FIC: The Unlikely Survivors' Club (Or The Bloody Lucky Bastards Brigade, as Sirius Black prefers to

[rosemaryandrue.livejournal.com]

Title: The Unlikely Survivors' Club (Or The Bloody Lucky Bastards Brigade, as Sirius Black prefers to call it)
Author/Artist: rosemaryandrue
Recipient: laroseminuit
Rating: PG
Contents or warnings (highlight to view): *None*
Word count: 2998
Summary:In which Sirius Black destroys baby monitors, Nymphadora Tonks is still a disaster in the kitchen, and they're only missing one person to make a perfect Christmas. Secondary pairing Nymphadora Tonks/Emmeline Vance
Notes: AU in which Tonks and Emmeline Vance survive and Sirius comes back about a year after the Battle of Hogwarts. Everybody else who died in canon is still dead. Many thanks are due to adistantsun, creator of amazing podfics, without whose help this would be a very wobbly thing.



1. Nymphadora Tonks (I Aten't Dead)

Some small sound woke Tonks, and she came alert, sliding her hand under her pillow to grab her wand before she remembered that the war was over.

She didn't go back to sleep. There was always a chance that some Death Eater had slipped through the net, and she and her family were still targets. Carefully, she listened.

The house was quiet. Teddy wasn't crying, though she could hear his steady breathing through the Muggle baby monitor (which she had bought because family clocks only worked if you were looking at them, and then had needed to replace six times, because she was cursed with a housemate who couldn't see something Muggle without trying to take it apart). He wasn't whimpering, which meant the moon had set.

She cracked her eyes open, and saw that the silvery light of a winter dawn filled the room. Snow was pattering against the windows, slow and muffled, but the wind had died down.

Behind her, the bed creaked, and a sleepy, beloved voice murmured, "I heard it too."

"I'm not sure what it was," Tonks breathed back.

"Apparition. Outside." Emmeline pushed back the warm layers of blankets, letting in a blast of cold air. "Where's your emergency bag?"

"Cupboard under the stairs."

"Get Teddy. I'll check downstairs."

In the pale light, the lattice of scars on Emmeline's back, as she pulled on a robe, was a reminder that they had all come very close to death already. Swallowing back the plea for her lover to take care, please take care, Tonks slipped down the hallway to Teddy's room.

He was sleeping starfish style, arms and legs thrown out, her sturdy little toddler. She scooped him up blankets and all and he stirred, complaining, "Mum-mum!"

"Sssh," she whispered into his hair, which was black again, just like his godfather's and his favourite cousin's. "We're going to Granny's, but Mumma needs you to be quiet."

"Granny," he said and lay his head back against her shoulder. He had started running as soon as he could walk, and rarely slowed down to snuggle unless he was this tired. "Chocca."

"Granny's for chocolate," Tonks agreed, rolling her eyes. There was a fight she would have with her mother on another day. "If you're quiet."

"No," he said, but closed his eyes again, going limp. He was almost too heavy to carry on one arm, but she managed to shift him, keeping her wand hand free.

Downstairs, all was quiet. Even the glowing fairies on the big Christmas tree had curled up to sleep amongst the boughs, their light dimmed. Snow was gathering against the panes of the big bay window, and the only things moving in the street outside were a few early owls flitting along with the morning paper in their grip. At this rate, they'd be snowed in by lunchtime.

Emmeline was building the fire, the bag ready beside her. She looked up as Tonks approached, and said, "I couldn't see anything. Are you sure we should go?"

"Better safe than sorry." Her little boy didn't have a father or grandfather, but she was still around to protect him, and no leftover Death Eater wannabes were going to get past her. The fire was beginning to roar high enough to Floo, and she glanced between the windows and the door, braced for attack.

"Could just have been Bertie Gollumpher apparating drunk again."

"At eight in the morning? That's some piss-up."

"Piss-up," Teddy echoed with a yawn, and Tonks groaned. She'd thought he was asleep.

Then a thunderous knock sounded against the back door, a steady slam-slam-slam of someone's boot kicking hard enough to shake it in its frame.

Tonks hurled Floo powder in the fire, shouting her mother's address. At the same moment, a voice roared out, "Nymphadora! Nym! Let me in!"

"Sirius?" Emmeline said, startled. "I thought he was with Harry for Christmas?"

Tonks put Teddy down in the nearest armchair and headed towards the back door. "Where's your key?"

"In my pocket. My arms are full and about to fucking drop off. Will you just let me in?"

She swung the door open, irritated. "Seriously, mate, you woke us all– what the fuck?"

Sirius Black, her miracle cousin and the most irritating housemate in the world, stood swaying in the doorway. He was carrying an unconscious, bleeding man, his arms straining with the effort, and his face was bright with wild glee. "I found another one, Nymmie."

"Another what?" she breathed, staring at the man he was carrying. No, no, no, surely not?

"Another member of the unlikely survivors' club," Sirius explained and carried Remus Lupin over her threshold.


#


2. Sirius Black (He Got Better)

He'd been to the grave again, sneaking out while everyone was sleeping. He couldn't stop himself, but had to keep checking and checking.

Remus always survived. That was the rule, right back from when they had been eleven and teachers had taken pity on the frailest-looking of them all and let him off detentions: Remus always got away with it.

And if people could come back, as he had come back, just because Nymphadora punched Draco Malfoy for sneering at her mother's offer of a safe place to stay, and the little snit had then run away and bled all over the Department of Mysteries afterwards, then why couldn't Remus?

So he kept going to the grave and hoping that one day Remus would just be there, bedraggled and apologetic and ready to come home.

All he ever found was the cold marker stone in the little graveyard in Hogsmeade, one among many, teachers surrounded by their students. Today the snow had wrapped it in a deeper silence, and he had wanted to scream.

He had gone a little mad, then, under the glare of the full moon, and had clawed the blinding snow away from the grave, going for his wand to cover it in something better, flowers or beer bottles or chocolate biscuits or anything which meant something, but instead he'd just blasted away at the frozen earth until the grave was gaping open again, the plain cheap splintered wood of the coffin a final reproach. If he'd lived, if he hadn't lost sight of everything but how angry he was and how much he needed to fight, if he hadn't let Bella taunt him, if, if, if...

He didn't hear the first scrabbling noise from the grave, but the sound of wood splintering outwards and the howl of a furious wolf gave him enough warning to think, it wasn't silver that killed him, and, they buried him before the moon was full. Then he remembered how this worked and transformed just in time to be bowled over by one very pissed-off werewolf lunging out of its grave.

And then it had been all about running and chasing again, tempting the wolf out over the snowy mountains on the coldest, longest night of the year.

He wasn't aware that he was stammering the whole story out, until Nym patted his arm and said, "It's okay now. Let's get him in."

Then she was helping him lower Remus onto the sofa, and Emmeline was running in with the first aid kit, and Sirius stepped back, shaking. It hadn't hurt this much to run with the wolf when he was sixteen, but now he was exhausted and all he could think was Remus, Remus, my Remus.

A small fist locked in the hem of his damp robe and Teddy demanded, "See-rus! Up!"

Sirius scooped him up at once, relieved to have something to do with his hands. Teddy was a warm weight against his chest, and Sirius hung onto him, hard enough that he said, "Ow." Then he reached up to tap his little hand against Sirius' cheek and said, "Man."

"That's your dad, that is," Sirius told him, lifting him up so he could see. Then he had second thoughts about coming here, and said hurriedly, "You can't keep him, Nym."

Nym looked up to glare at him, and even though her hair was red for Christmas and her face round today, she looked so like Andromeda that Sirius quailed. "Will you give up, you jealous prat! He was nice, the world as we knew it was ending, and we got drunk. Get over it."

"You married him," Sirius pointed out, scowling at her.

"Yeah, well, Molly Weasley and my mother teamed up to lecture us about making an honest woman out of me. What would you have done?"

"Emigrated," Sirius suggested, but he was somewhat reassured. He still wasn't going to leave her alone with his man again any time soon.

He took a shaky step closer to the sofa, looking down on Remus in wonder. There was more grey in his hair and new lines around his eyes, but he was still Moony, and he was smiling as he slept, his mouth just turning up at the corners.

Then his eyes opened and he blinked up at Sirius. His smile brightened and he said hazily, "There you are."

"Here I am," Sirius agreed, knowing he was grinning like a fool. "And here you are, safe and sound, well, mostly sound, but we'll get you patched up..."

"You're babbling," Nym hissed, rolling her eyes.

Remus had closed his eyes again, but he roused a little at the sound of her voice. "Dora? What are you doing here?"

"It's my house, mate," she said, stepping back to let Sirius closer. "Well, my dad's dodgy Uncle Phil won it off some bloke at the races, but Phil's retired to the Cayman Islands with three blondes, so it's mine now."

Remus just looked confused, pushing himself up with a wince to stare around. "This isn't the forest." His breath caught, and he demanded, staring at Teddy, "Who's that?"

"Grown a bit since you last saw him?" Sirius asked. Teddy was squirming properly now, so he let him down. "Say hello to your dad, Ted."

"Hihi," Teddy said, and hoisted himself up onto the end of the sofa. "Teddy hi bam bam juice!"

"No!" Remus rasped frantically, sitting bolt upright. "He's supposed to be safe. He shouldn't be here."

"Nowhere safer," Sirius said, baffled.

Behind him, Emmeline cleared her throat and said, voice gentle, "You're not dead, Lupin. None of us are."

"Sirius," Remus whispered, looking at him. "I saw you fall..."

It only took a moment to kneel beside him and squeeze his hands tightly. His fingers were cold, so Sirius wrapped his own hands around them, and said, "It didn't last."

"He got better," Emmeline remarked dryly.

Remus' smile twitched out again. "Before or after he was turned into a newt?"

"Nobody's turned me into a newt since that thing with the catnip in McGonagall's desk in Fourth Year," Sirius protested. "And, trust me, the war's over. You're not dead. I'm not dead. Harry's not dead. You Know Who is definitely dead. Nothing to worry about now."

"This is is just a dream," Remus said, looking between them all: at Teddy cheerfully banging his fists on the arm of the sofa, at Sirius, and then, turning his head, at the softly falling snow outside, the fairies on the Christmas tree just waking and starting to chase each other through the branches. Sirius could see hope slowly rising in him.

So Sirius kissed him, leaning forward to press lips against lips, and Remus' mouth was warm and startled beneath his. Then his arms came round Sirius' neck, pulling him close, and he was kissing Sirius back passionately, his breath hitching.

"Mwah, mwah," Teddy said, giggling madly, and they broke out of the kiss in time to see him roll off the sofa and hold his arms up to Nym. "Mwah!"

"Right you are," she agreed, scooping him up and laying a smacking kiss on the end of his nose. He giggled again and she grinned at them, her eyes a little misty. "Welcome home, Remus."


#


3. Remus Lupin (Only Mostly Dead)

He had been in the forest for a long time. At first, Sirius had been there, and James and Lily, and even Harry's shadowy ghost walking in the middle of them. There had been others too, people he knew and children he had taught, all moving quietly between the trees, the forest echoing with their steps.

One by one, they had walked further and further away, until he could barely see them moving onwards through the distant shadows. Harry had gone first, then Sirius, then James and Lily had drifted away.

For awhile Severus Snape had stalked along beside him. Neither of them had spoken, but it had been almost comfortable, walking in shared silence. Then, though the road did not divide, Severus had gradually moved aside, further and further away.

And Remus had been alone.

Now, though, the forest was gone and he was in Sirius' arms, his son spilling bright and innocent laughter into the warm room. It didn't feel real. He was never this lucky. He'd never even allowed himself the luxury of hoping for this, which rather suggested that it couldn't be a dream. Although, if it was, he had no idea how he would be able to tell.

So he held onto Sirius, who at least felt solid beneath his hands, and smelled like snow and pine and, very faintly, of gunpowder, just like Sirius should. He still felt cold and distant, but if he held on tightly enough, Sirius would bring him out of the cold. He always did.

"How about breakfast, then?" Dora asked brightly. "I reckon I could manage some scrambled eggs."

"No!" Everyone else in the room said at once, and Teddy froze, blinking at them.

"I can cook," she protested. "I'm getting better at it."

"The last batch of scrambled eggs ended up on the ceiling," Sirius told Remus, not bothering to lower his voice. "They stuck so hard we had to hex them off."

"You live here?" Remus asked, with a sudden flicker of worry. He loved them both dearly, but he only wanted Sirius. If they'd found comfort in each other...

Sirius flicked him on the nose. "I'm not one of those Blacks, mate. Besides, boobs bore me."

"Poor you," Emmeline remarked and that made more sense. Remus had always been a little surprised that Dora had slept with him– he'd assumed she was a lesbian the first time he'd met her as an adult.

If Sirius lived here, and Teddy, and Dora and her lover, did that mean it was home for him too?

He hadn't had a real home for a long time, not since he'd left Hogwarts the second time. Perhaps he was alive, after all. He didn't think the afterlife was that kind.

"I'll make breakfast," Emmeline announced.

"She's almost as bad as Nym," Sirius confided and stood up with a sigh. "I do the cooking around here."

That wasn't the most reassuring thing he'd ever heard. He'd lived with Sirius before, and had never managed to convince him that explosives had no place in a well-organised kitchen.. "Er..."

"I'll have you know," Sirius said indignantly, "that I do a bloody good cooked breakfast. Hey, Teddy, breakfast!"

"Sossidge!" Teddy crowed, clapping his hands and running towards the kitchen. "Sossidge, please, please!"

"I see you've got his vote," Remus remarked, smiling up at Sirius. If this was a dream, he wanted to believe in it. A slow warmth was settling into him, some soft, quiet mixture of hope and relief and love.

The morning unrolled slowly from there, to the sound of carols on the kitchen radio and Sirius singing along as he cooked. Breakfast was better than Remus had been expecting, and he was surprised by how hungry he was. It seemed like he'd spent years snatching quick bites here and there. It was a luxury to eat slowly. He pretended to like the half-chewed bit of sausage Teddy insisted on sharing with him, and his breath caught at the bright laugh that rolled out his son (his son, alive, safe and growing up surrounded by family). He laughed himself when Emmeline declared they'd earned a drink that night and insisted on pouring them all a generous shot of firewhiskey to wash their bacon and eggs down.

"I always liked you," Sirius told her sincerely.

She snorted. "Don't waste your time flirting with me, Black."

"Yeah," Dora said, sticking her tongue out. "You can't have her."

Sirius huffed and grumbled, but Remus leaned against his shoulder and caught his hand, and he eventually went quiet.

Chasing after the moon had left Remus aching and tired, as always, but he'd had Padfoot there, which helped, and he could just stay on the sofa today. He watched Dora play with Teddy, and noted all the ways in which she was so much older and wiser than he remembered, how good she was with the baby. When Sirius nudged his way onto the sofa behind him, Remus leaned back against his chest without worrying that they would be called to fight at any moment. He couldn't remember the last time life had been this simple: Hogwarts, maybe. He squeezed Sirius' hands, and finally let himself believe that this was real. He was home, at last.

They would have time now, he thought, to finally grow up. Perhaps he would even be allowed to teach again. Sirius was babbling on about all the things they could teach Teddy, from flying to how to break into the kitchens and should they make him a new Map?

Remus sat up and kissed him lightly, silencing him. "Stop corrupting my son, Padfoot." Then he relented and added, "We could do anything we like."

"So we could," Sirius agreed, his eyes as bright as silver. Then he grinned. "Wouldn't recommend streaking at the World Cup, mind, but anything within reason."

"You have grown up," Remus told him gravely and settled back down to listen to indignant denials and wild promises.

Later, they could go upstairs and fall into each other's arms again. For the first time he could remember, there was no rush. They had the rest of their lives, which he could now count in years, rather than weeks or days.

All was well.

Comments

[such_heights]

awwwwww! *happy puddle* This is lovely. :D

[shutupeccles.livejournal.com]

Agree entirely with such_heights.
Your subheadings made me chortle with delight. Almost expected a 'Voldemort (really most sincerely dead)' heading followed by blank space :p

[pavlablack.livejournal.com]

You had me worried for a minute with the summary there, because I was afraid Remus was dead and that was that. So glad I was wrong!

Okay, so first of all, I'm obviously here for Remus/Sirius, but I have to say that I really liked the way you wrote Tonks/Emmeline. I love how they work so quickly together to protect Teddy and to deal with whatever/whomever is out there, and I love Tonks's annoyance at her mother giving Teddy chocolate, and I love the way you've written Teddy--every bit of dialogue from him was perfect and adorable. I love, love, love that Sirius lives with them and that he cooks and he's worried for a minute that Tonks might want Remus back. Remus's initial reaction, thinking everyone else must be dead too, was poignant and believable. And I love that Snape made a brief appearance in Remus's memory:

For awhile Severus Snape had stalked along beside him. Neither of them had spoken, but it had been almost comfortable, walking in shared silence. Then, though the road did not divide, Severus had gradually moved aside, further and further away.


And the last little bit made me sigh in contentment, when Remus finally accepts that he's home, and that finally he and Sirius

had the rest of their lives, which he could now count in years, rather than weeks or days.

Really lovely story.

[laroseminuit.livejournal.com]

Oh my goodness, I don't even know what to say. I got everything I asked for (best Christmas ever? It just may be). You win the internet. You win all the things. This was so perfect I don't even now if I can be articulate enough to tell you how COMPLETELY AND TOTALLY AWESOME IT IS, but I'm going to try.
Top ten reasons this is the best small gift ever:

1. The title is hilarious, and very Sirius
2. The section headings - they fit each character's situation perfectly.
3. Emmaline/Tonks - I love you forever.
4. The four of them living together and raising Teddy? I love you for infinity squared.
5. I knew Tonks/Remus was a shotgun wedding. Had to be.
6. Teddy is adorable. Sleeping starfish style? Half-chewed sausage bits? Black hair like his godfather and favorite cousin? Awwwwww. (As we would say where I'm from, that kid is wicked cunning.)
7. The ending. Happy endings for the win.
8. Everyone lived! And yes, in my head, I am imagining the ninth Doctor at the end of The Doctor Dances going 'just this once, everybody lives.'
9. Your little details make the post-war world feels very real -- Tonks still sleeps with her wand under her pillow; they have a bug-out bag in the cupboard under the stairs; Remus can't remember the feeling of not being on edge.
10. So many funny lines! Let me quote you back just a few:

"the Muggle baby monitor (which she had bought because family clocks only worked if you were looking at them, and then had needed to replace six times, because she was cursed with a housemate who couldn't see something Muggle without trying to take it apart."

"Will you give up, you jealous prat! He was nice, the world as we knew it was ending, and we got drunk. Get over it."

"Well, my dad's dodgy Uncle Phil won it off some bloke at the races, but Phil's retired to the Cayman Islands with three blondes, so it's mine now."

Sirius flicked him on the nose. "I'm not one of those Blacks, mate. Besides, boobs bore me." "Poor you"

"He got better," Emmeline remarked dryly.

Remus' smile twitched out again. "Before or after he was turned into a newt?"

"Nobody's turned me into a newt since that thing with the catnip in McGonagall's desk in Fourth Year," Sirius protested. "And, trust me, the war's over. You're not dead. I'm not dead. Harry's not dead. You Know Who is definitely dead. Nothing to worry about now."

I could keep going, but I'd basically just be retyping the whole thing.

Seriously, I feel like I'm not being effusive enough in my praise of this. I think words might be insufficient. I think this clip of The Big Bang Theory (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyQz8jWAl7s) sums it up. Thank you SO much.

[kg99.livejournal.com]

That was lovely

[secretsolitaire.livejournal.com]

This is so warm and happy and comforting! Love it. ♥

[rewrites24.livejournal.com]

Thank you for bringing all my favorite people back to life. This is how canon should have happened.

[escribo.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! A Bring Back Remus fic :D Quite clever. My rec is going to read like this "Another one that I knew within a few paragraphs that I wouldn't want it to end. Excellent (and I haven't even finished reading it yet *fingers crossed on the ending*)." I have to say though that I'd mostly really like to read a whole fic of Emmeline/Tonks. You wrote their relationship really well. Also, Teddy was adorable! Excellent.

[sambethe.livejournal.com]

Awww. I'm in a happy puddle with such_heights.

Enjoyed!

[mindabbles.livejournal.com]

Oh, happy, happy sigh!!! This is like a warm blanket, only with more plot. So clever and lovely and such a joy to read your r/s again!! Yes, so THIS is how it ends! :)

[magnetic-pole.livejournal.com]

I love reading fics like that that remind me how therapeutic good fic can be. Thank you for give them each other (like a few others, I love seeing Tonks get her girl) and a little more time. Maggie

[gryffindorj.livejournal.com]

Awwww YES RESURRECTION FIC! I love all the magic of how and why Sirius and Remus each came back and how easily it flowed in the story. I really enjoyed Tonks in this. This line: "Well, my dad's dodgy Uncle Phil won it off some bloke at the races, but Phil's retired to the Cayman Islands with three blondes, so it's mine now." LOL!

Emmeline with all her dry remarks. And Sirius his madness about getting Remus back and how it worked and it was so so so good. This was sweet and warm and comforting. Yes finally they can slow down and just be. *happy sigh*
Lastly this:
and, very faintly, of gunpowder, just like Sirius should
LMAO! YES! PERFECT!!!!

[liseuse.livejournal.com]

I'm joining such_heights and sambethe in the Happy Puddle. This is adorable!