Tonks's heart pounded fiercely in her chest as she hurtled through the dust and debris, a morbid mixture of fallen bodies and blood-smeared stone. Bursts of light illuminated the scene with every step she took, making things look even more gruesome.
But she didn't see Remus's face among the dead.
Please let him be alive, she prayed fervently.
She emerged into the thick of the fight, ducking and dodging wayward spells, wand in hand, frantically searching…
There.
Oh, God, he was alive.
She had spotted him, engaged in a fierce duel with Dolohov as Aberforth had said. Tonks sprinted forward, reaching Remus just as he sent Dolohov staggering backwards with a well-placed spell.
"Remus," she gasped, embracing him quickly.
He looked shocked to see her.
"Dora, what are you doing here? Teddy needs you!"
"Teddy's fine," she said. "I need you. Alive."
Tonks aimed a stunning spell at Dolohov as he lurched to his feet.
"We're in this together, and if we go down, we go down together," she told him fiercely, grasping the front of his robes and kissing him briefly.
He looked as if he wanted to protest, but didn't have time as Dolohov reappeared, looking murderous.
A spell flew pas Tonks's ear, stirring her pink hair. She whirled, pressing her back to Remus's and raising her wand. It was Bellatrix. Her black hair as wild as her eyes, she cackled as she fired another flash of light at Tonks.
"If it isn't my wayward little niece," she sneered, prowling back and forth like a tiger for the kill.
"Bellatrix. How's insanity treating you?" Tonks replied coolly.
"I'm not the one who married a werewolf."
Stupefy! Tonks thought, flicking her wand, but Bellatrix dived out of the way.
"Just goes to show you don't know what love is."
Bellatrix's lip curled in disdain. "Oh, yes, 'love'. I hear you had a cub – congratulations! Do you think he'll cry for his mother before I kill him?"
"REDUCTO!" Tonks roared, seeing red. The spell missed Bellatrix but collided with a pile of rubble near her, imploding and hurling Bellatrix to the ground. Tonks raised her wand again, but there was a burst of green light in her peripheral vision and she felt Remus collapse at her back. Cold horror and denial washed over her, lapping like icy waves on her heart. Unwillingly, she turned and fell to her knees at his side.
"Oh, God, Remus – no," she choked, brushing the hair out of his eyes. He looked as if he were sleeping. The sounds of battle seemed to recede.
His face was so white and still.
He wasn't breathing.
"Please don't," she whispered, tears slipping down her dusty cheeks, dripping onto his torn and bloodied robes. "Don't leave me like this. There's so much we haven't done yet…we haven't even had our anniversary. Teddy hasn't had the time to know you." She groped for the words that her head screamed silently.
Please don't go, Remus. Don't be like my father, and Mad-Eye, and Sirius, and Dumbledore, and every other damned person who I cared about.
But she knew it was too late. He was already gone.
Eye half-blinded by tears, Tonks spotted Dolohov in the fray and struck him with a spell while he was distracted.
There was no satisfaction in it, only a horrible, hollow feeling. She didn't want to leave him, not here, not like this, but she couldn't give up. She knew that Remus wouldn't have wanted her to stop fighting. They had both come here knowing it could happen.
Laying his head gently to the dusty ground, she rose to her knees, ready to stand and fight. That was when she heard the spell behind her, knew in that split second what was coming, before it struck her in the back, sliding into her like ice, and she was falling.
Falling down beside Remus, tumbling into the darkness – or was it light? She couldn't tell…
As Tonks let go on life, her last thought brought a pang to her heart, even as it stopped beating.
I'm sorry, Teddy…