To The Moon and Back | Remus Lupin's Daughter

3. Getting to know you - Remus

I have a daughter. This beautiful, scared little girl is my daughter. Why didn't Dresella tell me? How could she keep something like this form me. 

She's such a nervous little thing, I'd have to be blind not to realise she'd been mistreated. Sure Dresella didn't end up being who I thought she was. she'd changed after the war. we fell into a relationship due to grief and loss. we'd lost so many friends in the first wizarding war. when we stumbled back into each other's lives we'd lost so much we kind of just fell into a rhythm. we just wanted to feel something. 

Things were good for near two years, but when my... affliction meant I lost job after job the relationship fell apart. i couldn't offer her what she craved. wealth and power. recognition for her part in the war against you-know-who. Being with me she couldn't get that. there was so much stigma around werewolves, so many laws that make our lives even harder as the ministry continue to spread misinformation. She stopped caring about us, she pushed me away and i went happily. She deserved success and i was holding her back, had i known. had i known she was pregnant when we broke up, i wouldn't have disappeared. 

This little girl deserved someone to fight her corner. Dresella hated her because she was a reminder of me. what I am.  

the way she clung to me when i asked to hug her, i could tell she'd never been held in her life. she was so unsure. It broke my heart. how could Dresella do this to our little girl. she was sickly thin, I was terrified of hurting her.

I don't know the first thing about being a father. how am i going to provide for the two of us? I don't care right now, i just have to make sure she knows i'm here for her. She's never going back to Dresella. I'll write to her before dinner to get her to send me custody papers to sign or something. maybe she already sent them with Astra. I'll have to find an other job soon. 

my head feels like it's spinning. I'm not ready to be a father but now that this little girl is here before me, i'll be damed if i let anyone hurt her ever again. 

"Why don't we go sit in the living area, maybe we can read something how does that sound?" I ask her breaking out of the hug, and wipe the tear's off her cheeks that had begun to fall. 

she hopped off the chair and clung to the sleeve of my jumper as we walk to the book shelves in the adjacent section of my, our small cottage. looking down at her, i could see her eyes scan the books in awe. 

"Do you have a favourite?" I ask her gently. 

"umm, no mother never l-let me read. I wasn't allowed t-touch her things. Dobby, he's a house elf for her friend Luscious, he was in the house some times. He t-thought me how to read one of the cook books in the kitchen, while the adult talked. I'd practise with the old witch weeklies she w-would through away" she rambled in her adorably soft voice. 

"she didn't teach you herself?" the more I learned the angrier I got at Dresella. I knew she was selfish but i didn't think she was evil. How could a mother treat her daughter so poorly? Never mind let a man like Luscious Malfoy around her house. She had clearly changed. 

Astra just looked at me with the saddest look and shook her head. "Mother doesn't like me" she muttered before looking back towards the books. 

"Well then, why don't we start with this one" I asked reaching forward and select one of the oldest books on my shelves. a tattered copy of muggle fairy tales that my mother had bought me as a child. some of my fondest memories were having her read to me from this exact book.

I turn and hand it to Astra who takes it nervously. she traces the title with her petite fingers. tracing the world Grimm fairy tales. 

"Why don't we take a seat and I can read to you for a bit before dinner? how does that sound?" I smile at her. She beamed up at me with the brightest smile before she made a dash for the worn sofa and snuggled into the corner. I couldn't help but chuckle at her excitement. As I take me seat she nervously hands the book back to me. thanking her, I wait till she settles back into the corner of the sofa and looks towards me with anticipation. she was nothing more than adorable. I pick a tale at random and began to read.