A/N: Welcome to the next bit on my journey through Remus Oneshot Smut. The last stop, in case you missed it, was Remus/Fleur. This one, in case you couldn't tell already, is Remus/Gabrielle Delacour. Getting more to the "I have to think of some convoluted way to make this work" pairings…. I love those. :D Hope you enjoy, read and review!

-C

Tonks had been dead for several years, but it never got any easier. Teddy got older, time moved on, and she wasn't there, and Remus never stopped feeling that it was all his fault. Bill had become one of Remus's closest friends during this time, inviting him out to Shell Cottage regularly. One summer day several years after the war, the Weasleys and Delacours were all out at Shell Cottage for a picnic and Bill and Fleur insisted that Remus join them, bringing Teddy along.

Most of the faces were incredibly familiar to Remus and Teddy alike. The Weasleys would always be permanent fixtures in Remus's life, it seemed, even well after the Order of the Phoenix was little more than a distant, painful reminder of the past they'd thankfully survived, even though others hadn't.

They understood, for one thing. George and Remus spent a lot of time sitting together, watching the others have fun every time he joined the Weasleys at a family gathering. The younger man had Angelina, who had showed up with an engagement ring on her finger, but Remus knew that nothing would ever replace Fred, just as Remus knew that he could never replace Tonks. Or Sirius and James. Or Lily. Or anyone else who had ever meant something deeply to Remus.

One face Remus hadn't seen since Bill and Fleur's wedding years ago was that of Fleur's younger sister, Gabrielle Delacour.

Gabrielle was every bit as beautiful as her sister, but younger, fresher, and less worn with the cares of life in war and crisis. She, of course, had been in France and well away from all the pain and strife that had racked the lives of everyone else who was on the beach with her. Her parents probably kept a lot of the information that they worried over from her, shielding her from knowing the danger that Fleur was in just by virtue of being in England.

Remus watched Gabrielle settle on the beach in her pale gold sundress, looking out at the sea and he felt the urge to sit beside her. Following the urge, Remus sat down on the sand, ignoring the fact that he would have fun getting his robes clean later and simply looking at the sea.

"Has it done anything interesting?" he teased, but she just smiled lightly.

"Not yet," she said, laughing a bit, and Remus couldn't help but think that her laugh was probably the most beautiful thing he'd ever heard, followed closely by her voice, which was of course followed up by every sound his son had ever made.

But Tonks, he had almost forgotten Tonks. How could he have done such a thing?

Gabrielle was part Veela, Remus reminded himself. And she was still very young. Perhaps she didn't have control over her own power yet. But Fleur had full control over her power by Gabrielle's age, he reminded himself. Gabrielle knew exactly what she was doing, but why would she...?

"How are you today, Mr. Lupin?" she asked sweetly, batting her long eyelashes at him.

"Perfect," he muttered, wondering vaguely why he couldn't look away from her, and then wondering why he even cared. Why wouldn't he want to look at her? She was perfection.

"I think I'd like to go for a walk," she said with a sigh. "Would you like to join me?"

"Yes," Remus said quickly, scrambling to his feet so that he could offer her his hand to help her up. She smiled at the gesture, taking it and he couldn't help but feel honored to have her skin touching his, even in the small amount of hand-holding. It was more than he deserved and far less than he truly desired.

They walked south along the beach and Remus lost all track of how far away they were from the cottage and the others, how long they'd been gone. It didn't matter. What mattered was the way she led him by the hand down the beach, the way it felt to be alone with her. Had he been allowed to be in his right mind, he would have been horrified at how forward he was behaving with a girl who was most definitely young enough to be his daughter, possibly granddaughter. But Gabrielle obviously had an agenda, and her agenda didn't involve taking chances with Remus's inhibitions and general good sense, so she used her special power to make both obstacles obsolete.

Remus wasn't sure exactly what led to what, but it didn't take long at all in his half-dazed mind for them to be entwined, rolling in the sand, him worshiping her body, her allowing him to partake eagerly of the pleasures of her perfect young form.

How long they were gone, Remus couldn't say, but one thing he did recall after he found himself inexplicably back with the group at large, telling Teddy that his clothes were wet because he and Gabrielle had thought to wade when they were surprised by a large wave, was that he didn't regret a thing they had done. Judging by the look on Gabrielle's face when he glanced over at her, she didn't regret it either.

For the rest of the social event, Remus was trying to think of ways to get her alone at some other point to do it all over again, this time without being misled by her Veela powers...