September 1, 1995.
They were in a hurry. The Weasley clan had arrived the night before and Ron, Harry and Hermione had stayed up for most of the night talking, well, Ron and Hermione were talking, Harry stayed quiet the entire time. Neither Ron or Hermione tried to force Harry to say anything, they knew what was bothering him and Hermione felt really bad, to the point where she was not concerned that Harry was not really speaking to her right now. Professor Lupin had not shown up at all and that had really hurt Harry. He of course said nothing of the sort, but Hermione could read him like a book, Harry was after all like a brother to her. She knew he blamed her for suggesting he reached out to Remus, but in Hermione's defense, she had not thought professor Lupin the type to stay away when his help was needed no matter the situation.
Ron and Harry had woken up late and now they rushed to pack the rest of their belongings. All sorts of noises and chaos could be heard coming from the halls, the kitchen and upstairs, it was clearly the twins exercising their new found privilege to do magic outside of school. Once Harry shut is trunk, he heard Mrs. Weasley yelling at Fred and George for knocking Ginny down the stairs.
Harry sighed from exhaustion. He had one of those nights again; the nightmares just wouldn't stop. He had been walking in that dreaded corridor again, saw a door and then woke up. When he had gone back to sleep, the dream was worse. Hermione and Ron stood before him with crowns on their heads and their fathers standing by their side, looking proud of them while he stood alone watching Remus walking away from him not even sparing him a glance. Harry called out to him, but there was no response. He woke up from that dream and decided not to fall back to sleep, but that was impossible as a full moon was only a week away. Harry had eventually fallen back asleep in the very early hours of the morning, thus causing him to wake up late and be in a hurry.
"Are you ready yet?" Hermione stuck her head into the room
"Nearly" Harry said as he threw the last of the books in is trunk "Is Ginny okay?"
Hermione smiled. He was speaking to her.
"Mrs. Weasley has her all patched up", she said. "Harry-"
"I know it's not really your fault Hermione and I'm sorry I blamed you, but I really don't want to talk about it" Harry said. He was dressed, packed and ready to go. When they get to kings cross Moody would put his glamor back on him before he crossed into the platform. It was all really complicated and for the thousandth time, Harry wondered why he didn't live a normal life.
"Okay Harry, but I wanted to let you know that the advanced guard is here, Lupin is here too" Hermione said, but to her surprise Harry only shrugged. He was sort of expecting him to turn up for order duties.
"Its fine, I don't need him. Mad-eye and Sirius already taught me what I needed" Harry said before leading the way out of the room, dragging his heavy trunk along. Hermione and Ron looked at one another and shrugged before they followed Harry.
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It had been a while since he last saw Harry. Sirius had not said anything about needing help with teaching Harry, so he had stayed away. He knew that he probably shouldn't have and that staying away from Harry was not going to fix things, but Remus wanted to give Harry and Sirius space to cool down and it had been two months now. Remus cringed when he thought about how long it had been.
'You coward' he thought. He knew that he should have been making an effort to heal the strife between his son and his best friend. His fear of rejection had kept him away and Remus realized now how silly it was.
Harry, Ron and Hermione came down the stairs and Remus felt his heart constrict. It always took his breath away when he saw how much his son looked like him. He knew that Harry would be changed back to his old self soon and that was fine with him because he did not want to make Harry's life even more complicated, but he knew that there would be a time when he and Harry won't be able to hide behind that glamor anymore, and the whole world would see Harry for who he really was. His son.
"Hello Harry" Harry's green eyes met his and Remus felt is body run cold as he saw the anger and fury being directed at him. If anything it was worse than the day Harry found out about his true parentage.
"Professor" He said curtly before walking to meet Sirius, who put his arms around his shoulders giving Remus a pointed look. Remus wanted the ground to swallow him up that moment; they didn't seem close to forgiving him. Remus was so lost in thought that he did not hear Mad-Eye give instructions, it was the comforting hand on is arm that brought him out of his thoughts and he looked to see Tonks give him a tiny encouraging smile.
"You remember how it's done boy?" Mad-Eye was asking Harry and the boy in question nodded.
"Good. The second you cross, you change" Mad-Eye said.
From the conversation, Remus gathered that Mad-Eye had told harry that he was to put on the glamor the second he crossed into the platform.
"Right, Tonks and Black you are with Harry" Harry literally deflated when he found out he was not being placed with Remus.
"All right Harry, I'll see you during the holidays. Do not forget to write me every other day or I will come looking for you." Harry groaned dramatically, but there was a smile on his face. The two shared a hug and Sirius ruffled his dark brown locks. He looked up to see Remus longing to do the same, and smirked at the fact that he was causing him pain. Tonks walked up to meet them, looking like an old woman with long white hair. Once they were ready to go, Sirius changed into his animagus form and barked to signify it was time to head out.
"We'll see you lot at the platform" Tonks called before the three of them headed out.
Sirius didn't know that Ginny had her eyes on him and Remus the whole time.
Remus sighed.
"Fred, Hermione, and Ginny you're with me" He said
Their walk to Kings cross was silent and awkward. Remus wasn't sure what to say to the kids and in turn, they didn't know what to say either. Honestly, Remus had thought that Hermione at least would remain civil towards him, but if he could remember correctly, one of the friendship codes required friends to cut off ties with anyone their friends disliked. Remus smiled sadly. They were being good friends to Harry and he could respect that, he should as he was a terrible friend to James.
The guilt he felt for lying to James Potter was perhaps one of the things that weighed down Remus Lupin. He never got to apologize to him and after everything James had done to be a good friend to him, it was too painful. Over the last fifteen years, the feelings of shame, self-loathing and depression usually came once in a while, at nights, because during the day he had things to keep him busy and distracted, but now…now that everything had been exposed, he was consumed with those awful emotions twenty four hours of the day.
Remus tried to keep his thoughts in check, so that he could be vigilant in order to keep the teens safe until they got to Kings cross. They arrived there without a hitch. Remus lead the three to the platform and Fred and Hermione quickly dashed off with a quick goodbye and went to meet up with Harry, Ron and the others. Remus didn't notice Ginny lingering behind has his eyes watched Harry get onto the train.
"Do you love Harry, professor?"
He was caught off guard and looked down dumbfounded at Ginny for a second before he replied with a nod.
"I do…always have…It's-"
"I'll help you" Ginny stated and Remus was confused. Help him with Harry? "But you have to do your share. Not approaching him at all was very stupid on your part, excuse my rudeness"
Remus was thoroughly shocked. He quickly shook his head letting her know that she was excused and she continued.
"He's especially upset because you didn't come when Sirius sent for you to come help teach him the glamor spell" She whispered the last part and Remus frowned slightly. "You should start off by sending him a letter telling him why you couldn't come."
The whistle to the train blew and Ginny quickly looked at her ride to school.
"I'll try and soften him up, but you have to really let him know you care and that you love him as you say. I have to go now" she had already started backing up and once she had said her piece, she ran for the train.
Remus stood there for the next few minutes as he processed his thoughts. He had not received any owls from Sirius. Had Harry really wanted his help? Why was Ginny helping him? He was grateful to be honest, but he wondered why in the first place. Remus, after some time, came to realize that he simply didn't care, he was going to do as he was told, he was going to actually start trying, he had always been the uncle, but it was time to be Harry's father.
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I am so so so so sorry. I said it won't take a month and it did. Please forgive me. I think I'm going to be updating once a month now, so I don't end up disappointing you for not updating frequently. Life and everything just get in the way and I have to steal time here and there to right and then edit. Thanks so much for sticking by this story guys, you are all the best.
