Prologue

Teddy Lupin had just finished his last year of Hogwarts, and was preparing to make a home for himself. He had lived with his grandmother ever since he could remember, but now he had found that it was time to move out, and find an apartment of his own. He didn't have much of an inheritance, as none of his parents had been rich, but thanks to financial help from his godfather, Harry, he had coin enough to pay the first rent of a flat, and he was hoping to find a job that could pay for the next ones to come.

When he was about to close the last box, his grandmother surprised him, as she told him to wait, because she had one more thing for him. He was surprised simply because he was absolutely sure he had remembered everything, he had just checked his remembrall, which was still white. But when he looked, he saw why he hadn't actually forgotten it: he had never seen the thing before in his life.

It was a leather bound book, one that didn't look too old, but that had a look of something that hadn't been touched for years. He was very mystified by this fact, as he was so sure he had seen every book in the house, but had never set eyes upon this one in his life. As he looked up, and met the eyes of his grandma, Andromeda explained that the book was a gift from his father, one that had been left in her possession when he died, with the wish that it would be passed on, when Teddy was grown enough to understand the content.

As she continued, she explained to Teddy that she had had a hard time accessing when exactly that was, as the book had been spelled so that no one but Teddy could read it. She had figured then that she would give it to him for his 17th birthday, but had forgotten about it, so she saw this time as the perfect time for it. That way, she argued, he would have something to do in his new apartment, when he sat there all alone, with no one to talk to.

The gift meant a lot to Teddy, as he treasured every object he had gotten from his parents, especially if they had been actual gifts for him. So he accepted it happily and put it in the top of the last box, promising himself that it would be the first thing, he unpacked when he had moved. A week later, when he was in his new apartment in an attic on top of Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour, with only his bed in place, everything else still packed in boxes.

That's when he opened his book for the first time, and found that a letter had been placed between the leather binding and the first page. He took this as a sign that the letter should be opened first, which he did with trembling hands, not knowing what to anticipate. What the letter read he would never have guessed. It said:

Dear Teddy

If you read this, it means that I never got a chance to talk to you, that I never got to see you grow up. It means that I fell in the battle I'm about to leave for now, but I hope that my sacrifice might have been a help for those on my side, so that not all hope of a better world is lost.

I leave you this book as a small and insufficient compensation for all the talks I had hoped to have with you. I would have loved nothing more than to see you grow up to be the great man I know you'll turn out to be. I hope you have found love, and that you haven't been afraid to embrace it, no matter what. I want to be there to guide you through it, but if I'm not, I hope you'll find others to support you.

This book was written in the time just after I found out that your mother was expecting you. It was very dark times already back then, so I knew that there was going to be a chance that I might not be there for you, for some reason or the other, but I wanted you to know who I was, and what I went through, so I wrote this book, into which I put every detail of my life that I thought you should know, and which no one else could tell you, because no one else knew about.

It is, in short, the story of my life, mostly about my childhood and the loves I've had and lost in my life. It is my hope that you will read it for what it is: my way of conveying to you the things I want you to know about me, good and bad, and that you will not stop reading because you find things about me, that you didn't expect.

I know that you'll be shocked by some things, but I beg you to understand that I just need you to know the truth, the whole truth, even if it can be uncomfortable for you. My last words to you are that I truly did love your mother, even if some things in the following might suggest otherwise. I would never have led a woman on, and definitely not to the point of marriage, without loving her. With these words being my last, I leave to go into a battle, from which I'm not sure I shall return.

Yours forever

Dad

Teddy finished the letter, and found that he had tears coming down his cheek. He rarely cried, but the letter he had just read had restored a hope, which he had long since given up on. He had grown up with stories of his mother, who had told almost everything to her mother, who was then able to tell it on to Teddy. His father on the other hand had been very reserved about his secrets, which meant that no one had been able to tell Teddy more than what was commonly known, which wasn't a lot. It was Harry that had known the most about him, and even he had only known him as a teacher, and so wasn't likely to have been told many secrets.

Teddy had never in his wildest dreams imagined that his father would have foreseen his own death and taken precautions so that his son would have a chance of getting to know him. He felt very touched that his father had gone to so great length for him to read this, but he also remembered that the book was spelled so that no one but he could read what it said.

That thought made him curious, because wouldn't it have been the people, whom he had actually known in life, that should have been able to read it? And why had he put so much emphasis on the fact that he had loved Teddy's mother? That was the one fact that everyone had always been able to tell Teddy, that his parents had really loved each other.

After giving it a bit of thought he decided that he would unpack before he started reading the book, because he wanted to give it full attention, when he read it, which wouldn't be possible as long as he had no other furniture than his bed. It was with a heavy heart, though, that he set to unpacking his things, and with plenty of glances towards the bed, where the book still lay as an open invitation.

A/N: I've decided to re-upload all of the chapters of the story, partly because I've corrected some mistakes, and also to have fewer A/Ns along the way. I still appreciate reviews, so please press the button below, whether it's for a chapter you particularly likes/unlikes or just at the end of the story :) Thanks in advance!