Remus and Tonks spent the evening of May the first curled up together on their sofa, baby Teddy sleeping soundly in their arms.
"He looks so much like you," Remus marveled, combing a hand through his wife's shoulder-length pink hair. "I swear, he even did that pig-nose trick you love the other day while I was bathing him."
Tonks mmmed at him. "Just because he's a Metamorphmagus doesn't mean he looks like me," she argued. "He has your eyes, Re; don't tell me you don't see it."
"Maybe a little," Remus admitted, brushing a finger across Teddy's closed eyelids. "I suppose my eyes aren't the worst thing he could've gotten from me."
The full moon had come and gone a couple of days after Teddy's birth—Tonks and Remus, unsure of what to expect, had put up all sorts of protective enchantments around his nursery before lowering their son into his bassinet to sleep. When Remus had awoken the next morning, exhausted but unscathed after a week's worth of Wolfsbane Potions, Tonks and Andromeda had happily informed him that Teddy had remained his human self throughout the night. Remus had not passed on his condition; Teddy would not have to live in fear of the cycles of the moon the way his father always had. To Remus, it felt almost like a miracle.
"What do you think—?"
Tonks was interrupted by a sharp rap on the front door. She stiffened, straightening up; her parents' house was protected by the Fidelius Charm, and there were very few people who knew how to access it. Something must have happened.
"I'll get it," she said quickly, standing and rushing off before Remus could protest. He hurried to place Teddy in his bassinet before following, heading downstairs to find Tonks standing with Kingsley in the entrance hall. Their expressions were solemn; Tonks's hair had turned even grayer than her husband's.
"I've just come from the Weasleys'," Kingsley said to Remus once he reached them. "I wanted to deliver the news in person."
"What news?" Remus demanded.
Kingsley met his eyes. "Harry has returned to Hogwarts," he explained. "We're not sure of all the details, but it sounds like there is going to be a fight. I think…I think this might be the end of it."
Remus felt his limbs going numb. The end of it—the end of the war, Harry and the Order's last stand against Voldemort and his Death Eaters. Kingsley was right: Remus still didn't know what Harry and his friends had been sent by Dumbledore to do, but if they were looking for help in an open battle at Hogwarts, it had to be their final effort, the culmination of their secret plan. Everything in the world would be riding on the outcome.
"I know that you have been forgoing missions for the Order," Kingsley continued, his eyes flitting between Tonks and Remus. "But I thought that you would want to know about this."
Swallowing, Remus turned to his wife. "Dora," he said quietly, "I know I promised I would never leave you again, for anything…."
Immediately Tonks shook her head. "This is different," she insisted. "If Voldemort wins out, all of us are going to be killed for what we've done. Even…even Teddy." Her voice shook. "I have to stay with him, but you should go, Remus. You'd never forgive yourself if you didn't."
Remus studied her for a moment—the fire and tears in her eyes, the way she pursed her lips to keep them from trembling—and thought that he had never loved her more. "Thank you," he murmured.
Tonks nodded. "Please, just…try to make it back in one piece, okay? For me."
"I'll do my best." Remus caressed Tonks's cheek and kissed her, long and hard and fierce enough for Kingsley to avert his eyes behind them; then he lifted his gaze to where he knew his son lay sleeping upstairs, praying that he hadn't seen his baby's smile for the last time. As if reading his mind, Tonks pulled a photograph of a giggling Teddy from her pocket and handed it to him—Remus tucked it carefully away and then kissed her once more.
"You'd better leave," she whispered when they broke apart. "Harry needs you. Go, Remus."
Somberly Remus squeezed her hands and turned back to Kingsley. "I'm ready," he said hoarsely.
With a final nod to Tonks, Kingsley turned and led Remus outside and across the lawn until they'd reached the edge of the house's protective charms. Then the two men locked eyes and vanished, ready to fight for the final time.
