Now that I have finished reading Order of the Phoenix, I have it in my mind to become the first (to my knowledge) TONKS/LUPINS SHIPPER! (see "Purpled-Haired and Invisible" and "Utopia"). Since some have wondered how exactly I explain the ages, I wrote this little thing. In this, I have Remus as being 35. It seems to work out that James and Lily would have had Harry at 20, three years out of school, and dying at 21, making the Marauder-era crew 35 in book five. This also assumes that Tonks is 29.

Disclaimer: I don't own anyone/thing. This is just my desperate attempt to make my new ship less perverse.

Tell Me A Story, I Can't Sleep

How, exactly, did anyone expect him to sleep? Harry Potter lay awake at 2 in the morning wondering how sleep could ever come to him, given the circumstances. The last thing he wanted to do was have that dream again… and besides, his scar was quite painful tonight.

He rolled over to stare out the window, weighing his options. He could continue to try and fall asleep, or he could surrender to his insomnia and re-read Quidditch Through the Ages, though he had just about memorized it anyway. Then there was always the third option: he could sneak down to the kitchen and have a snack with enough sugar to get his mind off things.

Yes, that was a good idea.

Harry made his way down to the kitchen, careful not to wake the portrait of old Mrs. Black, and consequently the whole house. He tiptoed as lightly as he could, stumbling only once over Crookshanks, and finally made it to the kitchen. He opened the pantry, removed a box of cookies… and jumped an inch off the ground as shutting the pantry door reveled Tonks, who was sitting at the table, sleepily turning the pages of a magazine. "Hi, Harry," she yawned, seemingly not surprised at his presence.

"Did you hear me coming?" He asked, his heart slowing now that he realized it was just Tonks.

"I heard you trip," she said matter-of-factly. "When you're a klutz, you're in tune with that kind of stuff."

"Oh," Harry said lamely, wishing he had something better to say. They sat in silence for a moment, then Tonks began, "So… how is Hogwarts nowadays? Bins still there?"

"Yeah," Harry groaned. "Horrible classes. We usually sleep through them."

Tonks laughed appreciatively. "I bet the halls have been a lot quieter since Remus and that lot graduated."

"No, Fred and George take care of… wait," Harry said suddenly. "You went to school with my parents?"

"And Sirius and Remus, yes," Tonks confirmed.

"But… you're…" Harry stammered, confused.

"Only a few years older than you?" Tonks filled in. "No, I'm 29."

"You don't look it," Harry said, trying to make it sound complementary, but in truth, he really was curious.

"Well, I am a Metamorphmagus," Tonks reminded him. "A lot of people have a hard time growing up, but I just happen to have the advantage of staying physically young as long as I want to."

"You're immortal?" Harry said in amazement.

"Well, no, not really," Tonks admitted. "I can change myself enough to keep alive a good 300 years, but eventually old age will get me, if something else doesn't first," she said, winking. Harry didn't think it was very funny, and didn't immediately reply. However, he had a lot of questions for her if she had indeed gone to school with his parents. If she had indeed…

"Wait, I thought you were too young to be in the original Order," Harry wondered.

"I was," Tonks agreed. "It was formed the year after your parents graduated, when I was still thirteen."

"Oh."

"I can show you what I really look like, if you want," Tonks offered. Harry agreed eagerly. Tonks closed her eyes, but instead of the look of pain she usually obtained, her face slackened into a look of serenity. Suddenly a woman with short brown hair and slight laugh lines was sitting in front of him, resembling Tonks, but age-progressed by almost a decade.

Tonks grinned at the look on Harry's face, then took to examining herself in the window. "Sometimes I almost forget what I look like," she mumbled, and Harry laughed at the oddness of that statement.

"So, what were my parents like?" he asked, now that it was confirmed for him that Tonks really had gone to school with his parents. He hoped that he hadn't (and was pretty sure that he hadn't) offended her by questioning her integrity, it was just that he was so uncontrollably suspicious of everyone nowadays. He couldn't help it.

He turned back to Tonks, who thankfully seemed oblivious. "Well, Sirius was rather the main prankster. If you've seen pictures of him at your parents' wedding, and I imagine you have, he looked exactly the same at 17 as he did at 20. No change at all. Your mother and father, however, were a lot different."

"How so?" Harry pressed, taking another cookie and giving one to Tonks, who thanked him. "Well, they looked pretty much the same, but up until their seventh year, they almost seemed to hate each other."

"What?!?"

"They didn't of course," Tonks assured him, "But they would never admit how they felt until then. But when they did… man, everyone knew. Even us lowly second-years heard all the rumors."

"What were they…" Harry began, but Tonks cut him off.

"That's probably not for me to tell," she said mischievously, and Harry realized that she had gone back to looking like a purple-haired 19-year-old. The devilish expression fit her better now.

"What about Professor Lupin?" Harry asked, realizing that he was the only one of his father's friends that he actually cared about that hadn't been mentioned.

"Remus?" Tonks said, her face acquiring a dreamy look. "Actually, I had quite a little crush on him," she laughed.

"Really?" Harry asked.

"Don't seem so surprised!" Tonks scolded playfully. "He was- is- a cutie." Harry made a disgusted noise and Tonks blushed; apparently, she had forgotten who she was talking to.

Harry laughed, feeling better than he had in… well, a very long time. He stood up, still laughing.

"Wait, I didn't mean to weird you out to much!" Tonks insisted. "I'm sorry."

"Oh, it's not that," Harry said around a yawn. "I'm just tired, I think I'll go to bed."

He retreated, leaving Tonks with a satisfied look on her face. "Pleasant dreams," she called after him. "I think you could use 'em, kiddo…"

Yeah! I can finally write NT/RL without feeling perverse! I've been waiting for this for, well, hours, lol! And now, how anticlimactic, I think I'll go to bed too. BTW, for those of you who for some reason couldn't figure out why Tonks was satisfied at the end, she had been aiming to get Harry's mind off his issues so he could sleep… she succeeded. R&R!