A/N: Thanks for reading my fanfiction. This is a Tonks/Remus fic and my take on their relationship that sort of faded into the background of the last three books. Some of the events are slightly skewed or take liberties from canon, but please bear with me.
Happy reading.
June
"This is Nymphadora Tonks," said Albus Dumbledore, introducing her to the four men. She was a young woman with a navy blue bob and green eyebrows.
"Just Tonks, Professor," corrected Tonks good-naturedly. Dumbledore gave her a lenient smile.
"As you like, Tonks. And this is Kingsley Shacklebolt-"
"How do you do?" The wizard bowed his head courteously. She had recognized him from work, but had never spoken to him.
"-and you know Severus Snape-" (she was offered a quick nod of the head from her old Potions master) "-Arthur Weasley-"
"Nice to meet you."
"-and Remus Lupin."
"Hello," said the final man, shaking her hand.
"Hi," she seemed to say only to him. She smiled at all of them.
"And Tonks, you will know Alastor Moody-"
"Mad-Eye!" she said suddenly. "He's here?"
"-as well as your cousin, Sirius Black. 12 Grimmauld Place is his house."
"No way!" said Tonks, grinning with curiosity and excitement. "This is the Black house? Where my mother came from?" The small group stepped inside and the door closed. The light that came from outside went into darkness, and the smell of something rotting was in the air. Several of the wizards fetched their wands to light their way. "Huh. Now I know where she gets it from."
They made their way into the parlor. All the furniture was black and emerald green—or at least it had been when it was new. Now it was deep gray and grayish green. Sirius Black was sitting on the couch. Tonks started when she saw him, fidgeting slightly. Dumbledore had explained to her personally the details of Sirius' innocence. It had been difficult for Tonks to understand; so many people she didn't know had been involved and it had been a rather dark time, clouding the truth. But she trusted Dumbledore's word.
"What's wrong?" he asked with a grin. "Haven't seen your cousin Sirius in awhile?"
"Oh, not so long ago," she said with malaise. "Mostly on 'Wanted' posters."
"Not exactly my best side," he said with a teasing look. "Heard you're an Auror, now?"
A few of the company looked at her with surprise.
"Yeah," she said modestly, looking down from the appraising gazes. "Just finished my last exams a few months ago."
"Congratulations," said Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"There was a time I once aspired to be an Auror," added Black wistfully. "Then, well, stuff got in the way. Namely, Voldemort."
"Let's not say the name," said Snape pointedly at Black.
The room seemed to lose air. Snape was glaring at Black, and Black at Snape. They were mirrors of loathing.
It did not take Tonks' three years of Auror training to understand that there was bad blood between Snape and her cousin.
"Severus, I think it is time for us to be getting back to Hogwarts," said Dumbledore lightly. He headed for the fireplace, pulling a pouch out of his pocket. Snape followed him, keeping his eyes on Black with a look of unadulterated hatred. A bit of the powder from the pouch was tossed into the fire, turning it green. Severus went first, then Dumbledore.
"Hmm. Let me guess, you guys are best friends," said Tonks as Dumbledore disappeared. Lupin chuckled quietly, while Sirius smirked uncomfortably.
"He's a slimy git." The energy that had built up relaxed, and he looked rather awkward now.
"Come on," Lupin said, trying to smooth over the discomfort that the fierce emotions were causing Shacklebolt and Weasley. "Nymphadora is probably hungry, it's nearly dinnertime." The others went ahead gratefully into the dining room. Tonks walked behind Remus.
"Remus," she said, placing her hand on his shoulder so that he turned slightly toward her. "It's Tonks. Okay?"
"Right," he said slowly. "Tonks." He turned back and went to the kitchen to start making dinner, the place on his shoulder tingling slightly.
The next morning, Remus and Sirius looked up, panicking, seeing a woman they had never seen before come down the stairs. She had long, rich brown hair and soft-looking lips.
The two men looked at each other. She didn't seem to be a Death Eater.
"Good morning, Remus. Sirius."
"Excuse me, Miss, can we help you?" Sirius asked warily.
"This is a private home," added Remus.
"It's me, Tonks," said the woman, confused. "Oh wait, he didn't tell you? Sorry, just a second. What was it yesterday? Oh yeah…" Then she crossed her eyes, concentrating. The long brown hair shrunk into the navy blue bob, the soft lips shrunk into thinner ones, and her eyebrows turned green. Remus and Sirius looked at each other.
"Is that Polyjuice Potion?" asked Sirius. "Or some sort of spell?"
"No," said Remus curiously. "She's a Metamorphmagus."
"I thought you knew," she said to Sirius, as she reverted to her brown-haired appearance. "I mean, I would think my mother would have mentioned it."
"I haven't spoken to your mother since I ran away from home, about the time she was pregnant with you," he said, both amazed and sad. "How is she?"
"Oh, fine," replied Tonks. "She's such a housewitch, though. Never wanted a house elf."
"I remember," laughed Sirius, genuinely smiling for the first time. "Your mother was my favorite cousin." He was silent for a moment with a beaming look of relief on his face. The other two watched him carefully. "Your father is probably the reason I'm not a Death Eater today."
"What?" they both asked at once, surprised.
"Well, who knows. Anyway, when I was just a tyke, my teenage cousin Andromeda would be sneaking out of the house to go meet a Muggle-born, Ted Tonks. I was their messenger sometimes—she would send me out of the house, and I would recite a time or a date, or an apology."
"Seriously?" asked Tonks, grinning.
"Yeah. She would take me with her out of the house, on the pretense of going on walks or pestering Muggles. They would take me to the Muggle fairs, restaurants, buy me ice cream and let me play alone for awhile why they snogged."
"No way. My parents don't even hug in front of me." Lupin laughed and Tonks stared incredulously.
"Anytime, anywhere—it was a snogfest. Anyway, sometimes I'd go out alone to see Ted by myself. He'd buy me Muggle chocolate, which is actually much better than wizard chocolate. And Muggle toys or books, which were all new to me. Anything Muggle had to be burned in my house. By knowing Ted, I realized all the horrible things my parents told me about Muggles were lies. I dreaded them and their ideals. I decided I wanted to be in Gryffindor instead of Slytherin."
"And it all went from there?" asked Lupin.
"It all went from there. In my fourth year, Andromeda couldn't put off being married anymore. My aunt forced her to choose between her Muggle boyfriend Ted Tonks or her pureblood brother-in-law, Rabastan Lestrange. She ran away with Ted, far out of town. I was the only Black at her wedding. When my parents found out I went, it caused a huge argument. That was the breaking point."
"You ran away to James' parents' house," Lupin finished.
"Rabastan Lestrange? Mum never told me!" Tonks exclaimed, perplexed. "Disgusting!"
"Let's not make ourselves sick before breakfast," said Sirius.
Tonks compiled some reports for work during the empty hours. She always relieved Arthur Weasley's watch duty at midnight, then switched with Hestia Jones around half past three. The Ministry employees always got the night hour watch so that it wouldn't interfere with day business. Tonks yawned as she scribbled her signature on some papers. It would be dawn in an hour or so, and a few hours after that she would need to be at her desk in the Ministry.
She finished her writing on the parchment, folded it, and stuffed it inside her robes. Sleeping was now an option, but she saw Remus Lupin, lying back on a couch, his mouth open slightly as he dreamed.
Strangely fascinated, she went over to sit near him, accidentally stubbing her toe on a table as she went over. She cursed quietly but did not wake him.
She studied his face with interest. It was pitted in some places, scarred in others, but underneath it was gentle and kind, and all over it was tired. His hair was gray prematurely, although ginger in the places where it was true. She tenderly swept a lock out of his closed eyes. He breathed deeply through lips that did not have wrinkles. It didn't make sense that he was this tired; something terrible had happened or was happening to him and she didn't understand.
She had known him for a few weeks now. They had played chess, talked about their times at Hogwarts, and cooked together. He was great company, always with an interesting story, and always helpful. She admired his character greatly—one of humility, patience and compassion. She supposed he was brave as well—otherwise, he would have been in Hufflepuff, like her.
"What are you doing?" asked Sirius. He had a butterbeer in his hand. Tonks was caught, lingering over Remus' head.
"I—I'm trying to decide what design to put on his face, curly mustache or cat whiskers. Or is that too mean?" she asked. Black laughed.
"Hm, public humiliation for public sleeping seems fair," he said with a grin, "but he's quite peaky. I'd leave him be, he has a good reason for being tired."
"Like what? He has the day shift and he doesn't work. As far as I can tell, he just skulks around here all day."
Sirius looked miffed at this description. Tonks realized that she had just described Sirius' status as well.
"He's just tired. He has a—a condition, and he's rather private about it, so we should leave him alone, okay?" He stalked off to the kitchen for an early breakfast.
"'Kay," said Tonks in wary submission. She pulled away from Remus' face and sat back, her pulse racing slightly. What was wrong with her? Fancying Lupin? She was supposed to be fighting Voldemort and doing Auror-ish things, not looking for dates. The irony of her mother's weak (if not motivated by love) argument of why she shouldn't join the Order was clear: 'You shouldn't be running around after Dark wizards, how are you going to find a husband? Who would marry such a tomboy?'
I must be desperate, a voice in her head said. He's a lot older than me.
She looked back at his tufts of ginger hair.
Kind of cute though.