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Bella


Teddy Lupin had not been alone in his room for very long at all, having assured his Nan that he could unpack on his own after she had returned his trunk to normal size for him. He was just about to get to the task when a small knock came on his door. He hesitated for a moment, biting his lip as the thought of Rodolphus coming to curse him further for his earlier comments racing through his mind. He wasn't scared of Rodolphus, he was sure of it, though the idea of the man coming to him specifically did not excite him in the slightest. He shook himself from his thoughts as the knock came again, clearing his throat as he called for the visitor to come in. The door opened slowly and Teddy couldn't help but grin, his hair turning a bright turquoise as he rushed to the door.

"Mum," Teddy laughed, hugging his mother tightly as she embraced him, the woman leaning down to kiss his head.

"Wotcher, Teddy Bear," She murmured into his hair, squeezing him tightly for a moment before she pulled back slightly to look into his face.

Teddy grinned, noting the tips of his mother's hair that had now tinged pink. Though as he looked closer at his mother he could see through her momentary happiness, there was a tiredness in her eyes, her skin was paler than usual and her hair was limp and mostly mousey brown despite her tinged pink tips, there was a slight sadness about her smile despite herself. It was times like this that Teddy found himself struggling to remember when he had ever seen his mother truly happy, trying to separate out what memories of slight happiness of his childhood was all a show on his mother's side. Perhaps it was simply as the years went on she was unable to be happy as often as he could remember, or perhaps it was simply now more obvious to him that any happiness was always slightly tinged with her sadness.

Nymphadora sighed as her son continued to stare up at her silently, pulling the boy closer for a moment again. "I missed you," she murmured, kissing his head again.

"I missed you too," Teddy replied.

"Well," Nymphadora said suddenly, pulling away with a wider smile as she walked away from the boy and over to his trunk, "how was Hogwarts?"

"Good," Teddy nodded, "it was . . . great."

Dora looked to the boy for a moment, sighing and shaking her head as she drew her wand and opened the boy's trunk, "It's not the same as it used to be, is it? Not the same as the stories I told you . . ."

"No," Teddy let out a huff of laughter, "I'm pretty sure it's safe to say it's probably the exact opposite of what you remember it to be."

"I'm sorry," Dora muttered, sitting down on the floor next to the boy's trunk, her fingers reaching out and stroking the Hufflepuff crest on his robes reminiscently.

"Why?" Teddy rolled his eyes, walking over to his mother and sitting against the bed beside her, "It's not your fault the place is run by a load of idiots now."

"Teddy," Dora winced, "I—"

"They are idiots," Teddy repeated.

"They . . ." Dora looked towards the door, as if worried someone was listening in on them, "that's for me to say . . ."

Teddy couldn't help but grin slightly at his mother's comment, "I can say it too."

"You'll get hurt," Dora shook her head, beginning to take his clothes out of the trunk, opening one of his draws with a flick of her wand and sending his robes into the draw one by one, "Your Nan's much better at this than I am. She can get everything to fold up, even the socks, I've never been able to master that one. Out of all the spells I could master and I couldn't learn how to fold one bloody sock."

"Well, you know cooler spells than Nan does," Teddy shrugged.

Dora couldn't help but laugh slightly, "I know different spells than your Nan does. She was brought up learning all the household stuff and me. . . well, I was a bit more mischievous."

"You were an Auror," Teddy nodded, "you had to learn the hard spells, and when you were in the Order—"

"Yes," Dora cut him off, closing the draw as the last of his clothes went into the draw, "what else have you got in here, hmm? I bet you've got loads of interesting books from your first year. I never saw what you got in Diagon Alley with your Nan anyway, I reckon she was too keen to pack away all of your things nice and neatly before I just threw everything into the case. Let me see," Dora leant over the trunk, picking up a large pile of books and listing them off one by one as she went through them. "Magical Theory, standard, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, interesting read, A Beginners Guide to The Dark Arts, that's a new one What Works?: Duelling Techniques for Aspiring Duellists, that's . . . new, bit heavy going for your first year though, End of—" Dora frowned slightly, looking to her son to realise that he was staring at the last two books intently, his cheeks going ever so slightly red. She looked back to the last two books, swallowing hard before she read their titles, "End of the line . . . The Order of the Phoenix: the Futile Struggle . . ." Dora cleared her throat, taking a deep breath before she spoke again, her voice quieter than she intended, "History of Magic, I suppose?"

Teddy merely shook his head.

". . . Why did you want these, Teddy?" Dora asked, unable to take her eyes off of the last book, an image of a snake was emblazoned on the front, it's fangs buried deep into a feeble and limp looking Phoenix.

Teddy didn't say anything, he looked to his mother's glazed-over look before he reached out gingerly for the book. She let him slowly take it from his grasp and watched him as he turned the pages, delicately as if he were scared the thing would fall apart beneath his fingertips. She caught glimpses of images as he leafed through the parchment, closing her eyes for a moment as she was sure she caught a slight glimpse of a picture of her younger self.

"Mum . . ." Teddy whispered, ". . . is that . . ."

Dora could guess what would be there already, her heart was pounding and as much as she tried to calm herself she was still caught off guard as she looked down to the book and an involuntary gasp left her lips. The words were bold and clear to the top of the page Remus Lupin 1960 – 1998, but it was not this that made tears spring to the witches' eyes. A portrait of her late husband lay beneath the writing, the man stood outside, one of his usual cardigans hung on his slim frame, he looked drained both emotionally and physically, though a small smile tugged on his lips as he crossed his arms. She recognised the photograph. It had been taken after Remus had returned from his temporary moment of madness when she was pregnant with Teddy, the pair had stayed up all night talking of all the possibilities that their future held; both their hopes and their fears. Though as they worried about what the future held Dora had vowed to make sure they captured every moment, made every moment they could a happy one, treating every moment as if it were their last together. She couldn't help but think he was merely amusing her when he agreed to let her mission of capturing each moment begin with her summoning her old camera. The picture had been on her bedside table the last she had seen it, she shivered as the thought of Death Eaters and the likes raiding through her things went through her mind, not for the first time in her life. Dora only realised she had let her tears fall as she felt her son's arm wrap around her.

"Mum . . ." Teddy whispered, "I-I'm sorry, I shouldn't have . . ."

"No," Dora sniffed, smiling sadly down at the picture, ". . . you can't remember him, can you?"

"I was just a baby . . ." Teddy spoke quietly, worried he would upset his mother.

"He hated this picture," Dora let out a small laugh through her tears, "he reckoned it made him look like a tired old man . . . I told him he was my tired old man . . . I suppose this is the only picture you've ever seen of him . . ."

"The first . . ." Teddy murmured, avoiding his mother's eyes as she looked to him, "do you think I look like him?"

"So much," Dora smiled, wiping her tears away, "why do you have these books, Teddy? I—I can understand this one . . . with this picture . . . but books on duelling? Books on the war? You don't need to read about these stories, they're twisted for their side. I'll tell you anything you want to know about it, just don't let these books fill your mind with lies."

"They won't, I swear," Teddy said quickly, "I just . . . I don't want to just know, I want to learn . . ."

"The history of it?" Dora frowned as Teddy shook his head, "Then what?"

" . . . Teach me how to duel," Teddy said.

"Teddy, I—" Dora shook her head, "I can't."

"Yes you can," Teddy said firmly, flipping the pages of the book until he came to another chapter, one that started with his mother's name and a photograph of her in her Auror's uniform, "you know how to duel. You trained in it, you still know how to do it you just choose not to. I want to learn, I need to learn."

"Teddy, you're still a child, you—"

"I'm not," the twelve-year-old snapped, "I'm not a kid, I can't be just a kid, not here. I need to learn, I need to know how to defend myself."

"I—"

"Delphi said you could teach me,"

Dora raised an eyebrow, looking slightly taken aback, "She did?"

Teddy nodded, "She said I had to learn, I can't be weak and get defeated. I need to learn, you can teach me. Look at it this way, if you don't teach me how to duel I'll learn at school and I'll only ever learn the Death Eater ways. Wouldn't you rather I learn your way? The Auror way? The Order way? Or would you rather let me purely learn how to duel like a Death Eater? Or let me learn when it's too late?"

Dora winced, shaking her head. She eventually sighed, "Look, Teddy, they must have taken your wand away—"

"No!" Teddy grinned, jumping to his feet he pulled his wand from within the pocket of his robes, "They didn't ask for it and Delphi said if Rod or someone tries to take it to tell them that she said I can keep it. She wants me to learn how to duel and she's the Dark Lord's daughter, that's pretty much an order, Mum."

Dora considered the boy for a moment, his boyish grin and begging eyes staring down at her. With a sigh of defeat, she nodded slightly.

"Thanks, Mum!" Teddy laughed, jumping at his mother as he hugged her tightly.

She couldn't help but laugh, "Thank me later," she kissed his head as she hugged him back, "I'm not doing it today, we have all of the holidays for that. Let's sort the rest of your things out and . . . don't tell anyone I'm doing this."

"Sure! Of course!" Teddy grinned, jumping back to his trunk as he started to unpack the rest of his things, "You're the best."

Dora shook her head, biting her lip as she tried to consider if she was doing the right thing by teaching her eldest child such things. As he became distracted by his unpacking she pulled the temporarily forgotten book onto her lap, with a deep breath she opened the thing again, if only to look at the pictures of her old comrades.


"Teddy!" Reuben yelled, grinning as he ran up to his older brother.

"Woah Roo," Teddy couldn't help but laugh, picking up the nearly four-year-old as he noted his breathlessness, though that didn't stop the grin on the little boy's face, "where's the fire?"

"Fire?" Reuben repeated, his eyes widening slightly as he looked around, "What fire? Did you start a fire?"

"No," Teddy rolled his eyes, "it's an expression. You're rushing about, that's all. What's wrong?"

"Mum wants you," Reuben said, "she's in her room."

"Did she say what she wanted?" Teddy asked, putting his younger brother down on the floor as he began to squirm in his arms.

"No," Reuben shook his head, taking his brothers hand and walking towards their mother's room, "but she's been in her room for ages. She made me go out of the room and see Nanny hours ago. Nanny was boring."

"Nan isn't boring," Teddy laughed.

"She didn't want to play duel with me," Reuben groaned.

"I see," Teddy shook his head as he opened the door to his mother's room, quickly stopping in confusion as he saw the room.

His mother stood in the middle of her now empty room, a grin on her features as she greeted her sons.

"Mummy!" Reuben cried, running up to his mother and hugging her tightly, "Can we play now? I'm bored."

"Sorry Roo," Dora sighed, kissing the boys head, "Mummy is busy at the moment, why don't you go back to Nanny?"

"No," Reuben whined, looking around the room for a moment and frowning, "you've been gone ages and Teddy started a fire!"

"He what?" Dora looked to her first-born child with wide-eyed confusion.

"It's saying Roo," Teddy said, "he ran at me so I asked him where the fire was."

"You shouldn't be running about Roo," Dora bit her lip, stroking the hair out of her son's face, "you wear yourself out too easily."

"I'm fine," Roo huffed, "if you won't play with me I'll play with Daddy, he said he'd be here for lunch anyway."

"I—" Dora sighed, "fine. Go do that if you must . . . just don't mention my room being empty."

"Why?" Roo frowned.

"It's . . . a surprise," Dora smiled, "for Daddy. Now go on, off you trot."

"I don't trot," Roo huffed, leaving the room regardless and slamming the door behind him.

"Why is your room empty, Mum?" Teddy asked, his brow furrowed in confusion as his mother grinned at him.

"You wanted to learn how to duel," Dora shrugged, casually drawing the boy's wand from her pocket and throwing it at him, "you shouldn't keep that on your bedside table, you know. At least put it in a drawer."

"You're going to teach me how to duel?" Teddy couldn't help it as a grin appeared on his features, his hair turning bright turquoise.

Dora nodded, "Yes, I think it's probably a good idea. You're right, you need to learn how to defend yourself."

"Awesome," Teddy grinned, pointing his wand at his mother, "let's duel."

Dora couldn't help but laugh as she shook her head, "You'll duel eventually, you need to learn the basics first."

"I know some basics," Teddy nodded eagerly, "I know a few hexes."

"From your books?" Dora raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah," Teddy bit his lip, "plus they teach you a couple in Dark Arts."

Dora sighed, pausing for a moment before she forced her smile back on her features, "Think you can get me then?" she opened her arms, her wand still firmly in her hand, "Try it."

" . . . this is a trap," Teddy narrowed his eyes.

Dora shrugged, "Only one way to find out, isn't there?"

Teddy looked at his mother, a shadow of a playful smirk on her features though she was a seemingly open target. He hesitated for a moment before without warning he threw a hex at her, though she deflected it with ease, he threw another at her, she drew a shield, he threw multiple at her though it simply rebounded. Just as he was about to throw another she disarmed him. He let out a huff of annoyance and held his hand out for his wand which was now securely in his mother's spare hand. She threw it back at him, holding back a slight laugh as he struggled to catch it in his grasp.

"You know, Teddy," Dora sighed, "hexes, jinxes, curses . . . it's only a small fraction of duelling. You need to know the defence before you can get on the offence."

"The point of duelling is to hit your opponent though, right?" Teddy asked.

"Yes and no," Dora said, "you need to be able to disarm, to avoid being hit, to protect yourself. Do you think I managed to live through the war by throwing as many hexes as I could at people and diving out of the way? Well, there was a fair amount of diving out of the way, but defensive spells first. That's what you need to learn."

"So teach me," Teddy said, "I need to learn."

Dora smiled sadly, "Unfortunately so . . . Right," she shook her head, walking over to her son and getting him to lift his wand arm, "let's see if I can get you to learn Protego, it's pretty advanced for your age but I think you can do it."

Teddy nodded, listening to his mother's instructions. It took hours, both of them had lost track of the time, but eventually, Teddy had learned how to conjure a basic shield. Dora was stood across the room from him now, her wand raised directly at him.

"Three . . . two . . . one . . ." Dora shot a spell at him, grinning as her son yelled out Protego and managed to deflect her minor spell, "Well done!"

"What are you doing?" the sharp voice of Rodolphus Lestrange called out and Dora turned quickly to face him. She had not heard him enter, too focused on making sure her son had cast the shield correctly.

"I—" Dora tried to think of some excuse through the piercing glare of the man.

"Mum's teaching me how to duel," Teddy said defiantly.

"Is she now?" Rodolphus turned his glare to the boy.

"Delphi said he needed to learn," Dora said quickly, walking over to stand between her son and the man.

"And you took that as your permission to turn your bedroom into a training ground?" Rodolphus hissed, walking towards the woman until he was merely a foot away from her, "Do you think that smart? Do you think you should be left alone with a child to duel in a small room? Honestly, Nymphie. If Bellatrix knew what you were up to—"

"Her daughter told Teddy to learn," Dora said, "I'm merely following orders."

"You do not answer to Delphini," Rod hissed, grabbing the woman's wand arm.

"Why not?" Teddy perked up, glaring at the man as he looked to him, "She's The Dark Lord's daughter, surely if she tells Mum to do something she has to do it. It's common sense, I'd think."

"Shush Teddy," Dora whispered.

Rodolphus considered the boy for a moment, amused at the boy's gaze as he gripped tightly onto his wand as if ready to duel him himself. He looked down to Nymphadora, the witch returning his stare with an almost begging gaze.

"He's fine," Dora breathed, "he's doing well . . ."

"Is he now?" Rodolphus raised an eyebrow, pushing the woman out of the way as he drew his wand, "we'll see about that."

"Protego!" Teddy immediately yelled, though the man merely laughed before with a quick strong hex the boy's shield was broken as he stumbled back into the wall.

"You're clearly not doing a good job, are you Nymphie?" Rod sniggered.

"He's only just learned it," Dora gritted her teeth, rushing over to her son to help him up though he brushed her off and got to his feet on his own, "he can't duel you, Rodolphus, leave him alone."

"I—" Teddy began to speak again, though quickly stopped as his mother gave him a stern look.

"You're right," Rodolphus laughed, "I mean, how is the poor boy supposed to learn how to duel when he has no reference of it."

"What do you—" Dora shook her head as Rodolphus turned his wand on her, "I'm not duelling you."

"Why not?" Rodolphus smirked, "Surely as an ex-Auror you understand that you have to know the basics of duelling to begin to learn to duel correctly? You've never seen a duel, have you Lupin?"

Teddy hesitated for a moment before he shook his head, "I've seen some of the other kids—"

"School duels are nothing," Rod laughed, "you have to learn properly. Come on Nymphie . . . or are you scared? I could simply duel with your son, trial by fire and all that."

Dora looked to her son then Rodolphus and back again. She took a deep breath and raised her wand, "Stand back, Teddy."

"There we go," Rodolphus laughed.

He did not give the woman a moment's notice, quickly throwing a curse at her though she brought up a shield far greater than her son's meagre attempt. The small room was soon full of the flurry of spells going back and forth, ricocheting off the walls, smashing the glass in the small window, singing the floor, causing poor Teddy Lupin to duck out of the way more than a few times.

"I knew you still had it in you, Nymphie," Rodolphus laughed, stepping out of the way of a hex at the last moment, "Is this what it takes to get you to work?"

"Shut up!" Dora growled, sending multiple spells at the man in a row until finally, the man hissed in pain as a cut appeared on his cheek. He glared furiously, turning his wand slightly as he threw jinx at Teddy, "No!" Dora cried, throwing a shield in front of her son. It was what he was waiting for, she had left herself open.

"Crucio!" Rodolphus hissed.

Dora fell back against the wall, gritting her teeth as her hair turned deathly white and her body convulsed slightly.

"Mum!" Teddy yelled.

"Pathetic," Rodolphus smirked, increasing the intensity of the curse and laughing as the witch let out a garbled yell.

"Stop it!" Teddy yelled, his hair bright red.

Nymphadora looked to her son, digging her nails into her empty hand as she watched in horror as Teddy went running at Rodolphus. She raised her wand with all of the strength she had, pointing it directly at her son she screamed a spell to push him back against the wall, the words quickly turning into a yell of agony as a small sense of relief flooded her when she watched the boy fall back against the wall. She panted for breath as the curse lifted.

"Teddy . . ." Dora breathed, shaking her head as she watched Rodolphus turn towards him, "Don't, Rodolphus . . ."

The man looked to the red-haired child with a smirk of amusement, shaking his head. "Silly child . . ."

"Rodolphus!" Nymphadora yelled out, sighing and shaking her head as the man turned back towards her.

Rodolphus gave the boy a quick smirk before he walked over to his mother, grabbing hold of her arm and dragging her to her feet despite her groan of pain. He held her against the wall, pushing her hair away from her sweaty forehead.

"Leave us, pup," Rodolphus murmured, "your mother and I need to put her room back together."

"Mum—"

"Go, Teddy," Dora winced before looking to her son, forcing a reassuring look towards the boy, "I'll be fine."

Teddy glared at Rodolphus as he scoffed, "Mum—"

"Go, Teddy," Dora spoke more firmly, "now. I'll come to see you later."

"You heard your mother, child," Rodolphus said to the boy.

Teddy looked towards the pair, his fists clenched in anger.

"Teddy Remus Lupin," Dora said, "go, do as you're told."

Teddy let out a yell of frustration, shaking his head as he stormed from the room. He didn't want to leave his mother to that man, he knew he hurt her, he knew she couldn't stop him. But he was determined he would find a way, if not to stop him then at least to make the man pay for what he did.