thattimeofthemonth | Open RP Post

The night would pass quietly and fade into morning, but by the time Draco said goodbye to his parents and Melinda, who came down in a fabulous silver-fox robe and her hair was free and in a waterfall behind her. A quick wave to the younger man when he was leaving, and she was clearly going to take a cup of tea outside. He might even hear her voice coming out from the back garden, quiet on the morning.

However, at the Lupin household, things were very different.

The charms were down, no longer a tingle on the skin, but the household was hectic from the moment Draco appeared. Teddy was screaming crying in the living room, but Tonks was no where to be seen. Instead, she was dealing with her husband down in the basement, calm yet at the same time, frantic. It was not a good month. Remus was covered by a blanket, but there was the stench of blood as soon as one got near the stairs.

Draco tried to debate on what to do. Should he try to quite Teddy down or help Tonks? He figured right away the situation was pretty bad if she left Teddy alone. He decided to first take the moment to quiet Teddy down. It would at least allow him to think better. After a moment he managed to distract Teddy with one of his toys.

He then headed down the basement and before Tonks could argue, he started to help attend to Remus's wounds. He had spent a lot of time helping heal his father after what ever punishment the Dark Lord left. He was more calm about it then his mother had been. He remained calm here, despite how strong the stench of blood was and seeing all the new wounds Remus had given himself. He didn't say anything unless it was to answer anything Tonks had to ask.

The worst of all might have been how utterly unresponsive Remus was. He looked unconscious from the look of it, very pale which made the wounds seem worse. There was a deep slice in one arm that looked far too deep and one ankle looked like it had been bitten into, which was the worst of the problems. Tonks was trying to hold pressure on it until it closed, but with Draco here she had him take her place so she could cast a spell, bandages winding around and tying off to keep the pressure they needed.

It would be almost another twenty minutes of work before they had Remus at least safe, but it wasn't pretty. So much blood... Tonks knelt there, blood Over her hands and on her face from where she pushed her hair back, looking at her husband with misery in her eyes.

"Thank you," she whispered to Draco without looking at him. Her hair was brown, severely short - something she must have done when her hair kept falling into her eyes.

Draco gave a simple nod as he continued to help. He tried to block out his own unwanted images of seeing his father in a similar state. He only wanted to learn to be an animangus more now. Remus wouldn't be hurting himself if he could roam freely. He hated to see the Lupins in such a miserable state, but he kept his own concerns to himself. For now he was glad to be an extra set of hands to help.

He was going to have to change again later. His clothes were covered in blood, along with his hands and face. This was only a minor thing to worry about. With the worst was taken care of he prepared the medicine for Remus to help ease any pain and allow him to sleep better. He also prepared some tea.

Within the hour, they had things more under control. Remus was asleep upstairs, covered in a potent smelling green medicine and bandages, cleaned up and drugged and asleep. With Draco helping, she saw to her son, rocking him slowly with her eyes closed until they both calmed. By the end of it all, Tonks was sitting in the kitchen, looking exhausted to her core.

The tea sat untouched, Tonks looked haunted. "...now you know how bad it gets," she said quietly. "The things werewolves have to go through every moon, and yet wizards still treat them so badly."

"There's so much I don't understand," Draco replied in a quiet tone. He had taken a shower and changed. His hands wrapped around a mug of tea.

"For the longest time I believed everything my parents had told me. It wasn't till the last few years I've realized how wrong they were and trying to make sense of everything after learning it. I'm not sure what to believe."

"You're supposed to believe them as a child; don't fault yourself for that. The difference is what you do as an adult with that knowledge and if you are given other viewpoints. It seems to me that... despite what I thought originally that Remus was right. You have chosen to go the better route than most pure-bloods." Tonks looked over to him, rubbing Teddy's back slowly. It wasn't easy for her to say that about a Malfoy.

He allowed a small smile to show, pleased to see that he was starting to eaen Tonk's trust. "I never had much of a choice. I had to be what my family expected if me and on top of that everyone had an opinion of who I was before I even knew them. It went with the students and staff. So I became what everyone believed I was. Remus was the only one to see past it."

He looked away, images of his first year and then of last night reminded him of all his bad choices and good choices. He was more happier with his recent choices.

"We're only human, all of us. We judge and make our choices, it's part of the human experience." She sighed quietly, putting her chin against the top of Teddy's head. "But... right now, you have your own choices to make and you'll be held by them."

She sighed again, her eyes closing. From the circles under her eyes, she hadn't slept. "Remus will sleep probably for twelve hours or more, then he'll eat his weight in meat. Same thing every month. ...Sick of the Ministry saying he did such an effort in the war but they won't supply him the potion to stop this? It's ridiculous."

"Do you think if the werewolves had some place to stay it would be help? I don't think the ones that follow Greyback would take it but maybe others would?" Draco hesitantly questioned. He was unsure how Tonks would react considering how the Ministry wasn't helping Remus. He had an idea, but it would take some convincing. And he didn't want to voice it if it wouldn't help.

"That's a big question," she admitted, slowly stroking Teddy's fine hair that was currently brown since he had been upset. "You might need to ask Remus more about it. From what I know is that he's... unique. He might be the lone werewolf bitten as a child raised as a wizard. Almost all children die if they're attacked... in fact he might be the only one. But some are wizards that were bit. The problem is they end up registered and life for a registered werewolf is awful. Their wands get taken away - can you believe it? Then they have... virtually nothing. They end up with Greyback because they have little choice. Would someplace to go help? Maybe if it was no where, they could somehow keep the wolves from ranging too far. Maybe."

He gave a nod. "I will discuss more with him later. I just know my family is in debt with him and that this could possibly help repay it and give back to the community as well." For now he would use the time to put the idea together some more.

"Do you need me to help with Teddy today?" He questioned. He fugured if anything it would let her rest a bit, should she accept. He had no plans today. This morning had been exhausting for everyone.

Tonks looked to Draco with confusion in her expression, wondering what the young man was planning. His offer turned her expression into that of surprise, looking down at her son. It truly did mean trusting him, given that she was absolutely exhausted.

"I... could use the help, if you could manage him for an hour while I got some sleep." And check on her unconscious husband. Remus didn't even properly sleep after all of that. To her, it was just unconsciousness. He didn't even more.

What ever ideas were running through his head he kept an impassive face on them. He just knew he was going to have to talk with several people in order to even get the idea started and he didn't want to make any promises before hand.

"Sure, this will give me a chance to get to know Teddy some more," Draco replied. He only handled the baby a few times and had been lucky they went well. He wasn't sure how today's adventure would go, but if it would give Tonks some relief he believed he could handle it.

"What are the main things I need to worry about?"

Tonks' lips thinned, uncertain of what to say at first as she looked down at her son. "Right now, he just needs comfort. I know Remus hasn't noticed because he's always unconscious for it or a wolf, but I swear that Teddy is affected by it all. Not that he turns wolfish or anything, but he reacts keenly to his father's changes."

There was a pause, then she shook her head. "I'm woolgathering, I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize," Draco replied. Why should she? It wasn't something worth apologizing over. He didn't have much experience with babies, but he could understood what Tonks was trying to say and he knew how strong a mother's intuition could be. "I asked and you were explaining."

"He should be relatively fine for an hour. If he fusses, check his diaper. If that's clean, he'll probably be hungry so you'll need to heat up a bottle. ...Blimey you don't know how to use the microwave." She was looking anxious about this now. "You can run hot water, right?"

[ perhaps its time to meet his aunt he never met?]

He gave a confused look at the mention of the microwave. He was sure that probably didn't help ease her concern. He felt bad because he did want to help and it was clear he may not help. "I can run the hot water....I at least can make tea."

[Oh heck you mean Andromeda dropping by!? Love it!]

"Right. Sorry. I-" That had been rude. Sigh. "If he gets fussy, get a bottle from the fridge and put a nipple on it. Run hot water until it's not quite scalding and then put the bottle under the water. Test the bottle every thirty seconds or so on your wrist. It should be warm but not hot."

[ yeah draco means well but this would end in disaster. Although his aunt could teach him. ]

"No offense taken," Draco replied. "Maybe, I should write this down..." He looked unsure with the whole thing, but it was clear he did want to help.

[omg my tag didn't go through >.

"Hot water, stick bottle under it, test to make sure it won't burn him." Tonks gave Draco an exhausted look, but there was a mother dragon's protective gaze above the dark circles. "If you can't manage it, come wake me up. Don't worry about Remus; it won't wake him."

(wondered what happened!)

He gave a hesitant nod. He knew that look too well. His mother had that same look often when she felt her son was threatened.

"'ll test it before I give it to him. Anything else I need to know?" He didn't have much interaction with Teddy and was only shown how to feed him. He didn't know how to do anything else and really needed to learn how to do so.

"It's only an hour. Just... keep him happy for a little while and handle if he gets hungry or soiled." She stroked Teddy's hair gently before she stood, walking over to hand Draco her son, though there was some worry in her eyes. "You can wake me up for anything."

"Alright," Draco replied and took Teddy into his arms. He gave a small smile to Teddy, happy to have his cousin with him. He did his best to hide his own nervousness so that way Teddy didn't pick up on it. He only hoped nothing majorly went wrong in the hour.

Teddy peered up with those big eyes - currently a very normal color of brown - but as he looked up at Draco, they started to shift to grey. Tonks swallowed, then gave a small nod before she started to leave. In the doorway, she paused again, clearly still nervous about this, but after that hesitation she left Draco alone with her son. A huge sign of trust that Draco would probably only get one chance at.

Which left him alone with an infant who was watching him oh so curiously.

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