"I'll make sure they're not oversized baggy messes," promised Tonks. "Dad ought to have a hat as well, I suppose. I bet he'd like that." She shrugged self-consciously at her mother's comments. Tonks thought she looked awkward and silly and everything else that was the exact opposite of beautiful, and her mother was supposed to say that sort of thing anyway. "Thanks."
Tonks shoved her hands in the pockets of her cloak as her mother talked, and instead of looking at her, she stared at the ground in front of her as she walked. Sighing, she had to bite back a sharp retort. Her mother was trying to be kind about it, and Tonks could at least respect that much.
"I didn't know until a month ago," she said. "It's a bit of a long and embarrassing story, but the gist of it is that I didn't know until then, and when I did find out, I was afraid of what you and Dad were going to say, especially since everything with Remus happened right then as well. You're right, I should've told you in person, and I'm sorry I didn't, but that wasn't a conversation I was ready to have, and if I waited much longer, you'd have met the baby before I worked up the courage."
Tonks shook her head. "The mess with Remus--most of it is a misunderstanding. We're working on it, and he's decided he wants to be part of the baby's life. So even if we don't stay together, he won't lose his father because of it." She grimaced. It was never pleasant to remember just how much marrying her father had cost her mother, and whenever Andromeda brought it up, Tonks felt a nagging sense of guilt that somehow her mother losing her entire family had been Tonks's fault. She knew it wasn't true, but she still couldn't help but feel strangely indebted to her mother, and it wasn't something she liked. At all. "This was never going to be easy no matter what order we did things in or when it happened, but yeah, I'm well aware this is the typical worse-case scenario. Middle of the war, Remus and I aren't married--or in any sort of steady relationship right now--and I'm teaching. I get that things aren't perfect, and right now there's nothing I can do about it, so there's no point in lecturing me on that."