Chapter One.

"Are you sure this is such a great idea, Remus? I mean, they've never met me before!"

Remus sighed. "Tonks, they'll love you. I know they will!"

"But, Remus-" Tonks complained, but was cut off by her boyfriend.

"Tonks, trust me!" he demanded. "They'll love you."

Tonks sighed. "You better be right," she muttered.

"I can't believe dad's bringing his girlfriend home!"

"Matt, stop complaining about it!" Abby ordered her older brother.

"How can I, Abby? It's dad we're talking about! He hasn't had a date since mum died." Matt pointed out, making Parker turn pale.

Parker had always been blaming himself for his mother's death six years previous. And he always got nervous and upset whenever some one brought the subject up.

"Don't start, Matt." Abby said.

"C'mon, Abbs! You know you can't stand being calm about this!" Matt insisted. "What about you, Luke? What do you think about this?" he turned on his younger brother.

Luke sighed. "I can't stand it." he said truthfully.

"Thank you!"

Abby rolled her eyes and sighed. "Fine. I can't stand it either."

Matt grinned triumphantly.

"But, what are we going to do about it? Dad's going to be home in less than two hours with her."

"I have an idea," Matt declared.

Tonks took a deep breath. "Are you sure about this?" she asked for the hundreth time.

Remus rolled his eyes. "Yes."

Tonks groaned as he took a handful of floo powder. He stepped into the fireplace. "Number eight, Rosemary Drive!" he exclaimed and was gone. Tonks sighed and did the same.

The two soon found themselves in Remus Lupin's living room. Tonks stumbled out of the fireplace and Remus caught her as she tripped. He laughed lightly.

"KIDS!" he called up the stairs. "COME DOWN HERE!"

He walked back towards Tonks. "Don't be shy, have a seat!" he directed.

Tonks smiled slightly and took a seat. "I'm just nervous!"

"Don't be." Remus said and kissed her forehead.

"Now wasn't that just a lovely thing to come down to, Abigail Lilian?" Remus and Tonks both jumped as they looked behind them to see Matt and Abby walking down the rest of the steps they had left to descend.

"Oh yes, Matthew Sirius," Abby replied.

"Haha, very funny," Remus said. "Where are Luke and Parker?"

"Lucas Peter is trying to get young Parker Ryan out of his closet." Matt informed his father. "At least that's what he was doing three hours ago after you told us the great news."

Remus rolled his eyes. "I'll be right back." He raced up the stairs.

Matt and Abby took seats on the couch across from the chair Tonks was sitting in.

Tonks smiled nervously at the two teens. "Hi," she said.

"Hello, Miss Tonks!" Matt exclaimed.

"And how was your day?" Abby asked polietly.

"Um, just fine; and yours?" Tonks replied anxiously.

"Oh just dandy!" Abby answered.

"That's good..."

"Tonks is your last name right?" Matt asked.

"Yes it is," Tonks replied.

"Why do you go by your last name and not your first?" Abby asked.

"I'm not too fond of my first name." Tonks answered truthfully.

"Why not?" Matt asked.

"Well, would you like to go around with the name Nymphadora?" Tonks replied with a question.

Matt thought. "Not really."

"But you could always use a nickname," Abby suggested. "Like Nymph, or Dora, or Nympha."

Tonks chuckled. "Yes, you have a point there..."

"Yeah, I know."

They sat in an awkward silence for a little longer.

Then Tonks got real nervous and tried to start up a conversation. "So, what is taking your father so long?"

Matt and Abby looked at her with distaste.

"Parker doesn't like meeting new people and often takes to hiding in the closet for a long period of time." Matt answered.

"Oh, I see," Tonks replied, getting more nervous by the second.

"Come on, Parker! Stop being ridiculous!" Remus whined, trying to tug his six year old son out of the closet.

"Oh, so now he's ridiculous to you?" Luke said, leaning against the wall.

Remus looked up at his son and glared at him. "You, go downstairs," he ordered.

Luke sighed and rolled his eyes. "Whatever you say!"

Remus sighed this time as he watched his fifteen year old boy turn and walk out of the room. He turned back to the task at hand. "What's wrong, Parker?" he asked.

"I don't wanna come out!" Parker exclaimed, holding tightly on to a coat sleeve.

"Yes, I've gotten that part. Why don't you want to come out?"

"BECAUSE!" Parker shouted.

Remus sighed. "Alright, so you just want to sit in there, holding on to a coat, forever?"

"YES!" Parker screamed.

"Ok, suit yourself. You asked for this..." Remus said and took the coat off the hanger and picked Parker up.

"NO! NO! NO!" Parker yelled and began hitting his dad's chest and squirming.

Remus sighed and carried his youngest child downstairs, where his three eldest and Tonks were sitting.

Oh thank God, Tonks thought to herself.

"Sorry I took so long; Parker didn't want to budge." Remus apologized and handed Parker to his sister.

"I tried!" Parker whispered a little too loudly.

"Sh," Abby ordered.

"What was that, Parker?" Remus asked.

"I didn't say nothing!" Parker defended.

Remus sighed.

It was going to be a long evening...

And a long evening it was.

Awkward silences often filled the room and Tonks found herself receiving glares from each and every one of the kids. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that she wasn't welcomed in their home.

Dinner was never a thing to be quiet in the Lupin household, so Remus found himself shocked at the fact that his children were hardly even talking.

"Try and start a conversation," he whispered in Tonks's ear.

But her eyes just widened. "Are you kidding me? The last time I tried to start a conversation, I was just met with glares all around!" She whispered back.

Remus smiled. "I'm sure that's not the case." he assured.

Tonks sighed.

"Sit up, Luke," Remus ordered. Luke was slouching down in his seat.

At first he ignored his father, but then after a quick moment, he sat up straight.

Remus gave him an odd look. It seemed as if he was doing something. And it was at that point, he was completely sure that his kids were up to something.

"Luke, can I talk to you for a moment?" Remus asked, and not waiting for an answer, stood up and walked out of the kitchen; Luke close behind.

"I don't know what you kids are up to; but I advise you to knock it off!" Remus demanded quietly.

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Luke defended.

Remus scowled at his son. "Don't-" he started but was cut off by a scream coming from the kitchen. He sighed and grabbed his son's arm, pulling him into the kitchen.

There was Parker, smiling big. There was Abby, happiness etched all over her face. There was Matt, trying as hard as he could to hold back a laugh. And there was Tonks, trying to get something out of her shirt. Luke started shaking, trying to hold back his laughter.

"Tonks, are you okay?" Remus asked, rushing to his girlfriend's side.

"There's a...a..." she faded away, not able to finish the sentence.

Remus tried to calm her down, without any luck. Finally, a large spider crawled out of her shirt and onto her shoulder.

Remus picked it up. It was a daddy-long legs.

"Ew!" Tonks shrieked.

"Calm down, Tonks!" Remus demanded. He walked over, opened a window, and threw the spider outside. Then he turned and faced his four kids. He crossed his eyes.

"What?" Matt asked innocently.

"Don't play innocent with me!" Remus barked.

"Remus, really, don't," Tonks demanded. "It probably just crawled up my shirt."

"Yeah, you're probably right." Remus took a deep breath and let it out. "Let's just hope my kids weren't the reason for that."

Tonks nodded. The three oldest kids rolled their eyes.

"Shall we finish our dinner then?" Remus asked, while scowling at his four children.

The rest of the night went on without any disruption. If you don't include water balloons being thrown; a bucket of honey being "mysteriously" poured over Tonks's head; and of course, we can't forget when Tonks suddenly became a goat.

Well, let's just say, that by the time Tonks was ready to go home, Remus was pretty furious with the kids.

While Remus was taking Tonks home, the four of them gathered in Luke's room.

"How bad do you think we're gonna get it?" Matt asked casually.

"Well, I wouldn't doubt it if we weren't allowed to see daylight for the next few weeks." Luke said.

"Yeah, we're in for a rough night," Abby added.

"I told you I tried!" Parker piped up from his sister's lap.

"Oh, don't worry about that, Park." Matt said. "You did your best."

Parker smiled big. "I did, didn't I?"

His older siblings laughed.

"Yeah, Parker, you did your best." Abby said, taking him in for a hug.

"Well, I'm glad to see you guys can still have yourselves a big laugh." Said Remus from the doorway.

The kids jumped and turned around, thoroughly startled.

"Uh, hey, dad!" Matt exclaimed.

"We need to talk," Remus said, walking in and sitting in the chair at Luke's desk. "You know, kids, I can understand why you don't like Tonks."

"Now what gave you that impression?" Matt asked, faking a hurt look.

"I think the spider, water balloons, honey, and the turning her into a goat pretty much covered that."

"The whole goat incident was an accident, dad!" Matt defended.

"Yeah, he was trying to turn her into a sheep," Parker said.

"Thanks, Park," Matt said sarcastically.

"Yup!" Parker exclaimed.

Remus sighed. "This is hard on you kids, isn't it?"

"What, the talking to you?" Matt asked.

"No, Matt, I mean me bringing home Tonks."

"It's not that, dad," Abby said.

"Then what is it, Abby?" Remus asked.

She sighed. "It's the fact that you started dating." Remus nodded to signal he understood. "I mean, have you forgotten mum?"

Remus closed his eyes. Once he opened them, he took Abby's hand and replied, "Of course I haven't forgotten your mum. I could never forget your mother. She was my first love. And I loved her more than anything in the world. She meant everything to me. And then we had you guys. And that's when my life turned upside down. I had to deal with changing diapers, screaming babies, changing diapers, running around the house trying to find a bottle, screaming babies, changing diapers, and did I mention changing diapers?" He smiled along with his children. "No, really though. Having the four of you did change my life. But it was never in a bad way. Not even when I got letters from Beauxbatons saying that Matt was getting into trouble. Or when Abby threw a frying pan at Luke. Or whenever Luke got sick and threw up all over the new carpet. And not even when Parker fell of a broom because some one thought it would be funny to watch a three year old go flying through the air."

Matt smiled. "Sorry about that, Park."

Parker giggled.

"Even without your mother her, guys, I still think about her every day of my life." Remus continued.

"Then why do you have to date?" Abby asked. "I feel like you're replacing mum."

"We all do," Matt added.

"I kind of got that impression," Remus smiled slightly. "No one could ever replace your mother. Tonks is just this girl that I happen to be madly in love with now. I'm sorry if that offends you in anyway. But you can love again."

And with that, Remus Lupin walked out of Luke's room, leaving behind four very confused and distressed children.