Disclaimer: I am old and poor. I therefore do not own Harry Potter and affiliated terms, characters and plots.

You Fold Your Towels Corner to Corner

Upon realizing that she was late, Tonks bounded up, grabbed her coat and apparated.

The Leaky Cauldron was as busy as ever. Tonks sat at a corner booth with Remus, drinking a butterbeer and glaring into is amber-colored depths. She had barely said a word to Remus since she had sat down and Remus looked at her with concern etching his face.

"You certainly have been in a foul mood as of late. Is anything in particular bothering you?" asked Remus kindly. In the last year or so Remus had become a very good friend. Yes, Tonks had to sometimes berate him on his sensitivity and tendency to worry, but he was still someone she could count on and she enjoyed his company.

"There are a few things," she answered, biting back the things that wanted to come spewing out. But she couldn't tell him about Severus. It wasn't that she didn't trust Remus to keep quiet, but it was that she didn't trust him to trust her. He would think that her feeling for Severus were silly or unhealthy or something of that trend. He wouldn't understand, especially when she had turned him down.

"Care to explicate?"

Tonks stared at him. "Well, for one I might be fired."

"What?" asked Remus, bewildered.

"I don't think it will happen, but it could. Gave Dwalish a good shouting at today," Tonks said with a slight smile.

"Lost your temper about something? You seem to be doing that a lot lately," he said, looking at her levelly. "I will remind you that you were having a one-sided shouting match with a box of biscuits the other day."

"It was being stubborn," she replied defiantly.

"You mean you couldn't get it open with your hands or wand so you decided to see if verbal abuse would do the trick," mused Remus.

"I guess you could say that. But, today was different! Dwalish sent me to home of a lunatic without fully or properly briefing me on the subject. I was almost killed by Mitzy the Blasted-Ended Cornish Pixy-Skewt!"

"Okay, understandable, but that does not explain why you nearly punched Bill Weasley two weekends ago."

"He was being a prat."

"How, might I ask?"

"He just was," said Tonks, refusing to really answer the question. She didn't really want to say it was because he had been insulting Severus. She had longed to just tell him to shove it, because Severus had been a large part of defeating Voldemort, but she knew she couldn't. So, instead, her anger was bottled up until it turned to rage, which flew out at an unsuspected moment. "I don't want to talk about it," she finished lamely.

"Tonks, what is going on? I am worried about you," he said tenderly, making Tonks cringe.

"I am fine, Remus. Just peachy. Now leave me alone about it, will you?" she snapped.

He held up his hands in surrender. "Sorry. You have just been in a mood recently."

Tonks sighed. She really shouldn't be taking her frustrations out on Remus. "It's 'right," she finally said. "I think I just need a holiday or something."

"I really did not want to be the one to bring this up, but Molly has been pestering me about it for at least two months. Last time she reminded me she laid in with the guilt and those deathly glares she gives. You know—"

"—The ones that she gives Fred and George every time something explodes?" Tonks inserted.

"That's the one. Anyway, er…well…" started Remus.

"Spit it out," said Tonks looking at Remus skeptically.

"Well…you haven't dated in a while. Molly and Arthur know this very nice bloke and…" trailed Remus nervously.

"A blind date? You must be joking," said Tonks. She did not want to be too hard on Remus, as it was obvious that he had been coerced into proposing such a thing, but really, it was ridiculous. Anyway, she was already taken…sort of.

"It might be good for you. You know, something new; it could distract you from work and from whatever has been putting you in a foul mood. It will stop Molly from walloping me with her frying pan."

"Ah, I see your true motives now," said Tonks with a grin. She did not really want to, but the threat of Molly unleashing upon Remus and the fact that she did need some new distraction made her wonder if it was really a good idea. "I'll think about it. Just for you, though."

"That is all I ask," said Remus. "If you do decide to go, we can set thing up with Molly later this week. Tea on Sunday, remember?"

"Yes, of course," said Tonks, not sure still how she felt about this. What if the guy turned out to be a serial killer? Or worse, what if he was a fan of the Tornados? Tonks could handle the former, but a Tornados fan was a whole other deal. The scenario became worse and worse in her head. The guy could be an accountant who only listened to Abra Cadabra. He of course would have crossed eyes from staring and numbers all day and would live with his mother because it was "more economical." He would proceed to go through Tonks' house, measuring and leveling each picture frame. They would then get married and have many little babies that would pop out already bespectacled. They would of course be still living in the upstairs of her mother-in-law's house. Her mother-in-law would of course always berate her house-keeping and childrearing skills. One day, Tonks knew that she would loose it and curse her mother-in-law. She would then proceed to be arrested spend the rest of her life in Azkaban, her only visitor being her dweeb of a husband.

It all became too much for Tonks in her head. She suddenly burst out, "If I do this I am not baring him a hoard of nerdy children and I certainly will not put up with his mother telling me how to properly fold my hand towels. Understood?"

Remus grinned, knowing Tonks well enough to understand what was going through her head. "Understood," he said with no trace of mockery.

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AN: Thank you to everyone for reading and to those who reviewed.