Preparing for the Future

Disclaimer: The characters here and the world they inhabit are the creation and property of JK Rowling and her assigns.

A week after the Lestranges were tried and sentenced, Alastor Moody was taking his trash to the bins outside his flat when several Death Eaters jumped him. He fought them off and sent his Patronus to the Ministry before losing consciousness. Kingsley Shacklebolt brought the news to the Tonks family. He felt guilty drinking Andromeda's coffee and eating her biscuits as he told the tale, but she was sympathetic and she really wanted to know.

"He's lost a leg and an eye. The Healers have fixed him up, but it will be months before he's able to use the prosthetic ones properly. I hate to think of him in that flat, all by himself..."

Ted's hand was squeezing Andromeda's as she said, "Bring him here."

Kingsley looked up. "I was thinking of having him at my place."

She shook her head. "No, bring him here. He needs a place to go where there will be something to interest him, and we want him. I'm sure you have a very nice house, Kingsley, but you aren't there most of the time. We can look after him and make sure he practices or trains or whatever. We can also provide something interesting for him to see. The children are a constant source of amusement, although sometimes they're rather unexpected."

The Healers brought the broken Alastor Moody to the cottage and set him up in Uncle Alphard's room downstairs. One of them spent the day, showing Andromeda and then Ted what needed to be done and how to help the patient. The patient himself was quiet and withdrawn. He avoided eye contact and simply lay in the bed for the entire day.

He did the same on the next day. Ted and Andromeda went into the room in the early morning and brought breakfast. Ted helped the patient into the bathroom and waited while he handled his business. Then he helped him back into bed and had his own breakfast before kissing his wife and leaving for the Ministry.

Andromeda made several attempts to start a conversation with her house guest. None of them worked. She asked if he was comfortable. He answered that he was well enough. She asked if he would like to move to a different room, or even outside. She wasn't answered. She offered to open a window if he was too warm or start a fire if he was too cold. There was still no response.

The breakfast tray returned to the kitchen, mostly uneaten. The lunch tray was likewise hardly touched. A Healer came and did some sort of therapy after lunch. The mistress of the house kept her distance through that process. The healer came to the kitchen after they were done.

"He's going to need a day or two. It's a difficult thing to lose a limb or something like one's eye. It's hard for the patient emotionally as well as physically. Something will cause him to take interest in life, and he'll come around. Don't worry too much about it. You're doing everything just right."

Ted helped their guest to the bath as soon as he came home from work. There was one last meal tray and then Moody rolled over and pretended to sleep. Andromeda looked in on him and sighed.

"Mr. Moody, if you need anything, just call Birdie, the house-elf. She'll come get Ted or me."

The answer, if it could be called such, was a shrug of the bedclothes.

The rest of the week continued the same way. Moody's trips to the bath became easier, and a little more food was consumed from the trays. Yet there was no real change in demeanor or interaction with the guest in Uncle Alphard's room. Ted watched the crease between his wife's eyebrows and said nothing, although he tried nightly to kiss it away.

"Ted, please! I don't think I can, not when he's suffering so. I feel responsible."

"Is that why he's here?"

"No... yes... maybe?" She looked into her husband's kind face. "If my sister could have left well enough alone, he would not have had to arrest her, and if that had not happened, the other Death Eaters would not have done anything to him."

"Andromeda, it doesn't have anything to do with you." His body was so warm and comforting. She let him pull her closer. "In fact, you did what you could by leaving your family and offering your cousin a haven." She nodded her head, knowing he was right even if it didn't feel true. He cradled her head in his hand and kissed her hair. Suddenly she realized his face was wet.

"Ted, what is it?"

"Oh, Dromeda... He's always been so strong and capable. He was the toughest one of them. I hate that it happened to him..."

She was filled with remorse that she had taken comfort from him without remembering that the wizard downstairs had been a friend and mentor to her husband since before their marriage. She moved up onto her knees, kissing him, but also pushing him back into his pillows. She found the knots in his neck and shoulders and kneaded them out.

Ignoring the hands reaching for her, she proceeded to touch and caress him, knowing after almost ten years of marriage what he would find soothing and what would fulfill his needs. The man in her arms murmured and sighed and groaned as she gave him the love he would so eagerly have given her. His face was buried in her hair when it was over, but there was a smile on his lips. "My Andromeda," he said as he patted her back.

The Tonks household was well into the second week of having its convalescing house guest. One afternoon, after the Healer left to talk with Andromeda, Moody rolled over and found himself face to face with his own visage, which was just a bit higher than eye level. To the side and a little lower was another face that looked quite a bit like his hostess but with his host's eyes.

"Who're you?" he asked, although he knew the answer.

"I'm Nym-pha-dor-a Tonks," answered his own face, drawing out the name in an iambic meter. "And this is Tim. He's a Squib."

"Nothing wrong with that, is there?" Both little heads shook from side to side. "He's got two good eyes. He can still be vigilant." Both children nodded. Moody's good eye narrowed. "What're you doing in here?"

The boy answered. "Mum said it's a shame you're so sad and angry and Dad said you're the toughest Auror ever and you'll bounce back eventually."

"Tim, you aren't supposed to say things like that," said the older sister out of the side of a mouth that was becoming pinker and more girl-like. The hair was turning pink, and the face was sliding into more of a heart-shape.

Moody laughed for the first time in weeks, the sound taking him by surprise. He made a tremendous effort and found that he could sit up in his bed more easily than he thought. A gasp from the doorway of the room caused all three occupants to look over. Two of the occupants looked guilty.

"Children! You weren't supposed to come in here and bother Mr. Moody unless he wanted you. I'm so sorry, Mr. Moody. Have they troubled you?"

"Yes, I guess they did trouble me, but I think they were right to do so. Would you mind terribly if they stayed with me until tea time? I'd like to get to know them a bit better."

She looked startled, but then looked from the children to her patient, and something she saw made her nod. "Certainly. Would you like me to bring you anything?"

"Perhaps some biscuits and milk would be proper. And, Andromeda?" She looked back. "Please call me Alastor."

When she came back, she found the three in the bedroom talking together animatedly. "Mum, Mr. Moody is a great Auror, and he's going to help me be one, too!"

"I'm glad to hear it," answered the mother calmly. Her daughter was quick to make pronouncements about her future, and it wasn't clear just how many of them would come true. She set the tray on a table near the bed and left the room. As she pulled the door shut, she heard Tim ask, "How many Death Eaters were there the night you got hurt? Did you kill any of them?" She nearly went back in to tell them not to talk about it, but heard Mr. Moody...Alastor, she corrected herself...chuckle and answer.

That night at dinner, the children animatedly discussed with their father what they had learned that day. Dora was the most excited. "He says I have to do good in Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, and Defense Against the Dark Arts. Then there's more school after Hogwarts, but I can do that, right Dad?"

"Of course you can, Dora," answered her father, fondly. "You can do anything."

Tim's face was happy on behalf of his sister, but a little sad on his own account. Mum took him aside after dinner. "Is there something wrong, Tim?"

"I just wish I could do what Dora can."

"But, Tim, who would help me with the book keeping? If you were like Dora, you wouldn't be so good at math, and I need your help with that."

He smiled. "So it doesn't matter to you?"

"Not a bit. I need you to be the way you are."

"But when Dora goes to become an Auror, what can I be?"

"Well, we've talked a bit with your Aunt Sue. She's hoping you'll go to the school near her and learn how to be even better at math, and history, and reading..."

"I like those things."

"I know you do. Best of all, Aunt Sue lives far away from the problems Magical people have, and you won't be in as much danger as you are, here. You'll have friends who are more like you, too."

"But won't you miss me?"

"Every day, but we'll write letters and there are tons of holidays."

Two small arms twined around Andromeda's neck and she surrendered to the bliss of his hug. "Oh, my little man, you give hugs just as good as your Dad."

"Do I, Mum? Do I really?"

"Oh, yes."

Dad himself came over to see what they were talking about. "What serious discussion could be going on here?"

"We're planning what I can be when I grow up, Dad. I'm going to have friends like me, and when I'm done, I'm going to come home and take you away from magical people and danger. Then, when Dora's done getting rid of the dark wizards and witches, we can all be together and happy again."

Dad laughed, although his eyes glistened strangely. "That sounds like a fine plan, son. Let's go ahead and do that."

Mum smiled too. Dora came over and tackled Dad. "Can we play Exploding Snap before bedtime? Tim won yesterday, and I want to see if I can beat him."

It took several months for the Auror to accustom himself to the changes in his physique. During that time, he entertained and was entertained by the children regularly. As he told Ted one evening, "They make life seem interesting, somehow. I have a reason to get better and to get rid of Voldemort once and for all."

"Isn't he already dead?" asked Ted.

"Dumbledore says he is but he's not gone, and he would know," answered Moody. "Stands to reason that maybe he isn't. Dumbledore thinks he was working on a way to not be dead. Not many people have heard the full story, but your sister-in-law was trying to get the Longbottoms to tell her where the body was buried. It's thought that they had something they were supposed to do to resurrect him."

Ted recoiled at the idea. "How could that work?"

"It doesn't matter. The body turned to dust as the Aurors went over the house. Dumbledore says it proves that there's mighty dark magic involved and that he will come back, someday. That Potter kid is our best hope.

Ted was withdrawn when he went to his room that night. Andromeda tried to draw him out about it, but he was reluctant to say anything. Finally he asked her, "What if it isn't over, Dromeda? What if You-know-who came back?"

"If we can get rid of him once, can't we get rid of him again?"

"It was just dumb luck," answered Ted.

"Was it? Cissy mentioned a prophecy... Maybe Harry Potter was the child from the prophecy. Maybe if he comes back, Harry Potter can fix it."

"That's an awful lot to put on shoulders younger than even our Tim's"

"Yes it is." She bit her lip pensively. "But he'll have help, won't he? There's Dumbledore, and Alastor, and Kingsley, and of course, my hero."

"I'm not such a hero."

"You did your part when it was there to do. I don't think anyone can be more heroic than that."

A/N: Thanks to Trickie Woo for beta reading