A/N: Ok so here's a story about the development of the relationship between Remus and Tonks beginning after OotP. Enjoy and please reveiw and let me know what you think!
Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or any of the characters from the HP universe. They belong to the talented JKR.
Rain splattered heavily on the window of Nymphadora Tonks's bedroom at Number 12 Grimmauld Place on a warm summer night. Inside, the Auror sat on the edge of the queen sized bed, clutching a picture frame and staring intently at the three figures moving before her. The bronze frame displayed the images of herself, Sirius Black and Remus Lupin, smiling and laughing together. As she gazed upon it, the corners of her mouth curved slightly in a sad smile as Tonks recalled the night the photo had been taken.
A crisp breeze whipped through the neighborhood of Number 12, Grimmauld Place as a certain bubble-gum pink haired Auror Apparated onto the doorstep. Great, she thought as she quickly opened the door and deposited her cloak on the hanger located inside. The first official meeting of the Order of the Phoenix and I'm already late. Taking a quick survey of the building, second nature to her, given her occupation, she noticed very few lights were on, but heard talking emanating from downstairs. Tonks made her way down the stairs and entered the kitchen, tripping over the threshold between the two rooms.
"Sorry, I'm late," she mumbled, almost incoherently as she quickly regained her composure and hurried to the lone, unoccupied seat.
"Not to worry, Nymphadora, we've only just begun, though we'll have to dispense with the formalities until later," replied McGonagall, deciding that introducing Tonks to those in the Order who did not yet know her, could wait for the time being. All Tonks heard, however, was the use of her despised first name, which she cringed at, before her eyes met those of a certain brown-haired wizard who was seated across from her. Offering the handsome wizard a shy smile, she averted her focus to the discussion concerning the plan to retrieve Harry Potter from his Muggle relatives.
An hour later, McGonagall finally ended the meeting and Tonks was relieved to say the least. After spending the entire day in several, boring meetings at the Ministry, she wasn't sure how much longer she was going to last before going crazy. This one had at least had been somewhat interesting; the others all revolved around power-hungry politicians who still refused to acknowledge the return of You-Know-Who.
After everyone was dismissed, the metamorph hurriedly rose from her chair and headed for the doorway but was preoccupied with her thoughts and clumsily bumped into Lupin as she crossed the threshold.
She could feel the heat creep up her neck as she hurried to apologize, "I'm really sorry."
Lupin just smiled at her. Ever since she first stumbled into the meeting, he had noticed there was something different about this woman, although the pink hair kind of gave that away on its own. Still, there's something about her, he thought. Something that drew him to her like no other woman had before. He hadn't been able to focus during the meeting at all and had to fight the urge to stare at her lovely face and sparkling eyes.
"That's quite alright," he eventually replied. "You know, I think this doorway has it in for you," he joked, "tripped you going in and out."
Laughing at the still unknown wizard's comment, she replied, "I wish. No, that's just me, extremely clumsy. Barely passed the Stealth and Tracking part of my Auror training. I'm Tonks by the way."
Unable to resist after noticing her reaction when she arrived, Lupin retorted, "I thought it was Nymphadora." Seeing her cringe again at the use of her first name, he asked with a smirk, "Not a big fan of your first name, huh?"
"That's a bit of an understatement actually," she answered with a smile, "but, yeah you could say that."
"Well, then, Tonks it is. Remus Lupin" he said while extending his hand to grasp hers in a firm handshake.
"Nice to meet you," she replied with genuine sincerity. "You didn't happen to see where Sirius took off to did you? I was hoping to catch him before the meeting but that didn't go as planned."
"He's probably in the sitting room upstairs. He to tried bolt out of that meeting as fast as you did just now," he joked, and was once again rewarded with the sound of Tonks's laughter.
"Yes, well, spending the day sitting through tedious meetings at the Ministry will tend to drive one mad."
"I can imagine. Why don't we see if we can go find him?" he asked, taking the opportunity to spend more time with the intriguing woman.
Stepping out of his path and gesturing with her hand, she said, "Lead the way," and followed Remus up the stairs. The pair discovered Sirius relaxing on one of the couches in the sitting room and Tonks immediately ran towards him, jumped and landed on the couch next him.
A huge smile grew on Sirius's face as he pulled his cousin into a hug, "Hey Tonks. Good job being late for the meeting by the way."
As Tonks picked up the closest pillow she could find and nailed him over the head with it, sarcasm dripped from her voice as she retorted, "Thanks for the support, Sirius."
"Anytime."
Remus had been watching the whole encounter as he leaned casually on the doorframe and was extremely amused by their antics. Once he had been spotted by Sirius, however, he was beckoned over by his friend's call.
"Hey Remus, don't just stand in the doorway, get over here."
Shaking his head, he sauntered over to the couch and flopped down on the opposite side of his best friend. Sirius then wrapped an arm around both Tonks' and Remus' shoulders and all three turned to smile for the camera produced by an observant Arthur Weasley. The familiar click of the shutter was heard and the moment captured before the three continued to talk and laugh through the night.
Her reflection of that night brought along other thoughts of a certain Marauder, one whom she had been thinking about a lot recently. Remus and Tonks had become very close while working for the Order over the past year. At first, it had just been short exchanges after Order meetings or talking together with Sirius. As time went on, however, the conversations became longer and more personal. Tonks and Remus would stay up long after the meetings and talk about their lives; his lycanthropy, her parents and job at the ministry, his years together with Sirius at Hogwarts. Remus found that she was the one person besides Sirius that he could actually talk to about his personal life and not feel the need to defend himself.
Tonks had come to realize fairly quickly that maybe something more than friendship existed between her and the handsome Marauder. Her recent hospitalization after the fiasco at the Department of Mysteries, and worse, Sirius's death, had opened her eyes. The brewing war against The Dark Lord meant that any one of them could soon share her cousin's dreadful fate and that it would be a good idea to tell Remus of her feelings sooner rather than later.
Lost deep in thought and staring out at the still falling rain, she failed to notice the object of her thoughts slip into the room. Remus approached the bed and placed his hand lightly on her right shoulder to draw her attention.
"No wonder you almost failed the stealth and tracking portion of your training," he joked at her inability to spot his entrance into her room and Tonks gave a small smile in reply. That was just one of the many things that drew her to man standing before her: his innate ability to always make her laugh.
"You ok?" he continued, taking a seat beside her on the bed, the mattress sinking slightly under combined weight. "You Apparated out of King's Cross pretty quickly, I was worried."
"Yeah, just thinking." It was then that Remus took notice to the contents of the picture held between her fingers.
"I remember the night that was taken," he said, as she held the picture closer for him to see.
"Yeah," she sighed and Remus caught the sadness in her voice. As she stared back at the faces before her, the reality of Sirius's death seemed to finally crash over her like a tidal wave. Until now, she was so preoccupied with getting Harry safely back home and other Order business that she hadn't had time to really stop and think about it. Remus felt the woman on his left suddenly go stiff and he wrapped a comforting arm tightly around her shoulders as a few stray tears began to run down her face.
"I should have been able to take her, Remus," she admitted quietly.
"What do you mean?" he asked gently.
"My aunt! My accursed aunt!" she answered more harshly than intended, but quickly lowered her voice to a whisper, "I should have been able to handle her. If I had….Sirius…never would have…"
"Hey," he interjected. "This was not you fault." Pulling her closer, Tonks buried her head in his chest as he soothingly rubbed her back to reassure her of the truth in his words. "Do not blame yourself for this, ok?" he asked, slowly pulling back and tipping her head up so his eyes met hers. "Sirius wouldn't' have wanted that."
Tonks nodded her head almost imperceptibly in reply, but Remus caught it. As she continued to gaze into his gorgeous coffee-colored eyes, she knew now, more than ever, that she was absolutely and completely in love with this man.
Remus too, had realized months ago that he was in love with Tonks but refused to tell her for fear of rejection. His past relationships with women were far from successful; his lycanthropy made sure of that. Deep down, he knew that Tonks was better than that but those long-lasting doubts still plagued him in the back of his mind. Worse than rejection, however, was the prospect of subjecting Tonks to life with a werewolf. She'd be in extreme danger from him at the full moon, not to mention the treatment she'd experience from those who were less than fond of his kind. He cared for her far too much to make her live like that, no matter how bad he wanted her in his life.
As the doubts and fears raced through his mind at the speed of light, Tonks moved closer and closer to him as the seconds ticked by. When Remus's mind finally caught up, he subconsciously began mimicking her motions as if drawn by an unknown force towards her. In one swift motion, Tonks closed the remaining distance between them and pressed her lips against his.
It was tentative at first, Remus hesitant to respond, but the feeling of her lips on his quickly became too much and he soon surrendered.
"Remus," Tonks breathed after she slowly pulled back to gauge his reaction.
"Tonks," he responded breathlessly and that was all the confirmation she needed and swooped back in and peppered light but fervent kisses on his mouth. "You know we shouldn't…" he tried to reason between kisses, "I'm a werewolf…too dangerous…"
"Remus," she replied a tad more forcefully than a moment ago, while caressing his cheek, "Will you please stop thinking for once. You're ruining a romantic moment here."
Laughing and smiling at her impatience with him and his rationale, he stated simply "I love you," and surprised her by pulling her into an even more passionate kiss, silencing the doubts in his head for the time being. As he lowered her back onto the bed, he heard her repeat his words back to him and felt his heart soar for the first time in his life.
