There was hardly any room for thought in the damn castle with all these children - where were they even expected to sleep when the common room was already crammed to its capacity? And it was hot - so hot, and loud. Mind, Remus hated the silence but there was only so much a sane man could take in terms of his privacy, and this was beyond him. There still hadn’t been any explanation issued from the headmaster, and, really, Remus loved Albus to death and was more than indebted to him, but the longer it went without so much as an acknowledgment, the more prone to panic students could become. And the last thing this little room needed was panic.
Remus squeezed past three first-years he’d never seen before in his life only to collide straight into another student. His scrolls and quills fell to the floor with a clatter, and he bit back a groan to look the student in the eye - only to come face to face with a boy who bore a striking resemblance to himself.
“Oh,” he said after a pregnant pause, shaking his head a bit. Even he himself could admit it was uncanny, but it was hardly the strangest thing to happen today, especially relative to the influx of students. Remus offered him an apologetic smile. “Can’t blame you. You can’t even go six inches without hitting someone in here.” The boy’s robes caught his eye, and his grin mirthful. “Is Hufflepuff also packed to the edges? If you’re looking for a place where you’re not being made into a human sandwich, I’d be more than willing to accompany you.”
‘You look just like your father,’ they’d all said to him. Teddy would nodded in agreement because who wouldn’t want to look like the deceased father that you wanted so desperately to be like? But he’d eventually felt that over the years, the statement was lessened more and more every time he’d heard it. ‘You have Remus’s smile.’ ‘I half thought that you were Remus just now.’ Nod after nod after nod. When he looked in the mirror, he just saw... Teddy. Not his mother and definitely not his father. Any memory that he’d had of them had faded to the point that he couldn’t remember what their faces looked like outside of pictures; without a photograph, his parents were f a c e l e s s .
But this-- this was his father no doubt about it. Teddy’s hand came up to his own face as if to trace over their nearly identical features. Pictures never really did his father justice, he’d decided. But his vanity aside, he was immediately struck by the lightning that his father was here. That since the date of his birth in 1998, he’d never seen a lick of his father as someone-- someone whole and roaring with life instead of the fake shine on top of a polaroid.
“Uh, yeah. Hufflepuff is practically filled to the brim-- too much happiness in one room for me, y’know? I just want to go somewhere that I can hear myself think-- I guess, Gryffindor wasn’t the best of options.” His lips curved into a smile of disbelief-- of wanting to hold onto every moment that he had. He was young-- younger than Teddy had expected. If this was what Teddy would look like at thirty-six years old, then damn, he was up for it. Still, there seemed to be something untouched in him that Teddy had never seen in photographs. Perhaps the war and the loss that came along with it hadn’t weathered his old man yet. “You’re, uh, Remus Lupin, right?”
“Where the the bloody hell is here anyways? I mean, I know it’s Hogwarts, but it’s so different.” she said. “And who–”
Dorcas cut off for a second before looking at him closely. He looked a tad bit different, but– “Lupin? Did you do this? I knew it. You, Potter, Black, and Pettigrew will stop at nothing will you? What is this even? Some massive prank? Is this about the match? Because I hardly think knocking Black off his broom constitutes you increasing the population of the castle.”
Dorcas didn’t explicitly dislike Lupin, not as much as the other Marauders at least. But he was a Gryffindor and clearly against the Dark Lord which hardly meant she could be nice to him. Besides, she was a Meadowes. She didn’t ask for answers. She demanded them.
Teddy moved close, trying to make out the face. It was familiar but he couldn’t quite place it but as she continued to speak, it became more apparent that she was from the time of the Marauders. Fuck, what were people from that time here? And more importantly, did he really look that much like his father to be mistaken for him? His heart warmed a little bit, considering the situation at least.
He’d never been fond of pretending to be someone that he wasn’t but in desperate times, they called for desperate measures. At least until he could figure out what the fuck he did. “I--I, um... I don’t know if we did this,” he tried to give a smile, a little huff of a chuckle from his lips. “Um, this would be a huge prank if we did it-- I’m kinda sad that we didn’t pull it off. Whoever did must be a genius of the highest caliber.”
( Or the biggest idiot on the planet. )
Yup, both sounded about right to describe Teddy Lupin.
Brushing a hand through his hand, Teddy’s smile started to creep away, his gaze going to the ground as it began to sink into him. He’d done this. How was he going to fix this? “I’m sure the person who did this is trying to figure out a way to fix it. I’m sure everything will go back to normal soon.”
If there was one thing Regulus Black didn’t like, it was being questioned. Sure, he got it all the time, from his parents, his brother, his professors, his housemates, but he wasn’t going to to take it from a stranger. It didn’t much matter that Reg himself didn’t know what he was doing there or why he’d woken up in a second floor corridor. This oaf made an affront to his pride. Reg gave Teddy a once over before deciding that, yes, this individual was truly beneath him. It was the hair that pushed him over the edge.
His lip curved upward into a sneer.
“That’s hardly any of your business, is it?” Though, Regulus paused as he thought, it wouldn’t have been a terrible idea to find out if the fool knew anything. The moment he discovered why and how he’d woken up in such a disgraceful state, there would be hell to pay. To get there, Reg decided to bluff. “I could ask the same of you.”
Teddy had seen the pictures-- sometimes, it seemed like that’s all he ever did. Look at pictures and try to imagine what might have occurred in the past. His grandmother had shown him Grimmauld Place once or twice; his eyes had traced over the figures in pictures and his fingers ran over the dulling walls. Some of them, he remembered were of the boy in front of him. In portraits, Regulus Black looked passive and constructed. In real life, he face twisted into a sneer that took Teddy aback.
Regulus... he’d been alive around the same time his father was young...
What was he doing here?
Shock aside, Teddy was immediately faced by comebacks bordering on rude, making the boy’s mouth open and close as he lacked the proper answers. “I--I, uh, I go here?” Well, he wasn’t technically wrong. He did attend Hogwarts... just several years later. “And I’ve never seen you here before so-- Sorry, I shouldn’t have assumed.” His hand immediately went up to his neck to rub nervously. Conflict had never been something he’d been totally comfortable with dealing with anyways.
Magic was capable of many things. And as James curled his fingers around his wand, he stared at it intently, as if it could provide him the answers he was looking for. This was not right. Magic could provide an explanation, but what kind of magic? And when? How? James’ wand had been in his pocket when he’d been walking around the corridors of Hogwarts, managing to sneak away from the paths of Prefects like always. It had been a normal day. Until he hadn’t been. Until he was here. In Hogwarts, like he had been. Yet not.
Wrinkling his nose, James let out a huffy breath. He was about to take out the Map to go and find a familiar face when one found him. One that wasn’t a portrait on the wall who were glancing at him in annoyance or confusion of their own. Teddy. James almost let out a sound or relief, when his friend’s words left him approaching the other cautiously, as if putting together pieces of a puzzle he hadn’t known he had been trying to assemble. “What do you mean, Teddy?” James slowly asked, putting his wand back into a pocket. Did Teddy know what was going on? “Should I not be here?” And where WAS here?
The hair change indicated some kind of emotional distress in the other. “Did…something happen?” He was not accusatory, but curious. Reaching out. Trying to understand, get a grip on this whole situation.
Teddy’s eyes trailed over the familiar face. No, it couldn’t be James. Perhaps James just looked really really similar to his father and he was talking to young Harry Potter. He could not be here. He hadn’t been born yet. They looked over every defining feature, trying to pick out any difference that he could. Please, he’d welcome anything. But then-- like some sort of curse-- the other boy spoke, his voice low and seemingly tentative. He must be worried about him somehow. So it was James Sirius Potter after all. Fuck, what had he done? Had he just taken James with him or was it others? What did he do?
James Sirius Potter-- his rock, his brother. How could he have pulled him from their mortal perches in the future? He knew that they tended to go through everything together (even the nightmares of James’ fifth year) but not this. This was supposed to just be the two of them. Teddy watched as the boy’s eyes flickered to his hair and as if by instinct, his hand went up to view it. Grey. Over the years, he’d learned that grey was a confusion of some sort-- probably from seeing James, he wouldn’t be surprised.
“I--I, uh... I just didn’t expect to see you right now, Jamie. Nothing’s wrong, I promise.“ He brushed it off, trying to smile. Teddy quickly ran the palm of his hand over the back of his neck with a sigh. “You just startled me, ‘s all.“ Don’t let him know your mistake. It’ll be okay. You know, you only fucked up the entire time continuum.
Teddy ran his hands through his hair, a stressful habit that he’d never really let go of. He’d been so overjoyed at landing in the past, possibilities with his father and mother endlessly running through his head. But then the realization of what he’d done-- that there were three generations of wizards and witches in Hogwarts. He’d just wanted to travel back in time but he didn’t expect everyone else to come as well. He found himself on the stairs, watching as various students came together in confusion... all because of him. “Fuck,” he sighed. How could he have screwed up this badly? At the sound of footsteps, he turned to see he wasn’t alone. “Hey... sorry that I’m in your way. I’m just having a rough time-- I fucked up real bad.”
Edward Lupin had developed a plan when he’d been walking to the Ministry in the rain. He was going to go back in time to see his parents-- that much was certain. And while this entire idea wasn’t particularly planned out nor made in the clearest of minds, he developed a basic step list of what he was going to do:
Step #1: Steal a time turner and go back in time.
Step #2: Find Remus Lupin.
Step #3: Get to know Father.
Step #4: ...
Well, okay, he wasn’t completely sure where to go from there but he was sure he’d figure it out. But that planning didn’t matter because #1 had already been completed! And #2 was now underway. But damn, why was it so hard to find a Lupin around here? From what Harry had told him, his father had been the Professor for Defense Against the Dark Arts so Teddy sighed, hoping that they hadn’t changed where everything was when they’d rebuilt the castle. After wandering around for what seemed like hours, his eyes landed on... not the DADA classroom.
But the Fat Lady portrait that was supposed to lead to the Gryffindor common rooms-- which was a close second. Remus Lupin had been a Gryffindor from what Teddy had been told. Perhaps he would be inside. His hair twisted into a light green, slightest cunning trying to think up the best way to get into the room. Only to be delighted when another Gryffindor had opened it instead, Teddy slipping in easily after him. The room was packed with various Gryffindors-- damn, he thought they were rowdy but he didn’t know there were this many of them.
Teddy kept his eyes open, searching for a face that looked like his in some way shape or form. His eyes were anywhere but in front of him as he quickly bumped into a certain student. He hardly spared a glance at them, stooping down in an instant to help with whatever damage he might have caused. “I’m so sorry. I wasn’t paying attention to where I was... going.” Is this Remus?
One second, Teddy Lupin had been running for dear life from several Unspeakables, the stolen time turner clutched in his hand and its chain swinging freely as he continuously pressed its knobs and such. To be completely honest-- he wasn’t really paying attention to how many times he’d pressed the thing and he probably should have wrapped the chain around his neck like he’d heard in stories... but all of that shite went out of the figurative window when Unspeakables were shooting curse after curse at him. One second....
And the next, landing face fi r s t o n t h e smooth tile of Hogwarts. After getting up and wandering around curiously for a few minutes, he finally encountered a student. “It’s 1996,” they replied annoyed after Teddy asked them what year it was. The boy resisted the urge to break out into a happy dance, laugh at all of those Unspeakables because they could s u c k it! He’d done it! He was in the past-- he wanted to scream it from the rooftops. Step #1 of the mission was complete. Commence Step #2: Find Remus Lupin.
Teddy’s eyes drifted from each painting, taking in every change in the setting. Wow, the past is so different. I guess this is what the Castle looked like before it was rebuilt. His eyes absentmindedly ran from wall to painting to face, seeing if any of them could point to his father or at least any hint of him. It was only after his eyes landed on a familiar face-- he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. “Wait-- Hey, what are you doing here?” his brow furrowed, his hair churning into grey. You’re not supposed to be here.
Mr. and Mrs. Potter, of Potters’ Cottage, in Godric’s Hollow, were proud to say that they were perfectly abnormal, thank you very much. They were the first people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just loved that sort of ‘nonsense’.
Mr. Potter was something called an Auror for a society called the Ministry of Magic. He was a slightly muscular man with dark hair that hung over his green eyes, although if you looked close enough you could see a small lightning-shaped scar peeking out on his forehead. Mrs. Potter was thin and red-haired; her neighbors all knew her as a star in the sport of something called Quidditch. The Potters had three children; James, Albus, and Lily, and in their opinion, like any parents’, there were no finer children out there. However, unlike most parents, they had another addition to the household from time to time: Harry’s godson, Edward Remus Lupin.
Many were aware of why Teddy Lupin had been placed under the care of his grandmother and godfather, a story that Andromeda and Harry had to tell the boy under his starry night sheets and a comforting hand running through the boy’s sandy curls. A story of the body of a professor with an enthusiasm for chocolate and a hairy little problem curled around a woman with a young spirit and ever changing hair colors, entangled in an eternal embrace that none could release either from. When Edward had been young, he’d heard several variations of the story-- ones where the Wolf and Little Red decided to live happily ever after or where the Prince and Princess would never be bothered by anyone else ever again. But as he grew older, he was able to recognize that his parents had not lived the happy ending that the Potters had painted to help him sleep at night. He’d learn that those stones in the ground that the family visited every year, as well as countless others, were not in fact someone’s rock collection but rather a harrowing ground full of people torn from their lives before they could truly recognize what to live for. He liked to believe that he resigned himself to the fact that his parents were dead rather early in his life.
Was resignation ever truly acceptance?
A quick stretch, rolling his shoulders back in preparation for the jump before him. Preparation for a new year at Hogwarts was proving to be quite a bitch-- his hair slipping into a deep read in frustration. Not to mention that this would be his last year at Hogwarts, N.E.W.T.S. and all. To say that Teddy was nervous was an understatement, his stomach swirled with teenage nerves but excitement all the same. He’d hardly needed to knock on Harry’s door before his godfather pointed him in the direction of the attic where a certain invisibility cloak laid ( he liked the privacy it allowed him when he was feeling particularly introverted ) . The same as the previous six years, the attic laid above him and while he was of average height, it had always seemed to tease him-- guaranteeing a chance that he might fall through the roof of the possible embarrassment of tripping over the countless boxes that laid within. From what he’d heard, his mother had been quite clumsy as well so luckily he could always chalk it up to genetics.
After a few tries and several darting glances to make sure none of his ‘adoptive siblings’ had seen, his finger finally caught on the attic before pulling the latch down, the rickety stairs immediately following its descent. So far so good. Taking extra notice of the rotting wood steps, Teddy slowly climbed up into the attic ( which he now decided should be named the Wooden Death Trap ). And somehow just as he had gotten comfortable and confident that he would probably leave this trip up with high levels of success, his head slammed against the narrow wood of the roof, causing the boy to let out curses that would make even Ginny raise a brow. He palmed gently at his head to ensure there wasn’t any serious injury aside from his battered pride and gladly found only that his hair had turned green-- a little habit he’d never really gotten a handle over where his Metamorphmagus genes would react whenever he experienced strong emotions.
By this point, Teddy just wanted to go in, grab the Invisibility Cloak wherever his godfather had left it, and get out. Attic: 1. Teddy Lupin: 0. And he wasn’t quite ashamed of his defeat. After rummaging through box after box, he ran his fingers through his settling yet sweaty hair, the annoyance of green slowly fading until it would turn back to his natural sandy brown. After looking through Albus’s old baby photos ( which he’d gladly hold over the boy’s head later ) and several old tapes labeled with ‘Harry & Ginny ;)’ ( that he didn’t want to find out the contents of in a million years ) , he finally stumbled upon a large packing case. It was a dusty old thing likely having never seen the light of day for countless years. Brushing back some of the dust, Teddy hardly made out the words ‘Professor R.J. Lupin.’
Now, let it be known that Teddy had always dreamed of this moment, wondering when his grandmother or godfather would approach him with some sort of great item that belonged to either of his parents but to much of his knowledge, there were no such things. So after discovering such an item-- one allowed to collect dust in his godfather’s attic-- hardly any time was wasted at all, his fingers clawing at the locks and openings until a dust cloud was blown into his face before settling.
The case as a whole was scuffed and a mess--he could only assume that his father had brought it on many a journey with him. What laid inside was quite alike to the outside, although Remus Lupin always had a knack for messy organization. Various clothes within, after all of this time, had lost whatever smell might have lingered. Books on things like wolfsbane and childcare made Teddy smile sadly. Harry had told him that his father had struggled with the idea of having a child for quite some time-- the idea of possibly passing on his furry little problem to any potential offspring had been of prime concern. The boy tore through the case, wanting to look at anything and everything within as if there would be some sort of secret way to bring his parents back inside.
His fingers barely brushed a slip of paper within before clasping it in his fingers. A photograph, undoubtedly taken a little before the Battle of Hogwarts-- Remus Lupin looked tired but joy clear on his face as he clasped a woman’s hand. That woman being his mother, Nymphadora Tonks was grinning from head to toe. They looked happy. The way they looked at each other was like there was some sort of secret between them that only they knew. A look like that would undoubtedly make others wonder what exactly that secret was. Teddy wanted to know what that secret was.
His fingers brushed lightly over his parents’ faces, the glistening of the photograph reflecting his appearance back at him. Blue. Not even a bright blue or a cerulean but a bluish gray for the dreariness and loss of hopes he was experiencing all at once. Scraping the back of his hand across his eyes, Teddy stifled a sniffle. He hated this. He hated all of this. He knew it was stupid as he had so many people around him, surrounding and supporting him. But it would never be the same as having the parents that he heard countless stories about. Stories were pleasant and nice but ultimately, they were just stories. Nothing more than a fairy tale.
Pushing the case away, Teddy tucked the photograph into the pocket of his pants before shuffling away to find what he’d come for. After a few more minutes of looking ( give or take ten minutes of trying to put himself back together ) , he finally climbed down the stairs with the Invisibility Cloak firm in hand.
“You find it okay, Teddy?” the sound of his godfather’s voice startled the boy out of his thoughts. He barely managed a nod before brushing past him, his hand curling into a fist around the fabric. “Everything okay?”
“Fine.”
He should think this through. Decisions made on a whim like this never ended up well. But all he could think about were the happy looks on his parents’ faces-- the secret between them.
He was going to find out what that secret was-- even if it meant traveling to that exact moment in time.
When Voldemort had Cedric Diggory killed, he said this: kill the spare.
Hannah heard it whispered in the hallways, too, right behind ‘sheep’ and ‘not smart not brave not cunning’ and simply ‘Puff’. Potions with Snape was always a treat. He hated Harry Potter, but the black and yellow only earned his disdain. But even Flitwick sometimes sighed when Justin Finch-Fletchey just couldn’t quite figure out a charm.
And Hannah, in a quiet, accustomed, burning way, fumed. We are not spare parts.
You think we’re your cast offs. You think we’re the kids no other House wanted to take.
Well, here’s a clue for you, suckers. This is a story about choice. The wand chooses the wizard but the wizard chooses the House. When that Hat goes on your head, it doesn’t forbid you things, it offers them to you.
We are not your castoffs. We’re just the kids who didn’t choose you.
http://archiveofourown.org/works/2089398, ‘naive: in defense of hannah abbott’ by dirgewithoutmusic, aka ink-splotch
(via laurelsing-abc)
dailybridgerton
tangentwithtanner
titsay
annaxmalina
discoholicmusic
turnnoffyourmind
