Fic: Son of Heroes
Title: Son of Heroes
Author: phoenixfyre13
Ratings & Warnings: K, no warnings to speak of.
Prompts:
What can I do, what can I be?
When I’m with you I want to stay there.
If I’m true I’ll never leave
And if I do I’ll know the way there. -- Beatles, Got to Get You Into My Life
Word Count: 1980
Summary: The night before his first day at Hogwarts, Teddy Lupin gets curious about the trunk in the basement, and is not exactly thrilled with what he finds.
Author's Notes: I am just going to go ahead and put out this disclaimer now -- this is NOT what I thought it would become, but I am so very happy with it that even if it does toe the line a bit as far as the rules are concerned I wanted to share it with you all. Hope you enjoy! :)
Teddy Lupin cracked an eye to find the dim English sunlight peeking through his bedroom curtains, the birds outside his window chirping a happy tune that completely belied the twisting in his stomach and apprehension flowing through his veins.
The first day of school.
Teddy flipped back over, pulling the covers over his head even as he heard his grandmother puttering about in the kitchen, no doubt making a special breakfast for him before they headed off to King’s Cross Station. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep it down, if the roiling in his stomach was any indication.
“Teddy, dear! Breakfast!”
Teddy sighed and flipped the covers back, shuffling out of his room fully aware that if he did what he wanted to and stayed hidden in bed, Gram would be upstairs in a matter of minutes to check on him. And he did not want to have to explain to her why this day, a day that he and she had been preparing for the better part of a year, was finally here, and suddenly he wanted no part in it.
The hesitation hadn’t always been there. In fact, it hadn’t really been an issue at all, until the night before, when he had snuck downstairs into the cellar and pulled out his mum’s old school trunk.
Gram had showed him where it was, told him when he was ready that he should let her know and they would go through it together. A huge part of him had been starving for any little piece of information he could garner about his parents, those mysterious individuals of whom he had no memory, no sense of loss that so many others seemed to have. But another part of him, the part that always won out, had always been terribly afraid that if he knew about them, remembered them, that the loss would somehow be greater and more real to him than if he remained in the dark. That perhaps what he was becoming, the things he loved to do, would somehow be a disappointment to their memory.
But last night, after he had once again changed the subject at the dinner table away from his parents as Gram had begun to reminisce over his mother’s first day at Hogwarts, his curiosity had gotten the better of him.
*******************************************************
His fingers trembled slightly on the latch as he flipped open the heavy steamer trunk. Inside the lid were stickers and photos with sticking charms plastered haphazardly across the surface. His heart skipped a beat and his stomach twisted as he looked at his mum staring back at him, teeth bared in a ridiculous grin, arms wrapped around the neck of a boy with fiery red hair and freckles splattered across his face. He had seen pictures of her and his father before - Gram kept one in her bedroom, and a simple portrait of them hung discreetly in the living room. But for some reason, the joy in this picture, her love of life came out so vividly that the ache of longing for that smile to be directed at him completely overwhelmed him.
Teddy looked away, confused by the sudden moment of longing and pang of jealousy and the unknown boy, and continued to explore the contents of the trunk, things his mother had collected that meant so much to her and things his Gram had added since she left school. Inside were her school robes, and pair of Doc Martens painted liberally with stripes of black and yellow - no doubt in honor of her house colors. Pictures of her with the Hufflepuff quidditch team, those boots now laced up proudly on her legs. Things that had obviously meant something to her, but things that meant more to her parents - her papers, commendations from professors, her letter welcoming her to Hogwarts that mirrored his except in name - even the address was the same. Her acceptance letter to Auror school. More commendations, this time for her work in the field as a Junior Auror. Then, nestled to the side and wrapped carefully in deep purple cloth - two Orders of Merlin, First Class. For outstanding bravery and sacrifice for the betterment of wizardkind, issued to Remus John and Nymphadora Tonks Lupin.
Teddy shoved the heavy medals back in the box like they were on fire, slamming the lid quickly before scrambling back into the corner of the room, the slightly musty smell of the trunk that used to be so familiar and alluring to him now clogging his nose and making it hard for him to breathe.
His mother had been a hero. She had been loved in school by friends and professors, accepted to a program that only a handful of wizards could even dream of entering. That impish girl in the photos, so loved by everyone and accomplished in all she did, had died for every wizard in existence, including him. His father, too. How in the world was he ever going to make them proud of him?
He moved quickly and quietly back up the stairs, his feet heavy and dread filling every pore. Until ten minutes ago he had been looking forward to his trip on the Hogwarts Express, sending him to a place where he could become his own wizard. But now, he knew that all people would see when they looked at the blue-haired first year was the son of two heroes who couldn’t possibly live up to their legacy.
*******************************************************
Teddy felt Gram eyeing him across the table as he pushed his flapjacks around his plate and stared at the sausage as though it were poisoned.
“I thought we could Portkey down to London instead of Apparating today,” she said, breaking the heavy silence. “It would be easier and safer with all your things, especially with Opus.” The brown barn owl hooted from across the room at the sound of his name.
Teddy shrugged and continued to make patterns in his syrup. “Alright.”
Gram set her fork down and focused on Teddy. “Darling, what is the matter? You were so excited yesterday, and now it seems as though I may have to shove you onto the train.”
Teddy was horrified to find tears prickling behind his eyes. He didn’t look up at her as he croaked out an answer. “I dunno. Just don’t feel much like going, I guess.”
Gram reached across the table and lifted his chin to look him in the eye. Her eyes were kind and her voice was gentle as she spoke, sending a lump straight to Teddy’s throat. “What’s happened?”
“I looked at Mum’s trunk,” he whispered, feeling a couple of tears slip down his cheek. “She was a hero, Gram. She and Dad were heroes. What if I can’t be one, too?”
“Oh, my love,” Gram whispered, coming quickly out of her chair to kneel beside Teddy and gently wipe the tears from his face. “All you have to be is yourself, and the rest will work itself out.”
“But everyone loved her,” he blurted. “You, Grandpa, Dad, her friends, her teachers -“ he was startled by an abrupt laugh from Gram. She stood and reached out for his hand.
“I think we need to relook at that trunk,” she said, beckoning him to join her.
*******************************************************
“Ah, here were are.”
Gram had dug to the bottom of the trunk, pulling out a sheaf of papers with red marks like blisters across the parchment.
“What’s all that?” Teddy asked.
“This is every single paper that your mum wrote from her first year at school,” she announced, plopping them in front of Teddy for him to see. He picked up one and inspected the sloppy inkpaths, so similar to his own he almost did a double take, then looked at the top of the page. “She failed?” he squeaked, staring up incredulously at his Gram.
She nodded. “Every single class. The only reason she made it past her first year was because she was incredibly gifted at last-minute studying. She squeaked past her first two years at school based on the merits of her practical skills and her ability to ace her end of year exams. We got more letters about her poor work from teachers than we knew what to do with. It wasn’t until she found out that she could be an Auror that she straightened up and took it seriously. And even then, she had to fight for every grade she got. Teddy, every commendation she received from a teacher was truly hard-earned.”
Teddy looked down, still having a hard time believing that his mum, the hero, had practically failed her first two years of school.
Gram handed him another piece of parchment, this one not quite as old. “This is a letter she wrote to us the night after her Stealth and Tracking examination for her Auror qualifications,” she said. “Your mother was quite certain we would need to come pick her up at the station the next day.” Gram smiled wistfully. “That girl was the most uncoordinated child, I was constantly cleaning up a spill in the kitchen or a bloody knee. She certainly kept my housekeeping and first aid spells in good shape.”
He saw the memory of his mother in her mother’s eyes and felt a twinge of pity and sadness. He missed her, but hadn’t even known her. What must it be like to have loved her her whole life?
Gram smiled as he placed his small hand on hers, lined with age and worn with work born from love, and looked tenderly down at him as she ran a hand through his mousy brown hair. “You remind me so much of her when she was young,” she whispered. “Come. I have something else to show you.”
Gram moved to a smaller box, made of worn leather with silver brackets, and carefully opened the lid. Teddy’s heart leapt at what was on the very top - a picture of him, with his mum and dad. Teddy recalled the smile he had seen in the picture with her freckled faced friend, the one he had wished with all his heart had been aimed at him. And there it was, beaming up from that picture, every so often focusing on the wriggling baby in her arms. Under the picture he found his first baby blanket, knitted with care by Molly Weasley; more pictures of his parents on their wedding day, beaming up at one another with complete happiness etched across their faces. Dried out flowers from her wedding bouquet. Trinkets, letters, a small bar of Honeyduke’s chocolate. All pieces of his parents that he had never seen before.
“Your mother wanted to start a memory box for you, something that she and your father could pull out when you were old enough and share with you their history,” Gram said next to him, stroking the back of his head. “You and Remus were the greatest joys of her life.” Teddy could hear the catch in his grandmother’s throat. “And she was more proud of you than she was of anything she had ever done.” She turned Teddy to face her, hands firm on his shoulders. “I want you to remember that always, Teddy Lupin. No matter where you are sorted, what your grades are, if you decide to be a professor or an Auror. She and your father loved you more than anything, and what they would want you to become is happy.”
*******************************************************
As he sat in the great banquet hall that night, surrounded by nervous first years waiting to be called to the Sorting Hat, a blue-haired Teddy Lupin felt in his pocket for the photo of his parents, knowing that no matter what happened or who he became, he would always be the son of heroes.
And he smiled.
Author: phoenixfyre13
Ratings & Warnings: K, no warnings to speak of.
Prompts:
What can I do, what can I be?
When I’m with you I want to stay there.
If I’m true I’ll never leave
And if I do I’ll know the way there. -- Beatles, Got to Get You Into My Life
Word Count: 1980
Summary: The night before his first day at Hogwarts, Teddy Lupin gets curious about the trunk in the basement, and is not exactly thrilled with what he finds.
Author's Notes: I am just going to go ahead and put out this disclaimer now -- this is NOT what I thought it would become, but I am so very happy with it that even if it does toe the line a bit as far as the rules are concerned I wanted to share it with you all. Hope you enjoy! :)
Teddy Lupin cracked an eye to find the dim English sunlight peeking through his bedroom curtains, the birds outside his window chirping a happy tune that completely belied the twisting in his stomach and apprehension flowing through his veins.
The first day of school.
Teddy flipped back over, pulling the covers over his head even as he heard his grandmother puttering about in the kitchen, no doubt making a special breakfast for him before they headed off to King’s Cross Station. He wasn’t sure he’d be able to keep it down, if the roiling in his stomach was any indication.
“Teddy, dear! Breakfast!”
Teddy sighed and flipped the covers back, shuffling out of his room fully aware that if he did what he wanted to and stayed hidden in bed, Gram would be upstairs in a matter of minutes to check on him. And he did not want to have to explain to her why this day, a day that he and she had been preparing for the better part of a year, was finally here, and suddenly he wanted no part in it.
The hesitation hadn’t always been there. In fact, it hadn’t really been an issue at all, until the night before, when he had snuck downstairs into the cellar and pulled out his mum’s old school trunk.
Gram had showed him where it was, told him when he was ready that he should let her know and they would go through it together. A huge part of him had been starving for any little piece of information he could garner about his parents, those mysterious individuals of whom he had no memory, no sense of loss that so many others seemed to have. But another part of him, the part that always won out, had always been terribly afraid that if he knew about them, remembered them, that the loss would somehow be greater and more real to him than if he remained in the dark. That perhaps what he was becoming, the things he loved to do, would somehow be a disappointment to their memory.
But last night, after he had once again changed the subject at the dinner table away from his parents as Gram had begun to reminisce over his mother’s first day at Hogwarts, his curiosity had gotten the better of him.
*******************************************************
His fingers trembled slightly on the latch as he flipped open the heavy steamer trunk. Inside the lid were stickers and photos with sticking charms plastered haphazardly across the surface. His heart skipped a beat and his stomach twisted as he looked at his mum staring back at him, teeth bared in a ridiculous grin, arms wrapped around the neck of a boy with fiery red hair and freckles splattered across his face. He had seen pictures of her and his father before - Gram kept one in her bedroom, and a simple portrait of them hung discreetly in the living room. But for some reason, the joy in this picture, her love of life came out so vividly that the ache of longing for that smile to be directed at him completely overwhelmed him.
Teddy looked away, confused by the sudden moment of longing and pang of jealousy and the unknown boy, and continued to explore the contents of the trunk, things his mother had collected that meant so much to her and things his Gram had added since she left school. Inside were her school robes, and pair of Doc Martens painted liberally with stripes of black and yellow - no doubt in honor of her house colors. Pictures of her with the Hufflepuff quidditch team, those boots now laced up proudly on her legs. Things that had obviously meant something to her, but things that meant more to her parents - her papers, commendations from professors, her letter welcoming her to Hogwarts that mirrored his except in name - even the address was the same. Her acceptance letter to Auror school. More commendations, this time for her work in the field as a Junior Auror. Then, nestled to the side and wrapped carefully in deep purple cloth - two Orders of Merlin, First Class. For outstanding bravery and sacrifice for the betterment of wizardkind, issued to Remus John and Nymphadora Tonks Lupin.
Teddy shoved the heavy medals back in the box like they were on fire, slamming the lid quickly before scrambling back into the corner of the room, the slightly musty smell of the trunk that used to be so familiar and alluring to him now clogging his nose and making it hard for him to breathe.
His mother had been a hero. She had been loved in school by friends and professors, accepted to a program that only a handful of wizards could even dream of entering. That impish girl in the photos, so loved by everyone and accomplished in all she did, had died for every wizard in existence, including him. His father, too. How in the world was he ever going to make them proud of him?
He moved quickly and quietly back up the stairs, his feet heavy and dread filling every pore. Until ten minutes ago he had been looking forward to his trip on the Hogwarts Express, sending him to a place where he could become his own wizard. But now, he knew that all people would see when they looked at the blue-haired first year was the son of two heroes who couldn’t possibly live up to their legacy.
*******************************************************
Teddy felt Gram eyeing him across the table as he pushed his flapjacks around his plate and stared at the sausage as though it were poisoned.
“I thought we could Portkey down to London instead of Apparating today,” she said, breaking the heavy silence. “It would be easier and safer with all your things, especially with Opus.” The brown barn owl hooted from across the room at the sound of his name.
Teddy shrugged and continued to make patterns in his syrup. “Alright.”
Gram set her fork down and focused on Teddy. “Darling, what is the matter? You were so excited yesterday, and now it seems as though I may have to shove you onto the train.”
Teddy was horrified to find tears prickling behind his eyes. He didn’t look up at her as he croaked out an answer. “I dunno. Just don’t feel much like going, I guess.”
Gram reached across the table and lifted his chin to look him in the eye. Her eyes were kind and her voice was gentle as she spoke, sending a lump straight to Teddy’s throat. “What’s happened?”
“I looked at Mum’s trunk,” he whispered, feeling a couple of tears slip down his cheek. “She was a hero, Gram. She and Dad were heroes. What if I can’t be one, too?”
“Oh, my love,” Gram whispered, coming quickly out of her chair to kneel beside Teddy and gently wipe the tears from his face. “All you have to be is yourself, and the rest will work itself out.”
“But everyone loved her,” he blurted. “You, Grandpa, Dad, her friends, her teachers -“ he was startled by an abrupt laugh from Gram. She stood and reached out for his hand.
“I think we need to relook at that trunk,” she said, beckoning him to join her.
*******************************************************
“Ah, here were are.”
Gram had dug to the bottom of the trunk, pulling out a sheaf of papers with red marks like blisters across the parchment.
“What’s all that?” Teddy asked.
“This is every single paper that your mum wrote from her first year at school,” she announced, plopping them in front of Teddy for him to see. He picked up one and inspected the sloppy inkpaths, so similar to his own he almost did a double take, then looked at the top of the page. “She failed?” he squeaked, staring up incredulously at his Gram.
She nodded. “Every single class. The only reason she made it past her first year was because she was incredibly gifted at last-minute studying. She squeaked past her first two years at school based on the merits of her practical skills and her ability to ace her end of year exams. We got more letters about her poor work from teachers than we knew what to do with. It wasn’t until she found out that she could be an Auror that she straightened up and took it seriously. And even then, she had to fight for every grade she got. Teddy, every commendation she received from a teacher was truly hard-earned.”
Teddy looked down, still having a hard time believing that his mum, the hero, had practically failed her first two years of school.
Gram handed him another piece of parchment, this one not quite as old. “This is a letter she wrote to us the night after her Stealth and Tracking examination for her Auror qualifications,” she said. “Your mother was quite certain we would need to come pick her up at the station the next day.” Gram smiled wistfully. “That girl was the most uncoordinated child, I was constantly cleaning up a spill in the kitchen or a bloody knee. She certainly kept my housekeeping and first aid spells in good shape.”
He saw the memory of his mother in her mother’s eyes and felt a twinge of pity and sadness. He missed her, but hadn’t even known her. What must it be like to have loved her her whole life?
Gram smiled as he placed his small hand on hers, lined with age and worn with work born from love, and looked tenderly down at him as she ran a hand through his mousy brown hair. “You remind me so much of her when she was young,” she whispered. “Come. I have something else to show you.”
Gram moved to a smaller box, made of worn leather with silver brackets, and carefully opened the lid. Teddy’s heart leapt at what was on the very top - a picture of him, with his mum and dad. Teddy recalled the smile he had seen in the picture with her freckled faced friend, the one he had wished with all his heart had been aimed at him. And there it was, beaming up from that picture, every so often focusing on the wriggling baby in her arms. Under the picture he found his first baby blanket, knitted with care by Molly Weasley; more pictures of his parents on their wedding day, beaming up at one another with complete happiness etched across their faces. Dried out flowers from her wedding bouquet. Trinkets, letters, a small bar of Honeyduke’s chocolate. All pieces of his parents that he had never seen before.
“Your mother wanted to start a memory box for you, something that she and your father could pull out when you were old enough and share with you their history,” Gram said next to him, stroking the back of his head. “You and Remus were the greatest joys of her life.” Teddy could hear the catch in his grandmother’s throat. “And she was more proud of you than she was of anything she had ever done.” She turned Teddy to face her, hands firm on his shoulders. “I want you to remember that always, Teddy Lupin. No matter where you are sorted, what your grades are, if you decide to be a professor or an Auror. She and your father loved you more than anything, and what they would want you to become is happy.”
*******************************************************
As he sat in the great banquet hall that night, surrounded by nervous first years waiting to be called to the Sorting Hat, a blue-haired Teddy Lupin felt in his pocket for the photo of his parents, knowing that no matter what happened or who he became, he would always be the son of heroes.
And he smiled.