I've been watching a lot of fairytale recounts on TV, I've been rereading fairy tales, and so forth. And naturally, I've reread Harry Potter a few times. Dangerous combo in my writing brain. A bit of this was originally writen in French, but I liked it in English too.
Disclaimer: I own nor Harry Potter, nor Beauty and the Beast. But the round brace's deisgn is mine.
Tale as old as time… Or not. Remus didn't think any other werewolf had ever had the problem of shaking off a witch they really loved. Or at least not while she was alive.
But he did. He had Nymphadora Tonks standing in front of him today. Today's canary yellow hair cut to her chin, heart shaped face frowning, her chin tilted up like whenever she was getting ready to be stubborn, brown eyes shining, arms crossed.
"Tonks…" He said.
"Remus…" She repeated. He had to figure out how to explain this to her so she'd get what he was trying to say.
"When you read Beauty and the Beast in muggle studies, how did Belle hit you?" Remus said. Stories. She liked stories.
"Like a girl. That was pretty. It's kind of in her name. Over perfect, much?"
"Yes," Lupin said. "And what did the beast hit you as?"
"Well… As a beast."
"Exactly. Not two things that belong together."
"Remus, I'll remind you at the end that Beauty and the Beast fall in a profound and eternal love and they break the curse." Tonks said.
Shoot. Remus had forgotten the ending. He was confusing his muggle classics- Romeo and Juliet were the two that died. Oh well, too late to start on that metaphor.
"Yes but Tonks- it's not a spell what I have." Remus said.
"Well I'm about to cast you one," Tonks said. "Because you are really starting to annoy me, Remus John Lupin. Okay, maybe the prince was handsome and charming at the end. And? What does that change? Belle fell in love with him when he was the Beast. For her, whether his face was screwed up and his hands furry or not, it didn't change a thing. She loved him, and since that doesn't get through your thick skull Remus, I love you."
"Me too Tonks, infinitely, but-"
"Then we have no problem with this! Come on Remus, this isn't a muggle witch hunt. No village is going to pour out its people to chase you with, like, pitchforks and all the kit. There are some people past the Marauders who can look over the grey and sickness, and who see the beauty in the beast. Because there is one Remus. And he's more charming than the prince was ever." Remus felt his resistance melt. The way she talked to him, or looked at him... And then he cooled it back down. No. He was not going to let her talk him into this.
"It's a story Tonks!" Remus said. "It's someone who imagined it- imagination isn't something real or concrete like a wedding."
"Until someone makes it that." Tonks said, tilting her chin up.
"We don't live in a storybook!" Remus said. "People die every day; every day is a treasure you might not see again. There are no 'happily ever after's when people like Dumbledore die!" Remus said. He cringed on himself. The words already hurt- trying to push away someone he wanted to bring closer. But going through the fact Dumbledore had died again just made it hurt more. He thought of what McGonagall had said that horrible night. Dumbledore would have been happier than anybody to think that there was a little more love in the world.
He would have. And honestly; Remus knew it was already there. It was just waiting for him to catch up.
Old, painful, dangerous, lycanthrope and poor him to catch up… He thought bitterly, looking at the beautiful young woman looking up at him.
"You deserve better."
"I don't want better."
"You deserve someone healthy."
"They're not tough enough to handle me." She said stubbornly.
"You deserve someone rich."
"They live too lavishly for me to tolerate them."
"You deserve someone young."
"They haven't got your stories or charm or knowledge or any of the other things I like about you."
"You deserve-"
"I deserve the bloody idiot over here who's being a prat about this whole thing," Tonks said.
Remus sighed.
"You're not going to stop, are you?"
"Nope," Tonks said meeting his eyes. That nearly made it happy. No. He should want the best for Tonks.
But was maybe Remus the best for her? The idea made him feel odd. He'd been the best to help Peter, James, and Sirius study. He'd been the best to spy on the werewolf underground for the Order of the Phoenix. Could he be the best for someone else?
"Not ever?"
"Never."
"Even if I had the ring I bought on impulse, thinking I'd never use it?"
"Especially not then." Tonks said. "I trust your sense of style even in states of fantasy."
Remus rolled his eyes. Her impossible stubbornness and her determination to love and push through to the end. Three things in a second that made him love her. And the others were constantly in the air, in her eyes, in her words.
He got down on one knee like he'd seen dozens of times (from watching James mess with Lily Evan's mind at Hogwarts) and said (much more seriously than James had all those times);
"Will you marry me then, Nymphadora Tonks?"
"As long as you don't call be Nymphadora again, Beast." She smiled. Remus got up, his heart beating with joy and relief that he wouldn't have to try to free her from him anymore. That she'd be his. He slipped the ring on her finger. He kissed her on the cheeks, holding her hands, not believing the fact that she too was studying.
"Then you're my Beauty."