A Duty to Fight

	The news they had been waiting for all year had finally 
come, by way of Patronus. The message was simple: Come to 
Hogwarts; the last battle has begun.

	Remus, upon hearing the news, immediately leapt up from 
his chair and handed Teddy to Tonks. The three of them had been 
spending some quality family time together, though neither he or 
Tonks had been able to relax. “So the time has come, has it?” he 
murmured to nobody in particular, no doubt thinking of all the 
dear friends he had lost -- Dumbledore, Sirius, James, and Lily -- 
and the revenge he would finally be able to take out on the people 
who had killed them. His eyes were almost feral, although there 
was no full moon out that night. “After so many years…”

	Tonks nodded, knowing exactly how he felt. Not only had 
her cousin Sirius and her mentor Mad-Eye Moody been killed in the 
line of duty, her father, a Muggle-born wizard, had been recently 
murdered while on the run from the Death Eater-controlled 
Ministry, so she had her own scores to settle. Even if she had 
lost her job as Auror due to marrying a werewolf, she was still a 
member of the Order of the Phoenix, sworn to protect the magical 
world from He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. She had dedicated her life to 
fighting Dark Wizards, and there were none so dark as the Death 
Eaters and their leader.

	“I’ll tell Mum we’re leaving,” she said, starting to head 
downstairs when Remus reached for her arm and stopped her.

	“No, Dora,” he said, shaking his head. “You should stay 
here with Teddy and Andromeda; it’s safer.”

	If the situation wasn’t so serious, Tonks might have 
laughed. She was hardly the type to sit at home when there was 
evil to be fought. It went against every instinct she had honed as 
an Auror. “Don’t be ridiculous, Remus. I’m a member of the Order; 
it is my duty to fight in the upcoming battle. Besides, Teddy will 
be perfectly safe here with my mother.”

	“But what about you?”

	“What about me?”

	Remus’ eyes softened, and he reached up to caress her 
cheek. “I love you,” he said in a soft voice. “You do know that, 
don’t you? I probably should have said it more when I had the 
chance, but despite my earlier reservations, I am glad I married 
you. You gave me your love, and you gave me our son, and that’s 
why I can’t bear the thought of either of you in danger.”

	“But Remus --”

	He interrupted her protest with a kiss. “Don’t worry about 
me,” he said when they finally broke apart. Taking Teddy from her 
arms, he kissed the top of their son’s turquoise-colored head. 
“When this is all over, I’ll come back to you and Teddy, and maybe 
we’ll work on a sister for this little guy.”

	“You want to have another child?” she asked, surprised.

	He smiled. “Now that we know that my lycanthropy isn’t 
passed on genetically, we may just give Arthur and Molly a run for 
their money.”

	Rolling her eyes, Tonks took a yawning Teddy back in her 
arms. “I don’t know about that, but a daughter would be nice,” she 
admitted, briefly returning his smile. “Just…be careful out there, 
okay? If you leave me a widow, I’ll never forgive you. I‘m too 
young for that.”

	“I will,” he promised before Apparating to Hogsmeade to 
meet with the rest of the Order.

	Once Remus was gone, Tonks sighed and went to the nursery 
to put Teddy down for the night, her heart heavy as she thought of 
the brave wizards and witches, including her husband, who were 
risking their lives so that children like Teddy would never have 
to know the horror of war.

	She should be there, too, instead of being forced to 
uselessly twiddle her thumbs like some kind of helpless damsel in 
distress…

	She was an Auror, dammit! 

	While she understood Remus’ reasons for her to stay at her 
mother’s house with Teddy, Tonks couldn’t help but feel like he 
was treating her like a child. Yes, she was quite a few years 
younger than him, but she had plenty of experience fighting Dark 
wizards, and the Order would need all the help it could get in 
order to defeat the Death Eaters and their leader. Just because 
she was a woman and a young mother didn’t mean she was content to 
stay at home while others risked their lives to save the magical 
world.

	“Nymphadora, did I just hear somebody Apparating out of 
the house?” her mother asked, startling Tonks from her thoughts.

	Tonks turned her head to see her mother standing in the 
doorway to the nursery. “Yes, that was Remus,” she replied. “We 
received a message from the Order. The final battle has begun at 
Hogwarts.”

	“I see.” Her mother had never been a fan of Remus’, hating 
how much her daughter had to give up because she had married a 
werewolf, so Tonks was surprised when her mother came up beside 
her and placed a hand on her shoulder. “You’re worried about him.”

	“I’m worried about everybody,” she replied, adding an 
“especially Remus” silently in her mind.

	“Then why are you still here? You’re a member of the 
Order, too, aren’t you?”

	“Remus wants me to stay here with you and Teddy,” Tonks 
admitted, unable to keep a trace of bitterness out of her voice. 
“I can’t stand this! I know he just wants to make sure we’re safe, 
but --”

	“-- but you were never one to sit on the sidelines,” her 
mother said, completing her sentence. “Even as a little girl, you 
were like that. You always had to be where the action was, always 
had to stick up for those in trouble.”

	“I must have caused you and Dad a lot of worry.”

	“None more than when you told us you intended to pursue 
your Auror studies.”

	“You were especially against it,” Tonks remembered, 
lovingly pulling a blanket up to Teddy‘s shoulders. The baby was 
already fast asleep, blissfully unaware of the battle raging at 
Hogwarts that would determine the fate of the magical world. She 
envied him. “You didn’t like the idea of me possibly having to 
arrest one of your family members, even if the Blacks had disowned 
you over your marriage to a Muggle-born.”

	“I disagreed with their ideas of pureblood supremacy, but 
that didn’t mean I still didn’t love my sisters, despite the 
horrible things they had done.”

	“Even Bellatrix, who killed your favorite cousin Sirius?”

	Instead of answering, her mother reached down in the crib 
for Teddy’s favorite stuffed bear, placing it next to the sleeping 
infant. She smiled at her grandson, the child named in honor of 
her late husband, then turned to face her daughter.

	“You should go, Nymphadora,” her mother said. “Go to 
Hogwarts and protect the people you love, including Remus. It‘s 
the big fight; you can‘t just abandon everything you‘ve worked for 
all these years.”

	“But Teddy --” Despite her desire to fight, the maternal 
side of Tonks did not exactly relish the idea of leaving her 
precious baby behind, even if she knew he would be perfectly fine 
in his grandmother‘s care.

	“Teddy will be safe with me. I’ll protect him with my 
life, if need be, although I doubt that will be necessary. With 
people like you and Remus fighting the good fight, I‘m certain He
-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named will finally be defeated for good.”

	“Mum…”

	Admittedly, she and her mother had never had the best 
mother-daughter relationship over the years. The two of them were 
as different as two people could be, and, to somebody like her 
elegant mother, Tonks always suspected she had been a bit of a 
disappointment as a daughter. Yet, at that moment, she realized 
her mother was actually proud of her, and her eyes misted up with 
tears as she gave her mother a hug.

	“Thank you,” she whispered.

	“Go give those Death Eaters hell, Tonks,” her mother said, 
calling Tonks by her preferred name for the first time. “Fight in 
memory of your father and Sirius, and help make this world a 
better place for your son to grow up in.”

	Tonks grinned. “I will.”



DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter is the property of J.K. Rowling.

AUTHOR’S NOTES: Any comments or criticisms can be sent to me at 
ElysionDream@aol.com. Written for the hp_monthly community at 
Livejournal, Theme - Abandon.