Chapter One: The Beginning

A knock

When there is a knock on the door at one in the morning, it is never good news.

Because nobody knocks on the front door in the middle of the night to tell you that you have been given a raise, or that school has been canceled for the next day. No, people knock on your door in the middle of the night when there is something urgent that needs your attention. Something bad.

This is what Harry Potter woke to in the early hours of the twelfth of September, 2016.

Rap! Rap! Rap!

Harry Potter woke with a start, sitting up quickly in bed. His wife, Ginny, slept soundly beside him, her gentle snores indicating she had not heard anything at all.

As the Head of the Auror Department, Harry hardly ever slept heavily. He could be called upon in a moment's notice, no matter what time of day, and his body had learned to wake quickly during his time in the Auror training program. This was helpful in moments of urgency, but also meant Harry was almost constantly awoken at any sound louder than that of Ginny's snoring. It also didn't help he had three children, the youngest of which was often found out of bed in the middle of the night in search of a midnight snack.

Harry strained his ears, focusing on picking up any irregular noises. When a minute had passed and he heard nothing, he laid back down, convinced he had imagined the sound.

As soon as his head hit the pillow, the knock came again, this time even louder.

Rap! Rap! Rap! Rap!

Harry was out of bed, grabbing his glasses off the bedside table and shoving them onto his nose. Then he fumbled in the dark, grabbing his wand. His quick movements (or perhaps the second knock) had awoken Ginny, who sat up bolt right.

"Whaz tha matter?" She asked sleepily, blinking several times as her eyes came into focus.

Harry was pulling on his bathrobe, tying it around himself. "Someone's at the front door."

He left the bedroom quickly and made for the front of the house, Ginny at his heels. They were both barefoot, and Harry heard Ginny curse as she ran into the corner of the couch in the living room. Her eyes had not yet adjusted to the dark.

Harry gripped his wand tightly in his hand and unlocked the front door, pulling it open.

Standing on his front porch, the warm nighttime breeze rustling through his cloak, was Caleb Stubbings. His wand was in his right hand and his dark hair was a complete mess. His breathing was heavy, as if he had run to Godric's Hollow.

"Stubbings? What are you doing here?" Harry demanded. Caleb Stubbings was the last person he would have ever expected to turn up on his porch in the middle of the night.

And yet, here he was.

Stubbings was one of the youngest Aurors in the Ministry. He had completed his training a few years ago, though how he did it Harry did not know. Caleb Stubbings was an utter mess of an Auror. He was never up on time, placed last in almost all of his training simulations, and the first time he was taken on a case he had contaminated half of the crime scene. Harry recognized the determination Stubbings had when he first appeared at the Ministry and had vouched for his potential, but it was getting increasingly harder as the Head Auror to keep justifying Caleb's slip ups.

"Sorry sir- rush- apparated- wrong street," Caleb managed to get some words out in between gulps of air. "Had to run- can't breath-"

Harry and Ginny exchanged a look. He knew she was thinking the same thing.

He could have just apparated from the wrong street to the right street.

Harry sighed, already exasperated. "Stubbings, why are you waking me up at this hour?"

Caleb took a big breath, clutching a stitch in his side. Then he straightened up. "A kid has gone missing," he explained, voice still shaking as he wheezed. "The parents contacted the Auror department, so the nighttime squad went to check it out. But they just sent a message saying they want you to come in. They said it's urgent. I had to come here to wake you up."

The young Auror placed his hands on his knees, falling silent. Apparently he had finished his message.

But Harry wasn't paying attention to Stubbings anymore. His mind was reeling.

This wasn't the first time a kid had ever gone missing, but Harry had never been awoken in the middle of the night to look at a missing child case. The nighttime squad, usually pretty capable of handling cases on their own, only called for Harry if there really was a problem.

Which meant something was wrong.

Harry tightened his hold on his wand. "Thank you, Stubbings. You can go back to the Ministry."

Caleb nodded, finally standing back up and setting off down the sidewalk. He disapparated a few moments later.

Harry shut the door and hurried back to his bedroom, Ginny not far behind. "Remind me not to leave Stubbings on night duty," he muttered, shaking his head.

"I don't see why he came here. Couldn't they have just owled you?" Ginny asked.

But Harry wasn't listening. He was rushing to change into his robes, almost to the bedroom threshold, when a voice cut through the silent house.

"Who's at the door?"

Harry and Ginny both spun around, clearly still jumpy from their sudden awakening just a few minutes before. They relaxed, however, when they caught sight of their daughter staring down at them.

Eight year old Lily Potter was standing at the top of the stairs, looking concerned and curious at the same time. As Harry looked up at her, he couldn't help but observe the surprising likeness she held to her mother. The older she got the more she grew to look like the young Ginny he remembered from his first trip to Platform Nine and Three-Quarters.

"No one, Lils," said Harry hurriedly, but it was clear she didn't believe him. He was positive worry laced his voice.

The phrase "missing child" clanged around in his skull, pounding into his head as he watched his young daughter stare at him with wide eyes.

Missing child.

Ginny headed up the stairs to Lily, stopping on the step beneath her to sit down. "It was just an owl delivering a letter to your dad," she told her. "He was awfully late, I think he got lost."

Lily looked even more concerned at this. "Where's the owl?"

"He went back home," explained Ginny, standing up. "Now, you need to get back to sleep, missy!" She ruffled Lily's hair and chased her back to her room, laughing as she giggled down the hallway.

Harry smiled slightly as he watched his favorite girls, wanting nothing more in that moment than to run upstairs and chase after them. He longed to forget all about Stubbings' message and read a bedtime story to little Lily Luna Potter.

But he had a case to attend to.

He waited until the tips of Ginny's bright red hair disappeared around the corner, then dashed into his room. It only took him moments to change and when he tore back into the living room, Ginny was waiting for him.

"I'll be back soon," Harry promised her, kissing her on the forehead.

Ginny was frowning. "I don't like this, Harry," she said, and Harry knew the wheels in her head were already spinning.

"Don't try to solve the case. We don't even know what it's about. Just get some sleep, I'll be back before you know it."

Ginny looked as if she wanted to say more, but Harry didn't give her the chance. He gave her one quick smile, then disapparated out of the living room, heading straight for the Ministry of Magic.

...

A note, and a beginning

But this is not a story about Harry Potter (though he certainly will be involved). This is a story about many people but, first and foremost, it is a story about an eighteen year old boy named Teddy Lupin who, at the same moment Harry Potter received a knock on his door, was sleeping soundly in his own bed, completely unaware that his entire world was about to be turned upside down.

Truthfully, we could start the story at any point in Teddy's eighteen years of life. We could begin on April 9th, 1998, the day Teddy Lupin was born (though, that would be a bit extreme), or start on September 1st, 2009, when Teddy first boarded the Hogwarts Express. Maybe it would make sense to begin later on, at the event that occurred in his fourth year (now referred to as "The Incident"), or in June of 2016, when the young Hufflepuff finally graduated from Hogwarts. Or, perhaps we could begin on any of the days between all of the ones listed above, maybe in the middle of a particularly trying Transfiguration lesson.

But, things in Teddy Lupin's life really started to spiral out of control the same day Harry Potter woke to that knock on his front door: September 12th, 2016: the day Teddy was due to begin his time as an Auror in training.

And so, since this is a story about Teddy Lupin, that is where we will begin.

...

A/N: This is the beginning of a story idea I have had for a long time. Thank you so much for reading, likes and reviews are very much appreciated! Chapter two will be much longer and will come at you soon!