Author's Note: Hello! This one's inspired by the myth of Osiris and Isis, the Egyptian queen of the gods who hunted down the pieces of her husband's body to put him back together after he was murdered by his brother Set. In some versions of the myth Horus, their son, is born already and in others he isn't. And yes; the myth ultimately ends with Osiris realizing that he could not rule over the mortal world and becoming King of the Afterlife. But I'm going to let these two be happy, just this once. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: The following characters belong to J.K. Rowling, and this story derives from her original works, storylines, and world. Please do not sue me, I can barely pay tuition.

Hogwarts: Assignment #11, Lineage Studies Task #2, Write about someone searching for a long-lost family member

Warnings: NA

This week's AU: Egyptian Mythology or God/Goddess

No Matter How Many Pieces

She transformed from her form as a swift and powerful kite seconds before her feet touched the ground. A few brown feathers had dislodged from her wings before she had transformed and had drifted to the ground around her feet. She landed softly and immediately looked down at the baby, still strapped to her chest, quietly trying to catch her hair. She ran a hand over his own head, pushing back the curls he had inherited from his father unbeknownst to either of them.

"Well done, little one," she whispered encouragingly. It broke her heart to raise her son in hushes and silences, but she knew it was necessary if they were to have any chance to succeed—and their mission was more important. Teddy could laugh and jump and play and sing to his heart's desire once his father was back, and that would be soon.

She reached for the purse strapped to her belt to see if it was still there. She felt the last piece of her husband's heart humming and warming under her fingertips and smiled to herself.

It would be so, so soon.

Under the cover of night, she pushed her way through the shallow water and the reeds to the place where the coffin was kept hidden. She prayed every day that it wouldn't be found, but who she was praying to she didn't know. Her husband was usually the one who handled prayers; she was quite bad at sending them into the universe. She had had to become good at a lot of things ever since Peter had turned on them—on Remus, who had once been his brother. She had become good at hiding like the disgraced queen that she was, as good at mothering as she could be under the conditions, good at looking through the world, good at flying for nights on end, good at keeping an eye out, good at searching, good at healing…

Nymphadora tried to reassure herself with the thought that at least, unlike James and Lily and Sirius, the two of them weren't lost forever. The pantheon had been so deeply wounded by his treason, but not was all lost. Not for them, at least, and that had to give her hope.

Nymphadora looked around carefully one more time before lifting the lid of the sarcophagus before her. Her husband was laying in it—dead but not quite dead, alive but just barely, peacefully as if he were sleeping but bearing signs of the violence that had been done to him. She had done her best to put him back together, finding the pieces of his wounded body and broken soul across the world as they knew it, but she expected that he would always bear the scars. Still, her husband was not a vain god—even by human standards, he would be quite humble. She was sure he wouldn't mind.

The last piece of his soul hummed even more vibrantly in her pocket, as if it sensed that its brothers and sisters were close. Nymphadora rapidly obliged its call to join them. She waved her hand and brought into being a toy—a doll folded out of papyrus leaves—to keep the baby busy while she worked. Once he was happily chewing on his new toy, she knelt by the sarcophagus and reached into her pocket.

Souls were light and brighter than they seemed. She opened her hand and the piece hovered above her skin, warm and familiar to her touch like a lover's breath—which, she supposed, it basically was. Of its own accord, the soulstuff drifted away from her and towards Remus' broken body. It settled on his lips and disappeared instantly before he began coughing.

His eyes immediately widened and he shot up, as if waking up from a nightmare.

Nymphadora thought she was waking up from a nightmare. She held the baby against herself for something to do with her hands as she watched him come into being. She watched his eyes, brown and genuine and soft; and then she watched his lips part slightly in incredulity… and finally he turned to her and looked at her most astonished of all.

"It's you," he said.

"It's me," she agreed. And for the first time since Peter had tried to kill him, Nymphadora truly did feel like she was herself.

"You put me back together," he said. "You… how long did this take you?"

"It doesn't matter," Nymphadora said. Her heart could have melted out of her chest. It wouldn't have mattered if it did; he would have been there to catch it all. She wasn't alone anymore. "Darling, it's good to see you alive!"

"Alive, I… I don't know if I'm alive like this," Remus said, looking at his hands. They were criss-crossed with fissures and scars, like a vase put back together. Still, he didn't pay much attention to himself. He was looking at Teddy now, and he reached out as if to touch him. "Is that..? Some pieces of me remember seeing him. They whispered about him to the others as you put me back together. He's..?"

"Ours," Nymphadora said, her stomach clenching as she said so. Teddy turned to look at his father, this stranger he was seeing for the first time, still chewing on his papyrus doll. Remus, meanwhile, looked stunned. He reached out his hand and brushed the baby's cheeks with his fingertips.

"I can't believe you made him," Remus whispered. "I can't believe you made me."

"I told you that I would be there for you when you were at your worst," Nymphadora said. She reached out and cupped his cheek in her hand, ecstatic to find him warm and ecstatic to find a pulse in her neck and a heartbeat in his chest when her hand drifted down. "How many pieces you were broken into mattered little to me."

Shipping Wars

Word count: 978

Ship (Team): Remus Lupin/Nymphadora Tonks (Technicolour Moon)

List (Prompt): Summer Micro 1 (God/Goddess AU)