Chapter 2
Laughter and joy ran rampant at the pack house in Warwickshire. 10 young children ran around wildly, playing different party games while their tired parents ran around after them trying to control their youthful joy.
Remus sat on the sofa in the living room watching the scene before him with fondness. Okah was sat with Tania, Ana and Milly in the kitchen, discussing the dinner preparations for later in the day. Leon was deep in conversation with David about some topic or other while Mitya and Felix chased the children around in a hectic game of tag. His wife, Nesta, was nestled into his side, her ebony locks tickling his neck and her soft breath hitting his chest as she watched Max carefully interact with the other pups.
"Where's your mind at, love?" Her eyes came back into focus with his question. Her sight slowly left Max and instead came to rest on Remus.
"Just thinking of tomorrow. Are you sure that you're needed." She nuzzled closer into his body, "Dumbledore seems to like sending you on these missions." The judgement in her voice did not go unnoticed by her husband whose hand tightened on her waist.
"You know that I must. We're fighting a war, Nessie. What would you say if Max was one of the children in that orphanage. You would want me to save him, wouldn't you?" He knew it was a low blow, but he didn't need her stunning him so he couldn't leave.
"I also don't need Max to end up in an orphanage." She stated.
"He would still have you if something did happen to me." He brushed a strand of hair out of her face.
"If you think for a moment I would not follow you into the fire then you have another thing coming Remus Lupin." He smiled down at her annoyed face that had turned red in her frustration. His forehead came to rest on hers
"I love you. Have I mentioned that recently?" Her frown flickered for a second and her eyes softened before the moment was interrupted.
Mitya's body came barrelling over the back of the sofa and between the couple, effectively separating them whilst sitting on them both at the same time. "Come on lovebirds. It's a party not a funeral."
"Demetri Lenkov. If you do not get off me I will make you rue the day you were born." Nesta hissed out from her place underneath the short Russian man. Her slight accent became more prominent when pronouncing the man's name.
"Aw, but Nessie. I'm perfect. It would be a crime against the world for me not to exist." Despite his confident words he still scurried off the couple and began to hurry away into the safety of his husband.
"Remind me how old you are, Mitya?" Nesta called after him, pulling away from her husband and making to stand up.
"36!" He yelled back, ducking behind Leon before a pillow was thrown at his head.
Nesta was stood up and glaring at him, a small smile on her lips, "Stop acting like a petulant four year old then!"
A small body came crashing into her legs, knocking her off balance. A mop of black hair was all she saw before she was sat on the floor with her son sat on her lap staring at her with big hazel eyes - the same as his father's.
"Mummy, come play." He demanded, holding her shirt in his tiny fists.
"Don't you want to open your presents yet, pup?" Remus knelt down next to the duo, picking Max up and placing him next to his mother.
The Boy's eyes flickered to the pile of presents sat in the corner of the room waiting to be opened. Remus could see his internal battle raging inside. The fight between the wants of an - only just - four year old and his blooming moral compass.
"No, we wait for Ganga." To say Remus was not keen on his father - in - law would be an understatement. But when he entered into his wife's life, he had to come to terms with the constant interaction with her adoptive father.
"Ganga should be here soon, pup. I'm sure he wouldn't mind if you started without him." Nesta's soft voice spoke as she pulled Max in to an embrace. She faced him towards the pile of presents trying to entice the boy to begin opening them.
"I wouldn't mind one bit, puppy. But seeing as I'm here, I say we begin to open presents." The hulking, intimidating form did not match with the epithet "Ganga" in the slightest. But that didn't seem to matter as the child threw himself at the older werewolf.
"Hi Da." Nesta was the first to call out before similar yells of "hi dad!" And "hi Pops!" Were also yelled from Leon, Mitya, Felix, Ana and Tania. The six of them all welcoming their adoptive father. Remus, Milly, David and Okah were not so welcoming, still wary of the wolf after all these years.
"Hello pups and puppys." The man scooped Max up into his arms and placed him on his shoulders, strutting around the room before dropping him onto the sofa.
Remus had dreaded his first meeting with the wolf. Hearing the horror stories - and experiencing it himself - he had been frozen in fear when faced with his future father in law. He still wasn't fond of him - never quite forgiving him for that night when he was four.
"Hello Fenrir." Remus welcomed cordially, "hope your journey was easy."
"Hello, Remus, dear boy. The weather's a nightmare today."
He had come to begrudgingly admit that his prior ideas of the man were slightly swayed by the media's representation and his own quite grizzly experience. He had also come to find out that Remus seemed to be the outlier in the man's history. One thing that the ministry seemed to not realise - or refuse to admit. Was that there was a pattern to the greyback attacks and kidnappings. Each from an abusive household. His own wife, Nesta, had been subjected to such horrors from her parents until the age of 8 where Greyback had stepped in. He didn't pry into her siblings stories. They didn't really like to share them, each equally horrifying as the others.
"Can we open presents now!" Max yelled from the sofa, jumping up and down on the cushioned furniture.
"Sure we can pup." Remus carried the boy over to the pile and set him down, standing back and wrapping his arms around his wife who leaned into his hold.
The pile was easily taller than Max's small figure. It was full of presents of varying sizes all wrapped in bright colours that gave the mind a headache. Max reached up and took the top presents, ripping into the paper and spraying it around the room. Samuel had quickly begun to play with the shredded paper - his three year old mind easily distracted.
He had 5 gifts in total, three of which were new jumpers that looked like miniature version of the ones his dad wore. Tania, Milly and Felix had all looked quite annoyed that they had thought of the same present. Though, Max had been asking for jumpers that matched his dad. Leon and Mitya's present was a Muggle book collection - the lord of the rings. They said that he was too young to read the full series right now, but that the prequel book, The Hobbit, was just what he'd love. His final present was from Nesta and Remus. According to Max's nursery, he had shown a rather strong love for painting in the recent months and so they had bought him a children's painting set, they were sure that most of the paint would somehow end up on the walls.
"Thank you!" He had yelled to everyone after he had finished unwrapping their gifts. He had pulled on one of the jumper's from Tania - who had looked rather smug that he had chosen hers out of the three.
"Do you not want to open my present puppy?" Fenrir's voice called from the sofa where he had sat down with Leon.
"You got me a present Ganga?" Max shot up from his place on the floor and dashed over to his grandfather. Fenrir smiled at his grandson. In this house, he was a family man who cared for his children's pack. It didn't matter that he wasn't related to them, each and everyone of them were his pups and as a result each of his pup's children were his puppys.
"Oh course I did, puppy. Just give me a minute, I'll go and get it." He left the room.
Remus leaned down to his wife's ear, nerves prickling at his chest, "I thought his present was the piercing." He whispered to her.
"So did I." She whispered back as Fenrir came back into the room, carrying a wrapped present that was nearly the size of the giant man. Both Remus and Nesta's hearts stopped at the sight of the huge present.
Max immediately rushed towards the present and began shredding the paper covering it, revealing soft, grey fur and a wolfish face. It was a stuffed toy, a wolf. A wolf that was the size of Max thrice over.
"Awesome!" He jumped onto the toy, most of the other children doing the same, "Mummy isn't it cool!" He yelled to Nesta.
"Yes, it's amazing, darling." He hand gripped onto Remus' arm, cutting off the circulation. He was in too much shock to notice.
"Where are we going to put a giant wolf toy." He hissed to his wife.
"I have no idea." She whispered back.
__________
The celebrations had continued on from there, most of the children had been too distracted by the toy to do much else than play with it.
At 11:30, everyone was settled into bed and Fenrir has left back to wherever he had come from. Probably to Malfoy Manor or to the underground. Whilst in the pack house, they had agreed to be neutral and not pry into each other's involvement with each side.
Remus was reading while Nesta was writing to her friends. They were curled up in bed and he couldn't help but notice the amount of sighs coming from his wife.
"What's wrong?" He questioned after twenty minutes of her sighs and writing the same sentence over and over again. He clutched her hand in his, running his thumb over it.
"Are you sure that you must go tomorrow?" She gripped his hand tightly, looking him in the eye. He was struck with how lucky he was to have this gorgeous woman care for him.
"I am sure, my love. I am needed. We have this conversation every time I leave on a mission." He kissed her hand, and pulled her into his side.
"I know, and we will continue to have this conversation until I win and you stay at home where it's safe." She wrapped her arms around his waist leaning her head on his chest to listen to his heart beat.
"I fight this war for those who don't have somewhere safe waiting for them." He muttered into her hair.
"I only wish you weren't so damn courageous." She sighed.
"No you don't." He ran his hand through her hair, soothing her worries with a single motion.
"You're right, I don't. I love you just the way you are." She nuzzled into him, breathing in his smell, committing it to memory as she had multiple times, just in case.
The door to their bedroom creaked open and both of them sat up. Max was at the door, tears brimming in his eyes and his stuffed dog teddy gripped in his arms.
"Max, what's happened, pup?" Remus asked, standing from the bed and kneeling next to the whimpering boy.
"I had a nightmare, can I sleep with you?" Instead of answering, Remus picked him up and carried him to the bed, placing him between him and his wife. Both parents wrapped their arms around the small boy, cradling him.
"Go to sleep pup, we're here." Nesta soothed, brushing his hair with her fingers and running soft circles on his back. His sniffles slowly quieted as the boy fell to sleep.
"You should sleep as well." Remus whispered to his wife when he was sure Max was asleep. She looked at him, her own tears brimming in her eyes.
"Will you be here when I wake up?" She reached to caress his cheek, almost waking Max up in the process.
"Probably not." He shook his head, placing his hand over hers and leaning into her touch.
She sighed, looking down to where their son slept between them, "Bring him back to me, Moony." She whispered. He could feel Moony purr in response, the moon had been a few days ago and the wolf was still near.
"I'll be back, don't you worry." She rolled over away from him.
He heard her mutter, "I always worry for you." Before he closed his eyes and let sleep take him until the morning.