Hey, here's chapter two...sooner than I expected, but there you are. There'll be three more chapters after this one, so I hope you're all along for the ride! Thanks so much for reviewing:

Dark Angel: Thanks for reviewing-Ted will be ok, I promise...

PottersLittleSister: Thanks for the compliment! Yes, Remus made a few mistakes, and I hope I portray all of his characteristics right.

I 4 2 write: Here' s more!

dui: I have my own image of how Remus looks in my mind; the movie butchered him. So that's where I get the tall-broadshouldered stuff from-I figure to be a werewolf he's got to be pretty buff. :) And since this will be a Remus/Teddy centered fic, I will do my best to show Remus how I think he was, faults and all. Thanks for commenting!

And just to make things clear-its italicized because Teddy is in memories. It's not a computer glitch or anything. Enjoy!

Chapter Two

Harry pushed open the study door and twisted his head to gauge Teddy's reaction. The soft blue light that emanated from the stone basin on the desk cast dancing shadows on the wall and across Teddy's face. Harry beckoned him forward and shut the door behind them both.

"This is a pensieve, Ted," he said. Teddy nodded.

"I know. Where'd you get it?"

"I borrowed it, actually," Harry said. "Last week. I've been setting it up for you to use this afternoon. I'd been planning on speaking to you a week ago, but I thought that maybe this would work better."

Teddy looked at him with one eyebrow raised. "Why do I need it?"

Harry smiled. "It's not for your thoughts; it's for you to take a look at some old memories. I've got some of mine in there along with some others I gleaned from people who knew…" he hesitated, and Teddy finished the sentence for him. "My dad."

"Well, yes," Harry admitted. Teddy's voice had been expressionless, but the interested light had disappeared from his eyes. "Just give it a chance, all right? Get to know your dad a little. And before you ask, no, I didn't just take the good memories. I put his mistakes in there too."

"Does it have any of my mum?"

"A little."

Teddy looked a little mutinous, but a cautious curiosity had crept back into his face. Harry sighed. "For me, Ted. I spent all morning preparing this for you, and…"

Teddy flapped a hand at him. "All right, you don't need to guilt-trip me. I'll look at them, ok?"

Harry grinned. "Thanks. Some are longer than others, but I don't think you'll be bored." He opened the door and stepped out into the hallway. "I'll make sure you're not disturbed."

Teddy nodded and the door shut behind his godfather. He flopped into the desk chair, staring at the carved runes and symbols on the pensieve. The blue, shimmering light was almost hypnotic, and he finally sighed and pulled himself up.

"This is for you, Harry," he muttered, and shoved his face into the swirling thoughts. He fell into the void, tumbling through darkness for several moments before performing what felt like a slow backflip into the memory.

A little disoriented, he nearly missed his Godfather's first words. Harry stood in front of him, looking tired and a little old. He was holding his glasses in one hand, scrubbing at his forehead with the other.

"Teddy, I know I should have told you this years ago. And I don't blame you for being angry with me. I expect you to be furious, actually. I even took the easy way out in telling you through memories rather than face-to-face. Forgive me." He sighed, replaced his glasses, and looked up; Teddy moved an inch to the right so that Harry was staring right at him. "This is your father, Ted. One of the best men I ever knew, and I think I knew him better than most." Pause. Cough. "Nothing for it. Here you are." His Godfather vanished, and there was momentary blackness.

--

Then it brightened, and Teddy found himself standing it the middle of the Great Hall. It was packed with students, sitting at their respective tables. All of them were staring up at a small knot of students at the front of the hall, in the center of which was the ragged sorting hat. Teddy glanced around him; an older boy with bright red hair was sitting a few seats away from him, staring with interest not at the sorting, but at a short, cheerful-looking girl across the table. Teddy recognized her as a younger Molly Weasley; she too had red hair. This was Arthur, then, and Mr. Weasley's memory.

"Lupin, Remus!"

The name jumped at him from across the hall; he whipped around to see a young, lanky boy with dark brown hair clambering onto the sorting stool. Even from here, he looked pale. The hat fell down around his ears-there was nearly thirty seconds of silence, and then, "Gryffindor!"

The table to Teddy's right erupted in a storm of cheering; Remus slipped off the stool looking relieved and moved along the table towards Teddy. He took the empty seat next to Arthur, who greeted him with a handshake.

"Arthur Weasley. Good job, getting Gryffindor!"

"Thanks," Remus said quietly, flashing Arthur a nervous smile. "I wasn't sure."

"Well, the Sorting Hat's never wrong," Arthur said genially. "Glad to have you."

Teddy stared down at his eleven-year-old father, feeling an odd mixture of amusement and anger. Gryffindor? How could his father have been in Gryffindor? But the room began to dissolve, and with it Remus.

--

His father looked older now, tired, stressed, as he sat head down in the Hogwarts library, poring over a dusty, ancient volume. There were several books stacked near him; obviously books for light reading; both wizarding and muggle novels. He turned a page, fingering it absent-mindedly as he shifted position on the hard chair. His light brown hair flopped into his eyes, but he did not move to push it away. Occasionally he would pause in his reading to scribble something on a piece of parchment in slanted cursive. Just when Teddy began to wonder why this particular scene was in the pensieve, Madam Pince, the vulture-like librarian, appeared from between two rows of books.

"I'm sorry, Lupin," she said almost kindly, "but it's almost after hours. I'm closing the library."

Remus looked up at her, a polite smile creasing his face. "Thanks. Mind if I just finish this sentence?"

Madam Pince smiled. "Of course not. Take your time." She turned away, and Remus bent hurriedly back over the parchment, forehead creased as his eyes flew across the page. Teddy snorted. So his father was a favorite with the librarian. A suck-up. Brown-noser. All the same, he was intrigued. So his father had liked to read…just like Teddy.

"What are you studying, Lupin?" Pince asked a moment later as Remus straightened and shut the book. Remus looked up with a sudden grimace and said shortly,

"Dark creatures and how to subdue them."

A shadowed look passed across Pince's face before she smiled understandingly and patted him on the shoulder. "Get a good night's rest tonight."

"Thanks, I will," Remus said mechanically, slinging his bag across his shoulders and flashing a quick smile. "Goodnight, and thanks for letting me bother you tonight."

"It's no trouble."

Remus strode out of the library and the scene changed…

--

The hospital wing was dark, quiet, and vacated but for one occupied bed at the very end. The single light cast by the bedside lamp illuminated the shadowed face of Remus, sitting propped up with pillows. Teddy walked down the row of beds, staring at his teenage father. He looked awful. Congealed blood matted his scalp; shadows under his eyes emphasized his obvious exhaustion. One arm was tucked against his side, the other holding the wrist tightly to keep it in place. He was extremely pale, eyes glinting oddly amber in the lamplight. He looked around as Madam Pomfrey hurried toward him from her office, hugging her nightdress tightly around her and bearing several bottles of potion.

"What took you so long this time, Remus?" she asked in motherly irritation. "You've never been this late…"

"I was a bit dizzy," Remus said vaguely, wincing as she lifted his arm to examine it carefully. "And it didn't end until about noon, so I had to wait until it got dark to leave the Willow."

This puzzled Teddy, but he waited, more curious then he would have dared to let on had there been a witness.

"Your friends could have helped you out."

Remus shrugged but didn't answer; he looked a little guilty, and Madam Pomfrey's lips tightened as she swabbed a brownish liquid onto the scratches on his arm. She glanced up into his face several times as she worked, but he avoided her gaze.

"Remus," she began a few moments later, voice layered with concern, "I want you to be careful, understand? There aren't many things more dangerous than a werewolf, and if anything should happen…"

"I know," Remus interrupted, and his voice sounded harsh and bitter. "I know."

Madam Pomfrey didn't reply, so there was nothing to distract Teddy's suddenly whirling, horrified thoughts. A werewolf? Remus Lupin had been a werewolf?

"I'll be careful, I promise," Remus said, breaking the silence and his son's thoughts with his tired, hoarse voice. "I promise."

--

He was now standing against the wall in a crowded, noisy corridor; it was obviously between classes, and the students were scrumming to get through, loaded with books and bags. Teddy glanced around, reluctantly eager to find his father, and spotted him almost immediately. The tall, rangy teenager was standing quietly next to two very loud, white-faced, enraged boys that Teddy recognized immediately from pictures in Harry's house; James Potter and Sirius Black. Remus looked highly uncomfortable, worried, and rather exhausted. The cold realization dropped into Teddy's stomach—his father was a werewolf. He almost gagged, furious with himself and suddenly, with Harry. Such a vital piece of information! But James was shouting over the clamor now, and Teddy moved closer to listen, pushing away the anger for later.

"You dare! You dare to even speak her name, you filthy sniveling Slytherin! How DARE you?"

For the first time, Teddy noticed another teenager, this one with shoulder-length, greasy black hair, who was looking cornered and furious against the wall of students. He was wandless, but his fists were clenched at his sides as though daring James to attack him.

"She is not your property!" he yelled, and Teddy recognized him; Severus Snape. "She's not yours, and she never will be!"

"She's not yours either!" James shouted, incensed, and his wand arm rose. Remus stepped forward hastily then, and one long-fingered hand rose to stop the wand's progress.

"James, please. Not in the corridors."

"Outside then!" James said. Remus shook his head and with apparent little effort forced James' hand back down.

"No! He hasn't done anything…"

"He's insulted all of us, Moony," Sirius stepped in, his own wand clenched tightly in his fist. "You're not going to let him get away with that…"

"Yes, I am," Remus said firmly, loudly, over the catcalling and jeering of the crowd. He glanced at Snape, and his gaze seemed almost pitying underneath the stress. "And you'll listen, both of you. I am a prefect, and I will dock you points! Or detention!."

James started to laugh, incredulous, but the stony look on Remus' face stopped him dead. "You're not serious."

"No, he is," Remus said, a ghost of a grin passing over his face. Sirius snorted, but did not look amused.

"Come on, Moony."

"No. Please, James."

"I don't need your help," Snape said coldly, eyes flashing as he stared at Remus across the hall. "I can deal with my own problems."

"I'm not doing it for you, then," Remus said mildly. "James, Sirius…"

James threw off Remus' placating arm then, staring at the werewolf bitterly. "Forget it." He raised his wand, but at that moment a voice rang through the hall, stopping everyone in their tracks. Teddy turned to see a younger Professor McGonagall striding toward them, livid, and the hall darkened.

--

He was back in the hospital wing, but instead of Madam Pomfrey this time, James, Sirius, and a boy Teddy knew must be Peter Pettigrew were gathered around Remus. Teddy moved closer, staring as if hypnotized at his father's face. Teddy could tell he had been crying, though he looked Teddy's age. Now Remus simply looked furious, betrayed, hurt; he wouldn't meet any of his friend's eyes. Teddy glanced around the hospital wing, confused; whose memory was this? His answer came as he saw Madam Pomfrey watching through her office window, a sad but wary look on her plump face. His curiosity peaked; what had happened that she thought they needed supervision?

"Moony, I'm sorry. I really am," Sirius said, for what sounded like the umpteenth time. "If I could go back…"

"Well, you can't, can you, Black?" Remus snapped, amber gaze jumping to Sirius' face. "You can't go back. You can't change what happened."

"Nothing happened, though," Sirius pleaded, looking at James for help. James only shrugged lopsidedly, face creased in a frown. "Prongs got there in time."

"But what if he hadn't?" Remus asked, leaning forward, eyes blazing, one eyebrow cocked scathingly. "If I had killed him; if I had even touched him, I'd be rotting in a cell in Azkaban right now. And you know where you would be, Sirius? Here. You'd be here at Hogwarts, going about your classes like nothing had happened!"
"No!" Sirius looked scandalized. "No, I'd be sitting right there next to you, keeping you laughing like always…"

"I wouldn't be laughing," Remus said. "And you wouldn't be there with me. That's not what happens in this world, Black. I'm not normal. You are. You're the "Noble and Most Ancient House of Black"; I'm a half-blooded monster. I go to prison, and you get off with not so much as a warning. I get the Kiss, and you're laughing at home with your life intact."

"Laughing! I'm not laughing!"

Remus laughed, a horrible, barking, stricken laugh that had all four of his listeners recoiling. "I am! I'm laughing! Because I don't know what else to do. I nearly had what life I have ruined last night. And it was all your fault. And I'm sorry, Black. I don't know if I can forgive you."

Sirius swallowed. He looked utterly miserable. "I apologized to Snape."

Remus jerked his head. "Well, I should hope so. Telling him to go meet a fully grown werewolf down a dark tunnel inside the Shrieking Shack where he regularly transforms and rips things to shreds deserves an apology. "

"I know."

"And now he knows too."

"I know."

"Go away, Sirius. I can't talk to you anymore." Remus looked suddenly beaten, bruised; he lay back on his pillows, face white against the sheets. "Just go."

Sirius looked for a moment as if he were about to say something else, but no sound came out. He cleared his throat, and his eyes looked suddenly wet. He turned away quickly and strode down the hospital wing, back straight. James and Peter stared after him, and then back at Remus.

"Think you can ever forgive him?" James asked quietly. Remus laughed hoarsely.

"I don't know, Prongs. I really don't know."

James nodded slowly. "I'll stick with him, you know. I won't abandon him."

"I know. I wasn't expecting you to. Thanks, James. For getting Snape, I mean."

"Yeah. It was stupid thing for him to do."

Remus' grin was full of anger, bitterness; when he spoke, his voice was harsh again with rage. "Tell me about it." He turned to the side, away from Teddy, James, and Peter, and exhaled shakily. "I'm tired."

"We'll let you get some sleep, then," James said quietly, and motioned to Peter. They both left quickly, and Teddy was left to stare at his father, who after a moment turned to face the ceiling. There were tears on his cheeks, and he squeezed his eyes shut tightly and let them come.

--

Teddy found himself back in Harry's study now, and there was Harry again, watching him anxiously. "Ted, I decided to give you a little breather here; I know you're probably overwhelmed. There's a load of information in these few memories, and I wanted to give you some time to process it. Think about them for a while; I think you'll find you already know your father lots better than you used to."

Teddy turned away from his Godfather and stared at the wall behind him, thoughts whirling. What did he know? His father was a werewolf. How long? When had he been bitten? By whom? How? Why was he at Hogwarts? Teddy abandoned this bit of information; there were too many loose ends.

His father liked to read; so did Teddy. He had been a Gryffindor prefect; so was Teddy. His best friends were James Potter and Sirius Black, and unlike what seemed the rest of the school population, he didn't hate Severus Snape. Apparently he had always done his homework, which was a trait Teddy hadn't inherited, and he was a favorite with both the school librarian and nurse. He had gotten into a rather large argument with Sirius over what had sounded like a prank gone wrong, he didn't like trouble, and he had no apparent love interest. Had his father been any fun at all?

Teddy groaned in frustration. He had facts, and that was all. He still knew virtually nothing about his father's personality but what he could infer from the memories so far. He turned back to Harry, who was staring at the wall blankly, apparently lost in thought. As he watched, Harry jerked, looked up, and smiled lopsidedly.

"Ready for the next batch? What I've showed you so far is mostly fact (Teddy grinned). What you're about to see is your father's more emotional side. Mind, getting into his emotions was like trying to dig into a concrete wall with a toothpick most of the time, but I've found by collecting these memories that he showed them more as a teenager. So here you are."

Review, please!