Note: Sneaky chapter before the work truly kicks off! Bet you didn't see that coming!

Sadly it's ridiculously short because I only started writing it today! Still...hope you like it! That's the way things might be in the future, I'm afraid. Short, but hopefully sweet. Or tragic. Or both. Who knows! (I should do...but I don't...) :-)

I'm ranting because it's late at night and I am sleep deprived! So let me get on to the important bit:

I would like to thank whoever recommended this story to HouseMDforever – how very kind of you to do so! And of course thank you to HouseMDforever herself, for leaving me some very nice reviews! Apologies for my fondness of the word "bloody" - I'm clearly much too British for my own good, although I must confess that the irony you pointed out does rather amuse me, and is more of an encouragement than a deterrent!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

7: Protection

"Something changed, then. Something was different. It must have been," Fleur recalled quietly, sighing heavily. "Because 'e stayed with 'er. 'E never left 'er, not after that day."

"Why would he change just like that?" Teddy asked, leaning forward until his elbows were resting upon the table, and the witch gave a strained laugh.

"Because 'e was weak!" she said, one delicate hand balling into a tight fist upon the table. "And because your mother was weak!" At the distinctly hurt expression that materialised upon Teddy's face, Fleur reached across the table to grasp hold of him firmly by the hand, giving it a shake as she insisted: "We are all weak, Teddy! All of us who fall in love! We fall so easily, so deeply that we are not strong enough to ever let it go! And our weakness, it makes us strong! There is no strength greater, mon cher! We beat Voldemort with it! We wouldn't give in because we wanted a better, safer world and we did it out of love! Your mother, she beat Bellatrix with it! She would not let that vile creature take your father away from 'er! She made a great sacrifice to save 'im and she did it out of love! Your mother bore you out of it! She would not give you up, Teddy, not for anything! Not for life itself! She risked herself out of love for you, so that you might live! And your father, 'e stood by 'er because of it! 'E knew she was dying, knew she would not change 'er mind and that 'e could not save 'er! So 'e gave 'er the best protection 'e could manage! The most powerful protection 'e could ever have given! 'E gave 'er himself! 'E gave her his love."

She'd caught glimpses of them throughout the months, and they always made her sigh.

She had abandoned her washing up in the kitchen at The Burrow one day after lunch to watch Tonks slip downstairs from taking a nap in Percy's old room, to sneak into the sitting room where Remus was sat reading a book, and after a pause to check that he had failed to notice her standing behind his chair, the metamorphmagus reached to adjust a pair of elbow-length gloves upon her fingers, before reaching forward to clamp her hands over the werewolf's eyes.

He jumped so badly the book slipped out of his hands and tumbled to the floor, and Fleur had allowed herself the smallest of titters as Tonks had leant to whisper in his ear:

"Boo."

The sound of her voice had failed to relax Remus in the slightest, until she removed her hands from his eyes in order to wave them around in front of him, wiggling her fingers as she announced proudly:

"Gloves! Long ones!"

Remus slumped back in his chair, a puff of relief tinged with weariness escaping his lips.

"Well?" Tonks said, prancing surprisingly nimbly around the chair until she was stood in front of him, thrusting a hand out for his inspection. "What d'you think?"

"What do I think?" he repeated, straightening up and reaching to carefully take hold of her hand, touch so light that she might very well be made of glass.

"Mm." Tonks said, lips pursed together against a grin.

"Well..." the werewolf decided, slowly drawing her hand forward towards him.

"Well?"

"I think..."

"You think?"

He reached to press his lips against the soft, pale cotton shielding her knuckles, and she instantly grinned.

"I think," he decided, voice barely more than a mumble that Fleur could hardly catch as he paused to drop a kiss against the fabric, steadily drawing her closer and closer, reduced to murmurs between kisses as he worked his way slowly up her arm. "I like them...very...very...very much indeed..."

The further towards her elbow he drew, the more she smiled, breaking out into laughter that very nearly made the onlooker smile too, only for it to die an abrupt death when Remus suddenly froze.

The two of them stayed stock still, his scalding lips a mere fraction of an inch above her bare arm, breath dousing her skin with warmth...

"Will you not do it?" Tonks breathed, staring down at him intently. "Just the once?"

In response, he hastily dropped her hand and leant back in his seat.

"How did you sleep?" he asked instead, and she frowned deeply and muttered:

"Much too easily." She turned and set about pacing up and down before the fireplace, fingers fiddling fretfully with the hem of one glove.. "I do that too often these days, don't I? I...I just...I just can't seem to keep awake..."

Fleur's stomach seemed to twist into knots a little as Remus rose from his chair, reaching to retrieve the fallen book and setting it down upon the the vacated seat.

"Why don't you sit down, darling?" he suggested calmly. "Let me fetch you a glass of water."

Tonks shuffled over to drop down upon the sofa with a sigh, gaze drifting up towards the ceiling, and Remus had almost reached the kitchen door when she called him back:

"Remus...?"

He paused to look round at her, and as she reached to rest a somewhat tentative hand atop the small swell of her stomach, Tonks admitted:

"I'm frightened."

And for a long moment Remus stood, his lips pursed together as he gazed over at her despairingly.

"And you are so brave." he assured her, and with that he made to turn away again only for her to complain:

"I don't know what...what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen to me...or I do but I...I don't know..." she trailed off, face contorting anxiously before straightening up a little and explaining: "I decided...years ago, back when I was at school and first heard of it...that it wasn't a bad way to go...being hit by the Killing Curse, I mean. I always thought...even if it hurt it would only hurt for...for less than a second, it sounded so quick! And...and this whole time...ever since the War began I just thought...well...you know...if I...if I was going to die the chances are I'd...I'd just die. Just...just like..." She raised a hand and gave her fingers a somewhat feeble snap that nevertheless made Fleur cringe. "Just like that!" Tonks sniffed, reaching to swipe a sleeve across her eyes that had grown watery. "But...but that's...that's not going to...that's not going to be me anymore, is it Remus? I...I'm going to...I'm going to go, but it...it won't be just like that at all! It'll be...I'll just...I'm going to just...for months...!"

"Shhh." Remus interrupted, hurrying over to her, and for a moment Fleur thought he would throw his arms around her, only for him to pause, at a slight loss for a moment. His hesitation only seemed to distress the mumbling witch further, and he hastily dropped down into a crouch in front of her, reaching to take hold of her by gloved-hands.

"Listen to me, Dora." the werewolf said, pausing to swallow the lump in his throat that was causing his voice to waver. "Listen to me. My darling, you are not going to die!"

As Tonks simply shook her head vigorously, Fleur was forced to bury her face in the nearest tea towel that she could lay her hands upon.

"You don't believe that! You don't, you never have...you...you said so! You said it's going to kill me! Mad-Eye...Mad-Eye t...told me again o...only yesterday..."

"It doesn't matter what we believe, Dora."

"B...but..."

"What matters is what you believe. And you don't believe you're going to die, darling. I know you say you do now, but you don't. You can't believe it entirely, my darling, because you have hope! If you had no hope at all you would have done as I asked you! If you had no hope at all you would have gotten rid of the child!"

As she drew the tea towel away and used to to dab at her eyes instead, Fleur watched the werewolf reach to draw the witch's hands up until he could press them to his face, gazing up at her intently.

"Don't you lose that hope, my love." he insisted, voice not much more than a whisper. "Because I love you, Dora. And that hope of yours is all that keeps me going."

Tonks managed a somewhat watery smile, and with a sniff she scuffed a thumb carefully against his cheek before confessing:

"Sometimes I wonder how you can love me at all. Sometimes I think you'll wake up one morning and be all...all bitter and angry with me like Mad-Eye."

"Oh no," the werewolf insisted, managing the ghost of a smile. "Don't ever think a thing like that. I won't ever not love you, Dora. No matter what happens, I will always love you."

"And let me tell you something, Teddy Remus Lupin." Fleur said, leaning across the table, her beautiful eyes piercing the boy straight through the heart. "If your father 'ad not been there in those last months, if your mother 'ad not 'ad the protection of 'is love...you would not be sitting across this table from me, mark my words! Because that protection kept your mother alive, she would 'ave faded so much faster without it. She'd have died long before she 'ad ze chance to give birth to you! You 'ave both your parents' love to thank for you being 'ere."