The Magical Music Box
11th April 1999
For much of his young life, the child Teddy Lupin lived at Hogwarts with his parents, however the infant quickly became infamous for his ability to be heard all the castle over when he was crying. It was usually worse when his much tried parents attempted to settle the boy down for the night. It wasn't as though they hadn't already tried everything. After a while they became sadly used to sleepless' late nights and headaches but they would have eagerly given their wand arms for a solution.
Luckily their answer arrived on the night of their child's first birthday and it required no such sacrifice from them.
Teddy had spent his first birthday at the Burrow surrounded by loving friends and family and had been given many gifts which had kept him happy and content throughout the day. Now though, like all children, when his parents attempted to put him to sleep, he started crying. Very loudly.
"Here we go again," Tonks sighed and ran a hand through her purple tinted hair.
"It's my turn, why don't you run yourself a bath," Remus suggested kindly and she beamed tiredly at him.
"Thanks," she said, giving him a light kiss on his cheek and leaving him with the crying child.
A minute after she'd left however, she returned holding, what looked to be a small round tricket box and a folded piece of parchment.
"Found this on the table," she said as her husband continued to gently rock their child to sleep.
"What is it? A present for Teddy?"
"Guess so," she shrugged and opened the small folded note and then snorted.
"What?"
"Think it's from Snape," Tonks said. "It says, 'For the love of Merlin, child, stop crying'," she laughed. She put down the note and opened the box. At once, a calming beautiful piano melody began to play and within a minute, Teddy had stopped crying and was gurgling happily in his father's arms.
The box itself was beautiful. It was small enough to fit into the palm of ones hand but it was elaborately detailed. It was made of a dark metal with silver moons and stars on it and on the lid was the sun with its rays reaching out to edge of the lid and the dark blue sky surrounded it. It was a magnificent work of art. A magical work of art. Whereas muggle music boxed needed winding, a magical one never did. It simply played its melody whenever the lid was opened and would always sound pitch perfect.
"Best present ever," Tonks sighed.
The music playing was the same soothing melody that had calmed the child when Severus had played it at the Burrow. It was 'Imagine' by John Lennon.
"Agreed," Remus smiled.
"We should've tried that sooner."
"Somehow I can't imagine Severus willingly giving his time to play this every night for Teddy."
"Guess now he doesn't have to. We can never break that thing, y'know," she smiled back at him. "Do we err...send a thank you note back, d'you think?" she wondered.
"I'll go and thank him," Remus said, "Teddy's almost out."
"Are you sure that song wasn't written by a wizard with a baby that wouldn't stop crying too? Maybe it's some kind of spell to lure kids to sleep."
"I'm fairly sure he was a muggle."
"Hmmm," Tonks hummed. "Well, when you see Snape tell him I said 'thanks'. That things' a miracle."
"Of course," he said.
Shortly after, Remus ascended the staircase to the headmasters' office and was directed to the living room just off the office by the smiling portraits. He knocked on the slightly open door before entering.
"Severus?" he called.
"What?" came the curt reply.
"Not disturbing you, am I?" the werewolf asked as he entered.
"Since when has that mattered?" Severus replied.
He was sat by the fire, reading a book with a glass of fire whiskey resting on a small table beside him.
"I just came by to say 'thank you', for the music box. It's beautiful and it had Teddy asleep in less than a minute. He loves that song. Did you play it and record it somehow? I didn't know there was a spell to that that for a music box."
"I'm afraid I've no idea what you're talking about, wolf," Severus said, dismissively and turned a page in his book.
"Ah, my mistake," Remus smiled, kindly, "But thank you anyway...from all three of us. It really was very kind of you. I've never seen anything so beautiful."
"They say people are prone to talk nonsense around the full moon but it's no where near time for that yet and surely you have enough to worry about when it comes to that. Perhaps you should be concerned for your sanity."
"Probably," he laughed quietly. "I won't disturb you Any longer, good night, Severus," he said after a moment and turned to leave.
"The child was giving me a headache every night," Severus called after him. "I did it keep him quiet. Nothing more."
"Of course," Remus said, beaming happily, "We're very grateful."
"Don't mention it. I mean it. I can very easily poison your potion whenever I feel like it, just bear that in mind," he threatened.
Of course, Remus knew better than to heed his words. For people who chose to be around Severus Snape they had to learn that actions spoke louder than words. True the man could still threaten and curse with the best of them, but his actions belied a hidden kindness, if you remembered to look past the vitriol. It was only very recently that Remus had begun to see that and he tried valiantly to always remember it.
"Consider me warned," the werewolf said, solemnly, "Goodnight, Severus," he repeated and left.
