Author's note: This scene's been coming for a while. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the canon, world, and characters portrayed below and you can tell I'm not J.K. Rowling because #transrights

Warnings: NA

No High Horses In Sight

"Hey stranger," Remus said cheerfully when he opened the door to his son. It took him a second to register what was off about Teddy: he was so inexplicably pale that his natural freckles were standing out across his nose and cheeks. Otherwise, he looked normal enough; turquoise-haired, brown-eyes, and lanky as if he was perpetually coming off a growth spurt.

"Teddy?" Remus asked.

"Hi," Teddy said. "Umm, hi Dad."

He wrapped an arm around Remus and Remus hugged him, though he frowned at how stiff Teddy was.

"There he is," Dora said cheerfully, turning out of their kitchen and facing the door, beaming at their son. "Merlin, we don't see you nearly enough what with all those shifts at St. Mungo's you keep picking up…"

"Sorry about that," Teddy said, hugging his mother mechanically. She also sensed that something was off and frowned, eyes darting from Remus to Teddy and back again. She pushed a strand of pink hair behind her ear. Today she'd chosen to let some of the grey shine through her favourite colour, which made her braid seem to shine, strangely enough.

"What's going on, sweetheart?" she asked. She turned to Remus as if to demand an answer.

"I was just in the process of asking," Remus said.

"Yeah, I… I need to talk to you guys," Teddy said. He cleared his throat.

"Are you alright?" Dora asked. Her hand went up to Teddy's forehead almost automatically, as if checking for a fever. Teddy sidestepped her.

"Yes, Mum, I promise I—I'm fine, I…" Teddy chewed on his lip. "Is the kettle boiled?"

"Of course," Remus said. "I'll go make us all some tea, alright?"

"Alright," Teddy said dryly.

He went about it as quickly as he could, worry racing through his mind and clouding it with worst-case-scenario after worst-case-scenario. Teddy was standing nervously, twisting his hands together, but Dora was sitting at her favourite spot on the couch, watching him like a hawk, as if one well-placed look could squeeze the truth out of him. Which, to be fair, it had done in the past.

Remus passed Teddy his cup and gently steered him so that he sat on the armchair. He joined Dora on the sofa and gave her her cup before taking a sip of her own.

"I assumed nobody needed milk or sugar," Remus said.

Dora shook her head, still not taking her grey eyes off of Teddy, and Teddy mumbled something about how the tea was perfect before taking a sip, as if he needed to prove it.

"Alright then," Remus said, trying to take on that calm and diplomatic tone everyone said he had, though his son was making him nervous. "Teddy, tell us what you need to talk to us about."

Teddy opened his mouth and then bit down on his lip before trying again.

"Vic… Victoire is pregnant," he said.

"Oh," Remus said.

"Oh wow!" Dora said with a little gasp. "I didn't know she was seeing someone."

The words left her lips and Teddy got paler.

That was when Remus understood because he too had once upon a time paled so incredibly quickly.

Remus cocked his head to the side and gave his son a look. Teddy looked away and scratched the back of his head.

"How is she doing?" Dora said. "How far along is she? Is she alright, I hadn't heard about this from Bill…"

Remus made eye contact with Teddy and arched an eyebrow.

"We had coffee just this Thursday and when I asked him what was new he said 'oh nothing,' can you believe him?" Dora scoffed, nudging Remus. "And meanwhile, he's going to be a grandfather…"

Remus cleared his throat and gave Teddy an even more pointed look. With every word his mother said, Teddy looked as if he wanted to disappear or perhaps melt through the armchair he was sitting on more and more.

"Umm," Teddy said. "That's… that's because Bill and—and Fleur, oh God Fleur… Umm, they're only finding out tonight too, because…"

Teddy suddenly looked spaced out. The risk that he would vomit on their floor became suddenly real to Remus.

He turned to look at Dora and nudged her arn. That's when she seemed to catch on; eyes widening and mouth dropping.

"Oh my Merlin…" Dora suddenly said. "Teddy, are you..?"

"Yeah," Teddy said. "Yeah, I… I kind of did that."

"You and Victoire?" Dora asked, her eyes wide as if she'd been let out of a surprise party. "You and Victoire?"

"No, no, it wasn't, we weren't together—Merlin, I would have told you if we were together," Teddy said.

"Well…" Remus trailed off. "I mean, you were. In some capacity, unless this is a very grave misunder..."

"Yes, okay, we were—but not like that," Teddy said. "It was… it's a lot of work, being a first year Healer, and we lived together so it just kind of happened once and then it happened again and it kept happening and we just kept ordering take-away when it did and… wow, I don't want to talk about this with you guys."

"We don't particularly need to hear about the details," Remus assured him. "We're here now."

"Teddy," Dora said, clucking her tongue. "Teddy, why are you coming to us with this, looking like a kicked puppy?"

She pushed herself up and crossed the living room, gathering her son in her arms.

Teddy exhaled and shut his eyes, head leaning against his mother.

"Teddy," she said again, clucking her tongue. "Teddy, love, are you alright?"

"Yeah," Teddy said. "Yeah and Victoire too, she's okay. She's okay and we're… she's going to keep the baby and we're going to raise her, or him, or—well, them I guess, we're going to have a baby."

"Okay," Dora said. She sat on the armchair's arm and Remus moved closer to them, clearing a spot on the coffee table for him to perch on.

"Yeah," Teddy said. "So that… umm, we went to an appointment this week and they said the baby's about three months old."

"Three months," Dora repeated. Remus shook his head; that was nearly a full trimester.

"Yeah," Teddy said. "We um, we just… Victoire found out about two weeks ago. Well, me too, I guess. She woke me up at 3:00 a.m. and she was panicking and so I couldn't panic because she was already doing that. And so I went out to get a Muggle test so we didn't have to wait to brew a potion, and… and, yeah. Now that she's seen a Healer, we wanted to tell you guys."

"I'm glad you did," Remus said.

"Of course we are," Dora said, running a hand through Teddy's hair. "My word, Teddy…"

"It's fine," Teddy said. "We're fine. She's fine, everything is fine."

"Are you, though?" Remus asked gently.

Teddy exhaled like a balloon that had just been pricked by a needle.

"I'm bloody panicking," Teddy said. "And I thought I was just panicking about telling you guys, but now I'm just…"

"Panicking about everything," Remus said, nodding. He was familiar with this concept, yes.

Dora put an arm around Teddy's shoulders and pulled him towards her again.

"Panicking is normal," Remus said. "You can't stop the panicking. You can only control how you handle it and let me tell you, as someone who picked the worst possible option, you have many options..."

Teddy nodded along to this.

"I'm not going anywhere," Teddy said. "I… I don't know what the fuck to do, but not that."

"Yes, good," Dora said.

Remus put a hand on Teddy's knee and squeezed.

"I'm proud of you," Remus said truthfully.

"I think… this will be good," Teddy said. "It's going to be—I mean, now it's a mess, and it might keep being a mess, but I really think it's going to be good…"

Teddy trailed off and exhaled again.

"You guys… you guys aren't mad?" Teddy asked them, looking from one parent to the other.

"Of course not," Dora said. "Besides, what high horse do we possibly have to get off of? What, with our wonderful history of slipping up on fertility potions and having a bloody baby in the middle of a war…"

"I still can't believe we did that," Remus said.

"Foolish of us," Dora said. She kissed the top of Teddy's head. "Foolish, but absolutely worth it in every way. Sometimes it's like that, Teddy."

Teddy finally seemed to relax.

"Have I ever told you how much I love you?" Teddy said.

"You've mentioned it, but it's been some time now since we so rarely see you now that St. Mungo's is keeping you so busy," Dora said. "Your father made a cawl with lamb and an abundance of carrots. You'll love it. Let's get you fed, it will help."

"There's chocolate cake for later, that will possibly help most of all," Remus said, squeezing Teddy's knee again before standing up. Dora went to go get dinner and the two of them lurked in the living room some more. Teddy was still pale, but regaining colour—he simply had a long way to go before regaining his natural shade.

"Teddy?" Remus said.

"Yeah?" Teddy asked breathlessly, looking up.

"You're okay," Remus said. "It'll be okay. Trust me. If there was one thing I could go back in time and tell myself, it would be that."

Teddy nodded.

"It'll be okay," he said. Remus patted his shoulder.

"You'll want to practise saying that confidently some more before telling Victoire," Remus said. "But yes, you're on the right track."

The sound of crashing plates erupted from the kitchen.

"Oh my gosh!" Dora said. "We're going to be grandparents?"

"There she goes," Remus said. He patted Teddy's arm and made his way to the kitchen to make sure that Dora didn't drop dinner next.

But oh my gosh they were going to be grandparents.

Word Count: 1650