Author's Note:

Hello, I am sorry to announce that I will not be continuing on with this story. This will be the last chapter. I am so sorry! (Please don't be upset.) I may or may not write more fan fictions in the near future, but as of right now, the trilogy must end here. I apologize, but I can't seem to come up with the rest of the story line and I do not want to bore everyone with repetitions of fluff.

I thank you wholeheartedly for all your support and encouragements all through these several years the trilogy has spanned. I also realize I sound very formal right now but I'm hoping I sound sincere as well. I really do appreciate all your help, and again I am so sorry I can't finish this.

Thank you everyone. 3

Chapter 07 – A Nostalgic Paradise

If no one spoke about war, then for that day, no one remembered that they were approaching one. Following Lucas Black's birth on the twenty-fifth of August, Grimmauld Place had strangely catapulted into a state of mirth and forgetfulness. Jokes, laughter, and pleasant memories were made everywhere in the gloomy, ancient house. The war fast approaching between Voldemort and the Order of the Phoenix was quickly forgotten. Even for Harry Potter, he'd grown so used to waking up and spending time with his family and taking care of the baby that when one night, Kingsley mentioned that things are looking bad for the Ministry, he and the whole of the dinner table was caught by surprise.

After a thorough discussion on how the number of disappearances are quickly rising and covered up, Remus and Sirius returned to the newly cleaned room on the second floor to finish their task of turning it into a nursery for Lucas. Tonks, Silvia, and Alexis had taken baby Lucas and thrown a pinch of floo powder into the cobwebbed chimney in the drawing room to give Andromeda a call and tell her about the health of the baby. Harry and the others were busy preparing for the new school term only a day away, and Molly was happily in the kitchen, cooking up a late evening snack while talking with her eldest son and husband. Life seemed normal at Grimmauld Place.

"Moony, I think we cocked up," said Sirius. He stood back with his arms akimbo and scrutinized at the wooden baby crib he and his best friend had just put together.

Sighing, Remus climbed to his feet and looked at what they'd just finished. "You're right," he said slowly. "It doesn't look quite right."

"I don't think the cage thing is supposed to be on the bottom." Sirius pointed to the railings they seemed to have put on wrong. "Bugger it all," he groaned. "Who knew muggle contraptions would be this hard to put together. We should have just asked Molly to buy a crib when she went to Diagon Alley." Sirius face-palmed himself while Remus chuckled softly.

"How about you finish the wall and I'll fix the crib?" he offered.

"Yes, make Padfoot, the artistically-challenged one, finish drawing clouds on the wall," Sirius grumbled while picking up a paintbrush with his wand and dipping it in a bucket of white paint. "How in the world did Silv draw these ones anyways?"

Remus scratched his chin as he carefully took the bolts back out. "I don't know, ask her or get Dora. She's very good at drawing."

"What if Lucas doesn't like clouds?"

"He's a baby; he'll love anything his father and mother made."

"Bloody hell, Moony," said Sirius softly. "That's…that's some nice words."

Remus laughed and shook his head as he repositioned the side railings and charmed the bolts back in. Once done, he pulled back to study the crib and nodded happily. "That looks about right now," he said. "Dora can't make fun of us for being completely incompetent construction workers," he added, his smile widening at the thought of her.

"Oh speak of the devil!" Sirius said cheerily.

"Goodness, you two wouldn't believe this!" she exclaimed while charging into the room. "Molly actually got Ron a new broomstick! He's so ah—"

"Dora!"

"Merlin's pants!" Sirius yelled, grabbing at his hair.

Following a series of screams and clangs, Tonks was now sitting on the floor covered in white paint while the bucket Sirius had been using was rolling around on the wooden floor. Sirius huffed and glared at his colorful and extremely white cousin while Remus shook his head and began clearing the paint off his clumsy lover.

"Sorry." Tonks smiled apologetically.

"Here we are," said Remus after cleaning up the mess and pushing the restored paint bucket back to Sirius. He bent down to help Tonks up and she smiled, granting him a grateful kiss on the lips, fast as lightning for fear their spectator would begin to yell and tease them.

Sirius was shaking his head. "What do we do with you Tonks?" he asked.

"Wish on a star and ask for me to be more coordinated?" She smiled cheekily.

"No," said Sirius. "We stuff you in a closet and save the world."

"Git."

"So what was it you were saying?" Remus asked to stop the two from bickering.

"Oh yes," said Tonks, patting Sirius's shoulder as he returned to his poor attempt at painting clouds. "Ron and Hermione were made prefects. Molly got Ron a broom, and the others aren't happy."

"Why wouldn't they be happy?"

"I figure Harry wouldn't be happy," said Sirius. "Was he made prefect too?"

Tonks shook her head. "Haven't heard anything," she answered. "He's inside his room, congratulating Ron and looking at the new broom. It's nothing fancy, but he's still lucky he got a new broom. I'm still riding my ridiculous twig." She pushed her bubblegum pink fringe aside and blew a raspberry while leaning back on the wall.

"Can't you get a new broom?" Sirius asked. "You have a job you know."

"But an auror's wage is terrible! Honestly, we're all overworked and underpaid." Tonks crossed her arms and smiled to Remus while glancing at Sirius's struggle with painting clouds. "Oh give me that!" she said, taking the brush out of his hand.

"You make it look so easy," said Remus, watching as Tonks skillfully painted full and fluffy clouds on the wall, fixing Sirius's terrible mess.

"I'm gifted," she turned back to him and grinned.

Sirius faked a dramatic shiver. "I'm getting out of here before you two start snogging."

"Oi, it's your child's room!" Remus laughed.

"Lucas is your godson, do some work!"

"Hey, before you leave," said Tonks contemplatively. "Sirius, you've got gold, right?"

Sirius narrowed his eyes. "Yes," he said carefully. "What do you want?"

"Can you buy me a new broom?" Her eyes lit up and Remus couldn't help but smile.

"Ha! In your dreams!"

"But…you bought Harry a broom! You bought him a bloody Firebolt!"

"He's my godson!"

"I'm your cousin!"

"There, there," Remus laughed, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her back from splattering Sirius's face with paint. "I can save up and buy you a broom."

She turned back to him and smiled. "Nah, I'll just take your broom." Tonks grinned, mischief glinting in her radiant eyes. "It's so nicely polished."

"Oh bloody hell," Sirius sighed and made for the door.

Before he could leave, his path was suddenly blocked by Silvia, his smiling wife holding a wide-eyed baby Lucas securely in her arms. "There you are," she said. "I've been meaning to find you."

"Am I in trouble? Please get me out of here!" He leaned in and whispered loudly. "The lovebirds are at it again! Save me!"

Silvia looked at Remus and Tonks and smiled. "Can you hold Lucas for a while?" she asked them. "Sirius, we should comfort Harry."

"Oh, yes," her husband replied. "Can't we take Lucas with us?"

"I think Harry deserves our full attention for a little while. Lately, you and I have been so distracted with Lucas," she replied softly and Sirius listened. He picked Lucas up, kissed him and smiled against his little boy's chubby cheek, then handed him to his godfather.

Remus took the baby carefully and with Tonks, sat down on the floor while Sirius and Silvia left the room heading down the hallway.

"What does Harry need comforting about?" Tonks asked, taking Lucas's tiny fists and playing with him while Remus held him.

"He might be upset at not being made prefect," said Remus softly.

"But Dumbledore would be mad making Harry prefect. Knowing how he attracts trouble, letting him roam the school freely would be ridiculous."

"You see it too."

Tonks looked up at him. "Yeah, don't Harry? Dumbledore's only trying to help him."

Remus shrugged. "He's just a boy, Dora. And besides, a little comfort would do him well. Don't forget that at the moment, aside from wanting the prophecy, Voldemort also wants Harry dead."

"Funny…I really almost forgot," she confessed.

"We've been so busy and happy lately." Remus held Lucas up to his face and spoke in a soft, childish voice to the baby. "We've been so busy with baby Lucas," he grinned, "and forgot all the bad things in the world." When Remus pulled back, he saw Tonks smiling and watching him with awe. "What?"

She shook her head, a grin plastered on her pale, heart-shaped face. "Do you realize how attractive you are when speaking and playing with a baby?"

"No, can I get a mirror?"

Tonks let out a soft laugh. "I can see you being a great godfather."

"I only hope so."

"I know you will." She took his hand and scooted closer, holding the baby along with him. Lucas's grey eyes gazed at them with great interest and not once did he cry or utter a sound of fear or reproach. "Have you ever thought about having a kid of your own?"

"I have," he admitted. "But I'm afraid."

"Afraid of what?"

"That he or she would be like me." From his shaky voice, Tonks could sense a feeling of great fear. "I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I end up cursing my own child."

"It's not hereditary."

"That's only our guess. Werewolves have never mated before…no other werewolf in history has found a human who accepts them enough to love them."

"You're an exception." She held his face gently in her hands and kissed his lips.

He smiled and his haunted eyes returned to Lucas, squirming sleepily in his arms. "Let's not talk about this," he said quietly. "We have so many other things to worry about."

Tonks was quiet for a moment. She wanted to ask him something else but thought better of it. "All right," she said.

The late hours of the night went by slowly. That night, Tonks tossed and turned endlessly in her bed while beside her, Remus laid staring at the blank ceiling in silence. It felt strange that they didn't want morning to come. When the sun rises, the kids would have to get ready and return to Hogwarts. It was more than clear to all of them that once the kids leave, Grimmauld Place would be very, very different.

"You're still awake?" Remus asked in a hoarse but soft voice.

Tonks nodded in the darkness.

He shifted and Remus slipped his arms around her slim waist. "It's almost dawn. We should get some sleep."

"We're not seeing them off tomorrow. I can sleep in."

"You have work. It will look suspicious if you don't come into work tomorrow."

She grumbled.

"There, there," he cooed softly. "Go to sleep."

For a long time after, Remus and Tonks laid quietly in their bed, awake. Soon, sleep took over them and without realizing it they drifted off into a gentle slumber. When dawn came, neither of them realized it. They would have slept through dawn had it not been for the series of loud noises and bangs that sounded just outside their door. Soon, there was screaming.

"Oh bloody hell," Tonks grumbled while pushing herself up out of her bed.

"What happened?" Remus questioned sleepily.

Together, they searched blindly for the door and stepped out into the dark and dreary hallway. The next thing they knew, their eardrums were bombarded by a series of noises. They heard the sound of heavy objects falling, the thuds of footsteps down the stairs, the voice of Molly screaming at the top of her lungs over Walburga Black's portrait, and the croaky moans of people waking up from their sleep.

"—COULD HAVE DONE HER A SERIOUS INJURY, YOU IDIOTS—"

"—FILTHY HALF-BREEDS, BESMIRCHING THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS—"

"Fred and George bewitched their trunks to fly down the stairs and accidentally knocked Ginny down two flights of stairs into the hall," said Silvia, slipping on her silk black dressing gown. "Molly's going ballistic."

Following the series of noise and long-winded goodbyes, Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred, and George followed Moody and Arthur to King's Cross Station to go onto Platform 9 ¾ and board the Hogwarts Express. Leaving the dreary house, Harry wore a deep frown and lingered at the doorway, looking pleadingly to his godparents. It was hard to believe that Harry would rather stay at such a dim and dismal place than go back to Hogwarts. Sirius and Silvia along with Lucas gave him one last wave before Moody grunted and pulled him out of the door.

"It sucks they have to go so soon," said Tonks.

"They're going back to Hogwarts. As far as I know, they have nothing to complain about." Sirius stretched, then took hold of his infant son from Silvia's arms and held a smiling Lucas up to his face. "Hello baby," he spoke in a teasing, playful voice. "What do you need? Are you hungry? You are such a handsome little boy, yes you are."

"I never thought I'd say this, but Sirius is quite cute playing with Lucas," said Tonks. She was slipping on her robes and preparing to leave for work.

"Don't forget, we've all confirmed that Lucas looks exactly like Sirius," Remus reminded. "In one twisted way or another, Sirius is complementing himself."

"Why must you make things seem so strange?" Tonks groaned and Remus smiled.

"Come on Nymphie, we'll be late," said Alexis, hopping out the door while trying to slip her shoes on. "I have a lot of things to look over at work. Do you know how long it takes for the stupid lift to get from the Atrium to my department?"

"Relatively ten seconds?" Tonks replied and chased after her cousin. "See you Remus," she turned back and smiled.

"Err, don't forget about the meeting tonight," Remus called after her.

"I won't!"

With all the kids back at school and with most of the house busy at work or doing missions for the Order, Remus found that Grimmauld Place was really beginning to live up to its name. The halls echoed with a dense silence and the entire house was colder that it usually was. Remus wandered the halls most of the day, helping Silvia with the baby and once Sirius returned, Silvia had to leave. Remus tried his best to be a good godfather and like Silvia had asked him, scolded Sirius whenever he tried to teach Lucas how to pull pranks or plot acts of mischief. As the day went by, Remus was beginning to feel a little more natural in the more empty house—but the echoing hallways still bothered him.

"Sirius, stop trying to teach him how to set off dungbombs," Remus sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Lucas is barely a month old."

"Better to start young," Sirius replied and rocked his son back and forth.

"Your wife will kill you."

"What mummy doesn't know won't hurt her," Sirius grinned, making faces at Lucas.

Remus sighed again and shook his head. He wandered up to the library after Lucas had fallen asleep on Sirius's chest and Sirius dozed off on the sofa in the drawing room. In the library, Remus spent the next several hours staring between the lines of texts in a book he hadn't even bothered to look at the name of. His mind was distracted by thoughts of the Order meeting that night and of the approaching war. Remus sighed again. He couldn't deny it. The past few days of completely forgetting about war…was wonderful.

The evening finally came and members of the Order filed into Grimmauld Place just like before. Tonks returned right before the meeting was about to start, bouncing in wildly, tripping up and causing a ruckus. Mrs. Black began screaming and while Silvia held Lucas, Sirius ran out to hush up his mother's screaming portrait. Alexis and Marrick came in after Tonks, sighed, and helped Tonks up to her feet. Taking her seat, Tonks caught Severus Snape's beady black eyes and couldn't help but glare defiantly back at him.

"What's got him so dreary?" Tonks asked Remus quietly, pointing to Snape.

"I honestly don't know."

Their question was answered immediately when Snape spoke up once all the seats at the table were filled again. "Alastor, are you sure we will be able to go through this meeting uninterrupted? There is a child here." His voice was low and sneering, causing Sirius to glower.

"He's just a baby, Severus," Molly sighed.

"Honestly," said Silvia icily. "You can't expect us to leave an infant child alone for hours at a time. Besides, he's asleep right now."

"What if we wake him up? I suggest that Black take his child upstairs and stay with him until the meeting is finished."

"You lousy, slimy, stupid little git!" Sirius placed his fist on the table and stood up. With one glare from Silvia, he sat back down but Snape had no chance to say another word. Dumbledore had spoken up and began the meeting, ignoring the feud between Sirius and Snape.

The meeting went on like always. Sitting through it, Tonks was fully reminded of her short attention span and her animosity towards Snape. While the dreary Potions Master spoke, she couldn't help but yawn. Back in school, Snape's droning voice had always made her sleepy. Years later, there was still no difference.

"Nymphadora, are you listening?" Snape asked as if she was his student.

"Don't call me Nymphadora, Severus!" she snapped and automatically, her bubblegum pink hair shifted to flaming red. "And yes, as a matter of fact, I am."

"What was I saying?"

Tonks paid close attention, but not to Snape. She was trying to make out the message Remus's gentle finger was writing onto the palm of her hand. "You were talking about how Voldemort is taking action," there was a series of gasps and whispers down the table as Tonks spoke their enemy's name. "He wants the prophecy and now he's taking the initiative to get it."

Snape said nothing and continued on with his drone. When no one was looking, Tonks turned to Remus and showed him a grateful smile. It was difficult to make out what letters he was writing onto her palm, but she'd managed to find a proper answer nonetheless. He smiled and shook his head at her. It felt like being back in school again, for both of them.