Looking at Remus's beaming face, Bryan's mouth fell open in genuine surprise, and he blinked once, twice.
'Married.'
The word leapt into Bryan's mind and left him briefly dazed, turning itself over there with an odd, slippery weight.
It wasn't anything especially momentous, not in the grand scheme of everything he currently had to worry about—not compared to Voldemort, or the Twin Serpent Staff, or the mounting pressure from every direction of British wizarding society.
And yet it struck him as strange, unfamiliar in a way he couldn't quite place or name.
Thinking back on it now, turning the years over one by one, since coming to this world he realized that he hadn't once attended anyone's wedding.
He'd spent seven full years at Hogwarts, after all, sat beside the same faces in the same common room for the better part of a decade, and his old Slytherin classmates had certainly reached the age, by now, for starting families of their own as he'd heard the rumours in passing, a name mentioned here or there in the Prophet's society pages.
And yet, to this day, Bryan had never received a single wedding invitation.
For one thing, back in school, he'd had no real friendship with any of them.
For another, given his current standing in the wizarding world—and everything that he'd done to earn that standing—
Those classmates from old, well-bred families most likely resented him more than almost anything else in their lives these days.
As for the rest, given his reputation now, they were probably too busy worrying he might still hold some grudge over the sneers and mockery he'd endured from them back then.
And he himself, in all the years since, had always been alone.
The word married left him with a feeling of some far far distance in his chest, a sense of standing just outside a warmly lit window, looking in at something he'd never pictured for himself.
Watching Remus wait eagerly across the table for him to say something, Bryan flattened the surprise from his expression and came back to himself, offering a genuine, warm smile in its place.
"Oh—congratulations, Remus. So, who's the lucky—sorry, I'm a bit muddled!"
Bryan gave his own head a light, self-deprecating pat, as if to knock the scattered thoughts back into some kind of order.
"Tonks?"
The happy, bashful smile that spread across Remus's face in answer was one Bryan had never seen on him before.
Remus nodded, unable rather to keep the grin contained.
"That's right."
"I'm sure the two of you will build a very happy family together."
Bryan said, and meant it, smiling.
"Tonks and I think so too—"
Remus's radiant smile grew a touch more sheepish at the edges, his gaze began dropping briefly to the teacup in front of him.
"Actually, we hadn't meant to rush things like this at all, but, well, how should I put it—"
Under Bryan's curious, gently amused gaze, Remus scratched at his reddened cheek.
"Tonks is pregnant."
Bryan, who had just lifted his teacup and was sipping distractedly, very nearly spat the mouthful of tea straight back out across the table.
"Wha—Tonks—cough, cough—oh, well, this is truly—a double celebration!"
Realizing his reaction had only made Remus more flustered, Bryan quickly composed his expression.
"Speaking of which, Sirius must already know all this—yet when I saw him earlier, he didn't breathe a single word of it?"
"Oh, that's because I asked him not to."
Remus looked at Bryan with a warm smile.
"I told him I wanted to be the one to tell you myself—after all, all of this, is thanks to you."
Seeing the peculiar, briefly startled look that appeared on Bryan's face at that, Remus was puzzled for a moment, before he caught himself and understood how the words must have sounded, his expression changed with a fresh touch of embarrassment.
"What I mean is—it was you who gave me the confidence, and the courage, to want any of this in the first place. Everything I have today, the life I'm actually living now—you're the reason I ever dared to go after any of it."
"Cough, cough—"
Bryan cleared his throat twice, buying himself a moment.
"Yes, of course, I mean—"
Steadying his breath and whatever had briefly caught in it, Bryan smiled warmly and sincerely.
"Don't say that, Remus. If anything, I'd say it's you who did me the greater favour, all these years. You're more capable than anyone I know—it's only that you were never once given a fair chance before, by anyone."
"Whatever the case may be—"
Remus's smile turned bright again.
"You're the one who gave me that chance, despite everything. Which is why I felt I ought to invite you in person to my wedding with Tonks."
"Of course, Remus. I wouldn't miss it for anything."
Bryan accepted readily without a moment's hesitation.
"—There's something else, too. Tonks made a suggestion, and I think it's a wonderful idea—"
Remus's eyes shone as he looked across the table at Bryan, his expression touched now with hope.
"Tonks was hoping you'd be willing to be our child's godfather. Would you, Bryan?"
'Godfather. To Remus and Tonks's child.'
Bryan blinked again, slower this time, and that strange, indefinable feeling inside him only deepened.
'Like Sirius and Harry.'
Without quite knowing why, a weight of responsibility settled onto his shoulders all at once. And Bryan—who had faced down countless great and terrible things across this world without so much as flinching, found himself, just faintly, growing nervous.
But Remus, watching him across the table, looked even more nervous than he did.
"You don't want to, Bryan?"
Remus pressed his lips together and asked, carefully, bracing for the answer.
"Oh—no, of course not." Bryan paused, then let a real smile break through, easing the moment. "I just—I just think the surprise came on a little suddenly! Give a man a moment to catch up."
"Tell me about it!"
Remus let out a great breath of relief at that, his whole face was relaxing into a delighted smile.
"Everything's happened rather faster than we ever expected, honestly. When I first found out Tonks was pregnant, I think I just stood there stunned, for a good quarter of an hour."
The dim kitchen, lit only by the low fire and the single lamp on the table, seemed to brighten with the good news Remus had brought into it.
The two of them, seated across from one another at the table, looked at each other for a long moment, both faces full of emotions.
Three or four years ago, a destitute Remus had still been scraping by selling herbs in the underworld beneath Knockturn Alley.
And Bryan, too, had spent that same stretch of time sharpening his magical skill and earning a living on the side, living half in that same shadowed underworld, half roaming the wider world, bearing witness to the glories of one magical civilization after another.
Who could have guessed, back then, that three or four years on, everything would have changed so completely.
If Dumbledore hadn't drawn me back to Hogwarts with that one commission back then— Bryan thought, with a small sigh.
He'd always been more inclined, toward the life of a wandering "vagabond," roaming the world at will unaccountable to anyone, than toward some position of lofty status—Headmaster of Hogwarts, say, or Chief Mugwump of the International Confederation of Wizards, with all the meetings and appearances and careful diplomacy that came bundled with either.
Every choice on the road of life sends a person down some entirely different path from the one they might otherwise have walked. Perhaps there's no ranking one above another, no way to say this road was better than that one—only that each stretch of road carries its own beauty and destiny.
And yet, looking now at Remus, wearing that same soft expression of overflowing emotion—
Bryan realized that he really had changed the course of quite a few lives along the way.
"So how are you and Tonks planning your wedding, then?"
After a long, comfortable moment of shared silence, Bryan asked, smiling, steering them both gently back toward lighter ground.
"Oh, we're planning to hold it at Tonks's parents' place, two weeks from now. Given the current situation, we're only inviting a few close friends each—"
Remus said, some of the earlier ease returning to his voice now.
"Tonks's mum and dad have also invited a handful of relatives. After the wedding, we're planning to live at Tonks's family home for a while—"
Bringing this last part up, a flicker of guilt passed briefly through Remus's eyes.
"Tonks and I are both going to be busy—Ted and Andromeda have offered to help us look after the baby—"
Bryan gave a faint, understanding nod at that.
He understood perfectly well, how difficult a thing it truly was for a man like Remus to finally have a family of his own. And he knew that Remus would want nothing more in the world than to spend as much time as he could with them.
"It'll be all right—"
Bryan said, smiling with understanding.
"It won't be long before everything settles into its proper course. And once it does, the weight on all our shoulders will ease a little—"
"I believe things will get better too—"
Remus said, nodding slowly. Then, glancing sideways at Bryan, he let out a small laugh.
"Sirius was actually a bit put out, you know, about us asking you to be godfather—"
"Because I stole his thunder?"
"Oh, ha, no, it's not that at all." Remus waved a hand, laughing. "It's more that—he seems to be hoping that if he ever has a child of his own someday, you'd be willing to be that child's godfather too."
"I rather thought he was a confirmed bachelor for life—"
Bryan said, shaking his head with a laugh of his own.
"He'll need to find himself a girlfriend first, at the very least."
'Er—'
Remus pressed his lips together at that, his eyes were flicking briefly away toward the window.
Should he perhaps hold his tongue for now, about how quickly things seemed to be developing between Sirius and Amelia?
"There's one more thing, Bryan—about the baby's name—"
Remus hesitated for a moment, working up to ask Bryan whether, if Tonks had a boy, it might be all right to name him Bryan Lupin but just then he saw Bryan's expression shift.
Bryan raised his right hand to stop him mid-sentence, his gaze fixed now on the direction of the fireplace.
"Is Headmaster Dumbledore—no, wait—"
Before the words had fully left his mouth, the empty air before the hearth burst open in a sudden, blinding blaze of dazzling fire, and from within the flames stepped a figure wrapped head to toe in a black cloak.
"Severus—it's you?"
Remus, on his feet now, asked in astonishment.
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