Sometimes I wish that I could freeze the picture
And save it from the funny tricks of time
Mary looked at her watch for a moment. She had placed it on the counter next to the sink to avoid it getting wet as she did the washing up. Ten past eight. Right on cue, she heard a pair of thundering footsteps running down the stairs and a mumbled curse word as Daisy struggled to put her shoes on, she sighed amusedly.
“Alright, I’m off, mum!”
“Now, hold on a second.” She put the dish she was washing back in the sink and closed the tap, then walked over to the kitchen’s door frame to give her daughter a look.
“And where do you think you’re going without saying goodbye to your dear, old mum?”
Daisy was already at the door.
“Mum, honestly! I’m already so late.”
Mary said nothing as she leaned on the doorframe and put her hand on her hip. Her daughter sighed exasperatedly and walked down the hall to meet her.
“That’s better.” Mary said, smiling.
“Bye, mummy.”
Mary put her hands on both sides of her daughter’s face and placed a kiss on her temple. She noticed how tall Daisy had gotten, almost as tall as her. Time really flies, she thought.
“Goodbye, my darling. I love you”
“Love you too, mum. But I’ve really got to go now.” Daisy said.
Mary let her hands fall back to her sides. “Alright, go on then. Off you go.”
Daisy smiled at her and rushed back to the door. “You sure you don’t want me to go with you?” Mary asked.
“I’ll be fine! I do know my way to school, you know.” Daisy replied over her shoulder. She really was her mother’s daughter. “I love you!” she said, as the door slammed shut.
“Love you, too!” Mary shouted so Daisy would hear. She laughed to herself, that girl would be the death of her.
She turned back to occupy herself with the dishes and noticed Daisy had left her maths homework on the counter, they had spent the night together trying to work the problem out. It was a bit of a struggle, but they managed it in the end. Mary had never been too good at maths, even before her time at Hogwarts.
She was startled by the thought. Mary found she hadn’t thought much about those days in a while, hadn’t let herself. She shook her head, as if to erase the thought, then sighed. Daisy would come running back to fetch it in a moment, she always forgot something before leaving for school.
It wasn’t long before she heard a knock at the door, though it was a bit quieter than usual. She put away the last plate she had dried and grabbed Daisy’s maths notes. Mary went over to the entrance and opened the door, book in hand.
“How many times have I- Oh.”
Instead of the bouncy curls and frazzled face she had expected, Mary was greeted by a lanky boy, no older than fifteen, with bright blue hair and a dangly earring on his left ear.
“Hello.” He said, nervously.
“Um, hi” Mary replied, perplexed. “Can I help you with anything, dear?”
The blue haired boy blinked rapidly.
“Uh, yes! Yes, actually. Well you see, I… Uh, well. I was, um.” As he tried to form a coherent response, Mary took in the sight before her. The hair was eye-catching, of course, but that face…
“I’m looking for a…” He looked down at a piece of parchment he was holding tightly, then back up at her. “Mary McDonald?”
“That would be me, yes.” She replied, cautiously. That had been her maiden name. Mary had a strange feeling about this exchange.
When the boy heard this, his face split into a massive grin and his hair went from the brightest of blues to a neon magenta.
“Oh, bollocks.” Mary said under her breath, then shook herself out of it. “Come on in, dear” She grabbed him by the shoulder and led him inside quickly. Before shutting the door, she looked around to see if anyone had seen the two of them. Once she was sure there had been no onlookers she closed the door and turned back to the now-magenta-haired boy. He looked startled.
“Who are you? Did somebody send you?” They had found her. She didn’t know how, she had made sure to keep herself far from the Wizarding World’s reach, but they had. If she had her wand on her she’d be pointing it right at him, age be damned, but a piercing glare would do.
He put his hands up in a placating gesture. “No one sent me, I swear! Honest, nobody! I was just-”
“What’s your name?” She asked, not satisfied by his response.
“Teddy, ma’am, Teddy Lupin.” His hair was green now.
Silence. Mary was stunned. Lupin. She hadn’t heard that name in years, not since… Of course, his face, it was impossible to miss. He was a damn near photocopy of his father. His father, Remus. Remus Lupin.
“Lupin.” She said, weakly.
“Uh, yes… Lupin.” He put his hands down, clearly shaken by the change of tone.
“Remus… Lupin.”
“That would be my father, yeah.” Teddy smiled tentatively. Mary was still too shocked to respond. “I was looking through his things, a while ago now, and I found some letters… From his friends, you know? And well, your name came up quite a few times. A few names did, but well…” He didn’t need to finish his sentence. There weren’t many of them left anymore, that she knew. “You were the hardest to track, though, I’ll give you that.” He laughed, nervously.
“Damn near impossible, I’d say…” Mary mumbled.
“Well, yeah, actually.” Another chuckle. “But since you weren’t on any wizarding registry that I was able to find..” She had made sure to erase any trace of herself in that world. “I looked into muggle phone directories all round the UK, wedding registries, anything I could get my hands on, really. Had quite a few failed attempts, but I’m willing to guess I got it right this time.” He said, almost like a question.
And, well. She hadn’t been exactly subtle, had she? Mary ran a hand over her face and sighed. She had done a whole lot of sighing lately.
“Alright, then. We’re doing this.” She said to herself. “Come on, I’ll make us some tea.”
As they sat across from each other in the lounge, Mary held her cup tightly. She observed Teddy quietly as he took a sip from his tea. No sugar, like his father. His hair was blue again, must be the default, she thought. Their gaze met for a moment and he looked away, a bit uneasy. She knew she shouldn’t stare but damn it, it was as though a ghost from her past was sitting right in front of her. It’d be a lot easier if he looked a bit more like his mother… Whoever she was. Who was his mother, actually? It only occurred to her then that he must have a mother, as silly as it sounds. But it was a bit of a shock, considering…
“Alright, well…” Teddy said to fill the silence that had formed, pulling Mary out of her thoughts. “I was hoping to talk to you about my dad. Remus.” As though that needed any clarification. “I suppose you didn’t know my mother, Nymphadora Tonks? She was a metamorphmagus, too.”
Well that explains the hair, she thought, but… “No. I’m sorry, dear… But Tonks, that sounds familiar.” She tried her hardest to recall who he might be referring to.
He smiled sadly. “You might’ve heard of my grandfather, Ted Tonks. I never met him either. He was already in his last year at Hogwarts when you were a first year, I believe.”
“Right! That Tonks boy, I remember the scandal with…” Sirius’ cousin. She looked down at her tea. She couldn’t bring herself to utter his name. She could say Voldemort’s no problem, but him…
“Sirius Black’s cousin?” He said amusedly. “That’d be my nan, actually. Andromeda. You must’ve known Sirius too, then.”
She looked back up at him in confusion, how could he talk about him so lightly? She got a confused look in return, then clarity.
“Oh… You must not know. Of course, I don’t imagine you’re too caught up on things.” She wasn’t. After everything with Lily and James she had asked McGonagall to stop sending her owls, she was tired of mourning. Only then did she really disappear from the Wizarding World. She knew they had been at war again, that PotterWatch programme interfering with muggle radio, the disappearances, the deaths. And she knew they’d won, owl sightings all over Britain, ‘shooting stars’ everywhere, wizards in robes celebrating in muggle London. She had debated reaching out to him. Harry, James and Lily’s son, to see if he was alright after everything. But she thought of her daughter, of her life now, and decided against it. In all honesty, she was afraid of what she’d hear. What would she have done if she heard from him? If she didn’t? If she learned he had met his parents’ fate fighting a battle that had been thrusted upon him. She still regrets it, even now.
“What don’t I know, love?” Mary asked, unnerved.
Teddy put his cup down. “Well… I don’t really know how else to put it but… You must think that Sirius… That he betrayed-”
“Lily and James.” She said, voice thick. Damn it all, she could already feel the tears coming. Keep it together Mary, she thought.
“Yeah, well… He didn’t.” A pause. Before she could reply, outraged, he went on. “It was Pettigrew. He framed Sirius. I could explain it all but, well, it’s a bit of a strange story, really.”
“Peter?” Now she really was outraged. “You can’t mean Peter Pettigrew?”
“Yep.” He said, popping the ‘p’. “Deatheater all along. He’s the reason Voldemort came back the second time ‘round, actually.” Teddy stated matter of factly.
All the while Mary’s world had tilted. Everything she thought she knew about what had gone down that night had been turned on its head. “But he… He worshipped the ground James walked on, I don’t… How?” Mary trailed off. Teddy only shrugged.
“But then Sirius, he was…”
“Innocent, yeah.” He finished for her.
“And he still went to…”
“Azkaban, yep. But he got out, you know how he could turn into a dog?” Teddy asked. Mary nodded, dumbly. That had been quite the shock, too. And here this kid was, talking about it like it was as mundane as spreading butter on toast. “Well, when he found out Pettigrew was alive he turned into Padfoot and slipped right out of there. He chased him down and almost killed him for what he’d done, with my dad’s help from what I’m told. Which I mean… Was pretty justified, I’d say. But then Harry, my godfather, he stopped them because he didn’t want them to become murderers or something and he got away… But yeah Sirius didn’t do it, is what I’m saying.”
Mary tried taking it all in, but she just couldn’t. “Alright… Teddy, dear, can you just give me a moment?” She said, as she stood up.
“Oh, yeah of course.” He looked up at her with a pitying expression. Mary couldn’t say she blamed him, she must’ve been quite the sight.
She made her way to the kitchen stiffly, gripping the cup in her hands so hard she worried she might break it. Mary put it down on the counter and stared off into space. All those years she had spent trying to understand it all. Trying to process what Sirius had done, what she thought he’d done. Lily and James, those muggles. All the memories it had tainted. She put her hand over her mouth to stifle a sob. Sirius, innocent. She heard the teacup crack next to her. Accidental magic, even now. She could almost hear Sirius say ‘Still got it, Mcdonald!’ And she laughed, genuinely, as she wiped the tears from her eyes.
Mary let herself cry for the first time in a long, long while.
“Okay, I’m back now.” Mary said as she sat down on the sofa, new cup in hand. “Sorry I took so long.”
“Not at all, don’t worry.” Teddy replied with an understanding smile. How she’d missed seeing that gentle, crooked smile. Though she noted how odd it looked on a scarless face. Not bad, just different.
She shut her eyes for a moment and sighed. “All good now. But tell me, you mentioned Harry. Harry Potter, I presume.” He nodded. “Is he…?” Mary trailed off, scared of the answer.
“Oh, he’s doing fine! You know, married, kids, the whole spiel. I’m trying to convince him to go in as our DADA professor, it would be grand to have him around. And he’d be great for it, obviously. Our current teacher is kind of a knob, anyway.” That startled a laugh out of her.
“Good, good. I’m glad to hear he’s doing okay.” She let out a breath she didn’t know she’d been holding. “I’d love to meet him one day.”
“I think you should.” Teddy said, solemnly. “It would be good, I think. For the both of you.” They looked at each other briefly, now it was Mary’s turn to look away.
“And Sirius?” She couldn’t look at him as she waited for an answer. His silence was enough of a response, she swallowed. “And your father?”
Nothing, she should’ve known. She nodded, then turned back to look at him through watery eyes. “So that’s why you’re here.”
After a moment, Teddy replied. “I’m sorry, I should’ve said…”
“No, darling, don’t worry about it.” She put her cup down on the coffee table and reached out, holding his hands in hers. “I should’ve asked.” After a moment she added: “The war?”
Teddy looked down at their joined hands and nodded. “I had just been born a couple of days before it ended.”
Mary sighed again. “This war has taken so much from us, and given nothing in return.”
He chuckled. “Harry would say it’s given us hope… But I can’t help but agree with you.”
They shared another look. Mary couldn’t bear to look into the eyes of another innocent child who had suffered the consequences of a fight they did not choose. But she did so anyway.
“You want me to tell you about your father.”
Teddy nodded once more.
As Mary looked down at their interlocked hands, she noticed the watch she was wearing. It had been a Christmas gift from Lily, their fifth year. She had found a spell to engrave the girls’ initials on its side. God, she was nifty. She smiled at the memory, which went completely forgotten as she actually looked at the time it was telling.
“Goodness! Teddy, it’s nine o’clock! Shouldn’t you be at school?”
Teddy looked away. “Well, I… I had just found your address last night, I couldn’t just-”
“What? Wait til the weekend, which is two days away, might I add?” Mary said, sternly.
He looked back at her tentatively, as if scolded. “...No?”
Mary looked at him in disbelief for a moment, then she dropped the act. Falling into full bodied laughter.
Teddy laughed nervously.
“Merlin’s beard! You really are your father’s son.” Teddy smiled bashfully, turning his hair as pink as his cheeks.
Mary wiped the tears from her eyes. “Minnie’s gonna get into one hell of a tizz when she finds out.”
“...When?” He said, clearly terrified.
“Oh, she’ll know about it, trust me. I won’t say a word but, believe me, she always knows.” Mary whispered dramatically to a petrified Teddy. “But you’re here now, so to hell with it.”
They both smiled.
“Where should I start?”