Disclaimer: See first chapter.

A/N: It's been a long time, hasn't it? Sorry about that. Thanks so much for sticking with me during my rather long break.

21: War and Peace

1998

"The Ministry wants to decorate you."

Lupin nods without meeting Kingsley's eyes. "I don't want anything from you."

The newly appointed Minister sets down his glass on the countertop. "You're a war hero, Remus."

"So I'm told." He nods towards Kingsley's empty glass. "Would you like another?"

"No. No, better not. This is, after all, an official visit."

"It'll be five o'clock in ten minutes. Perhaps then it can be a social call."

Kingsley smiles grimly. "What you did for your country shouldn't go unnoticed."

"I did nothing for my country and no more, I assure you, for the Ministry. Please do not labour under misapprehension. I assume you're referring to the business back in May?"

"The battle, yes."

"Then rest assured, you need not thank me."

"Remus, you're being awfully difficult about this. I understand, really I do, that this can't be easy. But being stubborn isn't going to change anything."

Lupin leans against the kitchen table, his weight resting on his hands, splayed out behind him. "Why does it so upset you that I won't accept it?"

Kingsley stares across the room in disbelief. "Am I a suspicious-looking character?"

"I've a suspicious nature. Indulge me."

"On a personal level, I want to see you decorated. I want to see your contribution acknowledged. I want…"

Lupin raises an eyebrow. "Go on."

"I want a Werewolf Rights law."

"And I'm to be your poster child?"

Kingsley's smile is almost a smirk. "Well, yes."

"I did what I had to do. For my friends. For my wife. For my son." Lupin runs a hand through his hair. It's been allowed to grow half an inch too long and he clutches it at the tips. "And as such, I cannot accept your gratitude."

"Sleep on it."

Lupin nods, begrudgingly. "I appreciate what you're trying to do, but my answer remains the same. I won't be dragged through The Prophet again."

"Just..." Kingsley's voice is a deep and low rumble. "Just think on it."

"The things that were written about me are not hugely complimentary, Kingsley. And they're not a distant memory. They are archived and Edward may find them if he so chooses. He can find the vitriol and the demands for my resignation, the accusations of aiding and abetting."

"Which were retracted."

"Without apology."

"If I can get you an apology –"

"I'm afraid the answer will still be no."

It will mean recognition; his name in the paper, his photograph. People will spot him in pubs, in shops, and know who he is, what he is. His son will be mortally embarrassed when he is old enough to hear the whispers, understand snide remarks. A quiet life, one spent teaching his son in the kitchen, will be enough. To be allowed to live in a home he has made with the most beautiful woman to walk God's green earth, with their child, is payment enough for the agony, the losses of war.

"Remus, it's a sodding Order of Merlin."

"And I don't want it. I have spent the last hour and a half repeating myself continuously. I don't want it, Nymphadora. I don't want it."

"But it's First Class!" cries Tonks, too shocked to protest at her husband's use of her first name.

"That's of no consequence."

"Forgive me," says Mrs. Lupin quietly, "but what is it?"

Tonks turns to her, smiling warmly for the first time since she arrived home. "It's sort of like a medal, Emma. A prestigious award and it is an honour to receive it."

"Honour?" Mrs. Lupin spits the word at her son. "They want to honour you? After everything they've done to you?"

"It's for courage, Emma. Very few of them are ever presented. You have to do something really quite…well, special."

Lupin smiles grimly. "And what did I do?"

"You left your home, left me, left Teddy. You might have died."

"People did die! People left their families and they died. I left my family and I was lucky enough to come back to them. What makes me any more deserving?"

Tonks turns on him with a ferocity that, denied the pleasure of seeing her face Bellatrix, he has never before seen. "Because you risked your life for the benefit of a society that has ruined yours. That's why you're fucking deserving – sorry, Em – and they have taken so much from you. So, so much. They wanted to take everything. So let them give you some of it back. Take back your self-respect."

"What do you think?"

Teddy has many of the qualities Lupin appreciates in a friend. He doesn't laugh at his jokes, but he's always willing to listen to them and never complains that he's heard them before. He's patient and quiet. He never contradicts him and he never tries to give advice.

"Your old man's going to have a title. It's not quite Lord. I might have enjoyed Lord. And I could have passed that onto you. Which would have made it an investment."

His son's tiny mouth opens into a perfect pink 'O' and his eyelids flutter, casting spider web shadows on his cheeks.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Teddy. Am I boring you?"

In response, he turns his head in his sleep, facing away from his father.

"Goodnight then." He strokes the boy's cheek with one finger. His hand is bigger than Teddy's head and he is filled with panic every time he thinks of his son's soft skull. "Remus Lupin, Order of Merlin First Class. And I still can't guarantee you'll be proud of me."

2009

Tom collects chocolate frog cards. It's the hobby of dweebs, but Tom is otherwise the leading expert on all things cool and so Teddy thinks he can overlook the small shrine on the windowsill.

"I've got about ten of your dad."

"My dad has a chocolate frog card? I've never got one."

"He's pretty rare."

"But you've got ten?"

"I don't think you understand how many of these things I eat."

"Can I see one? One of my dad?"

"You can have one. Got about ninety-three of Dumbledore. You can have one of him too."

Teddy is alarmed. The last thing he wants is for this to develop into a collection of his own. They will be those boys who collect cards. The others might think up disparaging nicknames. He's only been at Hogwarts a week and when he earns himself a nickname, he wants it to be something spectacular. The sort of name that can be whispered through the halls long after he's left the school.

But nor does he want to offend Tom. Tom, even at eleven, makes girls giggle and stare. He is easily the most attractive person Teddy has ever seen. His skin is the colour of milk chocolate, his eyes more hazel than brown. He's already tall enough to pass for a third-year. Tom is funny and good-looking and, as soon as he's old enough to need one, he's going to be the best wing-man Ted could ask for. There are many reasons to remain in Thomas Collins' good books.

His father has changed very little in the last eleven years. His hair has been cut a good deal shorter. He looks older in his official photograph, greyer, and his deep frown-lines look like wrinkles.

Once bitten, twice shy. Remus Lupin, Order of Merlin First Class, was a spy for the Order of the Phoenix (1979-1981, 1995-1998). He currently heads the Werewolf Liaison Office at the British Ministry of Magic. He enjoys Muggle compositions and will go slightly out of his way to step on some particularly crunchy-looking snow.

"Since when do you have an Order of Merlin?"

Lupin's eyes shoot up from his pile of papers. "You've not been here a day and you're already breaking school rules?" His son, Lupin is beginning to fear, is a dangerous mix between his mother and his unofficial uncle. "And you've the nerve to do so, quite blatantly, in front of your Head of House."

"Since when do you have an Order of Merlin?"

Lupin sighs and gestures for Teddy to take the seat opposite his desk. "I've got to finish my lesson plans for this week, all right? So you can't stay long. Besides, it's nearly midnight and you've got a big day tomorrow."

"Dad!"

"Since just after you were born. They gave it to me after the war had ended."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"It's not the sort of thing you can bring up in natural conversation, Ted. How was your day? Did I tell you I'm a decorated soldier?"

Teddy grins. "It was a surprise, that's all."

"I didn't really want it," Lupin admits. "I accepted it in the hope that it might make you…it might make you less ashamed of me. But then you grew up and you weren't afraid. You still wanted to hold my hand and show me things you'd found in the garden. You were an extraordinary little boy in that you allowed me to be an ordinary father. I didn't need to try to impress you to make you love me."

Overwhelmed, Teddy sits in silence for what feels like an eternity. "I don't really know what to say to that."

"You don't need to say anything. Other than 'I will never wander the halls after curfew again'." Lupin's smile, though absent from his mouth, is evident in his eyes. "Get to bed, you dirty stop-out. You're almost as bad as I was."

He's a teacher, a husband, a father. He's also a war hero. But he can't help but feel that his greatest achievement has just deftly sneaked out of his office.