A/N:Oh my god,I've been away from updating my for course I still read and all but I've been terribly busy with all the fests going on this year. :D!Which means, yes,I've written another fic this time,but this is basically Sirius/Teddy with some past Sirius/Remus. :)!I do hope you guys like it. This was written for this year's hp-rarepairfest on livejournal.
Title:A dog's home(is where its heart is)
Prompt:Teddy is a werewolf and Sirius takes care of him the same way he did for Remus all those years ago.
Summary:Moving on is hard but it isn't necessarily a bad thing. It only takes a Lupin and nineteen years for Sirius to realise this. A detailed account of letting go of one love for another, of finding his home in the arms of a different Lupin again.
Pairing: Sirius/Teddy, past Sirius/Remus, some OMC/Teddy.
Rating:NC-17
Notes:This fic is actually pretty long,about 32k words so I divided it into 5 parts for easier reading. :) Beta-read by digthewriter.
Chapter 1
Teddy's skin at the nape of his neck is smooth under Sirius's fingers. Soft, unlike some of the rougher patches, results of Quidditch and transformations. Sirius can't help rubbing the pad of his thumb slowly as Teddy leans into the touch in his sleep.
The quiet of the morning is nothing new but having a warm body, a willing one and somebody he so obviously cares about ends up shrouding Sirius in a blanket of melancholy. He's been alive and close to dead too many times to know that this blissful state is only the calm before the storm, if he wants to put it in words like Remus used to. He tangles his hand in Teddy's brown hair to stop himself from clinging to the boy.
He misses Remus.
"—don't understand it but it's a good thing right?"
"Look, I know you're worried, but he hasn't shown any signs of violence as of yet, has he?"
"I did everything I could; the hospital also cleared him as completely normal. No problems at all."
"Could you not talk about it like that, Hermione? Or should I be worried about you calling him 'abnormal' if he turned to a wolf tomorrow night." Teddy pauses in passing the kitchen, nibbling on the head of a mushroom; Auntie Hermione says that he is 'obsessed' with those little things. What did she expect? Mushrooms are wonderful! The door is closed but he stops as he hears an unfamiliar voice.
"No, of course—"
"Okay, no need to get your knickers in a twist!"
Teddy smiles as he hears Uncle Ron's loud voice and makes sure to knock on the door to the kitchen; he does know not to forget his manners or Granny will be so mad. There is a pause after which the door opens and Uncle Harry appears.
"Teddy?" He asks and then smiles at the five-year old like he is the most precious child ever, motioning him to enter. There isn't any need for it though, the aroma of baked goods wafts right into his nose and coaxes Teddy forward to look at the table where he find an unknown man sitting beside Uncle Ron. He looks like somebody who Uncle Ron watches on TV shouting and singing sometimes. And he is staring at Teddy unblinkingly.
"Oh! Teddy, darling." He turns to Auntie Hermione who is standing beside the table, "did you just come back from school?" Teddy nods, suddenly feeling strange as the unknown man continues staring at him.
"Everything great?" Harry asks and Teddy smiles knowing what is coming, "Did you try not to get into any trouble?"
"I did," he replies as he shrugs off his school bag and places it on one of the chairs around the dining table before looking up at his godfather. "But Benny stole our lunchbox." 'Our' meaning Teddy, Tony and Thomas. Auntie Hermione has her arms crossed.
"I—it's not like I did it," Teddy exclaims and then grins sheepishly, "I mean, I did but it was kind of an accident." He hears his godfather sigh as he sits down beside him.
"And, what is 'kind of an accident'?" Harry asks anyway and Teddy smiled toothily as he remembers the expression of Benny's disgust as he opened lunch boxes after lunch boxes only to find mushroom sandwiches, noodles with mushrooms, muffins topped with mushrooms, mushrooms, mushrooms dipped in chocolate sauce. He giggles as he recounts it to them.
"Teddy." Hermione immediately says exasperatedly, "you know you're not supposed to do magic—"
"In front of Muggles, yeah yeah. He knows," Ron interrupts before turning to wink at Teddy, "It is all an accident." Auntie Hermione glares at Uncle Ron; he will surely be in so much trouble. The strange man chuckles.
"So you're the Teddy everyone's been talking about?" he finally asks and Teddy has to look at him apprehensively even if he is smiling; there is something about him. "It's finally great to see you in person." Teddy nods but looks away shyly. People did not talk to him like that.
"That was seriously a neat bit of accidental magic there," the man tells him and Teddy blushes at the praise. It had been accidental magic but Auntie Hermione had also stopped Uncle Harry from buying mushrooms for two whole weeks!
"Thank you," he replies earnestly and his hair turns to a shade of pink and then brown and to pink again. The man's eyes widen and Teddy wishes he could burrow a hole under the table and disappear; he had forgotten how new people reacted to his 'meta—meta—phor?—gagus'.
"You're welcome, Teddy," the man says and then leans forward as he holds out his hand with a brilliant smile that transforms his face, "Sirius Black. But you can call me Padfoot, if you like." Teddy's eyes go round as he holds out his hand with a squeak.
"You're daddy's friend! The dog-man!" The answering bark of laughter rings out among everybody else's and Teddy is really quite happy that he is not the only strange boy.
It turns out that Padfoot can be quite a troublemaker even at his age. Teddy doesn't wish to see his grandmother's angry face again in his life; she had been furious when she found out that Padfoot had taken him for a motorcycle ride.
It didn't help when Teddy had interrupted saying that they had both had helmets on.
No more rides for him but still, Padfoot is actually very cool even when he is just talking. It is a pain to have to look up at his face but he always has such open expressions and the best stories to tell about daddy that Teddy bears the cricks in his neck without much complaints.
The only time Teddy does not want to go out with Sirius is on Saturdays; he wants to go to Uncle Harry's house for the Power Rangers back-to-back reruns. Gramma always sighs before leaving him with young James in front of the telly.
He knows about his mum from his grandmother but she sometimes cries afterwards so he has stopped asking her often. But Daddy, daddy had been such a naughty young boy in school! The things he had done.
"You're shaping up to be just like your dad, Teddy," Sirius tells him with a wonderful smile as they sit one fine Saturday on Uncle Harry's blue sofa. Teddy thinks it is really the best compliment he has ever had after the one time when his teacher had admired his drawing of a dragon and hung it on the bulletin board below the 'Artist of the month'.
The first time Teddy visits his father's grave, he is five and holds Harry's hand tightly as his palms dampen. They visit in July but the heat does not penetrate Teddy's body at all.
He saw his mother's grave with Gramma in the morning. It's a pretty grave, covered in flowers. His mother had been pretty too.
But Daddy's grave is not like hers. It's lonely and barren. When he stands in front of it, the hopelessness and gloom settle down heavily on his little heart finally as he realises that this is where his parents are. He will never see them.
And then he is crying in his hand in heart wrenching sobs because he will never get to call anybody 'mum' or 'daddy' because they are gone. Uncle Harry wraps his arms around his heaving shoulders and Teddy clings to him as he empties his heart and tires his eyes out.
"Do you know who that is beside your dad, Teddy?" Uncle Harry asks as they sit in front of the graves, Teddy in Harry's lap. Teddy doesn't so he sniffles and says 'no'.
Uncle Harry smiles sadly.
"That's my dad. And that's my mum beside him, Teddy. They were best friends." Teddy stops and pulls back to see tears in uncle Harry's eyes but he doesn't cry like Teddy. Like a baby.
Uncle Harry conjures a few flowers and hands them to Teddy, instructing him to place it on his daddy's grave. Teddy does as he is told but then looks at the graves beside and places a flower on each of them.
They leave, walking hand in hand but Teddy turns his head to glimpse at his father's grave once again.
It doesn't look so sad anymore.
Sirius finds it easier to invest his time and abundance of money into something as mundane as business transactions although setting up his own antique shop is actually not mundane in any way.
It had been Ron's words, a careless comment about how all the 'useless bits of nonsense' would sell for thousands and if he was in Sirius's place…
But Sirius had stopped listening as the idea had taken hold and he had found himself working on any residual dark magic before he could rid himself of all the things he did not honestly need; what is he supposed to do with all the pronged cutlery anyway?
He does not find much time to think of anybody and since everybody is busy with their own lives anyway, it hardly matters. When the pang of loneliness stabs, he forces them away to concentrate on the business mail.
On an evening like today's however, Sirius sits and broods in his newly furnished house that is too big even for his preference after being locked in Azkaban for twelve years.
Going back to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place is always emotionally exhausting; especially now more than ever since every part of the house has been acquainted with Remus in his memories.
His godson has never looked so happy; he looks positively radiant, twirling the red-headed woman of his dreams around in dance moves with a natural grace, some thanks to Sirius's teaching. A Beetles song starts playing.
With the wine muddling his head it is almost too easy to blink and have them turn to James and Lily, glowing in their happiness. It makes the person at the corner of the room look like Alice Longbottom laughing at Peter's jokes when he had been a friend and the hand on his arm from the man beside him like Remus's. He shakes his head to clear it because the more he indulges the more maudlin everything becomes.
"Hello there, Charlie." The younger man loosens his bowtie with a glance around the room for his mother before grinning at Sirius.
"It's a happy occasion, Sirius. Try looking a little less miserable for Harry's sake." He sips his wine roughly as he passes an appreciative glance towards a woman passing by. "I'd heard you used to be the life of the party once." That was ionce/i. Sirius is about to make a scathing remark when a blur of white comes knocking against his knees and he almost tips his glass.
"Padfoot!" It takes Sirius a few moments to realise that the small figure clutching his knees is Teddy, his long fringe is blonde and has been slicked back, and he has gotten slightly chubby again; it seems that Harry has been sneaking him mushrooms again.
"Hello, Teddy. Missed me, did you, kid?" He sounds teasing and honestly does not expect the affirmative reply from Teddy.
"Tori tore my bowtie!" Teddy complains tearfully to Sirius right away as he turns his head back to glare at the blonde girl who is growing tall quite fast. Charlie chuckles beside him before bending to talk to him.
"Well, bear, that makes you one lucky thing, doesn't it? Bowties are for girls," he adds in a conspiratorial whisper and Teddy thinks on it but throws a dark look at Victoire when she arrives, looking haughty.
"It was a mistake, Teddy. We were playing," she tells Sirius and Charlie both. Teddy still looks saddened and Sirius wonders if the boy actually likes being all smartened up, he certainly hadn't at that age. Still, nobody had a right to make Remus's son feel this way so he directs all his attention towards her.
"Victoire, how would you feel if Teddy 'accidentally' tore your hairband or this—" he motions to the delicate frill of her dress, "—hmm?" Victoire's expression changes and she begins looking slightly sorry. Not good enough. "I'm talking to you, Victoire."
"I—I wouldn't like it," she replies and chews the inside of her cheeks before turning to Teddy, "Teddy, I'm sorry." She holds out the torn purple cloth and Teddy takes it forlornly.
"'S okay," he says even though it is not and Sirius whips his wand out. Within a second the bowtie is perfect and both the children stare at it in amazement before their faces break into large smiles and Teddy throws himself at Sirius's legs again.
"Thanks, Padfoot," he says with bright eyes before tugging Victoire by the hand and towards the play-area outside.
"And this is the proof that Fudge has been wrong about you being the mass-murderer all along," Charlie says teasingly and Sirius scowls even as he blushes.
"Well, what are you waiting for? I'm sure you're positively dying to let that dragon of yours out tonight?" Charlie laughs at that and waggles his eyebrows as they make their way to the dance floor.
"Are you offering? I'm sure you're great in bed but I like my women as they are-without a—" he makes a motion with his hand that has Sirius snorting before they part and he steals Ginny away from Harry.
Sirius finds it surreal even as he is holding that little bundle, being what is the closest thing to a grandfather to it-ihim/i-along with Arthur. The weight of the baby has him remembering Harry as a bundle wrapped in white as if it was yesterday and now here he is, holding Harry's son.
Everyone in the family tries to come and see the new addition to the family and Sirius feels suddenly withdrawn as the Weasleys surround the three Potters, he feels like somebody on the outside looking in.
He is standing behind the rest of the family, leafing through a maternal magazine that has him going green when the gaggle of young children falls through the door and Teddy and Victoire race to reach the new baby.
Everything is going fine and the buzz of conversation as Sirius gets included in it; until Teddy asks to hold little James Sirius.
"I have a new brother," he says with a smile that blinds the room, wonder colouring his voice as he is carefully allowed to cradle the baby boy and he kisses one pink little cheek, "he is so small." He looks up at Harry as if to confirm it and the man affirms it before taking his new born son in his own hand.
"But Teddy, he is not your brother," Victoire pipes up from behind him. Her tone is not malicious at all, just a child voicing out the truth without understanding its consequence but the adults still the moment the words are out and in the next second there are tears leaking from Teddy's wide eyes as he stares silently at Victoire.
Sirius steps forward but Teddy springs up from the bed and makes a mad dash for the door. By the time the rest of the children notice anything amiss and Molly calls for him, he is already out and Sirius has an unusual urge to teach the prissy, little Veela a lesson in manners. Instead he nods to Harry who looks distressed and goes after the boy.
Sirius manages to make Teddy stop with tight hugs and whispering reassurances which the boy does not seem to buy. When they return to the ward later on, Sirius finds everybody minus Arthur, Ron and Hermione talking or moving around amiably. He looks around to find the little Veela in a corner; eyes rimmed red and quiet for a change with what looks like a light red mark on her cheek.
Teddy spends the rest of the time sitting quietly by his side and when he is called to hold James Sirius before leaving, he pats his head lightly without his previous enthusiasm and Sirius can't help thinking viciously that Victoire deserved everything she got. Then he reminds himself that she too is just a child but the bitterness does not leave.
Growing up, Teddy is not allowed to feel alone since there are always people to meet on weekends, but there is a kind of loneliness somewhere lurking in his life. Uncle Harry is a busy Auror and everybody else has something or the other to do.
He also asks about Padfoot sometimes but Aunt Ginny tells him that Uncle Sirius needs his own time and he is a bit of a busy man nowadays. Teddy finds his mouth turning down whenever Padfoot fails to show up to the family dinners. By the eighth time, he realises that Padfoot really doesn't miss him as much as he obviously does and pushes back tears like a big boy.
Teddy used to love going to school but since Thomas has transferred to a Muggle Public school it's just not the same; he finds himself feeling quite like an oddity.
It starts gnawing at the edges of his mind when he is able to perform more of the complicated changes of his body. It's alright at the beginning but when Dominique wrinkles her nose at his pig-snout one family dinner, he realises that maybe not everybody is entertained by his antics after all.
He can't wait to leave for Hogwarts; he does not have to worry anymore since everybody there is magical.
When Teddy is in second year, Andromeda receives letters in which Teddy mentions a new friend, Charles Vane and almost all of the adults release a deep breath as Teddy is finally finding it easy to make friends. Harry grins at the mention of Teddy receiving detention in letter in which he sounds slightly scared.
When Teddy is in the middle of his second year, everybody in the family is shocked as Andromeda receives letters from Hogwarts about Teddy's violent outburst and behaviour.
Harry runs a hand through his hair in frustration as he paces the second time a letter arrives with news that Teddy has beaten up Connor Zabini to the point that the Slytherin's parents are demanding Teddy's expulsion.
"What has gotten into ze boy? Teddy was never like zis before," Fleur comments about it fiercely as if it isn't Teddy's fault for being violent.
"D' you think that maybe—" Ron starts but shuts up immediately with a look from his wife but Harry, Sirius and Bill look at him intensely.
"—that maybe the wolf doesn't want to remain dormant anymore?" Sirius completes what Harry has been thinking. Bill looks at him sharply.
"Are you absolutely certain about that, Sirius?" he asks and Sirius nods, his face hard.
"James and I researched a lot about werewolves back in school and this isn't looking too good." Molly interrupts their dejected line of thinking.
"He is a young boy, almost a teenager," she explains in a fashion only women who know they are right can, "it's only natural that he would go through some changes, his body is—"
"Mum," Bill speaks up out of line, "don't sugar-coat it. I know you're unwilling to admit the possibility of Teddy being a werewolf but if there is even the slightest chance, I think we better be careful." He looks around to see similar thoughts reflected on all their faces except Molly's.
"We could also be wrong about this," she says but Harry has had a lifetime of bad occurrences to know that…
"We'll talk to McGonagall about this." That's all he has to say at the moment because the idea of his godson being a werewolf is not a welcome one; he remembers all too clearly what Remus had faced back in the days.
A/N:Don't hesitate to point out mistakes and such,I always like keeping my fics perfect! Hehe!And reviews are greatly appreciated.