"Teddy, it's half past nine! Today is begun, carpe diem my boy!"
Teddy groaned. He did not like mornings. He certainly didn't like mornings where he was woken up by a chipper voice, who as drawing the curtains in his room so that the sunlight pierced his vision.
"Just like your parents...really, I had them stay for a week in Surrey and all they did was lay in bed until noon. Come to think of it, you were born some nine months later, so perhaps—"
"Enough!" Teddy groaned, wiping at his eyes and sitting upright. "Please, anything but that." Lyall's eyes twinkled.
"I'm only kidding, my boy, but I'm glad it got you up. Now, vas-y! We have places to go, people to see! I'll be downstairs with some chocolatines and tea for breakfast, I'll see you down there."
Lyall, cheery as ever, exited Teddy's room and closed the door gingerly. Teddy was not amused. He contemplated going back to sleep for a moment, but knew if he did, he would hear some new traumatizing falsehood (or truth) about his creation, so he began to slowly rise out of bed and slip on a shirt.
"Crazy old man," he muttered, running his hand through his hair before opening up his bedroom door. He took the creaky stairs down to the kitchen, where Lyall eagerly awaited him.
"Bonjour, my sleeping beauty! Now, I've gotten us chocolatines from the boulangerie down the street—you'll have to come with me one of these days—and before you correct me, I will tell you anyone who calls them pains au chocolats is wrong. In this house, we say-"
"Shhhh," Teddy interjected. "Your energy is suffocating. How are you like this?" The boys asked, groggily taking his seat. Lyall chuckled.
"Well, when you get to be my age, you're never quite sure how many years you'll have left," Lyall mused rather darkly. In fact, he would live until the ripe age of 110, but he had seen many younger than him leave the earth far before their time. "When that's the case, you make the most of every day!" Teddy shivered. He hoped he would never be quite like this. Of course, he would be, and his own grandchildren would complain to him the same way. But Teddy was quite content in his youthful ignorance.
"Alright...but Rennes isn't going anywhere, is it? I mean, it will be there in an hour-"
"—an hour? No, we'll leave as soon as we can! Mange, drink, let us prepare!" Lyall exclaimed. Teddy winced. "Oh, right. Let us prepare," Lyall said quietly, winking.
"I still don't get how you are so happy all the time," Teddy grumbled. "I mean, you didn't have an easy life, and no offense—but you've certainly lost more than your fair share. How do you do it?" Teddy asked. "How are you not…angry?" Lyall's smile faded somewhat, but it quickly resurfaced.
"Oh, I was angry, Teddy. For many years I hated myself, hated what I had done, cursed the world when my wife and son were taken from me far too young, despised my siblings for abandoning me when I needed them the most...but it doesn't do any good, you see." Lyall paused. "It's a change in mentality. You could look at it as I did for some time—I kept losing things, certain things were taken from me, etc. Or, you could flip it around."
"How do you flip all that around?" Teddy asked, incredulously. "I mean, I find myself angry and I don't even know what I had in the first place!"
"Easy, my boy! Take my siblings, and parents, for that matter, as an example. I had the most loving and doting parents, and the best siblings a boy could have, for over thirty years. Then, I didn't. But surely having that for thirty years is better than never having it, and it's certainly better than a lifetime with a bunch of red caps. I also took part in the greatest love story I could imagine, and I can tell you right now I prefer those 20-odd years with Hope to a lifetime of being alone, or worse," Lyall flinched, "A lifetime of being married to the wrong person. Or, your father—for four years, I had the most wonderful, happiest little boy. Then, for 34 more, I had the most wonderful, kind, and thoughtful werewolf son the world has ever seen! For a year, I had the most excellent daughter-in-law, and for about a month, you had the most amazing parents I've ever seen. Certainly, having had all of those things for a brief time is better than not at all?" Lyall asked. Teddy nodded slowly. When you put it that way…
"And now, I have the best grandparents and the greatest god-family I could imagine," Teddy finished. That did feel better. "Okay, I get it. I can see why you're so happy all the time. But how did you figure this out?" Teddy asked. Lyall simply smiled.
"Your father—that's how. I always wondered myself why he wasn't so angry all the time—and certainly he did get angry, but he always swallowed it down. Apparently, he would think about things in a very similar way: for four years, he had the perfect childhood. For the next seven, he had the most perfect childhood he supposed a werewolf could ever have. I asked him once and that's exactly what he told me." Teddy ruminated for a moment. How could a child have been so mature?
"But, by this same logic, if I did want to sleep until noon, I could have the best day that started at noon, rather than at nine in the morning?" Teddy quipped. Lyall shook his head.
"Sorry, Teddy, it doesn't work that way when your grandfather wants you to get your arse out of bed," He joked. "Now, eat up. We have a world to explore!"
After finishing breakfast and putting on a real outfit, Teddy was ready to head out with his grandfather. Lyall drove a 1982 Renault—something Teddy had never seen in his life. No one in his family drove anywhere, unless you counted the broken flying car at the Weasley's.
"You've never seen a Renault, my boy?" Lyall asked with a smile.
"I've never seen a car," Teddy replied.
The two got into the car and drove through Lyall's little neighborhood and into the city of Rennes. Teddy peered out the window in amazement: he never really got to see muggle cities much. Sure, there was London, but he didn't go to muggle London. Lyall muttered French curses under is breath, dodging people just walking in the street—something about Brits on holiday, from what Teddy gathered. Eventually, Lyall drove the two to a more secluded part of town, and parked in front of a small little hut.
"Where are we?" Teddy asked as the car stopped. "This doesn't look like anything at all, it's just a street."
"This, my boy, is the most magical street in Rennes. You have Diagon Alley, we have Rue de Charlemagne. It may not look like much, but that is exactly the point. And this hut here…well, this is the most magical place of all. Come on, Teddy, let me introduce you to an old friend."
Inside the little hut, Teddy could tell that the same charm that made his grandfather's home look smaller than it actually was also was at play here. A second story seemed to appear out of nowhere, and everywhere Teddy looked was…chocolate. Umbrellas made of chocolate, registers made of chocolate, toy trains that whizzed around on a track—all chocolate. His eyes widened at the sights around him.
"Bienvenue," Lyall began, "To your father's favorite place in all of France."
Teddy gazed at his grandfather in amazement. "It's…incredible." Above him, a chocolate airplane flew and dropped truffles, one falling right in Teddy's own hands. "I—"
"—Lyall, salut! Ça va, mon homme? Qui est—" A man had appeared, adjusted his glasses, and paused. "C'est…mais…"
"Rico, ce n'est pas Remus. C'est son fils—Teddy. Mais il ne parle pas français," Lyall said, rolling his eyes but placing his hand on Teddy's shoulder. "Teddy, this is Rico—the greatest chocolatier known to wizardkind. Rico, Teddy is my grandson. He's staying with me this summer."
"Salut," Teddy said, waving his hand. Rico grinned, adjusted his glasses and bounded up to the young boy. "Teddy! You look…comment-dit-on, like a doppelganger of your father, especially in my own shop," he joked. "How do you like our home of France?"
Teddy smiled. "It is very nice, monsieur."
"Ah, Lyall, you have been teaching him!" Rico exclaimed. "But you should have told me you were coming—I would have brought out Remus' old favorites—"
"He's not his father," Lyall insisted. "I—"
"It's okay, grandpa," Teddy interjected. "I'd love to see what my father liked. Though I can't imagine what anyone wouldn't like here," He smiled.
"A true Lupin!" Rico cheered. "Trés bien. Teddy, come, I'll show you around."
Teddy learned that Rico was a squib. Originally from Italy, he had come to France due to some muggle thing linking the countries that the boy couldn't be bothered to know about. He had established his chocolate shop about 35 years ago, and never looked back. While Rico couldn't practice magic himself, he absolutely loved it, and thought that the best way to spread his joy was through chocolate. Teddy couldn't complain, and after eating his weight in chocolate, came to see why his grandfather needed to bring him into town earlier rather than later—by the end of the day, Rico was normally of out of the "good" stuff (though everything looked good to Teddy). As it turned out, when Remus was younger and the Lupins would go on the few vacations they took, this was always that first stop. Young Remus would run as fast he could through the store to find his beloved chocolate bars which he was convinced could cure anything. Darkly, Lyall used to joke with Hope and Rico that any sort of "cure" for lycanthropy would certainly come from cacao.
The last stop Rico brought Teddy to on his grand tour was a magic chocolate sculpture of a man.
"On the full moon, this chocolate man turns into a chocolate wolf. I loved your father dearly, and when I heard of his passing, I wanted to find some way of honoring him. It's not a best-seller, but it does sell—I figure if anything can remove the prejudice your father faced, chocolate might."
Teddy stared at the chocolate in amazement.
"I, I hope you like it," Rico said quietly. "It's not much, but—"
"I love it," Teddy interjected. "How many can I get?"