Written for the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft & Wizardry (Challenges and Assignments) Term 13

Additional challenges listed below

Word Count - 992

"It has certainly been busy here today, hasn't it?" said a familiar voice somewhere around Remus.

"Well, there is a full-blown war happening in the land of the living right now, so expect more people," replied a female voice.

"What are we going to do, Petal? There are too many of them and not enough of us," asked Sirius. Yes, that was definitely Sirius' voice. And Petal? Sirius used to call Lily that.

Remus was sure that was a dream of some sorts. He was probably in the infirmary somewhere, or St. Mungo's. There wasn't another explanation for what these voices other than that, because Sirius and Lily were dead, and Remus was…

Remus' eyes snapped open and he regretted it immediately. The light shone bright around him and it stung his eyes. A cascade of red hair almost on top of him was the only thing he could see, before he squinted. Remus didn't need to wait for the green eyes to appear or the face to take shape. He knew that hovering over him was Lily Potter.

"Hey, Remus," she spoke softly, undoubtedly trying not to scare him.

"Moony is up?!" Sirius was not so considerate. "Yo, Prongs! Moony is up!"

As Remus tried to sit down and make sense of everything – rather, everyone – he was seeing, he heard quick footsteps approaching them. Lily supported his back with one hand, and ran the other up and down his arm in a soothing motion.

"Hey, mate. Nice to see you again." James shot him a smile.

Remus felt like crying when it finally dawned on him. Happy and sad tears welled up in his eyes and his breath caught in his throat. Breath? Did he even breathe anymore? He was dead. So was James, Sirius and Lily.

He looked past the familiar faces and examined the other people around. Marlene was there, and a boy that kind of looked like Sirius. And Fred Weasley. Oh, poor Molly. She must be devastated now. Remus also recognized some of the faces from the students he taught during his year at Hogwarts. It was a lot to process at once, so he chose to focus on the good things first. He was surrounded by his friends again. He opened a crooked smile and that was enough for the three of them to jump on top of him.

Remus basked in their warmth and scent. It was all so familiar and his heart was filled with love and happiness. It was like coming home. He felt full, carefree and young again. Until he saw the head of pink hair to his left.

Dora looked as lost as he felt when he first opened his eyes in this new reality. He wanted to go hug her, but he was too angry to do that. He slowly untangled himself from his friends and got up at once. He was not mad at her for dying. He couldn't be. It wasn't her fault. He was angry at the Death Eaters that had made his little boy an orphan.

Remus let out an animalistic growl as he kicked the trunk of a tree repeatedly, drawing all eyes to him. He didn't care. His baby, his Teddy, was going to grow up without a mum or a dad and he was angry.

"Remus," Dora called, as she wrapped her arms around his waist. "It will be okay. Teddy will be fine."

Of course, she knew what he was thinking. She always did, and she was probably thinking the same thing.

"Dora, we won't be able to see him grow up." He buried his face in her hair and let the tears fall.

"Remus, if we may," Lily said, approaching them with Sirius and James by her side. "James and I had the exact same reaction when we arrived, I promise."

"Oh, no," James added. "You were a lot worse. No joke, I thought she was going to blow the whole place up. She was fuming. I really thought she was going to go back to life by the sheer power of the hatred running through her."

"Tone it down several notched, will you?" Lily scolded him.

"What? Are you going to tell me that you didn't destroy our house when you saw Sirius getting arrested? I'm sure that even the living heard you. Or when Snape was a prat to Harry when he first got to Hogwarts, did you or did you not break a window with your fist? Oh, what about when Vernon-"

"That's enough, thank you very much." Lily raised her hand to interrupt her husband. "I did do all those things, but you were not so good yourself, mister."

"Yeah, but I never said I was," James said cheekily, winking and kissing his wife on the forehead. "Don't worry, I thought you were really badass doing that. And sexy. Definitely sexy."

Remus felt a little smile creep on his lips.

"So, you did watch Harry grow up?"

"Of course, Remus. We can see everything. We try not to pry too much now that he's all grown up, but we were always watching him. Just like you and your wife can do with your son," Lily assured him.

"Well, now that that's out of the way," Sirius finally said, engulfing Dora in a hug. "We're twins! We were both murdered by Bella, how cool is that?"

Lily winced and hid her face in James' shoulder, Remus smacked his palm on his forehead and James only shook his head.

"Too soon, Pads. Too soon," James said.

Sirius had the decency of looking slightly ashamed for a second, but then Dora laughed and it was all over.

"You know," Lily said, looking around. "I think we should go greet our new neighbours."

As they walked towards the other new arrivals, Remus took Dora's hand in his and gave her a little smile. Teddy would be fine and so would they.

Insane House Challenge

#186 – Action: Kick something

August Auction

Day 30/ Auction 3 – Character: Remus Lupin