Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.
Title: The Art of Taming
Summary: From the moment he met her, he knew he would never be the same. LupinTonks.
A/N: My take on the much neglected (in my humble opinion) love story of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora Tonks, starting from the very beginning. Warning: Major spoilers ahead.
Prologue
When he was sixteen, Remus Lupin made a promise to himself.
It had been the result of a foolhardy exercise in futility. Somehow he had allowed his so called friends, Padfoot, Prongs, and Wormtail, to convince him that being a werewolf didn't mean he couldn't date. Of course, at the time he had been slightly rebellious and, though he loathed to admit it, feeling lonely. Sirius and James had both had girlfriends at that particular time and Peter, though he was a member of the group and Remus did consider him a friend, was not the best company. It hadn't been hard for his fellow Marauders to persuade him to ask a girl out.
He had chosen a safe subject for his test run. Elle Ackart was pleasant, in both manner and appearance, and it had been easy enough to approach her after the Advanced Potions class they were both taking and ask her to accompany him on the weekend's Hogsmeade trip.
Elle was a shy girl, but he was known as the shyest of the infamous Marauders of Gryffindor, so she had agreed with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. A round of contraband butterbeer had been shared that night amongst Remus and his friends and Sirius and James had set about giving him advice on how to make the date go well.
By the time Saturday arrived, the teenage werewolf was feeling very confident. After all, it was just a date, what was the worst thing that could happen? He had planned for everything, right down to making sure that this Hogsmeade trip was nowhere near the date of the full moon. There wasn't a thing that could possibly go wrong.
He hadn't counted on Elle's heart, of course.
She became attached to him instantly and, while he liked her a lot, he found it rather disconcerting. Few girls had ever shown such any interest in him and even when they had it hadn't been nearly as intense as what Elle evidently felt for him. She became nearly obsessed and took to following him around like a love sick puppy. The Marauders found it rather funny.
Remus, however, saw nothing amusing about the situation.
It didn't take long for her affection to become downright dangerous. Multiple times she saw him sneaking out of the common room to hide away in the Shrieking Shack for his time of the month and had attempted to follow him. In fact, she almost came as close as Severus Snape had the previous year, making it as far as the entrance to the passage under the Whomping Willow before James, ever vigilant of his friend's secret, had interfered. Remus knew that night he needed to put a stop to this relationship before something terrible happened to his girlfriend and her naiveté about his condition.
She was devastated, of course, when he broke it off the next week, but he and his friends knew there was nothing that they could do. Remus Lupin was a danger to her in more ways than one and he knew it was better for her to be heartbroken and alone than the girlfriend of easily the most dangerous student at Hogwarts.
But even afterwards Remus was consumed with guilt over his foolishness. Elle was a sweet girl, she had deserved so much better than being the experimental date of a lonely, hormonal werewolf. It had been wrong of him to put her in so much danger. It had been wrong of him to assume he could even date freely, being what he was.
Thus, the promise was born.
That day he vowed to never, ever even consider becoming involved with another woman, no matter what he felt for her. He would never put another innocent witch or Muggle in so much danger because of his own, petty desires. He would live out the rest of his life alone, because that was what monsters such as himself were meant to be: lonely.
And for twenty something years, Remus Lupin was able to keep that promise. Never once did his resolve waver…
That is…until one Nymphadora Tonks tripped into the kitchen of Number Twelve Grimmauld Place and, with one accidental kick to the shins, completely destroyed his will.
A/N: I love this pairing! Please Read and Review! Thanks!