Fic: Organised Chaos
Author/Artist: solochan
Title: Organised Chaos
Rating & Warnings: DH and sadly, no it's not denial fic. That will come later...
Word Count: 1,570
Prompt: Character Prompt: Ted Tonks
Summary: Remus knew exactly where his wife would be hiding when he found her missing from their bed in the spare room of the Tonkses.
Notes: I'm falling in love with the Tonkses more and more every day, and I think Remus in denial land would have finally formed a real relationship with both Ted and Andromeda if they'd all had the time.
***
Remus knew exactly where his wife would be hiding when he found her missing from their bed in the spare room of the Tonkses. Carefully, he stepped downstairs and towards the room that the women hadn’t dared to open for the last week.
He observed her worriedly from the doorway; the office was a mess, as Ted had apparently liked it. Leaning towers of parchment, books and paper stood almost blocking the door way, it was actually quite a muggle office space, computer chairs but no computer and a type writer that didn’t work, everything he ever needed - and didn’t need at all - had been right here in this room, and he had made Andromeda promise never to enter to spare her the aggravation of the room that she knew existed.
I know where everything is in here Remus, organised chaos, if ‘Dromeda comes in here, I’ll never find anything again.
It hurt Remus to know he’d not hear the man’s pleasant tones again, watch how Dora shone in his presence, because she really had. Her father had been a master storyteller, and he had spun tales about his wife and daughter that made Remus wish he wrote all these stories down using that voice.
But that dream was over, Ted Tonks was gone, and his wife and daughter were devastated.
When he saw his wife, he winced at the sight of her. Dora sat in her father’s empty office chair, which was the only one in the room with arm supports, and was curled tightly into it. Her hair this morning a mess of black hugging her knees, which was hard with her baby, bump in the way.
“How long have you been up?” he asked her, carefully, minding the paper around him, as though stepping through Aladdin’s Cave and being told not to touch anything but the floor.
“I dunno, I’ve lost track of time…” Dora admitted quietly, she was looking absently at her father’s desk, and Remus could imagine that this room to be a source of wonder for Dora growing up; a real boy’s den amongst Andromeda’s very organised home.
It felt like something out of a novel, old yellow wallpaper with old-fashioned lamps, which illuminated nostalgia from her father’s past - his mementos from Hogwarts. Hung up on one of the bookshelves Remus noticed the old Hufflepuff tie, and across the shelves amongst the books stood faded muggle photos and a few Hufflepuff banners (“T is for Tonks & Team” and “Happy Birthday Ted!”). The contents of the room held anything her father had required, from books to clothes, to old papers to photographs, spare floo powder, plant seeds and the odd butterbeer stashed in the desk.
Even the last cup of coffee Ted had had before he had darted away without a word still lingered on the edge of his desk…
You will all be fine because of your blood statuses, you’re all much safer without me in the house. I’ll check in whenever I can I promise. It’s just until this all clears itself up.
Remus found a seat on a semi empty chair - one of Ted’s brown jackets covering it - before looking at Dora across the desk.
“We need to sort out this room…” Dora said, “I don’t think mum has the courage to do it herself and I don’t want her to do it on her own…”
“There really is no rush…” Remus said, softly. “There’s time to go through his things…” He moved his hand to take hers across the desk, but in doing so, he knocked over a photo frame, which he scrambled for and caught before it could hit the desk.
Turning it round to look at it he saw it was a picture of Andromeda and Dora; the little spunky child that he remembered at about the age of six or seven popping round Sirius’s flat. She had blonde haired and was at the beach. The candid photo had caught a young smiling Andromeda trying to stop Dora from getting her clothes wet and pushing up the edges of her jeans, but Dora was too impatient.
Remus carefully put it back the right way round, but Dora gently picked it up, and her lip crookedly became a smile.
“This is his favourite photograph, because he said it just screamed what I was like as a kid and how hard it was to get me to sit still, how I still am actually…” Dora said, and she winced, “I mean…it was…his favourite.”
The past tense in reference to her father had clearly caught her by surprise, yet again, and she squeezed herself tighter.
“I’m going to miss him, Remus…he never let me down…never…not even…”
She trailed off into silence, her father had cared so much for her happiness, even marrying a werewolf hadn’t fazed him as much as it had fazed Andromeda. Remus hadn’t realised how much of Ted’s support he’d had until he was gone.
Dora’s not a child…she makes her own decisions and I’d be a hypocrite to say otherwise. I guess part of me is just sad that I couldn’t give my baby away at her wedding, that’s all…but that’s a father thing, I suppose you’ll find that out yourself, Remus soon enough.
Remus knew he had to do something, but there was little he could do against the tyranny of grief, he was far too learned in the subject now with so many he loved dead. He carefully moved to avoid the piles of paper to stand behind the office chair and put his hands around her shoulders and she leaned her head against his arm like a pillow.
“Does this get easier? Feeling like…this? Losing people.” Her voice was cracking and his hands to her hair, trying to soothe her, not knowing what else he could do. He couldn’t fix this pain that she had…
First Sirius who had given her back part of her family, Mad Eye who had given her the confidence in her skills, her own father…in the space of two years.
Remus shook his head; he couldn’t lie to her, not now, never again. The truth was far more important.
“It never gets easier…” he admitted pushing his flecked grey hair from his face, “and they say that the wounds heal, they don’t, they just-” he struggled for the right terminology, his eyes downcast.
“They scar…it just gets covered up by everything else going on and they can reopen so easily...”
Dora nodded understanding, and she turned to face him, spinning in the chair to look at him. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears and he knelt down so they were almost eye-to-eye.
“I wish there was more I could do for you Dora, though I know there’s little I can…”
Dora swallowed, “I know, I know that. Thank you, anyway…” she looked to her bump, rubbing it affectionately before looking to Remus. “Can we…if it’s a boy…?”
Remus didn’t even need to know the question when she spoke. For him it was already a resounding yes.
“You have more right than I to give names…” he said carefully, and she kissed his forehead.
“You were there as much as I was, Rem'…they are your baby too, you know.”
The baby I deserted because I was a coward.
Remus gave her a little smile but he nodded. “Then, Ted it is, if it’s a boy.”
Dora smiled for the first time in their conversation, looking nostalgic, still holding the photograph of her and her mother. “Do you know my father’s full name? Not that any ever used it…it was just a case of formality. Even my mother didn’t know for such a long time…”
Remus smiled gently because her smile was contagious, shaking his head.
“Edward. He hated it and that’s why he tried so hard to get mum to choose a different name for me ‘cause he didn’t agree with Nymphadora. He said that he was Ted, and he’d always be Ted, and if that name was to be put on his gravestone he’d haunt everyone…”
The pair chuckled together, making light of a difficult conversation and he kissed his wife on the forehead.
“Lets get you to bed, let you rest…not long until the baby’s due after all…”
Dora nodded, and as she did, she leaned into him, not sure if this was because she’d wanted too, or because she was avoiding the papers on the floor.
“I know you take after your father, but I can only hope your office desk at work isn’t the same.” Remus mused, his voice gentle.
Dora merely smiled, “Not that bad, but I do sometimes struggle to find reports I should be filing...”
And though she wasn’t smiling nearly as much as she was, and she was tired, Remus knew that something was better, because the colour was finally starting to come back to her hair, slowly but surely, she’d be pink again.
Also, Remus knew now that there’d most likely be a fifty-fifty chance that there would be another Ted in the world that she could adore as much as her father and help that fresh wound remain closed.
And now his fears had settled, he could finally admit that he was looking forward to seeing it first hand as he and Dora left the scruffy den and closed the door behind them.
***
And for those who want to see what Ted's office look like, I think it looks a little like this:
Title: Organised Chaos
Rating & Warnings: DH and sadly, no it's not denial fic. That will come later...
Word Count: 1,570
Prompt: Character Prompt: Ted Tonks
Summary: Remus knew exactly where his wife would be hiding when he found her missing from their bed in the spare room of the Tonkses.
Notes: I'm falling in love with the Tonkses more and more every day, and I think Remus in denial land would have finally formed a real relationship with both Ted and Andromeda if they'd all had the time.
***
Remus knew exactly where his wife would be hiding when he found her missing from their bed in the spare room of the Tonkses. Carefully, he stepped downstairs and towards the room that the women hadn’t dared to open for the last week.
He observed her worriedly from the doorway; the office was a mess, as Ted had apparently liked it. Leaning towers of parchment, books and paper stood almost blocking the door way, it was actually quite a muggle office space, computer chairs but no computer and a type writer that didn’t work, everything he ever needed - and didn’t need at all - had been right here in this room, and he had made Andromeda promise never to enter to spare her the aggravation of the room that she knew existed.
I know where everything is in here Remus, organised chaos, if ‘Dromeda comes in here, I’ll never find anything again.
It hurt Remus to know he’d not hear the man’s pleasant tones again, watch how Dora shone in his presence, because she really had. Her father had been a master storyteller, and he had spun tales about his wife and daughter that made Remus wish he wrote all these stories down using that voice.
But that dream was over, Ted Tonks was gone, and his wife and daughter were devastated.
When he saw his wife, he winced at the sight of her. Dora sat in her father’s empty office chair, which was the only one in the room with arm supports, and was curled tightly into it. Her hair this morning a mess of black hugging her knees, which was hard with her baby, bump in the way.
“How long have you been up?” he asked her, carefully, minding the paper around him, as though stepping through Aladdin’s Cave and being told not to touch anything but the floor.
“I dunno, I’ve lost track of time…” Dora admitted quietly, she was looking absently at her father’s desk, and Remus could imagine that this room to be a source of wonder for Dora growing up; a real boy’s den amongst Andromeda’s very organised home.
It felt like something out of a novel, old yellow wallpaper with old-fashioned lamps, which illuminated nostalgia from her father’s past - his mementos from Hogwarts. Hung up on one of the bookshelves Remus noticed the old Hufflepuff tie, and across the shelves amongst the books stood faded muggle photos and a few Hufflepuff banners (“T is for Tonks & Team” and “Happy Birthday Ted!”). The contents of the room held anything her father had required, from books to clothes, to old papers to photographs, spare floo powder, plant seeds and the odd butterbeer stashed in the desk.
Even the last cup of coffee Ted had had before he had darted away without a word still lingered on the edge of his desk…
You will all be fine because of your blood statuses, you’re all much safer without me in the house. I’ll check in whenever I can I promise. It’s just until this all clears itself up.
Remus found a seat on a semi empty chair - one of Ted’s brown jackets covering it - before looking at Dora across the desk.
“We need to sort out this room…” Dora said, “I don’t think mum has the courage to do it herself and I don’t want her to do it on her own…”
“There really is no rush…” Remus said, softly. “There’s time to go through his things…” He moved his hand to take hers across the desk, but in doing so, he knocked over a photo frame, which he scrambled for and caught before it could hit the desk.
Turning it round to look at it he saw it was a picture of Andromeda and Dora; the little spunky child that he remembered at about the age of six or seven popping round Sirius’s flat. She had blonde haired and was at the beach. The candid photo had caught a young smiling Andromeda trying to stop Dora from getting her clothes wet and pushing up the edges of her jeans, but Dora was too impatient.
Remus carefully put it back the right way round, but Dora gently picked it up, and her lip crookedly became a smile.
“This is his favourite photograph, because he said it just screamed what I was like as a kid and how hard it was to get me to sit still, how I still am actually…” Dora said, and she winced, “I mean…it was…his favourite.”
The past tense in reference to her father had clearly caught her by surprise, yet again, and she squeezed herself tighter.
“I’m going to miss him, Remus…he never let me down…never…not even…”
She trailed off into silence, her father had cared so much for her happiness, even marrying a werewolf hadn’t fazed him as much as it had fazed Andromeda. Remus hadn’t realised how much of Ted’s support he’d had until he was gone.
Dora’s not a child…she makes her own decisions and I’d be a hypocrite to say otherwise. I guess part of me is just sad that I couldn’t give my baby away at her wedding, that’s all…but that’s a father thing, I suppose you’ll find that out yourself, Remus soon enough.
Remus knew he had to do something, but there was little he could do against the tyranny of grief, he was far too learned in the subject now with so many he loved dead. He carefully moved to avoid the piles of paper to stand behind the office chair and put his hands around her shoulders and she leaned her head against his arm like a pillow.
“Does this get easier? Feeling like…this? Losing people.” Her voice was cracking and his hands to her hair, trying to soothe her, not knowing what else he could do. He couldn’t fix this pain that she had…
First Sirius who had given her back part of her family, Mad Eye who had given her the confidence in her skills, her own father…in the space of two years.
Remus shook his head; he couldn’t lie to her, not now, never again. The truth was far more important.
“It never gets easier…” he admitted pushing his flecked grey hair from his face, “and they say that the wounds heal, they don’t, they just-” he struggled for the right terminology, his eyes downcast.
“They scar…it just gets covered up by everything else going on and they can reopen so easily...”
Dora nodded understanding, and she turned to face him, spinning in the chair to look at him. Her eyes were wet with unshed tears and he knelt down so they were almost eye-to-eye.
“I wish there was more I could do for you Dora, though I know there’s little I can…”
Dora swallowed, “I know, I know that. Thank you, anyway…” she looked to her bump, rubbing it affectionately before looking to Remus. “Can we…if it’s a boy…?”
Remus didn’t even need to know the question when she spoke. For him it was already a resounding yes.
“You have more right than I to give names…” he said carefully, and she kissed his forehead.
“You were there as much as I was, Rem'…they are your baby too, you know.”
The baby I deserted because I was a coward.
Remus gave her a little smile but he nodded. “Then, Ted it is, if it’s a boy.”
Dora smiled for the first time in their conversation, looking nostalgic, still holding the photograph of her and her mother. “Do you know my father’s full name? Not that any ever used it…it was just a case of formality. Even my mother didn’t know for such a long time…”
Remus smiled gently because her smile was contagious, shaking his head.
“Edward. He hated it and that’s why he tried so hard to get mum to choose a different name for me ‘cause he didn’t agree with Nymphadora. He said that he was Ted, and he’d always be Ted, and if that name was to be put on his gravestone he’d haunt everyone…”
The pair chuckled together, making light of a difficult conversation and he kissed his wife on the forehead.
“Lets get you to bed, let you rest…not long until the baby’s due after all…”
Dora nodded, and as she did, she leaned into him, not sure if this was because she’d wanted too, or because she was avoiding the papers on the floor.
“I know you take after your father, but I can only hope your office desk at work isn’t the same.” Remus mused, his voice gentle.
Dora merely smiled, “Not that bad, but I do sometimes struggle to find reports I should be filing...”
And though she wasn’t smiling nearly as much as she was, and she was tired, Remus knew that something was better, because the colour was finally starting to come back to her hair, slowly but surely, she’d be pink again.
Also, Remus knew now that there’d most likely be a fifty-fifty chance that there would be another Ted in the world that she could adore as much as her father and help that fresh wound remain closed.
And now his fears had settled, he could finally admit that he was looking forward to seeing it first hand as he and Dora left the scruffy den and closed the door behind them.
***
And for those who want to see what Ted's office look like, I think it looks a little like this: