More Than You Know
Nymphadora Tonks sighed as she stared at the dreary old house in front of her. Malfoy Manner may have been the home of her relatives, but she had never been in the place, and somehow she didn't think spying on it would help her get invited in. "So we're just supposed to watch?"
"The goal is to get an idea of their numbers and their intent, so that we can prevent them from doing any harm at a later date." Remus Lupin's eyes never left the dark house as he answered his partner.
"Why can't we stop them now?"
Now Remus turned to her. "Because there are two of us, and Merlin knows how many of them. We can stop them when we have more people and some advantage."
"Fine." Tonks sighed, "How long are we going to have to do this?"
Remus glanced at his watch for the time. "We're done for tonight, it's nearly dawn. Hopefully two nights of surveillance should do it. Otherwise you'll have to find another partner for that shift." The two of them turned away from the Manor and crept down the street.
Tonks glanced at the moon, filling slowly every night. "We'll be done by then, surely. No one blames you for missing a stakeout or meeting once a month. Heck, I miss more than a week of Order work because of the Ministry! It's not anything different."
"It is very different," Remus' voice sharpened. "You're still doing something productive, where as I am completely useless, if not dangerous."
"It's only one night a month, and you're never useless." Tonks couldn't think of a more dedicated or intelligent man. Even on full moon nights the Wolfsbane potion allowed him to keep his mind, and if she knew anything about him, she knew he used the time to work.
Remus looked bitter. "I think I would be a better judge of that than you."
Tonks smirked. He always sold himself short and claimed he knew best. "And I think you wouldn't. I think I know you better than you even know yourself."
Remus raised an eyebrow in amusement. "You think so?" He smiled. "Well, let's test that then."
"What do you mean test it? How?" What had she gotten herself into?
"You think you know more about me than I know?" Tonks nodded stubbornly. Remus met her challenge. "Alright. What is my favorite color?"
"Um." Favorite color? She drew a blank. "Blue?"
Remus wasn't impressed with her guess. "Really? Going with a default answer. You don't think I would have a more interesting favorite color? Do I really look that boring?"
"You don't look boring," Tonks protested.
"Sirius would disagree with you."
She snorted. "He likes doing that. I don't listen. And you don't look boring. You look," she paused, searching for the right description, "interesting," she waggled her eyebrows, "mysterious."
He laughed. "That certainly fits my crazy werewolf professor reputation. Other color guesses?"
"Not blue." She scanned him. "Is it a color you're wearing?" At his look she shrugged. "I generally wear my favorite colors. Oh well. If you said brown I would have to retract my previous statement about you being interesting."
His eyes twinkled. "It's not brown."
"Okay," she was running out of ideas here. No color she could think of screamed Remus. "Is it pink?" His lips parted in surprise and she continued, "Didn't think so. That's my favorite color." She sighed. "Guess I don't know."
Remus nodded slowly. "Guess not. Try again. Next question."
"Wait, you're not going to tell me what it is?"
He shrugged. "I think that's cheating, you're supposed to know these already."
"How else am I supposed to find out if you won't tell me? Guess I could always bribe Sirius. Probably wouldn't even take a bribe. I'll just ask him for any good stories about his best mate, Moony."
"And you'll learn all sorts of lies," Remus scoffed. Sirius tended to stretch their Marauder tales, or worse, tell the most embarrassing. "Besides, I thought you didn't listen to Sirius."
"They're not all lies, and I don't. Just when he has good stories." Which now that she thought about it was fairly often.
Remus shook his head. "Moving on. What is my favorite food?"
Tonks chuckled. "I see you took pity on me and gave me an easy one."
"You think you know it then?"
"Hmm, let's see." Tonks feigned ignorance. "Could it be chocolate?"
He smiled. "Lucky guess. However did you learn it?"
"Could be because you always have some with you and aren't too keen on sharing..."
"I've shared with you," he protested.
"Or it could be because I used my superior Auror powers of deduction."
"Just like your superior Auror powers of stealth and tracking?"
She elbowed him hard, but he only grinned. "As an Auror, I have honed my skills of observation to perfection." She looked up at him curiously. "You would be a good Auror."
"I think I missed that boat."
"Oh, come on, Kingsley's your age, and Mad-Eye's loads older than you."
The comparison made him smile. She was always good at keeping him smiling. "Thankfully, that's still true. Why do you think I'd be good at it?"
Tonks began ticking off reasons on her fingers. "You're very observant. You always notice what everyone's doing. I've seen you fight, and unlike me, you wouldn't fail Stealth and Tracking. Becoming an Auror would have been easy for you."
"It would never have been easy for me." Remus spoke softly, but she heard his meaning as if he had screamed it.
Tonks frowned, frustrated that she had ruined the moment. "People are gits."
He turned this face towards the horizon. "Not all of them."
His faith in the human race always surprised her. If she had been through half of what he had, she wouldn't be nearly so forgiving. "People at the Ministry are gits," she amended.
Now Remus turned back to her, a grin tugging on the corners of his mouth. "Not all of them," he repeated. "I happen to have a friend at the Ministry. A bright young Auror who is most certainly not a git."
She smiled back. "Good to know. Do you have another question for me?"
"I might be able to think of something. Since you brought up the topic of careers, what did I want to be when I was a kid?"
"How old?"
"Five."
"Job. Muggle or Magic?"
"No more questions. Use your deduction skills."
Tonks made a face. "It's hardly a question. More of a specification."
Remus rolled his eyes. "Fine. It was a Muggle job. Know any of those?" he added playfully, knowing full well that she did.
"Course I do. Dad's a Muggle-born, and he worked mostly Muggle jobs while I was growing up. We didn't really have much to do with the Wizarding world till I went to school, and of course I thought my parents were so out of it. But as it turns out, they'd been there done that. Found something better for them." She smiled, thinking of her family. "Sorry. Got distracted there, didn't I? Muggle jobs."
Remus smiled softly, letting her ramble. Tonks pulled her focus back onto the question at hand. What would five year old Remus want to do when he was grown up? "It wasn't a teacher, was it?" He just shook his head. "Hmm. I know! You wanted to be an astronaut! One of those Muggle space explorers!"
He looked pleasantly surprised, "Yes. How did you guess that? I figured if Muggles could do it, I, a wizard, certainly could. I would board a spaceship, Arthur would love those, fly to the moon, and once there perform some incredible magic to keep it as it was. Always half full."
Tonks stared at him, as if seeing the boy he had been. "How old were you?" she asked solemnly.
Remus felt himself pulled back to the present. He knew what she was asking for but tried to lighten the mood. "I've been everything up to thirty-five, a year for each."
She smiled feebly at his attempt. "Not what I meant."
He nodded. "Three." They stood in silence for a few long seconds. Remus plastered on a smile and moved on. "Well done, Nymphadora. Two out of three isn't a bad score. It would seem you do know me, though perhaps not more than I know myself."
Tonks was glad they had moved away from the painful past, but more so that he felt he could tell her about it. "Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus!" Her playful swat made his smile real. "And you never did tell me what your favorite color is."
He nodded. "Hmm." As that was his only response, she was no closer to figuring it out. Tonks rolled her eyes. "Guess I won't find out either. Come on, we're done here, and Molly will be worried if we stay out too much later."
"Sirius too. Shall we?" Remus offered her his arm so they could apparate back to Grimmauld Place.
Tonks smiled at the gentlemanly action. It was just the sort of thing he would do, even though they were both quite capable of finding their way back on their own. Not that she minded in the least. "I'd rather walk, if it's all right with you. It's not that far," but she reached out and took his arm anyway.
Remus looked startled, but nodded and began to smile. "And I still think I know you better than you do," she added.
Now Remus grinned. "You don't know everything about me."
Tonks smiled back. "Not yet, but I'll find out."
The two friends began the trek back to the Order safe house each lost in their own musings. Her about what she had been thinking telling him she wanted to know everything about him, and him about when his favorite color had begun to match her hair.