New Love
The door closed and Tonks leant against it, smiling at the thought of seeing Charlie again in the morning. She knew it was wrong to have feeling for someone else so soon after Remus had died and she knew she shouldn't be thinking about Charlie in that way anyway as he was her best friend but she couldn't help it. She decided then that she wouldn't do anything about her feelings as it was unfair on Remus and Teddy. She guessed that the feelings were probably just because she was confused about what she wanted after losing Remus. She went back through to the living room and picked up her glass, placing it in the sink in the kitchen before heading upstairs to bed.
That night she dreamt about when she was at school with Charlie and all the things they used to do together, all the pranks they had played on the teachers and the rest of the Weasleys and when she woke up in the morning she felt happy, despite losing her husband just 24 hours earlier. She smiled, thinking about Charlie again, and got out of bed and went to see if Teddy was awake yet. She found him playing happily in his cot and smiled, wondering what everything must be like for him. She sighed, thinking about how much Remus would have wanted to see his son grow up and decided that she had to make Teddy's life as happy as possible, despite him no longer having a father. She picked him up and carried him downstairs to give him his breakfast, then went back upstairs to get dressed. When she came back down again she saw that Teddy had picked up a photo of Remus and was looking at it smiling. Tonks smiled at Teddy holding the picture of his father but then took the picture away from him in case he dropped it. Teddy frowned at his mum but rather than crying he just asked to be picked up, which Tonks did.
She held the boy in her arms as he clung to her and she realised he must understand that Remus wasn't coming back. He was clinging to her because he didn't want her to leave as well. "I'm not going anywhere, Teddy," she whispered reassuringly to her son, who smiled at the sound of his mother's voice. Just then there was a knock at the door and Teddy turned to look in the direction of the door. Tonks opened it and saw Charlie and Molly standing on the doorstep.
Teddy saw Charlie and started giggling and reaching out for him. "I see he still remembers me then!" Charlie said, laughing and taking Teddy.
"Looks like it," Tonks replied, smiling at her son who was hugging Charlie tightly.
Molly smiled at Teddy and Charlie and said, "You said he liked you but I didn't think he liked you so much he wouldn't let go!"
Charlie laughed "Well he certainly seems to like me!"
Tonks let them both in and closed the door behind them, "Do either of you want a drink?" she asked.
"Have you got any coffee?" Charlie asked as Teddy giggled more at him.
"Yeah I think so… Yeah there's some in here," Tonks replied getting the coffee out of the cupboard. "Molly?"
"The same please dear," she replied, smiling at the way Teddy and Charlie were playing together.
"Ok," Tonks said, making three coffees deciding that she might as well have one as well.
Charlie and Teddy were playing with one of the muggle games Tonks's mum had bought for Teddy and Charlie looked like he was having just as much fun as Teddy, if not more. "I don't know who the child is out of you two!" Tonks said, laughing as she put the coffees on the table and watched them playing.
Charlie laughed "I'm a kid at heart Tonks!" Teddy laughed at Charlie again and gave him a building block that was part of the game they were playing.
"I think he likes playing with you," Tonks said, smiling at Teddy laughing at Charlie.
"It's great to see them having so much fun," Molly said, also smiling at the two boys having fun with the building blocks.
"Should we leave them to it for a while?" Tonks asked.
"Ok," Molly replied, laughing and they went into the kitchen together. "So how are you today then?" Molly asked.
"Charlie cheered me up a bit last night so I'm feeling a bit better than before… It's really weird without him here though. I miss him," Tonks said, sighing slightly.
"He wouldn't want you to be upset, Tonks. He'd want you to try and get on with your life as best as possible," Molly replied, gently hugging Tonks reassuringly.
"Yeah I know he would… It's just hard at the minute…" she replied, hugging Molly back.
Molly nodded and said "I take it Teddy's taken it quite well then?"
"Yeah he was upset yesterday until Charlie came round. He sort of livened up and went back to his normal self again when he arrived."
"Well at least if Charlie's making Teddy happy it'll take the pressure off you a bit."
"I guess that's true. It's nice to see Teddy having fun."
"Should we go and see what they're doing then?"
"Ok then," Tonks smiled, glad that Charlie was there even if Remus wasn't.
They walked back through into the living room and saw that Charlie and Teddy had built a model of the house together.
"Teddy did it," Charlie said, smiling at Teddy giggling again.
"He's a clever little boy," Molly said smiling at the boys and their house model.
Charlie picked Teddy up and his hair went an even brighter blue. "I think he likes you holding him," Tonks said, smiling at the two of them together.
"He certainly looks happy," Molly said.
"They both do," Tonks said, laughing.
"It's hard not to be happy with a little boy like him in my arms, Tonks," Charlie said, smiling, "He's a sweet kid."
"Thanks," Tonks said, blushing slightly.
Molly looked at Charlie and Tonks smiling at each other and Teddy laughing in Charlie's arms and thought they looked almost like a family. If someone had seen them together and hadn't known Charlie wasn't Teddy's dad they would have thought he was. Molly smiled at them all, wondering whether Tonks and Charlie would ever get together.
"I should probably be getting home," Molly said, "I need to get the dinner ready and there's about 20 of us tonight so I have a lot of work to do."
"Ok Molly," Tonks said, smiling. "See you some time in the week then."
Molly nodded and said "Ok! See you some time later in the week," then she turned and left, closing the door behind her to let Tonks and Charlie have some time alone with Teddy and without her listening to all of their conversations.
