Chapter 58: Scary Molly Weasley

March 13th, 1994

Dubrovnik, Croatia

There was a knock on the door.

"Coming," Tonks called, yawning. It was early in the morning and, for once, she had woken up before Remus. She brushed a hand through her fuchsia hair and slid over to the door in her bright purple socks, pulling it open.

It was Sia, wearing a t-shirt and jeans. Dang. Why did everyone come to her room and see her in her pale pink pajamas?

"Hey," said Sia.

"Hi," greeted Tonks, her face breaking out in a smile. "What's up?"

Sia shrugged. "Nothing much. Valentina and I have been hanging out. Do you want to go do something together today? Apparently there's some nice boat tours for shore excursions."

"Yeah, I'd love to!" Tonks grinned. "I'm sure Remus can figure something out, he has a ton of friends to go do things with."

Sia smiled. "Yep. Can I come in?"

"Yeah, just give me a second. I have to wake Remus up. I don't think he'll be too happy if I let you in while he's asleep."

Sia smirked. "Yeah, take your time."

Tonks smiled and turned around, leaving the door slightly open as she slid back to where Remus was asleep on the bed. "Hey," she whispered.

He nuzzled his face into her neck in response, making a trail of kisses down her throat. She moaned and leaned her head back, trying not to lose herself completely to the sensations that were sparkling through her.

"Remus," she managed, as he worked his way lower and lower down her throat. "I hate to interrupt, but Sia wants to come in."

He stopped, blinking his eyes open. "Who? Sia? Like, Sia Channing?"

"Yeah," she whispered. "She wants to come in."

"To talk to you?" Remus asked.

"Yeah."

"Oh," he said, sitting up and running a hand through his dishevelled hair. "Sure. Do you want me to go down and get you something to eat? Leave you two to your privacy?"

"That'd be great," Tonks said with a smile.

"Okay, let me just get changed." He kissed her forehead softly, then stood up, grabbed some clothes from the suitcase, and headed towards the bathroom. Tonks hopped off the bed and back over to the door, which she pulled open to allow Sia into their room.

"Sorry," Tonks apologized, as Sia walked into the room. "Yeah, just sit down anywhere." Sia sat down on the small two-seater sofa, and Tonks sat down next to her. "See, normally Remus wakes up before me. I never sleep in, you know, because of training, so I jump at every chance I get. But today I guess I woke up before him. He wanted to sleep, I guess."

Sia smirked. "Probably because of all the sleeping you didn't do last night."

Tonks's eyes widened. "Hey!"

Sia just laughed.

"Anyway," Tonks continued, in an attempt to maintain the last of her dignity, "how have you been doing? Are you enjoying all of this?"

"Yeah," replied Sia genuinely. "I've… I don't think I've had more fun in my life before. You know, this entire year. I never had fun like this with my family."

Tonks knew it was a sensitive subject for Sia. She put her arm on her shoulder. "Hey, that's okay. Don't worry about it. You're here, and at Hogwarts, until the end of June. And you'll be back in a few months!"

"I'm not sure how many people would want to be friends with me," Sia told her sadly. "Because, you know. What I am."

"Who you are," Tonks countered firmly. "Don't ever forget that."

"Okay," Sia sighed, just as Remus exited the bathroom, wearing a dark blue t-shirt and jeans. "Hi, Professor."

"Hey," greeted Remus. "Er, I'm going to… head upstairs and grab some coffee. Dora, do you want some?"

"Yeah," Tonks said, sending him a grateful smile. "Thanks."

"Me too," said Sia. Remus and Tonks both turned to look at her.

"But you're eleven," Remus said, looking bemused.

"Twelve," Sia corrected. "And I've had coffee before. All the time."

Remus blinked. "Okay. I'll be back, then." He gave Tonks a small smile and headed out of the room.

"So," Sia began, "how has everything been with you? Are you having fun?"

"Yeah," Tonks answered, smiling. "I've met a lot of people recently. I got to know Lily better, and I talked to Harry the other day for quite a while. What about you? Made any new friends?"

"Well, I share a room with these two idiots named Ella and Ella," Sia sighed. "They're crazy about this guy named Seamus Finnigan. There was this Gryffindor named Hermione Granger, though, who was in the cruise ship library with me. She was nice."

"Ooh, she's friends with Harry," Tonks told her. "Like, best friends with Harry. And, speaking of the library, have you read any good books recently?"

"Yeah," Sia answered. "There was this really good one called Jinxed. I found it in the Hogwarts library."

"What's it about?" Tonks asked, intrigued.

"A man who suffers a chronic illness and tries to live his life to the fullest," Sia summarized.

Tonks made a face. "That's sad."

Sia shrugged. "It was really well written. But maybe it's not for you."

"Yeah," Tonks replied, laughing. "I'm more for the lighter ones. Have you read Sofa Sofia? It's a really good book. Basically it's about a woman who works at some furniture store and has to get married to a sofa."

Sia snorted. "What?"

"Yep. She ends up married to a sofa - legally and everything - and has no idea how she got there," Tonks told her.

"Well, that's definitely your kind of book," Sia said. "I preferred the chronic illness one."

"I know," laughed Tonks. "Ineligible is really good, too. Have you read that one?"

"The one about the Healer and a long-distance relationship?" Sia confirmed. Tonks nodded. "Yeah, I've read that. It was good. I wouldn't say it was brilliant, but it was good."

They continued talking about books they had read until Remus came back into the room, holding three paper cups of steaming coffee. He handed Tonks a cup with a kiss, then gave Sia one, taking the last for himself.

"How do you do that?" Tonks asked happily, standing up and gesturing for Remus to take her seat on the sofa.

"Do what?" he asked, looking confused, still standing.

"Hold three cups at the same time," she explained, gently pushing him onto the sofa and then perching herself onto the armrest so she was facing Sia. "I can't even hold one without spilling."

Remus and Sia both snorted.

"That's not funny," Tonks said defensively. "It's not my fault the ground is out to get me."

Sia laughed, taking a sip of her coffee. "All the time. Yeah."

Remus cracked a smile and pulled Tonks's legs onto his lap, placing a kiss on her knee. "It's okay, love. We all know about your enmity with the ground."

"Of all things to be enemies with," Sia muttered, causing Remus and Tonks to laugh.

Charity Burbage adjusted her sunglasses and boarded the bus carefully, taking care not to trip. She was wearing tall, brown boots with heels. The last thing she wanted was to stumble right now.

The bus was neat, with velvety-cushioned seats and air conditioning. She traveled to the back of the bus and took a seat, smoothening down her black dress. She was going on a bus tour around Dubrovnik. Aurora and Septima had both ditched her to go to the beach. Rude.

"Charity, can I sit here?" came a voice, and she looked up in surprise to see Severus Snape there. Her face broke out into a grin.

"Yeah, absolutely!" she exclaimed, gesturing that he sit in the seat next to her. "I can't believe you finally decided to leave the ship! Wow, Severus!" He was wearing a black jacket and black trousers. Even though he was wearing Muggle clothing, he definitely looked the misfit here.

"Shut up," he muttered, rolling his eyes. "Albus, that nutter, forced me to come. Given a chance, I would've resigned from this school already."

"Nobody's forcing you to enjoy it, but I'm sure you'll find it fun!" she said with a bright smile. "Okay? I can give you company. Not like my friends ditched me for the beach because they wanted to see all the blokes show off their abs. Pfft."

Severus snorted. "I cannot think of who they'd be after. Not the Hogwarts crew, I hope?"

Charity laughed. "I hope not. Though I think they're more interested in the entire tourist population, if you know what I mean."

Severus rolled his eyes. "Annoying."

She smiled, still feeling slightly dazed that he had decided to come on this trip. "Yeah. Come on, don't fall off the seat." She scooted over to make room. He hesitantly slid over to sit next to her.

In a few minutes, the bus started to move, and they started driving through the city of Dubrovnik, stopping at places for people to get off for pictures and to explore certain areas of the city.

"Enjoying the cruise, Severus?" Charity asked brightly as they got off at a town square.

"Barely," Severus replied. "So many students. And Filius keeps throwing up. Just not my kind of thing."

"Oh. That's fine. Can you take a picture?"

He blinked. "Of what?"

She rolled her eyes. "Me." Charity handed him her camera. "Just click that button and get it in good lighting. Horizontally, please."

He raised an eyebrow. "Seriously, Charity?"

"Please?" she asked, batting her eyebrows.

He took a deep breath and released it. "Fine. Smile."

She put on her best smile and pose, while Severus clicked a photo of her. Then he handed the camera back to her.

"Thank you!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms around him. He flinched, but did not make his usual verbal protest.

Merlin, she was making progress.

Molly adjusted her sunglasses and walked across the sandy beach.

She had Portkey-ed to Dubrovnik so that she could surprise her kids. It wasn't fair if Percy, Fred, George, Ron, and Ginny got to go to the beach, but not her! They got to go on an entire cruise, and it wasn't fair! She wanted to do that too!

So here she was, walking across the beach, trying to surprise them. She knew that her children were going to be petrified out of their wits once they saw her here, and she was looking forward to seeing their reactions.

She had met Minerva McGonagall at the town square, who had kindly informed her the location of her children. Apparently they were all at the same beach with Harry and Hermione. Harry and Hermione were practically her children, especially Harry. Molly felt the need to take care of the poor boy after how much he had gone through. This was good. She would meet all of them soon.

The sand was warm beneath her sandals, and the sun was bright, shining onto her face. The calls of gulls from around were peaceful and calming, as was the lulling of the gentle waves crashing onto shore.

Seashells adorned the beach, pink and coral and white and covered in sand. Little sand crabs were crawling around here and there, so it was a good thing she was wearing sandals.

"MUM!"

It was Percy. He was lying on a beach towel in just his swimming trunks, his eyes widened, while a blonde girl was lying to another towel next to him. Could that be…

"Hi, Percy!" she said brightly, walking up towards him. "Haven't thought to write to your mum at all recently, have you?"

"What are you doing here?!" he yelped.

"Is this the way to greet your mother?" she asked disapprovingly, placing her hands on her hips. "And who are you, dear?" she asked, turning to the blonde girl beside him.

"Oh," the girl replied, her eyes darting back and forth between her and Percy. "Er…"

"She knows," muttered Percy.

"I'm Penelope," the girl introduced. "Penelope Clearwater. Ravenclaw."

"Hi, Penelope," Molly tittered. "A pleasure to meet my son's girlfriend. How long have you two been together, dear?"

"Er, fourteen months," Penelope mumbled, turning red.

"Wow!" she gushed. "That's a long time! Are you two planning to get married?"

"Well…"

"Mum?!"

Molly turned around to see Fred and George there, their mouths open.

"Hi, dears." She ditched Percy and Penelope to give her twin sons a hug. "How's everything going?"

"Why are you here?!" Fred and George cried in unison.

"Because I wanted to check in on you guys." She raised an eyebrow. "It's not fair if we let you guys party all around without us coming too, is it?"

"Wait, wait, wait. Is Dad here?"

"No, unfortunately, Arthur had work," she sighed. "But I'm here instead. I honestly thought you lot would be more happy to see me." She rolled her eyes. Of course she knew they wouldn't.

"What is she doing here?!" came an incredulous whisper, and Molly turned to see Ron, Harry, and Hermione, standing a few feet away, whispering to each other conspiratorially.

"Hello, Ron. Hello, dears." She waved to Harry and Hermione. "Enjoying your vacation?"

"Mum!" groaned Ron, while Harry and Hermione looked kind of uncomfortable.

"Oh, just checking." Her eyes glinted. "Oh, hello, Ginny!"

Ginny, who had just approached them to see what all the commotion was about, stopped dead and stared at her mother.

Molly laughed (almost evilly).

This was going to be fun.

"And then, Pomona was telling the staff about her classes," Lily told her husband, as they walked around the city square holding hands, "and she said that people kept exploding in Bubotuber pus."

James shook his head. "Bubotuber pus is some nasty stuff. We only used it a few times."

Lily's lips pursed. She was pretty sure she knew who had been subject to those pranks.

James must have sensed it, because he said quickly, "Sorry. Sorry, Lily. I didn't mean to bring that up. I've been good with Snape recently, haven't I? I haven't done anything to him in a really long time. Not since… that incident."

She patted his head, laughing softly. "You've been good, James. It's not really about you. I just… Severus. He hasn't talked to me in so long, and I don't even know what happened. I mean, was it because I married you?"

"Probably," James told her. "I think he felt betrayed that his friend married his enemy. But I hope you don't regret that."

"No, I don't," Lily answered honestly. "I could never regret marrying you."

James squeezed her hand and held her a little closer to him as they continued walking.

"Do you think he loved you?" James asked quietly.

Lily stopped and turned to her husband. "Severus?"

"Yeah."

"No? I don't think he ever did," she answered, a little perplexed. "Because he would've said something." She paused. "You mean, like, romantic love, right?"

"Yeah."

"I don't think so," Lily reiterated. "I don't think that ever went beyond friendship. At least not on my part. Honestly."

"It's okay if you did like him," James said quietly. "I'm not going to hold it against you. I mean, he was your friend, and…"

"I liked some other boys in our year, I'm not going to lie, but never him." Lily felt she was being truthful.

James seemed assured. "Yeah, okay. I was just wondering. Nothing big."

She nodded, tracing soft circles on the back of his hand. "Not a problem." She felt glad that the two of them could talk things out like this, being able to relate and interact easily, even on sensitive subjects like this.

And that was one thing for which she was eternally grateful.

Remus had been talking to Harry.

The boy was full of so many secrets, so many stories, so many troubles, that Remus felt the need to put him at ease. He felt that Harry felt more relaxed when they talked about life, and boring stuff like that.

"Where's Ron?" Remus asked him after about half an hour of talking.

"Oh, he's up at the gym," Harry replied. "He and Tonks decided they were going to go figure out how the Muggle exercise machines work."

"Oh. Ron's friends with Tonks?"

Harry shrugged. "Apparently. Want to go see what they're up to?"

Remus grinned. "Yeah, sure. Where's the gym?"

"Deck eleven," Harry answered. "Let's catch a lift."

Remus and Harry got onto the lift with a woman who was carrying four ice cream cones, getting off at the eleventh floor and following the signs to the fitness center and gym.

"There's supposed to be a button?" came a voice, and Remus and Harry turned to see Tonks, her hair bright pink and pulled back in a ponytail, and Ron, his hair red like always, standing next to a Muggle treadmill, apparently trying to figure out how it worked.

"Hey, mate," announced Harry, running up to the two of them, "what are you doing?"

"Trying to learn how to use this," Ron explained, turning to face them, as Tonks turned around too, sighting Remus with a bright smile.

Merlin.

She was wearing, well, a hot pink tank top with black lining, cutting off well above her waistline, and matching track pants. Remus could see just about everything that he wanted to. Almost. Suddenly he felt really sweaty.

"Professor, do you know how to work this?" Ron asked.

"I can try," Remus managed, walking towards the treadmill. All you had to do was read the instructions sticker. "You stand on the belt, hold onto the handles, and press the green button that says start."

"Start at a low speed," Tonks advised. "That way you don't kill yourself."

"Thanks," said Ron, following their directions and successfully turning on the treadmill. "Woah, this is cool."

"Can I try?" asked Harry eagerly.

"Sure, there's lots of treadmills," Tonks offered, giving Remus another glowing smile. "Just be careful."

Remus waited until Harry had gone to the treadmill next to Ron's and turned it on before turning his attention back to Tonks, who was watching him closely.

"Hi," she said softly.

He swallowed, once more taking in her appearance. "Do you work out?"

"No," she answered. "Do you think I should?"

It was her self-doubt kicking in again, and Remus wished that he could do something about it, help her feel more confident in herself, even though he probably wasn't the best role model for that.

"No," he managed. "You don't need to. You look absolutely gorgeous."

"Thank you," she whispered, leaning back onto the wall, showing off just how much skin her outfit was revealing, giving Remus such vivid sensations that he had the feeling that if Harry and Ron hadn't been here, there was no telling what he would've done.

"Professor?" Harry asked from the treadmill. "Can all of us have dinner together tonight?"

"You mean the four of us?" Remus asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Harry answered.

Remus turned to Tonks, who nodded. "Yeah, of course."

"Great," replied Harry, grinning. "This'll be more fun than that torturous breakfast I had to have with Mum, Dad, and Liana."

"At least your mum didn't come all the way to a beach in Croatia just to scare you," muttered Ron.

Liana smoothened her black blouse down as she seated herself comfortably in the velvety seat.

She was attending a play, which was supposed to be a fusion of classical Muggle fairy tales. Her mother was Muggle-born, so Liana knew quite a few of them. Kylie and Candice had been coming with her, only Kylie had sighted Draco Malfoy and ditched them, and Candice had gone running after her.

"Save me," muttered a voice, and Liana looked around to see Draco there, wearing a black jacket and black dress pants, taking the seat next to her. "Your friend Kylie is driving me crazy."

Liana smirked. "I don't think she's going to check here, so you're good."

He let out a sigh of relief. "Thank Merlin. What is this we're watching, by the way?"

"Some show." Liana shrugged. "I think it's about Muggle fairy tales."

Draco made a face. "Why did I even come here? My parents would kill me if they knew I was watching this."

Liana laughed. "They don't have to know. We'll see how it is."

He sighed. "I guess so."

The lights dimmed, a curtain opened onstage to reveal a woman who began to sing, and the play had begun.

It was well done and well performed. The orchestra played well too; all of the elements of the play molded together to prove a relaxing and entertaining experience. Liana found that she was rather enjoying it, and a quick glance to her left proved that Draco was too.

"I can't believe it's almost over," Draco whispered to her.

"What?" she whispered back. "The cruise or the play?"

"Both," he responded. "I… This was fun. The play and the cruise. I wish we could have stayed longer."

"I know," she sighed. "But it's not over yet. And do you want to hear a secret?"

He nodded eagerly.

She leaned over to his ear. "My mum told me this, and she knows because she's part of the staff, but Dumbledore's planning a surprise two day extension. Not on the cruise ship, but where we dock in Marseilles. Basically, we're staying at a resort there for two more days before we go back to the castle."

His eyes widened. "Seriously? That's awesome!"

Liana grinned. She couldn't help but agree.

A/N: You guys are such amazing readers and reviewers. Thank you sososo much! :)