Chapter 5
“So, what’re we supposed to call them anyway? They're basically our age…or at least Jamie and Mel’s age.”
Lily shrugged at her cousin’s question, focusing on tightening her trainers.
The two young women were a few yards from the rest of the family. It was apparent to Lily that her Aunt Hermione had informed her children of the Marauders' return almost immediately following their exit from the Potter’s home. Hugo, Godric bless him, hadn’t said a word to any of the Potter children or Teddy once they had returned. Rose, however, had a different tactic, dragging Lily to a spot far enough away from the family and flinging questions in rapid fire at her cousin.
“Well??” Rose pressed and Lily shot her an annoyed look.
“I really don’t know, I saw them for maybe ten minutes before we came out here and they went upstairs.”
When Ginny had called for Sirius, Lily, and James from the entrance hall, they entered the room with an air of apprehension. Well, Lily and James entered with apprehension. Sirius entered with the air of an excited puppy, immediately grinning as he looked over his Godson’s three children. When he approached Lu, arms spread wide for a bear hug she raised one brow but reluctantly accepted the embrace with a weak pat on the back. This made Sirius bark with laughter, turning towards the elder Lily with a teasing smile.
“About as warm and fuzzy as you, Evans.”
Lily rolled her eyes while her granddaughter's brow shot up once more, a similar grimace forming on both women’s faces.
As her grandmother approached her, Lu was taken aback by how similar this woman looked to her father when she smiled, green eyes glistening mischievously. Knowing that her father and Al had gotten their eyes from the first Lily was one thing, but seeing it in the flesh was completely different.
“Ignore him, he’s really harmless. Just forgets his manners from time to time.” Lu nodded and attempted a smile. At the sight of her granddaughter trying so hard to seem at ease, Lily’s smile grew genuine and warm.
“You do have the Potter eyes…and grimace.” Lu’s face pinched while her brothers snickered.
This caused their grandmother to quickly turn towards the boys, now focusing her attention on them. While Al had the exact look of her son and therefore looked almost completely like her husband, Jamie had the brown-red, blue eyes, and freckled face that marked him as a Weasley. Despite their physical differences the boys carried themselves extremely similarly, although at that moment Al was giving her a much warmer, almost amused look, while Jamie’s snickering stopped once she turned towards them, his eyes wide.
“So…you’re Albus, obviously.” Her gaze went to his green and black jumper which was emblazoned with a silver “A”. Al’s smirk widened and he reached down to hug Lily who laughed and returned the embrace.
“I have so many questions.” Al began as he leaned back from their hug and gave her an excited but intense look. “What Quidditch team do you support? Were you really that much of a goody goody in school? Why didn’t you ever become an animagus?” Lily blinked.
“Uhhh…”
James, who was following behind his wife by a few steps and smiling ear to ear, stepped in to answer his grandson’s enthusiastic questions. “Puddlemere, yes - although she could be negatively influenced by a select few, and….I don’t know…” He turned towards his wife with an eyebrow raised in question.
“Someone had to be in human form in case one of you idiots got hurt.”
“Right. She did wrap up a few bloodied paws.”
Al nodded solemnly and Lily rolled her eyes. Mel chose that small break in the conversation to elbow Jamie in the ribs, prompting her boyfriend to jump a bit before clearing his throat and turning towards the family.
“This is my girlfriend, Mel Knott.” Mel smiled and offered a little wave from her place beside Jamie. In turn she received a bear hug from both Sirius and James and a warm smile from Lily.
“Knott?” Sirius questioned, a smile still lingering.
Mel nodded with only a light hesitation.
“Who are your parents?” James asked, ignoring Lily’s deepening frown which was expertly directed towards her husband.
“Oh, uh…Pansy Parkinson Knott and Theodore Knott, sir.”
“Mmmm…bad luck, that.” Sirius interjected gravely. “I had more than a few run-ins with your grandfather - not exactly the warm and fuzzy type.” Lily pinched his arm, trying to remind Sirius that not everyone was as flippant about these issues as he was.
Mel surprised her by laughing lightly, only the slightest bit of discomfort in her cadence. “Yes, grandfather is not someone I’d choose to grab a butterbeer with. Luckily we’ve only met twice - him being in Azkaban for life and all…my parents are alright sometimes, if not a bit stuffy….I don’t talk to them much anymore.” She shrugged.
“It’s lucky for you that the Potter’s like their strays.” Lu offered with a sisterly nudge to the girl. This earned a warm chuckle from the group and a nod of affirmation from Sirius and James.
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” Rose said while reaching down to touch her toes.
“No, it wasn’t.”
“Ok, so what’s the issue?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Well…you just sound so hesitant about the whole thing. Your dad’s happy, Aunt Ginny looks pleased.” Rose nodded and reached for her broom as they began walking back toward the rest of their family.
“Teddy, Al, and James seem…unaffected.”
It was true. All three of her brothers looked perfectly fine like they hadn’t just met dead parents and grandparents. James was tossing the Quaffle back and forth with Freddie while Teddy talked with Victoire and Dom. Everything seemed so normal.
“It’s just…well, it’s strange isn’t it?”
“Yeah but…” Rose gave a half shrug and gestured at the group of people gathered before them with a ‘what’s new’ kind of look towards her cousin.
“I know, that’s what Al said. I guess I’m just not as easy going as they are.”
“You’ve always been suspicious of new things. Remember when Al had that new boyfriend you hated?”
Lily snorted. “Which of his last five terrible boyfriends are you referring to?”
Rose laughed, “Alright, bad example.”
The two witches stopped their conversation as their Uncle George and Harry approached them, wearing their old Hogwarts Quidditch gear and looking much younger than their almost fifty years.
“Are you two ready to stop gossiping and start playing?”
Lu and Rose shared a look and Rose smirked.
Harry laughed as the rest of the family began to gather with more light hearted jeers exchanged.
“Alright, then!” George said, clapping his hands together maniacally. “Shall we beat our children mercilessly?”
The game was neither merciless nor close for the adults. Despite Harry catching the Snitch and beating out his daughter, a laughing and flaunting Lu only allowed this due to her team's incredible lead. The parents (and Al) grumbled good-naturedly and headed to a picnic table where lemonade and biscuits, courtesy of the elder Mrs. Weasley, awaited them.
----
Lily and Tonks sat together in front of the large picture window that looked onto the back garden, each focused on a different member of the family party and only occasionally exchanging questions or remarks.
“Who’s that?” Lily asked, pointing at yet another tall redhead.
“That’s Bill Weasley.”
“Oh…do you know him well?”
“Yeah we were close in school. Him, Charlie and I are - er, well…were close.”
“Oh.”
While the two young women continued this exchange every few minutes, Remus paced, James sat fiddling with his glasses, and Sirius opened every cupboard and drawer he could find in the parlor.
“And that? Who’s he?”
“That’s Percy Weasley.”
“Oh, right…and he’s the third oldest?”
“Yes, he was with me at school for a bit too.”
“Mmmm…and who’s that one?”
James cut in then, his tone a mixture of amusement and exasperation.
“Lily love, I think we can assume everyone down there right now is a Weasley, a Potter, or a Lupin and unless they were born after the battle, Tonksy here probably knows them.” His wife smirked and went to join her husband on the sofa where he was perusing a photo album.
Tapping her fingers lightly on the windowsill, Tonks didn’t pay much attention to the rest of the group. She was watching the people outside as they laughed and talked. She watched Teddy in particular, trying to parse him out in whatever way she could. He was tall and lanky with sandy hair like his father. He also had what she recognized as the Black family cheekbones and grey eyes. His features were just beginning to have some character the last time she saw him, a chubby baby boy just learning to smile and laugh. Now, almost twenty-five years later he was smiling and laughing with his Fiance. He was a grown man with a job and a family that didn’t include her.
“You’re going to destroy that cushion.” She turned around and saw her cousin who nodded solemnly down to where she had unconsciously been picking at a thread in one of the sofa cushions.
“Oh.”
Sirius sat next to her and looked out towards the group on the lawn. Tonks was watching her son carefully as he slipped his arm around Victoire. Sirius handed her a what she could only assume was fire whiskey.
“I figured you might need this.”
“Hmm, well thought.” She looked down into the glass and took a gulp, the dark liquid burning as it went down.
“You know, I was hoping for a moment alone with you. Just to chat. Lots to catch up on.”
Neither Tonks nor Sirius were usually nervous people. In fact some would say they were rather too level headed or even arrogant. However, in this moment neither could quite make eye contact with the other due to their mutual anxieties.
“I never expected to fall in love with him, you know?” Tonks could hardly believe the words had come bursting from her, but they did.
Sirius nodded but still neither looked at each other. Their eyes both flitted towards where Remus was now seated across the room. He didn’t seem to notice the two cousins as they turned back towards each other and Tonks continued in a slight whisper.
“I always had a bit of a crush on him, a silly thing, really. But after everything...after you had gone…”
“You don’t need to explain things to me.”
“It all just happened very quickly.”
“He’s easy to love.”
“He is…” Tonks looked down into her drink now, the words which had poured out of her dried up now.
“You know, we never…in the time we had after I got out…” He sighed and laughed to himself
“You don’t need to explain things to me, either, you know.”
“I know, but I want to tell you how happy I am without sounding in-genuine. Nymph, he was just what I needed when we were young and I’d like to think he felt the same. I still love him, but with everything...the war and Azkaban….we aren’t the same people we were. The love changed is all I’m saying.”
Tonks laughed a little and finally met her cousin’s eyes.
“You know, I really missed you calling me Nymph.”
Sirius chuckled and the two fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes. However with her mind still working through it all, Tonks couldn't sit still for long.
“Anyone hungry?” She stood suddenly, shaking off her restless energy.
Sirius did not look away from the window. Lily and James glanced up, surprised by the sudden shift in energy.
Remus shrugged but didn't look up from the book he flipped through. Tonks just nodded, smiling weakly she turned towards Sirius again. “I’ll just go down and see if they have something to tide us over. Be back in a jiff!”
Sirius looked up from the window and nodded, yelling after her “Make sure to stay out of sight!”
Quietly but quickly she took the back stairs two at a time. The restless energy she had been managing well before talking to Sirius was now seeping out in bursts. She was anxious to have a moment alone, collect her thoughts and maybe eat a crisp or two. Ginny had given them a quick and basic tour of the house before they separated, making sure they knew where the kitchen and bathrooms were. Once she reached the bottom of the staircase she peaked around the door and took a quick survey of her surroundings. Laughter filtered in through the back door and Tonks figured she had a minute or two to grab the snacks and run. Pulling a stool over (she still had no idea where her wand was), she stood on her toes to grasp at the bag of crips she had spied in a corner cupboard. She had just reached the bag when she felt something jab into her neck.
“Don’t move.” The familiar voice came low and dark from behind her. She raised her hands up above her head, dropping the crisps and despite the menacing instruction slowly turned her head. Her suspicions were confirmed by the grim face at the end of the wand. Tonks smiled uneasily, her voice coming out in a breath.
“Wotcher, Charlie.”