Disclaimer: Remus! Remus come back! don't go off belonging to JK Rowling and Warner Brothers! Oh yeah, they're not mine.

Author's Note: unashamed fluff, set between HBP and DH. Feel the R/T love!

The Boggart in the Spare Room

There was a rattling from the wardrobe in the spare room. It had been going on for nearly two days now. When Nymphadora Tonks arrived home from work that day the first thing she heard was the dull rumbling from the wardrobe. She groaned and sank down onto the moth eaten grey sofa in the living room. She was exhausted, she wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and sleep, letting every anxiety from the day just float away from her, there were death eaters roaming the country, more and more deaths were reported every day, the ministry was growing more and more compromised, and now it seemed that the wardrobe in the spare room had come seemingly to life. She had only moved into the house which belonged to Remus three weeks before, it was somewhat disconcerting to be in a new environment, especially one like this. It was an old house, dusty, made of stone and plaster, full of shadows. It had belonged to his parents, and no one had been there for over ten years until they had moved in a few weeks ago. And now it seemed there was a boggart as well. This was more than Tonks was up to dealing with.

Remus came in from the Kitchen as he heard her. "Dora?" he called "you alright? How was your day?" She tilted her head back to look up into his grey eyes, he was smiling at her. Seeing him made her feel instantly more relaxed. The had been together for nearly a month and she still could not quit believe it was really happening. It was too good to be true. To hard to imagine happiness in the midst of this destruction. He put a hand on her shoulder and she smiled, putting her hand on his. "It was alright. I missed you," she said drowsily. He smiled at that.

"Remus," she said with a sigh, letting her eyes fall closed "Remus there's a boggart in the spare room. Can you get rid of it? Please? I am so, so tired".

"There's a boggart? Really?" he said, the skin between his eyebrows creasing into a frown.

"Either that or my digestive system has taken rumbling to a whole new level," she replied.

He nodded and said "I'll go take a look at it," then he gave her a crooked half smile and said "sure you don't want to give me a hand with it, company's useful for dealing with them."

She shook her head "Sorry my love but nothing short of the Dark Lord and all his hellish minions is going to get me off this sofa for at least half an hour."

"Lazy cow" he said gently, and giving her shoulder a quick squeeze turned away towards the stairs.

Feeling a sudden twinge guilt she sat up and called "yell for me if you want help".

"I have handled boggarts before you know" he said with a laugh before disappearing upstairs. Feeling a little more relaxed Tonks sank back down and let her eyes fall shut. It was good to have a man about the place.

888

Five minutes passed. Tonks remained in the same blissful state. She was beginning to drift off when she heard something that made her blood run cold. It was a moan of pain, a high almost inhuman wail. She was off the sofa within seconds, her wand out. "Remus!" she yelled. There was no reply. Blood pounding in her ears she ran up the stairs, bashing her knee against a banister as she practically threw herself forwards in her hurry. Breathless and dizzy she hurled herself into the spare room, screaming his name out as she did so. The sight that greeted her was one of the most disconcerting she had ever encountered. Sprawled on the bare oak floorboards in front of her was the obviously dead body of a young woman with bright pink hair. It was her dead body. For a long moment her brain refused to process the information it was being presented with. It was impossible, it was bizarre. She was here, living, breathing, thinking, and yet there she was, dead on the floor. Then slow the truth began to filter into her consciousness, the boggart, Remus, oh God. "Ridikulus!" she yelled forcefully. The dead Tonks, broke up into wisps of grey smoke and melted away. She felt some of the tension in her chest ease a little.

The she turned around and saw Remus behind her. The tension returned almost at once. He was sitting on the floor, arms around his knees. His face was very white, and his eyes seemed to be staring at nothing at nothing at all. She felt her heart constrict. Quickly she hurried over to him, dropping down beside him, taking his hands in hers. "Remus?" she said quietly. He didn't respond. "Remus, she said again, I'm here, it's me". Slowly, very slowly her turned towards her, life and recognition returning to the grey eyes. She smiled, feeling close to tears with the relief of it. She took one of his hands and put it to her face "see," she said gently "I'm real, I'm alive, I'm fine, I'm right here". His face broke into a strained, painful sort of smile.

"I'm sorry" he said "God, look what a mess I am, can't even get rid of a boggart, what must you think of me, eh?" He gave a weak sort of laugh.

Suddenly without even being sure why Tonks burst into tears. She threw her arms around Remus as if holding onto him for dear life. Slowly, almost mechanically he began stroking her hair gently. Finally, she grew calm enough to draw away a little- looking at him. "I don't understand," she said in a slightly unsteady voice "I've seen you boggart, it's the full moon, when did it-" she hesitated slightly when did it become me? "Change," she said finally.

"You mean when did my worst fear become losing you?" he said in a bitter tone "I don't know."

"Remus, Remus look at me," she said sternly, brown eyes boring into he grey ones as they reluctantly moved towards her. "Remus, I am not going anywhere, I promise you that."

"I wish I could be as sure of that as you are," he replied wearily.

"Be sure!" she said fiercely "Let me prove it to you."

He laughed at that "How can you prove something like that?"

"Marry me." She hadn't intended to say it, she hadn't planned it, she hadn't thought it. But there it was, impossible to unsay, and she found she didn't want to unsay it.

"What? Dora don't be stupid"

"I'm serious! Marry me! I want you forever. I love you."

"Dora, we can't" he said quietly, staring at the floor. Don't do this she thought fiercely Don't get all noble and self-sacrificing on me.

"Why not?"

"Why not?" he asked, almost laughing "because there's a war on, because I have absolutely no money, because I'm a werewolf."

"Those aren't reasons Remus, they're excuses. Do you love me?"

"Yes! Of course I do" he protested.

"Then Marry me" she repeated as if it was the simplest thing in the world. And now that the idea had occurred to her it was simple. She couldn't understand why she hadn't thought of it before.

He tilted his head to one side, looking at her, as if trying see straight through her. "Do you really mean this Dora?" he asked quietly.

"Yes."

"You know I have absolutely nothing to offer you?"

"That's not true, you have your love and your intelligence and your company to offer me."

"You're sure this is what you want?"

"Yes!"

His face broke into a smile, a real, wide grin "alright," he said.

"Does that mean yes?" she asked breathlessly.

"I think so" he relied, and suddenly he burst out laughing, then she was laughing too. She threw her arms back round him.

"Oh Remus!" she squealed. She kissed him happily. He pulled her close to him, kissing her back.

"Promise you'll never leave me," he whispered.

"I'm not going anywhere," she breathed into his hair "Not ever, not anymore".

And she meant it.

The End