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It could be any day now. They were in the danger zone. She was impractically huge, unable to sleep properly, unable to get herself off the sofa or bend down, or, what concerned him most, get up if she fell over. The tension of it all hung over the house like elastic ready to snap - every twinge or sigh from her was met with a volley, either from him or Andromeda. Are you all right? Has it started? Do you feel anything?
They were sat in the living room after the latest of these anti-climatic panics, he with his script for the next Potterwatch episode on his lap, making amendments in pencil, she furiously rearranging the cushions in an effort to get comfortable. Andromeda returned with tea for them both, and Remus smiled up at her gratefully as she handed it to him, though he could tell she was still rather disappointed that Tonks’s groan had been from the lack of crumpets left rather than the start of labour.
‘I found the old christening gown in the attic,’ she told them conversationally. ‘Family heirloom, you know,’ she added to Remus. ‘If you’re planning on it, of course.’
‘Oh, I dunno,’ said Dora. ‘I hadn’t really thought about it. Although I suppose we should think of a godparent.’
He cleared his throat slightly. ‘I… did have a thought on that, actually.’ He closed the script, and looked up at them both. ‘Harry.’
‘Potter?’ asked Andromeda, who looked rather worried.
‘Well it’s not going to be Harry-the-barman at the Winking Cyclops, is it, Mum?’ said Dora, smirking. ‘What a good idea.’ She looked down at her large stomach, and ran her hands over it. ‘That’s what we need, isn’t it? A godfather who’s happy to shout at your dad when he’s being a knobhead.’
‘Well, quite,’ said Remus, smiling. ‘He’s already shown he’ll put what’s best for the baby ahead of himself. I have him to thank… For a lot of things.’
‘That’s lovely,’ said Andromeda stiffly, ‘but we could always run through some other options-’
‘Nah, Harry’s perfect,’ said Dora. ‘He’s such a lovely bloke too, I think he’d be dead good at it. And I do want to thank him for sending my husband running home with his tail between his legs.’
‘All the same, the choice of a godparent is for the baby, it’s not something you hand out instead of a thank you,’ said Andromeda, who now sounded quite cold. ‘I mean… I hate to say it, but shouldn’t you pick someone with a slightly longer life expectancy?’
‘Mum!’ gasped Dora, outraged.
‘Harry will be fine,’ said Remus calmly. ‘I’m quite sure he’ll outlive us all, he’s already proven his worth, he’s survived far more than-’
‘When I met him he was an unconscious teenage boy,’ she snapped.
‘Yes, that’s how he was when I first met him too,’ he replied with a small smile. ‘But really, Andromeda, you’ve only met him once - I know him, and I know he’ll be all right. And what a role model he would be-’
‘In what way? He’s a teenage boy that horrible things have happened to. You should be careful, Remus, you’re raising him on quite a pedestal-’
‘I’m not talking about those things,’ he said. ‘Yes, awful things have happened to him, but he’s brave, and resilient, and at his heart a good person. That’s exactly the sort of person I want helping me raise a child.’
‘He’d be great, Mum,’ Dora assured her. ‘You barely met him - trust us, he’s really sweet, and he’d look out for-’
‘That boy will never have a normal life,’ she said firmly. ‘You know it, both of you. Even if, by some miracle, he survives all this, do you really think it will ever stop? Do you really want to attach your child to some legendary figure?’
‘Yeah, that sounds really cool,’ said Dora, flippantly. ‘Baby will be the most popular kid in school.’
Andromeda raised her hands in defeat. ‘Fine. If he really is the wonder kid you two make him out to be, I’m sure it will all work out.’
‘Yes, it will,’ said Dora, raising her chin in stubbornness. ‘And he’s filthy rich, so there’d always be good birthday and Christmas presents for Baby.’ Remus snorted with laughter.
It was less than a week later when Edward Remus Lupin came into the world. Remus was dizzy with delight, overwhelmed, beside himself with joy, sure that he was dreaming. The exhaustion and sheer unbridled happiness overtook him, and after an hour of them just being together, he announced that he was going to Bill’s.
‘He told me Harry’s there too,’ he babbled. ‘I can tell him he’s godfather-’
Dora beamed sleepily up at him, and he leant down to kiss her, and then Teddy’s tiny head, the hair now a soft ginger. ‘I can’t believe it, I can’t believe it,’ he whispered.
‘Go!’ she laughed. ‘Go and shout it from the rooftops, go and have a cigar and brandy or whatever it is new fathers are meant to do.’
He grinned, he didn’t think it was possible to smile wider, and he kissed them both again and strode quickly from the room. Andromeda followed him, and grabbed his arm just as he was putting on his cloak.
‘Please,’ she said in a stern whisper. ‘Please, just consider it for a little while longer, you don’t have to choose these sort of things right away - you could wait a while, see if you still want to make Harry godfather-’
He hadn’t followed what she was going on about at first, so when she mentioned Harry’s name he chuckled in realisation. ‘Oh - no, we’ve quite made our minds up-’
‘Remus,’ she said urgently, ‘even if he survives the war - and you know it’s unlikely - you will be making your child even more of a target-’
‘What? No, don’t be-’
‘You know it - you know people that boy loves end up dead.’
He thought of James and Lily and Sirius and Dumbledore, and even in his extreme happiness he felt a swell of annoyance. ‘He’s not a cursed object, Andromeda, he’s just a man-’
‘Teddy is already going to be a target,’ she pleaded. ‘Think cleverly-’
He had been surprised when he first found out that Andromeda had been in Slytherin, but every now and then something like this happened and he wondered how he had ever assumed she would be anywhere else.
‘I am thinking cleverly,’ he said. ‘No one better to protect my son from people like that, though I’m very glad that he has a grandmother who will also protect him so fiercely.’ He fastened his cloak, and, to her clear surprise, he hugged her. ‘This is a wonderful day,’ he told her. ‘Don’t fill it with fear.’
And then he turned to leave; forgetting almost immediately the things Andromeda had said, his mind swirling with the perfectness of his son, the giddiness of his new identity as a father, the excitement of spreading the most important news in the world.