Remus was slow to register his surroundings as he slipped back into consciousness. The first thing he realized was pain. His back was sore from where a spell had hit him from behind. How long have I been out? Remus thought as he slowly opened his eyes and took in his surroundings. Remus shot up from the bed he was on and looked around in confusion. From the looks of it, he was in the Gryffindor dorms, but that didn't make any sense. The grounds were clear and sunny, and the castle was far too quiet.
Muttered voices were audible outside the door and Remus searched for his wand in a rush. This might be some sort of trap. Unable to locate his wand, Remus dashed to hide behind the door. "Where the hell did he go?"
The voice sounded so much like Sirius', but Remus wasn't going to trick himself into thinking that Sirius was here and alive. Remus figured that he might be hallucinating - side effects from whatever spell he had been hit with.
"Don't ask me! I left for like five minutes," Remus closed his eyes and cursed whatever bastard decided to hit him with something as painful as this. He could have sworn that James Potter was in this room.
"He's probably confused. We should find him - I don't want him to get lost."
"How could he get lost, Lily? It's Hogwarts." Remus could hear the people moving around in the room. Someone entered the bathroom and then left it. Someone was checking the hangings of the other beds.
"Just because it's Hogwarts for us, James, doesn't mean it looks the same for him."
"Oh, please. Remus loved Hogwarts more than chocolate. Of course it's Hogwarts for him too."
Remus had to restrain himself from peeking out from behind the door. James, Lily, and Sirius were not here. This was a side-effect. Remus had to find his wand and escape. Nymphadora might be in trouble. Harry might need him. Teddy would need him. He had to get over this. He had to get out of here. He had to concentrate. Remus waited for the three of them to leave, closing the door behind them, before stepping out into the room.
Taking a better look at everything, part of him could have sworn that this was his seventh year dorm. The view of the grounds was exactly as he remembered and the room smelled so familiar. Remus slipped into the restroom and jumped backward at his reflection. His skin was tanned and his hair was dirty blond without a trace of gray. The purple smudges that had taken permanent residence under his eyes were gone and there wasn't a trace of any of the scars that once marred his skin.
"What the hell?" Even his voice sounded fresh and new. Remus touched his face and hair, shocked at the state he was in. He didn't even hear the trio from before re-enter the room.
"Remus!" Lily squealed as she lunged at him and squeezed him tightly. James and Sirius laughed and tried to pull Lily off her their old friend. Remus just gaped at them, hardly willing to believe that they were actually there in front of him. Remus stumbled back and kept as much distance between himself and them as he could.
"What's going on? Who are you? What do you want from me?" He asked them, trying to think of the last thing he remembered. He knew that he saw Bellatrix dueling with Nymphadora. He thought he head heard someone behind him, but he was too busy trying to get to Nymphadora to help her. He should have checked. There was a flash of pain in his back and then everything went dark. Maybe he had been stunned? But that didn't explain what was going on.
"You don't recognize us, Remus?" Whoever was impersonating Lily had her pegged down. Her mannerisms were convincing enough to be believable. You could almost touch the concern that was wafting off of her. They got something drastically wrong though. All three of the impersonators looked too young. They all looked too happy.
"Of course he does," Sirius droned. "Remus. Stop kidding around. You'll make Lily cry." Lily glared at Sirius for his comment, but quickly turned her attention back to making sure Remus was alright.
"Guys, I don't think he's kidding. I think he's actually confused. Remus, what's the last thing you remember?" James asked and took a small step forward and Remus' apprehension increased.
"There was a battle. I was trying to get to Nymphadora," Remus almost posed his response as a question as a new possibility arose to his mind. He voiced his concern, "Am I dead?"
"Oh, Remus." Lily looked like she held so much pity in her heart for him and Remus immediately understood that he was right. He was dead.
"How did it happen?" Remus looked to the boys.
"You were killed. Dolohov got you in the back." Sirius remarked, not bothering to sugarcoat the explanation. Remus appreciated the brutal honesty.
"Why do you all look so young? So happy?"
"That's how things are here… It's a little hard to get used to at first, but eventually you settle in. You catch peeks at what's happening in Life sometimes," James responded. He put his hand on Remus' shoulder. "I know that this isn't worth much right now, but we've missed you so much. I'm not happy to see you dead, but I'm happy to be able to welcome you home."
"We watched you. We didn't get as many glimpses of you as we did of Harry, but thank you, Remus. You meant so much to him. We couldn't be more grateful, truly" Lily stepped forward to wrap Remus into a second embrace and his heart rate increased at the realization that his friends were with him again. They were happy. They were alive - or not alive? - it didn't matter. All that mattered was that they were here. They were with him again and he finally had his family back.
Sirius stepped forward next to embrace him, followed closely by James. The four friends rejoiced in their union for a little while longer before Remus started to ask more questions. "Are the others here? The other members of the Order? And the glimpses - how did those work? I'll still be able to see Dora and Teddy?"
James opened his mouth to explain, but Sirius beat him to the chase. "We're pretty sure that Dora is here too. We don't know exactly where to go searching for her, but if this is Hogwarts for her too, then she is probably down in the Hufflepuff dorms."
"Why would Dora be here? She can't be dead too. We can't have left Teddy behind!" Remus exclaimed.
"I know it's hard, Remus, but Teddy will be okay. He has so many people who will look out for him and love him. And there are people here who need you. I need you. James and Sirius, they need you. Your wife - she needs you. And there are others. So many have fallen tonight. It's going to work out alright."
"I can't have left my son parentless, Lily! I - "
"We left our son parentless, Remus. It was horrible, but he made it out all right. Do we wish that we could have been there? So terribly. But Harry is okay. Teddy will be okay too," James tried to comfort.
"But you don't get it, James. He won't understand. He'll think that we just left him!"
"Oh like hell, he will," Sirius cut in. "Harry would never let him think of you and Tonks like that. Nor would Andromeda. Calm down, Remus. Teddy will grow up knowing how loved he is. You've left him an amazing support system. Your child will be perfectly fine."
Remus took a deep breath and nodded. He still didn't feel one-hundred percent reassured even with his friends' consolations, but he figured that finding Nymphadora might help. "Okay," he breathed, "alright. Can we go find Dora now? I would like to see her."
The others nodded and lead the way out of the room, but before they managed to leave the common room, a boy called out. "Remus?" Fred Weasley stood by the fireplace looking a little lost and heartbroken, but consoled. Standing in front of him were two orange-haired young men that Remus almost immediately recognized as Fabian and Gideon Weasley.
Remus donned a sad smile, "Fred, I am so sorry to see you here. How are you doing?" Remus walked over to the boy and gave his shoulder a squeeze. Remus nodded in acknowledgement of the brothers, the understanding that they would catch up later not needed to be spoken.
"I'm doing fine. I died laughing, that's the least I could have hoped for. I'm just worried about Georgie. I don't think he knows yet. I hope he doesn't. I don't want him distracted while he's fighting. That's why we separated in the first place."
Remus nodded in understanding and tried to offer some comfort, "He'll be okay, Fred. Your family will look out for one another." Fred nodded and Remus took his leave to go find his wife.
He exited the portrait hole with his best friends by his side and hadn't traveled too far before he came across Nymphadora's small frame looking out over the grounds from one of the windows. James, Sirius, and Lily stayed back so that the couple could have a semblance of privacy and Remus didn't waste a moment in reuniting with Tonks.
"Dora?" He spoke before he reached out to her, even though they were dead, he still felt like he was living in a war and he didn't dare touch her without alerting her to his presence beforehand.
She looked over her shoulder so quickly that she must have pulled something in her neck, but she didn't seem to mind or register it as she threw herself into Remus' arms. "Oh, Remus! We've left Teddy!"
She seemed just as distraught as he was over the orphaning of their son, but he tried his best to console her. "It'll be alright, Dora. He's got Harry and your mum. He'll be okay. He'll be just fine."
"What if something happens to Harry? He's so young. These children are too young to be fighting. So many are dead! So many kids have died tonight Remus. Nothing is okay!"
"There isn't anything we can about that except watch over everyone that we can. We'll be able to see him from here. He'll grow so quickly that it will be like we were right there alongside him. And we can watch out for all of the kids who died tonight. Everyone will be all right in the end, Dora. No one's going to be overlooked. And anyway, love, there are some people who wanted to meet you."
Nymphadora stepped out of Remus' embrace and looked over his shoulder to see her cousin and two other people making small talk a short distance away. "Oh. Are they…" she looked at Remus, letting him fill in the rest of her question silently and his nod was the only confirmation she needed. Harry really had looked just like his father and his eyes were the same dazzling green of his mother's.
Remus put his hand to the small of Tonks' back and led her over to the group. She reached out to Sirius, wrapping him into a tight hug and whispering to him that he had been incredibly missed. Remus spoke to James and Lily, "James, Lily, meet my wonderful wife Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin. She hates the name Nymphadora," he added, upon seeing the tips of her hair tint red, "so Tonks will be all right. And Dora, meet James and Lily Potter - Harry's parents."
"I've known your son. You would be so proud of him," Tonks smiled up at Harry's parents.
Lily smiled kindly back at her, "We are, thank you."
A silence settled between the four, only slightly awkward with the introduction of a new person, but Sirius made quick work of eradicating it.
"I just want to take this moment to point out that while all of you used to joke about me marrying someone who was incredibly too young for me, Remus here is the one to introduce us to a wife that is thirteen years his junior. I believe that somehow galleons are owed to me through this and I will not settle until my dues are paid."
Tonks' knocked Sirius with her shoulder, "Oh shut up, Sirius. Just because you're an insecure old man is no reason to demand we pay you for it."
James released a delighted laugh, "Oh, I like this one!"
Pink covered Tonks' cheeks, but she took the compliment in stride, happy in the spot that she had filled. This family may not have been the one she left behind, but they were pretty damn great too.
Remus took in the scene around him and felt a joy that he hadn't felt in many years at being surrounding by his closest friends again. The things you lose really do have a way of coming back to you. He had missed this.
A/N: I just rewrote this fic because I didn't feel like it was written to the best of my abilities. If you're reading it for the second time, I hope you like the new version. Thanks for your support! - Jules