Rough Waters |Sirius Black

Chapter One Hundred Eighteen

"Would you like to hold him, Nixie?" Tonks glanced over to where the woman was sitting in the corner of the room. After the son of Tonks and Remus had been delivered in such a chaotic manner, they assumed the woman needed a moment to herself. Everyone had been busy gushing over the small bundle that had arrived in such a way that the adults would probably all remember the birth for years to come. She had noted that Nixie had been quite silent from the birth, she hoped the woman wasn't too traumatised.

Nixie looked over at her as she tore her gaze away from where Tonk's son was resting in her arms. "O-oh, no, I couldn't," Nixie shook her head, "I'm sure that you want to hold him as much as possible. You didn't carry him around for nine months for others to hold him, right?"

"Nonsense, " Tonks laughed softly, " I can imagine that when my parents actually get here along with everyone else that he'll be passed around faster than a good bottle of Firewhiskey. Come, come hold him. After all, you were the only calm one during this entire thing."

"Well, someone had to be, Remus and Sirius would never survive as midwives," Nixie chuckled before pushing herself up from the chair and making her way over to hold the infant. Tonks carefully passed him along, while Nixie adjusted herself to hold the child as carefully as she could. Peering down, she could see the ruddy cheeks first as the baby's skin was quite red as most newborns were. He was sleeping, his little fist right in his mouth bringing the woman to smile right away.

"Goodness, he's already the cutest little thing, isn't he?" Nixie said looking up at Tonks, only to see that the woman was sound asleep. "Oh, well, I see the real reason why you wanted me to hold him."

Returning back to her chair, Nixie sat down while holding the boy that Remus and Tonks had taken to naming Edward Remus Lupin, named after the two important men in Tonks' life as she said. Although she assumed that everyone would affectionately refer to him as Teddy as many referred to her father as Ted instead of Edward.

A little noise escaped from little Teddy as he adjusted himself in the blankets that swaddled him. Nixe smiled as she freed one of her hands and ran it gently over the top of the boy's hair. So far the little amount revealed to be a sandy brown colour. She had to admit that she and Sirius had put off the idea of having children during the time of war, mainly because they didn't know what tomorrow would bring, but as she held little Teddy in her arms, she honestly wished they didn't wait. 

Teddy wasn't hers to hold forever and eventually, when she handed him back to someone else to hold, she was going to be left with the same empty feeling of knowing that she and Sirius didn't have the child they longed for. Of course, they had Harry as their adopted own, but it wasn't the same, they didn't get to raise him, something they both regretted terribly. It was the real reason that Nixie didn't initially want to hold Teddy because it was giving her the slightest idea of what it would feel like if given the opportunity to hold her own child. She wasn't sure if she would ever get that chance. 

A tear fell from her eye and landed right on Teddy's cheek, startling the infant who flinched in her hold. She quickly wiped it away and spoke soothing words to the baby, waiting for Sirius and Remus to return with Andromeda, Ted, and Eleanor. 

She could imagine that they were all going to be thrilled, Andromeda and Ted to become grandparents, while Eleanor was getting the chance to be a big sister. Nixie remembered when Remus and Tonks had been nervous to just inform the girl that Tonks was pregnant, fearful of how Eleanor was going to react to the news. But of course, they had nothing to fear as Eleanor had been more than excited at the idea of having a sibling. 

"You'll like your sister," Nixie reassured Teddy as he was drifting back to sleep, "she'll certainly keep your warm with her hobby, not to mention safe. Just don't get on her bad side, I've been told and I've seen it a bit myself, but she turns into quite the badger. But I think you two will get along just fine, she's going to be so happy to meet you finally. I think she's knitted an entire wardrobe for you. So you'll never be naked either, which I guess is a good thing unless you were planning on being a nudist at an early nudist. I certainly won't judge you, one side of my family is pretty much always naked, although, your father might have a slight heart-attack at the idea. Ease into the nudist lifestyle, Teddy. Be gentle on your father's poor heart, he's been through a lot."

She laughed to herself gently. "And be sure to let the man get some sleep at night, he doesn't get much to begin with."

Sirius had returned with his cousin and Ted behind him and went to reenter the bedroom where he had left Nixie with Tonks and Teddy. However, before he entered he heard Nixie talking. He thought she was talking to Tonks when he heard her mention Teddy's name. He motioned Andromeda and Ted to wait for a second longer so he could listen to the advice Nixie was giving the child. Andromeda and Ted wore incredulous looks on their faces, they couldn't believe that he was holding them back from meeting their grandson. 

But as Andromeda heard Nixie's voice talking, she understood why they were waiting. When the woman's voice faded, Sirius stepped aside to allow them inside. Tonks quickly stirred from her sleep as her mother came to touch her forehead, while Nixie stood up and offered Ted to hold his grandson. 

"He looks like me!" Ted exclaimed happily. "Which guarantees that he's going to be extremely good looking."

Nixie stepped aside to let the three gush over the newborn together, while Sirius too a hold of her hand and pulled her into him. He could see the trails, where a couple of tears had fallen from her eyes earlier, and offered a smile as she looked up at him. He knew exactly what went through his wife's head because it went through his mind every single day. Hope that they would have their own seemed to dwindle every day that went by, but Sirius was not going to give up the idea of it. They still had plenty of years ahead of them, he was not going to think of the what ifs of the war. 

He looked towards the future with the hopes of victory behind them. 

It probably wouldn't make things any easier on them when Eleanor arrived and the whole family was together, so Sirius offered Nixie to go home. Her eyes lingered in the direction where Andromeda was holding Teddy and cooing at the infant before she turned back to Sirius and nodded her head.