Warnings:Sexual content.

Chapter Nine

After a year of working with magical artefacts and dark curses and having been on the receiving end of few, Teddy knows something isn't right when out of curiosity one morning after he is back in his apartment for Christmas, he reads his father's diary for the first time in ages.

There are full blank pages between entries that record Albus Dumbledore's death and his joy at Teddy's birth. He knows his father's style of writing; his entries are never abruptly changing and he had never missed months of writing. Somehow, armed with skills and ideas now, Teddy does manage to make the writing visible and he stares in awe at his own work before diving into it curiously; why would his father hide something that was already personal and for his own eyes only?

Teddy shuts the book when it is getting dark and he looks up to see how fast the time has flown in a detached manner.

I think I may be able to make it work after all, if all the research is correct.

Somehow, I don't believe I will get to live all that long being a werewolf; it only seems right to take a chance with this trade. Teddy reads about the details of the resurrection spells that Remus had gone in search of, the travelling, bogus sources and old books. He reads on, unable to grasp what his father had done.

I pray this works, that he lives and that he can have a chance at life. If it fails, then I will see you in time.

He drops the book, thoughts muddling his head as he tries to wrap it around the lengths his father had gone to for Sirius. Does Sirius know? Does anybody? Judging by the way this information had been hidden; Teddy can guess that nobody has any clue. Just him and his father.

Teddy flings the book in a moment of overwhelmed emotions and before he knows what he is doing, the dressing table is upturned in one swift motion. The sound of the crash and clatter as his drawers fall open spilling their contents does very little to calm him down. In the midst of all the wreckage he spots a shattered photo frame that remains in the very back of the second drawer-the only proper photo he has of his parents smiling in genuine happiness while holding up a chubby baby Teddy between them.

Somehow, seeing their phony smiles sends another spike of rage through him and he kicks the wreckage for good measure before whirling around and tramping outside for a walk.

If his father hadn't given a flying fuck about him and instead gone and traded his life for another man, then he isn't going to waste his breath on the bastard that had been his father.

He ignores all phone calls for all of two days and when he receives a text message from Sirius signed with a 3, Padfoot', he hurls it against the floor because it is just so fucking hard to suddenly hate the man you are so in love with.

ooOOoo

Sirius tries not to show it but he is worried. Teddy looks up to see Sirius watching him before smiling patronisingly and turning back to his crossword. The telly is showing Power Rangers.

"Don't look at me like that," Teddy snaps from his side of the sofa a few minutes later when the constant glances from Sirius has gotten too much. Sirius pins him with a gaze. He sighs and folds the newspaper and keeps it on the side table, and turns the telly off before turning to face Teddy.

"Alright, this has gone on for too long," he says, "you've been worse than a woman in bloodied knickers ever since you've been back. Did something happen?" If only Sirius knew.

"Doesn't matter," Teddy answers resentfully, "why don't you leave if I've been such a bitch to be around?" He sees Sirius huff angrily at his tone and feels oddly satisfied. He has no idea why he is taking things out on Sirius of all people; he has been the only one still dealing with his sudden change in mood. And he is taking it surprisingly well when he never takes this sort of shit from anybody else.

"You know I wouldn't do that, Ted," Sirius tells him and the young man kicks at the table in front of them before standing up in a flash.

"Why do you always have to be like that? Can't I have a bad day and not talk about it?"

"It isn't just one bad day though, Ted," Sirius explains calmly despite Teddy's rising voice, "I'm not forcing you, but you've never been one to bottle things up. It does matter to me when something is so obviously eating you up inside." There is that again, the way Sirius is so worried about him, the way he cares and it has Teddy losing some of his anger.

"Why?" he asks quietly, "why does it matter so much to you?" Sirius stares at him incredulously before leaving his own seat and coming around the sofa to reach him.

"Are you insane?" he turns Teddy to face him by the shoulders, "I care about you, you daft wolf; of course it matters to me what happens to you, Ted." Teddy could have argued further, especially after being called 'daft' but then he looks at Sirius, really looks at him and sees the expression of concern and something so deep it tugs at his heartstrings.

Suddenly, he thinks he understands why his father did what he did.

"I don't want to talk about it; at least not now." Not ever, if Teddy can help it but then, Sirius has a right to know since it concerns his own life and all. He leans into Sirius and wraps his arms around as he holds him tightly to confirm that Sirius is still here and real in the flesh.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sirius asks when Teddy does not let go after a minute. He does not reply; he can't. It is too easy to imagine Sirius gone, Sirius not being there anymore and just the thought of it causes a crushing pain to fill up inside Teddy. To think that his father had had to actually face it. But then Sirius is here and Teddy is being an utter idiot.

"I'm fine," Teddy tells him with the first smile in days and tugs Sirius closer for a kiss. He doesn't let go of Sirius until he has to leave hours later.

ooOOoo

They have been together for two years somehow, a little more actually and Harry thinks it may be a good time as any to let the family know about the two of them. Teddy shrugs and Sirius agrees; at least it will keep Victoire's painted claws off his Teddy every time she sees him. Just because she is beautiful and closer to his age…

"You know, Andromeda, I have a lot of respect for you. But I might just be losing a lot of it now," Sirius tells his cousin acidly as they stand outside in the Weasley's garden after what Sirius had hoped would have been an anticlimactic 'coming out together' like in the books where everybody automatically knows how you have always been in love with each other and all that rubbish.

It had been awful to say in the least and not because of Victoire's reaction to it as she had cried out shrilly and thrown over the plate of Fleur's special Cremé Brulee. In the end, Ginny had stepped in before things had gotten out of hand and asked to talk to Teddy alone. Sirius couldn't stand being in there with all the gawking teenagers.

"And I used to think you still had some semblance of control." Andromeda snaps at him, "just because he is Remus's son. Do you ask him to look like Remus too?" Sirius has the urge to throw something at someone at that accusation.

"Shut up, Andromeda. You don't know anything about us," he finds himself shouting; he has never, never done anything even if the thought had crossed his mind a long time ago when they hadn't been what they are now.

"I don't need to know about the two of you, Sirius," Andromeda says coldly, "it is always so easy for you, coming back in, always taking what you want, not caring about who pays for the consequences."

"I loved him," is all Sirius says fiercely because she of all people should understand that and why Sirius will never hurt Teddy if he can help. But Andromeda looks at him with a sort of anger that Sirius has not been confronted with since his encounter with his mother when he had been sixteen.

"So did my daughter, Sirius," she tells him softly, "and all the time, he never loved her because he was too wrapped up in loving somebody who was supposedly dead." She steps close to Sirius, her anger now mixed with resentment, an expression he had never thought would be directed at him, "he wasn't even really alive, not until Teddy was born. Dora deserved better than that."

"What—what do you mean he wasn't alive, Andromeda?" Sirius cannot help asking and the woman looks like she will not be answering but then she looks away.

"He was like a dead man walking, always working away on things he did not even talk to Dora about. And now you've got Teddy." Her mouth trembles for a second, "What will happen to him when you are gone this time, Sirius?" Sirius stares at her, shocked that she would say something like that.

"I'm not in this to just leave. What do you think—"

"Don't you go saying that to me, Sirius." Andromeda shouts at him finally, losing her composure, "You leave, you always leave. You left Remus and look where that got him? I'm not going to let Teddy fall into this too. You need to let him go and be with somebody he can rely on to be there for him." Sirius has had enough though and they glare at one another before he turns on his heel and heads for the house.

"Teddy! Ted, we're leaving." Teddy abandons his cup of tea and some of the others look up from around a game of chess at Sirius's loud voice.

"Alright?" Teddy mouths at him when he sees the mad look in his eyes. Sirius shakes his head and Teddy slips his hand into his, "Let's get going then." He is about to bid farewell to everyone when his grandmother strides into the room and walks right up to him.

"Teddy, I will take you back to your home tonight."

"No, you won't—"

"Oh, do be quiet, Sirius. This isn't—"

"Stop it! Both of you." Teddy interrupts their raging argument. They stop but continue looking at each other as if about to hex the other. Shit! "Gramma, please, can we do this calmly?"

"No." Andromeda continues looking at Sirius and places a hand on Teddy's arm, "You don't have to go with Sirius."

"He doesn't have to, Andie," Sirius replies with a smirk, "but he wants to. Stop treating him like a child." That earns him a smile from Teddy who immediately realises what he is doing and places a soothing hand on his grandmother's shoulder.

"Look, he is right. I want this. I know you're worried, but please." He steps forward before she can get another word out and kisses her forehead, "I'll see you soon. Take care, okay? Yes, I love you too," he adds when she tries to start again and before anyone can say anything, he grabs Sirius's hand and Apparates into Sirius's house.

"God, that did not go so well. But hey, it wasn't all that bad was it?" Teddy grins as he activates the cooling charms, "Except Victoire, that girl is really—hey, Sirius?" he stops talking when he turns back to see Sirius sitting on the edge of his sofa dejectedly. "Hey, come on, Padfoot. What just happened?" Sirius does not say anything and instead leans back into the sofa and closes his eyes, as if exhausted. Teddy can see the downward tug of his mouth and takes a seat beside him.

"Did Gramma say something to you?" Sirius swallows and Teddy has a sudden flicker of annoyance at his grandmother, "come on, it can't be that bad—" Sirius's laugh startles him.

"Not bad? Oh, Teddy, you have no idea." He looks at him with a melancholy expression, "she told me about Moony, about how he practically stopped living after I 'supposedly died'." Teddy grows nervous at that; Sirius had died.

"Sirius," Teddy says quietly but the other man seems to not have heard him.

"She wants to protect you from me, and she is right about it. I'll end up doing something terrible again and then hurt you even if I don't want to because fuck, that's just what I do. Fuck things up royally." He laughs again and Teddy grows concerned.

"Don't say that, Sirius," he says calmly but Sirius looks at him with that anguished look again.

"Go. You should go before I end up killing you too." He is practically hysterical.

"Sirius. Padfoot, don't be stupid. I wouldn't leave you for the world," Teddy says and it feels like a declaration of his love because he does mean it, every word of it. "Dad loved you; it only makes sense for him to go through that kind of depression."

"But I was gone, Teddy. I was dead, I know it," Sirius whispers, "he knew that, I—I would have wanted him to move on, to live on even when I wasn't there." His father had moved on or at least tried to but those words do hurt Teddy; he wonders if Sirius will ever actually love him that strongly. "It's not fair, I shouldn't even be here, I should be dead." Teddy wraps his arms around his torso automatically.

"Stop it, Sirius. You are here because you belong here." His arms tighten their hold when Sirius does not return the embrace. "D—dad would have been glad that you're here, he would have been so happy to see you alive."

"You don't know that, Ted," Sirius says in a hollow tone, "we will never know what Remus would have wanted." But Teddy does, he knows and he can never let Sirius know about Remus's sacrifice.

"I do know, Sirius. Because—because he felt the way I do," Teddy whispers bravely as he holds Sirius, heart in his throat, "because I love you, and I would have wanted you to live no matter what." There is a deafening silence in which Teddy's heart beats against Sirius's chest and they are still. Then Sirius's arms come up and wrap themselves around him as he pulls his head back to look at Teddy, a strange look in his eyes.

"You—" He breaks off and slides a hand under his shirt and traces his spine up, "you're really something else, you know." He says it in a way that is not condescending; there is something in his tone, like wonder and disbelief and something lighter.

He pulls Teddy closer and traces his brow-bone, the slant of his nose, the curve below his nose and his lips that automatically part and he guides his thumb into his mouth where the werewolf sucks on it with his eyes closed as if Sirius—old as he is—is the headiest flavour he has ever tasted. Sirius wonders if Teddy is out to prove a point as his hands move over him in deliberate touches and strong clutches.

"Stop thinking so much," Teddy chides him and he smiles slightly; to think that he is the one on the receiving end of that sentence. He pushes up Teddy's tee shirt and lowers his head to lick across the torso that just got finer with age and his time in the sands of Jordan. Teddy arches into his touches and Sirius grows a little more aggressive than usual as he nips and sucks on his skin. Maybe he too is out to prove that he isn't necessarily the utter bastard Andromeda makes him out to be, she hadn't needed to say the word.

"I want you this time," Teddy whispers hoarsely in his ear, "in me. Can't wait." Sirius understands his urgency all too well and this is the only way he can show Teddy how much he means to him, because the words won't come out, his tongue knots fifty different ways the moment he tries to tell him of his feelings; he just… cannot do this again.

"I'll ride you. Here," Teddy says, hot breath against his ear and Sirius agrees. "Please." Sirius understands and whispers the handy lubrication spell and squeezes his bottom before pushing his fingers into his tight channel that flutters around his invading digits; the Muggle way is always so much more pleasurable. Teddy lets out an uncontrolled groan that has Sirius shifting the younger man so that their leaking erections are hard against each other.

He tells Teddy to climb on him and the lust addled look he receives only hastens him to spread his legs and sit back on the sofa as Teddy positions himself and lowers himself on to his cock. They both groan loudly as Sirius breaches his entrance much more smoothly than their last encounter which had been a first in months.

Teddy goes slowly at first as if to savour the pleasure and their connection; to Sirius, it feels like finding home once again. With that thought, a shudder passes through Sirius's entire being and he steadies Teddy's moving hips with his hands as he begins sliding hard and fast now, helpless to stop his own movements as he keeps up a constant stream of noises and comments like 'oh god', 'ah Sirius', 'so hot' and Sirius agrees with all of it as he watches the man above him come undone, the play of light on his sharp features as his hands flex on Sirius's shoulders with every movement.

His eyes snap open and the feeling there, the fire in his eyes shining with more than lust has Sirius calling Teddy's name in shock as his own heart thuds in response and he is so sure that Teddy can see everything in his eyes too. Teddy pushes down and clamps around Sirius hard. His back arches and he throws his head back, his throat bared as he sighs in completion despite the depth of passion as if he is finally satiated.

AN: Thank you everyone for the support!Enjoy the happy chapter while it lasts. :)