Tonks reached the bottom of the staircase to meet who was calling for her and met Lupin, who was with an alarmed expression on his face. "Why´s he so nervous? Oh, I´m only with a towel wrapped on me..." Tonks thought.
But Lupin didn´t seem to care about how dressed she was:
"Harry and his friends went to the Department of Misteries!" He said, in a not-so-calm-voice.
"WHAT?" she asked, astonished. "So that´s why he´s nervous. He doesn´t even care how dressed you are Nymphadora, how riddiculous you are some time...WAIT, HARRY WENT TO DEPARTMENT OF MISTERIES YOU STUPID, AND YOU´RE THINKING ON YOUR BLOODY TEENAGE CRUSH?" she thought, cursing herself.
"We need to go there immediately" Lupin said. Then, he noticed she wasn´t dressed, and began to blush heavily.
"This is not the moment to think about Nymphadora, Remus" Lupin told himself mentally.
"Dress up as quickly as you can...Mad-Eye must be arriving in a minute." he told her, while going downstairs.
One week later, Lupin was laying on a sofa at Grimmauld Place, trying not to think that he had lost the last one of his bestfriends again.
Suddenly, someone entered the living room where Lupin was. It was a young woman with pink hair. She tripped on the carpet that was laying on the entrance of the room and landed ungracefully on the floor.
"Ouch!" she exclaimed.
Lupin standed up quickly, a little bit alamarded, and then, recognizing the woman on the floor, his mouth formed a small smirk.
"The old, same, Tonks..." He said, offering a hand to the clumsy but beautiful young woman who was now grinning widely.
"Thanks" she said, rubbing her ached knee.
"It´s great to have you back" admited Lupin, sitting again on the sofa "How was it at St.Mungus"
"I almost died..." she said, sitting next to Lupin "Of tedium..." she finished her sentence with a lopside grin.
Lupin laughed for the first time in two weeks.
"And you Remus...how are you?" she asked.
"Oh, just fine, you know..." he said on his calm voice. Tonks love his calm, and relaxed voice. He loved his inteligence, how mature he was...he was perfect. Althought a werewolf. But she didn´t care. Love was stronger than that. At the begining, Tonks thought it was just an innocent crush, but then it began to grow stronger, and now it became impossible to ignore.
Tonks stared curiously at a small scar Lupin had on his left hand. She never liked scars, but on Lupin they suited perfectly.
Without thinking, she hold Lupin´s hand placed her finger on the scar, rubbing it gently.
Lupin stared at her, suprised. He was really enjoying what she was doing, but that wasn´t right. He couldn´t enjoy what she was doing. She was way too young, too beautiful, too perfect for him.
Since he met her for the first time he knew she was different. Some months later, when Harry was already at Hogwarts for his 5th year, Lupin began to realise how good he fell when he was near her.
And now, there he was, trying to avoid these certain thougths: "You love her, man...go for it". But he couldn´t just "go for it". He was a werewolf. He was dangerous for her, and all he cared was giving her protection.
"Nymphadora..." he said, in a weak voice.
Generally, Tonks hated when somebody called her by that, but not him. She didn´t care how he called her.
"Hmmm?" she asked, still massaging his scar.
"Please, don´t." He asked.
"Why, am I hurting you?" she asked, already knowing she wasn´t.
He met her eyes. "No, but..."
Lupin couldn´t end his sentence, since Tonks was leaning slower to him. He knew what she was going to do. He thought:
"Don´t, don´t...you can´t...you old fool"
But his body didn´t obey him. He closed his eyes, and one second later their lips were connected and both of them fell like their hearts were going to explode with happiness.
Lupin gently wrapped his arms around her while she deepened the kiss and started to cuddle his hair. Lupin never experienced something like this before. It was such a strong emotion that he could find impossible to describe.
Tonks was feeling the same way, not believe that Lupin was in fact kissing her back. Lupin, realising what he was actually doing, pulled away.
"We can´t..." he said, still on his calm, low voice, breathing heavily.
"Yes, we can." said Tonks, leaning against Lupin again. "No, wait..." Lupin grabbed her arms gently, and met her eyes. "I want this as much as you want, believe me Nymphadora. But we can´t, I´m too old, too dangerous, and yes, I´m poor and..."
"I dont care Remus!" exclaimed Tonks, trying to unsleash her arms from Lupin.
"You´re way too good for me, I don´t deserv you...You deserv someone younger." he insisted.
Now Tonks was furious.
"Well, tell me one thing then...If i don´t deserv the person I love, who do I deserv then? Huh?" she asked.
Lupin didn´t answer. He had no answer for this one.
Tonks cupped Lupin´s left cheek with her hand, but before she could say anything, Lupin removed her hand and stood up.
"I really care about you, and that´s why I can´t be with you, because I don´t want to hurt you, I don´t want to see you suffer, and that´s what will happen if we end up together"
"You don´t want to see me suffer, you don´t want to hurt me, but ironically, that´s what your doing right now!" she said, feeling like she was going to cry.
"Oh god, what did I do..." thought Lupin.
He was going to hug her when he noticed something strange was happening to her: Her hair wasn´t pink and spikey anymore. It was turning mousy-brown...just like his.
Suddenly, someone else entered the living room. It was Dumbledore.
"Good evening." he said, as he gave a glance to Tonk´s new hair. "I don´t have much time, but as you two may know, we cannot stay in this house anymore, since we aren´t sure who the owner is now"
Both Lupin a Tonks nodded.
"So I ask you two to meet me and the rest of the order at this adress here..." he handed a small piece of paper with some words written on it to both of them.
He glanced again Tonk´s hair, then sent a knowing glance to Lupin.
"Now, I´ll leave you two alone again so that you can solve your...er...issues." Dumbledore said, exiting the room.
Almost a year later.
"I´m afraid that only Snape´s office is available..." said McGonnagal,
to Tonks and Lupin, half and hour after what happened in the Hospital
Wing. "So if you two won´t mind"
Professor McGonnagal opened Snape´s office and said:
"Good night"
Tonks and Lupin entered the room, and looked around. It was dark, full
of cauldrons, and all shelves were packed with old books. There was a
small sofa bed in the corner of the room.
For the first time in several minutes, Tonks said:
"I think both of us can sleep there"
"I´ll sleep on the floor." said Lupin.
"No way! Don´t be ridiculous Remus, there´s no need for it. And
besides, I don´t bite, you know!" said Tonks, pushing him to the sofa
bed.
"You don´t, but I do." Lupin said.
Tonks didn´t know if he was joking or not, still, she laughed.
"I´m not afraid...Cmmon, don´t be stubborn." she said, still pushing him into the bed.
"I´ll just sit on that chair, really, I´ll be fine." he said.
"Remus, there´s the good way, or the bad way..." Tonks said, grabbing Lupin´s wrist with her hand.
"What´s the bad way?" Lupin asked.
"Well, I´ll petrify you." she said.
"And the good way?" he asked.
"Well, the good way..." said Tonks, getting closer to Lupin, and placing her arms around his neck.
"I would rather not to know..." said Lupin, already knowing what she was up to.
"FINE" she said, moving away from him.
Lupin, fell stupid. He wanted that. But he couldn´t. He couldn´t! When
Lupin came back to reality, he noticed Tonks was already laying on the
sofa bed, taking just half of the space. Not even half.
Lupin sighed, and took his place on the bed, laying now inches from Tonks.
"Yesssssss" thougth Tonks.
She turned around, facing Lupin, and placed her arm around his chest.
Lupin didn´t move away. They just stayed there, sleeping.
The next morning Tonks woke up feeling something wrapped around her. Something warm, something that made her feel safe.
She opened her eyes and noticed Lupin´s nose was inches from hers, and that he had an arm around her back.
Several minutes later, Lupin woke up.
"Good morning..." said Tonks, giving him a quick kiss on his lips.
Lupin realised this was a perfect way to wake up. He imagine how could
it be, living with Tonks, and everyday wake up like this. He tried to
imagine how would it be his life without her, he thought on what she
said one year ago, about she wouldn´t be happy with anybody else.
"Look..." began Tonks.
"Shh..." Remus place his finger on her lips, and then kissed her deeply.
They stayed there, all morning, enjoying their last day without any worries.
Soon, they would have to go to Dumbledore´s funeral, they would have to
battle some more Death Eaters, they would have to suffer, but, life´s
like that. If life was easy, it would become dull, without any
interest. Right?