Disclaimer: I am not J.K. Rowling and I do not own Harry Potter or any of the books' characters

The Veil

A few hours after the Ministry of Magic fiasco at the end of Harry Potter's fifth year, Nymphadora Tonks still lay in a St. Mungo's Hospital bed unconscious. During her struggle with Bellatrix Black over the prophecy, she was hit with a powerful spell rendering her unconscious. Now she lay in critical condition with only Remus Lupin sitting by her side.

No one noticed him there, as most of the other Order of Phoenix members were aurors who were now assisting the Ministry of Magic. No one noticed how he gently held her soft hand admiring her small freckles. No one noticed these signs and the other signs signaling the depth of his love and pain at seeing her hurt. No one noticed any of this, but she did.

From her vantage point she could see her own body, her physical body, lying in a bed in front of her. She could see Remus sitting to the left of her body, yet somehow she was not in her body. She couldn't be, not when she could see herself. She did not know how, and it didn't bother her. She felt peaceful and calm as if she could stand there forever and admire the beauty and the oddness of the scene.

Remus was looking at the freckles on her hand she noticed. He often noticed the smallest things about her. Her memories of the fun times with him over the previous year ran through her mind. She and Remus went to Rome together to investigate reservoirs of the Inferi. Inferi were one of the things that could terrify her with their zombie-like appearance and incapability of individual thought. Remus, however, seemed quite unafraid of their catacombs and she got him to tell her of their safeness to werewolves like him.

During the trip to Rome, he ran into one of his past loves, who had left him once he told her about his condition. He had built an enormous wall guarding his emotions. Tonks knew how to penetrate that wall and successfully did so throughout the rest of the year. She knew that on moonlit evenings he usually suffered alone. Even with the Wolfsbane Potion, he still was susceptible to sudden transformations. To his dismay she stayed with him one night of a full moon. They sat indoors in a small shack about thirty miles from town in a small wood. The doors and windows remained shut to lock out the moonlight as Remus sat shivering on his bed with Tonks telling him some of her adventures at Hogwarts to make him laugh.

She was quite the prankster in school, almost as bad as Sirius, and as a metamorphmagus she could transform at will into disguises to get out of hairy situations. She hardly ever got caught. Her upbeat life had brought joy into a part of his life that had remained closed for years. She, similar to him, was different from her friends. She was born a metamorphmagus, which she enjoyed thoroughly. It was her spunky personality that brought it to life. In that way she was his opposite, while his difference distanced his from society her difference brought her closer to it. Her mind filled with these thoughts as she looked upon the man who she loved so much. She wanted him to be happy, but he sat stoically with an expression of genuine concern upon his face.

There is a strange thing about being nearly dead that only the nearly dead come to know. Eventually she would come to know it as well. In that moment, she was free to stay or leave this world. She could leave and go beyond the veil, or she could stay to enjoy the ups and downs of life. After standing there watching Remus admire her hand sullenly, she heard voices coming from somewhere indistinct. She heard what she thought was Sirius's laughter behind her towards the light of the door. He was talking to others. She chanced a glance into the light before her. It was Sirius and he was happy. He was a lot cleaner than she had seen him in years. His hair was still long, but well-groomed, and there was a glow radiating from his being.

Tonks still did not know what was happening. Her mind was fuzzy. Had she been awake when Sirius died, she would have known he was dead. Since it was her fall that caused him to start battling Bellatrix in the first place, she did not know. She didn't know he died last night.

Standing right beside Sirius was what could have been his twin. He had black shiny hair, dark eyes, and a handsome face. Tonks just stood there staring unsure of what really was going on. Sirius spoke first, "Tonks, I would like you to meet Regulus Black, my brother. Regulus, this is Tonks, who I was telling you we were coming to pick up."

"Nice to meet you, Tonks," Regulus said smiling.

Tonks' serene face quite slowly changed to confused, as she arched her eyebrows. "Erm... Sirius, Regulus died many years ago. Even if he hadn't, he hates you."

Sirius and Regulus looked at each other taking in what this must mean. Tonks, like most people, did not understand what happened to people beyond the veil. More importantly, however, Tonks did not know she was dead. Sirius started, "Tonks, you must notice that something is different about yourself." He motioned to her body, as Remus got up to walk towards the window and began to look outside.

"I know; I can see myself over there, too," she said with a look of confusion on her face.

Sirius simply looked into her eyes trying to let her put it all together. After a few moments of silence he spoke, "Tonks, you're dead." The silence deepened for a brief moment, as she took in those words.

"Then why are you here, Sirius? If I'm dead, I mean... you'd have to be dead too," she stated this as a matter of fact not realizing what it truly meant.

"You're catching on," Sirius said with a chuckle.

"I mean that is why I'm here, too," Regulus said with a laugh as well.

"It's not funny!" Tonks said, as Sirius and Regulus were taken aback. "I don't remember," she said, placing her head into her hands. "I don't remember," she said once more quietly.

"I guess the memory does take a while to kick in after the passing," Regulus said, remembering how Sirius wouldn't understand the truth after he met him on the other side of the veil just a bit earlier.

"It's obvious Tonks. We died. I died at the Ministry of Magic in a battle with Bellatrix. You died the same way, but you made it to the hospital," Sirius said obviously frustrated.

"I can handle it from here, Sirius. This is your first encounter with the new arrivals so you don't know what they're like. They adamantly won't accept their deaths, most of them at least. You didn't when I met you earlier, or have you forgotten?" Regulus intensely looked at Sirius, who remained quiet. "Do you see what I mean? Tonks, you're dead or dying. That's why you're here. That's why we are here to get you and take you back across the veil to your new world there."

Tonks turned around taking in the reality of his words. She looked back towards her body and Remus, who had been pacing for the past few minutes. He stopped and stared off into the distance and sat back down, placing his head in his hands taking deep breathes. He looked both worried and agitated.

Regulus continued speaking, "There's a magical pen on the other side of the veil that lets us know when one of our family members has died and come home to us. We have been waiting on you, but when you didn't come we came to get you. You have family there, a lot of them, and they are not like I was. They don't carry on that nonsensical tradition of only accepting purebloods, at least the ones that are with us. They will welcome you."

Tonks continued to face her body and Remus listening to what he was saying. Remus had picked up one of her hands again and was admiring her freckles.

"What's the matter?" Sirius asked walking closer to where she was standing.

"I don't want to go," Tonks said very quietly. "I can tell it's a great place. I can tell things are different there. I can tell you guys are very happy," she said, hurriedly looking at the freckles on her spirit hands. She moved her hands to her sides and looked up at Sirius and Regulus, "I just don't want to go."

It was because of shock that no one spoke. Sensing the uneasiness she started again, "I don't think it's my time. You said I was here because I was dead or nearly dead. I think I'm nearly dead." She walked over the right side of her body. "Look at Remus, why would he be here if I was dead? Why would he still be holding my hand? If I was dead, he would leave too," she said hurriedly in one breath.

"Well, it's true if you are nearly dead, you don't have to go." As Regulus finished his statement, Sirius looked over towards him in shock.

Sirius could not contain his thoughts and interrupted before Tonks could reply, "I truly do not understand you. I wouldn't have stayed for the world after I felt this peace from here. It is amazing Tonks and you're only feeling part of it. Why would anyone choose to stay here when they can go beyond the veil?"

"People have their reasons. It's the same as all the ghosts. I mean, you can always come back here once you die the second time. Most people, however, when they realize their purpose is up in life will leave wanting to be in this place. The few things that keep them there are the things that keep us here," Regulus said looking at Tonks intensely, who was avoiding his eye contact.

"Sirius, you've never been in love, have you?"

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Tonks began to cry. She cried in the midst of the peace, love, and warmth she felt coming from the veil. She cried because the one she loved was not coming with her, but was hurting instead. As Sirius caught on, he became quiet. It had all happened before his eyes in the past year, and he had not noticed. Tonks was in love with Remus. Remus was in love with Tonks. A smile of recognition emerged upon his face. His old quiet buddy was capable of love. It wasn't that Sirius doubted it, but rather that Remus told all the Marauders year ago that he would try his best to never fall in love, ever again. The Black family charm, however, had a way of persuading people to abandon their foolish statements.

"I love him," she said. "I... I don't want to leave knowing that he isn't going to be okay. He'll say he is fine, but he won't be. He holds a lot of stuff in." Sirius squirmed as she said this. Every guy he knew held stuff in, rather than crying and getting weak.

Regulus walked over to Tonks and said patting her back, "Why don't you just stay?" She started to fidget.

Cautiously she said, "What if he doesn't want to be with me?"

"Why wouldn't he?" Sirius said thinking that girls had strange ways of ruining their own happiness at times.

"I don't know. I don't know if I could bear it," Tonks said trying to avoid all eye contact.

"I know Remus. He'll come around eventually," Sirius stated.

Tonks knew that eventually she would end up back here, at this waiting place before the veil. She knew that it was a place of peace and love, and she now had felt it and would do almost anything to get back there. She had no desire to stay, at least for now. She didn't want to stay while Remus was in so much pain. The veil would wait for her return when the time was right for both her and Remus. It would wait.

She glanced once more at Sirius and Regulus, who looked like two twins reunited after a long and distant relationship. She smiled and said, "Thank you." They smiled back at her both uneasy at her outbursts of emotion and fearing that they might cry as well. Sirius had learned a lot about love in his life first from watching Lily and James, and now from watching Tonks. People in love would do the craziest things. He watched as she reentered her body and saw her physical body stir. Remus looked startled and held her hand tightly, and touched her check checking her consciousness.

When she opened her eyes, he smiled and squeezed her hand. She closed her eyes again softly and fell into a gentle sleep.

"Well Regulus, I think our work is done here," Sirius said with his arm on Regulus's shoulder.

"Not quite, I want to try something," Regulus said with a mischievous grin. He walked over to where Remus sat and whispered, "She loves you."

"He can't hear you," Sirius said cynically.

"I just wanted to try to help him out a little," Regulus said shrugging his shoulders. "Let's go." They walked together laughing back through the veil leaving Remus once again alone with Tonks.

Sirius and Regulus knew little about a spirit's capabilities. After they left, Remus turned his head slowly to the sound of the voice as if he heard. He shivered and got up from where he was sitting and walked again to the window. "I hope she doesn't," he said sullenly.

Tonks awoke with a sharp headache and a memory of nothing but Sirius's face and his peace. She didn't remember seeing Regulus, and she didn't remember the thoughts that made her stay or even making a decision. That night was almost completely erased from her memory. She looked to her right at Remus, who was sleeping lightly. After looking at his features for a moment, he awoke. He gently squeezed her hand. "It's nice to see you are awake," he spoke. She simply smiled. "I will go get the mediwizard. They want you back on your feet as soon as possible." He hesitated, and then continued to walkout of the room. He knew she would be fine and that was all that mattered to him. He would do anything to make sure she was safe. He wanted her to have a great life, even if that meant that not being with her himself.

Author's Note: Here it is again. It has been lengthened, edited in places, and overall rewritten. I like this one better, and I am going to make this one the basis of my newest story.