Chapter 18
Disclaimer: As much as I wish I was making money off this story, I am not. The characters you recognize belong to JKR. This little bit of plot belongs to me. If I ever become filthy rich, I might buy the Harry Potter world from JKR, but only if she was dumb enough to wish to sell it. She's too smart of a lady for that, sadly.
Tonks knew Remus was right. Hermione needed a female ear. However, Tonks didn't feel like she was the right one to give it. She didn't know Hermione very well, to be honest with herself. She knew Ron much better. Of course, Ron had actually been in England, unlike Hermione.
Tonks apparated to the small flat Remus had mentioned and found Hermione collapsed on a heap near the floor. The two little redheaded girls were sitting in their mother's lap, trying to soothe her.
"Hermione?"
"Tonks? What are you doing here?"
"Remus said you probably needed someone to talk to. So here I am." She looked down at the girls. "Do you want me to take them back to Remus and our boys? I have side-by-side clearance."
"Would you?" Hermione asked gratefully. "Girls, would you like to go play with a new friend?"
"Who?" Molly asked.
"My little boy's name is Sirius. He's a little bit older than you, but I think you'll like him," Tonks answered.
"Kay!" Molly cried.
Jane looked more skeptical. "Who you?"
"This is a friend of Mummy's, Jane. You can trust her," Hermione soothed. Now, she is going to have to hold both of you tightly and then she will appear at her house. Okay girls? So she needs you to be very still."
The two girls obediently walked over to Tonks and took one hand in one of their own. Tonks apparated to her home, where Remus stood waiting for her.
"Hello, girls. I'm Remus Lupin. It's very nice to meet you."
"This is Jane," Tonks replied, pointing to the blue-eyed one, "and this is Molly."
"Hello. Let me go get Sirius."
Remus disappeared, and baby James began to cry from his playpen. Tonks went over to him and picked him up gently, beginning to rock him in her arms. "Shh, it's okay. Mummy's here."
"Baby sad," Molly said smartly.
Jane looked at her twin. "Babies always sad."
Tonks smiled. "Well, babies can't talk, so James cries to get my attention. It's how he tells me he's scared or hungry or sleepy."
"Oh," Jane replied, sounding much like her father.
Remus came down the stairs with Sirius. "Look, Sirius. We brought you friends."
Sirius stuck out his tongue. "Eww. Girls."
Jane stuck her tongue out in return. "Boys gross."
Sirius held out a large red ball. "Catch!" he cried, then threw it at Jane's face.
Before Tonks could realize what her son had done, Jane caught it. She first looked astonished, then very smug.
Remus laughed. "Keeper genes, I suppose, son. You're in for it."
Sirius looked astonished. "Wicked!"
Before long, the three children were sitting on the floor playing ball, and Tonks had satisfactorily calmed down James. The little tyke was always hungry, either for his bottle or his mother's attention, it seemed.
"They're precious, aren't they?" she asked her husband.
"Yeah. Does it make you want a girl?"
"Oh yes. Besides, she'll have two older brothers to make sure her boyfriends are up to par."
Remus laughed. "Or to make her life miserable."
Tonks smiled. "Maybe a little of both, then. Here, take your son. I've got to go back to Hermione."
Remus took the sleeping infant from his wife. "Just listen, I think. I'm sure there's a reason she went all emotional."
"Oh, there always is a reason women go emotional, Remus," Tonks sighed. "It's always the man in her life. I had too many cups of tea with the elder Molly Weasley because of you."
"Sorry," he muttered, kissing her on the forehead. "I was stupid."
"Yeah. Didn't realize what you had, eh?" she leaned in and kissed him full on the lips. "Lucky I loved you too much to become too offended."
"Lucky Lupin, huh?"
"Yup. You may be lucky again tonight." And with a saucy wink, she disapparated.
Hermione had been waiting very patiently for Tonks to arrive. When Tonks finally did arrive, she landed right on top of the young mother.
"Oh, sorry about that, Hermione," Tonks said, jumping off of her. "I was a bit distracted."
"Professor Lupin?"
"Oh gag! That makes him sound like an old fart. No, call him Remus. He's not even a professor anymore. But yes, Remus was the reason. Damn near distracting having him near me."
Hermione smiled. "So you can't really talk about man problems?"
Tonks raised an eyebrow. "I'll have you remember I had to basically pound sense into his head. 'I'm too old. I'm too poor. I'm a werewolf.' Blah, blah, blah. Same crap over and over again. Stupid git. Like that mattered. Thank god for the Weasleys. Molly was a shoulder to cry on, even if she did try to force me on Bill for a while. And Arthur finally got the prat to realize that no matter what objections he made, I wasn't going anywhere. So I am fully qualified to talk about man problems, Hermione."
Hermione smiled. "I'm sorry. I forgot."
"It's okay. So, what happened?"
"It just hit me. Jane was so funny around him. And then Ron pointed out how much he's missed. He doesn't know anything about his own little girls. It was so awful." She began to cry again. "Oh, Tonks, I was so awful and so wrong."
"Shh," Tonks said, patting Hermione on the back nervously. "You were scared, I'm sure."
"It's just, I went to go tell him, Tonks. I did! But he was visiting Ginny and his dad. It was awful. He had to keep watching the healers. They kept trying to sneak Ginny away for some freaky tests. He was so stressed and acting so…"
"Mature?" Tonks finished.
"Yeah. Not at all like the Ron I knew. So I was scared. I was afraid he couldn't handle it. What if he snapped like the rest of his family?"
Tonks shook her head. "Well, tell him that. I'm sure he'll get over it."
"Oh, but what was worse was that Jane and Molly started hitting him. They thought he was why I was crying."
"Well, he was wasn't he?"
Hermione paused, her crying desisting for a moment, tears still staining her face. "Well, yeah, I guess. He was so heartbroken, though."
"They are his family. It'll get worse before it gets better, Hermione," Tonks said honestly. "Ron is going to go into his take-charge mode. He isn't the Ron you remember. He may only be twenty, but he acts older than me. Of course, sometimes I do act younger than my age, but that's just to hack Remus off. He swears it makes him feel old. I like him angry though. He's incredibly sexy."
"Yeah," Hermione said, her eyes misting over. Tonks supposed she had a few memories of Ron royally hacked off. "Well, I feel better." She paused. "Do you think he'll fight dirty for custody? Prof—Remus said he'd win if he pressed for full custody."
Tonks thought for a moment. "Yeah. Stupid conservative ministry. Of course, I'm not surprised. They tried to keep listing Sirius with the surname Tonks for forever. If they would recognize our wedding, we wouldn't have had to sic Moody on them." Tonks smiled. "They quickly changed his name to Sirius Lupin. We didn't have a bit of trouble with James."
"I can't lose my babies." Hermione sounded near hysterical. "They're all I have."
"Ron wouldn't do that. But he's going to want at least half. You'd better be ready to negotiate with him."
A/N: I know, Tonks and Remus are naughty. They're practically begging me to write their own story. Lucky Lupin and all that…they tickle me.
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