Beta: Mrs Muggle
Disclaimer: I own nothing you recognise, and no profit is being made.

---

"...and if you could sign on the dotted line," the Muggle woman says, and she hands a biro to Remus, who hands it straight to Tonks, his smile clearly forced.

Tonks meets his gaze, silently asking him to go along with this if nothing else, because they need somewhere to live, for Merlin's sake, and if the rent payments have to come out of her salary for a while, so what? She leans forward and signs the contract, then prints her full name underneath it, wincing as she notes that, as always, 'Nymphadora' is too long to fit on the line. Her writing gets increasingly small and cramped as she approaches the edge of the paper, but it pretty nearly fits, and she passes the month's tenancy agreement back to their new landlady.

"Thank you," the Muggle says, smiling at them both even though Tonks smudged the ink when she was passing the paper over. Her smile seems genuine when it is directed at Tonks, but she is clearly puzzled by Remus' look of faint discomfort.

"When can we move in?" Tonks asks, enthusiastic despite her worries about her fiancé. They don't have much work to do, after all – most of their possessions have been in storage for the past year while he was underground and she was living out of a couple of boxes in her room at the Hog's Head.

The Muggle's smile becomes a bit more friendly; Tonks wonders if her own enthusiasm is infectious, or whether their landlady is simply relieved to have finally found a tenant for the flat. The rent has been reduced again and again until it is reasonable despite being near the centre of London, so it is clear that even the Muggles have noticed the presence of the Dementors. But in the thick of it is probably the best place for two Order members to be, and she has enough faith in their defensive spells that she isn't too concerned. "It's ready when you are," the Muggle says, and Remus nods.

"Good. Thank you," he says, and Tonks' hand finds his and squeezes it, relieved that they are finally moving on from the chapter of their lives which ended firmly at the funeral, and entering a new stage as a definite couple. He smiles at her, genuinely this time, as he picks up on her thoughts, and he says, "Shall we move as soon as possible, then?"

Tonks nods, and then she too shakes hands with the landlady. Remus leads the way down the driveway in the guise of walking home or perhaps to a car park, and they Disapparate once they are out of sight, reappearing almost immediately in Hogsmeade. Once there, Remus meets her eyes and pulls her to a bench, where they sit and he looks at her.

"I want you to remember that you won't always have to let me pay," she tells him before he can say anything. "I know you hate it, but this Ministry won't last forever."

Remus' nod is too quick. "I know," he says, but his tone is flat, and Tonks sighs, all too aware (as she has been for a while) that he is convinced that society will never get any better. Not for the first time, she wonders what he thinks they're fighting for, but she shrugs off her annoyance.

"You'll get a job," she says, too much certainty in her voice for him to deny it, even though he probably disagrees. "One day," she adds. Remus nods, but his face is impassive, and she wonders why he bothered to propose if, even now, he refuses to be completely honest with her. If he wants forever, she decides, he has to start being open, and she tells him so.

"I'm sorry," Remus says, though she isn't sure that it's for the right reasons, and she wishes he would realise how thin the line is between protecting her and alienating her. Their relationship is intensifying by the day, and yet there are times when she has no idea where she stands with him, and she sighs inwardly at the thought. But he is sorry, and his expression tells her that he is being honest about that if nothing else.

"It's okay," she says, and kisses him. He's always sorry, or so he always says, but she still isn't quite sure that he knows what she wants him to be sorry for, and while she has tried to broach the subject, they've never got particularly far. She is well aware that they won't get close to the subject until he is ready to, and though she accepted it a long while ago, part of her wishes he would just open up to her.

. . . . . . . . . . .

They are married a week later.

The ceremony is short, though not sweet, 'graced' as it is by a few Ministry employees, who are almost certainly there as spies. There has been talk of changing the laws to prevent a union between wizards and 'part-humans', a phrase so disgusting that it has reduced her to ranting and Remus to pacing on several occasions. There is no doubt that the law targets Remus, but as a Metamorphmagus, there is a chance that it will affect her too. So they'd agreed last night that it would make sense for their wedding to be sooner, rather than later as they had always planned. It's only the two of them, plus Mad-Eye, Bill and Fleur as witnesses. Had they had their choice, Tonks would have wanted her parents and Molly there, and while he'd never say so, Remus would want Harry present. But there's no way they can ask Harry to leave Privet Drive, and Molly or Andromeda would insist upon a large wedding, and so it's probably better this way.

They sign on the right dotted lines on the Ministry form, hold hands and exchange their vows. She's not completely certain they're doing the right thing, and Remus' hand in hers is sweaty, so she suspects that she isn't the only one who thinks they're rushing into things. Once the ceremony is over, though, Bill congratulates them both, and Fleur hugs Tonks and gives her a completely sincere smile. Tonks returns it when Fleur tells her that she deserves to be happy.

"I only 'ope that our wedding will be as lovely," Fleur says. Tonks glances at her suspiciously, assuming that she's taking the piss, but Fleur seems quite serious. "You look so 'appy, Tonks," she says in explanation. Tonks' smile should widen in response, but instead she lingers on the fact that Remus, at her side, looks more inclined to panic.

Tonks reaches for the hand that isn't clutching his wand and she glances up at him; he seems to realise that he is expected to look happy, and he forces a slight smile before looking away in the pretence of glancing around the room. Mad-Eye, whose magical eye has been roving throughout the ceremony, looks approving, although up to now he's seemed closer to troubled whenever he glanced at Remus.

"We should go somewhere safer," Mad-Eye says after a moment, and Bill nods, his expression somewhat nervous as his gaze lingers on Fleur, though Tonks notices that Fleur herself seems more concerned about protecting him. Fleur leads the way out of the room, closely tailed by the other four, and all of them keep a steady grip on their wands, half-expecting to be attacked at any second. They aren't, but Tonks notices a couple of the Ministry employees at the back of the room eyeing her and Remus with looks of disgust.

Bill notices it too, and when they leave the room, he tells Fleur that they ought to hurry along their own wedding, as any eugenics laws that are passed will probably also ban her, as a part-Veela, from marriage. Fleur nods in agreement, and Tonks wishes them luck as they prepare to Apparate back to the Burrow, Bill winking at Remus and telling him to enjoy the honeymoon.

Mad-Eye turns to her and Remus then, and gives Tonks a paternal smile. "You deserve to be happy," he tells her, and she suspects he would hug her were it not such a total departure from constant vigilance.

"I am," she assures him, and Remus' arm finds her waist.

"We both are," he says. Tonks looks at him and finds a completely genuine smile as he tightens his grip on her. "Shall we be off?" His expression is suddenly one of pure flirtation, and Mad-Eye looks disconcerted, glancing around in case any Death Eaters decide to take advantage of the rare moment of distraction.

"Okay," says Tonks, returning his smile with a small one of her own. "Thanks for your help, Mad-Eye."

Mad-Eye grunts something that might be, "You're welcome," and she Apparates them both home. They discuss the day as they perform the usual security checks on their flat with rather more impatience and anticipation than thoroughness, and when they finally get around to their wedding night, she has the impression that they are finally on the same page. Tonks smiles, enjoying the sudden openness between them and wondering what she was ever nervous about.

. . . . . . . . . . .

He's been away for over a month, and she finds that she is a little more scared every day.

It's not that he can't hold his own against the Death Eaters, because he can, she has no doubt of that. And she always knew going into this that they might both be living on borrowed time, and she accepted that long ago. Except that she's kidding herself, because of course she's worried; if she's honest, she's scared shitless, and who wouldn't be?

He was supposed to be staying in touch; finding Harry, joining him, Ron and Hermione, and keeping in contact with the Order via her. The original plan involved herself and Kingsley helping, and she can understand if he's had to abandon that one (and he will have done, because he doesn't want her involved with the fighting now that they know she's pregnant), but she finds that she can't really forgive the lack of a Patronus message, because what if....?

Anything could've...

She shudders.

She's been reading the Prophet from cover to cover and listening obsessively to the WWN in case of news. She quit her job a fortnight ago, largely jumping before she was pushed, but now she wishes she still had it, because the Auror office was a good source of information (not to mention the fact that she liked the freedom of their own flat, and they'd had to give it up far too soon). There hasn't been any news at all, not yet, and he hasn't contacted any of the Order since the last full moon, when he crashed at Shell Cottage. It's a full moon tomorrow night, though, and Bill and Fleur haven't heard a thing, which terrifies Tonks more than she'd care to admit. Remus managed hundreds of full moons before he had her to worry about him, after all, and she knows he'll manage this one, but that won't stop her pacing a hole in the carpet while she waits for news.

Intelligence arrives, though not the information she needs to hear: Mundungus has been named as a suspected Order member, and has been taken in for 'questioning'. She's never wholly trusted him, and she worries now that he'll say something Order-related, because while Dumbledore and Mad-Eye always made sure that nobody knew everything, he probably knows enough to damage somebody. There's always a chance it'll be Remus, and he'll be off his guard at the moment, and the thought terrifies her.

Kingsley, who brought her the news, carefully avoids the subject of Remus until Tonks brings it up and asks if he's heard anything. He hasn't, and he knows her too well to try and comfort her with empty reassurances that Remus will be fine, so instead he reminds her that Remus has been taking Wolfsbane, and that several of the Order would offer him a room to transform in if approached. It's true, she knows, and she tells herself to relax, though she doesn't. Kingsley offers her his company, which she accepts, and they spend the evening in her living room, him telling her what's been happening at the Ministry.

The next day, Kingsley reappears to tell her that Remus has asked to transform in his basement. He invites her to come over, to see Remus or to try and talk some sense into him as she chooses. Tonks refuses the offer, because she knows from experience that, however much she might chip away at the walls that seem to form between them, he'll only construct more unless she lets Remus himself destroy them.

Kingsley's nod of understanding would cheer her if she weren't second-guessing the decision even as she makes it, and he promises to let her know that Remus is all right when the full moon is over.

He does, and he is.

. . . . . . . . . . .

When Remus appears at her parents' house a week later, he looks awkward, and clearly has no idea what to say to her. Once, Tonks would have helped him out, making cheerful conversation to cover up what he isn't saying. This time, though, she sits in silence, only giving him the occasional expectant glance to let him know that it's his turn to talk.

He doesn't say I'm sorry, because it's implicit, and Tonks doesn't say I love you too, because his expression tells her that he already knows, and there will be time later to tell him a million times. Instead, she pats the sofa beside her, and Remus sits, taking her hand and squeezing it. His other hand rests on her belly, even though it's still as flat as it ever was, and he tells her that he's decided to stop trying to be a hero now.

Tonks nods.

"We were never supposed to be at Harry's side," he says, though Remus' tone tells her that he is struggling to accept it. "The Order was only ever a way to clear his path to Vol... You-Know-Who, wasn't it?"

Tonks sighs, wishing she could believe otherwise, but she has drawn the same conclusion herself. "Yes," she says instead, though as somebody who has dedicated her life to trying to defeat the Death Eaters, it hurts to say it. "But we damn well will clear his path," she says, and it's true, because even if only Harry can defeat Voldemort, they can certainly fight everybody else.

Remus gives a faint, wry, chuckle, presumably in reaction to the steel in her voice. "We will indeed," he says, and she smiles at the we, because for the past few weeks he has insisted that she take a back seat, which she can't bring herself to do.

He pulls her closer and rests his chin on the top of her head, and his uneven breaths ruffle her hair as they sit in silence. After a long while, she says, "You're aware that you'll be sleeping on the sofa, right?" because she always intended to yell at him when he returned. She won't, because she's too pleased to see him, and she can't bring herself to shout at him this soon after his transformation, but she still wants to get the sentiment across.

She feels him nod. "I thought that might be the case," he says, and it doesn't sound as though he's surprised; in fact, there's a note of amusement in his voice that says that she is very predictable. "Will your parents mind me taking up their sofa?"

Tonks shakes her head. "Mum's all in favour," she tells him, smirking.

"We'll have our own sofa for you to banish me to, one day," he says, and he glances up at her, eyes hopeful, expression more open than she's ever seen it as he waits for her to tell him whether or not she wants the sofa and the future it represents.

She's never doubted that he loves her, but right now the boundaries between them have shifted – he has the uncertain expression, while she's the one in control. But she doesn't want either of them to have an advantage over the other, and she isn't entirely sure how to phrase her thoughts, so she kisses him, and hopes he understands.

He does.

. . . . . . . . . . .

She entrusts Remus with Teddy's birth certificate, because she's still pretty high from the pain relief potions, and she's totally knackered. So she clutches the tiny bundle of blankets to her and gazes alternately at husband and son, glancing down in slight panic every now and then to check that the sleeping Teddy is real (not that she's masochistic enough to have imagined that labour, she suspects). He's definitely real, and his hair is morphed the same greying brown as his dad's, and she smiles when she catches sight of Remus, forehead wrinkled in concentration, filling in the slip of paper in his neatest handwriting.

"I'm supposed to fill in his parents' occupations," he says when he's about a third of the way down the form. "Should I put 'subverting the government' or 'managing mischief'?"

A few months ago, he would never have dreamed of making light of their unemployment, and so she smiles, rather relieved. "Why not both? One each?"

He nods conspiratorially, though she can tell he doesn't actually write it down. He continues to fill in the form, pausing every now and again to check a fact with her, and sometimes stopping for a moment, absently sucking his quill while he thinks. Then she watches him stiffen and she knows he must have reached the part about Teddy's maternal grandfather. He glances at her, checking to see if she's on to him, and when she feels her feigned smile wobble, he's at her side in an instant, arm around her shoulders, kissing her hair and then the side of her face.

They've sat like this a lot in the past year, first after Mad-Eye's death, and again after Remus returned to her, and then later. Her hair has been mousier this year than the previous one, and she suspects that she would have sunk into a second year of depression had Remus not taken to tapping into his Marauder side whenever she needed cheering up. As it is, she, Remus, Fred, George and Kingsley have spent hours setting up Potterwatch, and Molly's tried (unsuccessfully) to teach her to knit, and she's given herself backache unnecessarily on numerous occasions helping her mother with the garden, and she's coping.

She sniffs, and Teddy shifts in her arms. She hugs him, and Remus' embrace tightens, and all is a little better with the world, though far from well.

Remus doesn't ask her if she's okay, because he knows from experience that she isn't, but she draws a shaky breath and nods anyway, and he Summons the birth certificate. He struggles to fill it in with one arm around her, but she holds the parchment still for him with her free hand, and though it's awkward, they manage.

Finally, he signs on a dotted line and passes the parchment to her so that she can do the same. 'Nymphadora Lupin' doesn't really fit on the line, but she squishes it in, and then they cast the spells to send the parchment back to the Ministry. There's a good chance that the form will soon be stamped and covered in handwritten warnings to say that Ted Remus Lupin is the offspring of a werewolf and a dead Mudblood's daughter, but neither of them mentions this.

"I love you," she says instead, and though Teddy chooses to wail at the precise moment Remus' answering kiss begins to get interesting, she smiles, because they have a son, and a future, and she suspects that life is only just beginning to get better.