Chapter 68: The Final Battle

"What are you writing?" Tonks asked.

As soon as they had received the message from Bill that Harry was at Hogwarts and the Order was convening, Remus had hurried into the bedroom to grab a quill and ink pot. He had also grabbed his journal, tore out a page and began scrawling a message.

Tonks saw hers and Teddy's name at the top of the parchment.

"It's a letter that I intend to burn when I get back from Hogwarts," Remus told her.

Tonks glanced over Remus's shoulder and read the line that stated: If I do not return, know that I love you with all my heart.

"Remus," Tonks breathed. "No."

Remus wrote his last line and looked up at his wife.

"Dora, this could be it," Remus said. "Dumbledore left Harry a mission and if he's at Hogwarts and calling for assistance, this could be it, the end to Voldemort."

Though his words were laced with fear, his eyes sparked with exhilaration at the prospect.

"But Teddy," Tonks said in a small voice. "What if this turns into a huge battle?"

Remus gazed into Tonks's warm brown eyes. "You know that I'm not running away again?" he asked her. "You know that I will do everything in my power to come home to you and Teddy? Harry needs help and if I can be of any aid to him then I must. If I can help Harry put an end to Lord Voldemort, I need to be there. I need to be there for you and for Teddy. I want our son to grow up in a world that's safe. Please tell me that you know that I'm not running away."

"I know," Tonks assured him. "I know, Remus. It's just if anyone should go, it should be me. You are better with Teddy than I am. Teddy needs you more. If anything should happen…" She trailed off, unable to finish her thought.

"Teddy'll need you, Dora," Remus said.

Tears began to stream from Tonks's eyes.

Remus pulled her towards him and kissed her, trying to tell her what words could not convey.

Tonks had brought color and light back into his dark, dull life. She had given him a reason to live, not just survive but truly live.

When they parted, slightly out of breath, Tonks looked Remus in the face, and he knew that she understood.

"I love you," Remus said earnestly.

"I love you too," Tonks replied. Then she rushed to a dresser drawer and pulled out a photograph, one of many Remus had taken of their family. This picture was of Teddy, with his tuft of turquoise hair, waving a fat fist at the camera. Tonks tucked it into Remus's jacket pocket over his heart. "Come back to us."

Remus could not bring himself to reply, he did not want to make Tonks a promise that he could not keep.

She squeezed her eyes tight and sighed, understanding again his unspoken words.

Remus said goodbye to Ted, Andromeda, and his father.

"I should come with you," Lyall said as he embraced his son.

"No," Remus said, pulling back from his father. "Stay here and look after them. I will feel much better knowing that you are here to protect my family."

The goodbye felt oddly final. Lyall saw in his son the bravery and resilience that his mother had before him.

Lyall tried to swallow the words that began moving towards the surface. Then Lyall considered all the things he wished he had said to his wife before she passed. What if this was his last chance to speak to his son. "I hope you know," he choked out, "how very proud you have made me all your life."

"Thank you," Remus said, taken aback.

"I love you, Son," Lyall told Remus.

"I love you too, Dad," Remus muttered.

Lyall nodded and cleared his throat loudly.

Then Tonks brought Teddy to Remus, placing him in his arms.

"Hi Teddy," Remus said softly. Teddy looked up at him as if ready to listen, as if he somehow understood the gravitas of the situation.

Remus tried to smile. If this truly was the last time he held his son, he did not want Teddy to see him looking sad. Remus brought his face close to Teddy's and stamped a kiss into his soft hair. Then he stepped away from the others so that he could have a private word with his son. "Look after your mum, will you?" Remus whispered. "She's tough, but if something happens tonight, she'll need you." Remus let out a long sigh. "I know we really haven't known each other long, Teddy, but you are the love of my life, you and your mum. Every time I look at you, my heartbreaks in the most wonderful way. That's how beautiful you two are to me. No matter what happens tonight, I don't want you to think for a minute that I'm leaving because I don't love you. No one has ever been so loved, Teddy. I'm going to fight for you and your mum so that you can have a better life." Tears pricked at the corners of Remus's eyes. "I love you forever, Son."

Remus passed Teddy back to Tonks. He let his hands linger on her during the exchange. "I should go," Remus said.

Part of Tonks wanted to whip out her wand and hold Remus there by force and demand that she go instead. But she just nodded, because she knew her husband and she knew how important this was to him. Tonks also knew that this was not just about their family. It was about something much, much more.

Remus disapparated and reappeared in the Hogshead. Then he walked through the tunnel that led him to Hogwarts.

Yet that journey seemed to be a million years ago. Pulling out the picture of Teddy from his breast pocket and showing it to Fleur seemed to be another lifetime. Kissing his wife and baby son might have been a long-ago dream.

After Lord Voldemort's voice emanated from the ancient stones of the castle, every beautiful thing seemed unable to penetrate this world of war.

Remus was surrounded by the hard and harsh now.

Now, he was leading a group of children, they may be of age, but they were children, and he was leading them onto the grounds to fight Death Eaters.

Remus recognized all their faces; they had been his students. But he could not remember many of their names. Their feet pounded into the wet grass, leaving footprints that would endure passed the time of the person who left them.

What were all their names?

Remus wanted to remember but did not want to know.

However, names suddenly lost all meaning, for spells and curses were being flung from all directions.

Every fiber of Remus's being was focused on the magic running the length of his arm and through his wand, deflecting hexes and throwing them back towards the enemy of the moment.

The group around him was thick and suffocating.

Remus did not have time to feel afraid or tired. All he could do was work on thinning the crowd around him.

Lights and sound seemed to blur together until the world was nothing more than an incoherent knot.

Then it was silent. So silent that Remus could hear the pounding of his own heart and the sweat dripping from his neck.

He was surrounded by bodies, whether dead or alive, he did not know. Remus had not used the killing curse. He had never used it in his life, but perhaps some of the others had.

Several of the students stood around them, all but three.

Two Ravenclaw boys and a Hufflepuff girl laid dead on the ground.

Remus finally remembered their names.

"Go join Kingsley's group if you're able," Remus said hoarsely to the surviving students. "I'll follow."

Several of them looked as though they might pass out from exhaustion or grief as they looked at their fallen peers.

Remus waited until their backs were turned and they stepped away from the scene.

One of the boys had fallen face first. Carefully, Remus turned him over.

A gasped escaped Remus's lips as he looked at the young man's face frozen in shock and fears. With two fingers, Remus shut the boy's eyes.

The other boy's eyes were already clenched shut. Remus used his wand to move their bodies beside a large boulder that sat at the mouth of the forbidden forest. It was not exactly shelter, but it was a place to rest, their first tombstone.

The Hufflepuff girl had fallen farther away from the boys. Her skirt had ridden up her heavily bruised legs and her arms were bent at odd angles.

Remus felt suddenly afraid to approach her form.

He thought about Tonks and the picture Ted and Andromeda had in their sitting room of her in her Hufflepuff uniform.

Through his exhaustion and raging adrenaline, part of Remus believe that he would see his wife dead on the ground.

"She's at home with Teddy," Remus recited. "They are both safe." But that poor girl was not safe. Samantha, her name was Samantha.

Remus approached Samantha's body, but before he could reach it, a blurred figure on all fours launched itself at her.

"NO!" Remus screamed and reflexively an electric current jolted from him and hit the monster between the shoulder blades. The beast fell forwards onto the dead girl.

Remus ran, grabbed hold of Fenrir Greyback, and roughly removed him from Samantha's body.

Greyback squirmed on the ground, unable to get up as if bound by invisible ropes.

"It won't hurt her now," Greyback moaned, eyeing Samantha hungrily. He did not even seem to register that Remus was there, that he had bound him. All the werewolf seemed to care about was his blood thirst.

"You will not defile that poor girl's body," Remus said, his voice surprisingly steady.

Greyback stilled and a vicious smile tugged at his mouth. He lifted his gaze to Remus who had his wand pointed at his heart.

"Remus Lupin," Greyback hummed. "We meet again." Then as if just noticing that he was bound, Greyback tried to pry himself free, but his limps were held tightly to his body. "You are the most disappointing were I have ever created. Is this how you would treat your father?"

"You are not your father!" Remus spat.

Greyback laughed. "I am more of a father to you than Lyall Lupin who will always be ashamed of you for what you are."

"My father is not ashamed of me," Remus said.

"You should have heard him," Greyback sneered. "He called our kind soulless, deserving nothing but death. But I showed him. I gave him a lesson he would not soon forget."

Remus had never asked his father how he had insulted Fenrir Greyback enough to make him retaliate by infecting Remus as a four-year-old boy. Now he knew.

Remus pushed the thought out of his mind and heart. Instead, he saw images of his father holding Teddy or laughing with Tonks. "Your punishment towards him holds no more weight."

Again, Greyback laughed. "Ah yes," he said. "I heard that your little bitch bore a cub."

A red light shot whip like from Remus's wand and hit Greyback across the face.

"Watch your mouth," Remus said fiercely. "I have known so much love in my life, something that you could never possibly understanding, something that you can never take away."

"You are still Dumbledore's pet werewolf, I see," Greyback said, his voice taking on an edge for the first time.

"I am no one's pet," Remus returned.

"I suppose you are going to kill me now," Greyback challenged. "I'm sure you will enjoy it after the life I've created for you."

"I am going to kill you," Remus assured him soberly. "But I will not enjoy it. I'm not like you and you have not created my life. My parents, my friends, my wife, and my child, they have built up my life. And you will do no more harm." Remus pointed his wand at Greyback's heart. "Avada Keda-"

Remus's words were taken from him as a horrible cold swept across the grounds. It was a cold that seemed to start in his very core.

He turned and saw dark, cloaked figures descending onto the grounds, dementors.

They were far enough away from Remus that he did not feel their full effect.

Remus was about to turn back to Greyback when he saw a figure in the distance, darting away from the swarm of dementors. The man's white-blond hair caught the light of the waxing moon. He tripped and the dementors were visibly buzzing with excitement as they swooped over Draco Malfoy in turn.

Leaving Greyback immobilized, Remus took off into a sprint towards Draco. However, as he got closer to the dementors, his footfall slowed as heavy hopelessness weighed upon him.

Did Tonks know how much she meant to him? He should have told her more. What if he never saw her again? What if he never came home? What if Teddy grew up and did not remember the sound of his voice?

Remus focused his thoughts on their faces. He thought about that look of awe that Teddy and Tonks gave each other. He thought about how much love he had for them both.

"Expecto Patronum!" Remus shouted.

Those most happy thought and love burst forth in the form of a magnificent silver wolf. The wolf charged down the dementors, circling Draco Malfoy protectively until they retreated.

Then the wolf dissolved into the night, but Remus could still feel its warmth.

Remus moved over to Draco and held out his hand to help him off the ground. Without really seeing Remus, Draco took his former professor's hand and stumbled to his feet.

"Saved by a werewolf," a harsh voice called out. "I'd rather let the dementors kiss me."

Remus turned to the speaker; he had lost his mask and Remus recognized Antonin Dolohov. Draco turned to Remus, just now realizing who had saved him.

"Draco go," Remus said through gritted teeth as he raised his wand.

Draco did not need to be told twice and he took off running.

Dolohov was quick on the attack and he did not waste time with anything less than killing curses. Remus dodged and shielded. He did not have time or energy to listen to Dolohov's taunts or fling any curses back. All Remus could do was avoid being hit. His previous fights and the effects of the dementors slowed Remus down. He could not afford to be slow. He had to get home to Tonks and Teddy. His longing to get back to his family hit him hard in the chest.

No, that was something else.

It took Remus several seconds to register that his wand had slipped from his hand.

…

She had seen his patronus, a powerful silver wolf charging across the ground. Not only did Tonks recognize the patronus to belong to her husband, but she could feel it too.

Her heavy boots hit hard against the ground as she ran to get to Remus, jumping out of the way and ducking to avoid spells and curses.

Harry's words asking her why she was not with Teddy pounded into Tonks with every step she took. The moment Harry saw her at Hogwarts, he thought she should be with her son. Had she made a mistake?

"You cannot leave him!" her mother had protested when she had announced that she must go after Remus.

"Don't you understand?" Tonks had replied, calmer than she had expected. "What kind of life will Teddy have if Voldemort wins? I have to help. I'll never forgive myself if I don't help."

"You are just one person, Nymphadora," Andromeda had returned. "What difference are you going to make? There are already people fighting."

"I'll make much more of a difference tonight than if our side loses and Bellatrix comes to call," Tonks had told her mother. Again, her voice had remained steady. She had known that her words were true, and she had seen on her mother's face that she knew it too. "Let's not be angry with each other before I leave."

"I'm not angry with you," Andromeda had said, taking Tonks's face in her hands and kissing her forehead. "You are my daughter and I love you above all things."

"You know I have to go?"

Andromeda had closed her eyes and nodded.

Tonks had passed dreamlike from her mother and then to her father, who had tears glistening it his eyes.

"I love you, Dora," Ted had choked out.

Lyall had kissed Tonks on the cheek and then handed her Teddy, who he had been hold.

"I just need a moment alone with him," Tonks had said as she moved with Teddy into the bedroom.

She had reached for the letter Remus had wrote for them before he left. Tonks crossed out her name from the top of the page.

"Dad is much better with words than I am," she had told Teddy. As she had stared down at her beautiful little boy, her own mother's words rang in her ears.

Under what Remus had written, Tonks had added:

I love you above all things. That's why I have to leave you tonight.

Mum

As Tonks continued to run through the battle, she tried to remember exactly what it felt like to hold Teddy against her heart. Warmth filled her. They could do this. They could win. They could end this for Teddy.

Tonks was almost to where she thought Remus must be when she heard a blood curdling scream that sliced through the thicket of battle.

Tonks halted and looked around her for the source of the cry.

"Let us see how long you last before you break just like your parents."

Tonks recognized the cruel high-pitched voice of Bellatrix Lestrange before her eyes found her standing over a figure slumped to the earth.

"Crucio!" Bellatrix sang with delight.

It was Neville she was torturing, although this time he did not scream, which was somehow far more unsettling.

Tonks moved towards Bellatrix and Neville, abandoning her pursuit to find Remus.

Tonks shot a stunning spell at Bellatrix's back, but it missed and whizzed over her shoulder.

Bellatrix turned around and laughed. "You made it in time for the fun! I worried you would be too busy attending to your litter."

Tonks threw several more spells towards her aunt. Bellatrix deflected all of them.

"Neville, go!" Tonks shouted. "NOW!"

Tonks knew from experience that Bellatrix was a better dueler, but she could at least distract her long enough to give Neville a chance to get away.

However, Neville did not run. He was posed to help her fight.

Together Tonks and Neville fired hexes and spells at Bellatrix in which she blocked and sent right back in their direction.

Tonks could feel the month of inactivity in her slower reflexes. She and Neville needed help and just as she thought it, magically, help came.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Kingsley and Arthur leading groups towards them.

But where was Remus? Tonks wondered fleetingly as she shot several more hexes at Bellatrix.

Bellatrix too saw the group advancing upon her. When Kingsley was in wand range, he shot several quick spells in her direction.

Bellatrix stumbled back. She made to retreat, but before she did, a flash of green light emanated from the tip of her wand.

As if in slow motion, Tonks saw the light hurl itself at Neville. Too late to do a spell, Tonks flung herself towards him, pushing Neville out of the way.

XXX

Dear Reader,

I apologize for the delay in posting this chapter. I have almost completed the story. There will be 70 chapters in total. I am hoping to have the story completed by the beginning of next week. Thank you so much for reading this far.

Sincerely,

Thora Jane