Tonks couldn't sleep, as tired as she was. So she decided to quietly sneak outside to see if she could tire herself out with a moonlit stroll in the woods behind the Raven's Wing.
The night was serene and tranquil. Not even the wind rustled through the trees, aside from a small breeze that wafted by in twenty-minute intervals. It was also a bit cooler for a midsummer's eve than Tonks would've expected, particularly in France. The moon was waxing, almost full, but not quite there yet. Tonks didn't want to look at it for too long. As it had caused pain for Remus, it caused pain for her too.
Every month during the year she and Remus were married, Remus would steal away from the house for that one night to keep his wife safe. Tonks would sit up and wonder exactly how much pain her love was in. He would always be deathly tired when he stumbled in the next morning. Tonks would get him to the sofa and stuff him full of tea and scones to help speed his recovery (Tonks didn't make these herself; Merlin knows they'd be damn near poisonous if she made them). It always made Tonks feel…well…curious about what is was like to morph fully into an animal, even against your will. Sure, she could make her nose look like a pig's snout, but being a Metamorphmagus meant that becoming an Animagus would be that much harder to accomplish, as it would be natural for Tonks just to change her nose. She often wondered what animal she were to be if she did manage to become an Animagus one day. Remus suggested that she's perhaps become a bird of some kind.
Tonks dismissed this, saying, "Nah, birds are too graceful."
Remus didn't seem to argue with this, so he threw out another suggestion: a dolphin. Tonks was playful, smart, yet a little young in spirit. This one was what Tonks agreed to. A dolphin would've been her Animagus form.
Tonks then thought of Teddy. Remus had been a nervous wreck during a lot of her pregnancy, convinced that the child was a werewolf. But Tonks gave birth on the night before a full moon, and when Teddy didn't make any transformation the next night, Remus was so ecstatic that he'd Apparated to Bill and Fleur's cottage to spread that happy news straight away. But…would Remus have wanted his son to know that he was fathered by a werewolf?
Tonks shook her head. No, he would not have. But he was always taking a ridiculous line on that situation. The only reason being a werewolf was 'wrong' was because of that creepy Dolores Umbridge woman. Her anti-werewolf laws struck fear into peoples' hearts. But if people had known Remus, who was the gentlest creature Tonks had ever known, maybe people would've changed their minds. She decided that she would one day tell Teddy all about his father, when he was old enough to understand. She was certain that he'd be proud of his father no matter what he was.
At least he probably wasn't in pain anymore, Remus. Perhaps, even thought it was probably currently daylight in the Himalayas, he would be looking up at the moon tomorrow night for the first time in a long time as a human being and smile, knowing that it was the same moon his family was staring at right now.
And Remus was a smart man. He knew that whenever his wife looked at the moon, regardless of what phase it was currently in, she thought only of him and how he was at peace in his new home.
That thought in itself was enough for Tonks to smile, if only for a fraction of a second.
After a quick breakfast at 5:30 in the morning (Tonks had returned to her room by three and managed to sleep for a little more than two hours before Andromeda shook her awake), the two women packed everything, took care of Teddy's needs, and rounded up the thestrals for the long day's journey to Vienna. While Tonks mounted her thestral and took Teddy in her grip (Tonks felt significantly more confident on her thestral that she felt she could hold Teddy), Andromeda was giving directions.
"We're going to be heading southeast again for most of the morning," she said, getting on her thestral. "By the time we see the Alps, it should be lunchtime and we should be closing in on Switzerland. Once we cross that border, we will stop for a one hour rest. From there, we head to Vienna and make it just after sundown. Got it, Nymphadora?"
But Tonks had already begun running her thestral for takeoff.
Once both women were up in the air and flying at a safe altitude (Tonks was still a little unstable on hers, but Teddy didn't seem to object very much). Tonks made sure she was much more alert on this flight than she was yesterday (she still couldn't believe she daydreamt on a thestral while flying all day over the English Channel). Tonks liked flying over water a bit better on her broom, for it was always cool to see her reflection in the sea below. But flying over the pine and deciduous forests alike in France was just as beautiful, particularly because this was another spectacular day for flying. The clouds, however few there were, we considerable higher up in the sky, so Andromeda and Tonks could see for miles the horizons surrounding them. Andromeda, without even telling Tonks, took a small 'detour' from their route so they could fly around Paris. This thrilled Tonks, who loved circling the Eiffel Tower. Andromeda personally loved looking at the beautiful old cathedral (though the name of which she forgot) that lied on the Ile de la Cite, from a birds-eye view.
Once out of Paris, Andromeda picked up the speed a little bit so they could make their lunchtime destination. But the snowy and promising mountains that told them they were on the border of Switzerland were a long time in coming. Andromeda couldn't even see them on the horizon yet. Maybe she shouldn't have taken that detour after all?
So, instead, for a lunch break, Andromeda and Tonks made their touchdown in Dijon around one-thirty in the afternoon. While they changed Teddy, fed him, and released the thestrals to snack around a bit, Tonks and Andromeda stopped in a small Muggle coffee shop for some sandwiches. They sat outside on the street to eat, and for most of the meal, the women were silent.
Tonks finally broke the silence. "Mum? How come you can see them?"
"Beg pardon?" was her mother's reply.
Tonks took a small bite of her sandwich before asking again. "I mean, you can only see thestrals when you witness a death and it sinks in. I assume I can see them because I was there when Sirius fell through the veil after Bellatrix got him. But you weren't there, and you weren't at the Battle, and nor were you there when dad was—"
Andromeda interrupted Tonks with a deep, loud sigh. "I've been able to see thestrals for many, many years, Nymphadora."
"Why?"
Andromeda leaned back in her chair and recalled the incident that gave her the power to see her thestrals. "Well, it was after I got engaged to your father, and of course, I knew for a fact that once I told my sisters and parents, I'd be burned right off the family tree. So naturally, Ted and I hesitated for a little while on that subject."
"Naturally," agreed Tonks.
"Well, things got a little more…ahem…COMPLICATED…when I, um, became pregnant with you," Andromeda said, avoid eye contact with Tonks (and was she BLUSHING?).
"Mother! I was born out of wedlock?" Tonks asked, mocking a shocked tone of voice. Tonks then gasped overdramatically. "I never would have guessed!"
"Not born, just…conceived is all," Andromeda excused. Tonks rolled her eyes. "So," Andromeda continued. "I decided to tell my family one night around the supper table. Bellatrix was already married, but she and Rodolphus were dining with us that night. I was so nervous…it just…popped out during the soup course!"
"Then what happened? Who got killed?" Tonks sounded like a little girl whose mother was telling her an adventure story.
"You see, the Black had several House Elves back then. Bellatrix had her own, I had my own, and Narcissa had her own. Mine was a young male House-Elf named Shinks. Shinks was more than a House-Elf to me. I felt so alone during those Merlin-awful summers I had to spend with the family. I always felt so detached from them, you know? Shinks and I were like friends during those summers. He'd make tea for both of us, and then he'd complain about how Kreacher would always bully him around, and I'd complain about how my sisters would bully me around. Shinks knew about you and Ted before any of THEM knew. Well, when I told the family about you and Ted, none of them reacted at first—it was shock, I suppose—and when someone did absorb the information I had just given, it was Bellatrix first."
Tonks shuddered. "Oh Merlin, I can see where this is going…" Tonks had flashbacks to a year ago when Bellatrix had personally come after her while trying to get the seven Harry Potters to safety. Not to mention, during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries, Bellatrix had tried several times before targeting Sirius to do in her blood-traitor niece.
"Anyway, in her fury, she pointed her wand at Shinks as he brought out a tray of salads, and then, before I could stop her, green sparks flew."
"How awful," Tonks mumbled.
"After Ted heard about it, he purchased these two very thestrals because I could see them now."
"And how come Dad could see them?" asked Tonks.
"You know, I never quite knew that," Andromeda said after thinking a moment. "I assume it had to do with Ted's mother, who was long dead by the time I met him. Everyone else in his family was still alive at the time."
Tonks nodded. "Remus could see them, I bet" Tonks muttered. "After what happened with his father so many years ago and Fenrir Greyback—"
"—enough reminiscing, Nymphadora," Andromeda ordered, her voice turning cold as stone again. "We're still miles and miles away from Switzerland. We might have to switch our destination from Vienna to Zurich if we don't get a move on!"
The afternoon's weather was a little bit harder to navigate through, as the wind began picking up a little bit after three in the afternoon. The pair of fliers were going against the wind, which slowed them down even more. Andromeda got very angry when they finally hit mountain ranges and the wind picked up even worse.
"I'll be thanking Merlin if we even make it across the border!" Andromeda shouted to Tonks (the wind made seeing and hearing equally as hard).
"Mum, Teddy's fussing. It's not good for him up here," Tonks said, bundling Teddy even closer into her mother's cloak (Tonks herself put up the huge hood in order to try and keep warmer…it was SUMMER! How cold could it be in the MOUNTAINS?). "He could get sick!"
"It's about two hours until sundown! We'll see where we are by then. We can hold out, Nymphadora! I promise," Andromeda said loudly.
"Is there any resting places before Zurich?!" Tonks hollered. Teddy began fussing even worse and crying.
"Maybe there might be a small bordertown we could lodge at for the night! I bet there is," Andromeda thought. She tried to think of an alternative route that wasn't so miserable for her child and grandchild. Perhaps if they deviated south to Monaco and followed the northern coast of the Mediterrainian…
…but within a few moment, Andromeda's thoughts were interrupted when suddenly, red sparks started shooting up all around Tonks and Andromeda's thestrals. The startled thestrals bucked, nearly hurling the women to the ground. Tonks screamed and tried to hold on to Teddy while holding onto her thestral. Andromeda' having been lost in thought, was caught off guard and thrown right off hers and send falling towards the earth.
Tonks screamed. She couldn't get her wand without letting go of either her son or her own grip on the thestral's neck! "MUM!" she shouted helplessly.
But someone else shouted "WingardiumLeviosa!" Andromeda's horrifying descent stopped, and Andromeda was lifted safely back onto her thestral. The two winged beasts were calmed down, but Tonks and Andromeda were stuck on them, midair. They found themselves surrounded by no less than eight French Aurors, all their wands pointed at the two ladies.
"Arret There is no border crossing, by order of the Prime Minister of Magic of France, at least not until all the old followers of the Former Dark Lord are found and arrested," said one blond male Auror.
"Nymphadora, do we have papers?"
Tonks grunted. "I don't know, do we?" was her reply. Andromeda wanted to slap her forehead. In all the depression and excitement of the trip, she'd forgotten to procure three visas!
"Monsieur," said Andromeda. "We are on a pilgrimage. We are not Dark witches."
The Aurors whispered amongst themselves, some even looked like they were ready to laugh.
"That is what they all say, Madame. Come with us to land your beasts," said the young blonde Auror. "You're journey is at an end."