A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who commented and gave me kudos in my last chapter! Sorry you had to wait so long for an update, I not only was away with family for Christmas but then it was exam season at my university. Thankfully, my last exam was today, so I managed to write this chapter up for you guys. This is for all of you who were begging for an appearance of Tonks. Enjoy! x

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Knock. Knock. Knock.

"Alright, alright. I'm coming!" Sirius bellowed, as he picked himself up off the sofa and traipsed over to the front door. Pulling it open, he was greeted by a rather unamused Nymphadora Tonks. Her arms were folded against her chest, and she was looking at him expectantly.

"Care to explain why you thought it would be a good idea to give my mum a bloody heart attack?" She demanded. She held up a pale blue greeting card, which sported an illustration of a baby on the front, with the words 'CONGRATULATIONS, IT'S A BOY!' written in print underneath.

"Oops." Sirius grinned sheepishly. "In my defence, I had sent it to you. I didn't think your old mum would see it."

Remus came up behind Sirius and sighed. "What have you done now? Oh! Hello, Dora. I didn't know you were coming round today."

"I wasn't planning on it, but Sirius here thought it would be funny to send me this!" Tonks huffed as she thrust the card into Remus' face. She turned back to glare at Sirius again.

Remus made a sort of strangled noise in the back of his throat, staring at the card in shock. After managing to regain his composure, he sent Sirius a deathly glare. "Really not funny, Padfoot."

"It is to me." Sirius smirked.

"Am I missing something? I don't understand the point of the prank at all." Tonks said, her brow furrowing in confusion.

All of a sudden, a bright blue blur came barrelling down the hallway. "Daddy, daddy, daddy! I drawed you something. Quick, quick, come look!" He exclaimed as he jumped up and down with excitement.

Refraining from correcting his son's grammar, Remus offered him a weak smile, the tips of his ears burning as he felt Dora's penetrative gaze on the back of his head. "Thank you, Teddy. Why don't you go and wait for me in the kitchen? I'll be there in a minute."

As soon as Teddy bounded back into the kitchen, Remus turned back to face Dora. The colour in her cheeks had drained, leaving her with an unnaturally pallid complexion. Even her hair had transformed into a mousy brown colour.

Sirius, feeling the tension in the air, decided to trail after Teddy.

"I…It's not…He's…I can explain." He stammered, feeling his heart beat painfully against his chest.

"No need to explain. I see how it is." Tonks retorted, her voice unnaturally clipped. "You lied to me. You lied to me and you led me on. If you were seeing someone else, you should have fucking said something instead of making up bullshit stories about why you couldn't date me! Oh, I can't date you because I'm a werewolf – but wait a second, you've got a KID. If you didn't fancy me, you should have said so from the start. You're a bloody coward, Remus Lupin." She growled, her voice wavering slightly as hot tears pricked her eyes. Tonks thrust out her wand with the intention to apparate, but before she could cast the spell, Remus snatched her wrist.

"Wait!" he begged, his brown eyes boring into hers.

"Let go of me, Remus." She snapped, attempting to shake off his iron-like grip.

"You've got it wrong! Please, hear me out, Dora." Remus said, the look in his eyes desperate and pleading.

Tonks clenched her jaw and exhaled deeply. "Fine." She ground out.

Remus loosened the grip on her wrist. "Shit, there's no easy way to say this." He sighed. "Teddy is my son, but he's yours too."

"Oh for fuck's sake, I thought you were going to be serious. I don't have time for this." Tonks said, shaking her head sadly. "Good-bye, Remus."

"I am being serious! I would never lie to you. God, Dora, just hear me out for a second, please. He's our son, but…but he's from the future." Remus explained.

"Stop—" Tonks began, but before she could finish her sentence, Remus interrupted her. "He's from the future and I can prove it."

Tonks' expression softened slightly. She tilted her head to the side, considering the veracity of his statement. She licked her lips and said, "Alright. Prove it. But if I find out you're pulling my leg, I'll hex you into next week."

Remus' shoulders slumped in relief, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smile. "I wouldn't expect anything else from you, Dora."

"Hmph." She huffed.

Keeping his gaze fixated on her, he dug into his pocket and pulled out Teddy's photo of the three of them.

With shaky hands, Tonks plucked it out of his grasp and inhaled sharply. "That's us." She murmured, almost inaudibly as her finger stroked the image of her son. Tonks giggled when the baby's hair transformed from a vivid blue to her own bubble-gum pink shade. "He's a Metamorphmagus."

"Just like his mother." Remus said softly.

Tonks tore her gaze away from the picture and looked up into his mellow brown eyes. "Alright. I believe you."

Remus gave her a small nod as he took the picture back and tucked it back into his pocket. "I'm sorry you had to find out that way. I didn't think Teddy would barge in like that."

She shook her head. "Either way, it's bloody nuts." She said, huffing a laugh. "Teddy, huh? After my dad?"

"I assumed so." Remus agreed.

"How did it happen? How can he be here? I've never heard of anything like this happening before."

Remus explained the situation, and how Teddy was living with Harry in the future.

A solitary warm tear rolled down Tonks' cheek. She sniffed and wiped it away with the back of her hand. How could life give her everything she had ever wanted, only snatch it away again before she could even get used to the idea of having a family? The worst part of it was that she couldn't even do a bloody thing about it. She would be obliviated and would have to carry on living whilst clueless to the fact that she was on death's door.

"Bugger. Sorry, I can't believe I'm crying. I'm making a right fool out of myself today." Tonks laughed weakly.

Wordlessly, Remus pulled her into a comforting embrace, his chin resting on the top of her head. She wrapped her arms around his torso, her sobs muffled by his threadbare jumper. He rubbed soothing circles on her back as her cries dwindled.

"I'm sorry…I just…it's so unfair." She sniffed.

"It is." Remus agreed. He pulled away from the hug and cupped her face. The crying had made her skin blotchy and her eyes red-rimmed , but to him, she was still the most breath-taking woman he'd ever had the good fortune to meet. He wiped away her stray tears with his thumbs and gave her a lop-sided smile. "We may as well make the most of the time we do have. Come on, he's probably burning a hole in his seat waiting to show us his drawing."

She smiled back, and nodded, taking a shaky breath to compose herself.

Once they entered the kitchen, Tonks instantly spotted her blue-haired baby boy and grinned from ear to ear, concealing her earlier upset. "Wotcher, Teddy!"

Teddy stopped doodling and glanced up at the stranger. He stared at her with wide eyes, raking in her every detail. She had shoulder-length pink hair, big brown eyes just like him, and was wearing the same Weird Sisters t-shirt he had back home at Harry's house. "Mummy?" he called out questioningly, worried that he might have made a mistake.

Tonks swallowed nervously and gave a tentative nod.

"Mummy!" he yelled as he leapt off his chair and barrelled straight into her, wrapping his chubby arms around her leg.

"Oof!" she exhaled, as he hit her full force. Tonks chuckled. "Alright there, kiddo?" she asked as she picked him up and balanced him on her hip.

Teddy buried his face in her shoulder and nodded as he began to suck his thumb. The presence of his mother seemed to have quashed his exuberance and brought out his affectionate side.

"Bloody hell, if all it took to calm Teddy down was his mum, we should have called Dora over a lot sooner." Sirius snorted.

Tonks smiled and brushed Teddy's now pink hair out of his eyes. The whole situation was surreal, but at the same time, she couldn't doubt that the feel of Teddy in her arms just now felt iso/i right.

"He probably takes after me in that respect. I was quite the mummy's boy." Remus grinned.

"Who can blame him? My hugs are the best." Tonks said, matching his grin.

"I can attest to that."

Sirius faked gagging. "Get a room you two."

"As if we haven't had worse from you, Black." Tonks admonished, sticking her tongue out at him. Sirius, being the overgrown child that he was, stuck his tongue out too in response.

Rolling her eyes, Tonks soon turned her attention back to Teddy. "Rem—I mean, Daddy, was saying that you drew him a picture. Do you want to show it to us?"

Teddy nodded eagerly, some of his earlier liveliness making a reappearance. He indicated to the kitchen table. "S'over there."

Tonks carried Teddy over to the drawing with Remus following closely behind. Sirius remained perched on the kitchen counter.

Teddy began to point at the different parts of the drawing. "That's me, that's you, that's Daddy, and that's Sirius. This bit is your house and that's Moony over there in the garden." He explained.

Tonks tilted her head to the side, trying to decipher who was who, but honestly, she couldn't for the life of her work it out. "Moony?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"His toy wolf." Remus supplied.

Tonks looked amused. "Huh." She said, sending Remus a knowing smirk.

"And what's that, Ted?" Remus asked, pointing to the giant scribble of brown on the far right side of the paper.

"Daddy." Teddy sighed. "That's the chocolate river." He rolled his eyes, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Like father like son." Sirius teased.

"The boy has good taste." Remus retorted in defence.

Teddy yawned. "Daddy, can you read me and Mummy a story?"

"Yeah, come on Daddy. Chop chop, we haven't got all day." Tonks said, giving Remus a cheeky smile.

"As much as I love being read children's books to…" Sirius began sarcastically. "I am going to do some…work…yes, work, upstairs. Very important work."

"Does that work include a bottle of firewhiskey and David Bowie?" Remus quipped.

"Ask me no questions and I shall tell you no lies." Sirius winked, as he started ascending the stairs. "Catch you later, Tonks and Mini-Moony." He added with a salute.

The remaining three made their way into the library. Tonks plonked herself down on the plush Slytherin-green sofa and adjusted Teddy on her lap. She kicked off her boots and rested her smelly feet on the coffee table.

"Any requests?" Remus asked, as he leant against the bookcase, the corner of his lip twitching into a smile.

"Hmm…how about Little Red Riding Hood?" Tonks grinned.

Remus rolled his eyes.

"Yes! I love that one. Please read that one, Daddy." Teddy implored as he bounced up and down on Tonks' lap.

Remus gave Tonks the side-eye as he reluctantly plucked the book off the shelf. "I hope you're happy." He muttered, attempting to look irked. However, much to his displeasure, the corner of his lip began to twitch into a smile on its own accord.

"Very." Tonks beamed. Suddenly, she gasped and pointed at Remus. "My, Mr. Lupin, what big eyes you have!"

"You're incorrigible." Remus said, shaking his head.

"And don't you just love it." She winked.

Remus begrudgingly began to read the book. He was half-way through the story when Tonks prodded him gently in the arm. He paused mid-sentence and glanced over at her inquisitively. She nodded towards Teddy who was fast-asleep, his head resting on her chest. Remus noticed that some dribble had trickled out of his mouth and had begun to stain Tonks' shirt. He smiled fondly at his sleeping son, noticing with amusement that his hair colour had remained bubble-gum pink since meeting his mother. Tonks slipped her hand into Remus' and gave it a small squeeze. He squeezed hers back. This was all that he had ever wanted. He wished he could capture this moment and live through it every single day.