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

Content Warnings: NA

Twice The Fun

"Edward Remus Lupin," she called out in her best, most convincing and grown-up voice. It was nowhere near as convincing as her own mother's mum-voice, but it would do—her son stopped dead in his tracks. "Stay where I can see you or you will have to hold my hand."

"But I want to see the birdies," Teddy said. As if to make his case, he turned his hair bright red and blue and yellow like a parrot's. She didn't think he'd done it on purpose though; he didn't make the face he usually made when he was trying to impress her or get her to notice a change. Thank goodness she and Remus kept him shrouded in camouflaging charms most of the time.

"I know you do," she said, trying to summon the kind of angelic patience she had not been endowed with but wanted badly to have. "But it wouldn't be good if you got lost, would it?"

"I wouldn't get lost. I know where the birds are."

"Alright, if we got separated," she conceded. "I know that would be scary for me, and I think it would be scary for you too. So let's stay together, yes?"

"Yes," Teddy agreed. She'd caught up to him now, and apparently the thought of getting lost was a little bit scary because he took her hand even if she hadn't made him. They walked on through the zoo, heading straight for the birds. That wasn't the first exhibit you were meant to visit, but it was always the place they started at when they came with Teddy. Besides, Tonks was in no rush to see the exhibits one by one in order and get through the zoo. The more time they burned here, the more time Remus would have home alone to sleep off last night's full moon.

He hadn't been able to concentrate long enough to say more than a few words to her that morning when he'd come home, not long after dawn and long before Teddy woke up, but he'd seemed particularly tired and worn out. She knew that he'd recently been Apparating to the Highlands to transform there, having given up his old haunts (a little island in the middle of a lake in Northern England and the Shrieking Shack) to two newly-bitten werewolves who were more likely to pick fights or try hunting instead of roaming quietly through the night. Maybe something about transforming there was taking more energy, maybe he was ranging further as a werewolf than his human body could handle, or maybe it was just that his transforming without Wolfsbane after having it for the duration of the school year was inherently more difficult. Tonks didn't know and Remus might not either. Bottom line: the jumping and squirming six-year-old was, although delightful, not what Remus needed at the moment.

So she and Teddy made their way to the bird exhibits and he looked at the peacocks with such bright eyes that she knew that he'd be turning his hair royal blue, chartreuse, bright green, and teal for a week—and probably begging her to match him, too. Eventually he asked her to pick him up so that he could peek inside a cage full of macaques better, and he rode around on her shoulders for a while after that. She kept her hands on his ankles as he steered her forwards and asked her to read him the information signs on all the various birds they crossed—white-faced tree ducks, Waldrapp ibis, Fischer's turaco… She remembered there being penguins, but they were somewhere else in the zoo—and Teddy asked to go back to look at the peacocks again, anyways. She was thankful for her sunglasses and congratulated herself on another successful day of parenthood since she'd slathered her son in sunblock before leaving the house. If she remembered to feed him that night, she'd pass the day with flying colours.

"What's their Latin name?" Teddy asked her. Latin names was something he'd picked up from sitting in on one of Remus's lectures once, and he had a strange knack at memorizing them.

She looked down at the sign by the exhibit again.

"Pavo cristasus," she read, hoping that she'd pronounced it properly.

"Pavo cristasus," Teddy tried in his mouth.

"I think that's it, yeah," she said.

"They eat berries, grains, flowers, petals, and ants," Teddy reminded her from the last time she'd read the sign.

"Got it," she said.

"And they're beautiful," Teddy. She smiled since he couldn't see her.

"They sure are," she said. "I love their colours."

"I like their big tails," Teddy said.

"They're pretty choice, I'll give you that," she nodded along. "Maybe next time Daddy takes you to the library, you can check if there's a book on peacocks so you can have some to look at at home."

"Maybe," Teddy said—not as enthusiastic as she'd expected him to be.

"You okay up there?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said. "I just wish Daddy wasn't sick so he could be here and see them for real."

"Oh. I know," Tonks said. She squeezed his ankle. "It's sad when he isn't well, isn't it?"

"Yeah," he said, sounding a little bit pathetic.

"He's going to feel better soon," she promised. "He just needs some time."

"I wanna help," Teddy said.

"I know baby, me too. I wish there was a way, but he just needs to drink lots of water and sleep," she said—hoping that any tourists or zookeepers overhearing would just assume her husband had a very bad cold. She crouched down to the ground and shrugged so that Teddy slid off her shoulders. She turned around and took his hands.

"You know what we can do to help?" she asked.

"What?" Teddy asked.

"We can have a really fun day, and do lots of things, and have lots of stories to tell him when he feels better," Tonks said. "That'll help him out."

That wasn't strictly true, lycanthropy would suck one way or the other, but she knew that Remus did better when he wasn't worrying about everyone around him. His first few transformations after Teddy had been born, when he didn't want to leave the two of them for the night, had been brutal on him. She also knew that when he had Teddy sitting next to him or showing him pictures, staying awake and putting on a smile and going through the motions was much easier. She'd compare it to her ability to stay upright and walk Teddy to preschool even after a night shift, but that was completely different.

"Yeah?" Teddy asked.

"Absolutely," Tonks said. "He likes knowing that we're okay, and if we're having twice the fun to make up for him that counts."

Teddy nodded.

"Are you ever going to get sick like that Mama?" he asked. She knew that Remus had told Teddy about his condition, in the best way that you could start telling a first-grade blabbermouth about a complex magical illness, but she also knew that when you were six years old new questions about the world popped into your head all the time. She just needed to answer questions like Remus would, when he wasn't around to field them himself—which meant honestly.

"No, baby," she said. "I'm not going to get sick like Daddy."

"Okay good," Teddy sighed in relief. "It would be a lot of work to have fun for me and the two of you."

She grinned cheekily.

"I'm sure you'd manage," she said, pinching his nose.

WC: 1258