Chapter One: Living

Disclaimer – I do not own Harry Potter.

Written for my Sister Katy on her 15th birthday! Happy Birthday Kate!

*******IMPORTANT TO READ!************

Tonks is the same age as Remus in this fic and Teddy will be the same age as Harry!

WARNINGS: SLASH: RemusxSirius and possibly other pairings later on.

Remus stood looking down at the perfect vision of his wife, she was dressed in her best clothes, as was tradition, her hair, now brown as her mother's was left loose to trail across her shoulders. She had not one inch of make-up on and her natural beauty shone through. He felt tears rise in his eyes and placed a pure white lily upon her breast.

Stepping away from the casket he nodded and the Wizarding Priest waved his wand. The casket lid shut and was slowly lowered into the grave. Another wave of the wand and the ground covered her forever, the grass re growing on the patch of ground and the only thing to show that the ground had ever been disturbed was the tombstone that stood proud.

Nymphadora Tonks,

Too Beautiful a Flower to be allowed to Bloom so long upon this Earth.

Loving Daughter, Wife and Mother.

She will be sorely missed.

Remus fell to his knees uncaring of the many people dressed in black watching him as he let out his grief to the ground. He felt someone's hand on his shoulder and looked up to see his Father-in-law Ted Tonks flanked by his wife Andromeda who was holding his four year old son Teddy, named for his Grandfather. His hair was black and so were his eyes, he seemed to be imitating the fact that all of the people there were in black. He was so young; he didn't truly understand what was going on.

They had lived the perfect life. She didn't even care about his lycanthropy. He had gone to Beauxbaton's School for the Magically Talented; it was the only school he had been accepted into because of his 'disability' as they had called it. Dora had been transferred to France to apprentice under a Defence Master and they had hit it off immediately. Two years later when they were both twenty three they had married and only a year after that Teddy had been born. They had only spent seven years together before it had all been ripped away from him.

"Remus son, it's time to leave." Ted said and Remus shook his head.

"Papa…" Teddy whimpered and Remus took a deep breath wiping the tears from his eyes. He stood and took his son from Andromeda whose face was streaked with her own tears. He cradled his son close to him. He apparated back to Ted and Andromeda's house where he had been staying for the past two weeks. Without saying anything to either of them he took Teddy to the room they had been using and got his son ready for bed. He walked back to his own room and sat up for an hour reading to try and take his mind off of the horrible day.

He looked up when his hearing picked up the sound of crying on the other side of his door. He stood and opened the door to reveal his son with his favourite teddy bear in his arms and tears running down his face. Remus lifted the boy into his arms and carried him over to the bead.

"What's the matter Teddy Bear?" He asked after he had sat down on the bed.

"Why they put Mama in the ground Papa?" Teddy asked sniffling. Remus put his son on his lap. They young boy's hair was bright pink, a colour his mother's had been often. He closed his eyes and held his son tighter.

"Mama is gone Teddy, she's gone to live in heaven." He said his voice only shaking in the middle slightly. Teddy's eyes filled with tears.

"Didn't she like us anymore?" He whispered and Remus shook his head burying his face in his son's hair which shifted to imitate his own.

"Of course, she loves us Teddy. She will always love us but Mama had to go to heaven…there were bad guys there that she had to sort out." Remus decided a little white lie couldn't hurt. Tonks had been the best in her field. He had hated the fact that she was an Auror but Teddy had loved the fact that his Mama was like one of the superheroes in his cartoons.

"Really?" Teddy asked and Remus nodded.

"Now it's time for bed." Remus said about to stand and take his son back to his room but Teddy clutched at his Father's shirt and shook his head.

"I want to stay with Papa." He mumbled and Remus sighed.

"Okay, you can sleep with me tonight okay?" Teddy nodded and Remus lay back down. He placed his son in the middle of the bed. His son's hair turned a luminous yellow as he turned off the light and Remus smiled. Tonks had taught him to do that when he had woken them up saying that he was afraid to sleep because the monsters would get him in the dark.

Remus held his son in his arms but he didn't sleep, he couldn't sleep.

"No!" Teddy cried clinging to his Father's arms. Remus tried to pry his son away from him but he would not be moved. Andromeda had insisted that he move back to Britain, where he had been born, to be closer to family, his own parents had both died in a portkey accident. They had been back for ten months and permanently for six. Remus had found a job at a small muggle bookstore, today was Teddy's first day of school since he had been home schooled to get his English up to scratch to learn in an English school. He had missed actually going in on the 1ST of September but he was being stubborn.

"Are you having some trouble?" Remus looked up from his son to see a beautiful red haired woman, her own son held onto her hand. He seemed to be around Teddy's age. Remus smiled awkwardly. "I'm Lily Potter this is my son Harry."

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Remus and this is Teddy." Remus said indicating Teddy who now had his head buried against his Father's chest.

"It's nice to meet you Teddy." Lily said smiling and Teddy looked up shyly before burying his head back against his chest. Harry tilted his head to the side and watching the other boy carefully.

"Do you want to come and see my Da'gon?" Harry asked and Teddy looked down at the other boy. Remus put the boy down on the floor and Teddy wiped his eyes quickly.

"What's Da'gon?" He asked meekly.

"He's my best toy. You can play with him if you want. Miss Reese lets us play with our own toys at break time and you don't have any with you so you can share Da'gon with me." Harry said smiling brightly and Teddy smiled timidly before his hair bled black and his eyes changed green. Remus let out a chuckle as Lily jumped and Harry gasped. "That's so cool! You look like me! How do you do that, can you look like anyone?"

Teddy shrugged and his hair became red and his eyes green.

"Come on I want to show you to my best friend Ron!" Remus called out his farewell to his son. Teddy waved back and Harry shouted goodbye to his Mother.

"Tch, my son. He's so possessive. Your son is going to be his new best friend now and he won't be allowed another." Lily chuckled and Remus smiled weakly back. "A metamorphmagus. They're really rare."

"He inherited it from my wife. But so far, eye and hair colour are all he can change." Remus said.

"Is that a French accent I hear?" Lily asked and Remus nodded.

"I've lived in France most of my life, since I was eleven when I got into Beauxbatons." Remus explained and Lily nodded.

"I went to Hogwarts myself and since you're new in town how about I show you around and then we could go and have a coffee." Lily said with a bright smile. Remus nodded, Andromeda was telling him how he needed to get out and make some new friends. Lily seemed nice enough and he had nothing better to do.

She took him around Diagon Alley which was the main shopping street near London it seemed. She showed him the best places to shop for anything he needed and then they had a coffee and a hot chocolate (for Remus) in a nice little corner coffee shop. It turned out that today was Lily's only weekday free as she worked for the department of mysteries. Remus told her about his job that he had got at a bookstore and by the end of their drinks they were talking like they had been best friends for a long time.

"I can't believe that you actually would do something like that!" Lily laughed as he told her of a prank he had played on the most horrible Professor at his school. "It seems like something my husband would have done. He and his two best friends were the pranksters at our school. He made my first two years of school hell."

"The pigtail effect." Remus chuckled. Lily nodded and rolled her eyes.

"I once had to walk around school with green hair for a week because James Potter thought and I quote 'That my eyes were such a pretty colour my hair might as well be that colour as well'." Lily shook her head exasperated.

Remus glanced at his watch and saw with some shock that they had been talking for a few hours and it was time to pick their children up from the Nursery. Teddy ran out with a big smile on his face, half of his hair a bright red and the other the same black it was in the morning. Remus also noted that one of his eyes had turned green and the other blue.

"Did you make some friends?" He asked and Teddy nodded grinning before proceeding to tell him all about his day. Remus smiled brightly at his son before shushing him for a moment and turning to Lily. "I hope to see you again soon."

"Of course, I'll see you tomorrow morning. I normally drop Harry off in the mornings and then go to work." She said and Remus nodded before apparating out with his son to the apartment he had managed to buy. It wasn't as big as their old house, but with only his salary they had to make cutbacks. Teddy didn't mind anyways.

"And then Miss Reese said that we could help paint the wall because we coloured on it so tomorrow we all get to put our hand prints on it! Isn't that cool?" Teddy exclaimed and Remus nodded as he dished out the spaghetti onto his son's plate. Just as he was about to sit down a tawny brown owl appeared tapping on his window. He stood and let the owl in to many claps from Teddy who loved owls. Remus was planning on getting him one for his next birthday.

He took the letter from the owl and allowed it a scrap of meat from his plate. It then took off out of the open window. Remus put the letter aside for after Teddy was asleep. The official ministry seal was enough to make him nervous anyway.

It was much later that night as he sat down heavily at the kitchen table when he finally realised that he had yet to open the letter. Taking a deep drink from his hot chocolate he opened the letter only to drop it with shaking hands as he read what it contained.

A deep breath shook his body. He had read about what the Ministry did in the UK to werewolves but he had thought that since he was classed as French on his passport and he had become of age there it wouldn't happen to him. He was to be branded tomorrow. A brand was to be burnt into his skin to register him as a werewolf.

Running his hands through his hair he took another deep breath before standing and going to check on Teddy. The boy was asleep peacefully; he was cuddling tightly to his teddy bear and looked so young. Moving to his own bed he collapsed and fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. He wished it didn't have to be like this.