Well, I've waited a month—I promised myself that I would wait a month before I posted anything new about Harry Potter (that and the fact that I had a ton of summer assignments to do…) I loved DH and hoped all of you did, too!
Okay, guys, it's been a month, so if you haven't read Deathly Hallows—why haven't you?? Unless you're waiting for it to be released in a language besides English—then it's okay.
Disclaimer: Harry Potter is not mine.
For Teddy
A Harry Potter One-Shot
Remus.
She hurried through the lighted tunnel, her shadow flickering behind her as she puffed along the passageway. An elderly witch was behind her, matching her pace.
"Please be all right," she whispered, her wand held before her, ready for action.
Smooth stone steps, she raced up them and shoved the door open. A red haired figure was moping around the room, sulking and muttering…
"Ginny," she panted. "Ginny, where is everyone? Has it…has it started? Where…?"
"They're all fighting downstairs," Ginny's surly countenance quickly rearranged itself upon seeing the new arrivals. "They…Mum said I couldn't fight because…" her face darkened, "…because I'm not of age."
"Have you seen Remus?"
"What about Neville?" The elderly lady, grandmother of Neville Longbottom, had also arrived.
"I dunno," Ginny whispered. "I dunno."
The door—the other door that led to the corridor—burst open and in ran…
"Harry!" Ginny cried. The trio hurried forward as he paused to catch his breath.
"Ah, Potter," said Mrs. Longbottom, withdrawing her wand. "You can tell us what's going on." (1)
"Is everyone okay?" she and Ginny said in one breath, anxious to hear the news.
"'S far as we know," Harry said, running a distracted hand through his hair. "Are there still people in the passage to the Hog's Head?" he asked, eyes flashing from distracted to anxious.
"I was the last to come through," Mrs. Longbottom said before she could reply. "I sealed it, I think it unwise to leave it open now Aberforth has left his pub," she nodded to herself. "Have you seen my grandson?"
"He's fighting."
"Naturally," Mrs. Longbottom straightened even more, her pride for her late blooming grandson bursting from her aura. She smiled as she swept around Ginny, "Excuse me, I must go and assist him."
Harry turned to her, "I thought you were suppose to be with Teddy at your mother's."
She gazed at him, slightly taken aback by his concern. She smiled inwardly; Remus was right, Harry was different from the rest of them, capable of thinking of others even when he was in great peril—then again they were all in grave danger at this time… Her internal smile diminished.
Remus.
She had to get to Remus.
"I couldn't stand not knowing…" she stared at him in anguish. "She'll look after him—have you seen Remus?"
"He was planning to lead a group of fighters into the grounds—" Harry began.
She couldn't wait. She followed in elderly Mrs. Longbottom's footsteps and hurried up the stone steps and out of the Room of Requirements.
Remus.
Where was he?
Remus.
Where are you?
She fought through the crowd, the dueling pairs, the rubble, the flying plants, the fall portraits, but she couldn't find him. She had to find him. He had to be there. Her eyes scanned the crowds as she hurriedly descended the staircase leading into the cavernous Entrance Hall. It was as it had been the previous summer, but with more people, more Death Eaters, more students. She tripped over the wooden leg of a desk, managing to dodge a violet hex in doing so.
Wooden leg of a desk.
Wooden leg…of a desk.
Wooden leg…of Moody.
She straightened. Moody. What would he say if he could see her right now?
"Pull yourself together, Tonks—this isn't a kid's game, it's the life of an Auror. Pull yourself together, woman, or you'll be hurting at St. Mungo's tonight!"
"Constant…vigilance…" she mouthed, dodging a Venomous Tentacula was eating away at a hooded Death Eater. He was a weathered Auror, blunt and sometimes harsh, but he always took the time out to help her when the goings got tough. He even got Remus to come around about their relationship…by a painful knock on the head with his walking stick, yes, but the man did come around…
"Dora!"
She looked up. He was hurrying up the front steps of the school, his cheek grazed, his shabby robes torn to bits.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded, Stunning an oncoming opponent.
"I had to be here," she shot back, sending an Impedimenta at the person who was coming up behind him. "I couldn't just sit at my Mum's while you were out saving the world. I am a trained Auror, you know."
"What about Teddy? What's gonna happen to him if—"
"Duck!"
He did as he was told.
She made a criss-crossing motion with her wand and a jet of aqua shot forward, immobilizing a burly Death Eater.
"What am I suppose to tell our son when you're bouncing him on your knee, telling him about this night?" she asked as he straightened and the pair resumed their back-to-back circular dance, shooting at any and every Death Eater that came their way. "He'll never look at me the same way if you rave about all your doings and all I say is, 'I was at Granny's house with you, waiting for Daddy to come home.' No, Remus, I'm staying with you."
"When did you start caring about what other people think?"
"What's that suppose to mean?"
"You married me, didn't you?"
"Oh, don't start that again!"
He whirled around, pulling her toward him by the waist, and the pair ducked as a suit of armor exploded, Reducto-ed with a manic laugh from Thorfinn Rowle.
"I just can't stay away, knowing that this you're in danger," she spoke into his ear.
He stared at her.
"For Teddy," she whispered.
"For Harry," he said, straightening up.
She followed suit and they burst through the crowds of duelers, good versus evil, red, yellow, blue, and green filling the cavernous hall. She wove through the crowd, assisting whenever she could, but always keeping her husband within sight. She never lost sight of him the way he wove in and out of the duelers, always coming back to her, panting heavily, battling on, his robes singed, hair blown, skin marred by passing hexes…
"Well, well, well, if it isn't little Andy's Nymphadora."
Her blood froze, turning slowly to face her. Dark and heavy lidded eyes—freezing cold eyes.
"And her half-breed husband," Bellatrix Lestrange tutted softly, mockingly. "Like mother…like daughter."
"Don't you dare have a go at my Mum!" growled Tonks, dodging a shot of red that shattered a flying teacup. "Don't you dare—!"
"Or what?" sneered Bellatrix, waving her wand lazily, releasing a bullet of silver. "Are you going to set your half-breed husband on me?"
She screamed with rage—rage like she had never felt before. Her father was gone. Moody was dead. She was not going to lose anyone else—she wanted it to all stop. She hated this. She hated this so much.
"Stupefy!"
"Crucio!"
Red met dark green, tangled and mixed for just a second, before ricocheted off one another and shooting to unintended victims.
"Do you honestly think you can win against me?" snarled Bellatrix, furious that her curse had not hit its mark.
"Do you honestly think you can win against us?" she shot back.
"Dora!"
She whirled around just in time to catch a sight of Dolohov's long face twisted with a sadistic smile running toward her. Caught between two Death Eaters, she shot her wand overhead.
"Protego!"
Remus dove through the crowd, slipping slightly on a puddle of blood, but not stopping. Slipping and sliding, dodging and diving, he returned to his metamorphmagus, standing with a bubble of protective matter surrounding her. Dolohov smashed face first into the shield, falling to the floor, stunned. He didn't hesitate; he started to shower hexes on the man who tried to take down his wife.
"No use hiding, little Hufflepuff," sneered Bellatrix. "So like your father. Simple, incompetent…and dead. What I would have given to have been the person to kill the man that my pathetic sister chose to marry."
The shield came down and she charged. Curses and hexes filled the air, her eyes brimmed with determination. She didn't need a wand. She wanted to injure—to kill—she wanted Bellatrix Lestrange to hurt as she had hurt. To suffer as she had suffer. She wanted…redemption. She clenched her right hand and reached back as far as she could, grabbing at all the strength in her, before bringing the fist forward, crushing it into the other woman's cheek. Bellatrix faltered for the first time that evening. Her knees buckled as she stared up in shock, pain rippling across her face. She fell down, absolutely stunned.
"And that's what my Hufflepuff dad taught me," she spat.
She suddenly whirled around, heart pounding, mouth bone dry, catching sight of the violent burst of bright green—the unmistakable glow of death. She started forward, trying to get to him before…
"No, Remus!" she screamed.
His frame went limp. She threw herself forward in time to catch his falling figure.
Dolohov started to turn his wand at her.
"Petrificus Totalus!" she shot at him, still clutching Remus' limp form. Dolohov froze and fell unceremoniously, only to be trampled by oncoming house-elves.
The yells, the screams, the endless jets of lights fell into the background like an insignificant backdrop as she stared into his dim eyes. His eyes wide with terror, with pain. She was numb. Her world was frozen like the coldest snow. How could she continue without him?
"C'mon, Remus," she whispered, cradling him to her chest. "C'mon, what am I suppose to tell Teddy when he wants to know about this night? Who's going to bounce him on their knee and tell him about how I dodged a hex by tripping over a desk? Who's going to tell him that we fought like we'd never fought before and how we won? How we deafeated all this evil just for him? Just for him and his classmate?"
"For Harry."
She blinked. His voice. She could have sworn she heard his voice.
"For Harry."
There it was again.
"For Harry."
What was he waiting for…?
"For Harry."
"For Teddy," she whispered back, gently setting his body down and getting to her feet. "For Teddy and for everyone else that has been harmed by this stupid war."
"Oh, the little half-breed's dead, is he?"
Bellatrix had gotten to her feet, her cheek dark from where Tonks had struck her.
They battled furiously. Tonks almost couldn't keep up. She wouldn't give in. She would never surrender to her psychotic aunt. She whirled, she dodged, she jumped—though none too gracefully.
"For Remus!" she yelled, dark red bursting from her wand.
Bellatrix had finally had enough. She blocked the hex and drove forward, striking aside the oncoming curses. She shot forward, and aimed at the exposed rib as TOnks raised her arms to cast another charm.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"FOR TEDDY!"
(1) For the sake of keeping this fic sort of in stride with JKR's, I took the conversation between Harry, Mrs. Longbottom, Tonks, and Ginny directly from the text.
Huh, that was interesting. I originally wrote this from Remus' POV, but I've already written quite a few thing's from Remus' POV, so I took a stab at Tonks'…I also wanted to write this in order to showcase the sacrifices that came from war, and how Teddy's parents sarcrificed their lives so that he could have a good life--which, in the end, he did. Raised by his grandmother, loved by the Potters and the Weasleys, Teddy's childhood was a much happier childhood than both Harry's and Neville's put together.
Who else is still mourning the loss of all those amazing characters and the end of the series?? (I know I am)
So do you have any thoughts on this fic??? (including comment about how there are 79 other ones that also focus on this specific scene that JKR unceremoniously cut out of her book?) Please drop your comments in a review!!
Thanks for reading!
Chikin Wang