Harry looked at the older witch and smiled. "Yes, Mrs. Tonks."

Andromeda tutted. "It's Andromeda, Harry. Mrs. Tonks was a kindly Muggle proprietor of a small inn in the Lake District."

Harry smiled, feeling the horror of the day slowly falling off of his shoulders.

"What do you have here besides the chocolate?" He inquired.

The two of them stopped their quiet conversation and turned to him. "I have – "

A wail from a child in another room broke the solitude of the residence. "Ah, yes, Teddy. I was hoping he'd sleep another hour until after you had left but since he's awake, why don't you go fetch him along with a fresh nappy. I'll make him a bottle and then tend him before letting him sit with you a spell."

"Um, Mrs – Andromeda," He stuttered, "I've never held a baby before. I don't know what to do."

Andromeda shared a smile with Kingsley. "Well, besides being noisy, somewhat smelly at times, constantly hungry that doesn't diminish 'til they turn 35, and keeping you awake all hours of the day and night, they are quite a handful on their best of days." She stood up from the settee and went to gather him from his pram. "I'll help you get him settled in and then I'll make his bottle." She stepped out of the room. "It's probably as complicated as dodging bludgers while trying to catch a snitch."

Harry smiled, remembering one match his second year. He turned to Kingsley who was holding his cup of tea. "How is she doing, sir?"

"Andromeda? She'd have you believe she's got her stiff upper lip and nothing can shake her foundations. But it's all a front. She's gutted, like everyone else, since she lost almost everyone 'cept little Teddy. Losing Ted hurt but Dora? I can't fathom how she's coping."

"What choice do I have, Kingsley?" She stepped in holding Teddy on a blanket on her shoulder and a stern look on her face. It softened when she saw the men looking at her. "Pine away while this little one needs me? You underestimate my coping skills. I've gone through things that most never will have to experience. This is another moment of me losing something I cherish more than my own life, and all a result of a choice I made so many decades ago."

"I don't," Kingsley replied. "But I also know that you could use some help, take a break with the little one here, maybe have a couple of hours where you can, oh I dunno, take a kip or pick up groceries."

"Ted and I are doing fine right now," her answer brooked no insolence. She shared that trait with her younger sister easily enough. "Now get comfortable, Harry, and put your arms out, like you want to hold a book in front of you."

Harry did as she asked and she knelt down, putting Teddy into Harry's arms. The tyke looked up at Harry and his eyes changed colors, from the brown that Remus had to vibrant green. "He's a metamorphmagus, like Tonks."

"I don't rightly know for certain, actually. She didn't start sprouting her hair 'til she was three. But then Ted and I didn't notice her eyes changing color either due to the exhaustion. I don't think Dora slept for the first three years of her life."

The fuzz on the child's head slowly darkened, leaving him looking like he would be Harry's child if he did anything remotely relative to making babies. "He's a handsome little man."

"Yes, he is, when I can get him to sleep long enough. Kingsley, can I speak with you a moment in the kitchen?"

The two of them left Harry on the couch with little Edward in his arms.

"It's nice to finally meet you, Teddy. You don't know who I am yet but I'm Harry. I knew your parents."

Teddy's hair shifted back to brown along with brown eyes.

"You do take after your father that way, it seems. He was quiet too, so I understand it. He was also there when I needed him for help."

Teddy's hair shifted again, this time to vibrant pink.

"And there's your Mum. She was incredible. I hate that you'll only know them from stories from the rest of us. I knew your Dad more than your Mum but everyone says that your Mum was amazing, too."

The lad continued to look at Harry, being quiet in his arms. "You're a bit too young for me to start in on the stories but maybe one will be fine, about your Mum. She was so funny. We were sitting in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place, at Christmas a couple of years ago, and your Mum was making silly faces to amuse some others at the table. I remember one where she had this pig snout and candy floss-colored hair. She could always make me laugh so hard, even when she wasn't trying to do so. But she'd tell you straightaway that she was also one of the biggest klutzes around. She didn't know how she made the Aurors when she failed the Stealth tests every time."

Teddy continued to watch Harry. His hair changed from brown to black and brown again, shifting unconsciously.

"But let me tell you about your Dad. He was such a good man. He had his moments, but that's expected and all. But he was an excellent professor, an amazing man, who dealt with his furry little – " Harry stopped and looked up towards the kitchen. "Andromeda, is Teddy – I mean, is he – "

"If you're asking if he's got a furry little problem, no, he doesn't. I took him in at Dora's insistence and found a Healer who would be more than happy to help once I slipped him ten galleons. While he's contaminated, since Remus is his father and had his furry little problem, Teddy won't turn. It seems that it's fortunate that the issue of lycanthropy only transmits through the bite of one who is currently turned. But the Healer said that they know that it can also transmit if the mother is contaminated. We're all fortunate that Dora was immune, so she thought.

"The healer did say that Dora's genes involving her metamorphisms probably will help Teddy keep any possible furry problems down, kind of like inoculation of cowpox to prevent Dragon Pox." Andromeda handed over a warm bottle of milk. Harry looked at it, trying to deduce what to do when Andromeda sat down next to him and tended her grandson while also demonstrating for Harry how to care for his godson.

Little Teddy settled back into Harry's arms, trying to hold the bottle in his hands but failing to keep it in his minuscule grasp. She sat back to watch closely over Harry as well. "I can already tell that he has some signs of Dora. His hair color will change when he sees something interesting and spontaneously shift to that color."

Harry watched lil' Teddy's face grew serious for a moment. Andromeda sighed. "And he seems to take after his father, too. He'll get that look, like he can't figure something out and it bothers him. My Ted would get that look, too. It's probably what drew Dora to Remus."

"What were they like together? I mean, really like. I knew Remus pretty well – "

"Not as well as I did, Harry," Kingsley cut in.

"Well, yes, but I never considered Remus finding anyone who would fancy him, because of his furry little problem."

"Dora was unique as you can imagine. Her tastes in people ran the gamut, but the one line she didn't cross was that she would occasionally come across one who was deviant in their desires. She would immediately cut contact and never speak with them again. She said that it was being dishonest to herself if she did anything of the sort." Andromeda smiled at Harry's slightly befuddled expression. "Dora never saw herself as being completely a girl, because she could change her appearance greatly. While Kingsley found it a tremendous asset,"

"And she was if she didn't have to require stealth too," He cheeked.

"She came across people who would find some weird enjoyment in having her appear as someone else for a physical relationship. If you wanted to see Dora blow her top like my Ted, ask her to do that. She'd come by in a strop and it would take a day or two for her to calm down enough. I couldn't do it though, only Ted could."

"Remus was the only one who never asked that of her. He took her as she was, and accepted her however she appeared. She didn't have to play to anyone's expectations and didn't have to fulfill some sick fantasy on the part of someone else. In Remus, she found a surprising kindred spirit, because she always felt like she was an outcast, because of what she could do. Regular society, if she hadn't gone into the Aurors, wouldn't have readily accepted her except as my child – which in the climate wasn't for much."

"Did they get along? I mean, he showed up one time when we were in hiding and he wanted to run off with us. I," Harry looked at the infant in his arms, "I told him off for abandoning Tonks when she was pregnant. He got so upset with me and stormed off." Harry couldn't admit to anyone that he provoked Remus into using magic against him. The shame still coursed over his skin in remembrance.

"So you're why he came back then?" The older witch nodded. "That makes perfect sense."

"Perfect sense?"

"He returned about a week later, looking more haggard and frail. Tonks wouldn't hear a word otherwise against him. She knew how upset he was and told me off, saying he needed time to sort things." Andromeda's face grew pinched. "I guess getting kicked in the arse by you did help him sort things. Once he returned, he didn't stray far from Dora, except when he went off on Order business."

"And that business was meeting me in rough locations to pass information. I was operating blind once I escaped with my life from the Ministry."

"But you could have handled it! You're a Pureblood."

"And I am one of Dumbledore's staunchest defenders in the Ministry. There were whispers I was his stooge but I disagreed often with him, but in private or behind closed doors. The whispers started the year before he died. Fudge tried to blame me for Dumbledore escaping arrest. While it was certainly true, he had no evidence but his bruised ego. It didn't matter since he was sacked a few months later after the debacle at the Ministry."

Andromeda smiled at Kingsley before he sat down next to her. "Andromeda took me in after the coup, and after Ted went on the run. No one dared deal with her, not with her family name and her being a Pureblood. I was able to come and go without being seen or suspected."

"A few tried since I was married to Ted, but those few quickly realized their mistake." Her face grew cruel, looking like she was one very small yet haughty step from committing murder. "I sent three to St. Mungo's, one of which was still in there when I took Ted in. The one still in there was one of the ones responsible for torturing me after the Coup happened. He said something he shouldn't have so I used old family magic on him." Harry shuddered to see her anger simmering under the passive face.

"Tortured you?" Kingsley turned towards Andromeda. "Why didn't you tell me this?"

"What was to tell? The Ministry had fallen. Everyone knows I was married to Ted. Those idiot Death Eaters had no qualms trying to torture us for information even though we had none. When the Ministry fully supported their actions, what could you do? So I did what I always have done – endured it and fought back when I had the advantage." She smiled and her features softened some. "After that little incident, no one came a calling except you and later on, Dora and Remus."

"Remus and I ran the Order out of here about a third of the time. The other bits, well, we won't mention them."

Harry looked down and saw lil' Ted had fallen asleep. "Um, what do I do now?"

The other two smiled. "Let's give him ten more minutes before I lay him back down. Biscuit?"

Just then Harry's stomach growled. Andromeda smiled, looking tired before her visage turned back to friendly politeness. "How about I make you a sandwich? I think I have some ham and cheese and wholemeal bread."

"Oh, that would taste so good."

"Once you've got it, I need to get you home, Harry. Arthur said he'd keep the Floo open for you until I brought you home then lock it again."

"Really?"

"Neither of us is a Weasley and the wards are attuned with Blood Magic, courtesy of Bill. The results of trying to apparate into the Burrow and not being a Weasley would be fatal."

"Oh."

"Andromeda has the same protective enchantments. I insisted. That's why we arrived by Floo."

Andromeda stood up from her settee, heading into the kitchen to make him a sandwich. Kingsley joined her in there, talking softly where Harry couldn't see them. In some ways, they looked very much like Ron and Hermione, parenting him without trying to make it obvious.

Moments later, Andromeda put a paper sack down on the side table before bending down to collect Teddy in her arms. He whimpered slightly but she hummed a few bars of a song he didn't know and the tyke settled back to sleep.

"Ready, Harry?"

"I am. I'm knackered for some reason."

"Well let's call Arthur so you can come through. I won't be joining you. I have to return to the Ministry and do those wellness checks tonight."

"I understand."

"Get some rest. I plan on coming calling tomorrow about 9. We'll go through as many as you can stand tomorrow. I know it's overwhelming but those families with lost family members should know as soon as possible."

"I agree," Andromeda looked towards Harry and he was reminded of her sisters, but softer and yet more tired. "It's heartbreaking to not know. It hurts to know, especially for the worst, but the lack of closure is worse."

A/N: My thanks to everyone who is reviewing and leaving follow notices. 'Tis appreciated (since RL is wonky busy right now.) - DG