Chapter 1
Remus Lupin was many a thing. A werewolf for one. A friend for another. A husband and a father to some. All these things did not define him. What did define him, was the kindness he showed to all these people and the love that they gave him in return.
It was another dreary order meeting that he was sat in, his left foot absentmindedly tapped on the hard wood floor, occasionally knocking into Sirius' who was sat across from him.
"You-know-who is planning something. Something involving Potter. What? I do not know." Snape reported. Remus was becoming tired of his updates on the death eaters, he never gave anything of any use. It was all so vague. His reports used to be helpful, but recently they had waned until they were scraps of information. Sometimes they could piece together plans of what the bastard might have been up to, but for the most part, they were sat in a slump.
"That's brilliant, Snape. Truly brilliant. We had no idea that Voldy was planning something to do with Harry. Because he's never done that before." Remus' foot intentionally kicked into Sirius' this time. Sirius' snark response was met with a glare from Snape.
"Come now Sirius, have a little faith, my boy." It was Dumbledore who spoke from the head of the table. His robes were a shimmery lilac colour that seemed to blend into the ends of his ivory beard. How Dumbledore could have so much hope for a brighter future, Remus could never understand. He continued, "From sources that I will not mention, it has come to my attention that an attack will be taking place on a Muggle orphanage next Wednesday. Those who can spare the time and effort will guard the orphanage." Dumbledore refused to ever mention who was giving them this information, if he did refer to them, it was as The Hummingbird. He and Sirius had spent many an evening drinking and discussing their theories on who The Hummingbird might be. Sirius had suggested it was Lucius Malfoy one evening and the two had laughed for hours about the possibility of the coward having a good streak.
"Remus, Tonks, Moody. You are all free, are you not?" The three nodded their heads, Remus a bit reluctantly. He had promised Nesta he would be home on Wednesday. He supposed plans must change, it was a war he was fighting after all. "Good, that will be all then. I shall meet you all on Wednesday with anyone else that wishes to join."
Dumbledore left and everyone began to slowly trickle out after him. Molly began to set out the table for dinner.
"You gonna be alright, mate? Isn't Wednesday Max's birthday?" Sirius' hand came to rest on his shoulder, the height difference causing the shorter man to have to stretch up to accomplish the feat.
Remus looked down towards his friend, "Yeah, yeah. It's Max's birthday. But this is war, they'll be many birthday's after. I'll just celebrate with him the day before." He sighed. Nesta was going to kill him. She was going to skin him alive and wear him as a coat.
"I would not want to be the one to break that to Nesta." Sirius laughed, the thought of the Irish-Russian woman's fury too much for his slightly insane brain. Remus sighed at the thought as well.
"Are you staying for dinner, Remus dear?" Molly's voice interrupted their conversation. Her eyes looked expectantly at the greying man, waiting for his response.
"No, best not Molly." He ran a hand through his hair, avoiding her judging gaze.
"Do you have food at home?" She questioned.
"Yes, Molly. I've got food waiting for me at home." He could see that she was going to complain and claim that he need a real, home-cooked meal, not whatever he had left in the cupboards.
"Come on, Molly. Let the poor man go." Sirius turned the woman away from Remus and back towards the kitchen where different pans and cutlery were flying about and cooking all sorts of delicious things. He loved Molly's cooking, but nothing could beat Nesta's meals.
He laughed as he saw Sirius salute him from the kitchen as he pretended to be invested in his conversation with the Weasley matriarch. He walked over towards the fireplace and grabbed a handful of floo-powder.
"Ivory Gardens, Warwickshire." The fire roared around him, licking at his feet and dancing around his robes. Grimmauld Place faded from his view and instead the living room of his own home came into view.
"Good trip?" Leon was sat on the sofa, one leg propped on the other and Charles Dickens' The Old Curiosity Shop was open on his lap.
"Could have been better. How's the pack been, no problems?" He asked the beta of his pack, he could hear scurrying feet from the upper floors where the pups were most likely playing hide and seek or some other similar game.
"It's been good. Preparing for the moon in two days mostly, the pups have been playing for the last two hours, Mitya's been distracting them." The man stood from the sofa, he stood at around 6'6, making Remus feel short despite his own tall height.
"Good, good. I'll go find Nesta, help out with dinner." He turned from the room as Leon sat back down on the sofa and began reading his book again.
He entered the kitchen and saw Nesta, Tania and David all flitting about the stove and oven. His wife was cutting carrots over to the left of the kitchen, he focus concentrated on not cutting herself. He came up behind her and flicked her ebony hair off of her shoulder, resting his chin there instead and wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Missed you." He mumbled into her hair. He heard a faint murmur from Tania about "why can't you be like that?" Directed to David who tutted in response.
"I missed you too, we weren't expecting you back today." She leaned her head onto his as she continued cutting vegetables.
"Thought I'd come back early. I wanted to spend time with my darling wife." She spun in his arms, brandishing the knife at him, her piercing blue eyes settled on him.
"What do you want?" She paused looking into his hazel eyes, "or what did you do?" He winced at her tone,he saw Tania and David slip from the room, giving them privacy.
"There's gonna be a change of plans." He mumbled, looking downwards.
"Remus John Lupin, what did you do?" The knife didn't drop from his chest, he knew she'd never do anything, but the threat was still there.
"I won't be here for Max's birthday." For a split second he thought that he may have been wrong and she really would impale him on the knife. He inched backwards, his hands wresting on her arms, rubbing up and down, trying to placate her.
"You won't be here for Max's birthday? Your own son's birthday." He gulped, you didn't need to be a genius to notice her anger.
"Yes, but I'll spend the entire day before here." He slowly turned her back around, her back to his chest. "And I will make sure I get him an amazing present." His hands travelled down to hers, resting on top of hers and beginning to cut the carrots as a pair. "And I'll make it up to the both of you." He placed a kiss to her neck and sighed into her hair.
"You promise to spend the entire day? With the entire pack?" She stopped cutting the vegetables and turned her head to face his, looking up into his eyes, blue meeting hazel.
He learnt down and kissed her lips, "I promise, my love." She smiled as he kissed her again.
"Daddy!" A small force came barreling into his legs, knocking him slightly off balance. He glanced down to see the almost five year old mass of his son. He scooped him into his arms and placed a kiss on the boys head. His hair was black and shoulder length, he wore all black, fur lining the edges of everything. His ear had a new piercing in it, near the top, a singular golden loop.
"Hello, puppy." He glanced to his wife who was smiling at the interaction. "The piercing?" He quietly questioned her.
"My dad can't say no to him. It was certainly a surprise to have him dropped off two days ago after a day out with my dad to see the new accessory." A breath of air left her lips at the look of exasperation on Remus' face.
"What made him think that was a good idea?" Remus tucked a strand of hair behind his son's ear, looking more closely at the gold hoop. It looked clean, it was obviously done by a professional and he could only thank Merlin for that small miracle.
"He said it was an early birthday present." The pointed look she sent him at the mention of Max's birthday did not go unnoticed by the wolf.
"Daddy, come play with us. Olivia and Tulip keep cheating. They keep using Twin Telany." After placing Max on the floor, Remus was dragged by the four year old out of the kitchen.
"Telepathy. Twin Telepathy, not Telany." His son didn't seem to care about what the correct word was. Only that his dad could make sure the twins didn't cheat.
Dinner was a chaotic affair as it always was. It had got better in the last few months when Mitya had had the surprisingly bright idea of labeling the chairs so that no arguments would break out over who sat where. Remus sat at the head of the table, Nesta on his right with Max sat next to her. Next to max, was Ana, her children Ciara and Michael sat between her and her wife, Milly. Tania, her children, Eric and Emily, and her husband, David were next. Leon was on his left, his two children, Cora and Libby, were sat between Leon and his husband Mitya. After them was Felix, his three children: the twins, Olivia and Tulip, and Samuel, and his wife, Okah. It totalled to twenty people and was just as loud as one might think it would be. All the children ranged from the ages of 7 and 3. Libby and Ciara were the oldest and Samuel was the youngest.
Remus loved his large family, his pack. Though not all were wolves. Okah, David and Milly were not. Libby and Michael had not inherited the gene either. The five of them would spend the moon's in the moon room, the doorway was lined in silver and was warded against invasion. It had five beds in it, and the kids had helped to paint the walls leading to it being a multitude of vibrant colours with random doodles painted on. A few books sat stacked in the corner along with some board games and a record player. The entire room was sound proof, not letting any noise come in from outside. On the moon's, the fifteen wolves would have free reign over the house. The five non-wolves would have been safe without the protection, as members of the pack. It was just a precaution in case something went wrong.
All the children were giggling as they watched the adults bring out the food. Multitudes of dishes all from different areas of the world were set on the table. Mitya and Leon had made some Russian specialties along with Nesta's help. Nesta, David and Milly had made the British meals. And Okah had made a Nigerian dish, instructing Tania on how she could help. Remus loved Molly Weasley's food, but there wasn't much variety to it. Not as much as there was at his home.
The adults all helped their children place the food onto their plates. Selecting what they would like and then focusing on their own food. Remus spooned the vegetarian pasta on his own plate, a thick tomato sauce coated it. It was freshly made pasta that he was sure his wife had been the one to make.
The children all sat patiently looking at Remus, just as their parents one by one did. Remus took a bite of his pasta and one by one everyone else began to tuck into their own plates.
He looked around at all the children talking animatedly to each other. It seemed like only yesterday they had welcomed Ciara into the world and now there was 9 other children to go along with her. His large family seemed to be constantly growing. Just from the look of Okah, he could tell that another pup would be joing them soon. He couldn't wait for another child to worm it's way into all their hearts.