"Like hell!" Andromeda yelled harshly, pacing Tonks' bedroom violently that evening. Charlie sat in a small rocking chair in the corner, looking like a small schoolboy being scolded by his Headmistress. Tonks sat on the bed, holding a very pale and sickly-looking Teddy in her arms, rocking his still body back and forth. He had been put under a deep sleeping spell by the Lithuanian Healer to help his recovery. "Nymphadora and I nearly broke our necks yesterday, and here you want to come along for the ride? Boys, they never grow up, do they?"
"Mrs. Tonks, clearly the two of you were in over your heads from the beginning," Charlie defended himself. "But a third would make the journey a little more secure. You'd have a little more protection for the babe," Charlie pointed at Teddy. Tonks didn't blink.
"But a third person means if we all get lost, then ANOTHER person gets lost with us! It's not worth the risk!" Andromeda said.
"Tonks will agree with me, you'll see," Charlie said, inching towards Tonks. She still kept silent.
"Don't you DARE turn my own daughter against me!" Andromeda snapped. "Honestly, one would think you were five years old and begging for candy! Nymphadora and I are a team. We're in this together…"
"But I can be completely useful to her baby. I can take a nice, smooth-riding dragon and carry him with me. Teddy will be safer on a dragon than on a thestral."
"Charlie, I don't think it's a good idea either," Tonks finally said. Charlie seemed a little surprised by her ruling.
"Tonks…really?" Charlie asked. Tonks nodded.
"Molly's lost a son already. I really don't want more sadness on anyone else's expense. If Mum and I go, at least if we never come back, there's no one left to cry after us. You have a whole family."
Charlie stared at Tonks a moment and nodded, much more moved by Tonks' reasoning than her mum's. He went to back out of the room. Just before he left, he spoke his final words of the night: "Fine. But you have a whole week here until your thestrals are healthy again. A week is long…"
And with that, Charlie shut the door, leaving Andromeda, Tonks, and Teddy in the silence.
Tonks found herself barefoot, wandering around what looked like Hogwarts, only it was reduced to not much more than a ruin site. Her hair was longer than the length she'd been keeping it at since Remus' death, it was almost halfway down her thigh and nearly white, it was as blonde as XenophiliusLovegood's daughter's hair. Mist gathered at her feet and made it hard for her to see. She was alone.
The call of a thestral high above her made Tonks look up. The thestral was carrying Sirius on his back. Sirius stopped and waved at Tonks. Tonks waved back and tried to smile, but her lips were paralyzed in an indifferent pose. Sirius flew off towards the Black Lake and disappeared.
Where was everybody, and why was Hogwarts in ruins? Tonks felt her stomach flutter. As she put her hand on her stomach, she realized that she was pregnant (so…this was before Teddy was born, was it?). She didn't wear her usual robes. She wore a maternity dress that was in tatters.
Wait…she was still pregnant. That meant Remus was alive! She had to warn him…
Tonks picked up the pace and began racing down the labyrinth of wreckage, calling her husband's name as she ran. "Remus?REMUS!" But nothing answered her.
Tonks quickly felt winded, but her legs wouldn't stop. Suddenly, she saw Remus stumble into sight, his wand at the ready. Was that an owl on his shoulder? Yes, a baby owlet perched on Remus' left shoulder like a parrot or a pigeon. Remus was completely unscarred (Tonks had almost never seen him without some sort of scar on his face). Tonks smiled as Remus emerged from the wreckage.
"Remus, darling! Are you alright?" Tonks called. She tried to get to Remus, but it was as if some invisible barrier was keeping her from getting close to him. Remus stood on top of a pile of stones, and Tonks couldn't approach the small hill. "REMUS? CAN YOU HEAR ME?" she called. "ARE YOU ALIVE?!"
Remus stared down at her and smiled. But he still said nothing.
Tonks tried again. "REMUS! DON'T GO TO THE BATTLE OF HOGWARTS! YOU'LL GET KILLED!!" Tonks waited for another reply, none came.
Suddenly, Remus' form disappeared from the top of the small hill. Tonks felt her heart sink, when suddenly, a wolf appeared behind her and began charging at her. Tonks turned around but didn't run. The wolf ran between her legs, picking Tonks up and carrying her on his back as he ran. Tonks realized that this had to be Remus in his werewolf form.
The wolf carried the pregnant and disheveled Tonks out of the ruin and over a few hills into the dark, moonlit night. It finally decided to set her down on a hill that reached high enough so that Tonks, in a standing position, was silhouetted against the full moon. The wolf morphed back into its' human form: Remus. Remus silently walked up to Tonks and affectionately placed a hand on her stomach.
"Remus, can you speak? Listen to me!" Tonks begged. "You can't—"
"—shh," Remus whispered, placing a gentle finger on her lip, silencing her. "Calm down, Dora. I'm here for you."
"Remus, there's going to be a big Battle at Hogwarts. You can't go. You will be killed," Tonks said in a much calmer tone.
"Dora, you're talking nonsense. You're not a Seer. How can you predict such an event?"
Tonks was confused. "Remus, I know what I'm talking about!"
Remus shook his head. "I think you're eating too many pickled dipped in peanut butter, Dora, baby."
Tonks grew more confused. Remus never called her 'baby.' Nor did she ever eat pickles and peanut butter over the course of her pregnancy. Hell, she didn't even LIKE pickles!
"Remus, you have to trust me!"
"I do trust you, with my life," Remus said.
It suddenly occurred to Tonks. Remus wasn't alive, and therefore, he had no life to trust her with! So Remus didn't trust her at all.
"Let him come with you," Remus suddenly said. Tonks blinked.
"What do you mean?"
"Charlie Weasley is a nice lad. He fancies you too, Dora. Always has."
Tonks immediately shook her head. "I will never love anyone again, Remus. I vow that you will be my first and last and only."
"Charlie Weasley is a knowledgeable man. He will be indispensable on your journey. Convince your mother to take him with you, and you will not be sorry."
Tonks shook her head again. "Remus, I can't!"
Remus laid a soft hand on her shoulder. "Do as I say, Dora. Charlie will be very important to you. Without him, your mother will die."
"What the bloody hell does THAT mean?" Tonks asked, on the border of completely frightened.
"Charlie must come with you, or you will not make it to the Borderland," Remus said. He suddenly looked up at the full moon, which was being covered by low, thick, dense clouds not unlike the clouds that Tonks had fallen through during the terrible storm. Tonks looked up too and suddenly felt chilly.
She turned to face Remus again, but he was gone.
Tonks woke up in the middle of the night with a cold sweat running down her face. The dream…it had not been a flashback, yet it had been twice as horrendous as any dream she'd had before. Not being able to go back to sleep, Tonks put on a dressing robe and decided to go for another late-night walk.
The path through the extensive grounds where the dragons were kept was so quiet. Not even the wind disrupted the silence tonight. The waning moon reassured Tonks that her dream hadn't been as real as it seemed after all. Yet she still felt the chills.
Her thoughts were interrupted when she heard a rather loud and mournful call of a Horntail dragon. Tonks wanted to run back to the boardinghouse, but instead she ran towards the sound. It was coming from an illuminated barn about a quarter-of-a-mile down the path. Tonks ran to the barn and peered inside. Kelly Morton and Charlie Weasley were there with a Horntail, who looked in agony.
Tonks gasped. Kelly turned around and frowned.
"You shouldn't be in here," she warned. But Charlie turned around and smiled, shaking his head.
"No, Kelly, it's fine. Couldn't sleep?" Charlie asked. Tonks felt another chill run down her spine. Was Remus right when he said Charlie fancied her? Tonks didn't even WANT to think about it.
"What wrong with this dragon?" asked Tonks cautiously. Charlie turned to face the dragon, who seemed to be at a temporary ease.
"This is Anastasia, a female Horntail. Nothing's wrong with her, but she's gone into premature labor, and having a hard time with it too. Kelly called me out about an hour after I left you and your mother," Charlie explained.
"How terrible," Tonks said, wincing. She'd had somewhat of a hard and early delivery herself with Teddy and could somewhat feel Anastasia's pain. Remus' hand grasping hers was what made it a bit easier. Tonks remembered at one difficult point, Remus told her to break his hand if she needed to…
"Kelly, go get some hot water, Tonks, pull up a stool and stand by. This next contraction might do it," Charlie ordered, his voice very serious and business-like. Kelly dashed off and Tonks did as she was told.
"Charlie," Tonks asked softly.
"What?"
"I've been thinking, and maybe you should come with us," Tonks said. Charlie rose an eyebrow.
"Why the sudden change of mind?" he asked.
Tonks didn't want to tell Charlie about the abstract dream, so instead she just shrugged.
"Tonks, you know that it's not only your protection I'm worried about when I say I want to move on with you and your mother. I have someone waiting for me in the Himalayas, too."
Tonks suddenly saw Fred Weasley's face fly past her line of vision and understood. "Fred!"
Charlie nodded. "Seeing him again would give me the strength to deal with his death more than any picture or video or memory ever could."
"I feel the same way about Remus," Tonks sighed. "You really hurt that much over Fred? I mean, you rarely saw him, you were always off with your dragons!"
"Doesn't mean a thing if he was in England and I was in Romania. We're still a family, aren't we?"
"Were a family," corrected Tonks. Charlie shook his head.
"No, we still are a family. Fred's just in a different form now. He's in our memories. Same thing with Ted Tonks and Remus, they're not out of your family anymore. They're just within your hearts instead of physically standing beside you."
Tonks pondered over this pleasant thought silently after a moment. But again, the dragon cut those thoughts short as she screeched again. Kelly came rushing in with the hot water in two pails.
"This is it," Charlie warned. Kelly, get the water and the sheets ready. Tonks, sit by me and be ready to catch the baby…"
Tonks felt rather awkward sitting next to Charlie staring up a dragon's…well…private parts. But what happened in the next few moments happened in a single instant for Tonks. A large, scaly infant dragon fell out of his mother, into Charlie's and Tonks' arms and into the world with a short cry from his mother. Charlie and Kelly routinely cleaned the squirming baby dragon off (Tonks only watched in awe), declared it a male, and released it to Anastasia, who accepted him and began affectionately cleaning it off.
Once the baby dragon was in the care of his mother, Charlie turned to Kelly. "Go write this in the ledger," he ordered. "A baby male dragon was born to Anastasia, the Horntail from Belarus."
"What will we name him?" asked Kelly.
Charlie turned to Tonks and thought for a moment before turning back to give Kelly his answer. "Remus. The baby male dragon's name is Remus."
Tonks blushed and nearly cried as Kelly smiled and dashed out of the barn to record the birth. Charlie looked again at Tonks.
"You didn't have to…" Tonks began.
Charlie shook his head. "No, my pleasure. Mayu wanted to name him Mitsubishi, so it's really not a problem."
Tonks stifled a laugh. Charlie looked at her with seriousness. "You might want to go back to bed. It will be dawn soon, and knowing Kelly, instead of writing in the ledger, she's going to be waking the whole boardinghouse up to see the new baby."
Tonks nodded and quickly left the barn. She could hear Charlie yell after her, "Goodnight! Have a pleasant sleep!"
Tonks ignored Charlie and moved back towards the boardinghouse, knowing very well that she would not have a pleasant sleep.