Author's Note: So, the battle's over. Let's see where I go from here.
Disclaimer: Jo owns Teddy, Tonks, and Remus...unfortunately, as I would quite enjoy my own personal ThewlisRemus...from the fifth and sixth films.
I was born
I was born to be with you
In this space and time
After that and ever after I haven't had a clue
Suddenly, a group of seventeen people appeared in the hallway. All looking worn and beaten. Most were bleeding from at least one place on their body.
Corrine launched herself into Marshall's arms and began weeping. He wrapped his arms around his wife and whispered in her ear that everything was okay.
One by one, the group began to greet their loved ones. Claire and Katelyn enveloped Roland in a hug. Marjory and Carly began hugging Candace, Chris, and Marla. Concordia ran to first her husband's bedside, then her son's. Eamon, Isolde, and Cavan crowded around Nolan's cot. Amelia and Erin all but tackled Curtis. Beatriz hugged her son and Arianna before clinging to Kirk. Zeke knelt by Riona's bedside before he set off to assure Corie that they were both safe.
Tonks looked nervously around the room, scanning the jubilant crowd for the one face she longed to see the most. Her heart fell when she did not see him. He could not be dead, could he?
Then, with a faint pop, Remus appeared in the hallway. She ran through the room and threw herself into her husband's arms.
Immediately, tears broke free from her eyes in a way that would have embarrassed her beyond recognition two years ago. He held her tightly and breathed in her scent, a smell that he feared he would never again sense.
"Is it over?" she whispered.
"We can't be sure," he whispered, honestly.
She pulled back and reached up and held his face in her hands, "Are you okay?"
"As well as can be expected. I just need a warm shower and a good night's sleep," he assured her.
"Remus," she said sternly, looking into his eyes in search of an honest answer.
"Dora, I'm fine. I'm hurt a little, but nothing that a few spells can't cure."
"And...how do you feel?"
He shut down, "Let's not talk about that, right now. We've got the rest of our lives to worry about that."
"We shouldn't have to," she countered.
"I can't talk about it, right now, Dora. Let me have time to think on it, alright?" he asked, eyes begging for time.
She swallowed, he needed time, that did not sound good, but she could not deny it from him, "Alright, but promise that we will talk about it soon."
"I promise," he said, looking right in her eyes.
She nodded and nuzzled her face into his neck.
"Where's Ted?" he asked, the rumble of his voice tickling her nose.
"In the saferoom."
"Can we see him? I want to see him," Remus said, kissing her temple.
"Alright," she said, pulling away from his body and taking his hand to lead him to the saferoom.
Once there, they walked over to the crib where their son lay sleeping. Remus leaned over the bar so that he could see the boy.
"Do you think I'd wake him? I just really want to hold him," Remus said unsurely.
"Go ahead, Remus, he's your son," Dora reassured.
"My son," Remus repeated as he picked up the baby who woke up and looked sleepily up at his father, "My son. My son." A grin split Remus's face and he could not hold in the laughter that swelled in his belly, "I have a son," he smiled then looked over at Dora and smiled even wider, "We have a son! And we're going to live to watch him grow up and learn to walk and talk and ride a broom. We're going to get to teach him to ride a broom and watch him get a wand. We'll get to take him to school. Dora, we have a son and we're alive."
She could not help but smile at the sheer joy that her husband was experiencing at the very thought of being alive.
"We are," she said, moving over so that she was against her husband's side and she stroked the baby's pale blue hair.
"He's beautiful, you know," Remus said, barely above a whisper, "Looks just like his mum."
"He looks like you," she argued.
Remus carefully examined his son and said, "It's the eyes. He has Lupin eyes. They look just like my dad's."
"And just like yours," she added.
"He has eyes like mine. My eyes," Remus marveled again, "He's a little person, Dora. A little person that we made. Part of you and part of me. Can you believe that?"
She chuckled, "Where was all this misty-eyed insight a month ago when he was born? Seems like I remember you being too busy passing out."
He smirked at his wife then turned his eyes back on his son who was now sporting bright purple hair, but his eyes remained the bright blue they had been since he was born.
Dora looked at him, "You don't reckon that he can't change them, do you?"
"Hmm?" Remus said, letting the baby grab hold of his finger and pull it into his mouth and gum at it.
"His eyes. Do you suppose that he can't change them? He is only part metamorphmagus," she reasoned.
"Can you be just part metamorphmagus? I thought that was a you are or you aren't situation," he said, distantly as he smiled at his son.
"Well, I don't know. There aren't that many metamorphmagiand I never saw myself wanting children, so I've not really looked into that," she said, reaching over to tickle at Teddy's chin.
"You didn't want children?" Remus asked, looking up at her.
She continued playing with Teddy, "I hadn't ever really thought about having kids. Never really thought about having a steady man around. Having someone's kid sorta connects you to a person, you know? I never really fancied the idea of tying myself to some bloke, so I decided that I didn't want kids."
"You didn't want kids because you didn't want to be tied to a man?" Remus reworded.
"Not 'til I met you," she replied, looking away from Teddy to look into her husband's smoky blue eyes. He leaned down and pressed his lips against her in a kiss that felt so much more tender and gentle than the one they had shared just hours ago, yet it contained just as much if not more of the emotion as the last had.
A commotion from outside the room broke their reverie and they left to investigate.
The room was now full with every manner of people. Some Remus and Tonks had seen before, but many that they had not.
Crawford, now bandaged, ran over and slapped Remus's shoulder hard enough that Teddy whimpered and Dora took him from her husband's arm. "Its over!" Crawford shouted with a wide smile across his scarred face, "Your boy, Harry, he really came through! Killed Voldemort, dead as a doornail! Its all over!"
Tonks gasped and breathed, "Remus."
His mouth worked soundlessly for a few moments before he managed, "Its over. Its all over. We did it. He's gone. Its all over."
A.N.: I love writing Remus and Teddy. I just love imagining him getting to be so happy because he never really got to be happy enough in the real stories.
