Chapter Text
“All Hogsmeade trips are to be cancelled until further notice on account of the increasing number of attacks that are taking place,” Dumbledore announced later that night at dinner.
There were a few people who raised their complaints, which were swiftly silenced by the Headmaster, but overall most of them seemed to understand that this was a necessary course of action to ensure everyone’s safety.
Teddy remained quiet throughout the meal, as did many other people who had been caught up in the attack. His mind couldn’t help but return to that moment where he had been absolutely helpless and at the mercy of those death eaters. Sure, he had heard all the stories from the wars that were fought, how many people had lost their lives as a result. However, it was one thing to know something and entirely another to experience it first hand.
What sort of thoughts had been running through his parents' heads in the moments before their death? Had they suspected that they would die that day? Were they thinking of him, mourning the fact that their newborn son might never know them? Or did they view their own deaths as a necessary sacrifice to ensure a brighter future? If only he could ask them.
Technically, he could ask at least one of them, seeing as Remus Lupin was literally sitting beside him. The teenage werewolf had yet to leave his side since they got back. And he couldn’t deny that the entire incident had made him reconsider whether or not he should tell him his true identity. Still, he didn’t think that it was the right time for such a confession.
Imagine finding out that you had just saved your future son from dying at the hands of the enemy, all because he was stupid enough to have a panic attack while it was happening. The last thing he wanted was to cause his dad to have a heart attack.
After dinner, they all headed up to their dorm room together, none of them saying a word at first.
“Would you mind terribly if we asked you some questions about the future?” James was the one to break the silence at last.
Glancing up, he saw that they were all looking at him, and he could see it in their eyes that they were being earnest. The events of the day had frightened them too. When it came down to it, they were all just teenagers, the same as him.
“You can ask, just keep in mind that there might be some information I can’t reveal.”
They nodded their heads in agreement as they all piled onto the same bed, making themselves comfortable as they gathered around the time traveler.
“You confirmed earlier that you had never seen a death eater before.” Remus was the first one to speak. “I take it that means that the war ended before your time?”
He nodded his head. “Every now and then someone will come forward, claiming that they were a former follower of Voldemort and try to wreak havoc, but they never get far. Not with my godfather around to stop them.”
“You’re godfather is Lily Luna’s dad, right?” James piped in, just barely restraining his excitement at the idea. “My son?”
There was little use in trying to withhold that piece of information from them. “Yes, his name is Harry James Potter.”
“Wait, you said that the ex-death eaters never got far with your godfather around to stop them,” Peter pointed out. “What does that mean?”
“Uncle Harry is Head of the Auror Office.”
James was practically beaming with pride. “That’s my boy!’
He couldn’t help but chuckle at that. At least he’d be able to confidently tell Harry just how proud his father is of him when he got back. If he made it back, that was.
“So, how did James’ son become your godfather?” Remus asked,
That was where things became a bit trickier to explain. “My mum was an auror herself, and both her and my dad were quite close to him.”
If they noticed that he had switched to using the past tense, they didn’t comment on it.
“So, what about us?” James asked. “Can you tell us anything else about our futures?”
Teddy hesitated for a moment, searching for something that should be considered safe to tell them. “Um, I can tell you that Remus will go on to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts during Harry’s third year at Hogwarts.”
Remus nearly choked over his own saliva when he heard that. “They actually hired me to teach at Hogwarts?” he asked, to which Teddy nodded his head in affirmation. “How is that even possible with the…” he cut himself off short.
“The full moon?” Teddy supplied.
Everyone froze in place, their eyes widening at the realization. “Y-You know?”
He nodded his head. “I’ve known all along.”
Remus gulped. “And you aren’t repulsed by me?”
His brows furrowed in confusion. “Why would I be repulsed by you?”
“Because I’m a fucking monster!”
The period of silence that followed was rife with tension. To say that Teddy was taken aback by the declaration was an understatement. He recalled that Harry had briefly mentioned something about Remus being self conscious about his Lycanthropy, but he never would have imagined he felt so strongly about it.
“Maybe in your own eyes, but not mine,” he whispered just loud enough that he knew Remus would be able to hear it.
And he knew immediately that he had, noticing the way his body sagged at the impact.
“As for how it’s possible… You’ll be happy to know that they invent a potion in the future that, when consumed regularly leading up to the full moon, allows a werewolf to retain their human mindset even after they transform.”
Remus’ eyes somehow grew wider than they already were. “You’re not pulling my leg, are you?”
He shook his head. “It’s called the Wolfsbane Potion.”
From there, he went into a bit more detail about what he knew about the potion and its origins. Unfortunately it would be quite a few years before it was invented, but everyone seemed content enough with the knowledge that the option would be available in the future. Even Remus seemed hopeful about it, which was what he hoped for when he decided to tell them about it in the first place.
“What about me?” Sirius asked. “Do I end up going insane like the rest of my family?”
Until that point, Sirius had been uncharacteristically quiet just as he had been since the attack. And it didn’t take a genius to figure out why. Teddy might have been dealing with his own problems at the time, but he still saw and heard everything that went down with the former Black Heir.
“You’re not going insane, Pads,”
“I’m turning into my mother!” Sirius snapped at Remus. “You said so yourself!”
Remus heaved a sigh. “I know what I said, but it was the only way I could think of to get you to snap out of it. I didn’t actually mean it.”
Sirius didn’t make an attempt to argue any further, but it didn’t seem like he entirely believed him at the same time.
Teddy on his part was at a bit of a loss for what to say. He didn’t want to lie to him, but he also didn’t want to make things worse. Eventually he settled for the one thing he could think of that might help put him at ease. “I know for a fact that you’re not like your mother because I’ve met her.”
Sirius raised a brow. “Huh?”
He nodded his head. “Rather, I should say that I've met her portrait. It hangs at the top of the stairs leading to the first floor of Grimmauld Place.”
It took a moment for it to sink in what that implied, that his mother was dead in the future. Not that he seemed all that saddened by the fact. “Dare I ask how you know this?”
“Because I live at Grimmauld Place some of the time,” he explained. “And every time someone walks past her portrait, she screams insults at them.”
Sirius lets out a snort. “Doesn’t sound like much has changed.”
“Why do you live there?” James asked.
“Look, there’s very few members of the Black Family left in my time. And most of the ones who are still alive don’t want anything to do with the place. I don’t know the exact details behind it, but there’s some sort of ancient magic surrounding the place that they’re afraid might blow up the entire neighborhood if left unattended.”
“Yeah, that would be my ancestor’s doing,” Sirius went on to further explain. “The story goes that Phineas Nigellus Black performed an ancient ritual when the house was first built to make it so that it would self-destruct in the event that the entire bloodline died out.”
“Exactly, which is why we’ve taken to using it as a summer home. It’s not actually all that bad now that we’ve cleaned it up. Most of the portraits are reasonably tolerant of us, and even Kreacher has come to more or less accept us as his new masters.”
“Kreacher is still alive?” Sirius asked in amazement.
“Yeah, though he has recently started asking us to behead him.”
“What?!” That certainly got the other boys’ attention.
Sirius groaned. “It’s an old family tradition that started with Aunt Elladora. Whenever the house elves get too old that they can’t work anymore, we chop their heads off and mount them on the wall like trophies.”
Their faces morphed into a mixture of horror and disgust. Even James, who came from an old pureblood family himself, seemed taken aback by it.
Their horror at the strange antics of the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black soon faded as they all burst out laughing. No one knew what the reason was, but Teddy thought that perhaps that was exactly the point. Maybe they just needed to laugh after all the trauma that the day had put them through. Or maybe it was their own way of making themselves feel better about all the trauma of their respective pasts.
As the conversation gradually winded down, the four boys began to yawn as they shifted back towards their own beds. “I don’t know about you lot, but I think I’m gonna call it an early night,” James remarked.
They all nodded their heads in agreement to that statement.
“Yeah,” Sirius agreed. “We’ll need all the rest we can get before quidditch practice tomorrow.”
“That is, unless they decide to cancel quidditch too.”
“Don’t even joke about that, Moony!” James exclaimed.
Remus rolled his eyes, but said nothing as they each proceeded to get changed before climbing into bed.
It wasn’t long before everyone had settled into their beds, and one by one their breathing gradually evened, the world fading around them as they sank into a deep, much-needed sleep.
Teddy was back in that alleyway, being stared down by the two terrifying figures dressed in black. They were holding him at wand point, their shrill laughter echoing in his ears. His heart was hammering in his chest, his mind screaming at him to run, but he couldn’t move. It was as if his body had been petrified.
He was going to die…
He felt it in his chest. He was going to die right then and there in that foreign place and time. Oddly enough, it wasn’t so much the thought of dying itself that bothered him, but rather the thought that he would die alone. No one was coming to save him, nor did anyone care whether he was in danger. Why would they? He didn’t even belong to that particular timeline.
Then things changed. In the blink of an eye, Remus appeared to stand before him, his body acting as a shield between him and the death eaters. However, there was something different about this Remus. He wasn’t the same seventeen year old boy he had known, but rather the older version of him. The one he had only ever seen in photographs.
“Dad…”
“We’re here, Teddy,” he assured him. “You’re not alone.”
A second person appeared to stand directly beside him. This time a woman with bright pink hair. He could see neither of their faces, their backs turned to him, but somehow he still recognized them.
“Mum…”
“We love you so much, Teddy,” she spoke, her voice practically radiating warmth and love. “We’re so sorry we never got to be a proper family.”
“Our lives became the sacrifice to ensure a brighter future for you.”
He wanted to cry, but the tears never came. He tried to reach out his hand to grab hold of them, but the only thing he could grasp onto was the air itself.. As always, they were just beyond his reach.
“Avada Kedavra!” the death eater’s voice suddenly rang out.
There was a flash of blinding green light, in which he couldn’t see. There was a loud thud, and a few moments later, the light dissipated to reveal that of his parents' lifeless bodies. The death eaters were gone without a trace, almost as if they had never been there to begin with.
Teddy started to scramble towards them, only to find them slowly fading from view the closer he got. First his mum faded, followed shortly after by his father, leaving him once more alone in that cold, dark world.
A piercing scream echoed through the air. A scream that he was only vaguely aware had come from his own lungs. He crumpled back to the ground, his body curling up in a tight ball on the exact spot he had just seen his parents die.
“Take me with you…” he mumbled. “You sacrificed yourselves for me, but you left so few remnants of yourselves for me to remember you by.”
The only response that came was complete and utter silence. The kind of silence that seemed so loud it was almost deafening.
Then he started to hear something.
Something echoing in the wind.
“Teddy…” It sounded like someone was calling his name.
“Wake up…”
“Teddy, wake up!”
In a flash, the cold, dark alleyway was gone, and he jolted upright to find himself once more back in the safety of his dorm room. Not only that, but Remus was there, staring down at him with a worrying expression.
“Thank Merlin you’re awake.”
It took him a moment to try and catch his breath before he could calm down enough to even speak. “W-What happened?”
“You were having a nightmare,” Remus explained. “I woke up to hear you screaming in your sleep.”
It was a dream.
It was all just a dream.
Of course it was. After all, his parents had died a long time ago. The Remus that stood before him now was his dad’s past self, having absolutely no knowledge of who he was.
“You okay over there, mate?” a voice that sounded a lot like James asked.
And now that he was fully awake and able to discern everything around him, he could see that the rest of his dorm mates were awake as well, likely having been woken up by him as well. “Yeah, I’m alright,” he assured them. “Sorry for waking you.”
Peter didn’t waste any time in lying back down and pulling the covers up over his head. Whereas Sirius and James laid back down, but kept their eyes open and their heads turned towards him. However, what surprised him the most was that Remus didn’t make any attempt to return to his own bed, but instead remained seated at the edge of his bed.
“You can go back to bed if you want.”
Remus shook his head. “My wolf… is pretty riled up right now.”
It caught him a bit by surprise to hear him openly speak about his Lycanthropy.
“What’s it like?” he asked. “Aside from the obvious pain of transformation.”
Remus hesitated at first, and Teddy half expected him not to answer. “The best way I know how to describe it is like having someone else living inside of your head. I can hear their voice as clearly as I do my own thoughts.”
He admittedly didn’t know all that much about werewolves, or at least not so much on a personal level. Everything he knew came from textbooks, most of which he knew not to be entirely accurate. The only other person he knew was Bill Weasley, and even then, he technically wasn’t a full werewolf.
“And my senses are all heightened. I’ve gotten used to it, but it can make meal times and school assemblies a bit uncomfortable, especially when everyone’s talking all at once.”
Teddy nodded his head. He wanted to tell him how he completely understood how that felt, how he too suffered from the same heightened senses. More than anything, he wanted to fling himself into the werewolves arms and hug him tightly. To ground himself in the reality that he wasn’t alone, that his dad was really there, be it in a younger form.
He wanted so much, but he denied himself it all, not wanting to ruin the way things currently were. It was enough to just have him near, or so he told himself.