A/N:This fic was inspired by two things. A single friend of mine who told me that New Years Eve is the worst holiday to spend alone and a children's book of my daughters called Bear Snores On (where I got the title name) in which a bear is hybernating during a snowstorm and all his friends come in and throw a party while he sleeps. Anyway, its a bit silly, but there it is...
Nymphadora Tonks stared bleakly out the window watching the snow fall into ever increasing drifts. Heaving a heavy sigh, she took a sip of her tea, leaning her head against the back of the rickety wooden rocking chair. Her eyes wandered toward the door mere feet from where she sat. She supposed he was asleep now; she hadn't heard any clawing for quite some time.
"Bloody full moon," she muttered to herself, taking another sip of tea and returning her attention to the growing storm outside. As she did, she heard a knock coming from the front door of her small flat.
"Who is it?" she called, picking her wand up from the coffee table. It never hurt to be careful.
"It's Mad-Eye," said the rough voice from the other side of the door.
"Mad-Eye?" Tonks said, shocked. What would he be doing here? Unless something was wrong… "Has something happened?"
She tried to open the door to let him in, but it wouldn't budge.
"The question, Tonks," he said and she groaned to herself. Of course he would follow Ministry protocol.
"Fine. How do you initiate new Order members?"
"Tell 'em what kind of underwear they have on," Mad-Eye said sounding both proud and amused. Parlor tricks with his magical eye were a favorite pastime of his. Tonks repressed a shudder, remembering her own experience with this. Did he have to announce to everyone that she was wearing a silver-sequined thong?
"Now my turn," he announced. "What it the one color hair you can't morph to?"
"Black," Tonks said now smiling. "I think I have a mental block because of the name."
Whatever spell he had been using on the door was released and she opened it. Mad-Eye stood in the doorway, a grin on his scar ravaged face, holding a bottle of Firewhiskey.
"I thought maybe you could use some company," he said limping into the entranceway.
Tonks felt the knot of fear in her stomach disappear and was touched by the gesture. New Years Eve was a miserable time to have to spend alone.
"Thanks," she said with a smile and he made his way to the living room. With a flick of his wand two glasses flew off a shelf and sat on the table. He poured two generous portions of the Firewhiskey and handed them to her.
"Cheers," she said, dryly tipping her glass toward him and then taking a long drink. Mad-Eye also took a drink as his eye swiveled around the room. It rested on the locked door on the other side of the room.
"Looks like Remus is asleep," he said after a moment.
"Well, that's good at least," Tonks said flopping down on the couch, putting her feet up on the coffee table and taking another drink.
"You might want to slow down there," Mad-Eye said. "Remember that time at the Hog's Head? I didn't think you'd ever be able to look at hard boiled eggs again."
"The only reason I can is because I don't remember much of that night," Tonks said with a groan.
Mad-Eye chuckled and Tonks couldn't help but smile. They continued reminiscing for several minutes when she heard another knock on the door. She raised her eyebrow. It seemed she was unusually popular this evening. Mad-Eye stood up from his chair and walked into the entranceway.
"Looks like you've got more visitors," he said. "Potter and his friends."
Tonks' eyebrows rose even higher. "What in the name of Merlin are they doing here?"
She hurried to the door and threw it open just as she heard Mad-Eye shout, "Ask the question!" She ignored him and turned to see Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny, who were standing, shivering, in the hall.
"Is everything alright?" she asked, panicking. Harry's face turned a little pink and he glanced nervously at the other three.
"Yeah… um… can we come in? It's bloody cold out here."
"Of course," she said opening the door wider, allowing them in. She noticed that they had several bags with them.
"Um… Professor Lupin came to talk to us today," Hermione said. "He… well, he seemed to think you might need a little company tonight."
Tonks couldn't help but also blush a little. Apparently Remus had felt so concerned that she would be spending the evening by herself that he had enlisted the help of his former students.
"Oh," she said feeling embarrassed. "Well, the more the merrier, right? Come and sit down." It was just too bad she wasn't feeling very merry. Just as she was about to close the door, she felt it push back against her hand and Fred and George Weasley came barging in, carrying even larger bags than the other four had.
"Coming through!" Fred said, heading straight into the living room and setting the bags down on the now crowded table.
Tonks turned to look back at Harry, who was now flushed a deep red.
"Well… we might have run into them in…um… well, in their own store and when they heard where we were going, they wanted to come. I hope you don't mind?" he said the last part more as a question then as a statement.
Tonks looked over his shoulder and saw the Weasley twins unpacking their bags, which appeared to be full of butterbeer, Firewhiskey and large quantities of products from Weasley's Wizard Wheezes. She saw Wildfire Whiz-bangs, Canary Creams, fake wands, and exploding snap cards among the stash. They also had some Muggle noisemakers and hats that they began handing out.
"We didn't want you moping at home by yourself," Geroge said putting a silly cardboard hat on her head.
"So we thought we'd come and liven things up a bit," Fred said joining them. "I mean, really, Lupin thought Harry and Ron were the best people for the job? Pathetic!"
Tonks gave a weak smile as they continued about their business. Harry and Ron were dumping bags full of candy onto the kitchen counter.
"We thought you might want something to eat," Ron said helping himself to a chocolate frog. "Want something?"
"Oh…um… that's alright. I'm fine with my drink for now." In fact, she was desperate for it and hurried over to the table to pick it up. Just as she did, however, there was yet another knock at the door. She turned, giving Harry a stern look.
"Just how many people did you invite?"
"This was it," Harry said shrugging his shoulders. "Honest!"
Mad-Eye turned to look at the door and Tonks was shocked to see a faint blush creeping up his face. Mad-Eye blushing? She would have sooner believed Snape capable of smiling.
"Looks like its Hestia," he said turning away to look out the window.
Again Tonks felt a jolt of surprise. Mad-Eye didn't even bother telling her to ask Hestia her question. She went back to the door and opened it revealing the plump, dark haired woman.
"Hi Tonks," she said with a little giggle. "Remus asked…" She cut off as she saw the large group of people in the living room.
"Yeah," Tonks said with a roll of her eyes. Honestly, this was getting a little insulting. "Apparently Remus asked a lot of people. Come on in."
She opened the door wider and Hestia came through carrying a bottle of elderflower wine. A smile spread across her face as she looked over the room.
"Oh! Mad-Eye is here?" she asked with another little giggle. She didn't wait for Tonks' response and instead thrust the bottle of wine toward her and hurried across to where Moody was sitting.
'Mad-Eye and Hestia?' Tonks thought to herself with no small amount of amusement. 'Surely that breaks several laws of nature…'
She had no opportunity to continue dwelling on the strange development, however. On a dare, Ron had just eaten a canary cream and exploding bon-bon at the same time and, as a result, there was a layer of feathers covering her entire living room.
Without realizing it a laugh escaped her lips as she watched everyone enjoying themselves and Fred and George tried to find other lethal combinations of sweets.
Fred noticed her and called out, "Come on Tonks! I dare you to eat a Ton-Tongue Toffee and go a whole minute before we have to shrink it!"
Tonks felt the last of her self-pity drain away as she made her way back to the group, batting away feathers. "I'll do it for ten galleons!" she said, now feeling positively cheerful.
"Excellent sense of humor you got there!" he said tossing the toffee to her. "No more than five!"
As Tonks unwrapped the toffee and stuck it in her mouth, she thought to herself, 'Perhaps this won't be such a bad New Year after all.'
Remus woke slowly, as he always did the morning after a transformation, stretched and yawned. He groaned slightly as he rolled onto his back, his muscles and bones aching. He was getting too old for these nights on the hard floor. Slowly he got up, throwing some clothes on and stretched again. He briefly wondered how Tonks' night had gone. Although she had said nothing, he knew she had been disappointed that he was not going to be able to spend the evening with her. He hoped that at least one of the people he had spoken to had shown up to keep her company.
He slowly shuffled over to the door, muttered "alohomora" and opened the door. The sight that greeted him was one he could scarcely believe. The first thing he noticed was the large amounts of bubbles and feathers filling the room. In the midst of it he saw Fred and George Weasley, both asleep on the floor with scorch marks on their face; Harry was snoring and curled up in a chair with Ginny Weasley, a funny hat sitting on her head. In another chair was Hermione Granger, with Ron Weasley asleep at her feet and steam coming out of his ears. In the corner, through the haze of feathers, Remus could just barely make out the sleeping form of Mad-Eye Moody and… what that Hestia? Surely not…
"Well," he muttered to himself, "apparently everyone showed up."
His eyes continued to scan the room until they fell on the one person he was looking for. Lying on the couch, fast asleep, was Tonks. He walked over to her, carefully making his way through the litter of butterbeer bottles and candy wrappers. He knelt down next to her and smiled. Her hair was a rainbow of colors and he could just see donkey ears poking out. He bent down and kissed her watching as her eyes fluttered open.
"Happy New Year, Nymphadora," he whispered.
"Remus!" she said with a smile, propping herself up on her elbows, her ears going back to normal. "How are you feeling?"
"I think I should probably be asking you that," Remus said grinning at her. "It looks like you had an interesting evening."
Tonks looked around the room as if she was seeing it for the first time. "Oh… I guess we did make a bit of a mess, didn't we? I'm sorry…"
"Don't be. When I asked a couple people to drop by, I had no idea…"
Tonks laughed and Remus couldn't help but join in. "Honestly, Remus! I think you might have got a bit carried away, there."
Remus ducked his head. "I'm sorry. I just didn't want you to spend the night alone, feeling miserable."
"It was very sweet," Tonks said wrapping her arms around his head and kissing him. "Thank you."
Remus brushed a stray green hair out of her eyes and leaned in even closer to her, pressing her against him.
"I am sorry for last night. I was hoping to start the New Year with you." He kissed her softly, lazily and Tonks' eyes drifted shut again.
"You don't need to be sorry," she muttered as his mouth made its way down to her neck "We have the rest of our lives to spend together."
Remus returned his mouth to hers and kissed her deeply. She moaned as he pressed her into the couch when he suddenly realized that they were by no means alone. He could just imagine poor Harry's reaction at seeing his former professor snogging Tonks like a hormonal teenager. He broke off the kiss, gave her a wicked grin and picked her up.
She clung to him, feeling a bit breathless and he made his way back to the bedroom, kicking the door shut and casting a Silencing Charm. While everyone else slept the day away in the living room, Remus and Tonks had a very private New Years party of their own.