A/N: Sorry it's been awhile. I've been really busy. I continue to appreciate all the people who keep reading and reviewing. Thanks a lot! This chapter starts sometime in November 1997.

Chapter 24

Time flowed by like a gently moving stream. They had no word from Ted, and every week that passed without news burdened their hearts with a little more dread. However, Tonks, Remus, and Andromeda filled their days with preparations for the baby. They did their best buoy one another's spirits.

One day Tonks was sitting at the kitchen table, drumming her fingers on it. "Don't do that, Nymphadora. Fidgeting is no good. You'll only get yourself in a fine strop."

"I'm already in a fine strop, Mum. My bloody husband's being impossible." Remus had refused to let her take part in any more Potterwatch broadcasts.

"He's only concerned about your welfare, Nymphadora, and the baby's."

Tonks' voice lost some of its edge. "I know that. I just wish he would be a little less overprotective. I worry about baby's welfare, too, but I'm not an invalid."

Andromeda chuckled. "Your father…" she paused and swallowed. "Your father was the same way. He barely let me feed myself. He apparently thought that I would go into labor if I exerted the least bit of effort." Tonks snorted. "But it was all worth it when he held you for the first time. He gazed at you with such adoration; I almost thought he would cry."

Tonks sighed and gave her mother a rather watery smile. "I just wish it were time now."

"I think every woman who's ever expected a child has wanted that." Andromeda peered at her daughter speculatively. "But are you sure that you should be morphing?"

"I only morph my hair. The Healers all reckon it's okay until a few weeks before the baby's due."

"Are you going to ask whether you're having a boy or a girl?"

Tonks' bright green curls shook with her head. "Remus and I want to be surprised."

There was a knock at the door. Tonks grinned. "Speak of the devil."

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A few weeks later, Tonks and Remus were hanging Christmas decorations.

"Dora?"

"Yes, Remus?"

"Do you think we should start coming up with baby names?"

"Sure. Girls or boys first?"

"Girls, I'd say." There was a distinctly Marauderesque glint in Remus' eyes.

"Well, let's see. I've always liked the name Abigail." She put up some tinsel along the mantel.

"Or there's Maura. Or Lucy."

"Lucy?" Tonks looked perplexed.

"Yes, it means 'light.' I think that's a very fitting moniker in times such as these." He smiled softly down at her as he took the tinsel to wrap around the highest part of the tree.

"Hmm. Maybe. How about Cora."

"I like that, but I think you're forgetting a very important one."

Sensing a joke, she asked eagerly, "What's that?"

Remus smirked. "My personal favorite. Nymphadora."

She sputtered, turning a shade to match her customary hair color. "You wouldn't dare suggest that."

"Wouldn't I?" His smirk widened.

"Husband or not, I know some pretty impressive hexes." He held his hands up in mock surrender. "No baby of mine will ever such a horrendous name."

"Shame. It's so lovely. And she would never have the pleasure of saying 'Don't call me Nymphadora, daddy.'"

"Lucky her. I know I'll never be able to train you."

Having finished the tree, Remus moved closer to Tonks while she used her wand to hang the baubles that he had given her the previous Christmas. "Would you really want to?" He grinned endearingly. The answer, of course, was no, but Tonks couldn't tell him that and leave her pride intact. She simply rolled her eyes.

Recognizing that she wouldn't answer him, Remus moved on, "What about boys?"

"Ted," said Tonks definitively.

He smiled sadly and embraced her, resting his cheek on her head. "That's a very good name." She didn't let herself cry. Part of her still held out hope that her father was alive, that he could return as soon the war was over. But every instinct she had told her that would not be the case.

"We'll make it through, Dora. This is why we have no choice but to win." In that moment, she believed him.

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There was no time for Yuletide festivities. The Order continued to do what it could, which wasn't much. Tonks was growing increasingly frustrated at her enforced inactivity. The whole season was a bleak reminder of all their difficulties.

The only bright spot was that Ron had come home and said that Harry and Hermione and Sirius were fine the last he knew. Molly was overjoyed, despite the circumstances, to have her youngest son with her, but Remus saw how torn up he was about leaving his friends.

One evening they were gathered at the Burrow for a meeting, but two members were conspicuously absent. "Molly, did Hestia and Sturgis send you a message that they weren't finished with surveillance."

"No." Her tremulous voice rose a little. "You don't think something…happened to them, do you, Remus?"

He looked grim. "I don't know. But I can't send a Patronus; it could compromise their position. We just have to wait and hope for the best."

They began the meeting, but everyone looked toward the door at the slightest sound. Suddenly, about halfway through the meeting, Hestia and Sturgis burst through the door, looking like death warmed over.

"Are you two all right? What happened?" Remus' voice broke through the concerned muttering.

Molly bustled around making tea for them, and Tonks handed them some blankets as they tried to explain. Sturgis was more composed than Hestia. "We were just headed here. We didn't learn anything useful. We were whispering and…and I said his name." Everyone knew he meant Voldemort. "I feel so foolish. I didn't mean to; it just slipped out."

"It's OK, Sturgis. Anyone could have done that."

He looked at Remus gratefully. "Anyway, then… the Snatchers came." He winced and Hestia was quietly sobbing. "It was Scabior and Greyback." Remus drew in a sharp breath. "We tried to fight back, but they were faster. They disarmed us and started asking questions. We didn't answer, of course, but they got rough. They Crucio'd us a few times each. I'd forgotten how horrible it is." He shuddered and fell silent.

"I'm sorry. But how did you get away?"

"They got cocky. They were taunting us, and the Order. Hestia was able to recover enough to Summon our wands, and we disapparated."

There was a collective sigh of relief. "Thank you. You both did very well. Are you injured, besides the aftereffects of the curse?" They both shook their heads, unable to speak more. "We'll all have to remain very careful. Well, does anyone have other business?"

No one said anything, so the meeting was adjourned.

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Christmas morning dawned clear and cold. Neither Remus nor Tonks had been able to go out in Diagon Alley to shop for presents. However, Andromeda and the couple were enjoying the warmth of a cozy fire, as much as they could enjoy the day with one quarter of their little family missing.

Remus' gift to Tonks was not nagging her that day; hers to him was letting him call her Nymphadora with impunity.

Later in the day they went to the Burrow for a small gathering. Molly was inconsolable because Ron had decided to go back to Harry, Hermione, and Sirius several days previously. But they all still made the best of what they had. Moments of respite in the midst of the darkest hour of the war so far were too few to waste in regret and hoping for what could not be.

A/N: I'm sorry that this chapter was rather grim. It's not what I intended, but I imagine that it was a very difficult time. Hestia and Sturgis' adventure with the Snatchers is based on a comment by Greyback on p. 449 of DH in the American edition ("…the name's been Tabooed. A few Order members have been tracked that way.").