Remus entered the Great Hall and smiled, of all the memories of this room (some of the happiest, and some of the worst times of his life) he still felt overcome with gratitude at being able to walk in as a Professor. And soon his son would be here too.
"Remus!" The transfiguration professor and Head of Slytherin, who'd been instated after the war strode over to greet him.
"Good evening Emmett, how was your summer?"
"Lovely thank you, great to have a break. Still though, looking forward to starting a new term, teaching transfiguration to a Metamorphmagus! Every transfiguration professor's dream!"
"Don't assume anything Emmett. Talented as they may be, I can't say that teaching his mother was a pleasurable experience..." The Headmistress had appeared behind them and Remus grimaced at the thought of a teenage Dora wreaking havoc at Hogwarts.
Emmett and Remus followed Minerva to the table and Minerva promptly began the meeting.
"Welcome back everyone, I hope you all had an enjoyable summer. I wanted to start by congratulating you all. Last year's OWL and NEWT grades both reached record level since the war and I trust you all saw the article in the daily prophet commending our commitment to continued improvement of the education of young witches and wizards. I am confident that this year we can top this record yet again."
The meeting proceeded as it usually did. There were no staffing changes to be announced, each teacher took 5-10 minutes to evaluate their lesson plans from the previous year and discuss their plans for any amendments the coming year. This triggered the usual debate on striking the right balance between practical lessons and theory lessons. Minerva reminded staff that suitable rewards were house points, not sweets (with a stern look to Marsha Fountain, the arts teacher). Suitable punishments were deducting house points or detention for more serious behaviour, and no, Eugene Harris the caretaker was not permitted to hand out detentions but should send students to their Head of House. And – Penny Hayward (potions master and Head of Hufflepuff house) it is not appropriate to request that other teachers rearrange a student's detention so they can attend quidditch practice. The meeting ended with Minerva's announcement that the 4th floor corridor west wall was once again threatening to crumble so this corridor will be out of bounds whilst we aim to repair it yet again, if anyone has any new ideas we haven't yet tried then please be my guest. The night patrol rotas and lesson timetables would be sent round in the next couple of days. And with that they adjourned the meeting as food and drink appeared on the table.
Remus got up and went to join Sasha Solokov, the other Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher who covered his classes on full moon and also took a 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th year class to allow Remus more time to spend with his family. As Head of Gryffindor Remus taught all their classes which they shared with another house whilst Sasha took the other classes. This deal worked well for them since Sasha also had children around the same age as Remus'.
"Hello Sasha, how was Ukraine?"
"Remus! Good to see you again! Yes, it was lovely to see my sister and mother, but my wife is definitely happy to be back. How was your summer?"
"Lovely thank you, always good to see more of the kids. Although I suppose I will be seeing a lot more of Teddy this year."
"Oh yes, is he looking forward to the term?"
"Yes, he's very excited."
"Any bets on Hufflepuff vs Gryffindor Remus?" The tall blond potions professor had joined them.
Remus smiled dryly, "we will have to wait and see"
"Tonks still got her Hufflepuff pride?"
"Very much so, she's convinced Ted will follow in her footsteps"
"Well in that case, I look forward to meeting him properly! Hopefully it won't be over detention. Although, if he's anything like his mother..."
Remus laughed, Penny had been Dora's prefect when she was in school and Dora had laughed so hard when she'd heard Penny was now Head of Hufflepuff. That'll suit her, she was always telling me to turn the music off in the common room.
After a couple of drinks and making sure he had caught up with Neville and Hagrid. Having let Emmett Eccles drag him into another in depth conversation about Metamorphmagi, Remus narrowly avoided being cornered by the Politics professor, Lucinda Laclair who would no doubt want his views on every single slight amendment that had been made recently to any number of policies, as well as recapping numerous older ones, it was really quite late so Remus made his exit to get to the office he occupied during term time and floo home.
Remus found his wife and 11-year-old sat in the living room, Teddy pouring over a couple of his new schoolbooks.
"...and then they take your wand from you and set a dragon lose on you and see how you react"
"you just got that from the Triwizard Tournament"
"No, I didn't, they were allowed to use wands"
Teddy rolled his eyes, not fooled by his mother's antics.
"Hey darling, how was the meeting?"
"Nothing new, Eccles is very excited to be teaching a Metamorphmagus, McGonagall told him not to get his hopes up because teaching you was less than pleasurable"
Teddy burst out laughing and Dora scowled at him. Teddy, now having given up hope on coaxing the answer out of his mother on how the sorting worked turned his efforts towards his father. He couldn't understand how his parents had managed to get every single one of their family and friends in on the joke for 11 years, it wasn't even funny anymore just frustrating since he now only had a few days left and in all honesty was starting to get a little nervous.
"Are you really not going to tell me how we're sorted?"
"You'll find out soon enough"
"But I want to be prepared"
"It's not something you can be prepared for"
Teddy let out a frustrated groan.
"It's really not that big a deal Ted" his father said calmly.
"As long as you're in Hufflepuff" his mother added unhelpfully but after a scolding look from Remus she corrected herself. "Alright, alright, we're just having a bit of fun Teddy. You know it's not important, just look at our family – Dad was Gryffindor, I was Hufflepuff, Grandpa Lupin was Ravenclaw, Nanny Tonks was Slytherin... Really, not a big deal, ok?"
Teddy looked mildly less anxious after this so Remus decided now was time to get him off to bed before Dora's jokes got him riled up again. Besides, he wanted his wife to himself. Once term started it was rare for them to get much time together despite him sleeping at home whenever he wasn't on night patrol, Dora would be tired from the kids and long shifts, he'd have marking or end up having to stay last minute to supervise detentions.
Once Teddy was in bed, Remus went to join Dora on the sofa and she immediately curled up in his arms, resting her head just under his chin. "What house are Gryffindor first years sharing Defence with this year?" she asked.
"Hufflepuff"
"Ha. So, you'll definitely be teaching him then."
"We don't know that"
"Most likely though"
"Yes, I suppose"
"Do you think it'll be weird? Did you ask to change it?"
"Well it would be pointless asking to change it since we don't actually know he will be in Hufflepuff"
"He will be though"
"Dora"
"Come on! I don't mean it in any kind of way I just mean, I genuinely think he will be."
"well imagine if I said I wanted to teach Slytherin instead and he ended up there."
"Yeah, fair point. Do you think it will be weird though, teaching him?"
"I don't know. Has he spoken to you about it?"
"No, I mean you've always taught there so I guess he's always known that you'd be teaching him one day. Charlie asked him how he felt about it when he came over the other day. Ted just kind of shrugged it off, didn't seem like he cared."
"Hmm... do you think I should talk to him?"
"Yeah maybe. But don't get all scary and serious about it. Just ask him straight out ya know. Like that way you know if he is in Hufflepuff, which he will be, whether you want to put in a last-minute request to change it."
"Scary serious?"
"Ha ha yeah you know..."
He cocked an eyebrow at her.
"Like when you're overthinking things and think everything's a way bigger deal than it really is"
"Says the one giving her son a nervous breakdown all around whether he ends up in Hufflepuff."
"He knows I'm teasing!" she insisted giving him a thump on the chest.
"You know you must stop hitting me Dora, violence won't solve all your problems" Remus teased, completely dead pan.
"Hmm…" she narrowing her eyes at him suggestively "there might be something else you can do that can solve all my problems though…"
They stared into each other's eyes for one hot, intense moment before he leaned in to kiss her, tantalisingly slowly, his hand started in her hair and travelled down her side tracing her curves. She sighed a little into the kiss causing him to grab her and pull her closer as she gently kissed his neck, his jaw, his ear, any inch of skin she could find. Sooner than either of them wanted, they lips broke apart a little, "we should go to the bedroom" Remus said under his breath.
After casting a quick silencing charm around their bedroom and locking the door to guard from 5-year olds woken up by nightmares Remus turned to his wife. Whoever said that children ruined your love life wasn't entirely correct. Of course the alone time was fewer and further between and there were a lot of near misses to being caught which made them feel a little like teenagers avoiding being caught by their parents (in fact once it had been that exactly when they lost track of time and were still a tangle of limbs and bedsheets when Andromeda arrived back with the children). But everything that they'd been through since their marriage - a war, having an unplanned child, nearly dying, helping to rebuild society, working through the highs and lows of the changes in werewolf legislation, having 3 more children and Dora becoming the Head of Aurors, had only brought them closer together. That night as they fell asleep everything was so simple that they could have been the newlyweds they should have been 11 years ago, if they hadn't been in the middle of a war, if Remus's condition hadn't made him feel overcome with guilt over loving Dora.
A/N: I hope you enjoyed the first chapter of my story. As the story goes on the chapters will be more Teddy focussed with some Remus/Tonks moments in between. Remus is my absolute favourite and I'm completely in denial about these character deaths so this is my way of coping with it!
If you like Remus/Tonks, please check out my story From Amused, to Impressed, to Seriously Smitten, which is the story of how they got together and is the precursor for this story.