Wolfstar one shots

Fucking hell

That was the first thing in Remus' mind when he woke up. 

His mom had always told him to be grateful for every new day he got. “Life is not self-evident, Remus. You should enjoy every day of it like it’s your last” He really tried to do that, for his mom. It wasn’t his fault the world tended to not make it easy for him. Or maybe he was just too easy to complain. 

Bless her soul, either way. 

Remus blindly patted his phone and sighed as it stopped vibrating on his bedside table. He turned around and pulled the blanket tighter around himself. It was pleasantly warm under the covers and Remus was going to enjoy it as long as he could. He heard fussing from the side and squinted his eyes, trying to keep the sleepiness in, as he looked at the grip beside his bed. It was already bright enough outside, the light pushing through the curtains, that he could see Teddy on his belly already awake. 

His brown eyes were staring at Remus, pacifier still in his mouth. Remus smiled at him and sat up with a groan as his back cracked. He stood up and took the couple of steps it took for him to reach the grip. 

“Good morning, Teddy,” he said as he hoisted Teddy up to his arms. Teddy made a noise of protest and pushed his hands against Remus’ chest. Remus let out a laugh, “Yeah I’m not forgetting your bunny, Teds,” he said, picking up the stuffed animal from the grip that was basically the same size Teddy was himself, but regardless of that he loved it. One time Remus had forgotten it at the daycare after picking Teddy up. Needless to say those couple of hours before he had gone to get it had been straight up hell. And after that Remus made sure bunny was always with him. 

“How about we lie down for a bit, hmm?” Remus said and layed back down. He put Teddy on his chest, keeping his hands on Teddy’s back, just to be safe. Remus looked down at him as Teddy pushed his arms out to hold himself up. 

“Great job, Teddy!” Remus said as Teddy smiled at him his toothless smile. Two weeks ago in the maternity clinic one nice nurse had told him it’s important to praise your child whenever they reach some new milestones and keep doing that as their skills grow. Not that Remus needed that to be told for him to be proud of Teddy. Remus had never thought he would be head over the hills about someone learning to hold themselves up with their arms while laying down, but just a week ago Teddy had learned to do so. And to say Remus had been proud was the understatement of the year. 

Remus hadn’t planned on becoming a father at the age of sixteen. He doesn’t think many people really plan that. It was just a stupid meaningless shag and then eight weeks later he was told he would become a dad. 

Or well Remus hopes it would have been that simple. 

The girl, Emma, had told him she wouldn’t keep it. Somehow those words had meant nothing and still everything to him the moment Emma had said them. But still Remus had said he respected and supported whatever decision she would make. Then suddenly she wanted to keep the baby and Remus felt like someone had punched him to the face. 

So that was what they had started to prepare for. Until five months later, when Emma was already seven months pregnant she had told him he wouldn’t want to keep the baby. 

Which was kind of late at the moment. 

It was because of that boyfriend of hers. She had met a guy four months along the pregnancy. And well as might have expected the guy ended up being a total douchebag. Took him two months into their relationship to tell her didn’t actually want to be a part of the baby’s life. And made her choose between her unborn child and him. 

She chose him. 

And Remus wanted to punch both of them, but only ended up punching the guy. He is not a monster after all. Emma started to talk about adoption and Remus' heart broke at that moment. He had been to every doctor's appointment with her. He had seen his son through the ultrasound monitor and well, he had fallen love with the baby. He couldn’t even deny it. First it had just been such a funny looking blob on the screen. The first time Remus heard the baby’s heartbeat he cried in the bathroom for a good ten minutes. Because he knew he was in it for good and there was nothing he or anyone could do about it. And it was so fucking scary, because Remus’ hadn’t even know he was able to feel such a strong emotions. 

So he told Emma he would take their baby. He would be his only parent and Emma wouldn’t have to have anything to do with him. She would be welcome to if she wanted, but Remus wouldn’t expect anything from her. 

And that’s how Edward (or Teddy, Ted, Teds,… the list goes on) Lupin was born on 14th of April, just a month after Remus’ 16th birthday. 

And it would be an understatement to say it had been easy. When Remus had first heard Emma was pregnant he had told his dad who didn’t really take the news too well. He did come around it eventually, but still acted a bit too cold towards his grandson for Remus' liking. But he paid for everything he and Teddy needed, so Remus just swallowed his anger. 

His mom had died two years before of cancer, but he really wished she would still be here. Remus knows she would have adored Teddy. The way he looked so much like Remus had when he had been a baby. Something Remus was secretly happy about, ever since the moment Teddy opened his, rather than blue eyes like his mothers, but brown one’s like his dads. 

Teddy was an overall easy and happy baby, of course he had his moments and days, but Remus still thought he have it easy. But it was still exhausting seeing as Remus still had to go to school. Thank fuck summer had been on it’s way just couple months after Teddy was born and Remus had actually gotten some special regulations made so that he had been able to go to school from home. But still it had all been new and scary, but after six months Remus thought that he was slowly, but surely starting to get the hang of everything. 

And even though some days were harder than others Remus wouldn’t change it for anything. He loved Teddy more than anyone or anything in the world and would do anything and everything for his son. 

Maybe he couldn’t live the normal teenager's life and get drunk every night in some random party. Well, maybe he had already gotten his fair share of that stuff. Seeing as Teddy was born as a result of unprotected sex in some random party while the both of them were drunk. 

That was definitely not the way Remus would be explaining it to Teddy once he got older. 

A knock to the door woke Remus up from his thoughts. 

”Remus, are you awake?” His dad yelled through the door. Remus turned to look at Teddy who was occupied trying to put Remus’ cross necklace into his mouth. It was his mom’s. Remus wouldn’t call himself religious, but the jewellery reminded him of his mom. He liked to think he kept her with him every day by wearing it. 

“Oh come on, Teds,” Remus murmured as he pulled the cross out of Teddy’s mouth. “You’re acting as if I don’t feed you enough”

“Remus?” His dad opened the door, just enough for him to peek inside. Remus sat up holding Teddy up from his armpits. Teddy let out a babble as he tried to reach for the necklace again. 

“Yeah, yeah we are,” Remus said to his dad who was still looking at the two of them. 

“You're a real troublemaker little mister,” Remus said to Teddy, completely ignoring his dad, as he offered his own hand to Teddy who squeezed his finger and babbled again. “And chatty today, I see,” Remus stood up and went to look for a shirt from the floor. He laid Teddy down on the bed as he pulled a t-shirt over his head. 

“Did you have anything else?” He asked his dad who was still in the doorway. Lyall shook his head, “Uh, no just that I’m leaving to work”

“Okay, bye,” Remus said as he took Teddy back to his arms and made his way to the door where Lyall was standing. 

“Good luck with today,” Lyall said and was about to run his hand through his hair but stopped himself. “With the new school I mean”

Remus had really badly tried to forget about it. Today was his first day in his new school. After summer coming back to school has been hard. He couldn’t do school from home anymore, his teachers and principal didn’t agree with it. Going back to school has been horrible, because everyone in there knew. It wasn’t that they knew, Remus wasn’t ashamed of Teddy and would never be. But it was the fact that everyone had an opinion about it. 

The first day he was back, more than five people, some of them who weren’t even his friends, came up to him. It started the same way every time. “You had a baby?” After that the conversation slowly turned to the person telling how they couldn’t be a parent at sixteen. Usually Remus had to use all his self control to keep himself from punching the other person after the “Why didn’t you just give him up for adoption?” or other as smart shit as that. 

One time he found himself in detention after a snarky comment back to one girl about why her mother hadn’t given her up for adoption. “Would have made her and apparently my life much easier,” Remus didn’t really understand why he got detention when the girl's comments were far more outrageous.

After a while he just couldn’t take it anymore. He wanted a fresh start. Having a baby itself was new so why not just change schools, it would probably be a smaller readjustment than suddenly having to take care of another small human. 

“Oh yeah, thanks,” Remus muttered as he passed his father to walk to the bathroom. He heard the front door open and close as he laid Teddy down on the changing table.

“We’ll be fine,” Remus said. He didn’t really know if he was talking to Teddy or himself. “Daddy will go to the new school today and you’ll go to the daycare”

Teddy kicked his legs as Remus opened his pyjamas and let out a squeal. 

“Uh huh, that’s right,” Remus agreed as if Teddy had said something relevant, or anything at all. “You’ll go to Alice’s and after a couple of hours I’m going to come and get out again”

He lifted Teddy back to his arms after changing his diaper and walked back to his room to find something to wear for the both of them. 

“And then I’m going to complain to you how awful the school was,” Remus explained and pressed kisses to Teddy’s cheek. “How fun is that, huh?”

Teddy let out a sound that was something between a squeal and something else that sounded as gibberish as everything else the six months old let out. 

“I’m so glad we can understand each other,” Remus joked, but then let out a sigh. He was so not ready for today. 

-

Remus was running late. On his first day he was running late. Half an hour earlier he had dropped Teddy off at his daycare. It was a small daycare with only six children. The owner, Alice, is absolutely amazing and Remus feels like he owns her his whole life. Or at least his other kidney if needed. 

Teddy hadn’t liked the fact that Remus was leaving him for the day. He had cried for a good ten minutes and it had taken Remus those ten minutes to leave. Remus knows he could have just left, Alice would have known what to do and would have calmed Teddy down. But if being honest Teddy has his small finger wrapped around Remus. So he just couldn’t leave until he saw that Teddy was calm and everything was fine.

And that was backfiring on him just as he walked inside the school. Before even entering the building Remus could see the school was very old fashioned, but not in the building will collapse any second type of way. More in an elegant and rich way. Remus felt like he didn’t really belong in here even as he was wearing the school uniform he had gotten last week. It was awful.

He had gotten all the information he needed for his first day. After the first class he would go and find the principal just to go through some basic things. First he just needed to find his first lecture’s classroom, which was supposed to be in the second building and the second floor. 

What kind of school has more than one building?

And it ended up not being a totally different building, just a different section of the school. Or so Remus thought after checking the number on the door that seemed to match with the one on his phone. 

So he knocked. 

And waited. 

And almost knocked again just to make sure, but then the door burst open. Remus took a quick step back so the door wouldn’t hit him. 

A woman, maybe in her mid forties, stared at him from the other side. Neither of them said anything, but just stared at each other. 

“Uh-”

“You must be Remus, yes?” The woman asked and stepped to the side to let him in. He stepped in and found at least twenty pairs of eyes staring at him. Would it be too late to just turn around and drop out of school? 

“Yeah, that’s me,” he said and turned to look at the teacher instead of the other students.

“You’re late, Remus,” She pointed out and glanced at the clock on the wall. Remus turned to look at the clock too. He was almost fifteen minutes late. He made a mental note to leave at least fifteen minutes earlier tomorrow. Good thing about the new school was that it was closer to Teddy’s daycare and home. But there would still always be something that made him run late and he didn’t want to be known as the new guy who was always late. 

“I’m sorry my-,” Remus stopped. He didn’t feel like telling the real reason why he was running late. As much as he was not embarrassed about Teddy and being a teen parent most people, the rest of the world usually didn’t feel the same way about it as he did. So he lied. “I- uh left late and couldn’t find the class.”

The teacher hummed and then turned to the rest of the class. “Listen up, guys! This is our new student, Remus and most of you guys will be having same classes as him”

Remus wanted to die. He didn’t need any introductions; it was awful enough without it. He just wanted to study in peace and be left alone. 

The teacher turned to him and gave him a very tight looking smile, “I’m Ms Ellis,” she told him and gestures towards the class, “Go and find yourself a seat, Remus”

“He can sit here!” one student suddenly yelled from the back. Remus was pretty sure just a second ago someone had been sitting next to the black haired boy who was now gesturing towards the empty seat next to him. Remus nodded his head to the teacher and made his way to the back. He dropped his pack to the floor and sat down on the seat. He glanced at the guy who was busy whispering something to a guy on the next table. Remus sank down on his seat and looked at the board. 

History, great. He hadn’t remembered to check that beforehand, but history definitely wasn’t his favourite subject. 

“Hey,” Remus startled as the guy whispered to him. He gave Remus a sheepish smile. “I’m Sirius”

“Remus,” he just said. Sirius smiled and leaned closer to him. 

“Did you just move here or?”

Remus shook his head, keeping his eyes on the board to seem like he was listening to the teacher, “No, just changed schools,” Remus could feel Sirius staring at him, but didn’t react to it in any way. He could tell Sirius wanted to ask why, but didn’t. He just turned back to the table on his other side and started whispering with the guy again. 

After the class Remus was determined to make his way straight to the principal's office. He knows the principal will want to talk about his situation at home, like she had said in her email. Remus really hoped it wasn’t anything too serious, because he had had enough of all the social workers and such checking on him and Teddy. 

“Remus!” 

He stopped walking and turned around to see Sirius and two other guys walking up to him. Another one of them was the guy Sirius has been whispering with during the class. He had glasses, Remus hadn’t noticed that.

“Hey,” he said and started walking again as the three of them reached him. The email said the principal office was in the first building, but Remus wasn’t entirely sure where the first building ended and where the second started. He tried not to be late again, but the more and more Remus walked and looked around the more he was afraid he would be. 

“This is James and Peter,” Sirius introduced and pointed his finger first to the guy with glasses and then to the other one with dirty blond hair. Remus glanced at them quickly and smiled. He didn’t want to give off mean vibes, but he was in a hurry. 

“Nice to meet you, guys,” then he stopped again and looked around. “Sorry, um do you guys happen to know where the principal office is?”

Sirius grinned, “Already in trouble?” he asked but then waved his hand around as Remus looked at him with furrowed brows. “Kiddin, yeah I can show you Minnie’s office. She will probably be happy to see me”

James rolled his eyes and let out a chuckle, “She more like needs a holiday away from you”

Sirius shook his head at James, but then turned to Remus. “Ignore him and follow me”

Sirius started walking determinedly to the same direction Remus was headed earlier. He walked very quickly, seeing as he was shorter than Remus. They took the stairs to the lower floor and then walked almost back to the doors Remus had walked through that morning until they came to a stop at the door which literally said ‘Principal’

“Right, I probably should have noticed that when I walked in,” Remus said and ran a hand through his hair. He checked the time and was happy to see he wasn’t even late. 

Sirius just struggled, “Happens to the best of us. The school is a bit of a labyrinth at first, but you’ll learn to know it,” and then without further speaking Sirius knocked on the door. Remus raised his eyebrows and whipped his head to stare at Sirius who just grinned. 

“Relax, me and Minnie go way back”

Minnie, he had said that earlier too. Who calls their principal by a nickname

“Uhh.” 

The door opened to show a woman standing on the other side. First he looked at Remus with a gentle smile, but then noticed he wasn’t alone and her mouth dropped as she looked at Sirius. 

“Mr. Black,” she said and raised one eyebrow at him. Remus could already tell she could be scary if she wanted. He decided right away he didn’t want to end up on her blacklist. 

“Minnie,” Sirius said back with a matching voice. “I helped a man in trouble and brought Remus here. I hope you remember that the next time you feel the urge to give me detention,” Sirius bowed at her, Remus couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, and with that turned away. 

“See you later, Remus!”

They both watched as Sirius walked away from them. 

“Very well, please come in, Remus,” she said and Remus realised he didn’t remember her name, besides Minnie, and he for sure won’t use that. The room was a bit dark, but inside there was warm. On the left side was a big bookshelf filled with books and at the back was a big table and two surprisingly comfortable looking chairs. Behind the table was a large window with dark red heavy looking curtains. Everything in the room gave off the same vibe the rest of the school did. 

“I see you already made friends,” the principal said standing in front of the window and gestured for Remus to sit down on the chair on the other side of the table.

“Oh yeah or something like that,” Remus said as he sat down. He saw a nameplate on the table. ‘Minerva Mcgonagall’  that explained the nickname Minnie, which Mcgonagall probably didn’t like to be called. She hummed and sat down too. 

“So Remus, first of all welcome to Hogwarts,” she said and that same smile from earlier was back on her lips. 

“Thanks”

Mcgonagall looked down at her desk where she had some kind of file in front of her. First thing that came to Remus' mind was that it was a file about his personal information and his grades. He tried not to let any emotions show on his face. His grades weren’t… that good. He wasn’t failing in any subjects, but it wasn’t far from that. His last year had gone more in being high or drunk than doing school things in his free time. During school days he had just been there to not get an absence mark. 

The year after his mom’s death had gone in a fog. He doesn’t really remember much else than the pain. And how he tried to numb the pain in every way he could. It had felt more like surviving than living. And then the pregnancy had totally messed with his head even more. It was only last February that he had decided to get his life back together, when Emma had said she didn’t want to keep Teddy. It was a turning point for Remus. 

“Let’s talk about your school success a little,” Mcgonagall said and closed the file and looked Remus in the eyes. He felt ashamed, but didn’t dare to look away so he just struggled. 

“My grades are a bit bad, I know that,” he said quietly. Mcgonagall nodded her head, but then smiled again. 

“Nothing to be ashamed of, Mr Lupin,” she reassured and Remus felt how his shoulders sank down a bit. He hadn’t realised he had been that stiff. “I think it’s more than understandable, but I hope you can work on your grades here in Hogwarts,” she looked at him with knowing eyes. Remus was glad she didn’t mention his mom even though she clearly knew about it. He didn’t want to be treated differently, but he was still grateful for her subtleness. 

“I’ll try,” he promised, not knowing how much he could actually improve. He had gotten better since last year, but compared to last year he has Teddy. Education was important for sure, but his son was still his number one priority. 

“Very well,” she smiled, but then got serious. So about Teddy then. He knew that face. It was the same one those people gave him on the streets or at the supermarkets when he was with Teddy. It was the ‘I’m pitying you’ face which made Remus see red from time to time. 

It was absolutely ridiculous. Just because he was a young parent didn’t mean his life was ruined. It didn’t mean he had no future for himself or that he was irresponsible. It also didn’t mean he was incapable of taking care of his child, just because he is young. He won’t deny that having unprotected sex was a smart thing, but one mistake shouldn’t define who he is. And in that matter Teddy was for sure not a mistake. Remus doesn’t even know, or want to know, where he would be at the moment if it wasn’t for Teddy. But not sitting in this office for sure. It scared Remus to think that he might have actually been dead already if he hadn’t changed the course of his life almost a year ago. 

He knows he hasn't been the best possible version of himself during the past year or so. But he was really trying now and could only hope it was enough. 

A shiver ran down his back as he sank more onto his seat. 

“You had a child last April,” Remus couldn’t really tell if it was a question or a statement. He wanted to say something, like ‘well read from your file why don’t you,’ or something else smart like that, but he held his tongue. 

“Teddy,” he just said. Mcgonagall looked at him with furrowed brows. Remus scoffed, not even trying to hide his annoyance. Remus knows whatever papers she had read Edward, so he couldn’t help being a little smart about it. 

Teddy’s legal name is Edward after his mom’s father, Remus' grandfather. But he has always been called Teddy. 

“Teddy, that’s his name,” Remus clarified. He tried not to glare at the woman on the other side of the table. Mcgonagall nodded her head and opened the file again. 

“Teddy then,” she said and took a pen from the desk. “This whole paper is a bit silly anyways,” she commented, trying to lighten the mood. Remus wasn’t really having it. 

“I have no intention to talk badly about your son or your life in that matter or another,” Mcgonagall clarified and put the file away from her desk. Remus perked up at that and sat more up in his chair. It’s not like he had expected her to, but he thought he would have gotten some kind of lecture. Or to be sent to the nurse to get some kind of sex education. Honestly at this point he wouldn’t even be surprised. 

“Our teachers won’t be treating you differently because of that either. Or for any other reason either of course,” she told him. Remus didn’t know what to say so he just nodded his head. It actually felt good to be treated normally despite everything. Maybe he had been too quick to judge at first. 

“And I hope you’ll come directly to me if any other student gives you a hard time about anything.”

Remus furrowed his brows. And just as he thought he would be treated just as any other student. “No offence, but I don’t want any special treatment just because I happen to have a kid”

Mcgonagall shook her head. “No, of course not. I’m sure you’ve gotten enough of that. It’s not about that. I’d react the same way to any student getting picked on.”

Remus looked down to the floor knowing very well the first thing he’d do if anyone gave him shit wouldn’t be to tell their principal. But still he just nodded.

“Well, that’s pretty much all I had for you,” Mcgonagall said and pushed up from her seat. Remus got up even faster and made his way to the door.

“Thank you,” he said, not really sure what he was thanking for. Mcgonagall gave him a sweet smile. Remus opened the door ready to leave and hunt his next class. 

“Oh and Remus,” Mcgonagall called as he was about to close the door. “Please don’t let Mr. Black get you into trouble”

“Uh, sure,” was all Remus said and then awkwardly closed the door as Mcgonagall still looked at him. He didn’t really know what she meant with that, but decided to not think about it too much. 

Even though his first day hadn't been too awful and meeting Mcgonagall had gone better than Remus had expected he was more than ready to just head home. 

“Remus!”

Remus tried not to groan as Sirius ran to catch him. Don’t get him wrong. Remus thinks Sirius seems like a nice bloke, but he just hadn’t expected to make.. friends? This soon. He thought he would have had at least a day, a week if he was lucky, before he would need to socialise with anyone. He wasn’t ready yet to start defending himself and his life. Because sooner or later Teddy would come up in a way or another. Seeing as he was included pretty much in everything Remus did. 

“Sirius,” he said as a greeting. The other boy grinned, his perfectly white, teeth showing. 

“So how’d it go?” the other boy asked. 

“Good, nothing special,” Remus simply said. Afterwards thinkin he didn’t really know what had been the point of him going to Mcgonagals office, but at least now he knows where the principal's office is located. “So what’s up?” he asked. He was sure Sirius had better things to do than just walk behind the new guy like a lost puppy. But Sirius didn’t seem to mind. 

“Um I just thought I would wait for you and then show you where our next class is,” Sirius struggled. Remus saw how a light blush spread on Sirius cheeks. 

“How do you know we have the same class?” Remus didn’t even know himself what he would have next. 

Now Sirius' cheeks grew even more red as he glanced at Remus only to just quickly look away from him. 

“Ohh, well I just kind of assumed. ‘Cause we were in the same class earlier so, yeah. Whatever” Sirius rambled, but quickly shut his mouth. Remus wanted to chuckle, but held himself back just for Sirius sake. 

“I don’t actually know what I have next,” Remus said as he pulled his phone from his pocket. 

And as if the day couldn’t get any worse he had maths next. Remus sighed and glanced at Sirius who had gotten closer to him to get a better look at Remus’ phone screen. Remus turned it towards Sirius so he could see better. He looked at Remus' timetable, and wrinkled his nose.

“Maths, I see. I hate maths, but luckily we have the same class. We can walk together,” Sirius said and looked up from the screen to Remus and struggled his shoulders. “I mean if you want to.”

Remus chuckled, “Sure”

-

Remus opened the daycare's front door and immediately heard the older children playing and making noise. Remus smiled as he stepped in and waved to one of the nurses, Nelly who was sitting with three boys pushing around a toy car. 

“Remus, hi!” she said and stood up leaving the children to play with each other. Teddy was the youngest child in the daycare. All the other one’s were at least 1,5 years old. It had been a bit of a challenge to find a place where Remus felt like he could leave Teddy for the seven hours he had to spend in school. Then he found Alice and his life had gotten so much easier. He trusted Alice Nelly and Sarah, the third nurse, to take care of Teddy. It was also awesome that the daycare only had a small number of children so it was easy for them to look after Teddy, but also the older children who needed different kinds of care seeing as they were older.

“I’m pretty sure Teddy is sleeping, but you can go in and check,” Nelly said and pointed to the nap room’s direction even though Remus knew where it was. “Alice should be in there.”

“Thanks, Nelly,” he said and headed to the door. He quietly opened the door, not wanting to wake any of the possible children in there. It was dark inside, for an obvious reason. Alice was sitting at an armchair that was pushed to the side. She looked up as Remus entered the room and smiled at him. 

“Hi,” she whispered and got up from the chair to walk up to Remus. 

“How was he?” Remus asked. He had been worried Teddy would cry the whole day after he left him with Alice. But Alice just smiled and waved her hand. 

“He’s been fine. Maybe a little tearful, but otherwise as good as always,” she turned to the grip where Teddy was currently sleeping. Remus looked down at the grip too and couldn’t help the smile from forming on his lips. 

Remus looked around the room at the other beds, “Is he the only one here?”

Alice nodded her head. Remus leaned over the grip and rested his hand gently on Teddy’s belly. He rubbed his thumb over the fabric of Teddy’s striped onesie and grinned as Teddy’s small face furrowed as he started to wake up from his sleep. Remus turned his head to the side as he heard Alice leave the room, leaving the door open. 

Slowly, but surely Teddy’s eyes opened and he let out a small noise before yawning. 

“Oh wow what a big yawn,” Remus whispered, still rubbing small circles on Teddy’s belly. Teddy’s eyes opened at the familiar voice and looked up at Remus. 

“Hi, pup,” Remus said sweetly. 

“Ah!” Teddy let out and tried to reach for Remus who carefully took Teddy to his arms. He hugged Teddy to his chest and swung from side to side. 

“Uh huh that’s right, did you sleep well?” Remus asked and looked Teddy in the eyes and smiled. Teddy looked back at Remus until his bottom lip stuck out and his small brows furrowed together. 

“Oh Teddy, you’re okay,” Remus reassured just as Teddy let out a cry. Remus ran his hand through Teddy’s soft baby hair as Teddy clutched to his sweater. 

He knows babies cry for a reason and well, sometimes pretty much not for a reason. But he still didn’t like to see Teddy cry, because sometimes it was hard to know why. Sometimes it was obvious, Teddy was hungry or he needed a diaper change. But sometimes no matter what Remus did, nothing in particular would make Teddy calm down. 

But this time Remus was quite sure he knew why Teddy was crying so he headed to the bathroom with Teddy. 

And as Remus was closing Teddy’s onesie after a diaper change, Teddy was already calm and looking up at him with wondering eyes. 

“Don’t you think it would be much easier if you could just tell me what’s wrong?” Remus thought aloud as he settled Teddy on his arms. “Like ‘Daddy I’m hungry give me food or change my diaper you, idiot!’” Remus mimicked in a high pitched voice. But then he scrunched his nose and turned to look at Teddy who was smiling and let out a laugh. 

“Actually nevermind, I don’t want you to ever grow up. Just stay small and cute,” then Remus hummed and shook his head. “Okay scratch that last one you’ll always be cute or very handsome in the future”

Remus cringed at the thought of Teddy being the same age as he is now. It feels weird to even think about it. Would he be much different compared to Remus? If Remus can have any say in it then yes. He wants to make sure Teddy has a happy childhood. He will do everything he can to make sure nothing bad happens to Teddy. Though not everything is in Remus hands, no matter how hard he hopes. 

Remus shook his head pushing all the thoughts of the future away. 

“I’m being silly, aren’t I?” He asked from Teddy and tickled the small boy’s belly to hear Teddy let out a laugh. Remus smiled as he pushed the bathroom door closed with his leg. He made his way to the hallway where Alice was already standing and talking to one of the mother’s who had come to pick up her child too. 

Remus took the pack he always brought there with Teddy from the small locker with Teddy’s name in it and put it on the floor. He listened to the woman and Alice talk as he got Teddy dressed in his overalls and a small beanie. It hadn’t rained yet today and Remus really hoped they could get home without getting wet. 

He waved goodbye to Alice as they were ready to leave.

“The same time tomorrow?” Alice asked as she stepped away from the woman. Remus didn’t know her name and wasn’t even sure if he had seen her before. He wasn’t really making friends with any of the other parents seeing as Teddy wasn’t really capable of making friends with the other children either. He did say hello if they ever were here at the same time as he was, but not really anything else. Another factor was that all of the other parents were at least ten years older than him. Which was fine, maybe he was just a bit introverted. 

“Yeah, my school starts at 8:50 so I’ll be here at 8:30,” Remus said at which the woman turned to him. She looked at him up and down and then at Teddy. Remus bit the inside of his cheek. Then he gave her a small smile, before turning to Alice again. 

“Thanks again, Alice,” he muttered and glanced at the woman again. 

“Of course, see you Teddy!” Alice waved at Teddy who just looked back at her. But then suddenly let out a squeal. Remus chuckled and waved back at Alice who was grinning. 

“Bye,” Remus still said before he closed the door. From time to time it was a bit difficult to carry Teddy wherever they went. But he didn’t have a stroller. Those were expensive and he didn’t dare to ask his dad for something that wasn’t absolutely necessary. He already paid for everything he or Teddy needed. A carrier was another option and Remus was in the process of buying one, but he hadn’t found time to for it yet. He had also been saving money in the first place for a couple of months now to afford it. 

He didn’t have a job, because he had no time. He only had the savings from his summer job two summers ago and it wasn’t much anymore. He had been surprised he had even gotten the job in the first place. Seeing as he hadn’t been the best candidate, but now afterwards he was grateful for it. It hadn’t been anything special, he had worked in some small restaurant, doing the dishes mostly, but it had paid surprisingly well. He would have more left if most of the money wouldn’t have been used to buying booze and weed. 

“Do you wanna hear about my day?” Remus asked Teddy as he switched him from one hip to the other. His back was starting to hurt from carrying both of the packs. He hitched the other pack farther up his shoulder.

“So first of all I was late, not the greatest way to start your day I know,” Remus said and pulled Teddy’s beanie deeper into his head, so it covered his both ears. 

“Ahh!” Teddy yelped and Remus nodded his head as if they were having a real conversation. 

“I know right! But I had history first, which really isn’t my favourite subject..”

And maybe he got a couple of weird looks from the people who walked past them, but Remus didn’t care. All he cared about was Teddy’s babbling and squeals of happiness as Remus made different faces and funny looks while talking about his day. Some of the people even smiled at the two of them, so maybe he was doing something right.