110
The ghost of the Wolf was more silent than the grave her spirit arose from, staring with heavily lidded eyes and a slack mouth.
Her emaciated, sunken-in cheekbones accentuated the skeletal look, and, in her gaze, Tonks's mind became robbed of emotion.
Instead of running or screaming for someone to help her, Tonks stood more still than the mossy statue in the heart of the graveyard, the very same one that Ollie had been 'laid to rest in' years ago.
The Wolf's corpse beckoned with fingers that rapidly faded to only a suggestion of form.
Tonks felt her legs no longer taking direction from her own mind as she passed by each stone slab without taking account of the path, until she stood in a place that was unrecognizable.
She didn't recognize this graveyard, though she knew from the statue just up ahead of her, from what Professor Dumbledore had told her and the other members of the Order of the Phoenix, this was the very same location where Lord Voldemort had risen to power and regained his physical body during Harry Potter's fourth year, when the Triwizard Cup had been enchanted into a Portkey, bringing Harry here to meet his then-supposed doom.
But he hadn't.
But why am I here? Why has she brought me here? Tonks thought wildly.
She watched, wide-eyed, horrified, as Norah's figure became more solid again, but this time, her skin bore many white and pink scars, thick and jagged.
Tonks began to think new things.
I want to stay with her here forever.
The thought became a desire and her insides lit with an intensity to make it possible, and she let out a yelp as she felt a jinx, followed by an immediate, horrible stinging sensation hit her squarely in the chest and she crumpled to the dirt, leaves and mud meeting the side of her face, and her knees curled up like an unborn.
It was then that she heard Remus shouting her name, over and over, though as she blearily lifted her head and tried to focus her gaze more than a few feet in front of herself, she wasn't able to.
She opened her mouth to speak, but nothing would come. Her husband's voice was frantic and scared.
Helplessness wracked her entire body as a cloaked figure shrouded in a thick black cloak Apparated in front of her and Norah Jameson's corpse.
Tears poured relentlessly from the edges of her eyes as the towering figure lowered the hood of its robe, and Tonks stared straight into the face of that Dark wizard, that demon which she never hoped to see again in her lifetime.
She looked into the cold, listless eyes of Ollie's father.
"Jack…" she croaked, her voice hoarse, shaking her head in both anger and pleading.
Don't. She begged Ollie's father as the man slowly raised his wand and pointed it squarely at her chest. Tonks squeezed her eyes shut.
This was it.
But the moment Tonks tried to crawl on her stomach out of the way, she couldn't. He had hit her square in the chest with a full Body-Bind Curse.
Damn you. Damn you to the seven hells below, Brennan!
Tonks screamed insults, hurling them at the Death Eater in her impossible telepathy, out of pain, out of disgust, and from all the ugly things in this world that by rights, should not exist, now that Harry Potter had defeated the Dark Lord tonight.
In her mind, Tonks was screaming, swearing, mustering all the curse words and foul language in the recesses of her mind that she could spit at him, trying to claw out relentlessly as Brennan strode towards Norah's deceased but reanimated corpse and kissed it, and that in it of itself was enough to spur on her nausea.
Even when Tonks begged, pleaded for Jack Brennan to stop this, the man only closed his eyes and the edges of his lips curled upwards into a twisted smirk, as if her very screaming, and the feeling of the object of his son's affections' lips pressed against hers, dead though she was, had become a melody to his ears and other senses.
And then her own nightmare woke her up. Tonks slowly stirred, waking her consciousness as she heard baby Teddy start to cry, no doubt woken up by his mother's scream, slowly blinking her eyelids, feeling as though she had just laid down to sleep and now, not even an hour into retiring for the night, she was already being woken up, though the corner of her lips curled into a smile.
She could think of no better reason than to be roused from her sleep than to take care of her precious newborn little angel.
Tonks twisted her neck and groped for Remus behind her, finding him sitting up, his tuft of light brown hair tousled, the circles prominent under his eyes, already holding Teddy.
Remus's back rested against the headboard of their bed and he was sitting propped up against his own pillow.
He hadn't even noticed she was awake until his wife gingerly leaned over and took Teddy from the proud father so she could breast feed.
"I know what it is that he wants," she whispered soothingly.
Her husband favored silence as an apt response, seemingly too tired to respond, not even when Tonks touched the bottom of his eye, moving towards his lip, though Lupin slowly swiveled his head to regard his wife, one of his hands slipping through her maroon-colored wavy tresses, thinking how soft it felt, like silk beneath the webs of his fingers, though he let out a light groan as he pressed his lips into hers with closed eyes, thinking that since the birth of Teddy not even a few hours ago, he had never really gotten to kiss her in congratulations for giving him such a beautiful gift.
A beautiful son. Her love. His family. When he pulled apart, feeling no response from her, his eyes grew dim with concern.
"Are you all right, Dora?" he asked, no small amount of concern laced throughout his tone. "What….is there something I can do?"
Tonks shook her head slightly, shifting Teddy slightly in her arms and wincing at the soreness in her breasts, though she knew she would be sore for quite some time now.
"I…had a dream," she whispered hoarsely, her voice faint.
Lupin nodded in understanding, though, he quickly became convinced that his wife was not telling him everything, and his suspicions were confirmed when Tonks lifted her head and slowly swiveled her head to look at Remus.
"What's…what's wrong?" he pressed with a broken voice, not liking the look at all that his wife was giving him, a look tinged with uncertainty and melancholy. "What was your dream, sweetheart? Do you want to talk about it?"
Tonks remained silent for a moment, though after an agonizing second or two that was entirely too long of sitting upright in their bed in a thick, uncomfortable silence that lingered between the proud parents, she nodded.
"Ollie, h—his father, Remus. He—he stopped by tonight while you were in the bedroom with Snape helping heal Norah's wounds, a—and I made him leave, but he's coming back to see him in two days, Remus. I—I should have told you sooner. The man is a monster, Remus, we cannot let him hurt Ollie any more than he already has, sweetheart! He doesn't deserve this in his life!" she croaked hoarsely, realizing she was panting heavily now, and she did not protest as she felt Remus's arm drape around her shoulder and pull her close, allowing her to take comfort as she nestled her head in the crook of his free arm, the other carefully holding onto baby Teddy, but gently, as though his son were made of the finest china, and he seemed almost afraid to handle him.
Lupin slowly lifted his head and his gaze locked onto Tonks's, his light brown eyes brimming with a look that his wife could only describe as sympathy.
"It was just a dream, Dora," he murmured, giving her a weary smile.
His voice was soft and hoarse from lack of sleep, though his smile intensified as he heard baby Teddy coo in his sleep, and feeling the baby's tiny fingers curl around his pinky finger, holding onto his father's finger like he were his lifeline, though Remus remained silent and contemplative.
After a minute or two of this, he broke the silence. "He's coming here?"
Tonks mutely nodded. "Yes," she whispered, feeling a fresh wave of tears come as she trembled slightly in her husband's arms, feeling rattled.
She couldn't remember the last time her dreams were this…vivid.
The memory of the details of her dream elicited a shudder down her back, as she swallowed, thinking of the almost possessive way Jack Brennan had kissed Norah's corpse in her dream, and she almost gagged at the very thought.
No. I—I can't share that with Remus. It's too graphic. Too much, she thought.
Tonks swallowed, brushing her bangs off her forehead, wincing as her fingers came away sticky with sweat, and she turned towards Remus with a furtive, guilty look etched on her face, reaching over to help hold Teddy, leaning down and nuzzling her nose to Teddy's little perfect button nose, perfectly boopable.
Just like his father's nose. He's perfect in every way possible, she thought, allowing a soft smile to flit across her features.
Tonks was briefly tempted, though resisted the urge, not wanting to wake their baby.
"Did I wake you up, sweetheart? I—I was having trouble getting our son to sleep," Remus asked, suddenly looking guilty, though whatever for, Tonks didn't know.
She blinked, startled at the question, and shook her head.
"No, but you should have," Tonks murmured, grunting with the effort to sit upright in their bed and gingerly taking Teddy from Remus's arms, reaching up a hand and brushing a lock of his dark hair off of his forehead. "Rem, you don't have to get Ted every time he wakes. I'm more than happy to do this."
But Remus brushed away Tonks's concerns with a curt wave of his hand and turned towards his wife with an unusually stern look etched on his lined face, though Tonks thought as he glanced down at the sleeping, swaddled form of their son, that he looked years younger than his actual age of thirty-six.
"None of that, Dora, sweetheart," he murmured, whispering it into the shell of her ear, before moving his lips and pressing them tenderly against her cheek, his hand coming up to cup her face, brushing a lock of her hair back behind her shoulder where they both knew it belonged. "You need to rest. Besides," he added gently, the beginnings of a soft smile tugging at his lips, "we both know Teddy likes me better anyways," he joked, kissing her on the lips.
Lupin felt his smile immediately falter as he saw the sheer panic on Tonks's much-too pale face, and he shifted around into Tonks's line of sight.
As gently as he possibly could, Remus captured Dora's face in his hand and tilted her chin slightly upward, forcing his wife to meet her gaze.
"Ollie's father, love," he murmured. "I can tell it's on your mind. Your nightmare. Tell me about him. What's the man like?"
Tears began to fall from Tonks's terrified eyes as visions of the nightmare she had just endured flitted through the front of her mind, seeing, and remembering the almost possessive way Jack Brennan held onto Norah's waist.
No. She couldn't tell him.
Remus didn't need to hear the details.
Tonks swallowed and gave her head a curt little shake to clear her mind of her dark swirling thoughts as visions of Jack Brennan suffering a violent, bloody death, each one worst than the last, flitted through the forefront of her tired mind.
"H—he's a bastard, Remus. We—we cannot let him anywhere near our son. Or Norah or Ollie. I—I don't want to give you the details, b—but in my dream just now, Jack came after Norah, Rem. He's g—going to come back, Remus. He's a man of his word," she managed to gasp out, well aware she was panting heavily now from the exertion of her nightmare, and she forced herself to take several deep breaths, in and out.
Repeat this process a few more times as she shakily knit her fingers together, weaving them in between her knuckles and biting her bottom lip. Tonks felt the fear rise up within her, thinking there was little she could do.
She could not refuse Jack a second time, though she'd be damned if she were to allow the man to step one threshold over their front porch into their home.
"I—we—we can't stop the man from visiting Ollie, Remus. I don't have that right to deny a father to see his own son for a second time, b—but…I didn't let him in tonight because… Ollie's suffered enough for one night. I know he's worried sick about Norah…"
Her voice trailed off and she choked back a hoarse sob, squeezing her eyes shut as visions of her mauled and mangled corpse, that horrible hallucination from her nightmare came into her line of sight.
No matter what she did, she could not seem to shake the images from her mind. Tonks slowly opened her eyes and swiveled her head to look at Remus.
"I didn't want Ollie to suffer anymore than he already has. He should hate him, Remus. His father is a monster in every literal sense of the word and his timing tonight couldn't have been worse for Ollie, after what he's been through, Remus, a—and I don't know what to do!" she exclaimed, blinking back tears.
Lupin furrowed his brows into a frown, not liking how pale Tonks was looking. He said nothing, at least not at first, and merely proceeded to rub Dora's shoulder, creating a pattern of small circles as his hand drifted down her back, the movement eliciting a shudder of pleasure from his wife.
"What exactly did he do?" he asked, his curiosity getting the better of him, noticing how hard his wife was biting down on her bottom lip, so much that it bled.
Tonks paused for a moment, stroking the top of baby Teddy's hair.
So thick and luscious like his dad's, she thought lovingly, then forged ahead, forcing herself to take a deep breath and continued, breathing an almost defeated sigh, her eyelids closing for a moment.
"He should hate him, Rem."
"Dora." Remus pleaded, raising his brows and looking over at his wife, noticing how painful it was for her to speak of memories of knowing Ollie's father that she would rather soon forget, her breaths coming in short, spurting gasps, promising the sobs that threatened to turn her voice to a mere whisper.
"I—I tried to—to put Jack Brennan away in the back of my mind. Were that I could take my memories of that man and put them away in a Pensieve and never return to them again, I would. To make him a distant memory."
Their son woke up nestled in Tonks's arm, sensing his parents' closeness. Teddy cooed and squirmed in his swaddling in happiness, causing both Tonks and Remus to glance down at their newborn son in Tonks's arms and smile.
Though the moment was short-lived as Tonks's smile faltered and she sniffed once or twice, blinking back a fresh onset of tears as she thought of Jack.
The sound of her husband's quiet, reserved voice broke her out of her thoughts, desperate, pleading with her to look at him.
"Dora. Please tell me."
Tonks glanced down at her son once more, not sure at all where to start.
"I—I don't know where to start," she managed to gasp out hoarsely.
"From the beginning," Remus advised gently, leaning over, and planting a gentle but chaste kiss on her cheek. "I need to know what Ollie's father is like, Dora. If the man is as volatile and dangerous as you say, then we have every right to refuse him entry into our home, but nor do I think it wise to allow Ollie to be alone with him. There is no telling what he might do to him if he is as bad as you say he is, but in order for me to understand, I need to know what happened. Please," he begged, seeing Dora lower her eyes as his tone became urgent.
Lupin had to make her understand that he would not be mad at her.
Their baby stirred in Tonks's arms, and she shifted Teddy to the other side, exposing herself again so their son could nurse one final time before she would have to get up and lay him back down in his crib, where he would hopefully go to sleep and allow the exhausted new parents to get some rest.
Although Lupin had watched Tonks feed their son earlier, he now felt somewhat bashful, though he was not seeing any part of Dora that he had not already seen before, however it did not change his viewpoint that he thought he should look away to preserve his wife's modesty at such an intimate act.
Tonks settled Teddy to her breast and then stared past Remus at a spot on the wall.
"Okay," she whispered dryly at last, her eyes never leaving the wall.
Her tone conveyed nothing of whatever emotions were waging war within her mind. And so, Tonks launched into a detailed version of what happened the summer before she and Ollie turned twenty, and she was visiting the Brennan family manor, a few days after the passing of Ollie's older brother, Dominic…
Tonks's fingers twitched and curled into fists at her side as the staircase ahead of her were twisted in a perfect spiral, like one of those Muggle slinky toy coils that had been pulled from each end.
Each stair of the Brennan family household's grand staircase that led to the second and third floors of the manor were likely a deep walnut, but with the thick layer of undisturbed dust it was hard to tell.
She furrowed her brows into a frown, not realizing she had taken a lock of her rich vibrant red hair into her mouth and was chewing on the end.
What's Tandey getting up to these days? She couldn't help but wonder.
It looked as though the Brennan's family house-elf, a female elf, quite kind and a little too eager to please, had barely cleaned since they'd gotten the news.
The place had fallen into disarray since Ollie's older brother had died.
Circumstances surrounding Dominic's death were proven suspicious.
Ollie had forbidden Tonks from coming over to see him while Ministry officials looked into the matter of his brother's passing, though no evidence was produced that anyone within the house had a hand in the young man's death.
A complaint of the stomach, they said, though there were whispers, she knew, that the young man, not even twenty-six yet, had likely been poisoned.
As Tonks cautiously ascended the stairwell, careful not to trip, she realized with a sinking feeling in the pit of her churning stomach, there were no lights on in the corridor.
Tonks shivered, unable to repress the tremor that wafted down her spine as she looked to the left and right, hoping to spot any sign of Ollie. He hadn't quite been himself since his brother's death.
He mourned Dominic, in his own way, and Tonks knew the man needed his space, but that did not mean that he had to go through it entirely alone.
So, she looked for him.
She frowned as near the edge of the hallway and off to the right, towards where she knew Dominic's room had been, just across from his younger brother's, she heard a pair of male voices coming from inside the closed door.
And they weren't shy about it, either.
Tonks froze, stilling her movements to allow the voices to waft towards her eardrums, to see if she could discern any of what was being said. By then, she recognized the owner of one of the voices.
A deep voice calloused by rancor and utter rage. Livid and taut.
Jack's.
Tonks jumped, stifling her squeak of terror as she heard the unmistakable clanging of what sounded like an empty goblet being thrown across the room.
She felt her fingers dig into the palm of her flesh, piercing her palms hard enough to cause the skin to crack and bleed as she rested her hand along the wall for support, a sudden chill stabbing as a prick of fear at the feeble muscle that pumped and beat blood to the very arteries in her veins, though at the moment it felt as though her heart stopped.
Hiding, she deduced, was futile.
Squeezing her eyes tightly shut, Tonks risked creeping forward another inch towards the closed bedroom door of Ollie's now-deceased older brother to see if she could make sense of just what the bloody hells is going on tonight.
"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?" came the roaring baritone of Jack Brennan, as Tonks had anticipated, but it still caused her to wet her lips with a dry tongue. "YOU CLAIM TO BE MY SON, BUT YOU MURDERED YOUR OWN BROTHER! YOU ARE NO SON OF MINE, BOY!"
Tonks could faintly make out the sound of Ollie's twisting and snarling among Jack screaming at him, and she winced as the sheer force, the power behind the back of Jack Brennan's hit no doubt pelted Ollie across one of his cheeks, as she heard the fumbling of her best friend as he whimpered and fought back tears.
"No, Father, what are you doing? Please! No, no, no, stop! I—I didn't kill…Dom…"
Ollie's furious cry rent the air, and Tonks's heart wrenched and rattled against the confines of her chest as he let out a desperate wail, and she kept her eyes squeezed shut as she swore she heard one of Ollie's ribs crack.
Tonks drew in a breath and cracked open the door, not at all prepared for the violent scene in Dominic Brennan's bedroom that assaulted her eyesight.
Jack Brennan jolted another swing of his foot right at Ollie's stomach, where Ollie knelt on the floor of his brother's bedroom in a crumpled heap.
The sound of crunching ribs shattered the air, causing Tonks to cringe the moment the pained scream left her best friend's cracked and bleeding lips, followed by a guttural cough that sounded like Ollie was choking on his own blood, and Tonks knew if the man didn't get medical help soon, well…
Tonks didn't want to think what might happen, hardly able to bear the thought.
She shook her head to clear it.
No! Don't think like that, she scolded herself. Ollie. Ollie, focus on me. I—I know it hurts, but listen to me, it's—it's going to be just fine, you'll see. I—I promise. I'm going to look after you, Ol.
Tonks felt her face drain of color as she caught a glimpse of the red that streaked from Ollie's mouth, wincing as her best friend turned his head to the side and spat out a mouthful of blood, and her blood boiled within her veins.
Tonks was trying not to stare at his nose, but she kept finding her eyes had diverted to it. One moment they were obediently on his red-rimmed eyes and the next they were rested on the bloody mess that had been a perfectly ordinary nose only hours before.; so ordinary in fact that she could not recall what it had looked like.
His left eye was horribly swollen, he can't be seeing a thing out of that and he won't for a while yet. His face still bore congealed blood and his clothes were an utter mess.
Then he tried to say Tonks's name, his cracked lips failing at the first syllable, but he didn't need to, she was already on her feet and running, desperate to get to Ollie before his father could bloody kill him.
"MR. BRENNAN! STOP!" she bellowed, and as Tonks barreled in through the now-open bedroom in her haste to appear at her mate's side, she almost tripped over herself, and would have done so too, had Ollie not bolted to his feet, broken, bleeding, and near tears, to catch her when she almost fell.
Thanks, she offered in their usual way. He could only nod, too weak to even respond, and Tonks grunted with the effort to drape Ollie's right arm over her shoulder, supporting the bulk of his weight with her own body.
We're going home, Ol. I'm getting you out of here. You're staying with me. I don't give a damn what my parents say, I'm not letting you stay with this man anymore.
Tonks, by this point in her life an excellent judge of another's character, could tell that her unexpected entrance in the middle of whatever this was, had succeeded in pulling Jack Brennan out of his fury, leaving him beet red in the face and stunned at his bastard son's best friend's unannounced arrival.
"Tonks," Jack responded in a cold and clipped tone, seething. "This is an insult. This is a moment between father and son that needs hashing out, my dear. You should go."
Tonks bristled at hearing Ollie's father's calculating words, knowing that if she had been a fraction of a second too late in interrupting, the man might very well have succeeded in killing his only remaining living son and her best friend.
She felt her head whiplash sharply upward so hard that a muscle in her neck pulled, sending a white-hot flare of pain up her neck and around the contour of her right ear.
She winced but fought back the urge to let out a cry.
"No, Jack," Tonks heard herself growl in a voice that did not entirely sound like her old self at all, and she was pleased to see, if nothing else, the shift in her tone almost sent a chill crawling underneath Jack's skin. "You're humiliating your son. My best friend."
She watched as Jack Brennan's lips pursed into a rigid, thin line. Tonks swallowed hard and blinked back tears.
How could you, Jack? She asked him.
She knew his father was a Legilimens too, just as Ollie was. Tonks felt like in the moment, upon seeing Ollie so broken and beaten, that she would not give this man in front of her the further courtesy of ever speaking physically to him again, and Tonks aimed to make sure Ollie's father knew it.
How could you, Mr. Brennan? Why did you?
Tonks watched angrily, a muscle in her jaw twitching and behind her right eyelid as well as Jack Brennan swallowed, offering no defense for his actions.
He looked to the side to catch Tandey's, their female house-elf's, quick evasion of eye contact as the tiny little creature in her dirtied and stained tea cozy nervously wrung her fingers together, her overly large ears drooping.
Tonks turned away, effectively turning her back on Jack Brennan, and in her own way, she supposed, the last time she would ever set foot in the manor.
How could you blame Ollie for what happened… she continued in her efforts to reach Ollie's father, keeping her gray eyes narrowed in incense and despair as she locked her jaw, shifting Ollie's weight slightly as she helped her friend to stand and walk, though his gait was all wrong and wonky.
She winced.
Tonks hoped that Ollie didn't have any broken bones, and she let out a shaking sigh as she walked away from Mr. Brennan, with little Tandey at her heels, feeling as though her lungs had turned to stone in her chest, hoping that for the first time in the man's life, shame would rain down on him like an Unforgiveable Curse that would shield the very sunlight from the bedroom.
Which she thought made sense, considering she was helping Ollie leave the room, and Ollie was the one good thing to come out of this damned family.
The Brennan family's source of light. A man of kindness and warmth.
Not at all like his father.
"C'mon, Ol, let's—let's get you out of here and cleaned up. Just look at you. You're a bloody mess, Ollie," she murmured lowly under her breath as the pair of the stumbled towards the stairwell. Tonks glanced down at Tandey, who was tugging on the hem of her blue jeans and offered a little nod.
"I—I didn't k—kill Dominic," Ollie managed to speak up hoarsely, causing Tonks to wet her lips, though she stopped as the all-too familiar twinge of melancholia stabbed through her memories the last time she came here to visit. The news that Ollie and his father had received that his brother had died.
Ollie, sensing Tonks's piercing, questioning stare, ducked his head and turned away, though with Tonks maintaining her vice grip on the man's shoulder and waist, he wasn't going anywhere anytime soon she didn't want.
Tonks felt her heart give a painful little lurch as she realized there was so much heartbreak, so much sadness in Ollie that she had never seen in him before, and she wanted him to share it, to tell her the full truth of what happened, so that she could understand his hurts better and help the man.
Tell me, she urged, sensing that Ollie lacked the strength to talk.
He…he killed himself, T. I swear I had nothing to do with this. Dom didn't want the life that Father had mapped out for him, s—so he…he stole poison from Professor Snape's stores last term, brought it home and hid it. I—I found it last week in our kitchen cabinet when I—I went to ask Tandey something, a—and the vial was empty when I opened it. The only thing he left behind was a copy of The Tales of Beedle the Bard with a handwritten note signed in my name, left on the page that started the story of The Hairy Heart. Father believes that I—I killed him.
Even in their impossible telepathy, Tonks heard his voice start to crack and falter, and Tonks swore she heard her heart break.
In the middle of his confession, Tonks gently took Ollie by the scruff of his neck and rested his head on her shoulder, having to lean up on her tiptoes to do it before hearing Ollie sniffle once as he fought back a broken, mournful whine.
When he cried there was a rawness to it, like the pain was still an open wound. The sobs were stifled at first as he attempted to hide his grief, then overcome by the wave of his emotions he would break down entirely, all his defenses washed away in those salty tears.
When he at last turned his face to Tonks he was a picture of grief, loss, devastation. It was the face of one who had suffered before and didn't know if he could do it again.
Then, just when she thought the breakthrough would come and he would trust her with his vulnerability, the shutters would come down, his emotion walled off behind a mask of coping.
He would just wear it until everything was right again, he didn't know another way.
Tandey the house-elf offered her master what Tonks could only presume coming from the little creature was meant to be a hopeful smile, though in actuality, on the house-elf's somewhat drooping and grotesque face, it came across as more of a pained grimace as Tandey clutched onto Ollie's leg, with Tonks supporting Ollie, and Tonks closed her eyes, feeling relieved at least, that she didn't have to tell the elf where to go.
Home, she thought, feeling the air brush against her cheeks, and whipping her hair off of her face as they Disapparated from the Brennan family's estate.
I'm taking you home, Ollie.
By the time Tonks finished her story, Teddy was fast asleep in his mother's arms, oblivious to his mother's hurts.
Remus turned over the details of her story in his mind, thinking how it all made sense.
Ollie's skittish behavior in the Forbidden Forest, his general reluctance to be around other people most times.
"I—I had no idea, Dora," he whispered hoarsely, and Tonks, to her credit, seemed to find her words spent, as she said nothing in response and merely rested her head against Lupin's shoulder, nestling in the crook of his arm. "How has he managed all these years?"
Tonks had gone through hell and back in order to try and ensure her best friend had the best life possible after such a miserable upbringing at his father's hand, and before she drew away from him, Remus softly touched her arm, and looked into her eyes.
"Thank you for telling me the truth, sweetheart. When his father returns, I promise, we'll have words with him. Together. I won't let that man into our home and anywhere near our son, Tonks, I promise. They can talk out on the porch or in the backyard if they like, if the man insists on speaking with Ollie, but under our supervision. We won't let him hurt Ollie again, and I don't want him laying a hand on Norah, either."
She nodded silently in agreement.
Lupin drew in a breath and continued. He had intended to bring this up later, but since they were already awake for now, it seemed as good a time as any to address it with his wife.
"There was an idea I had earlier that I wanted to run by you. I was going to wait, but now seems as good a moment as any to discuss it, since we're awake. I—I want them to stay here. For the remainder of the summer, and if you're agreeable to it, love, I would like for Ollie and Norah to house-sit for us while we're away at Hogwarts. They're welcome to stay with us during the holidays. I know they don't exactly have a place they can call home, either one of them."
Tonks slowly lifted her head as she processed her husband's words.
"I—yes, of course, I—I can think of no one better to watch this place while we're away," she urged. "Thank you, Rem," she whispered, acknowledging that, without Remus's help tonight, there was every likelihood that Norah would already be dead.
Remus's kind and adoring smile washed over Tonks. "It's I who should be thanking you, Dora," he murmured, smiling at his wife affectionately, leaning and kissing her temple tenderly.
He loved Tonks more than anything else in the world, and now his son. He would watch over both of them through the night.
He'd watch over them forever.
As Lupin lay awake in bed long after Tonks had fallen asleep with their baby nestled comfortably in her arms, his family by his side, Remus felt the beginnings of hot tears prick and sting at his vision.
Lupin closed his eyes and offered up a silent prayer to Merlin and James and Lily and his mother to help him protect Tonks, Teddy, Ollie, and Norah.
He would give his life for his new family if that were what it took, though for now, he was content to hold his little family in his arms, smiling through his tears.
Remus had never known such happiness before in his desolate life.
Tonks and Remus, with their newborn baby son, tucked safely in his mother's arms, fell fast asleep wrapped in each other's arms, into a dreamless sleep, both of them with the ghost of faint smiles across their faces in sleep.
Glad Tonks and Lupin get a moment to breathe after everything that's been going on the last few chapters!
Sad about Ollie's dad and what happened to his brother, but I think it's wonderful that Tonks is such a good friend to a broken man whose heart has been ripped from him several times over and put back together again.
The next chapter checks in at the aftermath of the Battle of Hogwarts with two of my favorite Professors (minus Remus, of course! ;).
Stay tuned for more! :)
