Chapter One

1998 – first term

Ginerva 'Ginny' Weasley's eyes went wide when she tramped into her first Defence Against the Dark Arts lesson to see her second-year Professor Remus Lupin sitting at the desk. In the great tradition of Hogwarts School of Wizardry and Witchcraft, the position had been filled by someone new every year since she had started; Lupin was the only repeat she'd known, and she wondered if now that both Dumbledore and Voldermort were dead, this meant the curse that meant the position couldn't be filled for more than a year by the same person was broken.

"Remus!" she said, happy to see at least one familiar face return after so many deaths at the Battle of Hogwarts a few months ago – a battle in which his own wife of barely a year had died. She hurried walked over to perch herself on the edge of the desk as had become her habit in the last four years. Lupin had been pretty relaxed about having her in close proximity once he had ceased to be her professor and instead had simply been a friend of her parents.

With a flick of his wand, he stopped her dead in his tracks. "I suggest you don't do that," he said mildly. "It was made pretty clear to me that I'm not to show you or Luna any favouritism."

She backed off, feeling embarrassed for not thinking of such an obvious thing. "Sorry," she said contritely.

"It's no biggie. But I will have to punish you if you're too familiar, and since I owe your mum Teddy's life, I'd rather not do that."

"Pardon?" Ginny asked. It was only then that she noticed his three-year-old son in his stroller a few meters from Lupin's desk.

"Bellatrix would never have tolerated a Black being – whatever he is," Lupin said, referring to his own werewolf status. Because werewolves tended not to breed, no-one could tell for certain exactly what Teddy was, although so far he appeared to be human. But as far as Teddy's great-aunt, the evil, crazy and bigoted Bellatrix was concerned, Lupin was right, she would never have tolerated Teddy's questionable status. "She would have come after him until she'd killed him – or been killed herself," he said softly, shuddering at the thought. He had never wanted to be a father, had pleaded with Tonks to have an abortion when they'd found out, but now he wouldn't give his son up for the world. "You weren't the only child your mother saved that day," he said, referring to the way Ginny's mother Molly had attacked Bellatrix with a frenzied maternal instinct that would have done Lily Potter proud. "I owe her my son's life and as such, I would rather not punish her daughter if I can help it. But I will do it if you force me to, Ginny, so please don't be too familiar."

She nodded. "Thanks for letting me know upfront," she said. "I'll let Luna know, too."

"I'd appreciate that." Luna Lovegood had a somewhat spotty record when it came to appropriate behaviour, and she was more likely than Ginny to struggle with the fact that the paternalistic/filial affection he'd shared in times previous with them was now off-limits; it couldn't be any worse coming from Ginny. "To be honest, I'm surprised you're back."

"Where else would I be? Beauxbatons?" she asked.

"A lot of parents are doing precisely that, yes, or Durmstrang, or having their children privately tutored. It will take years before this place gets back to the population it had two years ago. People just don't want to send their kids to a school where there was a massacre."

"Really? My parents and Luna's dad said it was their duty to do just that."

Lupin smiled dryly at that. "Yes, there are, thankfully, plenty of parents who believe as yours do. Hopefully I can help restore Hogwarts to what it used to be. I don't want to send Teddy outside of England."

"I'm sure you will. And hell, now we won't have to deal with so much of that crap about pure-bloods and half-breeds. Is it true that Umbridge got carted off to Azkaban?"

"I visited her myself to make sure," he said, his eyes glinting maliciously. Delores Umbridge had caused him not end of headaches with her idea about half-breeds – who were apparently intelligent enough to contribute to society in the form of menial labour, but not enough to be granted the same privileges as full-humans, let alone full-bloods. "Almost took Teddy, just to shit her, except Andromeda would have had my head for it and I can't say I'd have blamed her. It's no place for a child."

"Do you keep in touch with her?" she asked, referring to his mother-in-law.

"Only for Teddy," he admitted. "She never approved of our marriage but she makes nice because she knows if she doesn't, her access gets cut off. Actually, it might work out well. I don't have anyone else with Harry travelling and at the full moon, it'll be good to know there's someone I can send him to and know he's safe. And honestly? She hasn't treated me the best in the past, but she's lost so much, and I don't want to deny her Teddy if I can help it."

"You're more gracious than I would be," she added with a strong flavour of bitterness in her voice.

"Yeah, I heard about Harry," Lupin said dryly. "For what it's worth, I think seventeen's too young to settle down."

"No, it's too old to wait for someone you claim to be crazy about," she countered.

"Heard about that, too," he admitted. "Harry confides a lot in me, you know. I guess I'm a kind of quasi-uncle to him now as much as he is to Teddy. And it was a lousy thing to do, Ginny, but it's not the end of the world."

"He cheated on me! He – "

"We'll talk about this later," Lupin said quickly when the door opened. Grateful for his discretion, Ginny found herself a seat close to the front as students trickled in, many of them delighted to see Lupin again.

She had forgotten just how good Lupin was as a DADA teacher, both highly informed and gifted at instilling that information as well as sensitive to the individual needs of each student. He seemed to genuinely enjoy bringing each student out, and she couldn't help but wonder if part of that was his own unhappy childhood, mostly hidden from a society that was afraid of him. In the last three years they'd had Amycus Carrow, a particularly nasty Death Eater who had changed it to simple the Dark Arts, and before that they'd had Severus Snape, who, while brilliant, was also vengeful with more than a little malice in him. And before that had been Dolores Umbridge, a sadist with a thin veneer of civility who had refused to teach them anything practical. Barty Crouch, Junior, posing as Alastor 'Mad-Eye' Moody, hadn't actually been too bad, although they'd all been left feeling rather creeped out to learn who had actually been teaching them. And before him had been Lupin again, who many had believed had been the best DADA teacher in living memory.

But Lupin had been forced to resign after his werewolf status had been discovered. Well, at least now he could be open about it; Kingsley Shaklebolt himself had said that anyone who had a problem with it could send their children somewhere else, now was not the time to start judging people based on their breed or blood status. And it seemed most of the people who weren't already sending their children to other schools or keeping them at home agreed with him. Besides, everyone knew how valiantly Lupin had fought in the recent war, and how he had continued to fight after watching his wife be murdered by her own aunt.

The lesson finished and Lupin dismissed them all; they were mostly reluctant to go, everyone remembering the bad run of DADA professors they'd had. "Miss Weasley, could you stay back, please?" he asked. Ginny stayed. "Look, I'm sorry if I was short with you before."

"It's OK. I'm grateful. I didn't want anyone overhearing about me and Harry."

"Look, I can't show you any favouritism – and believe me, McGonagall will have her eye on me – but I can be a friend, if you'd like. Or a kind of brother. Actually, I think I'd be more like a father-figure, since I'm the same age as James was and Harry's older than you. Sorry," he added when she made a face.

"It's OK. And I'd like that. I can't talk to my dad... or my brother's. Things are too raw for us all and I don't want to burden them by banging on about my boyfriend."

He waved his wand and a chair dragged itself across the chair to his desk. Without needing to be told, she sat down. "He was so popular after the battle – he was, like, the greatest celebrity ever. He was bigger than Viktor Krum. And he was really keen to do it and I wanted to wait and there were all these girls who considered it, like, the greatest thing ever to sleep with Harry Potter." She spat his name out and a person could be forgiven for thinking she had detested him all her life. "He was with Cho Chang – he's always had the hots for her – if I'd known there was still something there, I would never have gotten involved with him, and – and – "

She was crying now, and it would have taken a less compassionate man then Lupin not to comfort her. He scooted his chair closer to hers and leaned into her, sliding his hand around the back of her head, his forehead pressed against hers. "It's not the end of the world," he whispered soothingly. "I know it feels like it is right now, but it's not, I promise."

"Oh, what would you know?" she snapped at what she felt was his condescending sympathy.

"I know more than you think. Tonks wasn't the first woman I was with. You'd be surprised how many women get a kick out of being with Dark Creatures... and think them so far beneath them that they don't actually have any feelings and won't mind if they play around. I had one woman say that she saw no difference between that and having more than one pet."

"And what did you do?"

"I ended up married to a woman I miss more than I thought it was possible to miss someone – more than I miss my human life," he said, omitting the fact that before Tonks, he had vowed not to get involved with another woman precisely because the only woman he'd found were interested in him also saw him a pet, a kinky experience to collect.

In her self-pity, she had forgotten that Lupin had lost more than she had. The heartache and loss in his voice was obvious. "I'm sorry," she said. "I was thinking about myself."

"It's OK." He didn't let go of her head, even though he knew he should. There was something comforting in being in such physical proximity to someone else who had lost someone close to him. A brother wasn't the same as a wife, but they were still someone that you loved and never stopped missing. "Teddy's a big comfort to me."

On cue, Teddy stirred in his pram and woke up. He started to cry, and Lupin let go of Ginny to get his son. "Can I hold him?" she asked. "Please? I always wanted a baby brother or sister." With the reluctance of an overprotective father, Lupin reluctantly handed Teddy over.

"You're doing it wrong," he said a little testily when she clutched him with all the pizzazz that she might her book bag and he yelped. He moved behind her. "Like this," he said. "You have to support his head – " he moved one arm to do just that, "and his back." He moved her other arm so she was holding Teddy in a way that he approved and then went back to his own chair.

"Wow," she said, feeling the baby in her arms and suddenly feeling a surge of hope for the future to feel this little boy who would grow up in peace, in a world not only free of the fret of Voldermort, but hopefully free of the bigotry and fear that he had brought with him. No wonder Lupin had found such a reason to live. "He has your eyes," she commented.

"It's pretty cool – he can change his hair colour at will but he's always got green eyes."

"You sound proud of that."

"Every parent wants to see a bit of their child in themselves."

"Then hopefully he'll be intelligent, compassionate, great teacher, father, husband... but not a werewolf. He can inherit Tonks's metamophmagus abilities instead."

"I like the sound of that," he said, and found himself smiling at her; the first time he'd smiled at anyone other than Teddy since the battle. Teddy started to cry again, and Lupin reached for him. "It's about time for his lunch," he said, almost apologetically. He had to admit, he liked being around her, though he shouldn't – at least, not any more than he did any of his other students.

"How do you – ?" she asked, wondering if it wasn't too personal a question.

To her relief, he laughed. "Ginny, I'm not the first man to be a single father to a baby. I do actually know my way around a bottle."

"Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude."

"Don't be. I'm flattered that your biggest concern about my parenting skills is weather I can feed him or not." Teddy really started to cry at this point, and Lupin held his son against his chest, sliding his hand inside his son's shirt and rubbing his tiny back with what Ginny could see was a gentleness despite the fact his hand was almost the size of his little body. "I've got to go. But I'll see you around OK?" she nodded, and he was gone.

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