The end of June came faster than any had realized, and Lily and James were busy preparing their apartment for the return of Harry, as well as working on convincing Tonks to return as well. It had been nearly three months without much communication from Remus, other than that things were going well within in the pack, thus he wouldn't be returning any time soon. Order meetings had experienced a rapid increase and decrease; increase in need and danger, with a decrease in occurrence. Moody and Albus kept guards up to date, and otherwise recommended everyone lay low until the final word was given that something was truly happening.

So when the fire place roared to life James and Lily were both ready to fight, and wholly unprepared for Remus to step out with his hands raised and a sheepish look in his eyes.

"Albus asked me to return." He spoke in a breath, heaving a sigh when the wands were lowered and Lily pulled him into a tight hug, disregarding any need for a security question as she looked at the shambled state of her best friend, she knew in her heart it was him (a response that would have gotten her heavily abused by Alastor, but he didn't have to know.)

"Welcome home." She mumbled into his shoulder as she embraced him, stepping aside for James to clap his old friend on the shoulder and take in the damage that had occurred in his time away. Minimal, yet evident scars littered his body, and he was far too thin for anyone's approval, but Molly would certainly go mad when she saw him.

"Welcome back mate. For good, we hope?" He asked, figuring the answer would be no, but hoping for the best.

"I think so," Remus began cautiously. "Albus made it sound like there was a shift, and Moody was against me going from the beginning anyway, so if he has anything to say about it, there is no way I'm going back." Lily's face split into a smile, before she pushed Lupin from behind.

"Go shower and clean yourself up, I'll make some food while you do, then you go to Dumbledore." It wasn't a question, and Remus made no moves to argue hastily pushing down the hall to his old romo and grabbing clothes. His already torn robes were tailing behind him, looking as if they were on their last leg, not a promising sight to speak into their current circumstance.

Once the washroom door was shut James looked to Lily, "Do we tell Tonks?" He asked her, his mouth twisting in concern. Lily nodded once, her green eyes growing sad as she thought of their brown haired friend who had been avoiding all the good life had to offer her; remembering the state of the young girl over the past few months, knowing that much longer she would likely work herself to death.

"It's either that or she probably hexes him when she sees him, and that doesn't seem like something we want to unintentionally be a part of." Despite himself James smiled, nodding as he wrote a letter to owl over to her.

Tonks,

Funny surprise, but you'll never guessed who walked through our front fireplace today, but our old friend Remus. I just wanted to let you know of his return, and the likelihood that he'll be around from now on. If you want to come by to talk to him feel free. If not Albus summoned him to the school tonight, so maybe work to keep your patrolling off the grounds.

I know this isn't what you want to hear, but it's the news for the day, so I'm sorry I have to be the one to give it. But please don't be too hard on him, you didn't see the way he was beating himself up after last time.

J&L

He did not expect the immediate reply that shot through his window in the form of Tonks angry owl who incessantly bit fingers if not supplied by chewing something.

James,

Of all the things I don't have time for right now this would be on the top of the list. I have t o be at the damned school tonight because the headmaster asked for me for a special assignment. Lord help him if he has something ridiculous planned with the two of us working together. Thanks for the heads up, I'm far too busy to stop by, but being that one of the last words I said to Remus was 'fuck' i don't think he's too keen on seeing me either.

All my love to you two, i'll pop by soon

T

Remus entered the kitchen just as James shooed her owl away with no reply, and tucked the letter in his pocket.

"What was it you said Albus wanted from you tonight mate?" He asked, standing up to help Lily plate dinner she had cooked. He didn't see the hesitation on Remus's face as he spooned curry over rice in large amounts for his friend.

"He didn't, really. He said he needed some help patrolling, and that after we would talk about next steps for me here at home." Remus shrugged, before eyeing his two friends. "Why? Do you know something I don't?" Lily shook her head, and did James.

"I just think it's odd for him to call you home so suddenly. I think he may have asked a couple order members to watch over the school tonight, which leaves me wondering where he'll be and why he feels the need for extra protection with the end of term being so close. Remus nodded as he took in the information, slowly biting into a piece of naan.

"I think things are getting worse." He said as he ate, not looking to the two potters for confirmation. "I think he's getting ready for something bg." They all knew that, but none of them were entirely ready to say it. They knew Dumbledore was working on something in secret and they were almost all in the dark about it, but their trust for him outweighed their compulsory need to know everything at all times.

Lily set a hand on Lupins shoulder. "That's why you need to promise us that you'll stay safe." She said, giving a comforting squeeze as she did. Remus nodded, pushing away from the table and grabbing his wand where he'd left it in the chocolate cabinet.

"I best be off. If something really is happening I most certainly don't want to be late." LIly glanced at James who cleared his throat, his nerves thick in the action.

"I think he called a few others to the castle tonight." James said, watching Remus's face as his friend processed what he wasn't saying.

"Oh? So there must be something going on." Remus stood up, pulling his cloak from the chair and pulling it around himself.

"I think Tonks will be there." Lily said, not wasting any time the way her husband seemed to insist on doing. "And I think you'll likely be working near each other." Remus face tightened for a moment, an unconscious act both James and Lily didn't miss, but chose not to point out.

"Alright. Thank you for letting me know." Remus gave them a nod and walked toward their fireplace. "Does she know I'll be there?" He asked them without turning around, his voice all business, as if they weren't watching his heart began to ache deeply as he grieved again the woman who he would likely always love more than he would ever be able to admit.

Lily didn't even look at James before she answered, "She has no idea." The red haired woman lied quickly and easily. Remus nodded, sharing a parting smile with his two friends and dropping to floo powder in the fireplace.

"Why'd you lie?" James asked her the second the green flames were gone. She smiled up at him, her eyes losing their usual glint of happiness.

"Things are getting bad James, he needed to think he had a chance to talk to her civilly without her trying to avoid him before he even saw her." James nodded, pulling her into him by her shoulders, silently praying that everyone would remain safe.

Tonks paced the hallway outside the headmaster's office, wondering why he wasn't coming down, wondering what was happening and why he needed her, wondering when Remus was going to get there and how easy it would be to ignore him.

"He's not in, he left a few hours ago." Kingsley called to her from down the hall. She spun slowly on her heel to face him, thankful her usual clumsiness didn't show in that moment.

"Where'd he-"

"I don't know, but I think we need to get to the front of the castle, Minerva has a group there, and she seems all business. This is important." Tonks nodded, following behind him briskly as they walked to the staircase.

"I think Remus is-"

"He is, I know." She cut her friend off not wanting to know what he was going to say. He probably looked like crap, but so did she, and he was probably wanting to see her as little as she wanted to see him. And she didn't need to think about that in that moment. It was go time, they had all been training for timesl ike this, and she wasn't going to let her silly crush get in the way and run the risk of killing one of her friends.

Hours later James and Lily found themselves rushing in to the castle after being called on by Minerva. Lily ran over to comfort Harry, who was clinging to Ginny's hand and holding together too well for his age, as Remus rushed out without casting his two friends a backwards glance. No one had mentioned to the joining Potters what had happened, but by the looks of everyone in the room it was bad.

Minerva walked over to the family, her eyes still flowing with tears as she explained to them what had happened. James wrapped his arms around Lily thinking to the countless hours they had spent with Albus while in hiding. The things he told and taught them. He thought through the selfless protection he had given them, the angry words they'd shared over the years as James and Lily grew steadily tired of waiting to be in the open. He thought of the unexpressed gratitude he owed Albus, and the fact that he would never be able to share it. But above all he thought of the hours of conversations they'd shared. The plans they'd discussed, the new members he'd talked over. James thought of what they knew about Severus. The truth of what had happened. It couldn't be true.

"It can't be Snape." James said, remembering the memory Dumbledore had shown him when Snape promised his faithfulness to the side of good. "You don't understand. It can't be-"

"It was, dad. I know. I saw him do it. I watched him do it." Harry's voice was defiant and strong, holding an intense anger that neither of his parents had ever heard from him before.

"It can't be." James whispered, wondering if Severus was really strong enough to trick even Dumbledore, and what that would mean for the order as a whole if he really was.

"It was." Harry whispered, shaking his head and walking away, with Ginny's hand still in his as she cast one last glance at Bill, lying in the hospital bed.

That night the three Potters sat in their living room waiting to hear some word as to where Tonks and Remus were. Harry and James had a length discussion about everything they knew on Snape, and for the first, and very painful, time James and Lily saw Harry as a co-fighter against the dark rather than their son whom they needed to protect. He shared with them the little information he thought Dumbledore would allow, and made sure to not promise anything he couldn't mean. They worked through how Snape could have deceived their old friend and teacher, yet to no avail. They simply could not make sense of it.

As the conversation died out with no positive outcome the fireplace lit up in green flames, with Tonks and Remus stepping out sheepishly. Without asking any questions Lily pulled them both into a tight hug, ignoring the pointed smirk Harry was giving James as they thought about the bet they had made that Tonks and Remus would end up back together by the end of the night, with the promise that Remus would not go back to the wolves. Again with no exchange of words the properly pink haired witch stumbled into the washroom, a girlish grin breaking into her face despite the times. The second the door was closed Lily rushed into her own room coming out with a red velvet box.

James gasped quietly as he realized what she was holding. Remus merely stared at it, and Harry waited patiently for an explanation as to what was happening. With shaking hands Lupin took the box and slowly opened it, looking at the pink moonstone ring that sat in the center. His mind filled with memories of Ellie and their time together. He remembered looking for the perfect ring to bind them together. He remembered his plan as to how he was going to give it to her. He remembered the night he gave it to Lily, asking her to hold on to it for him. Maybe the whole time it was always meant for Dora. His eyes filled with tears he didn't even notice. Harry watched his family waiting for the right time to act. He stood up and walked over to his favorite professor.

"Don't think so much, professor." He said, pushing Remus toward their bedroom door. "We all already know what she's going to say."

"What who's going to say?" Tonks asked as she stepped out of the washroom and took in the emotions on the faces around her. Her own face paled. "What's happened?" She asked, staring at James, failing to see Remus drop to one knee to her side. Lily almost felt bad at the panic she saw growing in her friends eye, but she knew it would be quelled just as quickly as it came.

"Dora?" He spoke, his voice stronger than he could have imagined it ever being. "Nymphadora." He said again when she didn't look. She rounded to him, her grey eyes growing huge at the sight of him. She glanced back at Lily who nodded once, as if to confirm this was really happening.

"I have made a mess of so many things." Remus whispered, knowing he had her full attention. "But if there's one thing I want to stop getting wrong it's you." It wasn't elegant, it wasn't perfect. But it was Tonks, and at the end of the day, that's all that has ever mattered. At the end of the wolves, at the end of his running, at the end of looming death, it was always Nymphadora. "Please, Nymphadora Tonks, would you let me stand by your side for our time on earth? With all my baggage and danger? Would you let me love you, through the war and on the other side of it, or until we breath our lat breaths in it? Would you let me show you that I can stay?"

She dropped to her knees in front of him, pulling his face into hers and kissing him more passionately than she ever had before. She shook her head against him as she thought through the hours of tears he'd cost her, the sleepless nights, the anxiety and weight loss, and illness. The pain and anger. Yet in all that there was love and joy, laughter in the midst of war, safety in the midst of danger. And as she nodded against his chest she knew that it was all for this moment right here, when he promised her to stay, and she actually believed him.

"We all knew what you would say." Harry whispered, watching the joy spread through the house, while they all managed to forget, just for a moment, the war that was happening outside their door.

They forgot until the next morning, when Harry went back to Hogwarts to finish up the year with Ron and Hermione, and when the order had to regroup and state a new leader. There was no discussion needed, really, for everyone to unanimously give the role to Mad-Eye, who took it quietly and with more humility than Remus had ever seen in the man. Remus and Tonks kept the news of the pink ring quiet for the time being, knowing there were more important things to tend to in that moment. Like the funeral, which was being held at the castle, and would be one of the hardest things any of them had ever had to do. Remus was sitting with the Potter's and Tonks the day prior to the service, sipping coffee with little purpose.

"Minerva is consulting to governors today about the fate of the school." Remus said finally, glancing up from his mug to take in the faces of his friends. "She also could not get it out of Harry as to where he and Dumbledore were the night he died." James breathed in a deep sigh, sounding far older than his age.

"We have to trust that Albus knows something about Harry, and about the war that we don't." James was having a very hard time trusting Harry and Albus in that way, but the older man had never lead them wrong before, and James truly believed he knew he would die that night. And he must have prepared Harry in some way that the rest of them wouldn't be able to understand.

"It's his life, James. Dumbledore already lost his own. I don't know if I can trust-"

"You're going to have to Lil," James cut off the pending rant as he sighed out the words. "You're going to have to because we were Harry's age when we were engaged to be married. We were Harry's age when we signed on to join the war. We were just a few months older than he is the first time we fought Voldemort himself and came out on the other side. We have to trust him, because if we don't, not only are we hypocrites, but we know he'll do what he thinks he has to do with or without our support." Lily shook her head and looked out the window, clutching her mug to her chest.

"I think," Tonks began, brushing an unsteady hand through her pink hair, "I think maybe Harry is going to end the war. And I think we all know it, and I think nobody wants to say it. But that's what I believe. And I think that once we realize that we'll all be much better at being what he needs us to be." James nodded, still looking at Lily.

"My son cannot single handedly stop the second most powerful wizard-"

"Lily he will always be your son, but he stopped being your baby the first time he battled Voldemort when he was eleven. And I realize you spent all those years thinking of him as such, but failing to see his growth now will only hurt your relationship with him." Remus cut her off, working to keep his voice gentle yet firm. He saw the rising panic in Lily, something that didn't happen often but certainly happened with a vengeance when it did.

"Well I will do whatever I can to make sure stays-"

"Safe?" Tonks asked quietly, thinking back to the yelling that had ensued at the last order meeting when Alastor declared that Harry would need to stay at Privet drive the until his birthday to ensure the safety of vernon and Petunia. No one had ever seen Lily so furious (except for James, but that never counts) Tonks had to physically take her out of the room, and nobody mentioned it again, but they all remembered it. Her fierceness rivaled that of Molly any time one of her children were in danger, or in trouble.

Lily's eyes flashed as she glared at Tonks, whose hands were folded together on the table. "Privet drive is not the most safe for him now, not when James and I can-"

"Lily, I realize you want to make up for lost time, and maybe we have failed the two of you as your friends by not mentioning this sooner, but Harry had to learn how to be independent. And developing a dependency on you is not going to keep him safe, it could very well kill him. And that is certainly not what any of us want. So we need to take a minute and stop thinking about how we wish things were, we need to think about how they are. And what they are is painful and broken, but just about as okay as we can make it. So when Alastor says Harry needs to stay at Privet drive for the sake of winning the war, we have to trust that that's true, and right and let it happen. Because when we do that not only are we trusting a man who has never led us wrong before, we are also trusting Harry's capabilities. And if he has done anything over the last six years, he's proved that he's always more capable than any of us believed he would be." Somewhere in the middle of the long overdue speech Tonks's hand found its way to Remus's shoulder, and she gave it an encouraging squeeze.

"I know that it's hard to hear, but that's what we do here. We share the hard truths because we all lose our heads sometimes. But the thing is we need to stand firm in sanity. Because the second we start acting like we alone know what's best, people will start dying." Lily pursed her lips as she looked at Remus for a long, silent moment.

Then she nodded, sipping her coffee and looking out the window again.

"I just don't want him to die, and I don't really think I want to die either." She said. James pulled her into him.

"We can only control what we can control." He whispered into her hair, kissing the top of her head.

Tonks watched the scene before her letting her thoughts wander to the trio at the castle, and Ginny. She wondered how long she and Harry would remain together in the bliss period they were living in. She wondered if Harry would really try and go save the world on his own. If Ron or Hermione would end up dying by going with him. She wondered how many more would have to die for the promise of a future that was truly safe. If she or Remus or the Potters would die in the battle and what that would mean for those who survived. She wondered how long she and Remus would be alive together. But in all that she wondered how they would bring this war to a final end and she wondered what the end would look like if they failed.

They could not fail.

She looked up to Remus, twisting the small pink ring on her finger. He never promised her forever, but he promised her all his days on earth, and even if those ended tomorrow, she didn't want to waste any of it. In two weeks they would hold the smallest, yet most exciting wedding in wizard history, then they would fight for the lives of everyone they loved no matter the cost. She silently vowed to Lily that she would make sure the Potter's stayed alive long enough to see Harry's wedding (to Ginny, she hoped). She thought through the things they knew, the things they didn't, and the one thing they never really spoke about having that all the death eaters and Voldemort himself lacked. Love.

She looked at Remus, thinking of that word, knowing what he meant to her and how she had to believe that could be enough to give them the victory; dead or alive. Without warning she stood up, glancing down at her partner, in battle and life.

"Let's go to Mad-Eye," She said, pulling Lupin to his feet. "We've got some planning to do." They had a war to win.

Fin.

Thank you, for real. This was a joy to write, and I hope this isn't the end of their story, and I don't believe it is.