In Moments of Courage

Sequel to For The Moments I Feel Forgotten. Teddy Lupin had always lived in the shadow of his godfather's legacy. Always feeling outdone by the heroics and the perfection of Harry Potter, he must learn to become heroic himself when the unthinkable happens…

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of Harry Potter.

Prologue: July 31, 2002

"Hello?" came an unfamiliar man's voice from the front hallway. "Anybody still here?"

4-year-old Teddy Lupin let out a distressed cry when his father stopped reading. "Daddy!" he exclaimed, fighting to keep the book open as Remus was in the process of closing it. "It's not done!" He growled angrily when he lost the battle. "It's not done!" he shrieked again.

"Teddy, you know this story by heart," Remus told him gently. "Daddy'll be back in a few minutes to finish it, all right? I just have to talk to Harry before he leaves for another four years without warning."

"No, finish it now…" Teddy wailed, scrambling to regain the last page read when Remus got up. "Daddy! Daddy!"

***

He could hear everybody talking downstairs in the kitchen, and more people kept coming in. So far, he'd seen Ron and Hermione and Ginny and Fred and George and Mr and Mrs Weasley. Even Kingsley and Mad-Eye had come.

He hadn't heard Sirius laugh like that in his whole life. It almost sounded like they having a party or something. What was going on?, Teddy wondered curiously as he edged his way into the kitchen. He bumped into somebody's legs, and he stopped. It was past his bedtime. He wasn't supposed to be up.

"Teddy, sweetheart, back to bed," Grandmum whispered to him. "You know better." She lifted him up and carried Teddy back upstairs to his bedroom. "Go to sleep, baby."

"Noo…" Teddy protested as she tucked him in securely, moved his book aside and turned off the lights. "Grandmum, no…" He fought his way out of the covers. "I don't want to!"

"Stay in bed, Teddy, I mean it," Grandmum warned as she tucked the covers back around him again. Teddy watched her close the door, tears in his eyes. Everybody always made him go back to bed.

"What was going on with him, Mum?" he heard Mummy ask Grandmum as he crept back out and sat down on the steps to watch from there.

"Oh, he was just having another meltdown, Nymphadora, nothing to worry about," Grandmum said.

***

22-year-old Harry Potter finally managed to extricate himself at about 11 PM, when people were starting to disperse and Ginny had managed to reduce her hyperventilation to a regular breathing rate. Slipping out of the kitchen, citing exhaustion, he started to head upstairs, thinking of going to his old bedroom to sleep for a little while, when he noticed the small, forlorn figure sitting on the stairs.

"Oh, hello," he greeted, sitting down next to him. "Have you been spying on me all this time?"

"Who are you?" Teddy asked sullenly, his small fists still tight around the two covers of his book, holding it open.

Harry laughed slightly. "Yeah, I suppose you don't remember me. You were just a little baby last time I was here. I'm Harry." He looked down at the book in Teddy's lap. "Were you just sitting here reading?"

"No," Teddy answered. "I was waiting for Daddy to finish it."

Harry watched him for a while, before he said, "You know what? I was sort of thinking of hiding from everybody for a while. Do you want me to finish it for you? It looks like a good story."

***

"Oh, Merlin," Remus groaned at about midnight as the Grimmauld Place adults were preparing to turn in for the night. "I completely forgot to go back and finish reading Teddy his story."

Sirius laughed shortly. "Nice one, Moony. Pretty sure he's fallen asleep on it."

"I put him back to bed at 9," Andromeda said as she got up. "I'm sure he's asleep by now, Remus, he won't remember it in the morning."

Tonks barely managed to bite back a teasing comment about scatter-brained professors and said instead, "I'll go tuck him back in. I'm sure the blankets are across the room by now. Be up in a minute."

She opened the door to Teddy's room to see him fast asleep, curled up against Harry's side as the young man dozed lightly. Rolling her eyes, she gently disentangled Teddy and nudged Harry's leg. "Hey, Harry, you want a real bed? One meant to hold a full-grown man?"

"Hmm?" Harry yawned, stretching slightly. "Oh, did I fall asleep?"

"Yeah, looks like," Tonks replied with a laugh, as he got up from the bed. She pulled back Teddy's blankets and laid him back down. "Thanks, by the way."

"For what?" Harry asked, still rubbing sleep out of his eyes.

"For finishing the story, it's his favourite. Remus had a professor moment," she said, kissing her son's forehead lightly before she stood up again.

"Oh, s'no problem," Harry said.

***

Life went back to normal for Teddy when Harry left the next day. Soon, he'd barely even remember that his godfather had ever been at Grimmauld Place.

***

Teddy knew something was terribly wrong when he woke up on Christmas morning to the sound of somebody screaming in the sitting room. Yawning as he tumbled out of bed, Teddy opened his door.

It was Ginny screaming. What was going on?

"Teddy, go back to bed," came Sirius' voice behind him. "Go on."

"What if I don't want to go back to bed?" Teddy threw back at him defiantly. "I'm tired of going back to bed!"

"You have more mouth than a Lupin has a right to have," Sirius said with a slight laugh, though Teddy could see he was worried in his eyes. "All right, then. Lead the way."

"What's going on?" Mummy asked with a yawn as she and Daddy came out from their bedroom. "Teddy, sweetie, it's too early. Go back to bed."

"I don't want to go back to bed, I always have to go back to bed!" Teddy protested.

Grandmum appeared at the foot of the stairs just then. "Teddy, go back to bed. Now."

"I don't – " Teddy started to argue again, when Hermione came up the stairs to look at Sirius.

"It's Harry, isn't it?" Sirius asked quietly. "Something's happened."

Hermione nodded. "He's… he's dead, Sirius. He was killed in a battle with the Death-Eaters this morning."

There was a scary sort of silence after Hermione said that. Daddy had grabbed Sirius' arm, saying, "Sit. Sit, Sirius." Sirius had gone whiter than the snow outside, and he almost melted onto the steps, like he couldn't stand on his feet anymore.

"Teddy, come on," Mummy whispered to him, lifting him up into her arms. "Let's put you back to bed. It's too early for little boys to be up."

"I don't want to go back to bed!" Teddy repeated fiercely.

But they made him anyway.