. It felt increasingly heavy.
"Goodbye, Teddy," his mother said. "I love you very much." Teddy let his fingers open slowly.
"One more thing, son," his father said, halting him. "How is the wizarding world out there now?"
"Safe," Teddy replied, knowing what his father meant. "It was all worth it." He took one last long look at his parents, the way his father wrapped his arm around his mother, the way she rested her head on his shoulder, the way they smiled at him…And he dropped the stone in his pocket.
Teddy's face fell as he stared at the place where they had stood. There was only him left in the forest, which was growing brighter by the minute. He was suddenly overcome with intense loneliness, like there was a hole left in him, something ripped out of his chest. His sniffed back a tear, brushing it away angrily.
It was nearly morning. Teddy traced the outline of the stone in his pocket to make sure that it was still there. Feeling its hard edges, he turned away from the spot in the forest and ran all the way back to the castle.
The sun was coming up as he crept through the deserted hallways. He tried to silence his steps as best as he could as he made his way to the Hufflepuff dorms in the basement. It was only a couple halls away. Ushered on by the bright golden light of the rising sun streaming through the windows, Teddy hurried around the corner and ran straight into a large vase.
"No!" he whispered, panicked, and tried to catch it as it wobbled. He threw himself beneath it before it hit the ground and breathed a sigh of relief. It was a feeling that didn't last long. As he righted himself and the vase, he heard the rhythmic clap of footsteps. He turned around to see Headmistress McGonagall looking at him sternly.
"Hello Professor," he said with an innocent smile. He morphed his hair to its natural light brown. There was no need to make her angrier with him.
"Hello Mr. Lupin. Enjoying an early-morning walk, are we?" She looked disapprovingly behind him. Teddy glanced back to see a trail of dirty footprints. He winced. He hadn't even thought of his muddy shoes leaving tracks.
"Yes, Professor," he said, wondering if he could clean up the tracks without uttering the spell. He knew it was a useless endeavor. He could hardly do any housekeeping charms saying the spells anyway. "I'll just…uh…Scourgify!" He pointed his wand at the footprints, but only managed to clean away half of them. Professor McGonagall was watching him with a strange expression he couldn't quite place.
"I'm sorry, Professor," Teddy said. He slipped off his trainers and picked them up. "I'll head back to the common room and won't make any more of a mess. I promise."
"I would quite believe you, Teddy Lupin, but you're Nymphadora Tonks' boy…I don't know that you could go through a day without knocking one thing or another over." Teddy perked up at the mention of his mother.
"I've already saved that vase there," he said, "Maybe I've used up all my clumsiness for today." Professor McGonagall rolled her eyes. Teddy wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't seen it himself.
"If only that was how it worked," she said, no doubt remembering the many accidents that had occurred during Teddy's years at Hogwarts due to his clumsiness. "But you're your father's boy as well, and he was always such a nice young man...Now, get back to the common room." Teddy began to hurry away in his sock-covered feet. "Oh, and Mr. Lupin?" she called. He paused and looked over his shoulder. "Please be careful on nights of the full moon. Your lineage will give you no protection from the creatures that may be out there."
"Yes, Professor," Teddy said, and hurried back to his dorm room.
He entered right at his roommates began to wake up and slipped hurriedly into his school robes- black lined with yellow for Hufflepuff- in preparation for the day.
"Hurry up, Lupin!" one of his friends called. "We're starving."
"Go on without me," Teddy said. "I'll catch up."
Once they had left and the door clicked shut behind them, Teddy reached in his jean pocket for the stone and tucked it safely in the moleskin pouch he kept in his trunk. He made plans to send a letter to Harry later that day.
"It was nice meeting you Mum and Dad," he whispered to it before closing the trunk and hurrying to the Great Hall.
He made his hair bubblegum pink for the entire day.
So there's that! Teddy was born in April '98, so he would be 15 or 16 depending on what month they're in. I was afraid to be too specific for fear of getting the weather wrong for Scotland. :)
Thanks for reading, everyone!