Like Puzzle Pieces

First Year: The Birthday and The Letter

"AAAAHHHH!!!!" came the screaming from the first floor of their little house, and Remus lupin sat there sipping tea like it was nothing new. He knew this was going to happen. He had came prepared. When a frantic tumble down the stairs was heard and a paper was hurled at his face, he carefully pulled out his earplugs and looked down at a mess of a person fallen on his kitchen floor, that he called his daughter. 

Zara Lupin grinned up at him, still sprawled where she had fell down, ruining the leather jacket she has not-so-stubbly wished as a birthday present for the previous six months, she pointed at the paper that she threw at him earlier. He picked it up. It was a letter. He felt himself smirk and Zara grinned wider. 

"Were you worried that for some reason you won't get a letter from Hogwarts at your eleventh birthday?" He asked. 

"No I just love tumbling down stairs and throwing letters at random people." She said, finally getting up and dusting the jacket. (It didn't get ruined. ) (Thank god. Those were quite expensive)

"Seriously though" She said. "I was a bit, er, worried"

"You have no reason to." He told her. 

"Yeah but like, I wasn't sure if my biological parents were wizards, and not like we knew them at all. For all I knew, I could be just some muggle born misunderstanding, or a squib." She sat down at the table and stated earing the Oreos he had saved for himself. 

He again felt an urge to tell her, the whole truth, but this wasn't the right time. She had just turned eleven. She was still a child. So instead he just picked up the last Oreo and reminded her, "Cub, you turned a bull dog into a toad when you were four just because you thought he barked at me wrong."

"Yeah, well, did you see the way he was looking at you when he barked? I swear that he said an inappropriate rude insult in dog language." 

"You don't know dog language"

"But you do."

"I don't. There is no such thing as dog language."

"There is. Remember that best friend you had at Hogwarts who illegally turned himself into a dog Animagus and you both used to communicate through that dog-wolf talk?"

Jesus. This girl remembered everything, didn't she? Maybe she should stop accidently slipping up delicate details from his past. Thank god he never used their names. 

AS if reading his mind, she smirked. "Yeah, that's how it works. I put together details you have told me in the past until it makes a story that makes sense."

"Awfully smart aren't you. Maybe you will go in Ravenclaw"

"Ew, no. Those people are too serious."

Resisting the urge to make that pun for the thousandth time, he continued eating the Oreos and listening to Zara's theories about houses and how the system is kind of a negative influence in how the kids think about themselves. Its awfully draining to listen to her usual rants, but he knows he will miss it dearly when she would be off to Hogwarts in a month. 

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Platform 9 and 3/4 is crowded, but that isn't the reason why Zara is sweating. Its the fact that she is nervous and kind of scared with this new life she will be starting from today. Beside her, Remus suddenly slowing comes to an halt, sensing her emotions. He kneels down to her eye level and brings her in for a hug. She doesn't resist. Even as mush as she claims she will enjoy finally living with people that don't steal Oreos (because wizards don't eat them), she will, infact, miss him greatly. 

"Dad.." She says, trying not to cry. She was a big girl. She was eleven. She wasn't going to cry because she was leaving for school. 

"Hey, you are gonna be fine." He said, softly.