Author's note: 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

Hogwarts: Assignment #11, Health and Fitness Task #10 Write about idolizing something/someone

Content Warnings: NA

Front Row Tickets

Remus smiled at whatever Sirius had said since everybody else was laughing, though he hadn't paid attention to it himself. He was too busy bouncing Teddy on his knee and watching Dora as she sat in the pile of wrapping paper, occasionally sipping from a glass of wine she kept within an arm's reach. Her hair was pin-straight today, and the same colour as the red velvet cake Andromeda had made for her birthday and of which there wasn't a trace left.

"This one's from Remus," Andromeda said with a smile as she passed another gift to Dora.

"Is it appropriate to be opened in public?" Sirius asked. Andromeda shot him a look.

"Thank you for that Sirius, that was especially fantastic of you to say in front of my mother-in-law," Remus told him under his breath, though he still wasn't looking at Sirius. He'd done a fairly good job of wrapping the present in Dora's hands—the box was long and shallow, wrapped in golden wrapping paper and tied off with a shining fuschia ribbon. She raised the box to her ear and shook it, and then frowned when it was noiseless.

"What did you do?" she asked Remus, narrowing her eyes. He shrugged, playing innocent, and worked extremely hard to keep his face neutral. He didn't want her to see how absolutely ecstatic he was. When she tilted her head to the side like a curious puppy hearing a new sound for the first time, he thought he might lose it and kissed the top of Teddy's little blue head to hide his smile. He kept his face hidden in the fluffy curls his son had decided to wear today, but looked up to watch Dora unwrap her gift.

As she tugged at the ribbon, Dora winked at him and shifted her hair colour to match it. She wrapped the ribbon around her wrist once it was off the box and unwrapped the present carefully—peeling off the tape and unfolding the wrapping paper bit by bit. Remus wanted her to rip it off and get to it already.

She got to the cardboard box and lifted the lid off, frowning. She frowned for a second longer as she read the slips of paper inside and then her jaw dropped.

"Oh, fuck off," she breathed. She looked up at Remus, eyes wide.

"Such big language in front of such a little baby," Sirius said, lifting Teddy out of Remus's arms. That was fine, Remus didn't need to use the baby as a shield now. Andromeda promptly stole her grandson from Sirius's arms too.

"You… where… how? They… what?"

Remus burst out laughing, no longer able to keep it together at how excited she looked.

"No way, no way, how… you're kidding me. These are fake, right? I mean, they've got to be fake."

"Why would I do that?" Remus asked with a grin. "Especially on your birthday, Dora."

"Because it's not—oh Merlin, these are real tickets, these are real… front row tickets? To the Weird Sisters World Tour?" Dora said when she looked down at the tickets and read them over again. Andromeda gasped. "What? What? What? How? How! Oh my God!"

Remus laughed as Dora tried to figure out what to say and how to say it. She held the tickets in one hand and the other knotted itself in her hair.

"These… these sold out in like half a second. And they were so crazy expensive anyways. How did you do this?" Dora asked, jaw dropped.

"I called in a favour," Remus said as casually as possible, though he couldn't quite wipe the smile from his face.

"You called in a what?" Dora asked, her face too shocked to show the extent of her confusion..

Sirius chuckled under his breath.

"Did you not tell her?" Sirius asked Remus. Remus grinned back at him and shook his head.

"For Merlin's sake please tell me before my whole entire head explodes," Dora said all in one breath.

"I used to help Calla Corbridge with his Transfigurations homework when we were in school," Remus said. "She was two years younger than Sirius and I, so it was relatively easy. After we graduated, she kept owling me for tips too."

"You did what?" Dora roared, startling Teddy so that he dropped the stuffed rabbit he was chewing on. Andromeda handed it back to him.

"I'm sorry sweetheart, your father seems to have found the weakest of your mother's weak spots," she said, kissing her grandson's head.

"Helped Calla Corbridge with her Transfigurations homework when we were in school," Remus repeated for Dora's sake. That didn't seem to help her.

"Call Cor… the lead singer… of the Weird Sisters? Of my favourite band?" Dora said.

"Yes. She was bad at Transfigurations," Remus said.

"Oh she was the one you had the posters up on her bedroom walls," Andromeda said when she'd finally placed the name. "They stayed up there from the second she turned twelve until she moved out. Then she brought them with her."

"You…" Dora looked at him with wide, baffled eyes. "You knew Calla Corbridge? And you didn't tell me? You just… you just decided to sit on this… what, forever?"

Sirius snorted, amused by the proceedings.

"Not forever," Remus said. "I just thought I would save that surprise for a special occasion."

And judging from the look on her face, he had picked his moment well. Remus couldn't help but feel a little bit proud of himself. He'd surprised his wife before, for better or for worse, but he had never caught her this wildly off guard. Besides, he had never been able to afford the grand gifts that his loved ones deserved—Dora especially, since they'd only known each other once Umbridge had passed all those terrible laws. It was good to be able to pull this off; to give her something so exciting and wonderful.

Dora stared at him, mouth still hanging open.

"I don't know if I'm furious with you or ecstatic," she said honestly.

"That's alright," Remus said.

Dora stared at him some more and then stared at the tickets again and then at Remus.

"Well, you did it," Andromeda told Remus. "You've broken my daughter."

"How good of a Transfigurations tutor were you for Calla fucking Corbridge to just give you tickets a million years later?" Dora asked.

"Language or this one's going to be a delinquent," Sirius said, stealing Teddy back from Andromeda.

"I was very good," Remus said. "Which is why you would also have found a backstage pass in that box, if you keep looking."

"There's a what?!"

WC: 1106