Entry tags:

2008_fic, 2008_round

Happy Parsel Fest, Animaginarymind!
Recipient: animaginarymind
Author: dea_caelesti
Title: The Truth about Uncle Rolf
Length: ~2,200
Rating: PG-13
Summary: While waiting for his Aunt Luna to give birth, eight year old Teddy Lupin discovers that his Uncle Rolf and Uncle Harry have been keeping a dark secret.
Warnings: None.
Author’s Note: Hope you enjoy, animaginarymind!

The Truth about Uncle Rolf

Teddy Lupin had never really questioned the way his family worked. He lived with his grandmother but he spent most of his time with his godfather, Uncle Harry, and his godfather’s family; Aunt Ginny, Cousin James, and baby Albus. They also lived with his godfather’s close friend Aunt Luna, her husband Uncle Rolf, and their daughter Rowena. Since they lived in a big house, Teddy had never really considered it odd that two families might chose to live together. He had nothing against big families but he detested waiting.

Teddy scowled and swung his legs, inadvertently causing his chair to rock slightly. Waiting, as he understood it, helped make families bigger. At least, it did when it involved waiting in St. Mungo’s dingy old waiting room. Uncle Harry had said they were going to the hospital because there would be a new baby in the family soon. Teddy was beginning to think Uncle Harry had a very strange definition of soon. But he also knew that the older a person was the longer they could wait without getting bored. Teddy stopped swinging his legs. He was eight and therefore – in his opinion – he should be able to wait patiently far longer than James and Rowena, who were only four.

Uncle Rolf’s laughter startled Teddy out of his thoughts. Uncle Rolf and Uncle Harry were sitting across from him, next to each other, holding hands and whispering. Albus made a gurgling sound from Andromeda’s lap. Teddy frowned; Aunt Luna was taking a long time to get her new baby. Aunt Ginny was with her, though Teddy couldn’t help thinking that his Aunts (though not Aunt Hermione) were probably behaving the same way as his uncles were. More like a Mummy and a Daddy than a pair of Uncles. Teddy bit his lip. It was all very confusing to him; Uncle Harry acted the same way to Uncle Rolf and Aunt Luna as he did to Aunt Ginny.

“Andromeda?” Uncle Harry said. “Why don’t you take the children out for lunch? They’re probably hungry by now and it could be a while yet.”

Teddy sighed and followed his grandmother and whining cousins out of the room. He was old enough to recognize an adult’s ‘let’s send the children out so we can talk privately’ voice.

Ten minutes (and several very clever excuses) later, Teddy made his way back to the Maternity ward waiting room alone. He slipped through the doors unnoticed and curled up on the chair he had previously vacated. A strange noise from his Uncles made him look up. He blinked, repeatedly.

“Uncle Harry?” Teddy asked, “Why are you kissing Uncle Rolf?”
The adults pulled apart immediately. Both looked terribly flustered and embarrassed.

“Uh, well Teddy, you see, ah…”

Uncle Rolf rolled his eyes at Uncle Harry’s incomprehensibility. “We don’t have to explain ourselves, you know,” Uncle Rolf said. “We could just erase his memory of catching us.”

“TOM!” Harry roared.

Teddy frowned and thoughtfully took a bite of his sandwich. “Swince hen ib ee oom? I doobt he wss unkwil wolf?”

Uncle Rolf frowned at him. “Don’t talk with your mouth full,” he scolded.

Teddy swallowed and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. “Sorry Uncle Rolf-Tom,” he said. Then he looked at his uncles thoughtfully. “Do Aunt Ginny and Aunt Luna know that you act like a Mummy and a Daddy when they’re not around?”

Uncle Rolf spluttered incoherently.

Uncle Harry sighed, “Yes, Teddy, they do.”

Teddy blinked. “Oh,” he said. There was a pause. “Do they act like a Mummy and a Daddy when you’re not around?”

Uncle Rolf turned to Uncle Harry. “Must we have this conversation? He’s eight; he won’t miss one little memory,” Uncle Rolf said.

Uncle Harry glared at him. In fact, he was so busy glaring at the other adult in the room that he was taken completely by surprise when Uncle Rolf leaned over and kissed his nose.

“Tom,” Uncle Harry said, laughing. “Stop it! We’re in public.”

Uncle Rolf smirked at him. “That didn’t bother you before,” he murmured.

Teddy watched bemused as Uncle Harry gave Uncle Rolf a playful smack. “That was before public included my eight year old godson!” Uncle Harry replied.

“Why do you keep calling him Tom?” asked Teddy.

“It’s a long story,” said Uncle Rolf.

“So? You said Aunt Luna would still be a while finding her baby.”

Uncle Harry looked even more embarrassed. “How about we tell you where babies come from instead? Most kids your age want to know that,” he said.

“Babies come out of Mummies tummies,” Teddy said knowledgably, “because Mummies tummies work like ovens.”

Uncle Rolf turned and stared resolutely at the door behind which his wife was giving birth, desperately trying not to laugh.

“Right,” Uncle Harry said, sounding oddly defeated. “Well, you remember how I told you a bit about that bad wizard I helped get rid of?”

Teddy nodded, baffled. “Yeah, Vole-mart or something, wasn’t it?”

Uncle Rolf made a very odd noise.

Uncle Harry placed a hand on the other adult’s shoulder. “Something like that. His real name was Tom Riddle. Do you remember your Grandma telling you that I had a piece of his soul stuck in mine when I was a baby?” Teddy nodded. “Well I’ve always told people that I didn’t know it was there, but that’s not true. I knew he was there – I didn’t know who he was – but I grew up thinking he was some sort of imaginary friend, and I grew quite, ah, fond of him.”

“Fond enough to start asking for bed-time stories,” Uncle Rolf muttered. “And then other bed-time activities.”

Teddy’s eyes widened. “Uncle Rolf is the bad wizard?” he asked, stunned.

“Well, not exact–”

“Yes,” said Uncle Rolf.

“Tom,” Uncle Harry hissed.

Uncle Rolf sneered in response. “Just because I feel remorse now doesn’t mean I want you white-washing me.”

Uncle Harry frowned. “I haven’t forgotten, Tom. Last time we saw the Dursleys I ended up pulling strings with Kingsley to keep you out of Azkaban.”

Uncle Rolf smiled, his eyes glittered with malice. “That was fun,” he said.

Teddy frowned. “So how can he be the bad wizard if he’s Uncle Rolf?”

Uncle Rolf sighed. “After Harry defeated me at the Battle of Hogwarts – which I still haven’t forgiven you for, by the way – I found myself in the afterlife. Needless to say I was stunned when Albus Dumbledore and Gellert Grindelwald pushed through my mother’s request that I be given a second chance; apparently they’re as influential dead as they were when they were alive.”

Teddy stared at him. “Then shouldn’t you be my age?”

Uncle Rolf smirked. “I was a special case; Dumbledore managed to convince whatever-it-is-that’s-in-charge-up-there to send my soul back in time, though I don’t know how they managed to mix my original genetic code with that of my new parents,” Teddy noticed that Uncle Rolf looked awfully put out by that. “Either way, I was reborn to Newton Artemis Fido Scamander Jr. and his wife Rowena on December 31st, the year after your Uncle Harry was born.”

“I still think Dumbledore knew about what was going on between us,” Teddy’s green eyed uncle muttered.

Uncle Rolf raised an eyebrow. “In case you’ve forgotten it was Neville Longbottom, not Dumbledore, who politely told you, in your sixth year, that he didn’t have any problem with you sneaking a male Slytherin into your bed but requested that you please use silencing charms when you did.”

Teddy blinked – he found most of this very confusing, like the time he had walked into the kitchen of Uncle Harry’s house to find Uncle Harry shirtless, wearing leather trousers and a collar; whenever he asked about it his uncle would blush and promise to explain when Teddy was older. “So you knew Uncle Rolf would be coming back?”

Uncle Harry shook his head. “The Tom I knew as a teenager was the one stuck in my soul – he still hasn’t told me how he managed to randomly materialize all over the place,” he said. “When I defeated Lord Voldemort the piece of Tom that was inside me went back into him. So you see, when Tom was reborn and sent back in time he was a different person, with a more complete soul, but he had the piece of soul in him that used to be in me. The Tom I knew when I was a teenager was only part of the whole Tom, the reborn Tom.” Uncle Harry evidently saw how baffled Teddy was because he added, “If you only ever see a person’s legs sticking out from under something you haven’t really met all of that person, have you? It’s the same with Tom’s soul. I didn’t meet the reborn Tom, your Uncle Rolf, until Luna brought him over to meet us (though part of him recognised me); they were engaged at that point.”

Teddy cocked his head to one side. “Why were they busy?”

Uncle Harry smiled. “Engaged doesn’t just mean busy, Teddy, it also refers to having agreed to get married but not actually being married yet.”

“Oh,” said Teddy.

“Though I still don’t know why Luna wanted Ginny and I to meet ‘Rolf’ in the Headmaster’s office…” Uncle Harry added, more to himself than anyone else.

Uncle Rolf snorted, “Probably for the same reason she arranged for us to be locked in there for three days: she wanted to give you and Ginny time to calm down. Ginny started throwing curses at me as soon as she recognized me, if you recall.”

“Yeah,” said Uncle Harry, “but that was only after you decided that kissing me in front of my fiancée was a good idea.”

“Uncle Harry?” Teddy murmured.

“Yes, Teddy?”

“Don’t you love Aunt Ginny?”

Uncle Harry looked surprised. “Of course I love Aunt Ginny,” he said.

“But you love Uncle Rolf,” said Teddy.

“I love Uncle Rolf and Aunt Ginny – I also love Aunt Luna.”

Teddy blinked. “And you love Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron, right?”

Uncle Harry had a very odd look on his face, he looked slightly green, but Uncle Rolf was trying not to laugh.

“Teddy, I love Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione in a very different way than I love Uncle Rolf and Aunt Luna,” Uncle Harry said.

Teddy frowned. “Is that why you never walk around in those weird outfits in the back of your cupboard when Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione are over?”

Uncle Rolf spat out his drink. When he’d composed himself he glared at the eight year old. “Teddy,” he growled.

“I found them when I was playing hide and seek!” he squeaked out, not entirely sure what he’d done to make Uncle Rolf so angry.

It was at that point that a Healer walked in. “Mr. Scamander?” asked the Healer.

Uncle Rolf looked up, concerned. “Are they alright?”

“Your wife is fine. I’m sorry to say that the baby didn’t make it.”

“No, No.”

Teddy watched as Uncle Harry silently gave Uncle Rolf’s hand a squeeze, and ran his fingers’ through Uncle Rolf’s long black hair. Teddy still didn’t really understand how the adult’s relationship worked, or where Aunt Ginny and Aunt Luna fitted into the picture. But looking at his uncles, Teddy was certain that it didn’t really matter than Uncle Rolf had once been the bad wizard Riddle who wanted Uncle Harry dead. They loved each other.

Less than five minutes later Teddy sat on a chair next to his Aunts; he wasn’t allowed to go to the other side of the room where Uncle Tom-Rolf was holding his dead baby. But Teddy wasn’t too worried; Uncle Harry was with him. Teddy glanced at his Aunts, surprised to see that they behaved very much like his Uncles. Teddy smiled faintly: he’d always been told that Tom Riddle had never loved, but the reborn version of him seemed to attract it on all sides.

Uncle Rolf-Tom’s sudden shout from the other side of the room startled Teddy.

“She’s not dead,” Uncle Tom said. “She’s breathing!”

The Healers rushed to check on her and some time later little Merope Scamander left St. Mungo’s Hospital with her family. Teddy Lupin smiled for the rest of the day, even when his grandmother scolded him for lying about where he’d gone.

***

Eleven years later, as he stood on Platform Nine and Three Quarters; waving to Victoire, he smiled. James, Albus, and Rowena were all waving to their parents from different compartments. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Uncle Harry and Uncle Tom (though he still called him Uncle Rolf in public) glancing at each other and smiling as Aunt Luna and Aunt Ginny chatted amiably, while little Merope Scamander wandered over to Lily Potter and Hugo Weasley – who were, quite accidentally, distracting Aunt Hermione and Uncle Ron from their conversation with the other adults.

After the train had rolled out of sight Teddy walked over to his family, smiling as Uncle Tom lifted Merope into his arms and spun her around. Teddy’s smile grew into a smirk as he saw Uncle Harry slide his fingers into Uncle Tom’s free hand; he realised that he had the perfect blackmail material to help him get the expensive engagement ring he wanted for Victoire.

When he thought no one was looking Harry leaned over and kissed Tom. In her father’s arms Merope stuck out her tongue.