Flashback

Remus Lupin was sat in the Hogwarts Library, tired and weary and slightly annoyed. He scrubbed his face and squinted at his half-finished essay, his quill lying, abandoned, next to it. He was hopeless at Potions, really; it always took him forever to research and piece together some semblance of an essay, whereas Sirius and James usually finished theirs during the free period before Double Potions on Friday, and managed to get top marks, whereas he usually only managed an 'Exceeds Expectations'. Sirius had offered countless of times to let him copy off his essay, but Remus didn't think that very appropriate. He was a Prefect, after all.

He'd been feeling off all evening, much to his annoyance. Sometimes, the room spun slightly, blurry at the end of his vision, and had shifted in and out of focus when he wasn't concentrating properly. It wasn't the full, so he wasn't sure where it was coming from, but it was extremely annoying.

Suddenly, there was a thrill running over his skin, under his clothes, and he glanced down at the table, surprised. He felt, suddenly, nervous, sick, and then, a bright flash of white blurred his vision, and he felt an unpleasant jerk around his navel, similar to the feeling he got when his Dad Apparated them somewhere.

He felt himself still sitting in the library, but yet he was also standing somewhere else, his eyes barely adjusting to the bright winter light that filled the air. Someone was staring at him, and Remus looked up at him, meeting large grey eyes, and a shock of dark-blond hair that did this thing Remus's father's hair did, sometimes, peaking up in two different directions. He looked about the same way Remus felt.

'What?' he babbled.

The boy stared at him, scrambling to his feet, and muttering something that sounded like 'Dad?'

Relief flooded Remus. This made sense; obviously a Confundus Spell gone wrong. This was a lost student, who had somehow found Remus in the library, and was missing his parents. He looked a bit too old to do that, but that didn't matter; Remus smiled at him warmly, and asked,

'What house are you in? I'll take you back to your common room.'

'I – no,' the boy said, eyes wide. Remus wondered vaguely if he was aware that the colours in them were shifting; they moved from grey, to blue, to a golden brown that matched Remus's. 'I'm not at Hogwarts.'

Remus frowned at him. 'You're not at – what do you mean?'

'I'm home,' the boy said. 'For the Christmas hols. We found your map and James –'

Remus felt a twang of something familiar tug at his stomach.

'James? James Potter?' he asked, and the boy looked up sharply.

'How did you know?'

'No matter,' Remus replied. Oh, he was going to kill Prongs, right after he came back to Hogwarts, having left, apparently. But he hadn't left – not really, because he still felt his book bag resting comfortably against his shin, even though it wasn't anywhere near his feet, here. Wherever here was. 'Could you get him for me, please?'

'He's – er – right there?' the boy said, pointing behind him, and Remus turned round, coming face to face with a boy who was decidedly not James, because he had wide blue eyes and scruffy black Potter hair that stuck up like James's does, at the back.

Remus was getting a headache.

'What happened?' he asked.

'We did it,' Not-James responded, in a voice that sounded exactly like James's, except with a Northern lilt to it.

Remus frowned. 'Did what?'

'We undid the charms on the map,' Not-James said, grinning a familiar, satisfied grin Remus knew all too well.

'The map?' Remus echoed.

'Our map, Moony,' said a voice from his right, and Remus turned his head sharply. Sirius was stood, casually leaning against the wall. He was smiling, looking brilliantly proud of whatever was going on. Remus was both relieved to see him, and very, very annoyed that he involved him in whatever this was. 'Our sprog – or, well, technically, yours and James's – undid the Charms on our map and pulled us out of it.'

'They what?' Remus asked. He glanced between the two boys. Not-James was still grinning, but the first boy was still looking at him as if he might grow an extra head. 'My what? Padfoot, what –'

His stammering was interrupted when there was another bright flash of white light, and James appeared, staggering slightly.

'Jesus fucking Christ,' he said. 'These floorboards are deceptively flat. Oi,' he added, catching sight of the first boy, who was staring at him blankly. 'What are you gawping at?'

'James,' Remus said patiently. James looked over to him and then at Sirius, and grinned.

'Ello!' he greeted in a thick Cockney accent, a habit he'd picked up in first year upon learning that Sirius was from London, and repeated every time they hadn't seen each other for a while. 'What's going on, then?'

'You have intelligent sprog,' Sirius said.

'Naturally, I have good genes,' James replied.

'No, really, Prongs, your grandchild just charmed us out of the map,' said Sirius, gesturing at the Marauders Map, which was lying on a desk next to him.

'What?' said James.

And then he and Sirius do that weird not-talking-but-talking-thing that they always do, just the two of them, exchanging facial expressions that somehow mean things Remus never understands. It bothered him, sometimes.

'So –' James said, hesitantly, and then turned to the boy on the floor. 'You're – related to me?'

Not-James nodded.

'Blimey, that's uncanny, Padfoot, look how he does that thing with his chin that Mum does,' said James, pointing at Not-James.

'Yeah, I know,' said Sirius. 'He's called James Sirius.'

James and Sirius grinned at each other for about seventeen minutes, much to Remus's annoyance, and then Sirius continued, 'And the other one, he's named Teddy.'

'What? After that bloke Andromeda ran off with two years ago?' James responds.

'Yeah! And get this – get this –' Sirius laughed, his eyes twinkling, '- he's a Metamorphmagus.'

'No,' James said, sounding outraged, and then he laughed. He turned to Remus.

'Moony, you dog. You got off with Nymphadora?'

'Nymphadora's two,' Remus said icily, although the boy's switching eye colours made a lot more sense now. 'I didn't get off with her –'

'He's exactly like you,' Not-James said to Teddy, sounding surprised.

The boy named Teddy hadn't said anything yet, still looking bewildered, but he scrambled up. Remus noticed absently that the boy was a bit taller than him, but they had the same scrawny shoulders. Teddy had less freckles than Remus, though, and a healthy glow about him that Remus would never have.

'I think I'd very much like to go home now,' Remus said, his head spinning.

'No!' Teddy said hastily, stumbling over his words, 'You can't – I just – need to – want to – ask you some things.'

Remus stared at him, and saw Teddy's hair shift from blonde to bright red, making him look a bit like – Lily.

'I think the sending back bit is preferred,' Remus said. Teddy didn't even look angry, just sad.

'Just a couple of questions,' Teddy promised, a desperate note in his voice that somehow hurt Remus very, very much. 'That's all I want.'

James slung his arm over Remus's shoulder. ''S all right, Moons. A few questions can't hurt.'

Remus was going to kill him, too.

'Right,' he said, annoyed, waving his hand dismissively. 'Go on, then.'

'What's – what's your favourite food?' Teddy asked.

Not-James, who'd come round to stand next to him, shoulders flush against each other, snorted with laughter. 'Really? That's what you want to know?'

Teddy elbowed him in the stomach. 'Shut up, Jamie. I don't know how to do this.'

'I think you should've started off with "Whose the first girl you snogged?" or something,' said Not-James, who was grinning.

'Shut up,' Teddy said again, but looked at Remus hopefully.

'Er,' said Remus, because this was getting a bit weird. 'I like a lot of things, really. If I'd have to choose, it'd probably be –'

'– shepherd's pie,' James, Sirius and he finished at the same time. Teddy looked between them, a small smile appearing on his face. He opened his mouth to ask his next question.

'Who's the first girl you snogged?' said Not-James. Teddy elbowed him again.

'Er,' said Remus, turning a bit red, and then blurted out, 'Lily Evans.'

'WHAT?' exploded James, next to him, and Remus held his hands up defensively. Sirius was gawping at him.

'She kissed me,' Remus said, hastily, 'it was only for a second.'

'Moony,' James was breathing hard, looking at him like a wounded puppy, 'that's not on.'

Sirius burst out laughing. 'Moony, you suck,' he said, but it didn't sound like he meant it, much.

At that very moment, the door swung open. 'All right, what are you two up to? You were weird at dinner and now there's all this shouting and –'

Harry Potter stopped talking abruptly when he took in the scene before him. Teddy and James had sprung up the moment he entered, and were ineffectively trying to hide James, Sirius, and Remus from sight. Harry drew his wand and motioned for them to step aside. James, Sirius and Remus appeared, bathed in a strange kind of light. They seemed to only be partially there, the edges of their clothing appearing dimmed.

'Out with it,' Harry said darkly. 'What did you do?'

'Dad,' said Not-James weakly. Teddy hadn't spoken at all, but was merely taking in the scene, looking between the three of them. Harry, with Auror-trained precision, noticed that his eldest son was trying to hide something – which he noticed with a jolt was the Marauder's Map – behind his back.

'Stole that from my desk, did you?' Harry asked, shortly, tired all of a sudden.

'Might've,' said his son, innocently.

Harry summoned it out of his hands. His son looked disappointed, but Harry took no note of him, looking at the map as if it might tell him what he needed to know. All it did was tell him, in familiar handwriting, what spells the map was made up of, which all sounded unfamiliar and new. Harry sighed, and looked up at the Marauders, who he hadn't seen since he was seventeen, stepping closer to them.

'I don't really know what you're doing here,' he told them. 'But we need to put you back. You can't stay here.'

'Right,' said Remus, who nodded.

'Prongs,' said Sirius, suddenly. 'Look at his eyes.'

James, who had been fruitlessly trying to locate his wand without wanting to appear to be looking too hard, looked up at Sirius, then looked at the man that was now standing in front of him. It was weird, like looking at himself with a couple of mistakes, and – and –

James nearly started hyperventilating.

'Fucking hell,' he said, very fast, shouldering past Moony and Padfoot and halting in front of Harry, and staring at him, hard.

'Oh no,' groaned Remus, who had cottoned on. Not-James and Teddy were looking between the four of them, surprised looks on their faces.

James wordlessly stared at Sirius, who laughed at the look on his face. 'Looks like you get to shag Evans, after all, Prongs.'

'Fucking hell,' said James again, and it sounded terrified. 'But she hates me?'

'Probably not so much if she's willing to have sex with you,' Sirius said.

'Maybe she hit her head very hard,' suggested Remus.

The man, for the first time, looked amused, his lips quirking into a smile.

'James,' he said, and looked a bit pained at the fact that two voices responded to this question. His son grinned sheepishly. 'Put this back, please.'

'But Dad,' his son pleaded. 'Teddy just wanted to ask a couple of questions, it's harmless, really –'

One look from his father shut him up, and he looked resignedly at Teddy, who'd stopped and was standing still in front of Remus.

'I –' he said, and then said, in an uncharacteristically small voice, 'could I – could you please –'

He didn't appear to know how to fully finish that sentence, and Remus looked at him, bewildered for a moment. He looked so lost. Without thinking about it, really, Remus stepped towards him and grabbed hold of his hand, squeezing softly.

Teddy's shoulders were shaking and he let out a shuddery breath, before catapulting himself into Remus's arms.

Remus stood there for a second, frozen, but eventually, albeit a bit awkwardly, hugged the boy who was going to be – or was – or was maybe pretending to be - his son. Teddy squeezed him, hard, and stepped back.

'All right, then,' said Sirius smoothly, looking at Harry. 'Put us back, now.'

Not-James and Teddy raised their wands, and Remus managed to catch Teddy's desperate, pleading eyes before the light flashed blindingly white and he was in the library, a hazy remembering of bright blue eyes pulling away from his mind, tucking itself neatly into a corner, never to be accessed again.

He blinked at his surroundings, wondering when he'd dozed off, then glanced down at his Potions essay. He groaned. It was going to be a very, very long night.

Back in Harry's study, Teddy Lupin stood, smiling sadly at the place his father had just disappeared from. Harry appeared at his shoulder, squeezing it. James appeared on his right, pressing his shoulder comfortably against Teddy's.

'All right, Ted?' Harry asked.

'Yeah, all right,' Teddy responded.