Why me?
I'm still staring at my father when I realize he's waiting for a respone. Shit.
"Interesting. Especially when you know exactly what's about to happen in this time, but know you can't do anything to interfere with it." I answer. I think I could tell him don't fight in the Final Battle, or tell him where not to be. Maybe I could get Pettigrew and make sure Sirius can be an innocent man in the eyes of the whole Wizarding world. Maybe, just maybe things would be a lot different than they happened. I'm brought out of my thoughts when my father starts talking again.
"So, how far in the future are you from?" Damn, he's curious. Then I remember how I would bug Harry to answers to all the worlds problems. Like Father like son I guess.
"About 27 years actually. We are from the year 2020."
"Wow, that's a long way to time travel. How did that happen? Tea?" He asks as we step into his office, and I have flashbacks to Harry telling me about a Grindylow in a tank, as I see it with my own eyes I almost choke up with the reality of what was going on.
"Sure." I say and he starts making the tea. "And well my god-brother James, and his two partners in crime with him, ended up breaking a very old time turner when they were in a room they were never supposed to be in in the first place." I say slightly heated. How they got into Harry's office I'm still not all that sure, but they were going to get it.
"Sounds like a group of trouble-makers I knew from my Hogwarts Days." He says wistfully and I almost say the 'Marauders you mean?' and stop myself by taking a sip of quite frankly the best tea I've ever had. "And while you're here you should keep them away from Fred and George Weasley, those two have a knack for trouble."
I choke on my tea. Here I was so concerned about my dad, or them pranking Snape, or finding Sirius and telling him the future, and the overall mass destruction they could do and I forgot all about Fred and George both being here. Alive and well. In the prime age of their pranking years.
Hogwarts may not last too much longer.
"Are you okay?" My dad asks concerned.
"Yeah…its just…..I happen to know the Weasley twins in the future, and I completely forgot they were here. The chaos…" I'm still horrified.
"Teachers won't let them get too out of hand though" My father says reassuringly.
Well, James can't pull the "I'm Harry Potter's son" card here at least. That's a start.
Not much of one though.
"So, not that you have too, but do you want to share your name? You look strangely familiar, I think I may know your parents."
I may faint. What do I say? Do I really say no? My father is begging to know me. Hermione is begging me to say no, but Ron's and George's voices, and every marauder fiber in my being is telling me screw it, this is your one chance.
"I can't do this." *I say getting up. I start to pace the room. Everytime I see that damn grindylow I get a jolt of rebelliousness.
"Are you alright? Really its okay, I know the rules of time-travel." He says standing up and worried now.
But really, how do you tell your now dead werewolf father, that you're his son, who is not a werewolf, and you die before I even get a chance to know you so this is very hard for me?
"Okay." I stop pacing. "I'm okay. This….is just really hard, you see my parents died in the war against Voldemort."
He doesn't flinch like most would. "How old are you?" He asks with confusion evident in his expression and I remember the last war against Voldemort was 12 years ago, and I don't look like I'm in my mid-thirties.
"23. I was born in the second Wizarding War, which starts in 1995." I gulp. This is the moment. "And my name is Teddy Remus Lupin."
I close my eyes for a brief second and breathe in and out. When I open my eyes, my father is sitting down in his chair again, a look of shock on his face, and like hes still trying to connect all the dots. Just as I'm about to talk, Lily bursts through the doors.
"Teddy!" She jumps and give me a hug.
"Whats wrong Lil's?" I ask as she clutches me to death.
"Dad just called me on my two-way mirror. Apparently you weren't answering the one you took fro James and Al doesn't have his on him. Though I try to stay prepared whenever James is not being directly supervised. But he says that we may have to stay here….and in all honesty I'm scared Teddy." She steps away now, I can see how worried she is.
"Lil's don't worry. The only big bad thing going on this year is Sirius' escape, and you know he's harmless. And, if you see him, just make it clear that you're Lily Luna Potter, and that should make him skip a beat."
"Okay. Oh, Dad's still on here to talk to you. I'm going to go find Hugo."
And she skips away like its nothing. This girl is a genius.
"Teddy?"
"Yeah Harry I'm here."
"Who's around you?" He asks cautiously.
"Um well Dumbledore found my name intriguing you see-"
"Yeah Lily gave me the rundown already."
"You know the 'worried' thing is an act to get James in more trouble right?" I laugh.
"I know, so I'm assuming Remus is with you?"
"Yeah. And uh, I might have said too much…" I say quietly.
"Go deal with that, Teddy call me when your all straightened out, I'll be stuck here late, and in all honesty I'd rather not face Ginny." He laughs, and shuts the mirror off.
Its me and my dad again.
"I'm sorry. Harry and Hermione have been trying to come up with a solution for this whole time-travel thing." I laugh softly.
"You're my son?" He asks in a deadly whisper.
"Yeah. My mother is Nymphadora Tonks, and I am not a werewolf if that's your next question."
He nods his head taking in the information.
"And we died in the war against Voldemort?"
"Yeah. I was a baby at the time, so the only details I know is what Harry has showed me and told me. And honestly hes showed me so many memories of you and mum I feel like I know you." I try to lighten the mood a tad. This isn't sad. I'm estatic to meet my dad. For real. Its amazing.
"If me and your mum- well who raised you?" He asks curious now, regaining some composure.
"Grandmum mostly, I lived with her, but the amount of time I spent with Harry and Ginny, well I practically live there too. Harry is my godfather, and oh yeah, Grandmum Molly has practically made me her own. She feeds me like I'm a scrawny thing, when I'm really not."
"That's Molly Weasley?" He asks.
"Yeah something about when you guys started the order back up she went to get rid of a boggart and it kept turning into her dead children, and you told her that if something happened to her or granddad Arthur that you wouldn't let the kids starve of course, and she has taken that to heart with me apparently."
My dad looks at me sadly now. "I'm sorry I can't be there for you-"
"You helped defeat Voldemort. I'm proud of my parents and what they fought for. Without you guys, Voldemort could have won, and then there wouldn't be a safe world for me to even live in."
He smiles at me, and leans back in his chair. "Tell me everything about yourself. I want to know it all."
I smile and start regaling stories of my childhood, my years at Hogwarts, family events that I could never forget. I tell him all about me and Victoire, and all about my surrogate cousins and siblings. I tell him all about My Auror training, and of course how I'm still mad Harry isn't letting me in the field until I can find a second to his standards. And how I may have to just put up with Dom being my second. We laugh at my marauders traits and the pranks I've pulled, that McGonagall never found out about.
"She really never knew it was you?"
"Nope, I was never the trouble- maker. I think she tried to take pity on me sometimes, because she liked you so much. But man, I got away with it all. Its because I'm smarter than James." I say.
"So James is Harry's son?" He asks now.
"Yeah him, Al and Lily are all Harry and Ginny's."
"Perfect names." He laughs.
"Yeah. When McGonagall found out James' name was James Sirius, she almost killed Harry."
My fathers eyes darken slightly.
"James Sirius?" All humor gone from his voice.
"Oh, did I mention yet that Sirius Black is completely innocent? Yeah that's the next thing for me to contend with. I'm sure James and Fred are almost on their way out to the Shrieking Shack. Hold on." I take out the Marauders Map ignoring my fathers look on his face about Sirius, and focus on the map. I knicked from James back in Dumbledore's office. I can't believe he didn't notice honestly.
I look at the map. James Sirius Potter was in the kitchens, but I could care less about the kitchens, probably trying to see if Dobby works at Hogwarts yet.
"Good. I'm telling you he'll end up out there soon enough." I say.
"Sirius is innocent? But how?"
"Peter Pettigrew got changed to the Secret Keeper at the last minute. Sirius thought Voldemort would never suspect Wormtail, too bad he was already a spy and handed the Potters right over to Voldemort. That night after Sirius found James and Lily dead, he went after Wormtail. He blew apart the street ran away as a rat, leaving only a finger." I explain the story fast, take out the map, and point to Pettigrews name on the map.
"Dad." I say forcefully, he looks at me strangly, and I realize how weird it sounded for me to say 'Dad.' "You can't do anything. If you do you change history, and trust me when I say Wormtail has to die at the precise moment, in order to save Harry's life."
He looks at me defeated, but nods his dead. Thank merlin my father is a logical thinker because my mother from what I hear would have already flown off that handle.
"Okay. Okay. Listen, its almost time for dinner, lets head down there. I expect you'll be sitting with us at the staff table."
He gets up and I follow him down to the Great Hall.
As we walk down I see McGonagall is already sitting at the table with Roxy at her left and two empty seats besides Roxy, which must be for me and my dad. To the left of those seats Sits Dominique and Snape on her left. Then there are a few other Professors at the end of the table that I slightly recognize. Flitwick sits on Dumbledore's left as well as Sprout with Molly and Lucy and Victoire with Madame Pomphrey. I see all the rest of the kids scattered around the houses.
And of course James, Fred and Louis sit right across from Fred and George, and seem to be friendly conversing. I groan. Why me? Really, why me?
I sit next to Roxy and my dad sits on my left.
"Teddy" Dominque tries to say across my dad, "Did you talk to…well, you know…"
"You mean Harry? Dom I told him everything." I say nonchalantly, and wait for her outburst.
"You did what?" She says in a loud whisper and I see Snape shaking his head, and my dad looks a little amused.
"I told him everything. Why not? We have someone who trusts us 100% do you really think that that is a bad think? Or were you expecting Snape to be our go to person?"
"Dumbledore trusts us!"
"Dom. Give it a rest. I did what I needed to do." I says as final as I could.
"Fine, but if you changed something major you explain to HER and you know who I'm talking about." She says and I know shes talking about Hermione, and I could only hope Ron and Harry will have my side on this one.
Dinner goes on without much more fuss. Me and my dad has small talk during dinner, about lesson plans and what he wants me to do during class. Dominique, takes turns glaring at me and glaring at James. Seems like Snape doesn't talk very much. McGonagall and Roxy are talking adamantly. Soon enough. Dumbledore tells the staff the sleeping arrangement, and how we would be sleeping in their offices since they are connected to that staff members quarters. Dom looks anything but pleased. Vic would be staying in the Hospital Wing for the night, helping Madame Pomphrey.
I plan on seeing Roxy before I go to sleep though, because in all honesty I feel I owe to McGonagall to warn her about the troublemakers.
"I'm going to give McGonagall a visit. Meet you in your office?" I say quietly to my dad.
"See you there."
Its not as awkward as I was expecting, but its still odd for me. The night will tell a lot about my stay here.
I make my way to the Transfiguration office, and I knock on the door. Roxy opens up and McGonagall is still in there, having tea with Roxy it seems.
"Yes Teddy?" She says. Man she must get her attitude from Dom.
"May I come in Rox?"
"Fine. Professor McGonagall, this is Teddy. My…god-cousin? Soon to be related Family as soon as he pops the question to Vic.'
"Ha Ha Ha. Actually Professor I was here because I believe you deserve a warning before curfew, and before certain children will no doubt be sneaking out."
"Well out with it." She says to me.
"James, Fred and Louis, are the reason we are standing here, and not because it was some real big accident it was because James was snooping no doubt because he was blackmailing someone, or once more trying to prank Scorpius again whatever it may be he broke the time turner while he was in a room he should have never been in and when I say the Weasley brothers are no match for them I mean it and they are planning on teaming up with them."
She looks at me hesitantly.
"I have five trouble makers teaming up to destroy this school." She asks.
"Yes, three of them I know have full bags of joke products hiding in bags with undetectable extension charms, and they believe the Weasley brothers and Marauders to be their idols."
"Thank you for the fair warning." She nods.
"No problem." I say and turn to leave.
"Why was Dom yelling at you at dinner?" Roxy asks.
"Because I told him everything." I shrug my shoulders.
"You told your dad everything! Teddy! Why would you do that? I'm sitting here trying not to spill every last thing I know, and you walk right up to your dad and go Im Teddy Remus Lupin?" She rants.
"Yeah. Well what was I supposed to do when he starts insisting I look so familiar he must know my parents." I start to get a little heated and McGonagall looks as if she is about to say something.
"Sorry Teddy." Roxy says before McGonagall can speak. "Its just…there's so much that would be dangerous to say."
"What can I say I trust him. I trust a lot of people here. Voldemorts not alive again yet. It could have been a lot worse."
"Excuse me but did you say you were Remus' son?" McGonagall asks me now.
"Yeah. I am. It's a long story, and it exhausted me to tell it once today."
"I understand." She nods. I'm sure Roxy will fill her in for me. "Teddy?"
"Yes Professor?"
"You are just like him. He was bound to be curious." And she smiles, and so do I.
I knew there was a reason I liked McGonagall.
I walked off back to my dads office in peace, and smiled.
Maybe this wasn't so bad afterall.
I mean, I'm going to be seeing my dad for a little while at least. All I have to do now is check in with Harry and find out how long.
As I make it back to my dads office, I keep an eye out in the hallways, those trouble makers probably nicked the cloak from Al, or bribed him, or something, so I couldn't do anything but be cautious.
Without any commotion, I was back in the office, and surprisingly there was no bed made-up for me.
"I was thinking maybe you could join me in my quarters, I'm sure we still have plenty to talk about." My Dad smiles at me.
And I smile too because this is like a dream come true. I also realize I still need to call Harry.
I walk into his quarters with him. "I still have to call Harry back. I want him to not have to worry too much."
"Of course go right ahead." He says.
"Harry" I said into the mirror.
"Teddy hows it going?" Harry asks me immeadiatley after he picks up the mirror.
"Pretty good. Dom's a little pissed I told my dad, but she can get over it."
"I had a feeling you weren't going to last long before you spilled." Harry laughs.
"Hey you would do it too!" I say back.
"Yeah I probably would, unless Hermione was there, then I wouldn't act I would be trying to stay on her good side." Harry laughs, and I do too. "Anyway, it looks like you may be there a while."
"Really?" I groan slightly.
"Yes. And Hermione thinks you might have to time hop to get home. Something about these time-turners from the future wont work properly when brought back further back in time then when they were in existence. And with that you may have to stay in each time period while the time turners re-charge."
"So what your saying is I'll be time-hoping. How far?" I'm slightly confused, but I think I followed it well enough.
"A year at a time until you hit 1998, then you should be able to hop from 1998 to 2020 directly because that's the first year these time-turners were in existence." He explains.
"So what your saying is, I'll have to re-live the entire war? And not just see small glances, but live in it for a little bit a time?"
"Yes. About a week in each year. Luckily you should continue to land in Hogwarts if you travel from Hogwarts."
"Harry…" I say thinking instantly of Voldemort being in power.
"When you are traveling from 1996, go somewhere else. Use Grimmuald Place if you must. Or even the room of requirement, hell go into the Forbidden Forest, just give yourself an easy time to get to a safe house. You could floo from Hagrids hut."
"Okay…I'll contact you when we get closer to that."
"Another thing. I'll be coming to join you guys for a bit with Ron. I can't expect you to control all the children, it will be chaos. We're on our way now. Enjoy your night with your dad."
"Thanks Harry. See you in the morning I guess."
"Night Teddy." He says and all I see is the reflaction in the mirror.
"Are you alright?" My dad asks me. I must be pale. The thought of reliving the war, watching Voldemort come to power, knowing the danger I can be in…is frightening.
"Yeah well Harry and Ron coming should be a comfort." I say.
"So you were saying earlier about your pranks?" He asks.
And soon we are laughing and reminiscing, and as he divulges more and more about his time at school with Sirius and James, I couldn't be happier.
I mean who really cares I have to live through the war with a bunch of children who have no sense of the danger we are in?
A/N: I have had this written for a while, but I was notsure if I liked where this chapter went. I really wanted to focus on all the kids and where they fit, but I'm starting to think that I should just focus on a few. I have a lot of plans for this story, so stay tuned, and I actually have it all worked out so theres an explanation for the time travel! Thanks for all the kind reviews, I know I'm just getting back to writing, and I really appreciate them all!
Cherry2013