CHAPTER NINETY-SEVEN
Tonks had begun spending an increasing amount of time on her own in the nine months following her discharge (finally) from the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts the day after Madam Pomfrey had given her and her husband clean bills of health.
Though they could not say the same for the Minister of Magic's Senior Undersecretary, who had, by some freak accident, become like Remus, though Lupin swore he had no part of it, considering Tonks had watched him take the Wolfsbane Potion just a few nights ago, but Norah Jameson was nowhere to be found.
She had disappeared following the night that her mother had come to see her and had informed Tonks of her father's death, leaving not only her and Remus concerned as to the whereabouts of her friend but Ollie as well.
Between her father dying and Norah's abandonment, she spent more time alone.
It was how she was slowly but surely learning to cope with her father's death. Remus respected and understood her wishes and gave her the space Tonks craved.
They could not prove it, and no one (not even Snape knew, or so he claimed) what had happened, how Dolores Jane Umbridge was now a Wolf, but Tonks knew.
She was not a fool. She wasn't stupid. Tonks knew that Norah had been the one behind Dolores's maiming, as Norah had everything to lose, and Umbridge had been the one to take her husband and son from her.
If anyone had a right to bear a grudge against Umbridge, it was Norah.
But whether or not the blonde werewolf would return following, she couldn't say, at this point, Tonks hoped so.
If not to see her again, then for Ollie, who wasn't the same. He was broodier these days, and the current moment the two of them shared alone was no exception.
Tonks let out a strangely content sigh as she and Ollie rested in her and Remus's backyard of their simple, rather tumbledown cottage in Wales, though now that Tonks had moved in with the man following their marriage, she was slowly making improvements here and there.
Making their home more habitable and warmer. Not so desolate, and now, the Lupin family cottage resembled a place of peace. Well, normally.
Right now, however, under Remus and Mrs. Weasley's watchful eyes (Tonks thought the matronly ginger-haired witch had eyes like that of a hawk) Molly was transforming their backyard into a wide-open space with two rectangular picnic tables.
Tonks repressed the urge to snort and roll her eyes, scooting closer on the blanket she had sprawled out underneath the willow tree in their backyard, resting her head against the crook of Ollie's shoulder, and she heard her mate give out a haggard, disinterested sigh.
"Think it'll rain?" Tonks murmured by way of response as black clouds slowly sprawled their way across the late afternoon sky, threatening a deluge of a storm on what was supposed to be her baby shower combined with a joint delayed wedding reception.
A proper one, in Molly Weasley's eyes, though it was not at the Burrow like she had initially hoped for, Tonks's time was drawing even closer. Another few days.
She barely stifled her smile as a clap of thunder in the distance answered her question, and she heard Molly give a startled yelp of surprise and poor Remus was the one having to bear the brunt of calming down Mrs. Weasley's rancor at being denied the opportunity to throw Remus and Tonks the party that she thought they deserved.
"C'mon, Ol," Tonks grumbled, furrowing her brows, and having to crane her neck upward to the sky, pulling Ollie to his feet by his forearm, frowning at his resistance when he made no move to follow his best friend. "What?" she demanded, her hands on her hips. "Look, I don't fancy getting rained on, Ollie, so what's going on with you? Every time I try to talk to you, I don't get even a little bit of sass coming my way so what's wrong? You've been like this ever since Norah left—"
But Tonks did not get a chance to finish her sentence as Ollie cut her off.
"I'm fine, T, really. Nothing you need to worry about. You've got your own things to deal with," growled Ollie, and Tonks flinched away at hearing the hardened edges of his voice.
Tonks looked at her best friend with worry and concern, because, perhaps for the first time since getting Ollie back in her life, he looked away from her.
This was not good.
She settled her gaze on Remus, who had noticed his wife's worried expression and headed over.
Tonks frowned at hearing Ollie's voice. It did not sound like her best mate at all. He may have formed the words, but the tone…the tone was not Brennan's at all.
It was flat, emotionless, he wasn't as cheerful anymore. He didn't joke around as much with her or Charlie the few times Charlie had stopped by their cottage to visit Tonks.
She felt his breath hitch in his throat as without a word, without waiting for Ollie to ask, she leaned over as best she could and embraced her friend, feeling her heart rate speed up.
Worry wormed its way into her swollen stomach, and she swore she felt the baby kick. Her intestines tightened into hard coils and made her feel slightly sick suddenly.
In all the years of their friendship, Ollie, either in his impossible telepathy or not with his skills as a natural-born Legilimens, had never once hesitated to tell her anything that was on his mind.
If he were worried about Norah, then why wouldn't he just say it? Ollie never felt like he had to hide from Tonks, and these days, from Remus.
The fact that he was looking away from her now was not exactly promising, and the plain truth of the matter was that Ollie was distraught over Norah's disappearance.
And Tonks knew that no matter what she or Remus said to try to assuage the massive guilt he felt over the young blonde's disappearance, even though the fault was not his, that he would not accept it, and she was beginning to grow scared for him.
Why now? Why did Ollie feel like he needed to choose his words so carefully?
"Dora?" Lupin murmured, a note of concern in his voice as he surveyed Ollie's hardened expression, hearing how cold her best friend's response had been, even from all the way by their front porch, courtesy of his wolfish sense of hearing. "Are you….?"
But his voice trailed off in hesitation as his gaze remained fixated on Ollie.
Sensing this wasn't going to be resolved anytime soon, Remus heaved a tiny exasperated sigh and pinched at the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger before carding his fingers through his hair and joining his wife, purposefully situating himself in between Tonks and Ollie.
Ollie glanced to the side and noticed with no small amount of jealousy in his eyes how Remus's hand instinctively drifted to Tonks's swollen stomach.
Another day or two and their baby would be born. Remus spoke up again.
"What's wrong, love? Has something…happened? Is it the baby?" he urged, a note of panic and desperation in his tone. Ollie repressed the urge to snort and roll his eyes.
Lupin noticed, scowling at Tonks's best friend's sudden shift in his countenance.
"No," Tonks murmured lowly, dipping her head, her hand coming to rest on the swell of her stomach protectively, allowing Remus to rest his hand over the top of hers, and allowing a curl to tumble in front of her face, bouncing slightly as she shook her head. "Ollie and I were just having a little chat about Norah. We were hoping she would come today, but I guess not," she confessed, her tone saddened and her face crestfallen as she lifted her chin to meet Ollie's hard gaze, who was pointedly looking away from Tonks.
Tonks sighed and scrunched up her nose, trying to revert her wavy hair to its usual shade of dark maroon pink or plum, though the light brown ash color chose to remain.
As long as Norah was missing from their party, and Ollie was miserable, her hair color was not about to change anytime soon.
Tonks let out a tired sigh as her husband, ever a patient man and an optimist, spoke up after a moment of silence to gather his thoughts, his tone quiet and reserved, a note of hope laced throughout his quiet voice.
"She'll come. There's still time. There's always hope, Ollie, Tonks. Don't give up on her just yet," Lupin said in a voice adapted by confidence, something that had previously been lacking in his tones prior to marrying Tonks, though these days, as a husband and soon-to-be father, he walked taller, held himself prouder, spoke with more confidence than before.
Now as he watched Dora's friend let out a sigh, a pang of guilt wracking his heartstrings as Ollie slowly and methodically swiveled his head to the left to regard Remus in silence.
"How did you do it, Lupin?" Ollie asked, his voice coarse and rough, and sounding much more subdued than before. "I…I want to know how you did it."
Silence fell on the three of them as they sat perched on the blanket Tonks had brought, wanting to get away from the noise and chaos of the party Mrs. Weasley was throwing, and from the horrible sounds of her shouting coming from their cottage.
Tonks was able to suspect that Fred and George had bewitched a plate of food to fly and either had spilled or they had accidentally broken something yet again.
Lupin's abject look of horror quickly turned into one of bewilderment as he exchanged a worried glance with Tonks, still doing nothing to remove his hand from the swell of her stomach before the married couple turned back to see Ollie smirking at the pair of them, a strangely melancholic tinge in his sky-blue orbs, which was something a relief for both Remus and Tonks to see.
As for how the last several months of him coming around their cottage, not wanting to be alone, the look in his eyes following Norah's disappearance was usually one of nonchalance or an icy coldness.
"Excuse me?" Lupin asked politely, his tone quickly shifting into one of professionalism and pleasantries, the same manner that he used to address his students. "I'm afraid I don't understand. Did what?"
His tone may have been quite polite and friendly, non-assuming, and judgmental, however, there was no masking the look of utter shock and confusion on his face.
Remus exchanged another quick glance with Tonks and Tonks did not even have to fully meet her husband's gaze to know that he too was just as concerned for Ollie as she was.
He, like her, did not know how Ollie would take their absence once they vacated their small cottage here in Wales and were forced to re-locate to Hogwarts so Remus could acclimate to becoming the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor again and prepare his lesson plans before the start of term officially began in early September.
The simple, hard truth of the matter was, once they moved, if Ollie was unable to locate Norah Jameson and convince her to come back, then he would be well and truly alone.
Tonks squeezed her eyes tightly shut, not wanting to think what her best friend would do to himself if that were to happen. She did not think he could cope with the loneliness.
The pair of them had slowly but steadily been packing up their belongings, what they would need to move into Hogwarts with their new baby shortly before the start of the new school term here in a few more months.
They had declined Dumbledore's offer to send a carriage to collect them, choosing when September came, with their baby in tow, to ride the Hogwarts Express with the students.
She knew it was Remus's way of making up for lost time, wanting to relive old memories of happier times.
Though she hoped, now that their daughter or son was about to be born, that the two of them as a family unit would begin to make happy memories of their own.
Ollie spoke, sounding hesitant and absolutely unsure of himself. "I…want to know how you lured Tonks into your arms, Professor Lupin. How you managed to convince her to stay. If you tell me, then maybe…maybe I can convince her to come back home," he said.
His voice faltered and cracked, as Tonks and Lupin proceeded to stare at Ollie in a stunned silence as the expectant parents attempted to process what was happening here.
Ollie slowly swiveled his head to his right and frowned at the pair of his friends.
As distraught as he was over Jameson's unexpected and abrupt disappearance following Umbridge's mauling, he was growing rapidly impatient for their answers.
Seeing Tonks and Remus looking at him as though they weren't sure what to think, utterly responsive, he proceeded to let out a frustrated growl before carding his fingers through his black hair.
His hair now fully grown back after Crouch had shaved it off in an attempt to humiliate him, it stuck up in wild tufts and reminded Remus and Tonks of Harry's wild hair, the way it had a mind of its own no matter what Ollie tried to do to tame it down.
"D'you think maybe we could talk somewhere…a little more private?" Ollie murmured, trying hard not to allow his frustration and growing anger to seep into his tones as he noticed Mrs. Weasley poke her head out the front door, a scowl on her face, no doubt wondering where the proud soon-to-be parents had disappeared to again.
After exchanging a brief glance with Tonks, Remus quickly nodded his agreement, mumbling to his wife and Ollie he would be right back, grunting with the effort to get up from his spot, having to erupt into a light jog over to their front porch to give Molly a brief explanation of what was happening.
Tonks chose to remain silent until Lupin got back. Whatever kind of advice Ollie was hoping to receive, she had a feeling she wanted Remus's input more than hers.
Remus returned a moment later, looking thoroughly cross and disgruntled, having exchanged a few short but curt words with Molly, running his fingers through his hair.
"I think we can manage a few minutes alone. Perhaps ten to fifteen minutes, at best. She says don't take too long. She labored over the chocolate cake in the kitchen that truly looks exquisite and wants us to be the first ones to taste it, Dora, since you and I are self-confessed chocoholics, " Lupin joked weakly, a light, pleasant smile over his face, though it quickly faltered as he noticed Ollie abruptly got to his feet, and pulled away from Dora.
Ollie nodded, a smile plastered on his face, though it was evident to both Remus and Tonks that it was forced.
He continued to put on the fake smile to hide his pain at Norah's abandonment of them from his friends. From Lupin, Tonks, even Sirius now.
The reason he did this was he did not want to worry them. He knew they fretted over them enough as it was, however, the pain was becoming too unbearable for him.
It hurt him even now to fake his smile, the depression sitting behind the mask and his heart prayed that someone noticed, that his two closest friends in this world, now that he and Remus had come to a mutual understanding all those months ago, would understand and offer him advice on what the bloody hell to do about her disappearance.
"Ollie." Tonks's soft voice reached his ringing eardrums, tearing Ollie out of his haze of dark thoughts. The thought that tormented the forlorn young man today was,
Why? Why had Norah disappeared? Did she truly think that what she had done to Umbridge was worth banishing herself in exile for? It wasn't.
There was no one more who deserved what the Wolf within her had done to her.
Had he done something, said something to her that would have caused her to become offended and take off like that?
He swallowed down hard past the lump in his throat and motioned with a wave of his arm for the two of them to follow him into the forest behind their simple cottage.
"Follow me." Ollie chose his words carefully, speaking with great care so as to not come across to either one of them as demanding or hurt.
After overhearing a light series of squabbles amongst Lupin and Tonks, the natural-born Legilimens was relieved to hear them follow behind him.
What he was about to ask them, he didn't want anybody who had gathered her at Mrs. Weasley's party for the two of them to overhear a word.
Quite simply, if this were to get out, it would be the death of him. He did not stop walking until he led them to a clearing in the woods, waving his wand and conjuring a cold stone bench for the three of them to sit on, saving Tonks the trouble of sitting on a blanket on the ground, given how pregnant she was.
He snorted as she lifted the hem of her long black maxi dress and sandwiched herself between her husband and best friend, noticing her feet were bare, the vibrant dark purple toenail polish standing out against the barren earth. "Your feet, aren't they cold?" he murmured, jerking his head to her feet.
"Mmm?" Tonks blinked owlishly up at him, looking up at Ollie before glancing back down at her feet. "Oh. That," she chirped, waving away his concerns, her brows furrowed in contemplative concentration as they spoke to each other Ollie's preferred way. "No, they're fine. They aren't cold, Ol. Shoes these days hurt my feet, Ollie."
Tonks grimaced at how swollen her feet looked these days, letting the long skirt of her maxi dress fall over her bare feet as she rested her hands nervously in her lap.
Ollie merely grunted by way of response as Tonks lowered the hem of her long dress and toyed with a wavy lock of her hair, still its light brown ash color. He sighed.
He missed the maroons and dark plums that she tended to favor when happy, and Ollie hated to see his friend so morose and miserable, so crestfallen and depressed, knowing that he was the sole cause of it all.
Tonks continued the incessant twirling of her lock of wavy hair in her thumb and forefinger to twirl, seemingly needing a minute to gather her thoughts, what to say.
"You like her, don't you? Norah. Is it…is it love?" Tonks asked, her gray eyes taking on a sudden mischievous sheen as they glinted coyly at her best friend, who blanched.
"Who—who said anything about love, Tonks?" Ollie growled rather bluntly, standing up from his spot on the bench he'd conjured, perhaps a little too quickly and revealed his alarm at his friend's use of a word that invoked this old forgotten emotion.
He spat the word as though it were poison that had settled on his tongue, though when he tried to speak, it felt like there was a gag on his mouth as Ollie stammered.
Tonks said nothing in response, merely proceeding to smile serenely back at Ollie as he regarded his best friend nervously, suddenly not at all sure what it was exactly that he wanted Tonks and Remus to help him with. Lupin jumped to his wife's defense.
"You will have to excuse Dora, Ollie. She is…a romantic witch in nature and assumed over the nature of your relationship with Miss Jameson, please forgive her," Lupin said hastily, fixing his wife by his side with a rather pointed stare as he frowned lightly.
"Apology accepted," murmured Ollie with a begrudging little grunt before looking towards Tonks directly. "As for Norah…I can't find her, but even if she were to come back, I don't think she wants to talk to me, or...be with me, in that way, though we never really discussed it. I…I think that I hurt her, you guys. I—I don't understand!" he cried, feeling the onset surge of another one of his panic attacks coming again. "What did I do?!? Have I done something, said something? Why does she despise me so?" Ollie growled, carding his fingers through his hair and bolting from his spot on the bench. He looked quite livid.
Tonks swallowed hard.
To see Ollie like this was very, very new. Her friend had never fallen for someone before, at least not to her knowledge, and knowing there was little she could say over Jameson's disappearance did not sit well with her.
Ollie's voice was rough and coarse as he squeezed his eyes tightly shut, grimacing, flinching as he moved away from the pair of friends, wondering if he had just made a huge mistake in confiding in them both when they had their new baby arriving soon to worry over.
They did not need to be concerned with the likes of him and his problems.
Remus and Tonks watched. Back and forth he went. Back and forth. Repeat his restless pacing a few more times, until Lupin felt quite confident the younger man's agitated movements were going to cause permanent indentations in the woodland floor.
A new pang of emotion flooded through Ollie, and he flinched as the cool April breeze wafted its way through the forest's clearing and seemed to circulate around him, the brilliant sun that poked its way through the trees' canopy now shone brightly with new warmth that had retreated behind the cluster of thunderclouds that still threatened a storm.
Ollie was unable to repress the violent shudder that sent a convulsion clawing up and down his spine and through the salted wound of his heart. Norah was gone…
He felt his heart sink, somehow, he had foolishly gotten it into his head that she might have shown up today.
If not for him, then for Tonks.
She had become a good friend to Dora over the last nine months, and at least she was answering her letters. Or at the very least, keeping them. He didn't know for sure, as Tonks wasn't saying much on that regard.
He had been hoping Norah would show up today, of all days, considering Mrs. Weasley had been planning this delayed wedding reception/baby shower for months, wanting to wait until closer towards Tonks's due date to throw it.
Ollie had hoped Norah would have shown herself, despite how cold he had acted towards her that night when Professor Snape had refused to let her in to see Umbridge.
He had told her that she was wrong in wanting to do this. Ollie had tried to get Norah to come away, to come with him to check on Tonks that night, but she hadn't.
And now look. This was all his fault. He should have…he should have done more. Anything he could have thought of to get her to come with him. Forced her, even, if that's what it took. But he had not done it.
"She doesn't like me. She—she hates me. I saw it in her eyes," he growled.
"You don't know that, Ollie," replied Remus rather warmly, speaking more openly for the first time since Tonks had posed her question to the Legilimens. "Even for you as a Legilimens, to try and guess exactly what Norah was thinking that night would have only led you to madness and ruin. Perhaps it's better that you do not understand her motives."
At Lupin's last remark, Ollie couldn't help but feel another pang of guilt and worry that felt like a stab to his heart with a rusty dagger.
Norah hadn't exactly outright lied to him that night before he had left her alone down in the dungeons, when he had asked her if she would be fine on her own, left alone to her own devices with Severus.
But she had been trying to avoid expressing something to him. He just did not know what or why that was, and the ambiguity of not knowing was driving him mad!
Ollie furrowed his dark brows in a frown and opened his mouth to speak, though Tonks's soft voice cut through his swirling haze of dark thoughts as she interrupted him.
"How do you know?"
Ollie blinked, slightly surprised by the bluntness of Tonks's voice and the question she had just posed to him, but he was not about to lose his resolve. He couldn't.
Not in front of these two, not after collectively everything they had gone through together.
Ollie let his head hang in shame as he collapsed back onto the stone bench and sandwiched himself in between Remus and Tonks, allowing a lock of his black bangs to hang in front of his eyes, grateful at least, that he didn't have to look at them during.
"I just do, okay, T? She hates me," Ollie snapped, replying to Tonks through gritted teeth, his head resting in his hands, ignoring how his best friend flinched away in hurt surprise at hearing the hardened and clipped edges of his normally quiet and kind voice.
Tonks scowled, though she didn't make a comment on his attitude, for which Ollie was grateful for.
He tried to shoot her an apologetic look with his eyes, trying to find some way to silently beg with his best friend to accept his silent apology for his harsh words.
She shot him a look that suggested she did not want to hear, nor did he need to say it.
Tonks let out a tired sigh. "Has Norah ever once told you that she detests you, despises you, or hates you in any way, Ollie?" Tonks asked, her voice plain but cautious.
"No," Ollie replied begrudgingly after a long moment to gather his thoughts.
"Then you don't know if she does or not, Ol," Tonks stated with a casual shrug of her shoulders, wincing, a pained grimace contorting and twisting her pale, pretty features as she rose to her feet, a hand over her stomach. "Not until you…ask her."
Tonks fixed her best friend with a pointed stare that was not quite a glower, suggesting she was not angry with Ollie for the way he was behaving regarding the young blonde witch's disappearance, but all the same, the look she was giving him suggested to the former Slytherin that what she was about to say to him was important.
"She'll show. Listen to me, Ollie." Tonks was regarding him with such a serious look and yet, there was something else in his best mate's expression he couldn't identify. "There are going to be some things that Norah isn't…comfortable talking to you about, and the same thing goes for you reading her mind without her knowing about it," she added, almost as an afterthought, crinkling her nose in disgust. "If you ask me, Norah had a good reason for leaving us, and when she's ready to come back, she'll talk to you. I think we're just going to have to be patient. Whatever was going through her mind that night that caused her to leave, it was enough to make her uncomfortable. So uncomfortable that she didn't decide to tell you she was leaving. If I were you, Ol, I'd let this go and let Norah come to you in her own times. She'll come. You'll see," she whispered to Ollie through gritted teeth.
Her voice was alarmingly positive, though Ollie sensed something was wrong.
But before Ollie could comment on Tonks's sudden shift in countenance, she added gently. "Trying to hunt her down like you've been doing and forcing her to talk is only going to drive a wedge between whatever relationship the two of you have, whether as friends or more. I know that you care about her, Ol, you don't have to explain yourself to Remus and I. You might not want to hear this, but I think your best bet is just be patient. Let Norah come to you, Ollie. Don't go looking for her if she doesn't want to be found, Ol," Tonks whispered, glancing sideways at her husband out of the corner of her eye, who quickly and silently nodded his agreement, gripping onto her arm in a tight vice grip.
Ollie sighed. It wasn't necessarily the answer he wanted to hear, but as always, he knew Tonks was right. His best friend was ever scarcely wrong, if at all, really.
"You're right," he grumbled darkly under his breath, rubbing one of his arms nervously and shrinking into his black woolen sweater as much as he could for warmth.
For it only being April, it was bloody freezing this evening as the sun dipped below the horizon, and he was amazed at how Tonks could wear a flowy long black short-sleeved maxi dress and go barefoot in this kind of weather, though he guessed her hormones having to do with the nature of her pregnancy had everything to do with her behavior.
Ollie let out another tired sigh and carded his fingers through his thick tuft of short black hair, feeling at least somewhat better after talking to Tonks and Remus than he did before. He had always trusted Tonks in the past, and he would trust her now.
If she said that Norah would come, then he had to trust that the werewolf would.
After all, he had thought he had made it perfectly clear that he'd never hurt Norah on purpose, that he would not force her to do anything that she was not comfortable with.
There must have been a reason why she had fled from them, from me, he thought, grinding his teeth, and squeezing his eyes shut, trying not to think of it anymore.
He just needed to trust Tonks's advice, that she would come to him when ready. And he would be there when she did.
A noise coming from Tonks that sounded like a groan pulled him out of thoughts of the young blonde werewolf, startling him.
He felt his head whiplash sharply upwards so fast that he felt a neck muscle pull, sending a white-hot flare of pain up his neck and around the shell of his right ear.
It hurt as hell, but the Legilimens ignored the pain, having eyes only for her.
Ollie frowned, pursing his lips into a thin line as he noticed how pale Tonks was looking, continuing to keep her eyes squeezed shut, watching as her breathing slowed.
"T?" he murmured, closing off the gap of space between him and Tonks, draping one of his arms over her shoulder. "Are you…is it….is it time?" he murmured, his gaze flitting to Remus, who was looking even paler than Tonks and even more terrified.
"I don't…know," Tonks admitted through gritted teeth. "Maybe," she confessed, her voice cracking and faltering as she let out a shudder as a painful spasm wracked its way through her entire body, traveling down her spine.
She opened her eyes and blearily lifted her head to look at her husband, whose face had paled, the color draining from Remus's already pale face with an intense realization. His wife's time had come.
The baby was coming, the likelihood of it making its arrival into the world tonight increasing as Tonks's pains in her stomach grew worse.
Lupin was the first to recover, one hand around his wife's waist, the other on the small of her back as he whispered soothing nothings into the shell of her ear.
He held out his hand for Tonks to take. Ollie watched as Tonks started to take Remus's hand, with the intent on Lupin leading her back to their cottage and get everybody out of their home that had come for the shower so Molly could help deliver their baby, assuming this was it and not a false alarm, though as Tonks took a half step forward, a sharp, twisting pain contorted through her stomach.
Flinching at the intensity of her sudden contraction, clutching her abdomen as she doubled over in agony, Tonks tried to catch her breath, it was lost in her moan of pain as she clenched her teeth shut. Tonks wanted to rebel against the torment of her body.
To shove the pain to the back of her mind and allow her Auror training to take over but could only let an abrupt cry escape her throat, not able to focus on anything.
Not on her husband by her side in an instant, hollering for Molly, though Ollie and Lupin both fell silent at the sight of a Patronus's faint glow whizzing through the air past them, stopping in front of the entrance of Remus and Tonks's cottage, where the partygoers had all gathered in a circle, horrified looks on their faces at the grim message.
Snape's baritone voice filled the air, his normally calm composure now rattled.
Hogwarts is threatened. Lord Voldemort has attempted to siege the castle in search of Harry Potter. Any able-bodied man or woman willing and of age to fight and bear arms should come to the castle at once to protect that which we cherish.
Voldemort has threatened to kill every man, woman, and child that dares to conceal Harry from him. He's given Harry Potter only one hour.
Come. Come at once…
The Patronus's message ended, the silver doe dissipated, and all at once there was a flurry of activity as everyone there Disapparated to heed Professor Snape's call to arms.
Ollie blinked owlishly at the spot where Snape's doe Patronus had been only seconds ago.
Tonks's sweet voice cut through the stunned trio, breaking the silence, tension and fear in her voice as it cracked and faltered, like her will.
"Y—you should go, Remus. Harry…Harry who needs you, I—I will be fine, Rem. Molly—Molly will be here at home with me, Remus," Tonks gasped out.
Both Remus and Ollie swiveled their heads to regard Tonks with incredulous looks on their faces, equal looks of aghast horror at what she had just suggested to him.
Tonks's voice was flat and emotionless. She knew that Remus wanted to leave, to go be by Harry's side and protect the place that had become a second home to him.
But…she would be lying to herself if she did not admit she didn't want him to go.
Lupin blinked, still bracing Tonks against the pain of her contraction, feeling helpless and shocked that his wife would even suggest such a thing on the night their child was about to be born.
"No," he growled angrily, though even as he spoke the word, a heavy pang of guilt rested in his heart, though he swore he caught Sirius offering him a curt nod of reassurance as his best friend turned on the heel of his boot and Disapparated.
Feeling a surge of adrenaline and fear course through his veins, Remus continued, the edges of his voice hardened and clipped.
"You truly think I would leave your side during your labor, Tonks? I can't. I won't. I'm not missing the birth of our child, so do not tell me again to go. Harry will be fine..."
Though Ollie could tell Remus's voice lacked the conviction to sell the last part of his argument he really wanted to make. There was no telling if the boy would be fine or not.
"But you…" Tonks's voice trailed off as another spasm worked its way through her, and after a few moments, her muscles relaxed, and she was able to stand upright again. She did not speak again after that.
It took them what felt like an eternity to make it back to the front porch of their cottage, where Molly was quick to usher Remus and Tonks inside to get her upstairs.
Tonks, however, sensed that Ollie was not about to follow them inside. "Ollie?"
When she turned back around, Tonks almost immediately wished she hadn't.
She did not like the darkening look of anger, antagonized hurt laced throughout the man's cerulean blue eyes, currently burning bright with anger and a fierce determination, a smoldering, fathomless rage that she was not sure she had ever seen before in Ollie.
"I'll go," he announced grimly, a somber expression on his face as he watched Tonks's face drain in color. "I'll protect Harry if I can."
Ollie jutted out his chin slightly defiantly and fixed Tonks with an icy cold stare.
"Norah's not coming back, T. I don't think she will," he growled, knowing he had been a blind and bloody fool to even hope she would.
He turned towards Tonks and Remus, fixing Lupin with an unusually grim expression that even Remus wasn't sure he liked to see on Dora's best friend's face.
"Since you will be staying behind," he murmured, bowing his head as a sign of utmost respect for the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor, effective in September, "I will do what I can to help protect Harry in your stead. Take care of T, you hear?"
"Ollie, no! Please don't do this! Don't go!" Tonks begged tearfully through salty, briny tears, swallowing down hard past the lump in her throat, feeling hot tears marring her vision as they slid without warning down her cheeks. "It's—it's a suicide mission!" she cried, unable to stop her tears from falling.
Tonks bloody knew what would happen if Ollie went to Hogwarts in his emotionally compromised state. There was every possibility that he wouldn't return.
Lupin, sensing the unspoken tension between the two best friends, took a cautious half step toward Ollie at the same moment he backed away, and that was then that Remus knew.
There was no changing the man's mind. But still. He had to try. "Won't you stay?" He asked, unable to keep the note of desperation out of his quiet, panicked tone.
Tonks already knew as Ollie shook his head that he wasn't going to listen to Remus or her.
Not this time.
"I'm sorry, T, but I have to go," he murmured, blinking back tears of his own as he leaned forward, pressing a gentle but chaste kiss to both of Tonks's cheeks.
He didn't care that he tasted the salt of her tears as they ran down her cheeks. Ollie let out a sigh, brushing back a lock of her hair, which still retained its light brown ash color.
If this was to be the last time he would look upon his friend, he wanted to make it count. Ollie pursed his lips in a thin line as he straightened his posture.
"Don't walk away from us, Ollie. Don't do this," Tonks begged, sniffling once or twice, shuddering as another painful spasm wracked her body in painful waves, unrelenting. "You swore to be our sides for the rest of our lives, Brennan. Well. I command you to come back to us both. Come back to us. Our son or daughter needs you in their life. You...you swore you would be our kid's uncle, Ollie. Don't make me force you to make the Unbreakable Vow," she growled angrily, narrowing her eyes. "Stay here, Ollie. Please don't leave me..."
She whispered her last words, crying silently. Begging him.
But it wasn't going to work. Not this time.
Ollie nodded, bowing his head in acknowledgment of his best friend's words.
Ollie held out his hand for Remus to take, who looked stunned, though accepted it after a second of hesitation, faltering in his indecision.
"Take good care of Tonks, Professor Lupin."
And without another word, ignoring Tonks's pleading cries to stay with them, Ollie turned on the heel of his black boot and Disapparated off of their property.
Ollie was smart enough not to look back.
A/N: Okay, so I know this is deviating from canon timeline here in terms of when* the Battle of Hogwarts happened in DH, and Teddy's birth, but since this is an AU, I figure I can tweak it as needed, and for dramatic purposes, BoH is happening in April, and while Tonks/Remus are not attending the Battle during the thick of the action because reasons, that Remus is not about to abandon his wife during labor or miss the birth of his child, that doesn't mean the infamous battle won't be featured in my story.
Ollie is a character who has really grown on me, so I've decided the BOH will be told from his POV's next couple of chapters, but first, coming up in the next chapter, our favorite Auror has a baby to deliver, and Remadora are about to become parents, ready or not. Stay tuned! :)
