Title: Familial Traits
Fandom: Harry Potter

Pairing: Remus/Tonks

Format & Word Count: Ficlet, 627 words
Rating: G
Prompt: For the rt_challenge August ficathon #1, old lady
Warning: Mentions the start of DH.
Summary: There are certain things that run in families...

There are times when Mary Tonks is grateful that her family traditionally have had very robust cardiac health. Otherwise, she’d have collapsed from a shock-induced heart attack several times over.

Like when her son was eleven years old and she answered a knock on the door to see a tall man with half moon spectacles, a long white hair and beard, dressed in a purple velvet suit and matching trilby.

“Good day Mrs Tonks,” he said, charming and polite, as she goggled at him, anything but. “Might I have a word about your son, Ted?”

Finding out her son was a wizard was not as much of a shock as it might have been. In fact, it explained a lot.

Or the time that her son was twenty years old and she stood in her kitchen and clutched the table as if her life depended on it, listening to Ted tell her that he was eloping with a witch whose family couldn’t stand him because he was a Muggle-born, and that his life could actually be in danger, because some of her family were slightly fanatical.

Or the time that an owl flew in the window with a note for her attached to its leg. Mary, by this time, was used to Owl Post, but the dratted thing arrived during her book club meeting, and consternation ensued. That had been enough to induce severe heart palpitations, even without reading the note - “Danger too great, in hiding, don’t worry, Ted.”

The last time that she was grateful for good health was when her granddaughter – her first grandchild – was born. “She’s one in a million,” Ted told her proudly, and she’d smiled her “Yes dear” smile and told him, “Every new father thinks that.”

Of course, her son had an answer for that. “But she is Mum… she’s a Metamorphmagus.”

Mary hadn’t the faintest clue what that meant. But when she first held her granddaughter and saw her hair go from turquoise to purple to pink in as many minutes, she was very glad she was sitting down.

Between that and the name that Andromeda saddled the poor child with, it was enough to make anyone reach for the smelling salts.

Mary Tonks thought she’d heard everything.

Until her pink-haired granddaughter arrived at her front door one day, dragging a rather bemused looking chap with her. “Granny, this is Remus,” she announced cheerfully. The young man – well, not too young, though a second glance told Mary that he looked older than his years – shook her hand, told her it was a pleasure to meet her, but then Dora spoke again, and Mary had to sit down. “We’re getting married this afternoon; you’ll come, won’t you?”

She’d taken ten minutes to chat to Remus and actually find out more about him than his first name before going upstairs to change into her best suit and hat.

When they arrived at her son’s house, he and Andromeda were already dressed, and several people in robes were already there. Remus was instantly spirited off by a red-haired man and woman, and Andromeda ushered Dora upstairs, leaving Mary and Ted to talk.

“He seems like a lovely chap,” said Mary, because in the brief time she’d had to talk to him, he’d been nothing but polite to her. “And it’s plain that he adores Dora.”

“Oh yes, yes,” Ted nodded, but there were faint furrows on his brow that weren’t clearing. “Shame about the werewolf thing, but you can’t have everything I suppose…” As his words sank in, Mary’s hand flew to her lips, and Ted grew suddenly very pale. “They did tell you, didn’t they?”

Shaking her head, the only thing Mary could think to say was, “Like father, like daughter.”