I am...so sorry. this was 90% written for like this entire time and I just didn't update it. But then I wrote more on it so I'm kind of glad I didn't update it before doing that.

Anyway, moving on!
Please enjoy :)

Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter

Hope spends the first day of preparing the necessary ritual to become a creature of the Wilds being helped by her Uncle Padfoot.

She's shocked, having expected to dislike the Uncle who abandoned his family for a Muggle. Only, the man she's speaking with just seems…impossibly different and she can't understand why he left.

"Can I ask you something, Hope?" Sirius asks her as he stirs the potion.

Hope looks up from where she is practicing her runework to ensure no mistakes are made. "Of course, Uncle Padfoot."

"You and Teddy, you don't seem to get along very well," He begins, looking uncertain.

"Your question?" Hope prompts, unable to hide the slight defensiveness in her voice.

"Did you get along before he moved in with Victoria?"

"Victoire, not Victoria," Hope corrects, knowing Victoire would murder anyone who butchered her name like that.

"Right," Sirius accepts.

Hope sighs, thinking back to six years ago when her brother turned seventeen. "We did. I remember when he told me he was going to leave…" Hope trails off for a moment. "I couldn't have been more shocked," She eventually finishes, looking back down at her runes. "Teddy's quite a closed-off person. Or, well, he was back home. But at Hogwarts, in the Sector of Magic, anywhere without Dad, really, he's a lot more open. He'd keep a lot from me, but I never had to keep anything from him."

"And you do from others?" Sirius questions.

Hope looks up at him, a heavy look in her eye. "Dad worked very closely with the O.G. Wilds leader," Hope begins explaining, "So wh-"

"Wait, O.G.? Is…is that a job title or…?" Sirius asks.

Hope looks at her Uncle and blinks for a minute before a snicker escapes. "Damn you are old," She laughs.

"I am not!" Sirius squawks, "I'm nineteen!"

Hope laughs some more before she looks at him and the humour falls from her face. She gets up and walks over to him. "No, you're right. You're young. So very, very young." Bizarrely, Hope suddenly appears about to cry and Sirius has no idea what's just happened. "Tell me, Uncle. Why are you fighting in this war? You are all but a child."

Sirius looks down at his feet for a moment before looking back up again. "You know what you were saying, about having a choice between peace and freedom?" Hope nods. "That's why."

She watches him for a moment before she nods again. "Dad worked closely with the first leader, the one who founded the Wilds Sector. When the big O.G. died, his daughter, Daciana, took over. Dad's been her confidant and advisor just as he had been her Father. Because of this, he can't have a daughter going around questioning why our world is as it is. So yes, I have had to keep things from others. But while Teddy has never agreed with my thoughts on things, it's not been until he left six years ago that he started telling me to stop talking."

"What do you think changed?" Sirius asks.

Hope frowns, "I think that up until that point he was torn, he wanted Victoire and he couldn't have her. But once he did…well he had no reason to question things anymore."

"And why do you?"

"There is something no one will talk about. Something big and bad and scary that they hide from everyone," Hope tells her Uncle, "People don't hide things they don't consider shameful. If the governments are hiding something from us then it is probably exactly what needs to come to light."

"Why do you think they're hiding something?"

Hope looks down for a moment, putting a hand in her pocket and hesitating. She pulls it out and again and shakes her head, looking up with a sad smile, "That's a long story." She goes back over to her runes, "Why were you asking about Teddy and I anyway?"

"You aren't the only one with a brother who chose a different side to you." Hope looks up in shock. Sirius sighs, "Only I'm the one who left. I didn't want to, you understand, but I couldn't stay there. My family was supporting Voldemort and I can't be apart of that. But my brother…well, I suppose I just still wish he'll fight back and join us."

"I still don't understand why you are fighting the Headmaster."

Sirius looks up in shock, "The Headmaster? I thought Peter was Headmaster? Is Headmaster? …will be Head-oh whatever you get my point."

"No, I mean yes, I mean…" Hope groans, "It's him. I know it is. But it's also Voldemort. I don't understand. It's like it's Uncle Wormy's body but Headmaster Voldemort's mind."

"So Voldemort is teaching Hogwarts?" Sirius asks in horrified shock.

Hope nods her head, "I don't know what beef you have with him, Uncle, but he is a good man."

"No Hope, he can hide in all the sheep skin he likes but he will never be anything other than what he is."

"And what's that?" Hope asks.

Sirius' eyes turn cold.

"A monster."

"Dad?" Teddy asks as xe walks into the living room to see xyr Father sitting and staring morosely out of the window with a drink in his hand.

Remus looks over at his son, "Teddy, hi."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing I…" Remus sighs, looking down at the glass in his hand. "I saw your Grandfather today."

Teddy frowns in confusion while walking over and taking a seat beside xyr Father. "You never talk about him in the future."

Remus nods, not looking surprised. "I didn't have a great relationship with my Dad growing up."

"Why?" Teddy asks. Remus has always gone on about the importance of family so it seems bizarre to Teddy that Remus wasn't close with his. Then again, perhaps that's why he's so big on it.

"I've never told you how I came to be a W-…to be what I am, have I?" Teddy shakes his head, brow creasing at xyr Father tripping over the word Werewolf. Xe knows creatures of the Wilds were looked down upon in Old Times but he hadn't realised that those creatures looked down on themselves as well. "My Father worked for the Ministry. He was involved in a case with a Werewolf, Fenrir Greyback, and he insulted him. See, no one believed him when he said Greyback was a Werewolf. They all thought he was just some homeless Muggle, but your Grandfather knew better. So he said what he believed to be true. Werewolves are soulless and evil, deserving of nothing but death." Remus looks pained as he continues looking at his drink rather than face his son. He clears his throat, "The next full moon Greyback came and bit me as retribution for my Father insulting him."

"…that's heavy," Teddy says, unsure how to deal with this. Remus lets out a humourless chuckle as he nods. "Is that why you don't want Hope to go through with this ritual? Because you think people will see her that way?"

Remus shakes his head. "No. Your sister was right. My problem with this is entirely my own prejudice. When I was a kid I wanted to change the world, to make a system that accepted my kind and treated us as equals, but somewhere along the way…well, I suppose you can only be called a monster so many times before you start believing it in some way yourself."

Teddy takes xyr Father's hand, xe knows from experience that when Remus gets into these moods there's nothing xe can say. Except this isn't xyr Father, burdened by age and haunted by three wars. Maybe he can give this version something the future one lost when xyr mother died. "I don't think you're a monster. Where I come from, no one else does either. You are a person, Dad, and you are worthy of everything the rest of us are." Remus doesn't seem to believe him. Teddy frowns for a second before a sad smile comes over his face. "You weren't there when I was born. Off on some mission while Mum gave birth."

"What?" Remus asks, sounding mildly horrified.

Teddy chuckles and his smile grows, "You weren't around for a lot. I was nine when the war ended and I remember growing up, largely, without you. It wasn't until I found out that my spouse is pregnant and thought to myself 'Thank the Man Who Never Would that the war was over long before my child will be born.' That it hit me. You weren't leaving because the war was more important than me, you were leaving because creating a better life for me, a better world for me, was more important to you than if I was angry with you. Your priority was my safety and my lifespan. I can't ever thank you enough for that, and I can't ever tell future you that I understand now, that I'm not mad anymore. But it doesn't matter because I know that you will always believe what you did worth it because you did it to better my life. That's how I know you aren't a monster Dad. Back in those days before Year 0, there were parents who would've dropped their children, or who wouldn't have cared to protect their family and only wanted to protect themselves. Those people are monsters. Not the selfless man who did everything he could to save our world and continues to work tirelessly to keep it stable."

Remus smiles at Teddy, eyes glistening. "Thank you, Son."

Teddy smiles back and nods. "Anytime."