A/N: Answer to AJRoald's Father's Day challenge. Word count: 807... as for something that had to be included, they don't eat dinner, but they're on their way to.

Thomas Lysander Lupin, the sixth -- and youngest -- child of Remus and Ginny Lupin, was barely a day old when his grandmother started planning a party. In fact, Mrs. Molly Weasley began discussing it with her tired, irate daughter right after the boy was born. She went on four hours about decorations and guests and what would be served, making wild hand gestures and randomly jumping from topic to topic. Such was the excitement over little Thomas, who was cradled obliquely in his father's arms as the discussion of crocheted overalls began.

"We are not having a party," Ginny told Remus the moment her mother had left the premises, back to guarding the five other children until their parents could come home. "I'll be exhausted, Thomas will be exhausted -- and I will not want to go anywhere."

"Of course, Ginny," he said, staring down at her with golden eyes and smiling. "Besides, there is the matter of Beatrice's nervous condition..."

Beatrice was their fourth child, and an almost exact replica of her mother when she was six. Fiery temper, extensive imagination and... well, a touch of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder that popped up whenever her parents needed an excuse to get out of something. It was shameless, and they knew it, but certain situations were worthy of a way out. For example, dinner with Percy and Hermione who, after years of banter and superiority-complexes, finally gave into the inevitable and were now the equivalents of giggling schoolgirls whenever in each other's company.

Anyway. Remus put up a very noble struggle against his mother-in-law, even throwing in the bit about Bea's OCD. But -- mostly due to bribes of Honeydukes chocolate and homemade pies -- he finally gave in. His excuse was that if he had a will of iron in the beginning, his wife certainly would have known.

"You're an evil, evil man," Ginny growled at him, ferociously zipping a skirt with many layers and paisley patterns before lifting Thomas from his cradle and kissing his cheek. "Daddy's an evil man, Thomas," she whispered to him. "An evil, hungry man, so never trust him with anything you don't want your gran to know. She'll bake it out of him."

Remus rolled his eyes and headed down the stairs to make sure the kids were all ready, and as he went he could hear someone shouting in unintelligable words. As he turned the corner at the end of the stairs and came to face the kitchen, he couldn't help but let out a gasp. The sight that met his eyes was horrifying.

Marshmallows were strewn across the floor and over the furniture, along with a few crumpled biscuits and a rather large scattering of quills and parchment. In the corner, Sasha, Dana and Coda -- the triplets, age nine -- were bound with a thick silver chord, socks stuffed in their mouths as three-year-old Millie lay, crying, on their laps.

In the middle of it all, redheaded Bea was nibbling on a cookie and looking very smug. That is, until Millie said "Daddy!" and bolted towards him, when his older daughter began to look very shocked indeed.

"Bloody hell," Remus breathed, once again examining the scene before him.

"Bloody hell!" Millie giggled.

Bea looked up at her father with large, brown eyes and while he felt the Adorable radiation beginning to surround him, Remus continued to look disapproving. He had been a teacher, after all, and knew his wife when she was a teenager. If he managed to resist Ginny for as long as he did, certainly he could manage their daughter?

"Beatrice," he said, "Er... would you mind explaining to me why you... did this?"

She immediately dropped her gaze to the floor, hands grasping each other behind her back. "Dana told me I couldn't have a biscuit before dinner," she mumbled.

"And..." he prompted.

She looked up at her father with raised eyebrows, as though he didn't understand. "I wanted one," she said.

Yes, he thought wryly. An exact replica of her mother,.

Remus knelt down, so that he was closer to his daugher's eye-level, and said: "Bea -- I love you, darling, but you can't tie people up or make them cry when they say you can't have something." She looked confused. "It's selfish and wrong, for one thing -- but it's also a matter of knowing that you're not the center of the universe."

The look in Bea's eyes said, quite clearly, Yes, I am. and Remus chortled.

"What do you say to your brothers?" he asked. She stalked over to where they were tied and apologized, adding a rather sarcastic curtsy. "Now untie them, love, we've got to get to Gran and Granddad's house and I don't want your Mum to see this mess!"

He picked Millie up and carried her with him back upstairs, meeting his wife halfway.

"Everyone ready to go?" she asked miserably.

"Er... yes, I think so."