10
TONKS regarded Lyall Lupin with no small measure of concern in her pale grey orbs as the flickering red and orange flames danced across her father-in-law's face as he paused to draw in a breath, suddenly seeming like he was growing weary with telling his grandson and his son and daughter-in-law the story of how he met Remus's mother.
The young witch and proud mother bit down on her bottom lip in a sudden fit of nervousness, gingerly reaching up and tucking a stray wisp of her pale pink short shaggy hair back behind her right ear where it belonged before leaning forward, heaving a small little groan as she forced herself off of Mr. Lupin's couch.
Tonks made it a point to wave her wand so that everyone's empty teacups flew gently through the air of their own accord and onto the metal tray she'd gotten from the kitchens.
"Everyone looks like they could do with a refill," she murmured quietly, her cheeks flushing rosy pink as five-year-old Teddy regarded his mother with wide, curious eyes.
No doubt intrigued by the abrupt change in his mother as she sensed Lyall needed a bit of a break.
She shot what she hoped was a kind, reassuring smile towards her son, trying to silently convey to Ted that he wasn't at all in trouble with her or her father, by any means.
"You want some more hot chocolate, Teddy Bear?" she murmured, stifling a light little giggle that threatened to escape her lips as the boy fought and failed to make a face and scrunch his little nose in annoyance at the nickname she had given her son ever since she was born.
"Yes, Mummy," he whispered in a quiet voice, still fidgeting on his grandfather's lap, though he made no motion to hop down from his comfortable looking spot.
Tonks saw Remus half rise from his spot at the end of the threadbare sofa, his lips parted open as if to speak, but he quickly relented and sat back down on the sofa the moment he saw his wife shake her head no, suddenly looking quite weary and at a loss for what to say to Lyall.
Stay, she silently mouthed, pleading with Lupin with her eyes, hoping Remus took the hint.
The slightest incline of Lupin's head towards her quiet request signaled to the young witch and mother that he had understood her request and was honoring it.
Tonks turned on her bare heels, having kicked off her boots the moment they arrived inside Lyall's cottage, respectfully leaving her shoes by the front door mat, and carried the tray towards the kitchen, and was about to get everyone a refill on their tea and Teddy's hot cocoa, when the quiet susurration of her father-in-law's reserved voice called out to her, rendering her hovering in the doorway that separated Lyall's little kitchen from his living room.
His voice was so faint, that if Tonks hadn't already been in the process of hanging onto every word of Mr. Lupin's story of how he met Hope, she felt certain she would have missed it.
"She liked you, Mrs. Lupin. My Hope did, even if she never had a chance to say so in so many words," Lyall murmured thoughtfully.
Tonks froze, her grey eyes widening in shock and awe as she swallowed down past a lump in her throat.
Unable to help herself anymore, she slowly turned at the waist to look Mr. Lupin in the eyes.
"I…" Tonks stammered, the frog in her throat worsening as her throat hollowed and constricted.
But Merlin's Beard, she did not want to look into Lyall's light brown eyes that were so like her Remus's and see the hopelessness and despair and heartbreak within his irises.
Lyall Lupin would not say so in many words, but she could see it, Remus could see it, and, to a much lesser extent, Teddy could see just how much his poor grandfather was affected by the recent loss of his wife.
Tonks swallowed down hard as she struggled to find the right words to say, to think of something, anything at this point, that might put her father-in-law's mind at ease.
In the end, her heart answered for her, her lips saying the only thing that her tongue would allow them.
"Thank you, Mr. Lupin, sir," she answered politely. "That…means the world to hear you say that. Truly."
Shifting the teacups on the tray balanced in one hand to keep her hands busy, Tonks avoided looking up at Lyall for as long as the young witch possibly could, but finally, she could no longer face the inevitable, and so, she looked, lifting her chin up slightly to better meet his gaze.
Lyall just gazed at Tonks somewhat expectantly, in silence that had started a horrible, fatigued ringing in her eardrums, demanding for Nymphadora to say something.
"You're welcome, dear," he finally said at last with a heavy little sigh, before shifting his wooden rocking chair closer to the fire so both he and Teddy could benefit from the fire's warmth. "I think we'll take those refills now." Without so much as another word, he looked away.
It was more than enough for Tonks to garner his meaning. Lyall Lupin needed a moment to himself.
"Teddy Bear, why don't you come on and help me?" she encouraged lightly, offering her son a soft smile as her five-year-old's head whiplashed and turned sharply to the left to regard his mother. "I'll let you pick how many marshmallows you want. As many as you want, Teddy."
The wide, huge grin that cracked and split across her son's face would no doubt be worth her son's sugar high later.
Tonks smiled, in spite of the worry that wormed its way into her stomach as she looked once more at Lyall, not liking at all how tired and fatigued the man looked.
Remus quickly nodded his agreement, rising from his chair. "I'll come too, Dora," he murmured under his breath, sparing one last glance at his father's silhouette, the fire in the hearth casting shadows of light and darkness in their unyielding dance throughout the room.
Lupin pursed his lips into a thin line and did not speak to Dora again until the little family had made their way into Lyall Lupin's kitchen, where Tonks immediately got to work, tea for them, a fresh cup of hot chocolate for Teddy, (with her son's help!) refilling their beverages and taking the effort to pile on a small pile of cookies onto a plate so they'd all have something to nibble on while Lyall hopefully continued his tale in a moment.
"I…I don't know what to think about all this," Remus muttered after a moment as he stood at the kitchen sink, the sleeves of his white collared shirt underneath his sweater rolled up to his elbows as he absentmindedly checked and stirred the teabags of his own cup of tea.
Tonks felt a pang of pity tug at her heartstrings at the forlorn expression on her husband's face as he looked out the window at the encroaching thunderstorm approaching from the east, black and purple thunderclouds rolling in lazily and dangerous-looking.
She suspected the coming storm was an appropriate metaphor for Remus's heart at this point in time.
Tonks herself wasn't sure how she would react to learn that the night her parents met, that a savage beast like Fenrir Greyback had taken a liking to Andromeda Tonks.
Coupled with the fact that Lyall had kept that information from his son, Tonks knew this had wounded him, quite possibly more than anything else Lyall could have done, save for…that day he'd insulted Greyback.
"At least he told you now," Tonks concluded with a forced smile that felt strained, causing the skin underneath her eyes to crinkle, and she knew the smile did not at all reach her eyes. "That has to count for something?"
She let out a tired sigh and moved towards Lupin, setting the freshly prepared tea in their respective mugs down on the kitchen table for a moment, sensing her husband needed her comfort now.
Resting a gentle hand on his right shoulder, she flinched, biting her lip in hesitation, but only because he did so the moment her hand came to rest down on his shoulder as she gave his shoulder a light little squeeze.
"I'm sorry that I only got to meet your mother a few times before she…before she passed away, Remus," Tonks whispered, her grey eyes turning saddened as she joined Lupin in his pensive, thoughtful staring out the window. "I think that if I could have gotten to know her more, I think that I would have really bonded with her. I would have loved her. She did her best to give you the best life that she possibly could. I don't think you need me to tell you that, Rem, do you?" she asked, craning her neck upward as Lupin shifted slightly, turning to the left and resting either of his hands on both of Tonks' shoulders.
His hardened expression softened as he looked at his wife, shooting her an odd-little half-smile, though in Tonks's mind as her brow furrowed in contemplative thought, it looked more like a pained grimace than anything else.
"You're angry that your father kept this part of the story from you," Tonks spoke out loud, as much to make herself try to understand Remus's shift in his mood in addition to wanting to get her facts right. "Aren't you?" she pressed him in what she hoped was a quiet, non-accusatory tone as his strained smile faltered and promptly slid off his face like Stinksap.
"Yes," he answered, sounding initially reluctant to voice his confession even to that of his own beloved wife, a light pink blush speckling along his cheeks as the proud pair of parents noticed Teddy out of the corner of their eyes dipping his hand into the bag of marshmallows and trying to fit as many as he could into his mouth.
Tonks swore she thought she saw Remus's eyes start to twinkle and the beginnings of a smile split across his features.
Tonks slowly nodded her head at Remus's confession.
"Well, you are admitting it to me, and that's better than nothing, Remus," she concluded with a forced smile and a soft, nervous chuckle.
Considering what she knew of her father-in-law, which was, sadly, admitted very little, as Lyall was quite a private man and kept to himself more times often than not, she suspected the aging old wizard had his reasons for not divulging this part to Remus while his son had been growing up.
"How much of your father and mother's life story do you know, Remus?" she asked, her curiosity burning just on the tip of her tongue.
Tonks couldn't be certain, but she swore her husband almost looked…ashamed.
Remus had sudden trouble making eye contact with her, and if it was at all possible, his cheeks flushed high with color, going from their usual pallid if not slightly peaky paleness, to light rosy pink.
"I…" he stammered nervously as he fidgeted with the gold wedding band that he wore proudly on his left ring finger. "N—not much," he finally said, at last, daring to meet his wife's gaze, and exhaled a relieved breath to see there was no hint of judgment in Dora's pale grey eyes. "Dad is a private man, Dora."
Remus released a breath he hadn't even been aware he was holding until he exhaled, feeling some of the tension in his shoulders melt away as he allowed himself to relax.
Sensing that Tonks was eager to learn more, he lowered his voice and stepped closer, so that Tonks was practically pressed firmly into his hard but lean chest.
He was much taller than she was, so Tonks had to crane her neck upward to better look Remus in the eyes.
Lupin looked down his nose at his wife, letting out a tired sigh and brushing the back of his finger along Dora's cheeks, staring deep into her pale grey eyes that had ensnared and bewitched him from the first day he'd laid eyes upon her in the Order of the Phoenix.
When Lupin caught her fall from tripping over that stupid troll leg umbrella stand back at Headquarters that Sirius adamantly refused to get rid of, saying it gave the hallway some true charm that was missing from the place.
"My father's ever really only told me bits of what happened the—the few nights before I was attacked," he muttered, pulling Tonks close so that his chin was resting on top of her hair. "But everything before that, how they met, Greyback encountering them the night he saved her from the boggart, is all brand new to me, sweetheart, but…"
His voice cracked and wavered slightly as it trailed off, and Tonks, still held firmly against his chest, felt Remus swallow down hard past a lump in his throat.
"It's all right, Rem," Tonks murmured, closing her eyes, and listening to the truly sweet sound of his heartbeat. "I know you. You have to let yourself feel it. It's all right. If you aren't comfortable with hearing the rest of his story tonight, it's more than okay for you to tell me, and we'll leave. We can come back another time and let him tell the rest. It's more than okay to say no. Just say the word, Remus."
"But why didn't he tell me?" he demanded, sounding on the verge of a complete breakdown if Tonks couldn't think of something, and fast, to calm Remus down now.
"Because," Tonks answered slowly, pulling apart and stepping back slightly to better meet her husband's desperate, pleading gaze that caused a pang of pity to worm and nestle its way into the core of her heart, "I think that he suspected you would react…like this," she murmured, wildly gesticulating with her hands to try to make a point, breathing a sigh of relief as Lupin nodded, "But what do you say we go back and find out? Together," she whispered, lowering her voice so that only her husband could hear, smiling softly up at him as he nodded his agreement, before turning towards Teddy, who was cautiously optimistic in watching his parents by the kitchen table, still enjoying sneaking marshmallows.
"I saw that, Teddy," Remus chuckled, much to his son's dawning horror as his father met Teddy's gaze the moment the boy's hand was halfway to his mouth with two more sticky marshmallows clutched in his hand, letting out a snort through his nose at his son's facial expression, though he did not seem at all angry by Teddy sneaking treats.
Instead, he strode over towards the table and ruffled his son's thick tuft of light brown hair that was so like that of his own that would need another trim soon.
"What do you say you help your mother carry this?" he added, picking up the tray with the tea mugs and cookies. "Be careful, try not to spill any on Grandpa's floor, Ted, and don't burn yourself, son," Remus cautiously advised, shooting him a smile that Teddy, somewhat nervously, returned.
Their son nodded, his cheerful smile slowly sliding off his face, replaced by a look of somber solemnity that almost made Tonks giggle in amusement at such a serious look on the otherwise quite jovial five-year-old boy.
This task was an important one. Carrying the scalding hot tea and cookies was a monumental task for Teddy, with the boy not wanting to spill a single drop or crumb.
It helped Teddy to forget that his Daddy was upset. Nervously lifting his gaze, only occasionally taking his eyes off the heavy plastic tray to watch where he was going as he cautiously approached the coffee table that rested in front of the couch so he could set the tray down, he swore Grandpa straightened in his rocking chair, and was looking at Teddy with equal parts amusement at the seriousness in which Teddy took his task, and wonder.
Mum and Dad trailed close behind him after a moment, holding hands and not speaking much.
Teddy set the tray down carefully before letting himself sigh in a rather overly dramatic fashion and plopping down in front of the rug in front of the fireplace, but not before taking his cup of freshly made piping hot chocolate and another handful of marshmallows he'd secretly slipped into his sweater pocket when Mum and Dad weren't looking.
Both his parents exchanged raised eyebrows with one another at their son's sneaky antics but said nothing, smiling at how he'd managed to get away with it.
Teddy was the first one to break the silence as Lupin waved his wand and Lyall's fresh mug of Chamomile tea went sailing gently through the air, towards his father.
"Did Grandma like Mr. Scamander, Grandpa?" he questioned eagerly, taking a sip of his hot chocolate and as a result, gracing his upper lip with a brand-new chocolate mustache that elicited a light chuckle from Lyall, though he made no immediate motion to grab a handkerchief or a napkin with which to wipe it off at first, finding the sight of his grandson enjoying his drink endearing.
It reminded him of Hope, how much she had loved pretty much all things chocolate when still alive.
A trait that Remus definitely inherited from his mother, Lyall thought, feeling the pang of sadness well within his chest as the memories came flitting back again.
"Not at first, no, Teddy Bear," Lyall chuckled, a faraway glint of amusement forming in his hazel eyes. "There was a um, a bit of a misunderstanding, shall we say, with your grandma's purse at the time of all things…"
"Huh?" Teddy's little eyebrows shot so far up onto his forehead that they almost disappeared into his hairline.
He pursed his chocolate-mustached lips into a thin frown as he stared up at his grandfather in confusion.
If it had been silent in Lyall's cottage's living room before, now it was even more so if such a thing was possible.
Lyall chanced a glance over at his son and daughter-in-law and, much to his amusement, both of them had equal looks of stunned disbelief on their faces.
Remus had stiffened, his own bite of cookie halfway to his mouth, and Tonks's hands were wound tight around her mug of tea, an interesting look on her pale features.
Lyall arched his brows in a challenging sort of way as if looking towards Teddy's parents for confirmation to continue his story. When his son gave a curt little nod of his head by way of response, Lyall returned the gesture.
"Yes, Ted. Believe it or not, Newt Scamander didn't like your grandmother at first, because of her bag…to say my old friend overreacted at first is something of an understatement..."
Tonks and Lupin are such good parents to little Teddy. Melts my heart lol.
Coming up in Ch. 11, the beast-loving Newt Scamander gets into a bit of a tiff with Hope over, you guessed it, her purse, which he thinks to be made of real dragonhide and as a consequence, does not take the best immediate liking towards the girl his young colleague saved in the Welsh woods...