Edward Lupin is ten years old and his grandmother is at the shops. Edward Lupin is bored. He goes to his grandmother's bedroom to look in the big mirror. He screws up his face and his hair changes colour, from green to blue, blue to red, red to silver. Now he was bored again. He concentrated hard on the bottle of perfume on the dresser, determined to make it do something, anything. When it refused, he poked it. When it did nothing, he poked it harder. It did something. It fell off the dresser and smashed on the floor.

"Ooops," he said grinning.

He jumped up on the bed with his shoes on. A silent act of rebellion at being forced to polish them that morning. He bounced and bounced til he was out of breath, then hopped onto the floor. Pleased with his smooth landing, he failed to notice the corner of the rug and crashed into the wardrobe.

"OOoooooow," he whined, rubbing his forehead. He looked around, made sure he was still alone and kicked the wardrobe from where he sat, then rubbed his toe. He folded his arms, and sulked. He thought about going back downstairs before his grandmother came home, she wouldn't be that long, they were meant to be going to see his godfather's new baby today. As he went to stand up, a panel on the front of the wardrobe fell open. Ted looked around again, knowing full well he was probably not meant to see whatever was inside. Certain he was still alone, he reached inside and pulled out a small square biscuit tin. He opened it slowly and gasped at the treasures inside.

There was a small Gringotts key, a school portrait of a smiley Slytherin with purple dreadlocks, a wedding photo, a lock of pink hair wrapped in a hanky, two broken wands and a letter.

He picked up the portrait, mesmerised by the changing shade of purple hair. Ted knew it to be his young mother, about fifteen years old. He knew it was her, Ted had often spent hours looking at the one photograph his grandmother kept above the mantel piece. She grinned ear to ear, but he could see there was a hint of sadness in her grey eyes. He wanted to know why she was sad, but he couldn't ask her. He wanted to hug her, to make it better but he couldn't. He let out a sigh and put the photo back in the tin. At least she was happy in the wedding photo. Happy was actually an understatement, she looked positively radiant while the older man holding her arm looked more smug, gazing at his bride. Teddy smiled too. Next he looked at the letter. There was bright pink wax on the back, sealed with an intertwined 'L' and 'T'. The message on the front read:

For our son

Edward Remus Lupin

to understand when he is ready

It was a letter from his parents, a letter for him and his grandmother had hidden it from him. Ted had never even seen a picture of his father, he'd asked his grandmother but she never had any. He tore at the envelope wanting to know it's secrets, what he needed to hear. He had a right to know. To his frustration, the paper wouldn't tear. He gave up and put it back in the tin, his grandmother must have charmed it shut. Ted didn't think she liked his dad when he was alive, but she never said it. It was the way she spat his name and avoided talking about anything to do with his parents. He had tried asking his godfather once before, he seemed happy to talk about them but was quickly hushed up by Andromeda. He didn't have any photos either, which seemed to upset Harry a great deal. But why hadn't she told him about these things? Why did she stop him talking to the people who knew his parents? He could feel the anger bubbling through him, his hair turned red and the vase on the window sill shattered. He looked back to the tin in front of him, turning to the wands. One was pinkish rosewood, only the handle remained. The other was dull greyish birch wood, it was in two pieces only attached by a silvery strand of hair. His parents wands. The burning anger turned to sorrow as he realised they both must have died holding them. He jumped up as the front door slammed shut. Ted panicked. He stuffed the wand pieces into his pocket before hastily shoving the rest back in its secret compartment. He creeped quietly to his room, hoping she wouldn't notice the smashed objects until later. He hid the wands under his pillow, forced a smile onto his face and hopped down the stairs.