Remus was absolutely beside himself, overwhelmed with emotions as he sorted through the photographs that spanned across Eleanor's entire childhood. There were pictures taken from when she was just a few days old, to photographs revolving around her first steps, and so much more. He was thankful to witness some of the moments that he had missed out on, but the photos also served as cruel reminders of just how much he had missed out on during his absence. Eleanor had recently turned sixteen years old, only a year away from being considered an adult in the Wizarding World and he was only just coming into her life.

Every so often, he lowered the photo in his hand and looked down at Eleanor, who continued to sleep peacefully through the night. Margaret brought him a warm cup of tea, before joining him on the sofa again, telling some little stories behind each photograph.

"I hate how sad she looks in most of these," Margaret said at one point, "she was such a happy baby. She laughed at the slightest thing all the time and she always wanted to play. She was so sweet to her toys too. Always made sure that all her stuffed animals were paired up so that one didn't get lonely. And she liked to sing her toys, even if she didn't know the words. I haven't heard her sing in so long."

"What happened?"

"I happened," she sighed. "When her accidental magic caused things to start happening around the house, like the lights going out when she laughed, or how she could practically summon her toys from the shelf, I panicked. I didn't know what to do and all I could think of was the teachings of the church and my parents. I treated her like she was possessed by the devil, I was so afraid of her. I remember those nights where she called for me from her room, but I just left her there to cry. She should have been taken away from me with how I neglected her."

"You're lucky you didn't end up with an Obscurial on your hands," Remus told her, "it happens when a witch or a wizard is forced to suppress their magic. They create an obscurus, which is a dark parasite of magic that can manifest itself into a destructive force. They aren't too common in these recent days, but during the witch hunts, there were plenty since children and adults had to hide their magic to avoid being persecuted."

Margaret peered down at Eleanor with a frown before running her hand over the top of her daughter's hair gently.

"Why didn't she become one then?" she asked. "What stopped her from becoming one?"

Remus gave a small shrug of his shoulders. "I've heard that Obscurials can be healed if their feelings of isolation are replaced with the feeling of belonging. Basically, healing the trauma would cause the parasite to dwindle away."

"Hogwarts," Margaret nodded, "or maybe when Professor McGonagall arrived, telling her she was a witch. She was able to learn about and meet others that were like her. She always gets excited when it's time for her to return to school. Perhaps that's what actually saved her. I had no idea about Obscurials, I didn't realise I could be inflicting so much damage."

"It's not all your fault, Margaret," Remus said, "Merlin knows, a good deal of the blame falls onto me for not being involved. But honestly, a lot of the blame should fall onto the Ministry of Magic. They do not have a proper system in place to deal with muggle-borns or magical children that grow up in the muggle world. You and Eleanor are not the first to be faced with this predicament and you certainly won't be the last with how things are run."

"It sounds like the Ministry is quite corrupted. Whether it's not providing for the werewolf community or making no attempt to help families, I don't understand their logic. If they wish to remain hidden, why are they making things harder on themselves and others?"

"That's a question I've been asking myself for a long time and probably the reason as to why my father retired from the Ministry finally. He couldn't take the obvious corruption and he didn't want to be a part of it anymore. Once I was infected with lycanthropy, he had to relearn everything he knew about werewolves. They weren't these soulless monsters in the sense that he had taught, they were people struggling to find a cure and try to live their lives as normal as possible."

Remus looked over one photograph in his hand where Eleanor appeared to be holding up a stuffed toy that appeared to look like a wolf, causing a lump to develop in his throat.

"I always feared that if I had a child, they would be infected with lycanthropy as well. I never had any plans to have one too afraid of the life they would live. I remember how awful those transformations were when I was younger before wolfsbane was even invented. Did Eleanor ever show any odd tendencies that were...wolf-like?"

Margaret shook her head. "No, nothing that I know of."

There was a small sigh of relief as Remus settled back into the sofa. He looked tired as well, but he continued to keep looking over the photos quietly to himself.

The next morning, Eleanor awoke in her own bed and remained still for a minute or two. She remembered dozing off on the sofa the night before, resting her head against Remus' shoulder as the two shared in a conversation. But as she sat up, the household appeared to be quiet, as it normally was when she returned for the summer holidays. And immediately, her mind travelled to the thoughts of perhaps she had dreamed everything. Goodness, how embarrassing it would be to learn that Remus wasn't her father and she had just dreamt about it?

Curiosity got the best of her as Eleanor pushed herself out of bed and quickly made her way down the stairs. She was about to head to her mother's room to question Margaret, but before she was fully down the steps, she came upon the scene in the sitting room of Margaret and Remus asleep on the sofa. Hurrying down the rest of the steps, Eleanor entered the room where Margaret used one arm of the sofa as a pillow and Remus was slouched over in a terribly uncomfortable position. In his lap, was a book of her baby photos, and judging by the boxes in the room, her mother had pulled out a bunch of Eleanor's baby belongings.

There was a surge of giddiness that raced through Eleanor's chest, realising that it hadn't been a dream. Her father was Remus Lupin, a werewolf that had been her Defence Against the Dark Arts professor, but most importantly, he was her father who wanted to be involved in her life. And while Margaret had been terrified initially over the idea of Remus being a werewolf, she seemed to get over it and had even suggested that she would help Remus financially to obtain the Wolfsbane potion.

Things were working out way better than Eleanor had ever anticipated and even though she wanted to wake up both of her parents to continue spending time with them, she figured she would let them rest as she headed back up the stairs to her room.

After taking a shower, brushing her teeth, and getting dressed, Eleanor was drying the ends of her hair in her room when she heard a crash at her window. The towel dropped to the floor as she became startled and turned her head to see the Weasley family owl, Errol, fluttering outside her bedroom window. Feel her heart pounding in her chest, Eleanor made her way over and opened the window to allow the poor owl inside. As per usual, Errol dropped the letter intended for her and flew into her room to rest.

She looked over to where Dermot was settled in his cage, one of his eyes opened, looking in their direction before it closed again.

Collecting the letter off the floor, Eleanor smiled as she tore off the top and started to read it over.

To My Favourite Hufflepuff,

I know, it's only been a day since we parted ways, but it's okay to miss me. I did want to check in with you, considering you were quite nervous about how your mother was going to react once you were home. George and I are on standby if you need rescuing.

-The Better Listener.

Just thinking about how Fred was going to react when he learned what had happened when Eleanor arrived home, she couldn't help but laugh. She walked over to Dermot, letting him out of the cage to stretch his wings as she grabbed a piece of paper and a pen to return the letter promptly.

To the Better Listener,

Where do I even begin? I guess I should start off by telling you that I actually met my father yesterday. But you'll never guess who it turned out to be...

Once she finished up her letter to Fred and sent Errol on his way after allowing the owl to rest, Eleanor decided to send Dermot on his first delivery. She wrote to Cedric first, knowing that Marnie was going on holiday with her family, she would write to her once Dermot returned. However, she was sure that Cedric's response was going to be long if he didn't decide to fly all the way to her house to see things for himself.

When Eleanor returned downstairs, Remus and Margaret were awake and, in the kitchen, sharing in a cup of coffee together. Remembering when she was younger, Eleanor could think of all the times where she envisioned what she believed to be her "perfect" family. And the scenario of her parents sitting in the kitchen, talking and laughing, wasn't far off from what she pictured. It seemed once they got over the uncomfortable fact that they hadn't spoken with each other in sixteen years after a one-night stand, they were picking up where they left off. Her mother looked happy and as soon as she spotted Eleanor, the two of them jumped up ready to greet her.

"Are you just now waking up?" Margaret asked her. "You must have been tired!"

"Er, well, actually I've been up for a while," Eleanor answered, "I was upstairs sending letters to Cedric and F...the twins."

"The Weasel twins again, I see."

"Weasley," Eleanor and Remus corrected her again, only to look at one another. Margaret laughed at the two of them before correcting herself with the proper name.

"Right, Weasley. And you're sure it's the twins, or is it just one?"

"Mum!"

It was embarrassing enough having Marnie and Cedric tease her about her incredibly obvious crush on Fred, but she didn't need her mother to jump on that train, and she didn't need Remus knowing about it either. So, rather than giving her mother a straight answer, Eleanor decided to change the subject completely.

"So, what's for breakfast?"

Remus appeared confused by the abrupt shift of the conversation, but Margaret only gave him a look to drop it before she said she could whip up a few eggs and some bacon for breakfast. And as Eleanor settled down to sit, she watched as Remus pushed himself up and offered to help. He pulled out his wand and Eleanor cringed in her seat, waiting for her mother to start panicking or something along the lines, but instead, it appeared as though Margaret was welcoming the help. She didn't say anything, although she froze for a second as the frying pan placed itself on the stove and the eggs were cracked over it without her raising a finger.

Eleanor didn't want to come across as dramatic, but she could have cried just watching her mother put in the effort to make everything continue to run smoothly. It had taken almost sixteen years, but Eleanor didn't care, she was willing to take whatever was being given to her.

"So, Ellie," Remus said as the eggs and bacon were cooking, "um, your mother and I were talking last night and if you didn't have plans for today, I thought maybe we could take a trip to see my father? I think it might be best if we explain everything in person, rather than a letter. Of course, that's only if you're comfortable with going. If you're not, I understand, I can go and talk to him and when you're ready you can meet him. Although I suppose if you're never ready to meet him for some reason then you won't meet him and he..."

As Remus rambled on, Eleanor and Margaret tried to conceal their laughter because he seemed to be talking in circles as he waited for her answer.

"Dad! Dad! Wait! Wait!" she put up her hands to get him to stop. At the mention of her calling him Dad, Remus fell silent.

"I would love to go meet my grandfather with you today. But can Mum come too?"