#Parents are embarrassing even when they're a metmorhpagi and a werewolf and warheroes

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Day 11 of @remadoramicrofics - That's Disgusting

Remus watched lovingly as Tonks prompted Teddy through the platform. He smiled as Teddy braced himself and set off for the wall before disappearing. Remus glanced around one last time before slipping through after them. As soon as he passed through, he was assaulted by a barrage of noise. Parents stood with their children – some fighting to get away and some clinging to their legs.

Teddy turned to him. “Do you take the train, Da?”

“No, I have to be there early – someone has to welcome you!” When Teddy had turned six, Minerva had arrived at the Lupins’ doorstep with a job offer, noting that Remus would no longer need to be a stay-at-home father.

Remus had politely refused, hoping to spare her the criticism Dumbledore had received following his hire. Minerva was insistent, though, and had roped Dora in on it. Eventually, he had agreed to return to teach Defense Against the Dark Arts on the condition that he could commute from Hogsmeade.

Teddy looked at his mother with wide eyes. “Do you think if I change my hair, the hat will let me pick my house?”

“Which house do you want?”

Teddy froze and Remus watched his hair dull from a vibrant teal to an icy blue. “I don’t know, which one do you think I should pick?”

“It doesn’t matter what house you’re in, Teddy,” Remus assured him with a hand on his shoulder. 

“You and Harry were in Gryffindor,” he pointed out.

Remus shrugged. “Yes, but your mother was a Hufflepuff and your Nan a Slytherin. Luna and Penelope were both Ravenclaws.”

“There’s no bad house,” Dora stressed.

Teddy nodded resolutely. “Alright.”

Tonks grinned. “Want us to walk you on the train?”

“No,” he said quickly and set off a few paces ahead of them, muttering, “how embarrassing.”

“Can you believe that our baby’s all grown up? I suppose that makes you a bit of an old man,” Dora teased.

Remus rolled his eyes. “He’s hardly all grown up.” He smiled at her. “Thinking of trading me in for a younger model?”

“Oh, you know I would never,” she smacked him playfully as they followed Teddy. It was getting a bit harder to keep up with him; he had pulled a hat over his head. As of late, his hair had been cycling through house colors while his eyes remained a steely gray. Dora had told Remus that the same happened to her the night before she left – she had been so overwhelmed she could control her morphs.

“Harry!” Remus said as he embraced his son’s Godfather. “Glad you could make it.”

“Are you kidding? I wouldn’t miss seeing my Godson off to Hogwarts.” Harry looked Teddy over. “A bit nervous, are we?”

Teddy shrugged. “Maybe.”

“He’s worried about the sorting,” Dora whispered.

“Oh, nothing to worry about there,” Harry said, “It doesn’t hurt a bit.”

Remus found himself chuckling at the joke. Harry had always looked like James, but lately Remus noticed he had begun to act a bit more like him, too. Sometimes, it was painfully hard to watch – especially the older Harry got, knowing his father had never reached that milestone.

He had felt that way the night he had come home from the battle – he was married, with a son he would raise, but he had spent the whole night wondering if he had deserved it. James and Sirius had never had such opportunities and they were far more deserving, could have been far better at it. When he had confessed these feelings to Nymphadora on a particularly sleepless night, he thought, for just a moment, that she was going to literally knock some sense into him.

She had simply pulled him close and insisted that everyone deserved to be happy and loved – it wasn’t something he had to earn – and that, really, his friends would only want the best for him. More surprisingly, though, she told him that she understood. That the ministry used to harp about survivor’s guilt after missions but that she had never really felt it until that night.

Remus was brought back to the conversation by Dora’s gentle hand on his arm. Teddy was rolling his eyes at something Harry had said and Harry was grinning at them. Remus, despite his usual hesitance at public displays of affection, pulled Dora into a quick kiss. “I love you,” he whispered.

“I love you more,” she said as she pulled him into another.

They broke apart at Teddy’s indignant protests. “Mum, Da, stop! That’s disgusting!”

Remus chuckled and ducked his head to hide his blush but Dora just laughed. “Oh, just you wait, your Nan used to give me a big kiss on the cheek right before she’d put me on the train.” 

She lunged for him, but Harry grabbed her. “Run, Teddy, I’ll hold her off!”

Teddy looked like he was considering it, but Remus caught a hold of his arm, “There will be no more embarrassing Teddy,” he declared, calling a truce between the three of them. “But you are required to give your mother and I a hug before you board.”

“A side hug,” he bartered.

“A real hug,” he insisted, “or I’ll let her kiss both your cheeks and sneak her into the sorting.”

“You wouldn’t,” Harry cried as Dora pulled out of his grip.

“Don’t test me,” he warned playfully.

“Fine,” Teddy reluctantly agreed, though he hugged his father tight.

“We’re so proud of you,” Remus whispered as he squeezed his son back, “And we always will be.”

Dora sniffled as she held him tight. “You better write to me or I’ll send a howler of me singing,” she threatened.

“I promise,” Teddy said.

“Want help with your things?” Harry asked.

“Sure,” Teddy said as he bounded for the train.

Dora turned to him, slack-jawed. “Can you believe him?”

Remus grinned at her. “Can you blame him; we’re old and embarrassing.”

“Speak for yourself,” she said as she pulled him into another kiss.