He should have been more careful.
His fingers move gently over Tonks' pregnant belly. She smiles up at him, and he wonders if she can tell how forced his returned smile is.
"He'll be beautiful, Remus," she whispers.
He nods along, but maybe he doesn't mean it.
He should have been more careful. There's a child growing inside his wife, and if that child grows up to be a monster, Remus knows that it will be all his fault.
..
"You're just nervous," Andromeda says. "I remember when I was pregnant with Dora. Scared me to death. What if I was just like my mother? What if it was in my blood?"
Remus offers her a shaky smile.
Nervous is putting it lightly.
Dread knots his stomach, turning his innards acidic.
He is a monster. And now, maybe, he's passed that trait on to his unborn child.
..
"Remus!"
He squeezes Tonks' hand, gently kissing her knuckles. "It's okay," he says. "It's going to be okay."
"I see a head," Andromeda reports. "Push, Dora."
"I bloody well am pushing, Mum!" Tonks shrieks, her grip on Remus' hand tightening until he can feel his bones rubbing together.
..
"Do you want to hold him?" Andromeda asks.
Remus hesitates. There's that dread again, that sickening sense of doom. Still, he nods.
His mother-in-law places the squirming, fussing newborn in his arms, and Remus lets out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding.
"He's perfect," he whispers.