1984
Remus couldn't seem to move his hand away from his face. Annoyance filled him as he rubbed the former location of the mustache Dumbledore had force him to shave. He reached up and plucked a hair from the top of his head, then held it up to his eyes. It was a lighter shade of brown than he was used to, with streaks of blonde. He shuddered in disgust, letting go of the strand and watching as it drifted to the paved ground of Platform 9 3/4.
Of course, the temporary disguise would be tolerated for the twenty Galleons Dumbledore would be paying him for being there. Remus knew monitoring Platform 9 3/4 on the first day of school for Hogwarts students was not worth that much money, and an unnecessary job altogether, being that the war had ended three years ago. However, seeing that he could no longer rely on James for money and he couldn't find employment as a lycanthrope, he was grateful for the small tasks Dumbledore assigned him from time to time. He sighed at the sight of a stressed looking mother letting as a small, energetic ginger haired boy out of her grasp so he could run around with his friends. The sequence made Remus chuckle, thinking back to his days at Hogwarts, wreaking havoc alongside his three best friends without a single thought of consequences or growing up. He forced himself to focus on this particular memory, not wanting to feel the pain that came with the reminder of where the other three Marauders were now. He had always joked about Sirius ending up in prison, and half expected it to happen, too. But getting there by murdering James and Peter? How could so close a bond be destroyed overnight?
A jolt in the side of Remus's shoe brought him back to attention, and when he looked down, there was a little girl splayed on the ground in front of him. Her hair seemed to be gradually changing from scarlet to a rosy pink, as her cheeks turned the same shade.
"Sorry 'bout that," she said, her voice high and her speech faster than anyone's Remus had heard before. "I'm always tripping over things. All arms and legs, ya know? Two left feet! And sometimes I'm looking at something else and I forget to look where I'm going, but other times-"
"Shhh... It's okay. We all slip sometimes," Remus said in a calm tone, cutting off the girl's babbling. He put out a hand to help her get back up, but instead of standing as he had expected her to, she put her hand in his and shook it firmly.
"I'm Tonks!" she said through giggles. "Well I have another name, except I don't like it, I just like Tonks." As Tonks said this, she turned to sit cross-legged and rested her elbows on her knees. Realising the refreshingly spunky young girl had no intentions of standing and leaving any time soon, Remus decided it couldn't hurt to sit on the ground across from her.
"You can call me Moony," Remus replied. He hadn't heard the nickname in years, afraid it was almost unwholesome to say aloud considering the whereabouts of the only ones who had ever used it. But there was something about Tonks that made her seem worth confiding in. The name seemed to sound right in place, and Remus felt a sensation like that of finally returning home after a long, burdensome journey.
"Moony..." Tonks repeated, as if testing the sound of the name in her own voice. She looked thoughtful for split second, then her eyes lit up, "I like it! And ya know what I also like?"
"What?" asked Remus in a playful tone.
"You!" she replied cheerfully.
Remus laughed, a genuine, carefree laugh like he hadn't done in over three years. "Well I like you too, Tonks," he told her, reaching over to ruffle her hair as it turned from its rosy pink to a bright shade of orange.
Tonks laughed too, louder than Remus expected someone of her size to be capable. She then leaned toward him and assumed a more solemn a tone. "Hey Moony? I have a question."
"Yeah?"
"Will you be my booooyfriend?" Tonks stared up at Remus, her eyes growing wide.
An even louder chuckle came from Remus's mouth, and he grinned at the little girl. "Why Tonks, it would be my honor to be your boyfriend."
"Yay!" she shrieked, and stood on her knees to reach over and give her new boyfriend a hug. "Wow, my first day at Hogwarts and I've already got a boyfriend. I'll be so cool! Hmm... Moony and Tonks, Tonks and Moony, which do you think?"
Tonks had been speaking so quickly that Remus had to pause to comprehend everything she had said. "Tonks and Moony, I think", he finally replied. "I quite like the sound of that."
"Tonks and Moony it is! Tonks and Moony, Tonks and Moony, goin' on adventures all around the wooorld!" she sang. Tonks was about to begin another rendition of her new theme song, but was cut off by the whistle of the Hogwarts express pulling into the station. "Oh, that's for me! I'm going to Hogwarts for the first time, isn't that exciting!? My mum and dad prolly want me to say goodbye to them before I go."
"Well it was nice to meet you, Tonks. Have fun at Hogwarts!" Remus put out a hand to help pull her up once again, but Tonks was so full of energy and excitement that she bounced up before he could reach her.
"Bye!" she shouted. "Thanks for being my boyfriend!" And with that, she started off, practically skipping down the platform.
"Wait!" Remus yelled after her. She stopped in her tracks and looked over her shoulder. "Tie your laces, why don't you?"
Tonks giggled, "Thanks, Moony!"
1995
The newly remodeled Order of the Phoenix sat around the fireplace of 12 Grimmuald Place. It was the middle of August, but it felt so cold with the knowledge that Voldemort had returned.
"…And my last one was Emma Vanity. She was a Slytherin, and we were only together for a week, right after we graduated." Said Sirius. "So how many girlfriends is that?"
"That makes 19," said Arthur Weasley, who'd been counting. "So I guess that means Remus had the closest bet."
"What can I say? I know my Sirius Black trivia."
"You know Molly was my first girlfriend?" said Arthur, putting his arm around his wife.
"And your last," said Molly, blushing and giving Arthur a squeeze.
"You wanna know who my first boyfriend was?" Tonks jumped in. It was her first meeting as an official member of the Order of the Phoenix, and she was eager to share. "He was this stranger I met on my first day of Hogwarts ever. Except he wasn't, like, a student. He was monitoring the express or something. My mum still gets a kick out of it, she loves to bring it up to embarrass me."
Remus's eyes widened at this remark. "Monitoring the Hogwarts Express…?" He said to himself. A memory that his left his mind not too long after its occurrence came creeping back in, and suddenly he knew where he recognized the bright pink hair.
"Stupid, right? Yeah well, I was eleven and I guess I thought it'd be cool to beg some poor guy in his twenties to be my boyfriend for ten minutes. I never even saw him again."
"It's not stupid," said Remus, still half in a trance. "It's actually kind of cute."
Tonks rolled her eyes. "If you say so," she said.
Remus just smiled to himself and let the subject change. Maybe one day, if they got closer, he'd tell her. For the time being, he'd let the memory fade, except for one fleeting thought. We never technically broke up.