Hullo Unresponsive readers!

I hope you're all doing well. As you can see, I'm back with yet another chapter and this is definitely one of my favourites.

Do read the author's note at the end; it's important for me.

Disclaimer: The world of Harry Potter belongs to Jo.

Chapter#11

It's Nobody's Fault

Remus Lupin was of the firm belief, that he was a part of those people in the world who were meant to dread every living second of their lives because one way or the other, something would happen that would wipe away any shred of normality that he had worked to achieve.

In his Hogwarts days, the school itself gave him a sense of serenity, sometime after it were his mates, his friends that made him feel sane, then there was a part in his life where reuniting with Sirius and meeting Harry was what resurrected his once dead soul.

Yes, these things were the best that ever happened to him but these also were not long-lasting, proving his point. Every time he managed to create something akin to a normal life, it was destroyed.

By his lycanthropy; the beast that wouldn't ever leave him alone.

By the war; the world crumbling around him.

By betrayal; of someone he would've been ready to die for, to kill for.

By deaths; of people he couldn't imagine the world without.

So yes, that was enough reason for him to believe that he was destined to be a wretched man.

This became clear yet again, when he heard those dreadful words come out of the boy's mouth. He'd been content, delighted even that Harry would finally have a family, that the Weasleys would after all be recognised for the exceptional lot they are and the war that had taken so much from him would eventually be over...until the boy had...

How could it be?! How could he!

"It's not as bad as you think it is." Teddy started slowly

"How can you say that...h-how can you..." Remus was pacing frantically, looking frazzled and stuttering through his words

"I...I'm not a werewolf."

"You-you're not?" Remus stopped immediately and his head snapped up to stare at Teddy.

"No...I'm not"

Remus looked relatively relieved but not the least bit relaxed. His head was caught in a tirade of distinct, conflicting emotions; he was truly confused as to the meaning that he was to make of this revelation. There was a part of him that was elated at meeting this boy, who he now knew to be his son and then there was another part which was the voice of reason, which told him to get a hold of his sensibility and ponder the repercussions that were to follow.

"S-still...I shouldn't have...I..." he sighed tiredly.

"Remus let us not make a fuss of it, just let the boy speak first, times do not always remain the same; the world they come from is...a rather accepting one." Dumbledore said when he saw the absolute state of distress that Remus was experiencing.

Teddy took this as his cue, "The time that I...that we all come from is so much better then the one you live in today." His intense gaze bore into his father's, willing him to understand, "I'm not an outcast, I never have been all my life; I am not discriminated against, nobody stands for anything of that sort...not anymore. Sure, it is a fact that not everyone agrees but there will always be those people, the bad eggs, and they will always end up on the losing side."

Remus gave a slow, small nod to Teddy though he didn't look any less distressed than before.

"So Teddy, tell us about yourself, your mother perhaps?" Bill said, trying to ease the tension.

"...Yeah...oh right...sorry, forgot about that" Teddy rubbed the back of his neck nervously, "Right then...I'm 22 and I'm working as an auror right now; I finished my training last year. At Hogwarts, I was sorted into Gryffindor and I was prefect too. I played seeker on the house quidditch team, plus I was made captain my sixth and seventh year. I got 9 O's in my O. W. Ls and 5 O's in my N. E. W. Ts."

"That's very impressive mate, it really is...and here I thought Victoire and Dominique were special." Bill joked lightly.

Teddy chuckled, "Oh they are Bill, both of them are...you should ask the Bill from my time."

"Who's your mum then?" Charlie asked, "You never told us her name."

Teddy contemplated for a moment,

Let me show you instead."

With that Teddy's face contorted in concentration and suddenly his hair changed colour from turquoise blue to pink and his eyes were now a deep shade of blue instead of the light brown that they had been before.

He then turned towards Tonks with a small smile, "Wotcher mum!"

There was a moment then, of absolute, stunned silence.

Nymphadora Tonks couldn't believe what she'd just heard; in fact she was so taken aback by the sudden declaration that all she could do was stare at Teddy, eyes wide and mouth open. Of course, a stray thought of her being related to Teddy had crossed her mind -it was impossible not to, with his magnificently coloured turquoise hair- but with everything that had been going on between her and Remus, she hadn't let her thoughts venture much into disputed and inevitably hurtful territory.

And then there was Remus, astonished beyond belief he was looking between Teddy and Tonks, as if that would make it all a lie. For once, in the last year and a half of his life, Remus Lupin had been so immersed in pondering over something that he hadn't thought about Nyphadora Tonks for ten minutes straight. Teddy's disclosure of him being Remus' son had taken him so off guard that the thought of the woman that had become a necessary, constant feature of his minds' works hadn't so much as crossed his mind, let alone reaching a conclusion that she could be his son's mother.

"Oh c'mon you two...that's enough staring and gaping for today, don't you think?" Victoire interrupted the tense moment, "And besides, it's already happened...you two I mean...you both got married and you had Teddy. I see no point in having an argument about something you have no control over at this moment."

Remus understood immediately that most of Victoire's words were directed at him, so he resorted to fixing his gaze on the floor, refusing to meet anyone's eye.

"I have just one question though," Tonks said, fixing Teddy with her most serious look, "why in the name of Merlin did you end up in Gryffindor?" she broke into a wide grin then, "Everybody knows Huffelpuffs are the best of the lot."

Teddy laughed at that, "Blame Harry for that one. I wanted to be so much like him that any other house apart from Gryffindor was completely out of the question."

"Damn it, should've known the Potter boy would be a bad influence." Tonks muttered dramatically and for good measure, sent a mock glare in Harry's direction.

Harry laughed heartily and put his hands up in surrender, "Sorry Tonks, but I reckon despite your warnings to stay away from me, Teddy and I become real good mates in future."

Everyone laughed at that, even the Slytherins couldn't contain the small smiles in.

"I hate to interrupt this happy moment but I'm really, really hungry." Al said loudly, "We haven't even had dinner."

For once, not even Rose could disagree with that. They were about to have dinner when the incident with the potion had occurred, it had been three hours since then, and really, she was famished.

Mrs Weasley looked mildly panicked as she realised she didn't have food cooked to feed her grandchildren. Luckily for her, Dumbledore had just the perfect solution,

"There is nothing to worry Molly, I'll get the Hogwarts house elves to bring food for everyone here. We'll discuss rest of the things over dinner." with that he made to leave, presumably for Hogwarts.

"Alright everyone, I'm going to the kitchen to get everything ready for dinner." She turned to look at Tonks, "Tonks dear could you show Draco and his friends to the bathroom, they might want to freshen up." Tonks nodded and Molly smiled in return, "Rest of you know where to find everything and Hermione dear, do check on Hugo before coming to dinner."

Teddy shut the door to the room and leant against the wall. He was alone now and there was no reason for him to keep his emotions at bay.

So, he slouched down and let the tears fall freely.

His head was in a whirlwind of emotions, he didn't know what to feel. There were his parents downstairs...alive...the people of whom he hadn't even the faintest memory of, people who he'd gotten to know through others' memories, their words, these were the people who were considered two of the greatest war heroes in his time...they were martyrs!

"Teddy?" it was Victoire's voice from the other side of the door, "Teddy, I know you're in there. Can I come in?"

Victoire took his silence as his approval as she opened the door and upon spotting Teddy huddled on the floor, was by his side in an instant.

"Ted? Teddy look at me." She took his face in her hands, "You're so much stronger than this Teddy...you-you did brilliantly down there and I'm so proud of you, love."

Teddy just responded by hugging her fiercely, burying his head in her hair. This was obviously difficult for Teddy and Victoire had known Teddy long enough to know that she needed to comfort him and get him to relax somewhat, if Teddy was to survive this situation without an emotional breakdown of some sort.

Victoire stroked his hair lightly and planted a kiss on his temple while whispering words of reassurance in his ear.

They sat like that for a few moments until Victoire pulled away. She smiled at him lovingly and wiped away his tears with the sleeve of her jumper,

"We should go now, everyone will be waiting for us." She got to her feet and offered Teddy a hand to help him up.

"You go ahead; I just need to use the bathroom." Teddy tried to offer her a small smile which ended up looking like a grimace.

Victoire nodded still concerned and made to leave but Teddy grabbed her hand, stopping her in the doorway, "Thank you" he said quietly and then suddenly gave her a (genuine) lopsided smile, "I love you"

"Love you too" Victoire returned his smile, "And hurry up now, we don't want James and Dominique giving their colourfully imaginative account of what might be happening between us right now to the family."

Teddy chuckled after her and wondered not for the first time; what had he ever done to deserve her.

"Come down in five minutes." With that Tonks shut the door and bounded down the stairs to the living room

Draco sighed heavily as he ran a hand through his hair and collapsed on the bed

"I don't have a bloody idea of what's happening."

"None of us do Draco." Daphne sighed as she too perched herself on the end of the bed beside Draco

"But what are we supposed to do now?" Pansy spoke up

"Nothing I suppose...it's not like we can really leave on will and erase the last three hours from our memories without finding out what really happened." Theodore said

"Do you really believe what they're saying?" it was Astoria this time, speaking for the first time after arriving in the house, looking directly at Draco, "Do you really think they're all from the future?"

"I don't know...I-I mean...I don't want to...but, they know so much...it-it's complicated" Draco sighed as he rubbed both his hands on his face and through his hair, resting them at the back of his neck in frustration.

"Are we safe here though?" Astoria looked uncertain and just a bit scared as she said this, "There are people downstairs...people with whom we've had hundreds of years and generations long feuds."

"Oh Astoria" Daphne said as she got up and hugged her sister tightly, "You don't worry, okay? We're safe here...don't ask me why I know this but...I just do...I think all of us are very much safe here."

"I think we should go down now or I doubt they'll save us any food." Theodore announced

"Theo, do you ever think about anything other than food?" Pansy asked looking amused

"Of course I do."

"And what might that be?"

"You" Theodore said leaning towards her

"Oh for the love of Salazar, stop flirting you two!" Daphne shouted exasperatedly.

Author's Note:

Honestly, this was the chapter that I've had to put a ridiculous amount of effort in. This was perhaps, the most difficult chapter to write till now and hence I have some very important questions to ask all of you. I really need you to tell me if you found Teddy's introduction and the reactions to that, fitting enough. Furthermore, it would be really nice of you, if you could also shed your views on the interaction between Teddy and Victoire. The more feedback you give me, the better my writing gets and the amusing circle of life that it is, this will result in an increasingly enjoyable reading experience for all of you.

If not for me, then do it for your own sake, people! Besides, you'd have to be unimaginably cruel to not leave a review after the amount of hard work that I've had to put into this chapter.

In a couple of chapters or so I might put you guys up to something, so be ready and be on the lookout!

G 'bye!