Author's Notes: Gah, sorry for the false start. Major typo--is fixed.

This is…new and I'm unsure if it actually works. If it fails epically, tell me and I promise never to do it again.

Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter. Nor do I own Dictionary (dot) com, from whence the definitions came.


-lust- (n) intense sexual desire or appetite

Tonks burns.

And for all her burning, it will never be enough to sate her. You'd think, of course, that with two men, she'd be satisfied, but instead Tonks has two men and still she burns with an insatiable lust.

Charlie's fingers tangle in her hair with the ghosts of Remus's fingers and Tonks runs her fingers through Charlie's hair m the shorn sides so different than Remus's hair that she tugs and pulls and fists.

They are gasping, aching, burning with lust and with desire and Tonks wants moremoremore and Charlie gasps that he loves her against her lips and Tonks burns.


-passion- (n) strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor.

Tonks burns.

Charlie's hands run up and down her sides and her passion consumes her, burns her up and melts her down and she presses close to Charlie, in hopes that maybe she'll melt into him and maybe that'll quench this fire, stop this burning passion she feels for him.

Unlikely, but it's worth a shot, anyhow.

Sometimes it feels like the passion's fire is going to destroy her and she gets scared (scared of her destruction, even though it's fairly imminent and inevitable) so she holds Charlie tighter.

He doesn't complain—to the contrary, he presses her into his chest and buries his face in her mousy brown hair and inhales, breathing all of her and her burning passion in.

Tonks burns and Charlie burns right along with her and there they are, lost and found in the flames of their passion.


-guilt- (n) a feeling of responsibility or remorse for some offense, crime, wrong, etc.

Tonks burns.

Remus's eyes watch her and she imagines that he can see through her excuses, she thinks he can feel the ghost of Charlie's hands running down her arms, and when his lips press against hers, she is convinced he can taste the guilt that lurks at the back of her throat. He says I love you and the words catch in her throat and burn, lingering there amidst the guilt that burns.

It eats away at her like acid until she is so consumed by it, by the burning guilt; it is hard to find the love she threw everything away for.

Tonks burns harder when she realizes that she is not only pregnant, but there is a distinct possibility that the child isn't Remus's at all—after all, there is a rumor that werewolves are infertile and while Tonks refuses to buy into the ridiculous superstitions about werewolves, the guilt plants doubt.

Charlie cries when she tells him and Tonks cries too, her tears burning and blazing down her face.

Baby Teddy has Weasley-red hair the moment he is exposed to this world—and then it rapidly changes color, but the damage has been done. The guilt makes Tonks nearly sick as it eats away and burns away at her stomach. She swallows back guilt-ridden bile as Remus crows over his son, too overcome with pride to notice that his son looks more like Charlie than he does Remus.

Tonks closes her eyes and burns.


-anger- (n) a strong feeling of displeasure and belligerence.

Tonks burns.

She has had enough—enough of Remus's blindness or denial or whatever the hell that's preventing him from seeing what's right in front of his face, enough of Charlie's increasingly insistent pleas (stay with me, please, I love you, don't leave me), enough of being torn and yet not having enough and enough of trying to be the love of two men's lives and enough of pretending she can handle this and that everything's all under control, but mostly enough of herself.

She burns with fury at herself. She is angry and she is hurting and she is burning. It will never be enough and it infuriates her. How selfish of her, two want to tear these men in half—because, really, when it comes down to it, it's not them tearing her in half—it's her tearing them in half—expecting them to be there when she's not and expecting them to just allow her to treat them however she wants, and her complete ungratefulness towards them, even though they sacrifice everything, willing to make do with whatever she gives.

She is angry that the child she was supposed to love, that she can't even look at him without wondering who the father is and she's angry that she doesn't have the courage to ask.

Tonks is angry with herself and it burns.


-hate- (n) intense dislike; extreme aversion or hostility.

Tonks burns.

She hates herself and she hates Charlie and Remus and everyone who's ever told her that fairytales can happen, because Tonks wanted it all and she ended up with two men and two broken hearts and she's lost.

And, Merlin, she hates herself.

She's really a despicable creature.

Poor, poor Teddy—and more than that, poor, poor Remus and Charlie, for having fallen in love with her, when all she does is rip and tear and burn.

Tonks breaks three hearts and she burns.