A/N: First off, thanks for all the reviews :D You're all awesome. In response to a couple of them: this is a plot-driven story, so it's not going to have a ton of fluff and ship moments. That being said, there will definitely be some Scorp/Al (maybe James or Lily and an OC but not until later on :D ), but probably not a lot of Clace because they aren't the main point of the story. It'll be more focused on Magnus and Tessa and the wizards (maybe Malec? MY LOVES). I also don't like playing around too much with characters that still have plot lines going when I'm writing a plot driven fic like this, because I want it to stay as canon as possible and we don't really know what's going to change.
Enjoy this chapter!
Teddy Lupin stared into his mirror at himself. His brown hair was arranged neatly on his head, but he combed through it one last time, to make sure it was neat anyways.
"Edward Remus Lupin," he said to his reflection, "you are going to go in there, and be more professional than you have ever been before in your life."
"Talking to yourself, dear?" asked his wife Victoire. She walked in, carrying a squirming three year old in her arms.
He turned to her grinning, and his hair morphed into a bright blue colour. "Of course I'm talking to myself, Vic. Isn't it a sign of hidden genius?"
His son clapped and squealed at Teddy's bright blue hair while Victoire muttered just so Teddy could hear, "More like a sign of going senile in your twenties."
"I'll have you know, I am perfectly sane. Now Victoire," he turned back to the mirror with a flourish, "is my muggle clothing okay? And is blue hair professional enough, d'you think?"
"Blue hair is quite professional, yes. You look rather drab without it. You're an Auror, you don't work in an office. And your muggle clothing?" she raised an eyebrow at him. "You might not want to forget your pants."
Victoire turned around to walk into the kitchen, still holding her son. But before she left the room, he could hear her say, "Now, Will. Daddy is missing his pants because he's a Hufflepuff, and that's the sort of stuff they do. When you get to Hogwarts, you're going to be in Gryffindor, because we don't do silly things like that."
He heard is son reply solemnly back, "'kay, Mommy."
"OUTRAGE," Teddy yelled, sweeping into the kitchen. "BLASPHEMY TOWARDS THE NAME OF THE GOOD HELGA HUFFLEPUFF. PREJUDICE!"
"Go put pants on, dear," was Victoire's only response.
Teddy swooped in and picked his son up off the floor where Vic had put him, along with a toy car. "Come along, Prince William Arthur Lupin. You are going to help me pick out my pants."
"Ted, he needs to stay here and eat," said Victoire exasperated.
"Nonsense. You haven't even started cooking breakfast, yet. And I need to feed him my own prejudice to counter your anti-Hufflepuff-ness."
"That's not a word, Teddy dear," she said amusedly, as she was cracking eggs into a bowl.
"I don't care," he said. "Come along, Prince." He turned with dramatic flair, carrying his son out with him.
His son's name wasn't Prince, of course. To most of the family, he was called Will. But Teddy thought his name sounded rather Prince-like. William Arthur, Prince of the Weasley family. And the Lupin one. And the Potter one. Anyways, much to Victoire's chagrin, he began to call their child Prince. Or Prince William Arthur Lupin. Victoire secretly thought it was funny, though. He knew that. Well, he was pretty sure she did.
"Now, Prince," he said, setting his child down solemnly on his bed, "You should not listen to your mother. Well, you should," he quickly amended while pulling on a pair of muggle jeans, "but not right now. She is blathering nonsense. Hufflepuff is the house of kings."
"Daddy," said Prince, looking at him solemnly.
"Yes, Prince William Arthur Lupin?"
"Pink!" he shouted. Teddy sighed. This child had a one-track mind. Sighing, he screwed up his face and changed every single aspect of his features a bright, bubblegum pink. Prince William Aruthur Lupin squealed and clapped. Children.
Teddy walked out of the room with Prince on his hip, completely clothed, and bright pink. He walked into his kitchen to see James and Victoire sitting at the table and talking amiably.
"Oi, you're here early," he said to James. James just looked up at him.
"And you're pink," he finally responded. "Also, you have food. Mum's away reporting on a Harpies game, so I would have had to make breakfast myself. I'd probably burn down the kitchen."
"You could have just eaten cereal, you know," Teddy told him.
"Cereal," said James, "is not manly."
"And pancakes are?" asked Victoire, raising an eyebrow in her characteristic way.
"Pancakes are very manly," said James. "In a sweet, fluffly kind of way."
James was just finishing up his Auror training. Harry had pulled some strings so he was able to be Teddy's protégé, which they both found endlessly amusing. He was pretty sure Harry regretted it, though. They rarely, if ever, got their paperwork done.
James was here today to go with Teddy to the Shadowhunter institute in Lodon, to talk to the Shadowhunter war heroes about the fey situation.
Victoire put a platter of pancakes on the middle of the table, and they all sat down to eat. Teddy piled five pancakes onto his plate, but somehow James had gotten a hold of eight pancakes, and was currently slathering them with syrup.
"James Sirius Potter," said Victoire, "you had better be able to eat all of those."
"Victoire, have I ever given you reason to doubt me?" Victoire raised both eyebrows at him. James amended, "I mean, doubt my eating abilities."
"Well, I have a distinct memory of a seven year old James throwing up on a ten year old me because he had eaten five pieces of cake." Teddy laughed as Victoire shuddered.
"I remember that," he said. "You ate more slices than Freddy, though. Wasn't that the bet?"
"Yup. That was the day I became seven sickles richer. And I've hated vanilla cake ever since," said James, almost proudly.
Somehow, James had managed to finish eating during the conversation, and was now eyeing the last pancake on the platter, which Victoire was also eyeing hungrily.
"Don't you even think about it," Teddy said to James, who had begun to reach for the pancake. Teddy reached over and deposited the pancake on Victoire's plate. She smiled at him.
"You've eaten eight," he told James. "My wife has eaten two, and has another human life living inside of her. Isn't that right, Nymphadora Andromeda Lupin?" he asked the growing babybump on his wife's stomach.
"Teddy, how many times do I have to say this? We are not naming our child Nymphadora Andromeda."
"You got to name this one, though," Teddy whined, pointing to Prince William Arthur Lupin.
"Yes, and then you basically renamed him to Prince, so I think I get control of the next name, too."
"Women," Teddy huffed. It caused Victoire to roll her eyes. This was, essentially, a normal morning in the Lupin household.
"We should get going, Ted," James finally said. "We're supposed to meet them in a half hour, and we can't apparate directly there."
Teddy nodded in agreement. "Goodbye, my wonderful, occasionally blasphemous wife," he said, kissing Victoire on the cheek. "Goodbye, Prince William Arthur Lupin," he said, ruffling his son's hair. "Goodbye, Nymphadora Andromeda Lupin," he said, patting his wife's belly. Then, with a flourish, he apparated out of his home.
Ted appeared in front of a building that seemed quite nondescript. He sat down on a bench on the roadside and waited for James to appear.
"It's ugly," said James as he appeared with a pop next to Lupin. Lupin grinned and threw an arm around his shoulders.
"Ah, Jamesie," he said. "It's what's on the inside that counts, my dear brother."
"Ah, Teddy," James replied in the same fashion. "You are as completely insane as usual."
Arm in arm, they walked up to the door and knocked. They had to wait for a minute or two, but then the door was opened by a man. He was dressed in all black, but his hair was long, wild, and a contrasting gold, and so were his eyes. This was good. If Teddy was meeting a man with gold eyes, that meant that his blue hair really wasn't technically out of place.
"You're early," said the man, but he stepped back to let them enter.
"Daddy, that's rude," said a voice from somewhere in the shadows of the entryway. This voice had an American accent, unlike the voice of the man. His accent wasn't British, though. It was more lilting than that. Interesting.
Teddy peered around to see if he could see where it was coming from, but he couldn't see anything. Strange. It sounded like a child's voice.
The man, however, appeared less confused. In fact, he seemed to know exactly what was happening.
"No, Stevie, you're being rude," he said with a sigh. "If you're going to spy on our conversation, you may as well come out here and greet our guests."
"You weren't having a conversation," said the boy as he stepped into the light. Teddy smirked. The boy had red hair, and it was almost a perfect Weasley red. Apparently, there were Weasley-esque people even outside of the Wizarding World.
The man shot them an apologetic look before turning back to his son. "Well, we would have if you hadn't interrupted. Was Teresa with you?"
"Yeah, but she ran away. Wimp."
"Be nice to your sister," said the man sternly, but Teddy could see his eyes twinkling. Evidently, his son noticed that, too.
"You call me a wimp, though," said the boy, Stevie, indignantly.
"Yes, but only to your face," said the man laughing openly. He turned back to his guests with another apologetic look. "I'm sorry about him. I'm Jace Herondale. This is Stephen, but we usually call him Stevie."
"Ah. Well, I'm Edward Lupin, but most people call me Teddy." Teddy winked at Stevie. "I know a thing or two about terrible names."
"And yet you want to name your child Nymphadora Andromeda," drawled James. He stepped forward and held out his hand for Jace to shake. "I'm James Potter, and somehow between Teddy and I I've managed to be the mature one."
"Stop undermining my authority," whined Teddy.
"You don't have authority, Teds. I don't know what Dad was thinking, putting you in charge of me."
Jace watched them with an amused expression on his face. When they finished bickering, he said, "Okay, well, you can follow me. There are a couple others we're going to meet with." He turned to look at his son, and said to him, "You go find Teresa. I want you two to train on your own, okay? Bow and arrow. Also, don't kill each other. Your mother would kill me if you did. Then Uncle Alec would kill your mother, and we'd all be dead." Stevie laughed and ran away, down a dark hallway.
Jace beckoned to Teddy and James to follow him and led them through twisting hallways. Everything looked the same. It was terribly confusing. Without realizing it, Teddy's hair changed to a pale grey colour to mirror his confusion. He felt James elbow him in the ribs.
"Your hair," he hissed at Teddy under his breath. Teddy made a confused face at him. "It's grey," clarified James.
Teddy regarded him for a second and then shrugged. "I'm in the mood for grey hair. Blue is too typical. I need a change."
"You're such a girl," whined James.
Jace looked back at them. "You can change your hair colour?" he looked surprised at first, but seemed to quickly mask it.
"I can change my whole appearance," Teddy explained. "I'm a metamorphagi." He changed his nose into a pig snout and then back. This time, Jace hardly looked fazed. He just nodded and turned back around to open the door to a room.
It was the library, obviously, since there were books piled just about everywhere. They walked around a couple of corners and came to what looked like a central room of the library. There were already two people sitting at a table, and there were five more chairs open.
The two people, who had seemed to be deep in conversation, stood as they entered. The woman had red hair, but it wasn't as Weasley-red as the boy's had been, thank Merlin. Teddy did not want to be surrounded by Weasley-looking people when he didn't have to be. He was married to a Weasley, for Merlin's sake.
The man was quite plain in comparison. He was skinny and had black hair. They all had marks tracing their skin. Some were dark black, while others were silvery and looked like they shimmered when they turned. Those were runes, Teddy remembered. They were sort of like magic, but not really. Or something.
"I'm Clarissa Herondale," said the woman, smiling at them. She shook each of their hands in turn. "You can call me Clary, though."
"I'm Edward Lupin, but you should call me Teddy." Teddy paused in thought for a moment, before adding, "I don't respond to Edward."
"I'm James Potter," said James, stepping partially in front of Teddy.
"You can call him Jamesie, though," added Teddy, pushing James out of the way.
"You really can't," said James, as the rest of the group laughed.
"I'm Alexander Lightwood," said the last of the group. "But I go by Alec. I'm the head of the London Institute, here."
The group sat down, and James began. "Right, so technically I'm Teddy's trainee," he said. Everyone looked at Teddy who was leaned back in his chair, a contented smile on his face, before James continued, "and I suppose you could say he's the better fighter of the two of us. But, erm, I'll probably be doing most of the talking."
Clary chuckled a little, and both Jace and Alec turned to look at her incredulously. "Sorry," she said in response to their looks. "I just can't help thinking that all hell will break loose between Teddy and Magnus when he gets here."
"Magnus?" asked James, whie Teddy grinned and added, "I like the sound of him." Magnus Bane, thought Teddy, was a very cool name. Just like Teddy Lupin. Teddy was going to make a new best friend.
Jace nodded but said, "I guess this a good place to start. Magnus Bane and Tessa Carstairs will be joining us, hopefully soon. The Ministry allowed us to place them in Hogwarts. They're each warlocks. Magnus will be teaching, what was it?" he asked, looking at Alec for help.
"Defence Against the Dark Arts," Alec continued seamlessly for him. "He's also the head of Hufflepuff house. Tessa is the Matron."
"Head of Hufflepuff?" asked Teddy. He grinned. Definitely best friend material.
Jace nodded and looked at him questioningly.
"Ignore him for now," James said helpfully. "He'll turn into business mode at some point and actually become helpful. I think."
"Right," said Clary. "Well, when they get here we can discuss the Hogwarts situation. What is the Ministry's view on the situation with the Fair Folk right now?"
"Shacklebolt, the Minister, isn't too concerned, I don't think," said James. "Teddy would know better than I do, he's in direct contact with the Minister."
Four heads turned around to Teddy, who was actually looking relatively prepared to talk, for once. "Right, well, I'm not really in direct contact with the minister. I'm in direct contact with the Head Auror. Also," he said, looking pointedly at James, "You live with the head Auror. You're in more direct contact than I am."
"We don't talk about work at home. Not the point, Teds."
"Sorry to interrupt," put in Clary, "But could you maybe run us through some family details, so we actually know what you're talking about when you talk like that?"
"Sorry," said Teddy, having the good sense to look a little bit abashed.
"Well," said James, "my dad is Harry Potter. He's the Head Auror. My uncle, Ron Weasley, is the Deputy Head. Teds is married to Uncle Ron's neice, so that makes him somehow related. Also, he's Harry's godson, and grew up with his grandmother, but was often at our house when we were all kids. So he's like my annoying older brother, even though we're not actually realted."
"That was confusing," said Alec. "It didn't help."
"It helped me," said Jace, sitting up a little bit straighter. "I always knew my brain was superior to yours."
"Not the time, Jace," said Clary, but she looked amused.
So, these people weren't completely serious all the time, Teddy realized. He liked them all a little bit more now.
"Anyways," said Teddy, "he doesn't think it's a big issue. He's a little bit worried about some sort of isolated attacks happening, but I think he thinks each world will keep to itself, like we always have in the past."
"It won't happen like that," said Jace. He was repeatedly spinning a very sharp knife around and around on the table. "They Fair Folk want wands. I'm not certain on that, but it would make the most sense. We know they want revenge for what the Clave did, we knew that as soon as they put all the laws on the Fey. But the Seelie Queen will want more than that. She was in league with Jonathan, after all. And the only place he didn't look was to the wizarding world." He seemed to almost spit out the name Jonathan. "Actually, most of that is what Magnus thinks. But I'm pretty sure he's right about this."
"That makes sense," put in James. "They have their own sort of magic, and wands could probably increase their capabilities with it."
"Exactly," said an unfamilliar voice. It was accompanied by an unfamilliar man striding into the room, with an amused looking woman following him. They were an interesting pair. Anyone looking could tell they were good friends, however where the man was all glitter and bright colours, the woman was much more reserved and seemed gentle.
Teddy watched him, grinning a little bit. Colours were good. Lots of bright colours. Yes.
Alec rose and gave the man a peck on the lips before turning back to the group with a bit of a blush and saying, "This is Magnus Bane and Teresa Carstairs. They are the warlocks who are at Hogwarts."
"Pleasure," said Magnus, with a sort of sweeping bow. "Now, lets get down to business."
Definitely best friend material.