Ombre

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

There might have been a note or two, and the Gray Man set those on his desk with every intention of answering them. So things went as the fall wore on, past Halloween and then Christmas. He saw no reason to trouble anyone with his existence. The people at the Ministry might be a bit more demanding than usual, and there was always some urgent flyer going around demanding that someone or other get caught, but it had little to do with him. He kept finding the creatures he was sent to capture. Then he returned them to the places he was told to put them, giving custody to the keepers, and went to find his next folder.

He barely noted the New Year and kept working through the winter and early spring. A troll was found near Edinburgh, a knarl was captured near Blackpool. So on and so forth until April. He was writing preliminary notes about a redcap said to be somewhere in Cornwall when a note came from Andromeda Tonks of all people.

Mr Lupin,

Andromeda

He shrugged. She must mean that he should come to meet the baby in the morning. He had plenty of time to catch the little blood-lover and bring it to the Ministry, although he was interested enough to hope they didn't plan to use it to hurt Muggles. He took another half hour to write the rest of his notes. Lyall had just got his protective gear on when a red envelope flew into his cubicle. Some sort of talons sprung from a corner and grabbed his elbow.

"Ouch!"

DO NOT IGNORE MY LETTER, MISTER LUPIN. I'M HOME ALONE WITH A LABORING WOMAN AND YOUR ASS OF A SON. COME TO THE ADDRESS I SENT YOU BEFORE I'M FORCED TO COME GET YOU MYSELF!

The talons pinched a little more firmly, finding a way through his protective coat and drawing blood. Lyall took off his protective hat and gloves and nearly took off the coat as well but decided he might need it. He walked out of his cubicle to see several heads peering over the walls in the office.

"I believe I'll be out for the rest of the day, perhaps tomorrow too."

The Apparition directions brought him to a quiet country lane with a house of some sort in the distance. He walked down the lane and saw that the house was of an architecture popular eighty years earlier. It gave the impression of a one and a half story cottage. When he looked a little slantwise at it, he could tell that it was the sort of house that bordered on a mansion. He'd be surprised if there were fewer than six rooms on the first floor and another six on the second floor.

The garden made him sigh in appreciation. It was early spring, yet, but it was a well kept lawn in the places where it was lawn and otherwise a lovely landscape of shrubs and flowers all kept in harmony with each other and likely chosen to give harmony to whomever passed through. He had always pictured such a place when he thought of his retirement, back when he thought he would want to retire sometime.

He knocked on the door and it opened at his touch.

"Just get it out! I don't want it anywhere near me any more!"

"Can't you do anything for her?"

The gray man was in a hallway. As he got to the stairs, he saw his hostess approach from a hallway toward the back. She was holding two flasks.

"MIS-ter Lupin, I see you finally decided to pay us a visit."

"Your er-" The look she gave him was dangerous- "correspondence suggested I could be of use."

"Indeed. Follow me."

He meekly followed her as she went up the stairs. They walked half way down the hall and stopped at a door.

"I have something for you," said Andromeda.

"She doesn't want it," said Remus.

"It's for you."

"I don't want it, either."

"Drink it or I'll lock you in the shed." The look in Andromeda's face accepted no argument. Remus took the flask she held out. She looked over at the Gray Man. "Lyall, take your son downstairs and keep him from making this harder than it needs to be, while I deal with my patient. Remus, I'll call you when you're wanted."

As they left the room, she walked over to the bed. "Nymphadora, this will help you relax while your body does the work. For once in your life you need to trust me."

Remus led the way to a comfortable lounge and sat on the couch. Lyall gingerly sat on what looked like an easy chair and found himself all but sucked into the comfort of it.

"Is Andromeda always like that?"

"Not really, except when she thinks things are going all to hell"

Lyall nodded.

Remus sighed. "Which is pretty much all the time, now."

Lyall nodded again. "She's some sort of Healer, right? She knows what she's doing."

"I know. I shouldn't have been trying to... I don't know what I was doing. She's a brilliant Healer. I've been told she'd be running the pediatric department if it weren't for Ted."

"How are you doing, son?"

"I'm just worried about Tonks. She's not used to going through this sort of thing. It's not as though she can pull out her wand and start casting spells to improve the situation."

"I strongly suspect her mother will know what to do with her."

"I don't doubt it. I think I lost my mind up there." He looked over at the Gray Man. "Thanks for coming, Dad. I know we don't see much of you, but..." He shrugged and yawned.

That pretty much exhausted their list of conversations. Remus drifted to sleep, and Lyall remembered a time when he paced in his own hallway, waiting for the boy to be born who became the man sitting across from him. He'd worried about Hope, but she'd sailed through beautifully, just as she did everything.

"MIS-ter Lupin."

A hand was holding a highball glass out to him. He looked up to see Andromeda, who looked much more relaxed. "The child is born, then?"

"A boy. Very healthy, and already a Metamorphmagus like his mum."

A shiver went through him and he looked at the glass. Andromeda held hers up. "To Edward Remus Lupin!"

The Gray Man swallowed the slightest bit of disappointment and lifted his glass up as well. "Teddy Lupin!"

It was the best firewhisky he'd ever tasted. "Amazing."

"Uncle Alphard would buy it already aged and then save it another 25 years. She looked at the bottle. "This one is from the 1920s."

"It doesn't get too old?"

"Not in Uncle Alphard's cellar." She sipped again. "How he would enjoy another generation in his house." She smiled at the thought, twisting her pearls as she did so. Lyall wondered, irrelevantly, how many healers wore pearls to deliver babies.

He took another swallow himself, letting it roll over and under his tongue. "How will you let your husband know-" He saw the look cross over her face and suddenly realized he'd made a mistake. He'd seen that face in the mirror every time he'd shaved for almost a decade, now- "I'm so sorry."

"Thank you."

"Do you mind me asking how it happened?"

Her face turned angry, but not at him. "He stumbled into a trap. It was bound to happen eventually." She looked piercingly at him. "It wouldn't have happened if he'd stayed with me. A bunch of bumbling fools who barely passed any O.W.L.s. I would have eaten them for lunch and he'd be here..." Her voice broke at the last word.

Lyall Lupin would never know why he did what happened next; perhaps the emotional upheaval of becoming a grandfather played a part. He just knew he had to stand up and put his drink down, taking hers and putting it aside as well. Then he pulled her into a hug so that he could hold her as she cried.