Auction Prompt: Day 4 Auction 3 - What if Remus had survived the final battle?
Word Count: 601
A/N: It goes unchecked. Because that's how I roll right now.
We Made It
Everything about Remus ached. From the roots of his hair all the way down to his toes. His muscles ached, his skin felt raw, and his bones did not want to hold him up a moment longer. He felt none of it when he found his wife, hobbling into the castle from the courtyard, a bright smile on her face when she saw him.
Voldemort was dead and had been for precisely ten minutes.
They lingered long enough to check on Harry, but Teddy was in the forefront of their minds. They'd come believing they wouldn't survive. Somehow, against all the odds, they had. Now they wanted to get home and hug their boy. They could come back later to help.
Andromeda clung onto the both of them the moment they arrived in the house. "You're both idiots, but you're my idiots and that boy needs his parents."
Remus gave Andromeda another squeeze of a hug before leaving Dora with her mother. He took the stairs two at a time, his long legs not struggling with the strides, even if his body didn't appreciate it. The sun was barely in the sky, its light shining brightly through the window of Teddy's bedroom as if to emphasise the joys of the day they were entering.
His son, already awake, lay on his back, feet kicking excitedly in the air as his hair turned mousey-brown for a brief moment. Remus scooped him up, his hair returned to its normal colour of black, like Andromeda's, and hugged him close. He breathed in the scent of Teddy, the smell of the soap from his nighttime bath still on his skin. Teddy giggled at Remus' unshaven cheek tickling his skin. He didn't care that he was probably getting dust and dirt all over Teddy and his clothing. He needed to hold him and, at that moment, feel like he would never let him go.
Remus turned to Dora when he heard her heavy footsteps enter the room. She smiled like she was seeing them for the first time in months. "I honestly thought we might not have come back," she whispered, placing a hand on Teddy's back.
"Me too," Remus admitted. He shifted Teddy into one arm to put his free one around Dora. She snuggled into him, resting her head under his chin. "We made it."
"Not all of us," she replied quietly.
"No," Remus said. A brief image of Sirius' face went through his mind, the same one from the last two years; laughing as he fell through the Veil.
"He'd have been a great godfather to Teddy." Dora always seemed to know what Remus was thinking. She stepped out of his arm, taking Teddy with her as she did. "He'd have gotten up to no good with him and I know they'd have been best friends."
Remus laughed gently, childhood memories taking over the one he had been seeing of Sirius' death. "We'll have to have another baby so Teddy has someone he can be thick as thieves with."
"You mean it?" Dora asked in a choked whisper.
He'd been thinking about it a lot since Teddy had arrived, having more children, even after all his fears of passing his lycanthropy onto him. But the moment he picked Teddy up minutes ago, having survived what they'd just been through, Remus knew in his soul he wanted more children.
He pulled her into a hug. Teddy shrieked in surprise at being stuck in the middle of them. "We've been given a second chance… to be happy and surrounded by family. Let's not waste it."