March 20th

Ginny smirked as Tonks carried Matteo through the flat again. He was fighting sleep really hard tonight. She was about to offer to take him for a while when there was a knock at the door. When she opened it, she jumped back a couple feet.

"Should I take that as a welcome in?" Seamus asked.

"No. Go away," Ginny said, closing the door.

"Whoa, hey!" Seamus shot out a hand and held it open. "Not so fast. I want to see my son."

"What son?" Ginny asked, hoping he bought it. She cringed as Matteo started to cry.

"That son. Let me see him."

"No. You don't get to wriggle out of the law and come making demands. Not after what you did to me."

"You mean what we did? Just because you had second thoughts afterward doesn't mean I don't have a right to my son."

"Fuck off." Ginny tried to close the door again. She wasn't sure what she was more upset about, the fact that he was here or that he was grinning at her.

"That's not very—"

"Oi! What're you doing here?" Tonks asked, rounding the corner into the living room. She pulled Ginny out of the way and took a step toward Seamus. The man backed into the hall, but Tonks followed, closing the door behind her. "You keep away from my family. This is your only warning, and you should consider yourself very lucky you got it."

"She can't keep me away from him. That's my kid in there," Seamus said calmly.

"They convicted you of rape, dickhead," Tonks spat. "There's no way they'd give him to you."

The way Seamus smiled at this gave Tonks a chill. "What's his name?" Seamus asked. "I know it's too much to hope that you named him Seamus Jr." He chuckled at his sick joke.

"I'm not telling you his name. Now fuck off," Tonks said. She walked back into the flat and took a few deep breaths. "Ginny?" she called softly. She walked through the flat toward the nursery. "Ginny, you okay?"

"No." Ginny looked up at her but kept rocking Matteo. Her eyes were a little red, as if she'd been crying along with him.

"Hey, he's not going to get away with anything," Tonks told her quietly. "I'm not going to let him hurt you again. Or Matt. Is he asleep?"

"Yeah, let me put him down." Ginny set him in his crib and pulled Tonks into a hug. "What's he playing at?"

"No idea, but I'm dying to find out."

"What do you mean, you can't?" Tonks asked. She was in her supervisor's office that morning. She couldn't believe what he was telling her.

"I'm sorry, Tonks," Bernan said, and he actually sounded it. "There's…reasons why I can't."

"What reasons? We wrote a restraining order on a five-year-old that spit at some kid just because the mom wanted us to! How the hell can't you write one on the bastard that raped my girlfriend?"

"There's a lot of red tape on her case," Bernan said. He was beginning to sweat. "Our hands are tied."

"I don't understand," Tonks said through clenched teeth. "First this fucker gets out without even doing a quarter of his time, and now he can come harass us whenever he pleases? What the hell's going on around here?"

Bernan paused and looked down at his hands. "I can't say much. But a bit of advice—leave here and go to the third floor. You need to get the adoption papers for Matteo filed. Today."

"He's going to try and take Matt?" Tonks whispered.

"When I said our hands are tied…." Brenan stopped again, but continued in a lower voice. "This guy's knows somebody. How do you think he got out so quick? I don't know who it is, but they're making it easy for him to screw with you. Not sure what this kid is trying to pull, if he's just trying to scare you or what. But I wouldn't take any risks."

"Thanks, Brenan," Tonks said, sprinting out of his office. She didn't even bother with the elevator, but took the stairs two at a time. When she got to the Children's Services department, she took a deep breath and morphed her hair purple. Calmly, she walked in and over to one of the offices. "Wotcher, Max," she said.

"Hi there, Tonks," he said cheerfully. "What can I do for you?"

"I need to fill out the—"

"Oh yeah! I saw that match!" Max said loudly. "Brutal, wasn't it? Still, didn't lose too much money, so things worked out." He pulled Tonks inside and shut the door.

"What the hell?" she asked.

"I filled them out for you already," he whispered, rummaging through a file cabinet. "You just have to sign."

"Brilliant!" Tonks said, looking over the forms. "Why?"

"That bloke, Seamus, came round yesterday as I was closing up. Said he had rights to some kid and wanted a custody hearing. I told him I could file it, but I needed the kid's name. Got suspicious when he said he didn't know it, so I asked for the mom's name. When I figured out who he was, I stalled him."

"What happened?" Tonks asked as she signed the papers.

"Told him we couldn't file for a custody hearing since the adoption process was already underway. I said he could try after the results of it came out. He said thanks for my help and that he'd do just that. Then he started bragging about how it wouldn't be hard to get custody. He said something about knowing how the system worked."

"Did he say anything else about that?" Tonks asked, remembering what Brenan had said.

"No. He just thanked me again and left. I filled out the forms then and was planning on owling you this morning. Had an abuse case come through that I had to get to first though. Look, I don't know what's going on, but he made it sound like...."

"Like he knows someone who's helping him. Right. Thanks, mate," Tonks said. "You've helped a lot. Thanks. I've got to go now."

"Sure thing," Max said, walking her out. "Say hi to Ginny for me."

Tonks walked into the Burrow. Molly had pestered them to the point of insanity about bringing Matteo over to visit, so Ginny had agreed to stay there while Tonks went in that day. Tonks spotted them in the backyard and walked though the kitchen to the back door. Matteo was lying on a blanket on the ground. Ginny and Molly were seated on either side of him, encouraging him to crawl. Ginny smiled when she saw Tonks.

"Wotcher!" Tonks said, picking Matteo up and spinning in a circle.

"Did everything go okay?" Ginny asked.

"Er…bits did."

"Why are you in such a good mood?" Molly asked as Tonks sat down with them.

"Because this little guy is about to become a Tonks for real."