Chapter 60

Remus kept thinking about what Mila had said. Married to Dora? How could that be possible. Yes, they loved each other. He couldn't imagine his life without her in it. But what would people say? How would they treat her once they knew? And what about having more children someday? Children that were biologically theirs. Dora had a right to that. But any biological child of his- surely they would be like him, cursed to transform every month.

Most of his arguments against marrying her were the same ones he'd had before agreeing to be with her as more than friends, and he'd already gotten past them. But now that things were more serious between them, and he couldn't deny that they were, their relationship seemed more like a bad idea again.

Yet at the same time, why had he bothered spending so much time with her, growing closer to her, if in the end he wasn't going to let himself be with her anyway? And didn't all the time they'd been together show that it could work? And he knew he wanted to marry her. So why put it off any longer? For once, he was going to think of himself as just a man, not a werewolf.

So he found himself with a ring he'd bought, practicing different proposals until Sirius walked in and caught him at it.

"If you say one word-" Remus warned.

"Wasn't going to. High time you finally decided to marry Tonks." He grinned. "In fact I want to show you something."

He had Remus follow him into the room with the Black family tapestry.

"I was going to just burn this, but I like my new idea better."

Sirius had reversed which names were blasted off the tapestru and which ones were there. From the name "Nymphadora Tonks" went a line connecting it to the name "Remus Lupin." From them came two lines, one labeled "Harry James Potter-Lupin," and another labeled "Amelia 'Mila' Lupin." Remus also noticed a line connecting Sirius' name to Alex's.

"You're that sure Dora will say 'yes.'"

Sirius rolled his eyes. "Moony, she's been in love with you almost from the start. Of course she's going to say yes."

Still Remus was nervous that evening. He hadn't done anything to let on this was anything except a normal date. They went to a nice restaraunt for dinner, then for a stroll together. When they got back to Phoenix House, Remus said softly.

"Dora, you've always stuck by me, no matter what."

"Of course I have," Tonks said simply. "I love you."

Maybe this would go well after all.

"I'm hoping," Remus began, dropping to one knee and pulling out the ring. He swallowed nervously. "I'm hoping you'll always stick by me Dora. Will you marry me?"

Tonks dropped to her knees too, and soon they had their rms around each other.

"Took you long enough to ask."

"You- you mean you will?"

"Did you really expect me to say no?"

"I did wonder," He kissed her. "Dora, why me? Of all the people you could have, why did you fall in love with me? I still think you could have done much better."

Tonks laughed warmly. "You can't do better than the best, and as far as I'm concerned, that's you."

"Remus, sometimes you're such a perfect gentleman you're absolutely old fashioned," Tonks teased.

"We're going to have enough problems without in- law troubles," Remus said. "I want to be sure we won't have any trouble with them."

Tonks had asked her parents if they could have Remus over to dinner, although she hadn't told them why.

Tonks rolled her eyes. "They aren't going to have any problem with us. And even if they did, they married for love. Why shouldn't we have the same right. Besides, they know and like you already."

"As Sirius's best friend, not as your fiance."

"They will. And nothing they say or do will change my answer anyway. I love you, you asked me to marry you, and I've said yes. That's all there is to it. And they don't have anything against werewolves. You know they adore Mila."

"But she's a child. that's different."

"Now that's just silly. How would it be all right to accept one werewolf and not another?"

Remus didn't say anything, but he knew a child was easier for most people to accept than a potential son in law.

As they were shown in, Remus kept going over just how he was going to break the news to them, and wondering how they were going to respond. Then the time for thinking on it was over.

"Mum, Dad. I had a special reason for wanting Remus to come over this evening. We have something important to tell you."

She looked at Remus, and he nervously began to tell them.

"You already know Dora and I have been working together at Phoenix House. We've faught together in the Order, and we've spent alot of time together besides. Not just because of Mila either. What I'm trying to say is, I've fallen in love with your daughter. And, incredible as it may seem, she fell in love with me."

"And we wanted to know if either of you would have any objections if the two of us were to be married," Tonks finished for tried to watch Ted and Andromeda for their reactions without seeming to. It was Andromeda who answered.

"Remus," she said gently, smiling warmly. "When our little Nymphadora," Tonks flinched at the name but let her mother continue. "When she was a child, naturally she'd hear other children talking and she came home with questions. And we answered them truthfully. We told her it was wrong to believe any group was better than any other group. People who thought that way were often hateful, usually stupid, but always always wrong. And when we taught her that, we did not add 'but don't ever fall in love with a werewolf.'"

"I only want to be sure of one thing," Ted said. "That you love my daughter."

"You don't have to worry about that, sir," Remus answered. "I love her and there's nothing I wouldn't do to keep her happy."

Smiling, Ted told him "My name is Ted, not 'sir.'" And if you love Dora, then that's all that matters. I don't pretend to have gone through anything like you have, but when I married Andy I had people calling me a mudblood and telling me I had no right to marry a daughter of a pureblood family. I loved Andy though, and decided we'd just have to cling to each other."

"I know the two of you will face problems-" he continued.

"That's putting it mildly," Remus said. "Most people would be shocked and offended and appaled at Dora and I if they knew about my problem."

"And you two will have to ride that out probably every day for the rest of your lives," Ted said. "But in the end it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. What matters is what you feel, and how strongly you feel for each other. And if it's half of what Andy and I still feel for each other, then that's everything. No matter what anybody says against the two of you, I think there would be one thing worse. And that would be, knowing what you two have, if you didn't get married."

Tonks squeezed Remus' hand.

"See? I told you there wouldn't be a problem."

Andromeda laughed. "Remus, we're not exactly the one to tell our daughter who to marry. Anyway, even if we did have a problem with Dora marrying you, and if Nymphadora would listen if we did, we would never want to make her unhappy that way. I remember how it was for me when my parents tried to keep Ted and I apart. They told me I had a responsibility to marry a pureblood, that I owed that to my ancestors and my children to come." Andromeda made a face. "I told them I'd rather have my children know that their parents married for love." She smiled at her daughter as she spoke to Remus. "Nymphadora was always a cheerful, happy person, but I've never seen her quite this happy before. And I can't help being happy for her."

Now that there were no more obstacles in the way for them it was easy to look forward to the future. Tonks looked at her parents, as much in love now as they were the day they were married. She couldn't help thinking that would be her and Remus in years to come.

There was only one person left to tell about the newest upcomming marraige, and Remus brought up the subject by telling Harry there was going to be a new addition to the family.

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Harry asked. "I mean things keep getting more and more crouded around here."

Remus looked concerned until Harry started laughing.

"Of course, if you've finally decided to ask Tonks to marry you, that's different."

"You," Remus accused playfully, "Have been spending far too much time with your useless godfather. You're definately picking up his warped sense of humor."

Actually, now that he thought about it, ever since the summer had started, Harry, Sirius, and Tonks, had been away somewhere together every spare moment. And if the three of them stayed in the house, they always seemed to change the subject whenever Remus came into the room. Those three were up to something.

"Oh, come on Dad. Everyone knows you and Tonks belong together. If you hadn't asked her soon, Sirius and I were going to drag you to the alter."

"I see," Remus said, his lip twitching as he held back laughter. "And how were you planning on getting Dora there?"

"We weren't worried about that. We knew she'd be there."

It looked like the next summer would be one wedding after another. Sirius and Alex, Remus and Tonks, Lawrence and Gwen and, much to Mrs. Weasley's dismay, Bill and Fleur. Fleur had taken a job at Gringott's to 'eemproove er Inglish" and Bill had decided he'd rather work at Gringott's closer to home, and the two had fallen in love.

Now that summer was wearing on though, the children were starting to worry more about their OWL marks than about weddings. Hermione was especially nervous about her Ancient Runes test, and mentioned it one day when she came to visit.

"I mixed up 'Ehwaz' with 'Eihwaz.' And the thing is, I know what they mean."

"Ehwaz means partnership or change and Eihwaz means protection or defense," Mila said. Everyone turned to look at her.

"What?"

"How did you know that?" Hermione asked.

"Well," Mila admitted, "I started listening in on a few of the classes here. Ancient Runes fascinate me."

"I think we have another Hermione on our hands," Sirius whispered so Hermione couldn't hear, and Harry laughed.

When their OWL results came, it turned out Hermione got an "Outstanding" in everything except Defence, and she got an "Exceeds Expectations" in that. Harry knew his results wouldn't be that good, nowhere near it. But his envelope would have to be opened eventually, and he reasoned he might as well do it now.

The results weren't bad at all! He hadn't done well in Divination or History of Magic, but he'd always expected that. He'd gotten on "E" in everything else except Astronomy, and best of all he'd gotten an "O" in Defense.

"No surprise there," Remus said proudly. "You were as good at Defense in your third year as half the seventh years I taught."

Harry was also going to be captain of the Gryffindor Quiddich team that year, which also came as no surprise. Now that he'd gone almost an entire year without flying at Hogwarts, he was more anxious than ever to be back on a broom.

And so Harry's third year began.

"Did Dumbledore just say Slughorn was teaching Potions?" Ron asked.

"That's what it sounded like," Harry said, just as surprised as his friend. Everyone assumed the new teacher would be teaching Defense since that was the only vacancy. Now that he thought about it, Harry did rememberhearing Slughorn used to teach Potions.

"But if Snape's still here and Slughorn's teaching Potions that must mean-" Harry thought aloud. "Oh no!"

Sure enough, once Dumbledore had announced that Slughorn would be teaching Potions, he announced that Snape would be teaching Defense that year. Harry took a deep breath. He owed Snape his life several times over, and his dad's life too. He knew Snape had been his mother's best friend. But that didn't necessarily mean Snape would start being nice to Harry. He didn't have to be quite so mean since he wasn't a spy any more, so maybe that would make a difference. And helping Snape was the one thing his mother had ever asked of Harry, so that's what he was going to do.

Besides, Snape would have been teaching him anyway. Harry just hadn't counted on it being his favorite subject. And he'd heard Snape had a rough summer. His death eater past had been brought up, and it had taken Dumbledore's testimony to keep him from being arrested. If Fudge had been left in office a little longer, he probably would have had Snape prosecuted just to cover his own mistakes.

Resolved to make an effort to help Snape and to focus on the positive, Harry joined in as Dumbledore led the students in singing the school was going to be a happy year. Voldemort was dead after all, and Harry kept his fingers crossed that maybe, just maybe, he could be a normal kid this year.

AN: The scene with Remus talking with Tonks' parents was inspired by "Guess Who's Comming To Dinner." I always pictured Ted and Andromeda being like Spencer Tracy and Katherine Hepburn. I know Remus thought they were discusted by his marraige to Tonks in Deathly Hallows, but I think that was just his perception. I don't think they were that type of people, and Andromeda was Sirius' favorite cousin after all.