It's You That Needs Me Tonight – a NANOWRIMO Fan Fiction
SUMMARY: Remus and Tonks talk about their baby boy, Teddy, before the real battle kicks off. AU - because they survive. Quotes in bold from a deleted scene in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2.
The roaring of the visibly breaking magical defences was deafening as three young men walked along one of the many swing bridges in Hogwarts Castle. One was mocha-skinned and bald, with brightly accessorised robes of an ultramarine blue. One was wearing a simple set of tweed clothing, with a plain black tank-top and light blue shirt. One was significantly younger than the other two; he wore a plain red, long-sleeved tee alongside a simple pair of dark-blue jeans.
The bridge's chains jangled as the wooden planks slowly swung from side to side; all three men were walking along at brisk paces.
"Tell Professor McGonagall Remus and I will handle this side of the castle," Kingsley Shacklebolt said to a nervous and slightly wary Dean Thomas. The tan-skinned teenager swallowed deeply.
"Yes sir."
As soon as Kingsley and Remus Lupin reached the window-shaped hole in the stone walls and saw the defensive enchantments being broken, outside-in, the black man had changed his mind. Dean was still standing on the bridges, almost as if he was waiting for another command.
"Hey, Dean."
Dean paused as he started to turn away; he listened to the rest of Kingsley's request before he left.
"On second thoughts, tell Professor McGonagall we might need one or two more wands this side."
Dean stood stock-still as he took in Kingsley's words; Arthur, Fred and George Weasley brushed past him, to look out over the roofing on the fifth floor.
"It is the quality of one's conviction that's the determined success, not the number of followers," Remus said matter-of-factly. Kingsley's ears pricked at the words.
"Who said that?"
Remus steadied himself by tightening the grip he had on his wand. "Me."
Kingsley turned to raise a slightly amused eyebrow at the werewolf. The lines on Remus's face showed up more clearly as the corners of his mouth raised in a tiny smile, almost as if he didn't know how.
The thump of loud footsteps could be heard close by; with an enormous teeter that almost sent her out of the window, Nymphadora Tonks-Lupin rounded the corner to see her husband and Kingsley smiling. With a small sigh of exhaustion, she turned to face him properly.
He had turned to face her; if she looked at him closely enough, she could see just a tinge of desperation in his shocked expression as his mouth fell from a smile, to being parted slightly in surprise. She smiled broadly, and ran towards him.
She knew she shouldn't be there, to assist her husband in the fight that was to come, but she couldn't stand being at home, waiting with their baby boy, wondering whether Remus was alright or not. She felt him sweep her into his arms, and she grinned into his neck.
"You shouldn't have!" His anguished voice rose over her merriness at finding him, and she listened to his words as he put her down again. "It's Teddy who needs you…"
She felt his hands curl impulsively into her hair, which was shoulder-length and blonde – that was better than the lank, mousy brown it had been last year, just after her second-cousin Sirius Black's death. With just a hint of laughter in her voice, she countered his argument. "He'll sleep until dawn and snore like his father."
Remus's jaw hardened slightly as he fought to keep the laughter bubbling in his heart from bursting forth. He cupped her face in his large, scarred and calloused hand as she said softly, "It's you that needs me tonight."
They pulled away from each other, smiling gently. Out of the corner of his eye, Remus saw Kingsley raise his other eyebrow, almost as if to say, "Go on, then, kiss her!"
So he did.
He barely heard her squeak of surprise as he pinned her against the wall; she started to kiss him back as the sounds of Fred and George's faint voices came down the corridor towards them.
"You okay, Freddie?"
"Yeah…"
"Me too."
The couple broke apart, gasping for breath. Kingsley shook his head in amusement as Tonks said weakly, "I'll just… go check down here…"
She walked away, leaning on the wall for support for a second or two before turning to look out of the window. She was far away enough for Kingsley to be able to talk to Remus in a low voice.
"You really love her, don't you?"
Remus smiled more broadly as he turned to face Kingsley, remembering his and Tonks's first kiss – which happened to be underneath the mistletoe during the Christmas holidays of '95, at his deceased best friend's house: number 12, Grimmauld Place. "Yes. Yes, I do."
The crackling of the breaking shields was hair-splitting; with a jolt of horror, deep in his heart, Remus saw Death Eaters starting to fly towards them. He started to walk towards Tonks impulsively, and turned to face her at the same time that she him. They reached towards each other… their fingertips were just millimetres away…
With an almighty boom, the couple was blasted apart as Death Eaters swarmed into the corridor. And it just happened to be their luck that Antonin Dolohov and Bellatrix Lestrange were amongst the masked and anonymous Death Eaters.
She landed, with a painful bump, on her coccyx, which sent waves of pain up her spinal cord, weaving through the separate vertebrates. She groaned as she clambered to her feet, rubbing the base of her spine as it started to twinge painfully. She looked up, and swore in her evil aunt's face that she wouldn't let Voldemort or the other Death Eaters touch Teddy. Bellatrix cackled as she and Tonks heard Remus say something similar behind them to Dolohov, before his scream of excruciating pain ripped the air apart.
"Remus!" Tonks cried out; she rushed past Bellatrix, and collapsed to her knees beside a twitching Remus. He curled into her body, shaking madly; she rubbed a hand soothingly up and down his neck, calming him instantly. His gasps of breath worried her; they were getting shallower and shallower, and she turned his face towards hers. "Remus?"
He stared up at her, smiling slightly. He cupped her face again, and he pulled her down, pressing his lips against hers and curling his fingers into her hair.
Bellatrix cackled again, and fairly screamed the Killing Curse, her wand pointed at Tonks; the young woman collapsed onto Remus's chest, the life sucked from her body. The werewolf felt hot tears start to roll down his face; he held her against him, hoping against hope that she was still alive. His chest heaved as he stared up at Bellatrix with pure contempt. "You won't hurt my family any longer, Lestrange."
Just as he said it, Kingsley raised his wand to Bellatrix's face, the words of the Killing Curse on the tip of his tongue, but the Death Eater was quicker; with a flash of bright green, Remus lay, staring up at the ceiling with wide, glassy eyes.
He paused as he started to walk towards Fred Weasley's body; impulsively, as if he didn't know what had gotten into him, he turned his head, and moaned lightly as he saw the bodies of Remus and Nymphadora Lupin lying there, pale and peaceful-looking, seemingly asleep underneath the stars.
Their eyes had been closed; he could see that. Nearby, Kingsley Shacklebolt was shaking with grief as he stared at his friends' bodies. Harry Potter's emerald green eyes, imprinted with the images of blood-soaked corpses and bright green Killing Curses, slid shut of their own accord, almost as if he wouldn't – couldn't – believe that the only link left to his father was dead, along with his wife. He backed out of the Great Hall, not wanting to stand in the room another second, just to lay eyes on another's body, to remember that he brought the orphaning upon his godson, Teddy Lupin.
Kingsley collapsed to his knees in front of the pair, tears pooling in his eyes – the tears were so thick, and he thought he imagined the flicker of life on Remus's face. He wiped his eyes, staring down at Remus and Tonks.
There it was again; a small flicker, barely the movement of an eyelash, but it was there. He gripped their hands in his; willing that they would move, do something, just to prove that Albus Dumbledore's statement about love was right. He wished hard and long that they would come back.
He felt a soft hand on his shoulder. "Kingsley," a soft voice said, but he didn't pay attention, because this time he definitely saw Remus's face move; it had contorted, almost as if he was trying to break through an invisible barrier.
Hermione Granger swallowed deeply. "Kingsley, they're gone. They're dead," she said hoarsely, her throat constricting. She heard Kingsley's groan of grief, countering her argument nearly a minute later.
"But… but I saw his face move… it moved…"
She paused when she was taking her hand off of his shoulder, because she thought she saw… She thought she saw Tonks's chest rise… But it couldn't be, because she was dead…
A quiet moan disturbed the foggy silence that had fallen over the hall; everyone had turned to look at the couple that lay, dead, in a line with the rest. Hermione heard Molly Weasley gasp as Tonks's eyes opened slowly; she stared, agape, as the young Auror, wife and mother started to frown against the bright lights.
"What…?"
But she stopped as she saw Remus's hand move, weaving out of Kingsley's strong grip, reaching over to grip Tonks's wrist. Tonks turned her head to look at her husband through half-closed eyes, and she smiled softly.
Molly's shriek of shock and surprise rent the air, and Tonks's eyes snapped shut in pain; the screech sounded like fingernails on a chalkboard, or charcoal on artists' paper, and it scratched at her eardrums. Ron Weasley jumped to his feet, saying loudly, "Harry's got to know about this!"
And he dashed from the room, leaving nothing behind but a tattered jumper and the Marauder's Map.
George picked it up, muttering the password and touching the parchment with the tip of his wand; the lines of green ink spread, criss-crossing like a spider's web. He studied it, following Ron's dot with his eyes. It reached Harry's, and he could see the things that were being said professed in speech bubbles on the map.
"Harry! It's Remus and Tonks! They're alive!"
"No… they can't be… they're dead… Ron, they're gone…"
"But they are alive, Harry… I've seen it with my own eyes!"
Then the two dots were coming back towards the Great Hall; by this time, the two newly-weds were standing and holding onto each other for support. The doors to the hall creaked loudly as they opened, and Remus wrapped an arm around Tonks's waist as he turned to face Harry. They both smiled as the seventeen year-old boy's jaw dropped. He rocked forwards and backwards on his feet, and said in a surprised voice, "Well, this puts a new light of perspective on things."
The two parents smiled as they turned towards one another, and held each other – Remus had his arms around Tonks's waist as Tonks's arms twined around Remus's neck; she pulled him down, and he obliged. They kissed softly and gently, smiling broadly against one another's lips.
Harry had to turn away as the two new parents kissed softly; Ron squeezed his shoulder, smirking, and went back over to his family. But he paused as he walked by the couple; they had broken apart, and were cuddling and whispering in quiet voices. He overheard part of their conversation.
"…back home? Teddy does need us, after all…"
"Yeah, I think I'd like that…"
Everyone suddenly erupted into cheers as Remus swung Tonks round, kissing her again, though more heartily. No one stopped cheering, even as Remus swept Tonks into his arms, bridal style, and carried her out of the hall, back up towards the Room of Requirement, to go back through the passage leading to the Hog's Head and would allow them to Apparate home.
As soon as they were in their baby boy's nursery room, they walked slowly over to the crib, which rocked gently to a non-existent breeze. Tonks smiled as Remus leant down; he picked Teddy up, cradling him in his arms as he started to cry. The couple sat on the sofa; Tonks sat in Remus's lap, and he wrapped an arm around her shoulders, holding Teddy with the other. Her right arm wrapped around his waist, whilst her left arm moved to cradle Teddy, too.
The two parents smiled at each other; Remus nuzzled Tonks's ruffled hair with his nose, grinning softly. He started to press kisses to her cheek, moving down and peppering her neck; he added in the occasional love-bite, which made Tonks shiver.
Teddy started to wriggle in their arms, mewing softly, and Remus pulled away from Tonks as she rolled her eyes at him, and left to fetch his blanket. Remus leant back, into the sofa, as Tonks took their son from him, and wrapped him loosely in his baby-blue blanket; she set him back into his crib after he had stopped crying, and placed his favourite wolf-toy next to him, which he instantly cuddled up to, snoring softly. Tonks raised an eyebrow as Remus blushed. "What did I tell you?"
He ignored her, pulling her into his lap and wrapping his arms around her waist tightly. She smiled softly as they nuzzled each other's noses; he moved to kiss her, and she obliged; they moaned together as Remus increased the passion in the kiss and the pressure of his mouth against hers.
Tonks shifted slightly as she felt Remus's hardness pressing against the insides of her thighs; and, before they could get too carried away, murmured that they should move to the bedroom. Remus stood up, holding her in his arms, and she squeaked as he shouldered their bedroom door open.
They fell onto the bed, and started to undress one another; Remus's well-muscled chest heaved as Tonks's fingers softly traced the muscular six-pack on his torso. His jumper, shirt and jacket lay on the floor as she started to unbuckle his belt, moaning softly.
A light breeze ruffled Remus's already-tousled hair as he edged back into the middle of the king-sized bed, luring Tonks. She climbed atop him, her fingers fumbling for the button on his trousers, as he kissed her neck, nibbled her ear.
She giggled.
As they fumbled towards ecstasy together, Remus felt everything closing in on him. The fact that they had a baby boy was amazing, yet startling – he hadn't ever expected that he'd get this far in life, that he'd marry and have children of his own; people had always told him he'd die young, that his mental – and metaphysical – exhaustion would tire him out so much he would end up dying.
They were gazing into each other's eyes, wanting to see the light in each other when they came.
"You know… I said… I'd make… you and Teddy… outcasts…" he panted.
"I know," she gasped. "I don't care… I'll have… you… I love you…"
Remus tried to say I love you back, but instead he came, and as he did he cried out Tonks's name like a victory – he couldn't be sure whether he called her Nymphadora, or Dora, or Tonks, but it didn't matter, because she came after him because of it, and they shuddered together in the heated glow of their gratification.
In the wake of their pleasure, they lay entwined together, falling into a light and contented restfulness as thoughts of Sirius Black, James and Lily Potter came forth in their minds; they knew that James and Lily would be jumping in glee that Remus had finally found his special-someone; they already knew that Sirius had been happy about them, especially when Remus declared that he was in love with her the first time ever – Sirius had been in the vicinity, and hadn't stopped ribbing Remus about it for days and days, which had annoyed them both to no end.
Of course, but that was Sirius's job – to annoy them so much seeing as he had done the same to his parents as a teenager, especially after he was placed in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin.
The cry of a restless Teddy woke them from their peaceful slumber, and Remus groaned as his back cracked loudly; he climbed out of bed, and pulled a pair of loose boxers on before stumbling out of the bedroom to tend to their son. Tonks sat up, leaning against the headboard as Remus came back into the bedroom, cradling Teddy against his bare chest and hushing him gently. She held out her arms, and Remus smiled softly before placing their crying baby in her out-stretched arms. She bounced him gently, which calmed him down; he was still whimpering, but at least he wasn't crying any more.
But, as soon as he was settled down, the reason for his crying in the first place came back again; three loud knocks on the front door was resounding, and Remus grumbled about early morning callers as he stomped from the room to see who was at the door.
A few minutes later, Remus came stomping back up the stairs, his footfalls heavy and tired. He stumbled through the doorway to the bedroom, muttering a hoarse, "Look who it is…", as he collapsed back into the bed. He sighed contentedly as his head hit the pillow, and Tonks looked up from hushing Teddy, to see Kingsley Shacklebolt and Harry Potter standing in the doorway, grinning like cats that had gotten the cream.
Once Harry laid eyes on his godson, however, his expression changed from being wildly gleeful, to softly happy and instantly curious, yet shy and fearing, as if he thought he wouldn't be allowed to hold Teddy. He stepped into the room, and whispered, "Is that…?"
Tonks smiled. "Yes. Harry, meet your godson."
Kingsley looked shocked as Harry sat down at the end of the bed, and held out his trembling arms so that he could hold Teddy. The Saviour of the Wizarding World quietly hushed Teddy against his chest as the baby cried, being in unfamiliar arms and all; Kingsley spoke reverently. "Wow, Harry, you're a natural!"
Remus's tired voice came from the pillows. "You said you had news?"
Kingsley and Harry jumped; they had forgotten that Remus was still in the room. Placing Teddy back in his mother's arms, Harry steeled himself before speaking.
"Two things, actually. One: we won the war – but no surprises there. After you two came back from the dead… well, it just gave me new hope that if we could win this war, no more children would be orphaned. And two – well, Kingsley…?"
And Harry looked towards Kingsley, who shifted slightly before saying, "And nearly everyone voted for me to become the new Minister."
Remus's head rose from the squishy pillows, and he said, "You're the new Minister for Magic?" Then he mock-gasped. "Does that mean you're going to scrap those rubbish werewolf laws?"
Tonks and Harry laughed at the bright hopefulness on Remus's face; Kingsley just shook his head knowingly, answering with a simple, "Well, what do you think, Remus?"
She felt like shite.
Groaning about bloody illness bugs and what they did, Tonks collapsed backwards, onto the sofa. She had spent the last half-hour of her free time vomiting into the bowl of the loo – that certainly didn't do anything for her wellbeing. She wiped her sweaty forehead tiredly; she was shivering, and rubbed at her forearms furiously to keep them warm.
She heard the creak of the front door, and Remus's soft footsteps sounded; groaning again, she pulled one of the cushions on the sofa over her head.
The feeling of Remus's soft hand on her hand that held the pillow to her face was reassuring; she peeked out from beneath the fluffy cushion, and smiled weakly. "You okay?" he asked softly, and then took another look at her, frowning. "Dora? Are you feeling… well, well, I suppose?"
She chuckled darkly. "How do I look?"
He came around the sofa, to kneel on the floor beside her. He pulled out his wand, waving it over her and touching it to a spare piece of parchment to see what her temperature was:
104.
He swore loudly. "Dora, you do realise you have a very high temperature of a hundred-and-four?"
Tonks grumbled. "No wonder I feel like shite. Would you do me a favour and tell Harry I can't come into work tomorrow? I'm going to have to book a doctor's appointment…"
Remus nodded. "Teddy's round at Harry's, anyway, and we do need to go and pick him up soon."
Tonks nodded, her eyes closing. She pulled the pillow back over her head, barely suppressing a shudder at what type of illness she might have picked up.
A/N: REVIEWS, PEOPLE! Will upload the next chapter soon!