Remus was awoken to an unusual and slight disturbing clatter coming from the hallway. It was an unnerving noise, considering his wife, who had had a difficult time this week with her sleeping, was in a sound, dreamless trance. He quickly grabbed his wand from his bedside table, flicking the covers off of him.

"Lumos." He said in a low, hoarse voice, a bright blue light flooding the room. He was almost worried that his wife was still so sound asleep, except that he could see the rising and falling of her chest. He walked slowly at first down the hallway, until he realized the rattling noise was coming from his son's room. He slid around the corner, wand drawn when saw the culprit of the disturbance. Remus let out a sigh and lowered his wand.

Teddy was standing up in his crib, holding on tightly to the wooden bars and shaking, causing the scene. He looked up at his father with a smile, bouncing up and down on the mattress. Currently, he had taken on an almost sickly yellow-green colour hair.

"Daddy!" Teddy exclaimed, making grabby hands to him. Remus had to set up protective charms around the crib to keep him from escaping, but if this was the price he had to pay for it, he was certainly not amused.

According to his watch, it was almost five-thirty, meaning Tonks would have to get up for work soon anyways, subsequently dragging her husband out of bed with her. Remus turned on the lights, blinking his eyes fully awake and walking over to the child. "Good morning, Teddy." He yawned, smoothing out his son's hair.

"Up! Up!" The boy said in a loud voice, smiling from ear to ear.

Remus chuckled, scooping up the boy in his arms with exaggerated effort, which Teddy seemingly found funny, and half cradling him in his arms. "Why are you up so early, huh?" He asked. "Why are you up so early?"

Teddy laughed, his hair turning its happy blue colour. Tonks was still asleep by the time Remus got Teddy dressed in his clothes, even with the toddler's adamant approach to helping put on his socks.

"What'd'ya say we got wake up the Mum, huh?" Remus smiled.

"Mummy's asleep!" Teddy said in a harsh attempt at a whisper as his father set him down on the bed. He hastily crawled over to his mother leaning over her. "Mummy! Muuuummmmyy!" He whined, shoving her shoulder.

"Hmm?" Tonks groaned, burying her head under the pillow. "Remus...?"

"Take another try, Sweetheart." Remus smiled.

"Hmm?" She pulled her head out from under the pillow, seeing her son and smiling. "Teddy! Why are you up already?"

"Someone couldn't sleep, I suppose." Remus explained as he got dressed.

"Oh, c'mon kid, that's an adult problem. You don't even have anything to worry about!" She said playfully, rolling onto her back. "No you dont!"

"Yes!" Teddy declared, mimicking her.

"Only all of the important problems like keeping up with Howard." Tonks said, picking up the elephant that her son had brought with him and setting it on her chest. "Did you bring him here all the way for me?"

"No!" Teddy whined, playfully

"No?" She said, looking over the toy. "But I like Howard!"

"No!" Teddy replied again in his spirited giggle.

Tonks sighed dramatically, reaching out the elephant to give to her son. "Well I guess I better give him back then..." Teddy tried to take it from her, but she jokingly yanked it back a couple of times before he could grab it. She kissed the top of his head before climbing out from under the covers and onto her feet, helping Teddy down onto the floor. Almost immediately, he scampered off into another room to play. "He'll take a good nap though, won't he?"

Remus laughed nervously. "That's a bit of a gamble. Guess we'll have to wait and see..."

Tonks kissed her husband quickly. "I'm going to go shower. Don't wait up on me." She chuckled. "Seems Teddy's already going on with or without you."

"Isn't he always?" He sighed.

In the time it took for her to get ready for the day, Teddy was already exploring the furniture with his trusted sippy cup practically glued to him. Remus, as vigilant and careful as he was with everything, almost burned the scrambled eggs he was cooking while trying to keep him from leaning the hard way what happens while spinning in circles on a stomach full of milk. It was too early for this.

"I'm heading out early so I can clock out early, alright? I'll get to be here for dinner." Tonks said happily, putting on her coat to leave.

"Teddy, no-" Remus hurriedly pried the mischievous child from climbing on the table. "No problem. Teddy-"

She wondered over to the kitchen table, drawing the child away from him climbing. "Hey, Little Man, try not to give Dad a hard time, will you? Be good." Tonks kissed his head, pecking her husband on the cheek. "I'll see you two later, alright?"

"See you tonight, love." Remus nodded, watching her leave. "No, see, you have to sit here and not climb on things, understand?"

Teddy was always a messy eater, but given a bib, towel, or simply a cleaning charm, was quite the mealtime entertainment... or handful given his mood.

"No, that's yours." Remus explained, pointing the the sliced pieces of banana on the child's plate in an attempt to deter him from his own. "You have plenty of your own. Finish those first."

The child went wide-eyed in excitement at the sudden change from "but I want those" to "look! it's what he has!", beginning to shove banana slices in his mouth.

"Not that many, you'll choke. Slow down! Remus warned.

Teddy, in all his energy, refused to slow down through the day. Come afternoon, his father even let him go outside to play in the snow. Despite neither of them owning muggle cars, the side walk outside of the house needed to be shoveled and Remus couldn't just wave his wand and make all of the snow disappear. Instead, he decided to do it himself the hard way, though Teddy did catch on and try to help manually move the snow, though it was hardly helpful as Remus was still constantly watching over him, and more so since he attempted to take off his gloves while lifting snow.

Naptime (for the both of them) came with many tears and belligerent cries, but was painlessly over with and Teddy was back up on his feet again. He did, however, sit still for a while when his father read to him his (current) favourite book which had brightly coloured depictions of animals that Teddy could now proudly demonstrate both the names and sounds of. He also enjoyed "helping" his father make dinner by standing on a chair and watching him stillfully. Remus tried to use as little magic as he could, knowing that one day his son could very well find himself in the situation of making friends with muggles or having to do things the muggle way way. Even if his son couldn't grasp the concept of magic and muggle, he would know of the existence of magic either way, so teaching him the muggle way seemed pointless, yet it gave Remus a sense of purpose to teach his son something.

Unsurprisingly, Tonks didn't make it home in time for dinner as she had planned. Teddy didn't understand it, but Remus just sort of sighed to himself and went along with his evening. One day, he would explain to him that his mum was out protecting them, and so many others, even if it just was one spreadsheet or file at a time. Bedtime was always easier than naptime because Teddy had become a sleepy tired, rather than a cranky one. Remus couldn't but smile and be proud of his son as he watched him try and dress himself, as well as brush his teeth. The child's happy-go-lucky nature, matched with the ever-changing hair was comforting to him as he saw his wife in everything the child did.

He tried not to worry once he got the child to bed. His wife would walk in any minute, berating him with apologies and tired looks, perhaps a new cut on her face that she would morph away the scar to as soon as it healed and never speak of again. Remus considered staying up for her and reading or finding some odd job or chore, like the broken cabinet hinge he had been so determined on fixing for months now, but decided on going straight to bed instead.

Unfortunately, he had quickly made a mistake in assuming his wife had spent the evening at the office.