The man lived by certain dead sayings. Whenever a regular person would walk past a door and continue on his way, Lyall Lupin held the door open. If this thing happened to be damaged, like this afternoon, he took out his wand and repaired both the automatic door and the revolving door of the Muggle shop. It wasn't an easy fix, he'd explained; a man on call received a phone call, and this set a domino effect in motion.
"Father worked in non-magical maintenance when the fellows in navy blue robes fancied going on strike," he said, stowing his wand away and double checking his work unnecessarily.
The repairing spell sent shards and and bits back into their proper places. Lyall tapped the door with his hand. A thin man with greying hair, blue eyes, and everyday clothes, a crowd would've gobbled him up and forgotten about him. A young man, a Muggle, in a graphic t-shirt and baggy pants rushed forwards. Catching him without skipping a heartbeat, Lyall nodded at the teenage girl dressed in her Sunday best.
"It's nicer if you let the lady go first. Automatic door or not." Lyall nodded pointedly at the young man, picked up his bags, and ignored the rude response. Chivalry and common sense stood on the brink of extinction, yet he clung to a dying hope.
Andromeda Tonks raised her eyebrows and said nothing, though her expression clearly said she wanted to. They'd met only yesterday, April twelfth, known to the rest of the world as Easter Sunday. But it was their grandson's birthday. She'd braved the Muggle community in a dress that went out of style a decade or so ago. Her brown hair got pulled back in a high ponytail. She'd forgotten the makeup this morning, but she still looked beautiful without it.
Lyall, knowing he indeed stood on thin ice with her, kept the compliment and any commentary to himself, perhaps saving it for later. He'd been married for twenty-one years , happily married, and she presented herself as an easy, judgmental book to read. She had a kind, rounded face. Deciding she'd get around to it sometime before hell froze over, Lyall relieved Andromeda of her bags and continued on his way.
Andromeda simply stood there.
"If you want to say something, you ought to come out and say it because I can't read your mind, ma'am," he said, treading carefully. He was no Legliimens. Those who he had met who practiced Leglimency or Occlumency said it was a most complicated art.
"Don't take this the wrong way." Andromeda wrapped her traveling cloak tighter around herself.
Lyall smirked, marking this was the second time she'd struck up their only two conversations in the last two days. Was this a habit, or did she understand she rubbed people the wrong way? Yesterday, when she'd briefly left her daughter's side, Andromeda had kept her effective telling off brief. But she'd thrown an egg in his face.
He handed her the bag containing three cartons of eggs. "Really?"
"Sorry. I didn't want you to feel empty-handed."
Lyall mentioned there were three eggs left in the carton at home. Now that they were on the subject, or at least they were headed there, he'd wished to clear the air. But Andromeda had had the floor first. Never mind that she had a wand, so she wouldn't be defenseless anyway.
"Why would you do that to your son? Why would you let a little boy get bitten by a werewolf?" Andromeda, direct, drove the point home. Seeing the shock etched upon his face as they turned the corner and headed towards her house, she sat on the steps. "How do you live with yourself?"
The door opened, and Remus stepped outside. Looking a little surprised to see the pair of them, he waited. Lyall almost laughed. Yesterday, and this led to the egg-in-the-face thing, Lyall and Andromeda started out with a silent almost painfully passive-aggressive argument. It had exploded into a row. Remus told them to stay put and took the groceries inside. He doubled back and placed two eggs in Andromeda's hand.
"Just in case," said Remus.
Andromeda glared at the pair of them. "What the hell is wrong with the two of you?"
"Thanks, Remus," said Lyall quietly. He sat down on a step below her. Remus grinned like a schoolboy. When he turned to go back inside, Lyall suggested he get some fresh air, seeing as he'd missed Church yesterday, and he owed him one. This might save him a tedious explanation later.
"Remus heard this story only last year," said Lyall, resting his hands on his knees.
Remus, intrigued, gave him fair warning that if he was going to change the Fenrir Greyback story, he deserved fair warning and a stiff drink. The last time Lyall had told this tale, Remus had left Lyall's place in a quiet rage, and that's where they'd left things for a long while.
When Remus was four, almost five, Lyall had gotten recruited by the Ministry of Magic. He'd met with Fenir Greyback and marked himself by saying stupid words; he'd opened his mouth, and the words had come out. For years, he'd kept the identity of Remus's attacker secret because he didn't see why it mattered; there is power, if not a blissful ignorance, in not knowing everything. No matter how old Remus got, he was Lyall's child until the day he died.
"He came in through the bedroom window?" asked Andromeda.
"Oh, yes, talk about never sleeping naturally another night in your life." Lyall's conversational tone threw him off a little, for he'd said this with trembling fear. He admitted to being briefly addicted to a mild sleeping potion back in the day when they headed back inside. Andromeda replaced the eggs in the carton. He washed his hands before going upstairs with the others. Andromeda held the baby as Nymphadora Tonks slept nearby and asked what kicked the habit. "Simple. The wife found out, and I couldn't afford it."
"What do you do?" Andromeda did shy away from the questioning him, which Lyall found he rather admired. Whenever it came to drug addition or substance abuse, people clammed up. This story was shared with few people, very few people, but it didn't get much better that he'd quit cold turkey.
Remus sat down on the opposite side of the bed. "He doesn't sleep."
"You never sleep?" Andromeda rounded on Lyall, incredulous. Lyall said he suffered from severe insomnia and anxiety attacks. He did sleep with his eyes open, and she took this as fact, saying she'd seen him doze off in Remus's chair earlier this morning. "All the time? Doesn't the light bother you?"
"I sleep in a very dark room in the back of the house," said Lyall.
It got really interesting when he went on assignment or got invited to a castle. He studied spirits and apparitions. Whilst he didn't have a lot of friends, he strangely considered the dead his company. Andromeda called him strange, and he took this as a compliment. He wasn't really socially awkward. Because of Remus's condition, they'd moved around a lot. Until Remus was on his own, Lyall had one friend. One close friend.
"Mum, it's rude to tell people they're alone," said Dora. They all turned to face her, and her eyes were closed.
Andromeda laid the baby down in a cot. "It's rude to eavesdrop."
"We're going to have this conversation right now?" Dora rolled over.
From what Lyall gathered from Remus, Dora was much more like her father, so, consequentially, she butted heads with her mother a lot. Ted Tonks, he gathered, had been a mellow, laid back man. Lyall sat back and wondered if he and Ted would've been friends. Remus said they were alike in temperament, and they enjoyed solitary activities.
"Alone time is as beneficial as together time." Lyall noticed the sides of Remus's mouth twitch.
He'd told Remus's mother this line time and time again, and it took Hope ages to understand he wasn't snubbing her. His wife had been bounced around from insurance agency to insurance agency because they moved around all the time. Whilst she never complained about always starting out again at the starting line, Hope had found it difficult to pursue her post secondary arts education. After seven or eight years, she'd been forced to start over here, too, because the credits rolled off.
Finally, after twenty-five years, she'd earned a teaching position at a small university. Hope had been nearly fifty and forgot her name the first class she taught, an introductory course. She got coined as "that woman" and this carried on when she landed a position at Cambridge University. To the university students, and Remus loved this, Lyall got tagged as "that strange man married to that woman. Yeah, that one."
Cambridge had loved her enthusiasm and soul. She'd suffered an inoperable brain tumor. Hope went through hell for ten months and finally fell asleep. A favorite student, a young medical student who wasn't even hers, had mercifully begged the hospital to put her to sleep. That was fifteens years ago now.
"Oh. Remus, I almost forgot. This came three days ago via Muggle post." Lyall reached in his pocket and grabbed an envelope.
"Ah, the good doctor. I thought he'd dumped me." Remus grinned at Dora when she rolled onto her other side.
Lyall guessed Remus had told her about the medical student, Jakub Wysocki; Remus had gotten rather attached to his mother's favorite. He called him Poland. He slit open the letter, crossing his legs, and snuggled next to his wife as he read through the lengthy letter. Remus wiped a tear from his eye when he checked out the inside contents, and tapped the letter on the envelope.
Lyall half-rose from his chair, filled with instant worry. "What is it?"
"Not … it's nothing. Poland's signed onto King's College hospital. He's a neurosurgeon," said Remus.
Remus kissed the envelope and flashed some stationery Muggle photographs at his father. Lyall, curious, took them. In one of them, Jakub Wysocki sat in a single bed with a skin and bones woman, a wisp of Lyall's once blonde and beautiful wife. Lyall shuffled through the other shots. In another photograph, Jakub helped a drugged Hope into a wheelchair and kissed her forehead. The third one showed a small family, Jakub, his Italian wife, Chiara, who had been Remus's mother's graduate student, and a tiny baby girl.
"Is this going to make me cry?" Lyall held up his hand and shook his head when Remus shook the letter at him. "No, thank you.. Look at you."
Lyall guessed this had something to do with the baby. Remus handed him a single shot of the baby, saying this one was going in his wallet.
"Still pen pals with Jakub," said Lyall, mildly impressed they kept up this correspondence.
"Who's this Jakub? Poland. Turn the family photograph over," said Remus, draping his arm over Dora's shoulder.
Lyall obliged, laughing immediately as he read it:
Finally get used to this damn country and settle down. And multiply. Kind of. This is Laura Hope Wysocki. Thanks to you and your mother for the encouragement and the ear, Remus. I'm a King's man.
"Did we ask whether this child is Catholic or Jewish?"
Remus, who had just reached for a glass of water, choked. He'd ragged poor Chiara and Jakub about religion and marriage throughout the students' time at university; the arts student had fallen for the shy scientist. They shared a laugh. Straightening up, he said, seriously, "Laura's Catholic. Judaism follows the mother … Chiara's a devout Catholic, remember? I miss them. When they'd had rows, they broke off into Polish and Italian."
"Neither of them understood each other?" Andromeda got up to get the fussy baby and handed Teddy to his mother.
"No, no. I know, like, three Italian words, and it never failed that I'd get caught up in the fray. Course, my mother did nothing. I know 'wine', 'bathroom', and 'doubt'. I … I … that's it." Remus nudged Dora when she started feeding Teddy and said he was a failure at life.
Lyall set the photographs at the foot of the bed and followed Andromeda outside, giving the kids some privacy. Andromeda asked if this doctor was Lyall's friend. Jakub was a kid, a man, really, who Lyall kept his eye on.
"Remus never told me about his mother," said Andromeda. Her husband had died weeks ago, so she still wore her wedding ring. Lyall had never bothered removing his. "I knew she was dead."
"We don't talk about it." Lyall washed the dishes by hand and started the laundry. If Hope had known they'd spent over a year and a half not speaking to each other, she'd would've been furious. Lyall didn't know why he clammed up like this and acted short with her. Andromeda frowned, saying this wasn't necessarily healthy. "Has it hit you yet?"
"What? That Ted's dead?" Andromeda opened a drawer and tossed him a dishtowel. "No. Not really."
"I'm sorry."
"Me, too. I couldn't have done what you did."
Andromeda jumped a little when she felt his touch. After he finished cleaning the kitchen, Lyall told her, completely uncomfortable, said cancer wasn't murder. He'd hated it, but he'd seen it coming down the road. Andromeda said it wasn't the same thing. It was never the same thing. She sounded calm and conversational, but he saw her falling apart before it happened. Lyall put his arms her, shushing her as he held her.
Lyall was the friendly person who didn't have many friends; this is how Remus put it on a good day. On a bad day, and these were few and far between, they didn't talk much. Or at all. Disagreements blew over. He had a strange way of hanging around in his son's life and staying updated on the latest goings on. They played a game, a simple one by all accounts, where they asked a total of twenty questions within the group.
He didn't write back. Usually this was a face-to-face thing. Given that he was at some castle and Remus had a kid, Lyall bent the rules and settled for owl correspondence. Things halted at question seven. Andromeda and Lyall buried their children on the same day. Remus was buried with his prayer book, although Lyall guessed he would have gotten an earful for this.
Eight months later he Apparated onto Andromeda's and heard the baby's screams before he even got up the walkway. It was the middle of December. He spotted a Hogwarts trunk outside. Andromeda wrenched open the door and turned around to take Teddy from a clearly panicked. Harry Potter.
"You're here. Thank God. Take him." Andromeda carted Teddy over and dumped him unceremoniously into Lyall's arms. When Harry grumbled he had things under control, Andromeda wiped her hands on her robes and told him that was funny.
"Hello, you. What's all this fuss?" Lyall shifted Teddy in his arms and bounced him a little. Teddy's hair color switched from red to blonde. It took a minute, but he settled down quite easily for Lyall. As they walked outside in the garden, Andromeda tossed him a spit up rag. "It's a little late."
"Sorry." Andromeda strode over and slapped a bottle into his free hand. It was early afternoon. Lyall had only arrived in Cork when he received a Howler about how clueless the famous Harry Potter was. She sounded calmer and more put together now, but she'd threatened to kill the Boy Who Lived. "Where were you headed?"
Teddy had been left in Andromeda's care. The courts had awarded custody without so much as a fuss, and life went on as usual. Well, she went back to work as a court reporter for the Daily Prophet, for both Remus and Nymphadora had been poorer than dirt when the baby arrived. Even with working a dead end job at a pub, Remus didn't make enough to support a family, and Nymphadora would have had to wait until the government righted itself to get back on her feet. Remus had hated it, but he'd lived off his old man after they mended or rebuilt the burnt bridge.
Ginny and Harry were running behind schedule. As Harry had been whisked away into the Auror Department immediately after the end of the war effort, he juggled a lot of balls in the air. Ginny was home for the holidays. Lyall didn't know the kids too well, yet he thought Harry had a level head for his age.
Harry Potter would not have been Lyall's first choice for godfather for his grandson. Who dumped a baby on a seventeen-year-old kid? But, then again, Teddy wasn't Lyall's kid. No, he'd expected Remus to choose Kingsley because they were old family friends, and there was the whole Catholic thing. Remus had been raised Catholic, which is where Lyall guessed he at least got the idea for having a godfather for his boy, but Remus cared as much about Catholicism as Lyall's left shoe.
The front door had been left open. "Hey, kids."
"Hey, Lyall," said Harry, who was still getting used to not calling him Mr. Lupin.
"Mr. Lupin." Ginny missed the owl.
Lyall smiled, shaking his head. He liked the redheaded girl, though she was much too young for this mothering thing. "I was headed to Ireland. What's wrong?"
Andromeda lowered her hand, probably resisting an urge to jab a finger in Harry's direction. Her voice shook with emotion. "You talk to him. Because I will kill the boy, and I'm not bright enough to make that look like an accident. I shall put him in the ground, Lyall, I swear it."
"Okay, okay. You go get dressed. I've an engagement, and I'd like you to come with me. Please." Really, she needed to blow the stink off because all she did was travel from work to back here, and there was a lot going on with the Death Eater trials. Except for the occasional hand from Lyall, Andromeda was a single mother in her late-fifties. Andromeda said no. "I insist. You need a night off. Go. Shave your legs ... you have nice legs."
Andromeda did a double take as she headed back towards the house. Lyall shrugged it off, telling her she'd gotten too comfortable as a widow without putting it into those exact words. Her life wasn't over. Lyall had been there. Whilst his vice hadn't been food, he'd hidden in his castles and spent too much time amongst his spiritous friends. She stopped herself from telling him off and fetched Harry.
"Hey. Andromeda said you wanted a word?" Harry sounded a little out of place.
Lyall knew this would either anger Harry or open his eyes, and he wanted to make a good first impression because this was the first problem past pleasantries and small talk. Did he have a right to tell Harry how to raise his grandson? Lyall, devoted to his research, had not married until after his thirtieth birthday and had a son a year later. He knocked on the door of seventy.
Harry waded through an awkward silence and closed the door. "So ..."
"Harry, I understand that you're figuring stuff out. You're going to go through your twenties and finding yourself, and there's a lot going on at work. I understand. But you agreed to this. You can't go off and run to a Quidditch match when Andromeda says she needs you here." Lyall paused.
"That happened once. She told me to go! And why should I be here when she won't let me touch Teddy?" Harry balled his fists at his sides.
"What?" Lyall frowned as his whole lecture went up in smoke.
"She's a control freak. I can do the laundry, sure, but feed the baby? Whoa. That's crossing a line." Harry sounded as though he'd wanted to bend someone's ear for a while. How was he supposed to learn without given the chance?
Lyall nodded. He offered Teddy to him. "First lesson. Changing a nappy."
"Oh, I don't..." Harry held Teddy away from his body like he was a Dungbomb set to go off at any moment. Lyall conjured Andromeda's nappy bag and set the supplies on the back steps. "Shouldn't we do this inside?"
"This happens anywhere and everywhere." Lyall talked him through it. By the time Harry almost finished, they had to do it again. He chuckled and clapped when Harry finally managed it. "At least you didn't get it in the face."
"That's disgusting," said Harry, chucking his stuff in the outside bin. Lyall considered that a rite of passage when a man had a son. Harry dressed Teddy sloppily. He'd at least learned how to hold the kid, although he tried to pass off the fussy baby minutes later. Lyall guessed Andromeda took over at this point. "Are we good? Why's he crying now?"
"That's his hungry cry." Lyall took out his wand again and conjured a bottle. He cast a charm and tested the temperature on his wrist. Harry, he was pleased to see, watched him carefully. He handed him the bottle, explaining this next steps and why he did this or that.
"You're good at this," said Harry. Lyall smiled, saying he had a lot of practice. If Harry really found himself in need of some pointers, he really needed to pick Arthur Weasley's brain. "I have been talking with him and Mrs. Weasley. But I meant the teaching thing. Is that where Remus got it from?"
Lyall shrugged, taken aback by the compliment. It was Remus's mother who had been the teacher. He wasn't surprised that Remus had never mentioned him. Lyall had stuck to the more practical stuff. "Are you free tonight? Do you want to go completely off the broom handle and do something completely crazy like babysit?"
Harry sounded doubtful. "Seriously?"
"They shit, they eat, they sleep. Basics done." Lyall shared a grin with Harry. Except for the potions, Harry had it down. "We won't be long."
Andromeda cleaned up nicely. As he'd dropped no hints of tonight's dinner, she'd erred on the side of caution and wore midnight blur dress robes. Andromeda took some convincing, but she surrendered the baby off to Ginny and Harry in the end. Muttering that he was definitely underdressed, Lyall prepared to set off for Dorset. They Apparated there.
Once a month, maybe twice if he was lucky, he visited the Scamander family. Newt Scamander had officially retired back in 1990, so he did whatever he pleased these days. As he had famously phrased it during one of these dinners, Newt woke up every single day planning on doing nothing, and he didn't plan on doing that until around noon. Or whenever he got around to it.
The world knew Newt Scamander as the strange bloke who wrote Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and this suited him perfectly fine. Like Lyall, he didn't have many friends. In Newt's case, he rubbed people the wrong way; he often stated as an observation that he was annoying. It wasn't some spark for a pity party or nothing like that; he studied people as he studied his beasts and creatures, and this is simply what he'd gathered along the way.
Lyall didn't want to scare Andromeda away, which is why he guessed he kept this secret until they arrived. They lived in a small house in Dorset. By all appearances, except for the Diricrawls and their Apparating chicks that littered the garden, the house appeared to be nothing more than a single family home. When she saw this plump bird and its plumage, Andromeda raised her eyebrows and listened to Lyall ramble on about the critical period and imprinting. It worked rather like ducks. When the Diricrawl saw someone or something, they attached to it and labelled this thing as their mother.
"They're cute," said Andromeda. She spotted the Muggle post box and punched him in the arm. "Your one friend is Scamander? As in Newt Scamander?"
"Yep." They had walked a short distance up to the property because it was considered rude to Apparate right onto the place. You never knew what Newt Scamander had crawling or flying around, so it was really better to be safe than sorry. Whistling a tune, he walked up to the door and rapped three times before he stepped back and checked the time. "Five minutes early."
A house-elf dressed in modern clothes answered the door. Andromeda, completely thrown off by the American accent, simply gawked at the lax creature. It said hello like a true New Yorker and kept the pleasantries short and sweet.
"Noah is from the States. Slavery's illegal there, so house-elves get a better deal. Noah came over with Newt's wife, Tina," said Lyall, steering her into the sitting room. The house-elf bowed and said Tina should be around shortly. She was no mistress; she was Tina. If they were lucky, maybe Mr. Scamander would leave his cave before dinner and come out of hiding. Who knew? "Thanks, Noah."
"Not a problem. Good to see you again, Mr. Lupin. Stay a while," said Noah, bowing slightly to Andromeda. Noah snapped his long fingers and a tray of drinks appeared with some snacks. Noah winked. "Hey, if you wanna visit the library, let me know."
He Disapparated.
"That's an American house-elf?" Andromeda sat down on the love seat and took in the stylish sitting room. A fire roared in the grate and a handsome Christmas tree stood in the corner. Lyall took two small parcels out of his coat and added them to the already impressive pile. A baby monkey, a Midas monkey, with golden- colored fur hung holly around the place. "Wow."
"This is nothing." Lyall walked over to the fire and warmed his hands.
"Newton, it's either Boston or New York. Pick one!"
A plump old woman came downstairs pinning up her grey hair. She wore a long trench coat over a plain dress. Porpentina Scamander had been beautiful back in the day. Lyall hadn't known her back then, of course, but he'd seen photographs. She introduced herself to Andromeda and carried herself well for an elder. Her husband, the agèd Newt Scamander, now white-haired, nearly deaf, and arthritis ridden, came in his favorite overcoat and trousers. He read a book.
"He's deaf, so he's probably going to be reading your lips. Speak slowly." Lyall strode over and offered Newt his hand; Newt dog-eared a page and set the book aside. "Hello, Newt. How're things?"
"Fine. Tina, where's Francis?" Newt bent his head towards his wife and grumbled when she said their son Frank wasn't coming for Christmas. Not happy, he muttered about money not being everything and introduced himself to Andromeda. He'd named his son after a Thunderbird he'd once released into Arizona, and it appeared they were not on good terms. Again.
"New York," said Newt, carrying on a discussion they had earlier. Tina said something on Frank's behalf, and he considered it, not to snub her, but Newt did whatever Newt wanted with his time. He sounded kind, though there was no mistaking a bite of impatience in his tone. "We … you and I …are going to New York with Rolf in the springtime. If Frank decides … I don't want to have this conversation right now. May we talk about this later?"
"Yes." Tina called for the house-elf and lingered, hesitating a little as she gave the last word. Newt waved a hand at her, telling her this conversation was over, and he invited Lyall and Andromeda into the dining room. "He didn't steal your work from underneath you, Newt, and you know that. Don't be stupid."
"Let's eat, shall we?" Lyall, reading Newt's vacant expression, could tell he had already moved on, and there was no point taking sides. He rubbed his hands together and held out Tina's chair. Food, a Sunday roast dinner, appeared on the table. Newt hummed to himself and went to grab the decanter and drinking glasses. Lyall lowered his voice and whispered in Tina's ear. "I don't have a dog in this fight, and we know he's set in his ways, yet you don't want to give up on your son. No matter what he's done … Francis may be an idiot, a clueless idiot, I'll grant Newt that, but he's family. Never forget it."
Tina smiled.
Newt shuffled back in and pointed from Lyall to an empty chair as he addressed Tina. "He's not sitting down. Why not? Did I forget to say something?"
Andromeda, straight faced, snorted when Tina filled a glass with some amber liquid and passed it to her. Tina told Newt to sit down. The Midas monkey ambled in like a small child and climbed into a chair. At this point, Andromeda's wide, kind eyes got larger; she bit whatever she was going to say back. Dinner was a quiet affair after Tina dismissed the Midas monkey and it crawled into her lap. She sat there, resigned, and held it like a toddler.
"Have you ever been to the London Zoo? It's like that." Tina answered Lyall with a quick hand gesture when he snorted into his drink. Newt ran and funded a magi-zoo exhibit partition that got cloaked and hidden by the actual London Zoo. Tina signed with the Midas monkey, and things went in smoothly until a black, furry thing jumped into Andromeda's lap and snatched at her with its claws.
"Oh. Oh, my God!" Andromeda jumped out of her chair and backed against the wall. Lyall recognized this thing as a Niffler and silently cursed himself for not warning her to stow away her valuables when they got here. Andromeda cowered, negotiating with the Niffler as it stripped her of her jewelry in less than a minute. Finished, it stuffed its loot in a little pouch where its belly would've been before it scurried away. "Seriously?"
"No. You come here." Bored, Newt set down his fork and got up from the table.
Newt cast a Summoning Charm, and the creature, chattering away, giving an animated defense, Lyall imagined, zoomed into Newt's weathered hand. In the corner, Newt talked to it, although there was no way he could have understood the Niffler, and it responded, slapping his hand away with its paw. Without warning, Newt turned it upside down and shook it rather vigorously by the feet. A surprising amount of Galleons, keys, jewelry and other valuables spilled onto the floor.
"He doesn't mean anything by it, really, it's a game," said Newt conversationally, giving the Niffler another none too gentle shake. It held onto a ring and hissed at Newt. Newt said no and snatched it away. He handed the Niffler out to Noah the house-elf, telling him that Carlisle belonged in the bedroom. He waved a disapproving finger at Carlisle the Niffler. "We don't touch things that don't belong to us, Carlisle. It's rude. And at dinner? Really? You keep your paws to yourself."
Noah carted the Niffler away, apologizing to Andromeda. She said this was bizarre, but Andromeda allowed Lyall to help her back to the table. Newt conjured a tub of some liquid and cleaned her wedding band before he offered it to her.
"Thank you," she said, putting it back on her hand. She took the earrings and the other jewelry, too, stuffing it into her robes.
"Dinner's never a boring affair here," said Tina, tapping her empty plate with her wand. Seconds appeared there. She fed the Midas monkey and smiled when Andromeda asked if they all had names. "Yes, this is Mia. She's three."
"Four," Newt corrected her, getting back to his food. Andromeda ate, too. "I found her in Brazil on a walk."
"A walk in the rainforest," said Andromeda, turning to Lyall like this was an everyday venture.
"This is Newt Scamander you are talking to." Lyall reminded her as he scooped baby potatoes onto his plate. He tossed one to the Midas monkey, and she snatched it out of the air. "Normal? What's normal?"
"I see. He's a magizoologist. I've actually read your book, and it's an interesting read," said Andromeda. Newt beamed at her. Even though Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them had been on the required reading list at Hogwarts for ages and ages, nobody really bothered with reading the damn thing. Newt knew this. "What do you do?"
"Oh, well, I was an Auror back in the States. I transferred back here until I got bored and started photographing Newt's creatures." Tina shared a knowing smile with Lyall; it took a special person to work with Mr. Newt Scamander. Although he meant nothing by it, a conversation could often be a tedious task because Newt was three steps ahead and forgot to backtrack a lot. "Newt?"
"Yes, dear?" Newt got distracted by a crack climbing up the wall.
"When Professor Kettleburn writes you with a question, a theory, 'No, it simply won't do' does not count as a response. You know he has fewer limbs to get on with." Tina placed her napkin on the plate and pushed away from the table. Lyall watched this exchange, slightly amused when Newt asked why. It wasn't that he didn't know about common courtesy; he simply viewed the world as a scientist. "Because he sees you as an authority."
"Lyall accepts answers like that," said Newt, waving at Lyall for support. "An authority? In 1926, I was a weirdo."
"An Englishman in America." Tina allowed herself a smile. "You're still a weirdo, honey."
"Thanks. It's a good pastime. A wife." Newt swerved awkwardly away when Tina flicked gravy or some sauce at him.
"You … you are two sides of the same coin. You work with creatures; he works with the dead. Or what isn't there. You are not normal. No offense." Tina stopped here and apologized sincerely to Lyall and poured him another drink.
Lyall shrugged and took the drink. "Fair enough."
"Time to feed the gang," said Newt, getting slowly to his feet. He told Mia to come. Mia signed to Tina and took Newt's hand. They walked off.
"You can't use each other as a defense," said Tina, making this clear for Lyall. She explained that it wasn't that Newt was not all there, for he was considerably brilliant in his own way. If he didn't say goodbye before they left, Tina asked Andromeda not to take offense. She waved a hand carelessly in Lyall's direction, toying with him. "He's family."
"I come for the food and the entertainment." Lyall helped himself to seconds simply because it was there. And Tina would complain to high heaven if he took no more.
Tina said yes and suggested Lyall invite Newt along on one of his travels; he had to suggest it, though, like he came up with the idea, for this was very important. He made arrangements. Tina, as always, offered him food on the way home. Though he said no, a polite no, he ended up with heavy takeaway bags, including two cartons of homemade ice cream. Who skipped out on dessert? He Apparated back to Andromeda's place feeling like a laden mule.
"You don't leave the Scamanders hungry," he said, walking into the kitchen and putting away food. Andromeda said she didn't want it, so he magicked most of the loot back to his place. "And in case you do, and I assure you that doesn't happen, Tina rectifies that mistake."
"I like them,"said Andromeda, shrugging off her traveling cloak. Harry came in. "See? Old people get home early." "You're not old." After he said Teddy got a bath and had gone to sleep, Harry thanked her for the time with Teddy and said good night. Lyall, almost forgetting, sent some ice cream and chocolate cake home with him. "Cheers. Bye."
He left. Andromeda went upstairs to change and check on the baby. Lyall imagined her scrutinizing everything, but she came downstairs in her nightgown and dressing gown. All was fine. She cleaned the kitchen, though there was nothing to do because Harry had taken care of this. A basket of folded laundry was on the dryer.
Lyall rested her hands on her hips. "Are you feeling better?"
She turned around and kissed him. Although he was surprised, he didn't pull away. Before he knew what he was doing, he kissed her back, and she shrugged off the dressing gown and tossed it over one of the dining chairs. She took his hand and placed it between her legs.
"Please." Andromeda sighed when he nodded, giving in as she spread her legs. She wore nothing there. "Touch me."
Lyall hadn't done this in years, though he played by ear, and Andromeda enjoyed it. He said so, for he'd only ever been with his wife and this made Andromeda laugh as she undid his trousers and played with him. "You like that?"
"Oh, yes." Lyall sighed, content, letting her do as she pleased. "Andromeda."
"Shhhh." She led him over to the couch and pushed him back before she climbed on top of him. Andromeda took it slow as they made love. She took over, kissing him as he started crying out. He stroked her hair. "We've lost our minds."
"They kids would kill us," said Lyall, kissing her passionately.
How could something wrong feel so right? Was this wrong? Andromeda nodded. Completely sober, they couldn't blame the drink. She laughed, really laughed for the first time since he'd met her, and he enjoyed the sound. They talked about this and that, nothing, really, until Teddy started up like a revved engine.
"I've got him." Andromeda got up and fixed her clothes before she dashed upstairs. He waited fifteen minutes, but whatever she was doing wasn't working, so he went into the nursery and stood in the doorway. She tossed a dirty nappy into the wastebasket. "Believe it or not, I used to be really good at this."
He waited for permission. "Need a hand?"
"I need a nanny," said Andromeda.
She stripped the cot after she set Teddy the changing table. She conjured new linens and thanked Lyall for helping her. Lyall walked around with Teddy, shushing him, and told her to sit in the rocking chair by the window. This third bedroom, she said, used to be Ted's office. Teddy wouldn't shut up, and she started crying. Lyall, caught between two weeping people, felt a little lost and overwhelmed.
"Andromeda, he's down." Lyall rested his hands on the cot.
"It's not the baby. I mean, it is. He's … this happens all the time. It's handled. Forget it." She got up to leave, but he took her by the wrist and spun her around.
"Tell me. Or I can guess." Lyall decided to share his feelings, wondering if this would get him anywhere. Andromeda gathered the dirty bed things and stormed downstairs, struggling to gather herself. He followed her. "I hate him. Remus left me all alone, and he didn't have the decency to warn me. He left me, and I hate him. And that's all right."
"Shut up. Don't say such things." Andromeda added the dirty linens and quilt into the washer and slammed the door before she started it.
"I do. I spoke to Father Ryan … he's this twenty-five-year-old boy of a priest. Father Babyface, Remus called him. I hate my son." Lyall knew she was angry at the wrong people. "You're not angry with Harry. It's her. You're furious … she left you all alone. How dare she?"
"I hate you." Andromeda asked him to leave.
"You don't." Lyall, close to tears himself, shook his head.
He'd been down this road countless times even before Hope had passed away. Because he dealt with the dead, people thought he enjoyed its company. He did and he did not. It was difficult to put into words, but a little piece of him got etched away every time he lost someone. And Remus was the last straw. The baby was safe and sound. Lyall took her by the hand and they Disapparated.
"I do! I hate you. Who are you? I don't …I don't even know you! Where are we?" Andromeda almost tripped over a stone bench. It took a moment for her to realize they'd Apparated to the cemetery. She struck him hard. They couldn't Apparate inside, so he walked her over to the resting place, ignoring her when she said they were breaking in. "Take me home."
"You're the angriest person I've ever met. Stubborn to the core." He turned her to face the three gravestones. "It's all right to hate them. Damn it, Andromeda, you should be angry. I'm furious, but I'm dealing with it. You… you tell them. You have this conversation with them."
Lyall left her there. He walked off over to a sitting area with stone benches and cold statues. After a while, feeling as though he intruded on a forced private moment, he paced the rows of graves. He spotted a ghost at the grave of a Sarah Kent, although he doubted anyone else saw it. He waved. The ghost, surprised, waved back and zoomed away when Lyall came back that way a little later on.
He took off his traveling cloak and draped it over Andromeda's shoulders. She'd gone silent and appeared to be drained of tears. Lyall took off his Christian cross and buried it by Remus's grave. Andromeda stood there, speechless and exhausted. Lyall dirtied his hands, but he didn't care. He rested his hand on the stone for a moment, brushed off the snow there, and took her by the hand.
"Feeling better?" He hoped she'd go with the truth.
"You don't hate him," she said, grumbling that she wore no shoes.
"No, this will fade." Lyall went with the truth. When they got back home, he conjured a basin and washed her feet. They said nothing for some time, and he switched the things over to the dryer after checking on Teddy. He went back into the sitting room and sponged her feet again. "What is it?"
"You're old."
He thanked her, saying she had a keen eye.
"No." Andromeda kicked him, cursing when she splashed water onto the carpet. "Your mind is old. You think differently … you are different."
Lyall, frowning slightly, didn't know whether he insulted by her to not, but he accepted her praise or harsh words. He toweled her feet after setting the basin aside. He took this into the kitchen and cleaned the mess. When she kissed him goodnight, he delayed their parting for a while, and asked her what it was like to kiss an old man.
"Self-depreciation suits you." She patted the cushion before she laid down on the couch. Lyall rested her head on his lap and ran his fingers absentmindedly through her hair. People might say that she had forgotten herself as a widow, but Lyall liked the grey in her hair. "What was she like? Your wife?"
"That story will take all night." Andromeda gestured around the room and jerked her head towards the staircase. "You have something better to do?"
"Not really. Good point. She was kind, and patient, and creative."
Lyall rested his feet on the coffee table after he slipped off his shoes. He got lost in a tale about he and Hope met in the Welsh forest. She'd thought she'd been chased by a man, and he'd pretended to buy her story, although it had only been a Boggart. Andromeda snorted. Lyall said he was never good when it came women or romance, so he'd been grateful for the help.
"Whatever works. Ted and I met in school. He said I talked a lot." They shared a laugh, and Lyall said he could see that she still loved him; Lyall heard it in her voice and glimpsed it in her eyes whenever she spoke about him. When she said Ted considered himself quite talented after creating a Metamorphagus daughter, Nymphadora and often reminded them not to have more children because they threatened to knock perfection. Andromeda wiped happy tears from her eyes. "And Ted said … Ted said … perfection ought not to trip over her feet whilst going down the stairs and walking down the corridor."
"That's something," he said, smiling. "I have a feeling Ted would've made a good friend. Your daughter was quite the beauty."
"Yeah, Ted's going to be fun with that." Andromeda placed an arm behind her head. "Nymphadora ran away from me once and disguised herself as a double of another child. It was madness."
Lyall grinned. He got up to use the bathroom and made some cocoa; he handed her a large mug when she sat up. "That's genius. Remus used to empty the biscuit jar or eat a cake and leave notes requesting more. He left the dishes in the cupboard. Hope would get so pissed. She never caught him. They were friendly notes."
"Lucky us." Andromeda sipped the cocoa and wiped whip cream off her lip. "We get to raise a master of disguise who is a skilled thief. Should be fun."
They clinked mugs. She asked where he got the cocoa recipe. "Tina Scamander. You add a scoop of ice cream. That's the trick."
"I like her. If you're going to be bad, you might as well go all the way." They both had another mug. She shook her head when he came back with two bowls of ice cream. "What are you? Five?"
Lyall laughed, fishing a folded envelope out of his back pocket. He'd forgotten it was there. After Remus and passed away, he'd taken up the responsibility of Poland's, or Mr. Wysocki's pen pal. He set photograph of Teddy aside and removed its animated charm. Andromeda checked his work and suggested they change Teddy's turquoise locks to a more acceptable shade. Perhaps light brown. When Lyall asked if she had any spare Christmas cards laying around, Andromeda conjured one.
"Thank you. Remind me to stop by the Muggle post office for some stamps, will you?" Lyall opened the packaging, scribbled a note with Christmas cheer, nonsense news, and stowed the new photograph of Jakub's baby girl in his wallet next to one by Teddy. He licked the envelope and addressed it like a Muggle.
"You don't call him Poland," noted Andromeda, who had read the letter over his shoulder.
"I'm not Remus. Jakub is Jakub to me." He set the letter aside, asking her to remind it to send it tomorrow. Andromeda agreed. All in all, Lyall guessed he bored Jakub as a pen pal, although the letters kept coming, and Jakub was a last reminder of sorts of his late wife. "Do these letters bother you?"
Andromeda, confused, said this was none of her business. She wondered aloud why he would ask. "Why would I care about this Jakub?"
"Because he was part of my life with Hope."
"You have your life, and I have mine. This? I don't even know what this is." Andromeda said a man nor a woman throws away a twenty-something marriage. Funnily enough, though their relationships had started off at different time, they had been married to their spouses for the same number of years. When he suggested they were friends, maybe good friends, she gave him a modern day interpretation. "Nymphadora would've called this friends with benefits."
Lyall had never heard it put quite like this before. He repeated her words like they were a foreign phrase, a little intrigued. Andromeda rolled her eyes, telling him to go with it, for this gave her a headache, too. "That's a thing?"
"Oh, Nymphadora would've had fun with you." Confusion must have written itself all over Lyall's face. Andromeda stacked their empty bowls and set them off to the side. He said Nymphadora had made him a drink called a Dreary Draught once upon a time and knocked his feet out from under him. "Oh, dear."
"Yeah. I think I slept over on your daughter's couch in her flat. But I can't remember." This was back when Remus and Lyall weren't talking to each other last year. "I guess I can tell you I woke up in a strange girl's flat."
Andromeda patted his arm sympathetically. Lyall got to cross this off his bucket list at the age of sixty-five, and he hadn't known Nymphadora Tonks would be his future daughter-in-law. Andromeda asked if Remus ever heard about Lyall's drunken debacle, and Lyall hoped to God this secret got buried with Nymphadora. They stayed up for hours talking like old friends. This was the first time little Teddy slept through the night.
As time passed with Teddy, things got easier for him and Andromeda. He not only slept through the night, but he'd learned to dress himself a little and grew into quite the chatterbox. He didn't yet understand the concept of matching, but that was all right, as he was a boy and was only three. His grandmother fixed this, anyway. When they left the register office at the Ministry, Lyall stopped and tied Teddy's orange shoes.
"You're inside out. Arms up." Lyall spotted this only after Teddy shrugged off the casual blazer. They stood in the middle of the Atrium,a nd Lyall parked Teddy's butt on the Fountain of Magical Brethren. Teddy lifted his arms as Lyall shook out the t-shirt and offered it back to him before he helped him with the blazer. He reached out to Andromeda, embarrassed that he'd been stupid enough not to plan this out. "I can't get up."
Andromeda shifted the handbag on her arm. "Really? Oh, you've made my day. Really?"
"Really." Lyall sighed when Teddy jumped down and followed his grandmother. "Really? Maybe coupling that marriage with an adoption correction wasn't the brightest idea. You'll be old one day, too. Then we'll see what's funny!"
Andromeda came back over and helped him to his feet. There weren't too many people milling about at o'dark-thirty in the morning, yet the onlookers got a good laugh at the old people first thing. Teddy made a face when they kissed each other. The lift doors opened, and Harry, swinging his briefcase, rushed over to them.
"Damn it. I missed it." Harry scooped up Teddy and muttered that he'd remembered as soon as he'd sat down in the Auror Office. He'd offered to stand witness during the ceremony, though it had clearly slipped his mind. He apologized and shifted Teddy. "You've got three parents now. How's that?"
"They're only Grandpa and Grams." Teddy shrugged. Harry had signed the papers yesterday.
"Congratulations. It's nothing to him." Andromeda and Lyall thanked him. Harry said he liked the blazer and slipped something into Teddy's pocket. "Makes you look smart, kid."
"I am smart. Grandpa's teaching me to read and how to tie my trainers." Teddy wiggled his foot; the double know was a dead giveaway this was not his work.
"Yeah, how's that going? The second one?" Harry grimaced when Lyall gave a half-shrug, for there was nothing to add to his work in progress. Teddy stayed with Harry on some weekends in his London flat and had two bedrooms. Harry said he'd work on the trainer tying and the cleaning the room thing. "You want me to keep him this weekend?"
"You can." Lyall shrugged. Andromeda said that was fine; they turned to the three-year-old to get his vote. Teddy always said yes when it came to Harry. Lyall and Andromeda had Christmas shopping to do and other things to cross off the to-do list. "You want to swing by after work?"
"Yeah. That sounds good. See you at five." Harry hurried off towards the lifts after he told them goodbye. Teddy yelled after him. "Five o'clock, Teddy. I promise."
"Have a good day, Harry," said Andromeda. She frowned when he stopped he grilles of the lift from closing. "Yes?"
Harry stuck his briefcase between the grilles. He hesitated, but he went there cautiously. "So … this isn't weird?"
Andromeda rolled her eyes at the ceiling, swearing left, right, and centre they'd been through this.
Yes, they wouldn't have dreamed of breaching this subject had either of their children been alive. In a sense, and Lyall hoped this wouldn't be a pregnant pause of awkwardness when Teddy got older and heard the story of how the grandparents met, Remus and Nymphadora had brought them together. Because half of all marriages failed, would it be strange if they signed divorce papers five years from now? Definitely.
"It's weird it you make it weird, I suppose. Don't make it weird."But it happened. Lyall couldn't think of another way to break this down for him. "We're not Remus and Nymphadora. And you're running late, son."
Harry had apparently decided work could wait because this was worth it. He stepped outside the lift, apologizing to the crowd. The lift moved on. "Yeah, I know."
"See! We needed him for that part where the justice says, 'Speak now or forever hold your peace.' And those witnesses? Who the hell were those people?" Andromeda strode back towards the register office, insisting they could fix this.
"Nobody says that anymore," said Lyall dismissively, choosing not to point out the justice, or the official, or whoever didn't say this as part of his spiel minutes ago. It was an overused plot device used in cheap Sickle novels and Muggle movies. Plus, witnesses were witnesses. "You need more coffee or tea before you agree to marry someone!"
"Where are you going, Grams?" asked Teddy.
Andromeda strode back over to them and ignored Harry's commentary about how old people were fun. She smacked him playfully with her handbag.
"Do you seriously not want to be married to me?" Lyall shooed Harry away when he said he was really running late. He didn't get a yes or no right away, and this gave him pause. Andromeda answered him and Teddy made the icky face again. Lyall took that as good enough, but he fought to get this out. They broke apart. "Because I don't care either way. But if you don't know you know, we shouldn't have done this. I'm fine."
"I know." She sounded like she wanted to put a screeching halt to this conversation. It was an answer a teenager would give. Lyall, frustrated, and admittedly a little disappointed, started back the way she'd gone. His other wedding ring was in his pocket. "Please stop."
Lyall ignored her and continued on his way. He wondered how long an annulment would take to push through the system.
"Lyall."
All in all, it really didn't matter whether he'd tied the knot with Andromeda or not, but she'd asked him. That was a weird move; Lyalll had never expected a woman to ask for his hand in marriage. She'd asked him before the adoption got finalized. There had been a lot of paperwork to go through at the Ministry after the war, so this got pushed onto the back burner. At sixty-nine, the last thing he expected was to become a father again. Never mind a husband! Harry was right, though, because other than the paperwork, nothing had changed.
"Stay here. Do not move." Andromeda spoke to Teddy. Eric, the security wizard, who had been rather entertained by this soap opera, said he had the boy. Andromeda, saying this arrangement was pointless, grabbed Lyall by the arm and kissed him like never before. "I asked you."
"Great. Are you done scaring me to death over this? I've got things to do." Lyall ignored Eric's snickering, or he imagined he heard the man say something; the man pretended to read the Daily Prophet.
"Yes." Andromeda took one of Teddy's hands.
"What're we doing today?" Teddy walked in between his grandparents. Andromeda would be heading to work soon, which is why they and planned this first thing in the morning.
"Breakfast. I'm starving." Lyall made the call.
They went back through the visitors' entrance. As it turned out, Teddy had not inherited his father's lycanthropy. In hindsight, Lyall wished he had passed that information onto Remus before Teddy was born because it would've saved Remus a world of worry. Although Lyall was no expert, he'd become quite the unofficial authority on all things werewolf.
"Where are you doing today?" Andromeda nodded at a Muggle couple as they stepped awkwardly out of the red telephone box. After stopping by St. Mungo's to sign off on Remus's patient histories for a clinical study that had lasted for thirty years of Remus's life, he was off to see Newt Scamander. "Oh. It's one of those days. All right."
Lyall draped his arm over her shoulder. "Don't act like that."
"I'm kidding. Tell Mr. Scamander I said hello."
"Of course. See you later."
Lyall scooped up Teddy, asking him if he wanted to met an old man, an author, before he kicked the bucket. Teddy had no idea what bucket he was talking about. Andromeda made a strange tutting noise and reminded Lyall he spoke to a small boy. She Disapparated after kissing them goodbye. Newt really was ready to move on, but he wished to cross things off his actual bucket list. Today, they'd be headed to Arizona to say goodbye to old Frank.
"You get to travel to Arizona. International Side-Along Apparition. Lucky you." Lyall set the alarm on this his watch for half past four, promising Teddy they'd be back before Harry arrived. Hopefully. They'd have to swing by Dorset by to get Mr. Scamander first, but Lyall had a plan. He lifted Teddy and smiled when the boy wrapped his arms around his neck. "Are you ready?"
"Grandpa, what about breakfast?" Teddy made a good point.
"Wait until meet Tina Scamander. You'll be best buddies. Ready?"
Teddy said yes. Lyall filled his head with thoughts of Dorset and Disapparated. It was going to be a good day.