In a wood outside of Yorkshire, a quiet man and his rather boisterous son lived in small brick house which ran by a creek. There were no neighbors, unless you counted the birds and the squirrels, but the two Lupins rather preferred it that way. Somewhat well-known in the wizarding world, the two enjoyed their peaceful life of solitude in the woods.

Teddy and Remus Lupin had lived alone with their owl, Bubblegum, ever since the end of the war. With his wife passed, Remus felt like he was trespassing in his mother-in-law's home. The two had never gotten along, and Dora was the glue which had kept them together. With no glue, things slowly fell apart. Every night of the full moon, up until Teddy was around five, Andromeda Tonks would come and visit and watch her little grandson. It soon became clear, however, that the little boy exhibited some mild symptoms of lycanthropy—pains, temper tantrums, and feverish shaking that Andromeda could not bear to watch. After that, the two Lupins took care of themselves, more or less.

There was, of course, their rather large extended family in Britain. Remus' father lived in France, and while they spent about two weeks with him every summer, it wasn't the same as having people close by, especially since Remus refused to apparate with a child. Teddy grew up with no shortage of mother figures, from Molly Weasley to Ginny, Hermione, Fleur, and just about anyone else. He was a universally adored and jolly boy—save for a few moonlit nights a month. His godfather, Harry Potter, was excellent with Teddy and watched him whenever Remus could not. The boy had plenty of 'cousins' and always somewhere to spend the holidays. It was, in short, nearly everything Remus had wanted for his son. The only thing missing was Dora.

She hadn't supposed to have been there, but she took a curse meant for Remus as he took one meant for her—only there is a difference between Avada Kedavra and the Cruciatus Curse. Remus survived to live another day, while his young wife and mother to his month-old son did not. The werewolf hadn't set food in Hogwarts since, unable to bear the pain of losing the love of his life. He had lost many people before: his mother, his best friends, most of his blood-related family, but this one had hurt more than all of the rest combined. Teddy, of course, missed the idea of having a mother, but he didn't miss Tonks herself: he hadn't ever known her.

For eleven years, the two Lupins had a fairly routine life. Mornings were for homeschooling and housework, afternoons were for Remus to go to work (ridding houses of Boggarts and such) while Teddy floo'd to the Potters or Weasleys if he wanted to, and evenings were dinner, games, and bedtime stories. Remus adored his life, and as happy as he was for his clearly magical, Metamorphmagus son to receive his Hogwarts Letter, it was bittersweet. Teddy was all he had, really: when his son left, there would be no one else in the house—not even the owl would be there full-time anymore. Remus hid his feelings best as he could, singing nothing but praises to Teddy about Hogwarts—a place he hadn't been to since that fateful night of the great battle. The werewolf was certain that his son had no idea the fear of loneliness his father faced.

Remus was, of course, wrong. Teddy was an incredibly perceptive young boy, witty and troublesome to boot. He would cause his poor father a great deal of trouble time and time again, but for every act of nonsense, Teddy seemed to be able to come up with five instances of kindness, intuition, and knowing exactly what to do or say at the exact right time. Remus knew he was biased, but he thought his son to be an incredible young boy. Most people agreed.

It was hardly unnoticeable to Teddy, therefore, that his father seemed a bit more forlorn than usual. He would sulk sometimes while he cleaned the house, making off-handed remarks about doing it all himself when Teddy was gone that came out more bitterly than the werewolf had intended. Teddy picked up on everything and concluded to himself that he would not go to Hogwarts unless his father was coming with him. One early May day, while Remus read the paper at the kitchen table, Teddy noticed a particular headline:

HOGWARTS LOSES FOURTH DEFENSE TEACHER IN FIVE YEARS

Teddy knew his father had held the position once. And, Teddy reasoned, if he did it once he would do it again. He vaguely broached the subject with his father who turned him down instantly:

"I am hardly the kind of professor Minerva needs right now."

Teddy had rolled his eyes—McGonagall loved the Lupin boys. The boy knew that the only reason his father wasn't the current professor of Defense was because he had turned the position down at least seven times since graduating from Hogwarts. The only time he had ever accepted was when he submitted a resumé himself—The Headmistress simply knew better than to ask.

It was then that Teddy began to formulate a plan. While his father had been asleep, Teddy snuck into the man's office and rifled through his things. He was looking for letters—anything Remus had written to anyone—and especially letters he had written to Hogwarts in the past. After a few nights, Teddy had managed to trace nearly every word he thought would be relevant to a letter inquiring after the position of professor of Defense. The next step in his grand plan was to conduct some research: first, on what sorts of things a professor of Defense taught, and second, what sorts of things Remus Lupin would need to bring to live at Hogwarts for one full term. The second task was relatively simple: Teddy knew the man better than anyone and he was such a creature of habit that his son even which kind of flossing string he liked to use—a muggle invention he deemed 'absolutely essential.' The first, however, would prove to be challenging. Teddy would have to find out exactly what books each year of students needed and what his father would need to adequately teach year-appropriate concepts to students. His father had, of course, done this all before, but that had been nearly twenty years ago—the man might need a refresher.

Teddy began his research at the new Burrow, where he had assumed there would be plenty of textbooks lying around from the (what felt like) dozens of Weasley children and their spouses who had spent time living there while going to Hogwarts. There were a few—he jotted down their names and contents. Some of the books were particularly rudimentary and merely went over spell names and purposes. Others had loads of information on anything from Dark Creatures to the details of a Patronus charm. Clearly some of these books were better than others.

Once Teddy had figured out which books could correspond to which years, he began to draft his letter to Headmistress Minerva McGonagall. He used the traced words from his father's own writings and sent the family owl out, awaiting a response. In the meantime, Teddy waited and spent his summer as normally as he could, albeit with a few other errands he needed to run.

On August eleventh, Teddy began packing the trunks in the den downstairs. One was his, full of toys and prank items he had gotten from George Weasley. The other was full of Remus Lupin essentials: chamomile tea, woolen socks, formal robes and plenty, plenty of cardigans he had nicked from his father's closet. Bugglegum the owl had returned with two letters for the Lupin family that afternoon while Remus had been away: one was a list of books for Teddy to buy (containing the very Defense text he had prescribed), the other a letter of acceptance for his father. Teddy had read the letter and resealed it as carefully as he could before leaving it at his father's place at the table.

CRACK!

That would be dad, Teddy thought to himself. Sure enough, Remus had apparated home from a hard day's work cleaning the James family's attic of boggarts.

"Teddy!" he called out. "Are you home, son?"

The small, sandy-haired boy smiled. "In here!" He called out, quickly closing his father's trunk. Remus, grey-haired and a bit worse for wear strolled into the den, eyes wide.

"Merlin, Teddy—you can only bring one trunk, you know."

"I am!" The young boy beamed. "The other isn't for me," he insisted, taking a seat on the closed trunk. "You want to guess who it's for?"

Remus chuckled as he stood in the doorway between the kitchen and den. "Let me guess…is it Bubblegum?" The boy shook his head. Remus furrowed his brows. He didn't know who else Teddy would be bringing to Hogwarts.

"Have you checked the mail, Dad?" Teddy grinned, unable to keep his excitement. Remus looked at his son cautiously.

"No…why?"

The smaller Lupin snickered. "I think you might want to. There's something there—addressed for you."

Remus had learned by now that his son was a mischievous little boy. He slowly backed out of the doorway, Teddy leaping from his trunk to follow. He wanted to see all of this. His father glanced across the kitchen table and sure enough, he found a letter with his name on it. Clearly it had been opened—Remus could see that instantly. Even though Teddy had managed to reseal the wax, the parchment itself was a bit wrinkly and crumpled. The old werewolf narrowed his eyes, picking up the letter as he looked to his son who was quivering with excitement, his hair turning a bright blue, then pink, then yellow…really all the colors of the rainbow.

"Open it!" Teddy exclaimed. "Open it Dad, open it."

Remus rolled his eyes. "This better not be a sort of mail-in order for another Weasley contraption…" the man trailed off. He looked at the seal very carefully. It was clearly the seal of Hogwarts. He turned to his son for a moment before quickly opening up the letter, his eyes scanning the page with a mix of horror and delight.

"Read it!" Teddy yelped. Remus cleared his throat and began to speak:

"Dear Mr. Lupin…it is with my greatest pleasure that you have been accepted as…" Remus paused. Teddy, still hopping up and down, grinned eagerly at his father.

"Dad!"

"…as our newest Professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts. We were very pleased with your application, as unneeded as it was, and have sent letters to students with the titles of the books you would like them to read…We will see you at the start of term. Looking forward to the Lupin boys both at Hogwarts at last. All the Best…Minerva."

As Remus finished the letter, clasping it in his hands, he looked towards his son. "Teddy," he began, "I didn't send in an application. I don't want you to get too excited, my boy, I'm not—"

"Of course, you didn't!" Teddy burst. "You would never! So, I took the liberty of applying for you—"

"—you what?" Remus whisper shouted. "Edward, how…why…" he tried to find the words. Of all the schemed and pranks his son had ever pulled…this took the cake. Remus had never felt what he was feeling now, but it certainly wasn't anger. Shock? Excitement? Something in between?

"It wasn't too bad really," Teddy explained, "Nicked some of your old letters while you were sleep, traced your words to write a letter to Minerva here, scouted for books and assigned years to them, along with some drafts of lesson plans—I got a bit bored while you were at work, you can check them out if you would like—and then I asked Mrs. Applebaum all the way down the street if she would watch the place, owled Slughorn about wolfsbane, and packed your trunk," he grinned. "We're going to Hogwarts!"

Remus stood, stunned, mouth agape as he just stared blankly at his son. He knew the boy was smart—he devoured books faster than Remus could bring them home from the library—but he didn't know he was capable of an entire ruse. I should be angry, Remus thought to himself. The boy rifled through my things, plagiarized my handwriting…but he did it for me. Remus let the letter fall back onto the table and crossed his arms over his chest.

"How did you know what books to assign?"

"Grabbed 'em from the Weasley's, jotted down notes: first years are getting basic information on spells and uses, second year is practical lessons with some minor creatures, third year is dark creatures—wanted to find one without werewolves, you know, but those books don't seem to exist, and then fourth is fairly similar but of course fifth year is more challenging—sixth and seventh are too, for these things called O.W.L's and N.E.W.T's."

"How did you get a letter out in the first place?"

"Easy! Used the same post information as my acceptance letter," the boy explained. "You didn't think I would get rid of my Hogwarts letter did you?"

Remus snorted. He supposed not, but still had many questions. "Slughorn? How did you reach him?

"Harry's address book."

"The neighbor? Applebaum?"

"Actually a squib, don't you know!—says she'd be more than happy to watch the place if we drop off a tray of brownies next week before we leave—"

"And my trunk?" Remus asked. "How on Earth did you manage to take my things and pack them so quickly."

"All your favorite clothes, four robes, one pair of dress robes, two pairs of shoes, tea, socks, books…You've been really out of sorts this summer, Dad. You haven't even noticed, and I've only taken about one or two things a week."

The werewolf sighed. His son really had thought of everything—at least, almost everything. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" Teddy was stunned. He could have sworn he had gotten everything. "What did I forget?"

"I never said I wanted to do it," his father explained. "You've done all this work without actually asking me if I wanted the position."

"Well, yes I did—Earlier this summer, you said you weren't the kind of professor Hogwarts needed. Pure bloody rubbish—"

"—Language!"

"—but despite that, you didn't actually say no," Teddy insisted, smirking. "I do listen you know. The way you talk about your year of teaching, your eyes light up like they do when you talk about me or mum. You love it—and you've been moping around all summer since I have to leave you and I thought it would be so much better if you could just come along for the ride! As you always say, the Lupin boys have got to stick together."

Remus could have kicked himself. He hadn't said no to the position earlier, and he certainly did believe he and his son needed to stick together. They were the Lupin boys. Still, Remus couldn't imagine going back to Hogwarts. It was a painful memory full of loss: of friends, of love, of innocence…there was hardly a hall in the school that wasn't filled with something bittersweet. You can make new memories, he thought, but would you lose the old?

"Teddy, I have a perfectly good job," Remus huffed. "I don't need you go to job searching for me, thank you very much."

"Getting rid of boggarts?" Teddy scoffed. "Dad, no offense, but you could be doing so much more—you've fought Dark Wizards, were a member of both Orders, survived two wars and survive unspeakable horrors every month—something you could avoid, by the way, by going back to teaching where there's Wolfsbane for you for free."

Remus softened his gaze. "Teddy," he began, "I've told you time and time again not to worry about me—"

"But I have to," The boy insisted. "Because if I don't worry about you, no one will—you don't let them, and you don't let yourself. I won't leave you here while I go to school. Either we both go—"

"—Teddy—"

"—or neither of us go. It's up to you," the boy stated matter-of-factly. "So, what's it going to be?"

Remus bit the inside of his cheek to keep from crying. His son truly was a one of a kind little boy.

"You've packed my woolen socks, then? I'll be needing those—floors are dreadfully cold there, and you know how I like to walk around without my shoes—"

Remus was cut off by his son's arms wrapping around him. The werewolf smiled and stroked the boy's head. "I love you, Teddy. Thank you."