Rescued

Father's Day: Remus

Still tired after the full moon the night before, I put the kettle on and gathered some eggs at precisely seven am. I had gotten out of bed a little later than usual, and it had been particularly hard to drag my feet out of the nice, mildly bloody sheets.

I had spent a few minutes staring in the mirror, at the dark circles under my eyes and the scrapes and scratches retelling their stories with little twinges of pain once in a while.

After deciding on sweatpants, I snapped for Lily and went on a walk, enjoying the quiet summer morning. Lily didn't need a leash-she was too smart for that- but tagged along at my heels, panting as the heavy winter coat dragged her down.

When I made my way back to the cottage, the sun was still sitting at the horizon-as it does this far north- and I sighed contentedly, thinking of iced coffee and eggs.

But when I stepped into the kitchen, everything was ready. Iced coffee sat in a pitcher, tea was poured in mugs, eggs and bacon were divided into two plates and the table set neatly. When I turned around, Lily was gone. What was going on?

"Sirius," I said calmly. "Come on out." As I expected, footsteps came nearer and a ruffled head of black hair stalked into the room, muttering something about coffee and sleep deprivation. Since it appeared that Sirius had just woken up, Harry was the only one left.

"Coffee," Sirius croaked. I smiled in amusement and pointed at the table.

"Where's Harry?" I asked, sitting down myself.

"Dunno. Don't really care right now. Probably sleeping, like I should be." Sirius nursed his mug for a while. Leaving him to wake up, I silently went upstairs and knocked softly on Harry's door.

No answer.

Concerned, I opened the door. The lion on the wall was snoozing in a stretched out position, opening one eye to stare at me before going back to sleep. The bed with red duvets and sheets was neatly made, and there was no sign of Harry. Or Lily.

"Harry?" I called again, a little louder this time.

"HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!" A familiar voice shouted behind me, and I nearly fell over, except a fluffy white cloud finished that job for me. I looked up from the floor at Harry's face, which was grinning cockily at me.

"Where were you?" I asked, pushing Lily off and sitting up. "I nearly had a heart attack." Harry pulled me up, which suddenly made me feel old, and I sighed.

"I was hiding--" he began, when Padfoot appeared in the doorway, looking wide awake.

"Father's Day?"

"Yeah!" Harry said, still smiling. "Since I have no mother to celebrate Mother's Day with--"

"What are you talking about? Moony's right there, you're being awfully rude. " Sirius smirked. Harry and I rolled our eyes.

"Anyways, I thought I'd do something nice since you're both my father figures. "

I was touched. I knew Sirius was, too, but wouldn't dream of admitting it. Harry was definitely getting older.

"Thanks, Harry," I said.

After breakfast, we walked down to the little village a mile away. We went to a small café and treated Harry. We had been talking about the future and what it might bring.

"And so the press wasn't believing me, that Voldemort really returned. I don't think anyone besides the Order and Dumbledore believe me," he said morosely.

"Hey, Harry? What'd you end up doing with the prize money?" Sirius said nonchalantly. Harry smiled a little.

"That's for me to know and for you to find out, someday," Harry said mysteriously.

We window shopped for a little while, and I let Sirius and Harry look at the different gadgets at the technology store, Harry trying hard not to laugh while trying to explain how a phone worked. I disappeared into a book store, feeling comfortable amidst the dusty covers and pages.

The clerk smiled sleepily at me as I left with a stack of books. Holding my espresso in my hand and my book bag in the other, I looked around for Sirius and Harry.

"Are you Mr. Lupin?" I turned around to find a young woman looking up at me. She was quite short, and had exuberant pink hair and bright brown eyes.

"Er-" I began.

"Good! Mum said there was a wizarding family or two in the area, and she was partly sure you were one. I'm Nymphadora Tonks, but please call me Tonks. I'm in training to be an Auror." She said this all very quickly.

"Nice to meet you," I said, extending my hand. She shook it eagerly.

"So where do you live?" I asked her. It would be nice to have some company.

"Oh, down the road that way," she said, waving her hand airily. "Probably not too far from you."

I smiled. I liked her.

"Moony!" Sirius was calling.

"Well, it got to go now, it was nice meeting you," I said. She nodded, and said the same. I smiled again as she rushed off, pink hair a bright bubble in the green and gray of the June street.

"Who was that?" Harry asked.

"Tonks. She lives down the road away from us. They're wizards." I said.

"Oh?" Sirius said, eyebrow raised.

"Cool," Harry said.

The rest of the day was spent playing board games and Exploding Snap, and a vicious match of Wizarding Chess. Lily barked and joined in the excitement when it got to a higher level, and the days were filled with laughter and love.

Because, as I thought later that night in bed, love is all you really need.

Good will prevail over evil. Love conquers hate.

Love as family
Or friends
Love as strangers
Kin
Or trends
Love the small
Love the wise
Love the people there for you

And they, in turn,
Will love you too.