Set during Harry's birthday tea, Deathly Hallows Chapter Six.
Seventeen
As the Patronus faded, Remus jumped to his feet.
"We shouldn't be here" he announced. He stammered an apology to Harry, grabbed Tonks' hand and yanked her away from the dinner table. She barely had time to swallow her mouthful of cake before they were out of the door.
"Remus, wait-" she protested, knocking into the doorframe.
"We need to leave,"
"But it's Harry's birthday. We can't run off without saying goodbye," Tonks told him indignantly. She tried to wriggle out of Remus' grip, but he kept his fingers clamped firmly around her wrist. He dragged her out across the yard and onto the grass.
"We can't run into the Minister. Harry won't mind,"
"Yes, he will. Give me two seconds to run back inside to give him a hug goodbye,"
"No,"
"Remus, I-" she began, but her husband interrupted.
"For once will you not argue with me!"
He hardly ever snapped at her like that. He was still reeling, Tonks knew, from the news about the baby. She knew he'd be shocked and stressed about her getting pregnant, but she hadn't anticipated Remus descending into apologies and despair and insisting that the child will be a werewolf. Tonks had asked if there was any history of that happening, and Remus hadn't given her a concrete answer. She's sure, then, that he doesn't actually know that werewolves pass their condition onto their children. It's Remus' paranoia and self-hate talking. They'd gone round in circles talking about it last night, and the conversation's far from finished. Tonks is still getting her head around it all herself. She thought that an evening at the Burrow, celebrating Harry's birthday before the wedding tomorrow, would be a pleasant distraction for them. She'd hoped that Remus would be easier to talk to about the pregnancy if he'd had an enjoyable dinner the Weasleys'. Except Arthur's patronus had said that he was bringing Scrimgeour with him, and now Remus was even more spooked. In the last few weeks, the Ministry had become even more suspicious of werewolves than normal. Given that Albus Dumbledore had just been murdered, abruptly ordering a review of the Werewolf Register seemed ludicrous, Scrimgeour was suspicious of everybody, and Greyback was known to have been at the scene of Dumbledore's death. The arrival of the Minister of Magic would therefore not help Remus' mood.
"We can't risk it. Besides, we'll see them all tomorrow," Tonks' husband continued in a more placating tone. He shoved his foot into a gap in the fence and used it as leverage to clamber over.
"But Harry's birthday's today,"
"We're leaving now," Remus intoned, "Climb over fence and we'll apparate home,"
It was the first time, Tonks noted, that he'd called her flat "home". But that wouldn't sway her. If they were going to have a baby, they'd be out and about in the world with their kid.
She folded her arms. "No,"
She hadn't told anybody about her marriage outside of family and the Order. Tonks wore her wedding ring on a necklace at work and didn't mention Remus to anyone at the Ministry. She'd been too busy to see her friends in the last few weeks, so at least she'd been spared that stress. The point was, though, she wasn't going to march up to Scrimgeour and declare that Remus was her husband. But on the chance that the Minister was here on behalf of the Department For The Regulation & Control of Magical Creatures, Tonks could protect Remus. Like she always would, and like she'd defend the child as well.
"Dora. Climb. Over. This. Fence," Remus ordered through gritted teeth.
"It's his seventeenth,"
Remus' jaw stiffened. If it had been any other man Tonks would have readied herself for the explosion, but her husband was calm and collected. It was intensely infuriating.
His tone was coolly factual as he told her: "I warned you countless times that this is what life with a werewolf is like. You said you could handle it. You were prepared. You said you understood,"
Tonks held his gaze for a long moment. He was right, as usual. The worst thing about Remus was that he was always right. She'd always known the dangers he posed, physically and politically, and the danger she'd put herself into by marrying him, and Remus had told her over and over for months. Every time, Tonks had retorted that she didn't care. He'd predicted that they'd have to avoid certain situations, that being marrying him would get in the way of her work and her friendships, and that there would be many interrupted and awkward encounters. Tonks had promised that she knew what she was getting into, and that it was all worth it because she got him in the bargain.
And now there was one of those awkward interruptions which meant they had to avoid a nice event. Time to put her money where he mouth was.
"You are worth it," said Tonks, and she jumped over the fence.
