Nymphadora stayed huddled against the wall where her mother had left her, cradling her husband's body in her arms. Time seemed to have lost all meaning, and she was unaware of the cold of the wall against her back and the hot tears spilling down her cheeks. In this state, it was perhaps unsurprising that she failed to hear her mother's soft footsteps and so was unaware of her approach until Andromeda was right beside her.
"Nymphadora, darling, it's over. We've won."
Nymphadora nodded distractedly as Andromeda slipped an arm around her shoulders. They sat in silence for a long time, looking down at Remus' face. They said the dead always looked peaceful, but Nymphadora didn't see that. If anything, he looked more worn and anxious than he had in life, with the determined, kind personality that had always shone through the hardship missing. Their marriage had been a tiny affair, only her parents and a couple of members of the Order present as witnesses and guards. This wasn't because of a lack of guests who'd be willing to come: all Dora's Muggle family would have loved to attend the wedding, but it just wasn't safe. Her aunt Lizzie was the only member of her family who'd even met Remus, and that was by accident and before they were dating. Nymphadora had always hoped they'd meet him after the war, have a dinner as a sort of replacement for the wedding reception she'd never had. And now…
Andromeda was squeezing her shoulder. "We should move. We… we can't keep Remus' body here."
Nymphadora nodded and allowed herself to be guided to her feet. "You're right." She raised her wand to levitate Remus' body again and followed her mother slowly down the narrow corridor and out onto the main one. Pieces of the banister above the staircase to the Entrance Hall were lying, smashed, in their way, and the already complicated business of avoiding the trick steps down the great staircase was made yet more difficult by the fact that many other steps were broken or missing, too. At one point Nymphadora and Andromeda had to jump a gap three steps wide. However, they eventually reached the Entrance Hall and turned towards the Great Hall. The heavy door, which was standing open, was leaning slightly, its upper hinge damaged, and glass crunched beneath Nymphadora's feet as she walked through the Entrance Hall. Eventually, she reached the end of the line of dead that had been placed there, and allowed Remus' body to drift slowly to the ground. She sank to her knees beside him and buried her head against his now cold and lifeless neck. She felt her mother sit down gracefully beside her and put a hand on her back, rubbing it slowly in circles.
Nymphadora could hear that she was by far not the only person sobbing. The room was full of others, mourning their dead too, but right now she could not bring herself to care about anyone else, not even her own mother, although she knew Remus' death and her own grief must be pouring fresh salt in the wound of her father's death. It was for her, too. Her mother was wonderful and Nymphadora wouldn't swap her for the world, but she'd always felt closer to her father, he had an approachability her mother lacked. Although right now, she was a little glad of her mother's calm silence, which gave her the space to deal with her grief herself. Her father would have tried to fill the silence with comforting words, words about how great and brave a man Remus was, and Dora wasn't ready to hear her husband referred to in the past tense.
Nymphadora wasn't sure how long she stayed there. Long enough for the sun to reach its midday height and then lengthen the shadows again. Clearly long enough for Harry Potter to get away from his crowds of admirers, rest, and then wake up again, as eventually Nymphadora heard his voice calling her name.
"Tonks?"
She turned wearily to see the Boy Who Lived a few metres away from her.
"Wotcher, Harry," she said tiredly, her voice tight. "Guess I should say congratulations."
"Tonks, I'm so sorry," Harry said.
Nymphadora could see tears in the boy's eyes.
"About Remus… I'm so sorry."
Nymphadora shook her head. "Wasn't your fault, Harry. You've stopped a hell of a lot more people dying." She struggled to make her tone sound less flat and uncaring for the next question. "Who else did we lose?"
Harry swallowed, hard. "Fred Weasley."
Nymphadora hadn't realised it was possible to feel any more miserable than she already did. "No!" she exclaimed. Fred had been a great person: she'd always appreciated his and George's ability to make anything funny, even when Voldemort had been taking over half the wizarding world. "How's George? And the rest of the family?"
"Pretty bad. That's where Ron and Hermione are, or they'd be here, too." Harry began to list the rest of the names of the dead. Nymphadora tried to feel for each of them, but unless they were personally known to her it was difficult. She had few reserves of grief left. Funny, you wouldn't think that grief was a finite quantity, but it clearly was.
"Er, and…" he hesitated, glancing anxiously across at her mother. "Mrs Tonks, I'm afraid your sister was- she didn't-"
Andromeda gave a bitter laugh. "If I were you, Mr Potter, I would be more 'afraid' if she had survived."
"Which sister?" Nymphadora asked, even though she could guess the answer. She hadn't really asked her mother much about her family, but even she knew Andromeda would never speak that callously about Mrs Malfoy.
"Bellatrix," Andromeda answered, before Harry could speak. "I've seen Narcissa, she's alive."
Harry swallowed. "About that, Mrs Tonks, er, Professor Slughorn came to see me."
Well, that made no sense. Nymphadora forced herself to focus on the two of them, part of her glad of the distraction. "What?"
"I spoke to Kingsley just now. He's going to put out an announcement. For your husband."
Nymphadora swallowed hard at the mention of her father. "You mean for a funeral or something?"
Andromeda began to speak, but too late, as Harry said: "No, to see if he's still alive."
"The hell?" Nymphadora exclaimed disjointedly. "He can't be. Potterwatch got their information direct from the Ministry, Remus-" she paused to force back her tears "Remus told me. It came from the official lists, the ones they had to use to register deaths."
"He probably is still…. Still dead, Nymphadora," Andromeda said softly, her voice raspy with unshed tears. "But I was informed there was a possibility that the death report was wrong. I didn't want to get your hopes up, darling, but I have to try."
Nymphadora wasn't certain what she felt. Hope was there, certainly, but so was the fear that it would all come to nothing. And even, unforgivably in her opinion, jealousy. After all, there was no chance that Remus' death was a mistake, that Remus would be coming back to her. Nymphadora decided to focus on puzzlement. She could at least resolve that emotion.
"How could the death report be wrong?" she asked, directing her question at Harry.
However, it was Andromeda who answered. "Because Mrs Malfoy has been on more sides of this war than she owns pairs of shoes. And she has a lot of shoes."
"Yeah, Mum, you're doing that thing again. The thing where it isn't actually an answer, it just sounds like one."
Andromeda sighed. "It really isn't my information to divulge, Nymphadora."
"You've started now though, you may as well finish," Dora pointed out.
"No, darling," Andromeda said, softly but firmly. "That's all you need to know."
Dora gave up, knowing she would get nothing else out of her mother. She slowly got to her feet, looking reluctantly at Remus' body as she did so. Part of her wanted nothing more than to lie on the floor sobbing for the rest of the day… maybe even the rest of her life, but something to do would probably help, and finding her father was definitely something she needed to do.
"I'm going to go and look for him, Mum."
"You can't possibly do that. Even I've no idea where he is."
"I can try though. It would give me something to do."
"I don't think you're in any condition to be traipsing through countryside. And what if Potterwatch was right all along, and you find…" Andromeda broke off, her voice tight.
Dora reached to place a hand on her mother's shoulder, swallowing hard herself. The thought of finding her father's body after what had happened to Remus today… Dora had to admit her mother was right, it would be too much. She glanced across at Harry, who had half-lifted his hand as if to comfort her mother, then seemingly lost his nerve. Probably Andromeda's resemblance to her sister was at work again there, although Andromeda herself gave off an aloof air that tended to discourage people from getting too informal around her.
"If your father is alive, Nymphadora, he will find us."
