The Other Always
A HP Oneshot
(A/N: Felt like a oneshot. And looking at what I came up with, I'm obviously in a very dark mood...but I hope you like.)
The wedding had been just months before. Tonks remembered every minute clearly. But out of all the moments, one stood out in her mind.
She had just been asked the question, the question of if she would take him. She looked over at Remus, and saw him silently mouth the words, "You don't have to." But she had. "I do." Because she loved him. And at that moment, all that mattered was that he was hers. She was Nymphadora Lupin at last.
But that had been then. Now, that simple joy seemed so far from this world in darkness. Battle was raging at Hogwarts, supposedly the last safe place in the Wizarding World. It seemed so much like a nightmare, and yet she was awake.
Over the fray of battle, the sounds of spells and clashing metal, Tonks heard Remus calling her name. "Dora!"
"Remus!" She turned, turned to see him, help him but it was too late. He had been struck, pierced through by a Death Eater's sword. "Remus! No!" Desperately she ran across the battlefield. She dropped to her knees beside the place where he had fallen, grabbing his hand. This can't be happening. Death in battle was of course not unheard of. But it had always been something that happened to other people. Not her. Not him. Not this. "Remus..."
She thought he smiled a little, yet he was crying at the same time. "Still love me? Even now?"
Then, a flash of green. A yell. Pain. The world turning dark. Tonks herself had been struck. The death curse. A single tear rolled down her cheek as she crumpled to the ground, another martyr of the war against darkness. Shutting her eyes, her hand still in her husband's, she whispered with her last breath, "Always, my love..."
As the furies of battle died, two more bodies were brought in from the bloody field. A man and a woman. The man bore scars on his face and was wearing the garb of a Hogwarts teacher. The woman had bright pink hair and still clutched her wand. Their hands were intertwined with one another, and on further glance you could see they had matching wedding rings. United in life, not separated in death. Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks Lupin.
Twelve years later, a young boy knelt beside the graves of his parents. The boy had bright blue hair, but it wasn't always that color - it changed. His godfather said he got it from his mother.
He brushed away the dirt on the stones. He read the engravings on the stones. Remus Lupin, werewolf, and Nymphadora Tonks, morphamagus. Dedicated Order of the Phoenix members who gave their lives in the fight against Voldemort.
His father had been a werewolf. His mother had been like him. They had been friends and allies of his godfather, the famous Harry Potter. It was so hard for young Theodore Lupin to grasp, a boy who had grown up an orphan, that his parents had been so extraordinary.
"Mum, Dad," his whispered, "I didn't know you. But I love you. And I'm going to do everything I can to make you proud. I'll keep you in my heart, always."
There was that word again, that beautiful, complicated, sad word - always.