Hey all! Here's my new fic about Teddy Lupin's first year at Hogwarts, 'Teddy Lupin and the Resurrection Stone'. I'm pretty excited about it, so I hope you guys will like it!
Full Summary: Eleven-year-old Teddy Lupin is about to complete his first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, but on the way, he learns the secrets about his parents that he never knew, meets three other boys who, with them, becomes one of the Vandals, and experiences his first troubles with girls. But what happens when Teddy discovers a strange stone in the floor of the Forbidden Forest, with unusual markings on it - the same stone Harry Potter could have left in that forest eleven years ago?
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I do not own Harry Potter - J.K. Rowling does and she's sitting on a goldmine because of something she wrote on a napkin.
The sky above was completely overcast. Dark clouds loomed overhead ominously and the air was damp and heavy, showing obvious signs that there was rain in the forecast for that evening. Harry and Ginny Potter, who'd been married almost six months, walked solemnly with their fingers enlaced, alongside none other than most of the Weasley family. The whole lot of them was clad in black or dark-colored robes as they silently made their way to the cemetery.
They were going to visit the grave of Fred Weasley, who had died almost five years ago, fighting the Dark forces of Lord Voldemort. As he thought back, Harry still remembered stumbling into the Great Hall during the battle when he was just seventeen, still a boy, and seeing Fred's body lined up with all the others who'd died fighting Voldemort. Next to Fred's body were the bodies of - Harry swallowed a lump in his throat with difficulty - Remus John Lupin and his wife, Nymphadora "Tonks" Lupin. The loss of them had affected Harry more than he'd imagined.
Mrs. Weasley was already crying as they made it to the cemetery. Tears spilled down her face as they walked through the gradually rusting wrought-iron gates, and started down the long, winding, cobblestone path. As Harry looked around, he felt as if everything had been put into the perspective of a black-and-white photograph; the color of the tombstones and unhealthy-looking grass mixed with the stormy sky above produced an eerie feeling in the pit of his stomach as well.
Hearing a sniffling noise to his left as they passed all the graves, Harry turned his head to see that Ginny was also on the verge of bursting into tears. Squeezing her hand tightly as if telling her without words that he was there for her as her husband, he looked down at her and met her eyes, making sure he transferred a comforting look to her.
But he noticed a few tears fall from her eyes anyway. Harry let go of her hand and put his arm around her, holding her close to him. As quietly as he could, he said to her and her alone, "It'll be all right." But he himself felt as though it were a foolish thing to say.
"Where is it?" came a sudden voice from Harry's right. Clinging onto his other hand was five-year-old Teddy Lupin, looking clueless as he walked with the adults. The only other one close to his age here was Victoire Weasley, Bill and Fluer's daughter, who was four.
"It's just up here, Teddy," Harry answered his godson in a quiet tone of voice. "We're almost there, don't worry."
Harry could barely hear Teddy's reply, for he'd been distracted by his own thoughts. Harry could not believe that it had already been five years since he'd killed Voldemort, and it had been within Hogwarts's very walls. He would never forget that gold blast of light from the collision of his and Voldemort's spells, and the way Voldemort fell when he was defeated…
"Here," said Mr. Weasley suddenly, breaking Harry out of his trance. He looked up from the ground, where he'd been watching his feet take their steps for him. He felt Teddy's tiny hand slide out of his big one. They'd arrived at Fred's grave. Ginny immediately burst into tears and flung herself into Harry's arms to cry on his shoulder while Harry stared at the tombstone in a mixture of awe and remorse.
Memories of all the times he'd spent with Fred flowed through his mind. He remembered when Fred had been there with George to give him the Marauder's Map, teaching him all the secrets about it…there were all the jokes and laughs shared at the Gryffindor table at Hogwarts, or at the table at the Burrow…the products he'd developed with George for Weasleys' Wizarding Wheezes, and tested on the unsuspecting Hogwarts students…
Then it dawned on Harry that this was the exact same graveyard that Remus and Tonks had been buried in. Feeling the uncontrollable, overwhelming need to go and visit their graves, he let go of Ginny and told her, "I'll be right back." With that, he left her and the others and continued down the cobblestone path in search of the tombstones of Remus and Tonks.
He found them buried side-by-side on a hill, quite distanced from Fred's grave. Harry read their names over and over again, mouthing them to remember how it felt on his tongue. And then the few memories flooded his head.
It was almost six years ago that he'd found out about the couple's secret romantic troubles with each other, and shortly after, they'd actually gotten married and had a son - Teddy. They'd just had their son; why did life have to be so unfair? Harry thought in anger. Remus had been his only remaining father figure after Sirius and Dumbledore had died, and Harry pitied himself immediately - the last thing he'd said to Remus was that he was a coward for abandoning his wife and unborn child, afraid to take in the responsibility of becoming a father, let alone a husband. Harry wished he'd gotten closer to him, and he regretted the things he'd said that fateful night at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, but then again, he had gone back to Tonks.
He remembered standing in Remus's office at thirteen years of age, the day Remus had taught him the Patronus Charm, back in his short-lived teaching days of Defence Against the Dark Arts.
He remembered Tonks's trademark greeting of "wotcher".
It wasn't much to remember at all, but it still made a couple of tears slide down and drip off his nose.
"Harry?"
He looked up. A dark-haired Teddy was standing a few feet away from him, wearing a puzzled look upon his round, boyish face. The young boy walked up to him and asked naively, "Why are you crying? Whose graves are these?"
Harry bit his tongue, realizing that Teddy couldn't read the names on the headstones, unable to read just yet. He swallowed and blinked back tears as he said, "They're your mum and dad's graves, Ted."
"Oh," said little Teddy solemnly. It was obvious that a great wave of emotion had crashed over him. Harry could tell this by the look on his face.
"Yeah," he said, forcing out an uneasy laugh, embarrassed that he'd been crying in front of his godson. He pulled Teddy into a hug, like his dead father would have done.
"How did they die?" asked Teddy, and Harry could tell by his jumping voice that he was crying as well.
Deciding that Teddy was too young to know, Harry told him, "I'll tell you when you're older, Teddy…"
"Harry? Teddy?"
Harry recognized Ron's voice immediately. He looked up at him through blurred vision and Ron said, "Blimey, Harry, you all right?"
Harry stood up with Teddy, wiping off his face with a handkerchief from his pocket and then proceeding to do the same for Teddy. "'M fine," he answered Ron.
"Good, 'cause we're leaving," said Ron.
"So soon?"
Ron blinked. "We've been here at least a half hour, mate," he said, giving Harry a confused look. "You sure you're all right?"
Harry realized he might have spent more time at Remus and Tonks's graves than he thought, and he nodded and shrugged. "Yeah…Let's go."
He felt Teddy grasp his hand tightly as they followed Ron together back down the cobblestone path just as rain began to fall…
That's the end of the prologue, then - tell me if you liked this little tidbit or not, and review it! I've been working on the first chapter for a couple weeks or so now, so expect it to be good. It should be up in the next, I dunno, day or two. Keep your eyes peeled!
My plans for this fic are to take it to the whole 7-book series. I'm already making plans for future 'books', and it's exciting, really. I'll be back soon...
