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Chapter 1

“I am glad to see so many of you got my message, my old friends,” Dumbledore said with a small smile. “I am afraid, however, that we are not gathered here for good news. Lord Voldemort—” several people flinched, “—has returned to the country, and will be active once more very soon.”

“How do you know, sir?” one woman in the front asked.

“We have a witness Miranda,” Dumbledore said gravely. “Harry Potter was there. Lord Voldemort used Harry’s blood to create the Resurrection Potion.” Several people gasped. “Now down to business. The last war took many of our numbers, far too many for my liking.” He gave Remus and Sirius a small nod of acknowledgement, remembering Lily and James.

“We need new recruits, as you all can see. I know that it is a terrible thing, but our best shot for new recruits would be in those just graduating or a few years older. The Death Eaters target the young, and if we want to at least slow their recruiting, we must target them as well.”

Sirius and Remus exchanged a quick glance, thinking of the same person.

“Sir,” Sirius said standing up, “my cousin Dora, she’s a werewolf, she could help…she’s twenty-one next week.” Remus looked at the floor sadly, guilt still tugging at his heartstrings from the memories he had just dreamt about. Immediately after Sirius spoke, others began suggesting co-workers or relatives.

“Excellent, thank you all,” Dumbledore said proudly. “Please do what you can to get them to the next meeting, but try not to reveal too much to them until we are sure they can be trusted. We will meet here again in one week.” Everyone stood and over half left, but the few who remained spoke amongst themselves. Remus and Sirius left immediately to find Dora. The sooner they found her, the sooner they could ask her to join. Therefore, Remus and Snuffles took off for her parents’ house.

“Mr. Lupin…to what do I owe the pleasure?” Andromeda asked with a tone that assumed the opposite of pleasure. She looked intensely at Snuffles, as though able to see his true form in the dog’s eyes.

“Andromeda…I would very much like to speak to your daughter,” Remus said evenly. Andromeda’s face hardened with dislike. It was only natural for a mother to despise the creature that caused their child so much pain.

“Well, I am afraid she is a bit indisposed at the moment,” Andromeda said coldly. “She had a rough night last night.” Remus felt his stomach drop painfully; so he had caused her to suffer.

“Mum, last night was fine, would you stop telling people that every month?” a young woman said as she stepped into the hall. Her hair was neon pink and her eyes the same Auburn as Remus’s, her arms currently crossed over her chest. Her eyes found Remus’s, and she grinned.

“Remus!” she cried happily, running the rest of the length of the hall and hugging him tightly. Remus smiled broadly and hugged her back with equal pressure.

“How are you Dorrie?” he asked softly as they pulled away from one another. Tonks pulled a face at the name.

“It’s Tonks now, Remus, please,” she said with a smile. “Here, would you like to come in—?” she looked at her mother suddenly. “Er…would you like to walk for a bit?” Her eyes clearly said ‘I would rather eat nails than have you in the same room as my mother.’

“Alright then, let’s walk,” Remus said with a laugh. Tonks stepped forward and closed the door behind her. Snuffles jumped up excitedly and licked her face on his hind legs.

“Whoa, who’s this cute little—” she looked down, “—boy, Remus?”

“He goes by a few names,” Remus said, hoping she would react the way he hoped, “usually Snuffles…or Padfoot.” He looked at her meaningfully. Her eyes widened slightly from memory.

“Are you saying…?” she asked slowly, looking at Snuffles. Remus merely put an arm around her and started walking down the street with her.

“Let me tell you a story,” he said with a slightly bitter voice, “about a man who betrayed his friends, named Peter Pettigrew.” Tonks listened very patiently throughout his tale. She got a bit teary-eyed as Remus told her of discovering Lily and James’s bodies in the dilapidated cottage. Remus got a bit anxious as he told her about finding out everything in the Shrieking Shack, but she took it in stride. When he told her about Sirius’s Animagus form, Tonks knelt down in front of Snuffles.

“Sirius, my dear cousin,” she breathed out slowly, running a hand through his shaggy hair, “oh how I’ve missed you.” She smiled broadly and tears came to her eyes. Snuffles jumped on her like a tackle and she fell over backwards, and he licked her face mercilessly. Remus couldn’t help but laugh along with her, her laugh was infectious.

“Can we go somewhere he doesn’t have to be a dog?” Tonks asked after a few minutes, getting up and kneeling before Sirius.

“Yes, follow me please,” Remus said, offering Tonks a hand to help her up. He pulled her hand, and she winced slightly, messaging her shoulder. “You alright?”

“Yeah…banged my shoulder last night I guess,” Tonks said with a small shrug, wincing slightly again. Remus felt the iron hand of guilt crush his stomach.

“Do you take the Wolfsbane Potion?” Remus asked curiously as they began walking again.

“When I can afford it, which is a bit rare. I could brew it myself but the ingredients are too rare to come by,” Tonks explained.

“What do you do for a job?” Remus asked. He didn’t mean to pry, but he was genuinely curious!

“Waitress in the Three Broomsticks, you?” Tonks countered back.

“Scrivenshaft’s,” Remus said immediately.

“Ah, how do we have time for normal lives? We’ve got such high-profile careers!” Tonks said in a glamorous sort of voice. Remus burst out laughing as they walked.

“I don’t think there is such thing as normal lives for us,” he said with a shake of the head.

“Here we are,” Remus said after ten more minutes of walking.

“Why Mr. Lupin, I do believe you’ve brought me to your house,” Tonks said as if they were on a date. Remus opened the door silently and allowed her to go in first. After they were all inside, he made sure that all the curtains were drawn and doors locked before letting Sirius become human again.

“Tonks,” he said simply, stepping forward and hugging her fiercely. She hugged him back as tightly as she could.

“Good to see you mate!” she said happily, nearly crushing the poor man. He in response reached up and ruffled her hair playfully.

“My, look at how tall you are!” Sirius said with a wide grin. He went on and on about how much she’d changed and grown up since he’d seen her last.

“What, did you expect me to be eight forever?” Tonks asked with a wide toothy grin.

“I’m afraid so,” Sirius said with a sad smile, “you grew up way too fast.”

“Couldn’t quite help it, I’m afraid,” Tonks said with a small half-shrug.

“Can I still call you Dorrie for a while?” Sirius joked, feigning a look of utter desperation.

“Ha-ha—no!” Tonks said with wide eyes. Sirius let out a bark of laughter and dropped back into a chair. Tonks followed suit, and Remus ventured into the tiny kitchen to make tea. He could hear Tonks telling Sirius about her schooldays, and Sirius would occasionally interrupt because one anecdote reminded him of a school prank the Marauders played. When Remus came back out Sirius was talking about when they had turned Snape’s hair green.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Remus interjected loudly as he came back into the sitting room with tea. Sirius was trying to say it was all Remus’s idea to do it. “I said we should charm his hair clean, not green.” Sirius gave him a quizzical look.

“Really? Well, that would explain all the glares you gave me afterwards,” he said with a shrug. Tonks laughed at them both from where she was curled up in an armchair. They continued to talk and joke long into the night, until Sirius and Remus were so wrapped up they didn’t notice that Tonks’s laughter had died away, and she no longer made loud exclamations about how she could totally see Snape with whatever they had done to him.

“So Tonks, has Snape ever—?” Sirius asked, but stopped abruptly with a smile on his face. Tonks was sitting sideways in the chair, her knees drawn to her chest. Her cold tea spilled onto her jeans when she fell asleep, a small smile frozen on her face. She’d fallen asleep laughing.

“Now isn’t that cute?” Sirius asked in a brotherly voice. He honestly did sound like an older brother looking down upon his baby sister. Remus laughed slightly and nodded.

“We should wake her or she’ll get a crick in her neck,” he said quietly, walking to the chair. “Tonks, love, you’ve gotta wake up.” Tonks stirred in her sleep but refused to move. “Tonks…” she still didn’t move. “Nymphadora?” There was a pillow in Remus’s face.

“M’name’s Tonks, bloody man,” she mumbled through semi-consciousness. Remus spat feathers from his worn out pillow at her.

“Fine Tonks,” Remus said evenly. “But I don’t want you Apparating home when you’re half-asleep, so I can set you up in the guest room, alright?” Tonks took in a deep sleepy breath and nodded with her eyes tight shut. “Do you need to owl your mother?”

“No,” Tonks said after she regained the power of speech, “I only go home for full moon because my mum makes me. It’s bloody annoying.” She allowed Remus to pull her out of the chair and lead her down the hall.

“She’s just looking out for you,” Remus reasoned with her, opening the door to the spare room. “There are some spare pajamas in the dresser if you want to change.”

“Is Sirius staying here?” Tonks asked blearily, crashing onto the bed and burying her face in her hands.

“Nah, I’m going to walk him home. He can’t Apparate because the Ministry puts a trace on all convicts,” Remus said. “Get some sleep; I’ll be back in a bit.” Tonks incoherently murmured a response before Remus left her there.

The moment Tonks heard the front door close, her eyes opened fully, a mischievous gleam visible even in the lack of light. She got up and snuck across the hall to Remus’s room, snapping on the lights. Without even a trace of guilt, she began rummaging through his things curiously. She had been fascinated by Remus Lupin ever since she was five years old after his trial. His eyes were always sad, even when he was laughing.

The room was smaller than the guest room; Remus had always been the martyr. Instead of a full bed, he had a single mattress lying on the floor. There were slight signs of repaired tears in the mattress’s fabric, and a few repaired gauge marks in the walls. Tonks touched the spots with her thin white fingers, feeling as if she knew the monster behind the man.

She performed a quick Finite Incantatum on the spots she could tell the spellwork was a bit shoddy, and stared at the claw marks on the wall. She looked down at her hand, at the scar that would never fade, and she refused to change with her powers. She sat on the edge of the mattress, still staring at the scar. She probably loved him, but was unsure of how to find out. She had never been in love before, and if she had been feeling the same way about him since she was five, how was she to know it was unusual or extraordinary?

Tonks shook her head lightly, and looked at the modest desk in the corner. There were pictures of the Marauders and a young Lily Potter scattered across it, and a battered black scrapbook lying open and blank beside it. Tonks looked at the front cover.

The Good old Days

Tonks smiled broadly. It was probably going to end up a gift for Harry, who she had both heard of from, well, everyone in the Wizarding world, and Sirius. She looked back at the pictures and saw scraps of parchment beside them, narrating what was going on in the pictures.

There was one particular picture that made Tonks giggle like a mad person. It showed Remus looking extremely pleased with himself, in the background were James and Sirius who were dressed as girls and looking extremely disgruntled. The parchment beside it had only one sentence on it that explained everything she or Harry would need to know about why Remus had done such a thing to his two best friends.

Sirius and James were calling full moon my ‘time of the month’ again.

Tonks placed the parchment back down on the table exactly where it had been before. She looked around once more, stole one of his shabby sweaters and pulled it over her head, and went back to the guest room, now genuinely tired.

When Remus got back a few minutes after Tonks went back to the guest room, he poked his head in her door to make sure she was alright. She was sound asleep, snoring softly in an endearing way. He went across the hall into his room and changed quickly, noticing that one of his sweaters was missing.

He walked over to the desk in the corner, and smelled Tonks’s shampoo around the area like a Seer could sense an aura. The parchment next to his favorite picture was in the right spot, but upside down. Remus couldn’t help but smile. He probably loved her, but wasn’t sure how to know. He had always felt a certain connection to her since she became a werewolf, but he had thought that it was only because he was the one that bit her. Perhaps, because he had avoided love all his life, he didn’t know how it felt enough to know it when he felt it.

Shaking his head at such foolish thoughts, Remus crawled under his ratty sheets for a restless night’s sleep. It was impossible for him to sleep properly when Tonks was right across the hall.

Remus was standing over Tonks, smiling softly. She was wearing his sweater, fast asleep, stretched out across the bed like a cat would be. Her scarred hand was on the pillow beside her head, facing upwards, the scars looking like a blooming flower. He still couldn’t fathom what had urged his beast form to bite her in the same spot Greyback had bitten him, at the same age Tonks had been.

Instead of waking her up, he went into the kitchen and made a few sloppy chocolate chip pancakes and bacon. Just as Remus had predicted, Tonks came out a few minutes later, after he had set up a fan to blow the food smells right into her room.

“Good morning sunshine, nice sweater,” Remus said with a teasing smile on his face as Tonks turned red.

“You always look so comfy, and now I know why,” Tonks said sheepishly, tugging off the sweater to give it back. She was wearing a too-small black camisole underneath it, showing a tiny shred of skin at her waist. It was just enough to taunt Remus.

“You keep it,” Remus said with a wave of dismissal, “it looks better on you. And besides, now it’s got your yucky girly cooties all over it.”

“Hey, I resent that!” Tonks said with a mock glare at him. It was ruined by her smiling wryly and sitting down, pulling the sweater back on and sufficiently ruffling her hair. Remus put a plate of pancakes and bacon in front of her before sitting down with his own plate. She stared at the food in awe before taking a huge bite.

“All is forgiven,” she said with a serious expression on her face. Remus burst out laughing at her joke.

“It is rumored that I make the best chocolate chip pancakes on this side of the English Channel,” Remus said with the same tone James would have used when talking about his Quidditch skills.

“I will totally confirm that rumor to anyone who asks,” Tonks said with her mouth full. Before Remus could do more than smile, Tonks’s watch beeped and she groaned. “I’ve got to go. It was really fun catching up and everything; we should do it more often.” Remus realized with a pang that they hadn’t even talked to Tonks about the Order. Why hadn’t Sirius even brought it to his attention?

“How about tomorrow night?” Remus asked, standing up with Tonks. She blushed slightly and looked at him curiously.

“Couldn’t get enough of me in one night?” she asked playfully. Remus smiled.

“Actually, there was something that Sirius and I were supposed to talk to you about, but it must have slipped our minds,” Remus said with a shrug. Tonks grinned at him.

“Alright, when did you have in mind? I know this really nice restaurant that’s really inexpensive near my apartment if you’d like,” she asked with a slight blush tinting her cheeks. She was practically asking him on a date, but wasn’t about to call it that. “Oh, and don’t worry about it being like a club or anything, it’s a little Italian restaurant, and it’s urgent we can get a private room.”

“Alright, what’s your address?” Remus asked politely, though he felt a bit awkward about this all as well. Tonks stepped forward, conjured a muggle pen with her wand, and wrote her address on Remus’s hand. Remus watched her write, concentration evident on her face as she pushed her bangs out of her eyes quickly. She bit her lip and mouthed the address to herself as she wrote.

“There you go, I’ve also got a phone number there in case you have to cancel, and I look forward to hearing from you,” she smiled broadly, gave him a quick goodbye kiss on the cheek, blushed, and left. Remus stared at the front door from which she left, feeling lonely in the empty house without her presence.

Chapter 3

“Mum…what did it feel like when you fell in love with Dad?” Tonks asked quietly into the telephone receiver. She had awoken that morning alone in her bed, an apologetic note from Remus beside her. Sirius had sent his Patronus that told him he was needed at Headquarters.

“Nymphadora dear…I don’t really know what you mean,” Andromeda said uncertainly, hoping her daughter wasn’t about to tell her what she thought she would.

“I mean…I’ve never been in love before, so how do I know it when I feel it?” Tonks asked. She was currently huddled up on the bed, hugging a cushion to her chest and wearing Remus’s sweater.

“Nymphadora, are you talking about Remus Lupin?” Andromeda asked sharply. Her daughter’s lack of reply gave her all the answer she needed.

“I think so Mum…I dunno, I’m so confused,” Tonks said anguishedly. The sweater was an old Gryffindor sweater, when Remus had been young and more filled out. It was a large and stretched out turtleneck, and the colors had faded to tan and rusty maroon instead of yellow and red. Her hair was messy and dark blue, the same shade as the night sky the evening previous.

“Well I’m afraid I’m not going to be much help,” Andromeda said. “All I can say is…you just know, you know? Your father and I had been dating for about a year, and never said ‘I love you’ to one another. Then, I woke up beside him one morning, and just said it and knew it was true right away. It’s different for everyone dear, but all I can say is that if it’s meant to be, you’ll know.

“Are you sure?” Tonks asked like a small child, her voice shaking with suppressed tears.

“I’m sure darling,” Andromeda said comfortingly. Shortly after the two women hung up the phone. Tonks looked to the note that was still resting on her pillow. She remembered waking up that morning and feeling perfect euphoria at having fallen asleep beside Remus the night before. She still felt the hollow empty feeling in her gut that had begun to spread when she realized Remus was no longer with her.

“I won’t say it,” she said to the empty room. “I won’t say it until he’s here and knows…. Well…at least not aloud.” She bit her lip and looked at the sunlight filtering through the window. She didn’t work on Sundays. That annoyed her.



“What happened Sirius?” Remus asked slowly, trying to get the whole story for the umpteenth time that morning.

“Harry…fat…dementors…Ministry…” Sirius mumbled into his coffee mug, half asleep from staying up all night worrying. He looked up with red-rimmed exhausted eyes. “We have to get him out of there Remus; he’s dying with those Muggles.”

“I know Sirius, but first I need to know what happened,” Remus said slowly. Sirius took a deep breath.

“Harry and his fat cousin were attacked by dementors, and the Ministry’s set Harry’s court date to be tried by the Wizengamot,” Sirius said with a heavy sigh. Remus nearly fell out of his chair. “Dumbledore needs the new recruits two days earlier than he had hoped, so I really hope you talked to Tonks last night.”

“Oh yes, I spoke to her last night,” Remus said with a secretive smile. Sirius let out a low whistle.

“So is she going to be rushing in here in about five weeks, screeching about something turning blue?” Sirius asked coyly. Remus hit him across the back of the head.

“We did not partake in any sort of…activities…that you may have in mind, you pervert,” Remus said irritably. “Besides, I would never get her pregnant, I’m too much of a prude to do so remember?” Sirius let out a bark of laughter that was far too close to his Animagus form for comfort.

“Just like old times, mate! Perfect timing, I needed to be cheered up,” Sirius said with a shake of the head.

“Nice to know that my lack of a love life gives you entertainment Padfoot,” Remus said coolly.

“Hey, have you seen your love life? Have you met your love life? Well bad news mate, I have, and that poor thing is dying!” Sirius said (forgive the pun) seriously. “You need to make a move, and fast. If you don’t then someone’s going to come along and get to her first, whether it’s of her own will or not.”

“What do you mean?” Remus asked sharply.

“I mean…well, don’t you remember? You were the one who told me! Well anyway, you said the number of female werewolves is dropping drastically, and Fenrir Greyback is looking for a mate to leave an heir to his ‘empire,’” Sirius explained. Remus felt as if he’d been hit by a Beater’s bat. He had completely overlooked that.

“I didn’t even think about that,” he said quietly, feeling a thrill of fear run through him.

“That’s obvious,” Sirius snorted. “Look, just make sure she comes tomorrow night so she can get in on rescuing Harry if she wants.”

“Alright, I’ll talk to her later I suppose,” Remus said with a small shrug, still thinking about Greyback. Would Tonks be able to defend herself if Greyback came after her? Remus knew she was strong, she probably could have been and Auror if she wasn’t a werewolf, but that wasn’t the same. Aurors had three years of training to make them even stronger, wiser, perhaps more graceful.

“You should talk to her now, probably apologize for leaving at four in the morning,” Sirius said, practically reading Remus’s mind and seeing how he wanted to go back to Tonks’s flat.

“Do you need any help here with the plans?” Remus asked, knowing Sirius would start scheming ways to get Harry out of the Dursleys’ place.

“Nah, I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself more at Tonks’s place anyway,” Sirius said with a suggestive grin. Remus rolled his eyes at Sirius’s antics before stepping onto the front step and Apparating.

Tonks had given up on waiting for Remus to come back, and made hot cocoa. It seemed a bit more appropriate, seeing as she was moping over Remus, a.k.a., the King of All Things Chocolaty. She had just sat at the table, her hair growing to her waist and falling in front of her eyes before she impatiently swept it back and made it short again. Her body did that sometimes, just change of its own accord. There was a knock and a hesitant “Nymphadora?” at the door.

Tonks, in her haste, knocked over her chair, the table, and her mug. She cried out in frustration (and slight pain as there was scalding chocolaty water on her leg) as her hair started growing rapidly again. Damn her hair and its mood swings!

“Ouch, dammit! Hey Remus, how’s it going?” Tonks asked the latter casually as she opened the door, trying not to lean on one leg as her hair spread nearly to her knees. “Crap, stupid hair, come in.” Remus looked around and gave a low whistle as Tonks limped inside.

“Did either a tornado or a very drunk Sirius come through here?” he asked as Tonks gave up on her powers and pinned her hair up.

“No, no…I’m just…me,” Tonks said lamely as her hair threatened to fall out of her small and sloppy clip. Small strands of midnight blue fell in front of her eyes as Remus gave a nod of understanding.

“Alright…here, let me help,” Remus said, waving his wand causally and allowing her things to right themselves. “It’s the least I can do after skipping out on you last night.”

“Ah, that,” Tonks said as she began to pour Remus a cup of cocoa and replace her spilled one. “Well, it’s nice of you to come back; you’re the first bloke to do so, but definitely not the first to sneak out in the middle of the night.”

“That’s horrible,” Remus said as she placed his mug in front of him and sat down across from him. Tonks shrugged with her eyes closed.

“That’s life, I suppose,” she said quietly, looking vacantly out the window.

“But you shouldn’t be treated that way by anyone,” Remus said, immediately coming to her defense.

“Remus, every girl in the world over twenty has experienced that, it’s part of life,” Tonks said, reaching across the table and squeezing his hand.

“I know,” Remus said, “I used to be one of those men if you’d believe it. You…you are just…you just don’t deserve that. You’re so kind, and…sweet, and…you’re just such a great person Tonks…” Remus felt himself turn slightly red in embarrassment at his stammering. Tonks smiled sweetly at him and squeezed his hand.

“You are so cute,” she said for the second time in two days. “And it’s nice to know that you’re so concerned for my well-being, but honestly Remus, I think I can take care of myself.”

“I know that too, but I’m just saying that…if you ever need…something more…” Tonks’s eyes widened slightly. He had meant to say ‘someone to talk to,’ or anything else along those lines, but the words came from his heart instead of his head. “I’ll be right here.” They both stared at eachother over their joined hands.

“Thank you,” Tonks said quietly. She still wasn’t ready to say the big statement aloud, but at least she now knew there was something there she could turn to.

Chapter 5

Everything in bold is from OOTP chapter The Advance Guard

“You say Miss Tonks is being stalked?” Dumbledore asked quietly, his half-moon spectacles flashing in the room’s dim light.

“Yes sir, she was assaulted around midday yesterday on her way to work by Greyback. All she told me is that she’s being followed, but I believe that it has been happening for quite a while now and she’s just too shaken to tell anyone,” Remus said quickly. “Greyback is most likely going to target her for a mate unless there is already a young feral.”

“I agree, the number of females has dropped in the past years. It seems the ferals have gone a bit soft in the past years,” Dumbledore said with a nod. “Where is she staying now?”

“At Headquarters, and I believe she is in the process of getting her grandmother to move in with Andromeda,” responded Remus, already missing the little red house where he had truly begun to fall for the colorful youth.

“Greyback is watching her as well, I suppose?”

“I personally believe he is keeping tabs on her entire family, and will be talking about getting her mother to stay at Headquarters for a while as well,” Remus said gravely.

“Well I will be talking to a few others about trying to keep an eye on Greyback, and keep you and Miss Tonks as safe as possible while staying with the ferals. That is, if Nymphadora still wants to be a part of the Order.”

“I’m not sure Albus; I’ll have to ask her.”

“Very well Remus, thank you for coming to me with this.”

Remus stood up and used Dumbledore’s Floo to get back to Headquarters. Molly Weasley had managed to whip up a healing potion for Tonks’s bruises, which she was trying when he came in. She dabbed at her neck gingerly, wincing with even the slightest touch.

“How’s it going?” he asked quietly, trying not to startle her. She jumped anyway and flinched drastically, holding her bruised neck. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—are you alright?” It appeared that she wasn’t holding her neck because she was scared; the potion was only making the bruises worse. He led her over to the nearest chair as she tried to get her breathing back under control.

“That’s it, I give up, I’ll just have to let them heal the Muggle way,” she whispered painfully after a minute or two, sounding frustrated. “Besides, it gives me an excuse to wear your sweater a lot.”

“That’s always good,” Remus said with a smile. “So, I suppose you won’t be going to fetch Harry at the end of the week?”

“Are you kidding!? I’m not going to let a few bruises stop me from going on an actual mission! Of course I’m going!” Tonks whisper-shouted as if Remus were truly stupid. Remus smiled and shook his head at her.

“Just be careful alright?” he pleaded. Tonks smiled.

“You know I will Remus, really,” she said quietly. “You’re too sweet,” she rasped, giving him a quick kiss. They had only been getting closer for around a week, but it felt so right, as if some part of them both had already been joined for eighteen years.

The following week passed slowly, Moody insisting on going over the plan dozens upon dozens of times. Finally, on the day they would be setting off to fetch Harry, Tonks began to recite the plan when Moody was halfway through at hyper-speed. Moody was then convinced that they knew the plan well enough if even Tonks could memorize it. She had just begun to regain the power of speech and her bruises were fading. She was quite proud of herself.

“Alright now remember, if—”

“One of us gets killed, don’t break ranks,” everyone finished dully. Tonks snorted into her hand before mounting her broom. She and Remus exchanged a smirk behind Kingsley’s back.

“Okay then, let’s get on with it,” Moody grunted as they all rose into the air and shot towards Privet Drive. Tonks’s old skirt over thick purple tights that matched her hair billowed in the wind. Remus was forced to take his eyes off of her as they dove low into a cloud, coming out on the other side wet and cold.

“MOODY!” Tonks screeched after such an event. There were several cries of agreement.

“Calm yourselves down, we’re about to land!” Moody shouted back. Remus followed Hestia into a shallow dive and landed smoothly on the grass, unlike one other clumsy werewolf. He walked over, fighting a chuckle, and helped Tonks up before following everyone inside. She smiled in embarrassment at him and clutched his hand.

“So…how do we let him know we’re he—ah!” Tonks squeaked out as she fell and knocked over a plate.

“Well I guess that solves it,” Kingsley chuckled as all sounds of movement upstairs stopped. Moody, growing impatient with Harry’s hesitation, opened the door for him. Everyone fell silent and looked up the stairs expectantly. Sure enough a mop of messy black hair appeared through the dark doorway. Well it was more of a big black blur than a boy.

“Lower your wand, boy, before you take someone’s eye out,” Moody growled.

“Professor Moody?” Harry’s voice rang out uncertainly.

“I don’t know so much about Professor, never got round to much teaching, did I? Get down here, we want to see you properly,” Moody said sharply. They just barely saw Harry’s wand dropping to his side and he didn’t move. Remus, seeming to sense Harry’s suspicions, decided now was the time to speak.

“It’s alright, Harry. We’ve come to take you away.” Tonks could sense the boy’s happiness even from this distance.

“P-Professor Lupin? Is that you?” Tonks suddenly realized that this would normally be a very happy and possibly tender moment if anyone could see one another.

“Why are we all standing in the dark?” she blurted out. “Lumos.” Her wand ignited and flooded the hall with light. Harry was revealed blinking slightly in the bright light.

“Ooh, he looks just like I thought he would,” Tonks said excitedly. “Wotcher, Harry!”

“Yeah, I see what you mean Remus,” Kingsley said. “He looks exactly like James.” Tonks was flooded with memories of the boldest Marauder.

“Except the eyes,” Elphias said with a grin Harry was unable to see. “Lily’s eyes.”

“Are you quite sure it’s him, Lupin?” Moody growled snappishly. “It’d be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?”

“Harry, what form does your Patronus take?” Remus asked quietly.

“Ooh, can I guess?” Tonks blurted out, her hand shooting up. Remus gave her a funny look. “Right, sorry, not the point, please continue.” Kingsley chuckled quietly behind her.

“…a stag?” Harry said, confused by Tonks’s eagerness.

“That’s him Mad-Eye,” Remus said with a broad grin. Tonks felt excitement bubble up in her stomach. She was suddenly remembering Sirius bringing her a picture of a little bald baby Harry. She had gone along to babysit once! She had to force her hands over her mouth to keep from squealing.

“Oh I’m beginning to remember James so much!” she said in a high-pitched whisper to Remus. He nudged her playfully as Harry began to make his way down the stairs. He hugged Remus for a moment and shook his hand tightly.

“How are you Harry?” Remus asked in a fatherly voice. Harry shrugged. Tonks nudged Remus to remind him she was there, but he didn’t notice.

“You’re really lucky the Dursleys are out,” he said in a shaking voice. Tonks burst out laughing.

“Lucky, right! I was the one to lure them out! I sent a letter through Muggle post that said they’d been singled out for their extraordinary lawn,” she said with an ecstatic grin. Harry laughed as well.

“You told them to take pictures of their lawn from every possible angle?” he asked.

“Yeah I was hoping you’d get a kick out of it,” Tonks said cheerfully. She nudged Remus again to get him to introduce her.

“Oh, right! Harry, this is Nymphadora—”

“Remus I thought you of all people would remember not to call me that!” Tonks whined, hitting his arm.

“Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only,” Remus finished smoothly.

“So would you if your loony mother named you Nymphadora,” Tonks grumbled. Remus grinned.

“Well yes, and Tonks is my…” Remus trailed off, searching for the right word. Harry looked quite confused, and Tonks looked up at him.

“You can call me your girlfriend, you know,” she said with a silly smile on her face. She loved how Harry’s face brightened considerably.

“You have a girlfriend, Professor,” he said teasingly. A single high-pitched giggle escaped Tonks’s lips, and Remus continued to introduce Order members. God she was an idiot. Oh great, now Moody was giving her that look he reserved especially for her. It was like a disgruntled fondness for her, so at least there was fondness.

“Come on, we haven’t got all night,” Tonks gently reminded Remus, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Right, Harry do you have your things packed?” he asked quickly. Harry shook his head with a blush on his face.

“I’ll go do it now,” he muttered.

“Oh I’ll help!” Tonks said eagerly. She followed Harry up to his room. “Ooh, I love it in here.”

“You’re the only one,” Harry said with a roll of his eyes as he hastily began to throw things into his trunk. Tonks opened his wardrobe and eyed her violet hair critically.

“Does the purple make me look peaky? Well of course it does, everything makes me look peaky really. I mean I—”

“How long have you and Professor Lupin been dating?” Harry asked, forgetting about packing and sitting on the bed. Tonks’s hair turned pink at just the mention of Remus’s name, and she decided to keep it that way.

“Well…about two weeks, but it feels like it’s been forever,” she said, sitting on the floor in front of Harry.

“What do you do for a job?” Harry asked next, sounding a lot as if he were Remus’s son asking his new stepmother her intentions with his father.

“Well, I tried to be an Auror when I was seventeen but Scrimgeour wouldn’t let me in,” Tonks said with a shrug. “So now I’m a waitress at the Three Broomsticks. Hoo-rah.”

“Why didn’t Scrimgeour let you in?” Harry asked curiously.

“I’m a werewolf too Harry.”

“Oh…I see…that makes sense,” Harry said slowly. “So you work in the Three Broomsticks? Why haven’t I seen you there on Hogsmeade trips?”

“Well I usually look different every day. I’m a Metamorphmagus, you see, so I feel the need to change a lot,” Tonks explained. She looked around and saw all the things on the floor. Harry looked around as well. “We should really finish packing.”

“Yeah,” agreed Harry, reaching out to pick up a book.

“Don’t be silly, I’ll do it with magic,” Tonks dismissed. She waved her wand and his things flew into the trunk. She attempted half-heartedly to fold his socks with her wand as well, but they seemed reluctant to fold. “Ah, screw that it’s fine. Got your broom? Holy frick-in-a-bucket this is a nice broom!” She and Harry exchanged a small smile, Tonks hoping desperately that he liked her, before setting off downstairs.

“Ah, excellent,” Remus said as they came down, giving Tonks a grateful smile. She winked suggestively at him just to be funny. He blinked furiously and looked away, turning a bit red. Tonks smiled broadly, satisfied with the fact that she could make men uncomfortable.

On the fly back, the sky was an inky black dotted with silver stars and the milky moon. Tonks felt a tugging at her heartstrings, and her head instinctively turned upward to the sky. She felt a great pressure swelling in her chest as she gazed upon the half-moon, animal instinct ripping at her. She felt her hands leave the broom handle and raise upward until she was doing something similar to the King-of-the-World stance in that odd Muggle movie Titanic.

“Hello Tonks,” a raspy voice hissed in her ear. Tonks screamed in shock and fright, her body stiffening instinctively. She heard several other people around her shouting as what resembled a rough hand covered her mouth and dragged her back into darkness. She didn’t feel anything solid beneath her, including her broom. There was no longer anything touching her, and she was falling rapidly to the ground.

“DON’T BREAK RANKS! DID YOU HEAR ME LUPIN!? I SAID DO NOT BREAK RANKS IF SOMEONE GETS KILLED!” Moody screamed from above. Tonks felt fear rush through her; Moody was just going to let her die? Unexpectedly an arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her onto a broom.

“Tonks, are you alright?” Remus asked quickly as she wrapped her arms around his waist. She heard Harry shout the same thing moments later. Tonks was about to tell Remus what happened, but then rethought things for a moment. She looked up to her broom for a moment and didn’t see anyone on it. What if they thought she was mad? Would they throw her out of the Order for being loony, or just think she was incapable of going undercover because she may become prone to these outbursts?

“I’m f-fine…lost balance is all,” she whispered into Remus’s back.

“Well why weren’t you holding onto your broom in the first place?” Remus sounded angry now, and Tonks felt her lungs constrict.

“I dunno…felt funny…” Tonks muttered into his ear, “the moon…” She felt Remus tense in her arms at the mention of the moon. And yet now, when she sensed that she should, she couldn’t stop speaking. “It just felt like…like…something was…p-pulling at me…had to look up…my arms just…lifted up…I just don’t know what happened, Remus. I’m so sorry.” Remus kept quiet for a few minutes, taking up Tonks’s place in front of Harry.

“It’s alright, but perhaps you should stay away from brooms for a while, eh?” Remus said finally. They flew through a cloud and came out shivering and sputtering.

“He so did that on purpose,” Tonks said bitterly, eyeing Moody as Remus shrank her stationary broom and put it in his pocket with Harry’s trunk. Remus patted her arm gently as they flew on.

By the time they landed, everyone began asking Tonks for her account of what happened. She certainly got an earful from Moody.

“You bloody woman! Do you have any idea what you could have done!? You scared us out of our wits! We thought there was a Death Eater on your broom!” he nearly shouted himself hoarse. Tonks felt anger boil in her.

“I hit an air pocket and lost my balance, okay? I’m sorry!” Tonks shouted back at him, desperately fighting the urge to say ‘there was a Death Eater on my broom!’

“Your hands weren’t even on the broom when it happened, why weren’t you more careful!?” Moody shouted again.

“I was cold, wet, and stiff. I had to stretch my arms out, okay!?” Tonks said back, ignoring the sharp look Remus gave her. She reached inside Remus’s pocket, took out her broom and Harry’s trunk, and undid the shrinking charms on them. Angry tears formed in her eyes as she strode purposefully to the house.

“You get back here; I wasn’t done shouting at you yet!” Moody screamed at her back. Tonks gave him the finger behind her back just before going inside. She could still hear him screaming in rage as she closed the door on him. Remus brought Harry in shortly afterward. The boy looked unsure of whether to laugh or not. Mrs. Weasley came out a moment later to see what the fuss was about outside.

“What happened to Mad-Eye?” she asked worriedly before seeing Harry and giving him a huge hug. Harry looked on the verge of suffocation before he was released. “Come on Harry, I’ll show you where you’ll be staying.” Tonks handed Harry his trunk with a small smile. He gave her a questioning look before following Molly upstairs. Their absence left her and Remus alone in the hall.

“Are you sure you’re alright Nym—?”

“For Merlin’s sake, I’m fine,” Tonks snapped at him before going downstairs and sitting at the table. Ten minutes later Moody came down, his voice completely obliterated. He shot her a ‘you go to hell and you die!’ look before sitting down himself. The rest of Harry’s entourage followed minutes later, looking a bit more understanding than Moody.

“So how’d it go?” Sirius asked absently as he entered the room from the drawing room. Tonks shifted lightly in her seat as everyone looked her way. “What is everything okay? No one fell off their broom did they?” Again everyone looked at her. Shift. “Tonks what happened?” he asked accusingly. Tonks rolled her eyes. Shift.

“I had a teensy bit of an accident,” she mumbled quietly. Moody began to hoarsely scream at her again, but his voice was so far gone it was only a whisper.

“What happened, are you okay?” Sirius asked quickly.

“I’m fine,” said Tonks quickly.

“F-f-fi-i-ine!” Moody whisper-screamed from his place. Sirius looked at him with a shocked look on his face.

“What did you do to the poor old geezer Tonks?” he asked, Tonks being able to see that Sirius was thoroughly enjoying Moody’s absence of proper speech.

“I fell off my broom, and the grizzly old man just couldn’t handle that,” Tonks said innocently. Moody’s face was actually beginning to turn purple. They continued on in such a way until they were certain Moody would have an aneurism. At that point they quit teasing, and let the meeting begin.

Chapter 7


Your marriage to Remus John Lupin is binding and eternal, and cannot be broken.

Tonks certainly wasn’t tired anymore. She and Remus were married? That was the werewolf law she had been too careless to remember! Transformed werewolves, even under the influence of Wolfsbane, acted instinctively when meeting on full moon. Acting instinctively happened to mean shagging. If two werewolves shagged, or known among dignified conversations as mating, it made them legally married in the eyes of the wizarding world.

She was in such deep s**t, and verbally expressed that. “s**t, s**t, s**t, s**t!” She jumped out of the bed and pulled her cloak back on, about to run out to the woods and find Remus to see if he knew how to fix this. But of course, she couldn’t undo sex; she could only pretend it didn’t happen. That’s what she would have to do.

But what if Remus got a copy of the letter and certificate? “s**t!” She ran out the front door and past her mother’s anti-Apparition wards before Apparating directly to Remus’s house. She made a very lucky guess and found a spare key under the worn out welcome mat, and let herself inside. She didn’t pay attention to the warm and cozy surroundings for long, intent on getting rid of any evidence of their union for now. If they were meant to be married, they would do it the human way dammit, and after knowing each other much longer than they had.

“Aha!” she whispered victoriously, seeing the same official envelope and certificate she had gotten. She snatched them up and tried to rip them in half, but there was some sort of protection and preserving spell on them and wouldn’t rip.

Probably in case he wanted to have it as a keepsake, Tonks thought with as she blanched. She tucked them into her pocket instead, deciding to figure out how to dispose of them later. She glanced out the window upon hearing a popping noise. s**t! Remus woke up and came home! She looked around fervently to find some sort of exit. The back door was either in another room or nonexistent. s**t! The door was opening! Thinking quickly Tonks straightened up from where she had been trying to see through a keyhole for the back door and smiled at the weary and confused Remus.

“Hey, you’re back,” she said breathlessly, hoping he didn’t see her bent over. He gave a nervous and tired smile as he draped his cloak over a chair.

Tonks felt a rush move though her body when he made eye-contact. That was odd, yet pleasing at the same time. It felt as if there were some sort of connection between them. Somehow, even in all of her previous panic, she felt calm looking into his eyes. He was a buoy in the water that she clung to. He leveled her mood into perfect serenity. It felt to her as if they had been married for ages instead of a few short hours.

“I am, but I am also curious as to why you’re here and not resting at home with your mother—never mind, I think I already know,” Remus said as he walked across the room to her. She waited for a kiss, but it never came.

“I just wanted to make sure you…were alright,” Tonks lied quickly, the slightest hint of a blush touching her cheeks before she morphed it away. “You weren’t around when I woke up, so I worried.” An understanding look crossed his face.

“I worried too, seeing how close we were before we transformed,” Remus said, giving Tonks a small hug, glad she was alright.

It felt odd for him to say ‘we transformed’ instead of keeping it singular. Somehow this morning, he felt more connected to this bubbly young woman than he had the days before. Seeing her there in his house looked right, more than right, it looked natural and perfect. She fit right along in the small cozy house, because she herself had a small and cozy nature about her. Something was different about her that he couldn’t place immediately, but decided that he liked it quite a bit even though it slightly unnerved him.

“You look thoughtful,” Tonks said quietly. She instinctively stepped forward and, on the very tips of her toes, kissed the corners of his eyes as if it would take the wrinkles away. Remus started in surprise; he and Tonks had never been so intimate besides when the moon drove the lust into their hearts the night before.

“I am feeling particularly thoughtful this morning,” Remus said with a sad sigh. “Nymphadora—Tonks,” he corrected quickly, but Tonks found that she didn’t mind much anymore. Did it have to do with her new surname? “Tonks…I could have killed you last night…” Tonks felt like she knew where this was going and jumped in.

“I’m a werewolf, I could have killed you too,” she murmured as she began to plant small kisses along his jaw to distract him.

“But as wolves, I am the male and the female would not fight,” Remus pointed out.

“How do you know werewolves don’t act differently than ordinary wolves?” Tonks asked innocently. “Maybe werewolves have evolved to believe in women’s rights like humans, seeing as they are part human.”

“Nymphadora…” Remus said in a warning voice, pulling back from her kisses to show he was completely serious. “We have to make sure this doesn’t happen again, something bad could come of this.”

“Like a reverse-Serendipity?” Tonks asked, trying to bring back some humor into the seriousness of the conversation.

“Tonks,” Remus said firmly. Tonks nearly recoiled. “If it happens again—”

“It’s not like I did it intentionally, Remus!” Tonks interjected. She was now beginning to grow upset with this. He was acting like she watched him go into the woods and followed!

“I know, I realize that, but I notice that either your mother has phenomenal healing skills or neither of us were injured last night. You just seem to be the kind of person who would try this again to avoid the same ritual of solitary transformations,” Remus explained. He was sort of right, Tonks was curious about that bit. She usually got quite banged up, luckily not so badly she had terrible scarring like Remus, but it was enough to get her down and out for a day or two. If her wolf was lovemaking all night, how could she get hurt?

“Tonks, please just promise me you won’t try anything in the future?” Remus asked, turning Tonks’s thoughtful chin towards him. Tonks rolled her eyes very slightly.

“Alright, I promise. Now can I have my boyfriend back please?” Tonks asked in a whiny voice. A smile finally broke through Remus’s tired and serious face. “Want me to make you breakfast?”

“Will it kill me if I ingest it?” Remus asked with a cheeky grin. Tonks looked around for something to throw at him, but everything in the kitchen was slightly dangerous so she spared him.

“Now it might because of your cheek,” she responded after a few moments’ silence.

“Delayed reaction much?” Remus asked. This time Tonks picked up a knife and began to chase him through the kitchen. “Alright, alright, I surrender, please make me breakfast!” Tonks put the knife back with a sweet smile.

“Well, only because you asked,” she said cheerily. “You either go have a lie-down or take a shower, while I make you breakfast.” She gave him a small push in the right direction, and he laughed.

“Thank you Tonks,” he said as he went down the hall to the bathroom.

“No problem sweet-pea,” Tonks called in a very housewife-like voice. The moment the bathroom door closed and the hot water began running, Tonks walked out the front door and Apparated back to her mother’s house. As she ran up to her room she pulled the certificate and note out of her pocket and hid them in a warded drawer with her set. She would deal with those later.

As an afterthought, Tonks also pulled out a piece of parchment and wrote a quick letter requesting a physical to St. Mungo’s. Apparently werewolves could tell if they were pregnant in as little as a day after conception, but only as the wolf. Luckily wizarding medicine helped with that problem.

With a wicked smile Tonks crept down into the kitchen and took her untouched breakfast, along with the pan of eggs and bacon her mother kept on stand-by in case there was need for more food. She put a Heating Charm on the pan, dumped the plate’s contents into it, and Apparated back to Remus’s house. Once in the house, she banged around with a few of his pots and pans to make it sound like she was being productive.

When Remus came out of the shower Tonks had set up two of his plates (knowing he wouldn’t have the same flowery ones as her mother) with the food in the pan that luckily looked exactly like one of his. He looked utterly shocked, to say the least.

“You didn’t burn the house down,” he said in awe. Tonks crossed her arms and put on a fake scowl.

“Do you really have such little faith in me?” she asked with a pout. Remus made a deep gentlemanly bow before sitting and taking a bite. Tonks sat in a satisfactory silence as he chewed thoughtfully. She had actually fooled him!

“This is your mother’s isn’t it?”

Damn it.

“Yes,” Tonks muttered in shame, hanging her head with a smile on her face. Remus merely chuckled appreciatively at her.

“Just as long as you didn’t steal it,” he said before taking another bite. Tonks flushed again. “Nymphadora!”

“Well technically she made it for me; she never said I had to eat it all by my lonesome!” Tonks argued. Before Remus could argue an owl flew through the window. Remus took the letter from the bird and read the addressee.

“It’s addressed to you, but in my father’s handwriting, any particular reason for this?” Remus asked, handing over the envelope. Tonks took it in surprise, not knowing why she would be getting a letter from Remus’s father. “It had a seal from St. Mungo’s on it.”

“Oh, right, you’re dad’s a Healer! I’d completely forgotten,” Tonks said as she opened the envelope and quickly read the letter. “I have a physical tomorrow at half two.”

“Are you feeling alright?” Remus asked in concern. Tonks looked up from where she had been staring pensively at the letter.

“Oh yes I’m fine, just a routine check-up,” Tonks said comfortingly. Remus didn’t look entirely convinced, but dismissed the subject anyway. Tonks tried to ignore the letter, but kept glancing at it to make sure she got the date and time right. “Wait, what’s the date today?”

“It’s August fourth,” Remus said.

“Oh, then I have the appointment today, cool,” Tonks commented. “I never get an appointment so soon after I request one.”

“You requested it?”

“Yes Remus, I do it every year!” Tonks lied, knowing Remus had every right to worry. She should probably tell him there was a fifty percent chance he was going to be a father, but was too scared that the percentage was probably higher than fifty. She checked her watch for the time, only ten. She had four hours of agony to kill before she would know for sure.

She and Remus finished their breakfasts in a comfortable, almost husband-and-wife sort of silence. Remus took care of the dishes as Tonks left to return the pan to her mother’s house and run a few errands before her Healer’s appointment. She went to Diagon Alley and bought the ingredients for a double-dose of Wolfsbane, hoping to surprise Remus.

When she got to her house she heard her mother rummaging around upstairs. Tonks immediately felt uncomfortable, remembering the one time Tonks had tried to ward a baggie in her room and her mother had found it the same day. The sounds were so similar Tonks began to have flashbacks.

“Mum, get out of my room!” she yelled just as she had not so long ago, running frantically up the stairs. She looked in the doorway to see her poor mother looking about to faint as she read the marriage certificate. “Mum, listen, I—”

“You eloped!?” her mother squawked. “You eloped and I wasn’t even invited!?”

“Mum it’s not like that; it was a total mistake—”

“Dora did he threaten you? Did he blackmail you? If he even hinted at hurting you if you didn’t marry him I will—”

“Mum LISTEN!” Tonks shouted. She snatched the certificate away from her mother and put them back in the drawer. “How did you get in there? I put up a ward around it.”

“It’s been that way since you were thirteen. I have a stronger ward on your room, so if you place a ward on something I am immediately alerted and your ward is destroyed,” Andromeda said without the slightest trace of guilt.

“So that’s how you found the baggie…which wasn’t mine!” Tonks said quickly. “Well anyway here’s what happened…” Tonks retold Remus colliding into her a few minutes before they transformed, their uncontrollable lust from the moon, snogging naked, and waking up feeling as if some part of her that she never really payed attention to had just had sex, how that annoying owl had showed up with the marriage certificate, sneaking into Remus’s house (but left out stealing his copies), talking to him about what had happened the night before, and stealing her mother’s food to feed her hungry boyfriend.

“…so now I’m going to St. Mungo’s at half 2 today for a pregnancy screening,” Tonks finished with a hefty sigh. Her mother was staring blankly at the orange walls, listening raptly.

“Is that where you were, telling Remus you’re married now?” Andromeda asked.

“I was going to…but then panicked and decided it would be best left alone for now,” Tonks said, wringing her hands in her lap from where she sat on the bed. Her mother put a hand on her shoulder comfortingly.

“You have to tell him Nymphadora,” she said quietly, “especially if you do turn out to be pregnant. He has a right to know.”

“I know Mum…what time is it?” Tonks asked, looking around for her nonexistent clock.

“It’s two, you should probably head to the hospital,” Andromeda said, getting up from where she had been seated on the floor. Tonks nodded numbly, wondering what John Lupin was like. Was he quiet and reserved like his son, or was Remus only that way because of his condition? Speaking of Remus…

“Mum?” Tonks asked at the bedroom door. Her mother looked away from the wall. “Please don’t tell Remus, okay? I will tell him, just when I’m ready to.”

“I understand dear,” Andromeda said. “You love the man and want to protect him; it’s only second nature to you.” Tonks smiled and hugged her mother tightly before making her leave.

Once at the hospital she realized she had no idea where she was going, never paying attention to where John Lupin worked. She approached the welcome witch at the front counter.

“Excuse me, where could I find Healer John Lupin?” she asked politely to the irritated witch. She looked up from Witch Weekly magazine with a pink bubble of gum protruding from her mouth. She popped it slowly, obviously enjoying the sight of Tonks’s nervous fidgeting.

“Here, you may need this,” the witch said with a smirk, handing Tonks a large and complicated map of the hospital. She tapped it smartly with her wand and two stars appeared on the map. There was a green one that said ‘You are here,’ and a yellow one that said ‘Your Destination.’ It was a good thing Tonks was twenty minutes early.

“Alright…erm…thanks, I guess,” Tonks muttered, turning the map in all directions to try to find the right angle to go at. When the map was sufficiently upside-down and Tonks was thoroughly confused, she set off for what appeared to be the basement. It was much cleaner than she usually depicted basements, but still had the creepy atmosphere of an unfinished basement nonetheless.

“Er…hello?” Tonks called out timidly. “I’m looking for…” she checked the map, “the Lupin Ward, and I think I’m lost…. Could somebody—ahh!” Tonks screamed when someone touched her shoulder. A kind-looking older man of around his mid-sixties was smiling at her. He did look remarkably familiar, and Tonks found herself relaxing around this fatherly figure.

“You’re in the right place dear, don’t worry,” he said. “Why don’t I take you the rest of the way?” Tonks smiled gratefully, tucked the map into her pocket, and followed the Healer through a pair of battered double doors. “Welcome to the Lupin Ward.” Tonks felt free to look around.

It didn’t look like it was built to really be a ward for medical purposes, but had transitioned into one very easily. There were a few patients inside, looking as if they’d come in off the streets. There was a mother with three small children sitting shyly beside her on a bed, all of them looking much worse for wear. They eyed Tonks as she came in as if she were an outsider and didn’t belong.

“I’ve never heard of this ward before sir,” Tonks said curiously to the Healer.

“It’s not really a ward you would have heard of. I opened this place around eight years ago, with quite a few sponsors surprisingly, and made it into a free clinic for werewolf-involved families,” the Healer that Tonks was beginning to believe was John Lupin explained. “It is certainly not the biggest money-maker, nor the most popular, but I feel that my talents are going to their best use doing this.”

“So…you’re John Lupin then?” Tonks asked. The Healer smiled and walked with her to a curtained work station.

“Yes I am, and I assume you are my new daughter-in-law?” John asked good-naturedly, gesturing for a very shocked Tonks to sit.

“How did you—?”

“I have a few friends in the Werewolf Registry Centre who owled me in congratulations, and though I am disappointed I wasn’t invited I understand,” John said as Tonks sat. One of the small children on the other side of the room started crying in pain. “Excuse me please.” He walked over to the little girl who was holding her bleeding arm, so small Tonks hadn’t noticed her lying in the bed.

“Greyback got my little girl,” the mother said, unexpectedly meeting Tonks’s gaze. “He’s gotten all of my children in the years past, and now my little girl too.”

Tonks was so painfully reminded of her own mother, it broke her heart. She felt a much stronger connection to one of the only honorable Black women left.

Chapter 9

Tonks was unable to look Remus in the eye for days, worrying about the mission. Would she be able to do it? Would John let her do it? He seemed like the kind of person to be extremely protective, having raised three girls and a werewolf. She remembered how her mother always was around prejudiced people when she was younger.

She recalled one particularly sentimental time, when her mother once sent a Howler to every Wizarding parent who had written Dumbledore, demanding Tonks’s expulsion. Despite her mother’s protests, it had to happen. They were going to involve the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures if she wasn’t removed from the school. She was sixteen at the time, and was beaten up every day for a week when the news of her condition got out. She was a scrawny youth, but had thankfully filled out more in the six years between then and now.

After two weeks of her suspicious behavior, Tonks felt dread fill her stomach when Remus approached her after everyone was asleep. He had wrapped his arms around her waist and whispered in her ear, “It’s alright to be worried about the mission, you know. I’ve never been seriously hurt, only small bruises and scrapes.”

“I know Remus, it’s just…” Tonks heaved a small sigh, “…I don’t even know what it is. I’m sorry, I’ve been acting weird. I’m just reminiscing, I suppose. Thinking about how my mother would feel if she knew where I was going.” She nearly told Remus about being expelled from Hogwarts, but knew he would be angry about it and do that pacing thing he always did when upset. They were interrupted when Sirius came in the drawing room, looking confused and nervous.

“Tonks, did you tell your mother where Headquarters was?” he asked suspiciously. Tonks removed herself from Remus’s arms to look at her cousin properly.

“No I didn’t, why, is she here?” she asked worriedly. Sirius’s nod of confirmation sent Tonks rushing out to meet her mother in the foyer. Andromeda looked slightly shell-shocked from seeing her cousin, but Tonks was too distracted by the man behind her to really notice.

“Dad?” she asked incredulously. Ted Tonks smiled as if he had never walked out on her and her mother when she was eight. Tonks felt Remus’s presence in the doorway behind her.

“Hello Nym dear, how are you?” he asked. Tonks blinked absently at him.

“Is that…is that all you have to say to me after fourteen years of absence?” Tonks asked weakly. A few unconvincing emotions passed over Ted’s face before he spoke again.

“Well…your mother…she told me you were in trouble, so I came to make sure you were alright.”

“You’ve been communicating with him?” Tonks asked her mother in disbelief.

“Only recently,” Andromeda said, “only when you told me you were pregnant.” Tonks’s frantic hand gestures hadn’t been enough to get her mother to stop speaking. Andromeda must have either not seen Remus or thought her daughter had told him by now. Tonks spun around to look at her accidental husband. He was white with shock, staring so intensely at her abdomen she thought he might have been trying to tell if she was showing or not. His eyes traveled up to meet her pleading ones, and left the foyer.

“Remus, wait!” she called after him. She turned back to her mother and Ted. “I want you gone when I get back,” she said coldly to her father, running up to catch Remus. She stopped his door from slamming shut with her foot, though a loud bang still sent sounds of the kids waking down the hall. She heard Fred and George’s door opening, and knew that two heads were sticking out to see what the commotion was about.

“Remus, please listen to me,” she said, not caring if the entire house listened in on their conversation. Remus was sitting on the bed, his head in his hands.

“Whose is it?” he asked, looking up at the wall in front of him with red eyes. Tonks stiffened as she heard the twins huddle against the closer side of the doorframe.

“Remus, do you really think I would…I would do that to you? I would never hurt you like that!” Tonks protested, rushing into the room to sit beside him.

“I wasn’t saying that you would. You must be a few months along to know, and we’ve only been seeing each other about a month. I just wanted to know who did this to you,” Remus said slowly, as if trying to explain algebra to a seven year old. Tonks felt her face flush.

“You did this to me Remus, I’m only a few weeks along,” Tonks said, crossing her arms over her stomach. She could hear the twins edging out of their room, along with two other pairs of feet coming quietly up the stairs. Harry and Ron were listening now too. Perfect.

“Were you planning on telling me?” Remus accused her. Tonks started at his tone.

“Of course I was Remus, I was just…just…I was just scared, Remus!” Tonks said, covering her eyes with one hand. “Remus, look at me!” she cried desperately, fighting the tears that were building in her eyes. Remus refused to meet her eyes or even turn his head in her direction.

“When did this happen, Tonks?”

“On the fu—”

“I know it was on full moon, I want to know when on full moon!” Remus said so loudly and so sharply Tonks propelled herself to her feet and backed against the wall by the door. It seemed that Remus knew all too well about Werewolf Mating Laws. She was shaking and crying now, covering her mouth with her hand to muffle the single sob that attempted to break free.

“I don’t know Remus, I don’t know when it was—” Tonks sobbed, but Remus didn’t look so convinced.

“You would know when it was Tonks, stop lying and tell me!” Remus’s voice had risen to a shout. He got up from the bed and cornered her against the wall. Tonks slid down the wall, her only option, and sat with her knees drawn to her chest crying.

“It was after we transformed,” Tonks just barely managed to whisper. Remus knelt in front of her, gripping her shoulders in his hands. “I got this letter in the m-mail…and…and…Remus, you’re hurting me!” Remus let go of her shoulders quickly. His grip had slowly been tightening until she felt like her shoulders were going to shatter. He let out a long sigh, his warm breath not doing anything to comfort her now.

“I’m sorry,” he finally breathed out.

“D-don’t be, I deserved it,” Tonks choked out, still shaking.

“No, I shouldn’t have…it was practically a domestic crime…” Remus said slowly. Tonks knew what he meant, he had meant wife-beating.

“I’m so sorry Remus,” Tonks whispered, tears still falling from her eyes, “I’m so, so sorry….” She wiped her eyes on her sleeve hurriedly. “I have to go make sure Ted left.” She crawled out of Remus’s reach and staggered to her feet outside the door. Basically all of the kids, Sirius, Molly, and Arthur were staring at her as she continued to wipe the remnants of tears from her cheeks. She acted as if the others weren’t there, leaning against the wall and closing her eyes.

“Tonks, if he hit you…” Sirius said dangerously.

“He didn’t, I’m overreacting, I swear,” Tonks said quickly, her voice shaky and thick. She pushed off the wall and went down the stairs two at a time to get back to the drawing room. Her mother and the man she no longer saw as her father were still there. “I thought I told you to leave Ted,” she said coldly, crossing her arms again.

“I’m not leaving until I know you’re okay,” Ted said firmly, crossing his own arms. Only Andromeda was in the room at the time to notice that, at that very moment, the resemblance between father and daughter was alarming.

“Why does it matter so much to you, Ted?” Tonks asked loudly. She could now hear Molly ushering the kids back to bed. “No, wait, I know the answer to this one. You wanted to be able to go back to whoever it is you’re with right now, tell them your daughter tragically got knocked up by her werewolf husband, so you can tell them you asked if I was okay.

“You know that I’m a pushover, and that I’ll say I’m fine no matter what. You’ll tell your mates that I said I was fine, so what could you do? You couldn’t make yourself stay, right? Well, you know what Ted? I’m fine, I’m just peachy. One of the best things that has ever happened to me is probably about to end, but yeah, I’m just fine, so you can go on your merry way.”

Ted and Tonks stared at each other, the latter breathing heavily and pointing at the door for emphasis. His eyebrows were raised slightly as if in surprise.

“What, you expected me to still be talking like an eight year old?” Tonks asked, her anger wither her incompetent father rising by the minute.

“I guess I did,” Ted said quietly. He forced a pained smile. “I know when I’m not wanted. I’ll just be off. Good bye Nym, good bye Andromeda.” The moment the door closed behind her father, Tonks dissolved into tears, dropping to her knees on the floor. Her right hand held her head up at the forehead, and her left was over her stomach. Andromeda quickly stepped forward and wrapped her arms around Tonks’s shaking shoulders.

“If it’s any consolation, I think you handled that very well,” she said quietly.

“I don’t even care Mum…Remus is so mad at me…why did you have to bring him here Mum?” Tonks sobbed into her mother’s shoulder like a child.

“Dora I am so sorry, you know how he was like before he left…I was afraid of him, Dora…he was so persistent,” Andromeda said consolingly. Tonks pulled away from her mother’s embrace.

“How did you even know where I was?” Andromeda gave a small, Mona Lisa-like, Black through-and-through smile.

“I’m a mother, I always know,” she said, brushing her daughter’s fringe out of her eyes. Tonks smiled weakly, exhausted by her tears.

“Can I come home for the night? I don’t want to be here right now,” she asked hopefully.

“You can always come home Dora,” Andromeda said, getting up and pulling Tonks to her feet. As they left the house Tonks could hear Sirius shouting at Remus, and felt both ashamed and comforted.

Tonks stayed up all night in her room, the walls a dark midnight blue, crying her eyes out until morning’s first light. She was so scared that Remus was going to hate her forever. At five in the morning, around a half hour before her mother woke up, Tonks was still awake. She got up off the bed and crept into the bathroom across the hall to wash her face. Looking in the mirror, she knew she would need much more than some warm water to get rid of her red eyes, nose, cheeks, and mousey brown hair.

“Last time,” she whispered to herself, morphing her face back to its normal paleness but keeping her hair the way it was. Her shoulders sagged and she sniffed, unable to do anything about her plugged nose. She retreated back to her room and finally managed to fall asleep for about a half hour. When she woke up at six she could hear her mother moving around and making breakfast. She trudged down the stairs and into the kitchen.

“Good morning Mum,” she said hoarsely, sitting at the table beside a silent Nonna and burying her face in her hands.

“Good morning Love, I made…comfort breakfast,” Andromeda said as she piled plates of different kinds of pancakes on the table, “if comfort breakfast is a real thing that is. Well anyway, I’ve got regular pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, blueberry pancakes, pumpkin pancakes, and I even went crazy and made lemon poppy-seed pancakes.”

“So, in a nutshell, pancakes are comfort breakfast?” Tonks asked as she took three chocolate chip pancakes. Her mother gave her a critical look. “What?” she asked. Her mother raised an eyebrow and looked at the amount of food on her plate. Tonks heaved a sigh and took a pumpkin and lemon pancake as well. Andromeda looked satisfied and tucked into her own breakfast.

After Tonks forced herself to eat all of the food on her plate to please her mother, she went into the sitting room to talk to Nonna, who had moved in last week.

“La Nonna, mi sono così preoccupato,” she said thickly. ((Nonna, I’m so worried.))

“Perché lei si è così preoccupato di questo Dora? È gentiluomo, farà la cosa giusta,” Nonna said consolingly, patting her granddaughter’s hand with her wrinkly one. ((Why are you so worried about this Dora? He's a gentleman, he'll do the right thing.))

“Ma è la Nonna così arrabbiato, neanche potrebbe guardarme ieri sera,” Tonks argued, tears building in her eyes again. ((But he's so angry Grandma, he couldn't even look at me last night.))

“Sì, era sconvolto, ma ciò non lo significa non penserà che le cose sopra e faccia la decisione giusta,” Nonna said comfortingly. Tonks finally sniffed again and nodded. As if Nonna were a Seer, she heard the ward chime at the door. ((Yes, he was upset, but that doesn't mean he won't think things over and make the right decision.))

Tonks listened carefully as her mother answered the door. Her hear swelled and eyes welled up when she heard Remus’s voice, exactly like when he had come to fetch her for the Order. She rushed to the door to the entryway and pressed her ear against it.

“Remus, I’m not even going to pretend it’s a pleasant surprise,” Andromeda said in a coldly civil voice.

“I don’t want you to pretend anyway Andromeda. But, I was wondering if…if I could speak to your daughter,” Remus said uncertainly. Tonks’s ear began to ache she was pressing it against the door so hard.

“I’m sorry Remus; I don’t think that would be a good idea right now. She had a rough night last night,” Andromeda said, acting far too civil to mean anything good. Tonks so badly wanted to run through the door, but she was afraid of what news it would bring her.

“Andromeda…Andromeda, please…” Remus pleaded. A single tear ran down her face, hearing and feeling his utter desperation. She opened the door quietly and stepped into a shadow of the dark hallway, the day too young for the sun to be up properly.

“Remus, I said no. Dora was very distressed last night, and more stress is the very last thing she needs,” Andromeda said in her mother-voice. Tonks distinctly remembered her father calling her a mother lion on numerous occasions. As a joke, her mother would resignedly say ‘roar’ whenever she freaked out over something that had to do with her.

“Mum, just let him in,” Tonks forced herself to say, her voice scratchy with weariness. Andromeda and Remus’s gazes whipped to her so quickly Tonks heard her mother’s neck crack. Andromeda walked over to her and put her hands on her shoulders.

“Are you sure? Dora, I don’t want you to get hurt,” Andromeda said nervously.

“Mum I’m twenty-two; I think I can handle myself alright. If I get hurt I get hurt, but if I don’t I don’t, okay?” Tonks said gently. Andromeda resignedly squeezed her daughter’s shoulders. “Roar?” Tonks asked. Andromeda’s face twisted into a small smile.

“Roar,” she said, kissing Tonks’s forehead before disappearing into the sitting room again. Tonks gave a small sigh, leaning against the wall, looking at Remus. He looked quite lost for words now that she looked at him properly, pale and with dark shadows under his eyes to match her own. He finally took a deep breath, readying himself to speak.

“Dora, listen I…” He paused, and Tonks could hear her mother’s head press against the door. Tonks quickly stepped forward and, holding a hand over his mouth with a warning glance, led him through an alternate doorway up to her room. Once there, she sat on her bed and gestured for Remus to sit beside her. Tonks sat silently, waiting for Remus to speak, but he seemed at a loss for words again.

“So, I suppose you’re here to end things with me, right?” Tonks asked, hugging her knees up to her chest and looking away from Remus. Her accidental husband started in surprise and turned to look at her.

“Why would I be here to end things with you?” he asked gently, cupping her red teary cheek in his large hand to make her face him. She blinked quickly, forcing more tears back.

“Why would you not be here to end things with me?” she asked thickly, pulling her face gently out of his hand. “I lied to you, Remus. I should have told you everything right away from the moment I got the letter, but I didn’t, and…and Remus, you know how sorry I am, but—” Remus put a hand over her mouth to keep her from beginning a rant, but she pulled it off of her mouth.

“Remus, I snuck into your house and I took your mail because it had this marriage certificate in it and I didn’t want you to find out. That’s why I was there when you got back,” she paused breathlessly. “I am so ashamed of myself Remus, I couldn’t even sleep last night I was so ashamed of myself, and so worried, and I’m so, so sorry.” Remus’s hand came up to cover her mouth again but she blocked it. “I’b dod, I probise,” she said, her voice thick with new tears. “Just blease ndow thad I do lub you, add if I cood accidedally barry adyonde, it wood be you.” She started crying into her lap, her entire body shaking, still afraid that Remus was going to leave her all alone.

Remus put his arms around her and quickly hugged her to his chest, swaying gently. “I’m not mad anymore Dora,” he whispered into her ear. “I overreacted last night, and I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have yelled at you in your condition, and you have no idea how horrible I feel for making you cry. I was up all night last night too, thinking things over. I’m not going to end things with you. I would never end things with you under these circumstances.

“So you’re staying with be out of bity? Wow, every little girl’s dreamb comb true,” Tonks cut in, pulling away from Remus and getting weepy again. Remus took one of her hands in his, squeezing it gently.

“I’m not staying with you out of pity Dora,” Remus informed her. “I want to be a father, and it would just be foolish to pretend we weren’t married if you’re having a baby.” When Tonks rolled her eyes and turned her head away Remus grabbed her chin and made her look at him again. “Dora, love, that came out wrong! I just meant that…well…” he made an imitation voice of Tonks’s previous sniffles, “I dink I lub you too.” Despite her best efforts, Tonks allowed Remus to hug her again and, being the emotional wreck that she was that day, started laughing and crying at the same time. At least this time they were happy tears.

“God, you’re so cute,” she said weepily into his neck. Remus grinned and kissed the top of her head.

“But Dora, there is something we need to discuss,” Remus said gently after Tonks had calmed down a bit. She sniffed, wiped her eyes, and smiled broadly.

“Yeah, okay, I’m up for anything after all that,” she said a bit thickly. She rested her head on Remus’s shoulder to listen to him more carefully.

“Well, it’s about the mission with the werewolves…Dora, I don’t think you should go,” Remus said as quickly as if he were trying to rid his mouth of poison. Tonks lifted her head now and looked up at him.

“Remus, you said it was perfectly safe!” Tonks said curiously.

“It usually is, but you’re…you’re…” Remus stammered, turning furiously red. Tonks blinked innocently at him, knowing what the word would be. Instead of making him answer she planted a kiss on his lips. A sudden thought coming to her, she bent down and opened the warded drawer.

“Here, this is yours,” she said sheepishly, handing him his copy of the congratulations letter and marriage certificate. He read silently for much less time it took for her to read it, and smiled slightly after he finished it.

“I suppose we should make an appointment sometime soon, eh?” he asked. Tonks grinned and kissed him again.

“Perhaps we should. We should go talk to Mum, let her know what’s going on before she strokes out on us,” Tonks joked. Remus nodded understandingly. “Should I go alone, or do you want to come protect me?” Remus laughed and got up with her, clasping her hand gently in his own.

It did seem that they would get through this, better or worse.