Part Two

Over the next few months, the unexpected happened, but in the most positive way. Olivia settled very quickly into Norwich Primary School. She found a group of little friends who never came to the house without less than a day's notice. At Halloween she had very maturely restrained herself from telling everyone that her mummy was a witch and her daddy was a werewolf (though nobody would have believed her anyway), and she loved her lessons, especially Science and French. Over time, it was clear and very satisfying to see she was becoming fluent in a culture and language that was still more alien and weird than anything her family had experienced. "Am I bovvered?" was highly immature (that was Dawlish's opinion, after Tonks tried it out), nobody knew who "Troy and Gabriella" were (or why they sung all the time), and some things just made no sense (these were usually the ones Teddy took up);

"Who lives in a pineapple under the sea?"

"SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!"

"Absorbent and yellow and porous is he!"

"SPONGEBOB SQUAREPANTS!"

"And I thought 'I am the Walrus' was psychedelic…" Remus had said.

Tonks had giggled. "Love, you're showing your age again."

Tonks and Remus themselves knew they attracted some attention from the other parents, though hopefully not too much suspicion. Recently, Tonks had been approached by the mother of Olivia's friend Emily after school. She was a far more mumsy-looking mum and had eyed Tonks's bright purple hair with a little unease.

"Emily was hoping Olivia could come with us to see the new 'Madagascar' film on the last day of school. Can she?"

"Hang on…you want Olivia to come to Madagascar with you? For how long?"

What Olivia loved most though, more than Science or Spongebob or her friends, was her teacher, Mr Shankar. He was young, intelligent, athletic and caring, and he was Olivia's hero. Remus would often overhear her gushing to Tonks about something he said or did in class.

"He said he's going to bring chocolate in for everyone at the end of school, and we're going to play games and make Christmas cards!" She exclaimed this once while they were painting, so excitedly she almost knocked the water over.

"He sounds wonderful."

"He is wonderful! Teddy says I love him, but he doesn't understand like you do, Mummy. He's the best teacher in the world!"

"What about Daddy? I thought he was your favourite teacher."

"Dad's old. Mr S is way cooler. When you meet him you'll see."

Remus thought it was also strange how she always talked to Tonks, not him, as if she didn't think he'd be interested in her learning any more now he was just her old dad. Whether he was or he wasn't interested, though, he would soon find out how she was getting on as they were meeting Mr Shankar one afternoon in the week of the end of term, a few hours before Olivia's performance as an angel in the school Nativity play.

"I'm really looking forward to meeting Mr S," Tonks said the night before as they were going to bed. "He sounds like quite a teacher."

"There's also, you know, finding out about Olivia…" Remus reminded her.

"Oh, of course," she agreed eagerly. "Knowing her, she'll have done brilliantly. She's going to be a…what's a Muggle Healer called? ...doctor!"

Remus nodded seriously, and she immediately noticed his lack of enthusiasm. "You seem a little miserable. What's bothering you?"

"Nothing's bothering me."

"Was it the whole thing about the lines?" she asked.

Remus had offered to go through Olivia's song with her that evening, but she had, in a disturbingly mature manner, told him that he probably wouldn't understand, and Mr Shankar was going to help her rehearse in the morning anyway.

Remus did not reply, and Tonks got a cheeky look in her eyes. "You're jealous, aren't you?"

"Jealous? Of what?"

"She's got a new hero."

Remus scoffed. "Oh, really! Firstly, Nymphadora, I am not that petty. Secondly…while she may be growing up now, nobody's about to replace me. Regardless of how much she has embraced her new life, her opinion of her family is not going to change."

"OK, I'm sorry." Tonks said, but something in her expression said she didn't quite believe it. She crawled up him and put her head on his shoulder. "I suppose I'll just have to take over as president of your fan club."

He smiled wolfishly. "And what will your first act of fannish devotion be?"

*

So, at four o'clock on the following afternoon, Remus, Tonks and the children (Teddy reluctantly sporting brown hair) walked through the school to meet Mr Shankar. There was tinsel everywhere and more than one Christmas tree, and many pictures of angels and reindeer by the pupils about the place. Even the school canteen looked festive.

"Oooh, Christmas dinner!" Tonks exclaimed, peering at the menu. "Hmm…you get turkey, and vegetables, and roast potatoes, and…what, no Christmas pudding? Pfft. They need to get some Hogwarts kitchen elves in, sharpish."

"Hey Dad, do you think the trifle's better than Mum's? It wouldn't take much…"

"Teddy! She tried her best, even if the custard was a little…frozen."

"How cheeky is your brother, Livvy? I don't know where he gets it from…"

Mr Shankar was at his desk when they met him in the classroom. He was a lot like Remus had imagined him; he was tall and thin and very young-only the trace of a beard graced his chin and of course there was not a grey hair in sight. He greeted them all very warmly.

"Welcome, welcome. I've looked forward to meeting you all!"

"We've looked forward to meeting you, too." Tonks said sweetly, which made Remus feel a little unreasonably tense.

He invited them all to sit down, politely dashing off to get chairs for the children and books for them to look over while they were waiting. His desk was very professionally arranged (though the chocolates were probably in one of the drawers) and stood next to a locked cupboard which might have contained art supplies or science equipment. There was a chart with numbers one to twenty in French and a row of plants on the windowsill. In the window one had a view of the car park and the blue school gates, which were only half-open.

"So," Mr Shankar began, picking up his notebook. "It's been an excellent year so far, would you agree, Olivia?"

"Yes, I would," Olivia said enthusiastically, looking up from a book to give him a confident, dazzling smile. Remus almost raised his eyebrows-was this his shy little girl?

"She's done very well in her lessons," he told her parents. "She loves her Science, and she's contributed excellently to our project about the Romans."

"Oh, yes, she knows her Romans." Remus said proudly.

"It took her a little while to gain confidence about putting her hand up-I suppose coming from home school it's not something she's used to-but she's definitely getting better at it. She's also a very good little French speaker, though she wouldn't try any Brie!"

All this time Tonks was nodding enthusiastically, and looking happier and happier. She, much like her daughter, was hanging on every word Mr Shankar said. Remus, despite his insecurities, also began to feel very happy with what was being said. He took a brief glance at Teddy, who, while hiding his face in a book, did not seem to be reading it.

"The only things I'm concerned about are Maths and PE. Maths isn't something she's taking to-she doesn't quite understand fractions, for example, and PE has been very difficult," He lowered his voice. "…the other children haven't helped there. But my hope is that she'll enjoy it more as she really settles in to the school."

"PE, is that like, sports? She takes after me there, poor thing." Tonks said.

"And me," Remus admitted. "Bad sporting genes, unfortunately."

"…So she's not special then?" Teddy suddenly asked. Tonks and Remus were shocked out of their skins, and neither of them knew what to say. Someone had obviously been saying these things to Teddy, but he hadn't mentioned them before now.

"Pardon?" Mr Shankar said politely.

"You know…" Teddy said, "special."

"Um," The teacher looked rather shocked and flustered. "No, no, she doesn't seem to have any-any special needs that I've seen, is there…" He turned his gaze to Remus and Tonks apprehensively. "…anything I should know about?"

Oh, there's a lot to know about, Remus thought, but Tonks responded awkwardly;

"Er…Olivia was a late bloomer, put it that way. Some people we know started, well, making judgements, and of course Teddy here picked up on it…"

"Well, Teddy," Mr Shankar said kindly, "I can tell you that from what I've seen of your sister she seems to be completely normal, in fact better than normal, because she's very clever."

Teddy beamed. "Wicked."

"There was something else I needed to tell you as well," Mr Shankar added, "before Olivia's performance tonight. The problem is, she…"

Suddenly, there was a very loud noise, like that of a car horn, only repetitive. Remus's hands leapt to his sensitive ears, while Tonks gripped the sides of her chair.

"Oh my God, is the building on fire?"

"No, it sounds like a car alarm…" Mr Shankar said, and looked out the window. With a cry he leapt to his feet, his chair falling over with a loud bang.

"JESUS CHRIST! My car's being stolen!"

Surely enough, outside there was someone leaping in to a small white car. The alarm ceased as the thief slammed the door and began to turn the car around.

Mr Shankar reached for something in his bag. "I'm calling the police."

Time seemed to slow down as no one in the family knew what to do. All they could do was stand and watch the stolen vehicle head towards the gates. Teddy and Olivia, having never seen crime in front of their eyes before, were both very upset.

"Can't someone go and shut the gates?" Teddy asked, worriedly.

"No one can move that quickly, Teddy." Remus told him, with a tone that reminded him of their unfortunate obligations not to interfere with Muggle affairs.

Olivia was almost in tears, and Tonks wanted to hug her even though she wasn't the one who really needed comforting. It hurt her heart to see her little girl witnessing such flagrant crime, especially when it was happening to her hero.

"Please don't steal Mr Shankar's car," she said quietly, as if she could appeal to the conscience of whatever lout was stealing a primary school teacher's car. Her voice was very small and meek; it was such a total contrast to the confidence she had displayed earlier that Remus felt as if the Olivia he had taught was suddenly coming back. He didn't have much time to think though, as the car was approaching the road.

"Please."

A split second after Olivia said this, something incredible happened. Both of the front gates became loose from their hinges, and crashed down onto the bonnet of the car. One could hear the driver struggling to go forward, but the gates were too heavy to budge. The car was stuck, and the thief had to escape. Tonks tapped Mr Shankar on the shoulder; he had been sitting with his hands over his face since he finished the telephone call.

The man stood and gaped at the sight for quite a long while. "How the heck did that happen?" he said, almost laughing incredulously.

"It's like magic," Teddy said, looking at his parents warily for a reaction. However, Tonks and Remus were exchanging looks of pure joy, as it occurred to them just what had happened.

"I'd best go out and meet the police," Mr Shankar said, still laughing, as he headed out of the room. "I'm sorry to end our meeting so abruptly; it was really good to see you. I hope you'll be there tonight!"

Remus called back; "We will! Thank you very much!" when he felt something weighing on him. For the first time in quite a few weeks, Olivia was hugging him tightly.

"You did that, didn't you, Daddy?"

"I think I'd know if I had." Remus told her, his heart just about bursting with love for her. "I think you did that, sweetheart."

Olivia stared for a moment, then screamed excitedly and threw herself into his arms. He lifted her up in a hug and looked into her big, dark, smiling eyes, but he had to let her down quickly as Tonks and Teddy were almost skipping out of the room.

"I told you she could do it!" Teddy insisted to his parents, who nodded sincerely. He strode confidently next to Olivia, who was holding on to Remus's hand. While the two of them chatted enthusiastically about their 'lessons' (which were now a combination of magic and Muggle Pop Culture) Tonks and Remus slipped their arms around each other.

"Thank you," Tonks whispered to Remus, before giving him a kiss when the children's heads were turned.

"What for? I assure you it was all her," he said, honestly.

"Because without you," she said, "I wouldn't have them."

*

Three hours later, Remus, Tonks, Teddy and Andromeda were getting ready to watch Olivia's Nativity play, mince pies and hand-drawn programmes in hands. The Ministry had been very reluctant to let them go, but their little medical miracle would probably be there all weekend, so it was only fair that she had a little break for her artistic commitments-although all she wanted to do was to get her 'Magic Touch Baby' back out of the cupboard.

As the curtains opened with a ditty from the piano, Tonks was reminded of something.

"What do you think Mr Shankar was about to say earlier?"

Remus shrugged. "Oh, it was probably about her costume or something."

It was a cute and charming little production, with such gems as "Mary you is going to have a baby" and "There are no rooms in the inn". Tonks and Andromeda thought their singing was very sweet, and Remus liked their makeshift costumes and props (the Baby Jesus had little blonde pigtails). Teddy was more interested in the video camera the man in front was holding up.

In the second half, it was Olivia's time to shine. The shepherds were gathered around their (painted cardboard) fire, and she, the angel (with a tinsel halo and crepe paper wings), tiptoed on to give them the news of the newborn King.

"Don't be afraid! I have good news for you and for the world. The King God promised has been born in Bethlehem tonight. You will find him asleep in a manger."

Tonks smiled proudly to Remus, but he hadn't taken his eyes off of Olivia. She would, after all, have a solo to sing.

Suddenly, the piano started playing, and Olivia walked to the front of the stage and began to sing.

"God rest ye merry Hippogriffs, let nothing ye dismay…"

Tonks, who knew her son very well, placed her hand over Teddy's mouth with lightning speed. But he could hardly stop himself laughing, and neither she nor Remus could stop very wide grins from coming on to their faces. Even Andromeda couldn't help smiling; she hadn't expected a play from Muggle schoolchildren to remind her of her own childhood, and she looked forward to telling her friends about it at the Bridge Club Christmas dinner.

"I think our liaison with the Muggle world has come to a definite end," Remus said.

Tonks looked around at the wary faces of the other parents and began to wonder if some certain real angels they knew were watching from somewhere in heaven…and laughing their halos off.

A/N: That's a wrap! Thank you very much for reading!