Over the next few days, anyone Tonks was on duty with, would all have agreed that she looked horrible. Her hair was not its usual popping Pink or Purple, but changed from a mousy brown or limply black hair, almost similar to Professor Snapes. It did not look as if she was depressed, but preoccupied. Tonks herself kept rolling over the events of her last encounter with Lupin and the few tears she shed. Why did she shed those tears? She was normally so strong and never cried. Those few days, Nymphadora was rarely seen around number 12, maybe trying to avoid Remus.
One night, Tonks returned from her shift late Midnight to see Lupin in the sitting room, which looked better at night than it did in the day, with its weak light from a few candles and oil lamps, squishy mismatched sofa, loveseat and armchair. A polished, oak coffee table stood in the center of the room with a steaming cup of tea upon it. The sight just seemed so comfortable and inviting for the tired Auror, until she saw sitting on the couch, reading a narrow covered maroon book, Remus Lupin. Upon sight of hearing her footsteps, he set the book down on his lap and looked at his frazzled friend.
"Remus…" she began as she slouched down on the loveseat, removing her boots and setting down at the foot of the sofa.
"Nymp—Tonks, I didn't want to do that, but I don't want you there when I'm at my worst," he told, seeing her expression show she was about to protest.
"Does that mean you have to mess with my apparation!" bellowed Tonks, then remembering what hour it was and lowered her voice.
"What if I attacked you?" he questioned, setting the book on the table and grabbing his cup of tea.
"You didn't though," she protested back. "I know how to handle myself! I'm an Auror!" she told in an irritated whisper.
"That's why I was able to take your wand so easily," said Lupin slyly, not noticing Tonks putting her hand to the pocket in which her wand stayed close to her.
"Why are you doing this to me?" deemed Tonks desperately, putting her legs to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.
"I care about you too much to see you hurt by the hands of me."
"That will never happen. Why can't you give me a chance, and—"
"I will always be there if you ever need any help, but we should only remain good friends," summed up Lupin. Tonks sighed and decided not to argue back. Instead, she went over to Lupin and sat down next to him.
"Is it always very painful?" she questioned, turning sideways to face Lupin while laying her head against the couch. Considering this for a moment, Lupin closed his book and put it on the coffee table and gave her his full attention.
"When I was taking the Wolfsbane potion, I was still in a bit of pain, but not as much as it has been when I am not able to take it. Without it, I would lose my head and not be able to control my actions, in turn inflicting pain upon myself when no one is around. I would never want to hurt anyone, but when I transform, it's like someone is controlling me and I can't fight it. I felt a lot of pain from my injuries and the anger of not being able to take out my rage fully. I am only a threat to humans, animals on the other hand are no problem, so when James and Sirius learned to become animagi, they would be able to visit me and I would not have an urge to attack them. In the morning, I would return to my normal state of mind and body, but feel horrible. I can remember some of what happened, but many events stay a blur to me," Lupin told, Tonks listening very intently, internally distressed. She wanted to take away his pain. How could somebody who appeared so strong and intelligent, have to endure such distress. In turn, Tonks could only nod as she laid her head on his shoulder and tried to find the right thing to say because words escaped her and the few questions she had, she was finding it hard to remember them at the moment. Lupin saw it was hard for her to digest all he told her, so he put a comforting arm around her back. The limp black hair turned into a brilliant blue. Even though she had studied Werewolves and had training on them during her Auror training and had taken on one during her guard duties, hearing about a friend's condition was still just so hard to accept.
After a while of sitting in silence, Remus noticed Tonks's eyes were closing and she was falling asleep on his shoulder, so he gave her a nudge.
"I think you should go to bed," he told the sleepy woman on his shoulder who sat up with eyes fluttering. Tonks stood up, mumbled a sleepy goodnight and was about to head up the stairs when Lupin called her name. Turning around, Lupin stood up and embraced her in a sincere hug. She awoke a little and returned the hug, feeling better than she had in the past few days. Hair turning back to its Pink hue, Tonks smiled and went to bed. Lupin decided he was going to finish his book before heading off to bed himself and sat back down, opening back to the page he last left off on. There was a dull thumpand a small exclamation and Remus knew she must've stumbled into something and he chuckled to himself knowing how clumsy she is. Then he noticed her boots still sitting at the foot of the couch, took out his wand and with a small flicker, sent them up to her room. He then went back to his book.
The next day, Tonks went to Diagon Alley to buy a few things she needed and wanted to check on something. Many shoppers littered the streets, hustling and bustling to their destinations. There seemed to be a lot more people hanging around than usual, so something interesting must've been going on that day. Curiosity got the best of her, so she stopped the nearest person on the road and asked why there were so many people there today.
"Didn't you know?" said the young adult woman about the same age as herself. "The Weird Sisters were here today."
"Really?" Tonks inclined incredulously. She was kind of a big fan of the Weird Sisters, particularly liking their new song in which she still couldn't remember the title of.
"They left a half hour ago. Sorry you missed them," finished the girl and walked off. Damn, was all Tonks could think. If only she had decided to go to Diagon Alley early instead of sleeping in, she would've been able to see one of her favorite music groups. 'Oh well,' she sighed, 'Better get a move on.' With that, she started walking to Madam Malkin's Robes for all Occasions because her robes she wore when she was on duty were becoming very worn and torn. She wondered what it would have been like there if Hogwarts hadn't gone back yet.
As she was about to enter, two women clad in particularly grungy robes with small spider webs cut in various places walked by talking about the song with the title unknown to Tonks.
"…and my favorite part is when he says, 'I'll still be there in the dawn,' " told the Blond headed woman in which Tonks stopped, to a girl that looked exactly like her, presuming they were twins.
"Yeah, Night Tide is one of my favorite songs," the other girl told her twin as they kept walking. Night Tide! That was the name of the song! Smiling to herself, Tonks walked into the robe shop.
"Hello there," greeted the Store's owner, recognizing Tonks by her "always crazy colored hair" and going over to her.
"Wotcher," Tonks greeted back and smiling. "I'm going to need a few robes. My work ones are great, but they took a real beating.
"Well, we have a new selection if you would follow me," guided Ms. Malkin and Tonks followed.
About a half hour later, Tonks walked out of the shop with about six packages all neatly wrapped into three decorative purple bags. Next destination in mind, she decided to head to The Leaky Cauldron to get a cup of tea. When she entered the pub, she noticed a woman sitting at a table near the front of the store wearing a multi-colored crocheted sweater with kimono sleeves and went up to her right away. The woman didn't look up right away, but was reading the Daily Prophet.
"Wotcher Molly," greeted Nymphadora and Mrs. Weasley quickly put down the paper and jumped up.
"Hello dear," greeted red-headed Molly as she gave the young woman a hug and invited her to sit down. She closed up the prophet and set it off to the side while Tonks ordered a cup of tea.
"So how is the house now that everyone's gone (It's the middle of September)?" questioned the young Auror as her cup of tea was brought to her.
"Quiet," laughed Mrs. Weasley and Tonks, taking quite a few visits to the Burrow, knew she was referring to Fred and George, her twin sons. "So, what are you doing over here today?"
"Just doing a little shopping," Tonks told. "I needed some work robes and I was looking for—" then she thought for a moment, "Looking for some potion ingredients."
"I saw Alaster in the Apothecary just a little while ago. Says he was searching for a few ingredients for the Wolfsbane potion for Remus; came up empty though. I wonder why there are quite a few shortages in many ingredients," wondered Molly.
"Oh," thought Tonks defeated. "So you've been doing some shopping?" she said smiling, trying to hide her disappointment. Tonks admired talking with Molly Weasley. During the summer, she had spent a lot of time at the Burrow, especially with Ginny who loved having a "sister" amongst all her brothers.
"I went over to Kugo's Odds and Ends (Tonks looked at her questionably), it's a small "hole-in-the-wall shop upstairs from the Daily Prophet's Office. It sells many different things, but I go there to buy many colors of yarn. I got to start knitting now. Its only mid September, but it's already starting to become chilly," said Molly as she showed her friend the beautiful yarn in shades of maroon, gold, navy blue, red, emerald green and a particularly dark shade of purple that caught the Auror's eye.
"This one is so beautiful," said Tonks, pointing to the purple skein.
"I was going to make a nice chunky sweater for Ginny in that one," the older woman informed. "She loves the color purple."
"Actually," inquired Tonks. "She told me, right now her favorite color is green."
"Oh?" questioned Molly.
"That's what she told me last month." Tonks took a sip of tea. "You know, I enjoy chatting with you. You remind me of when I used to just sit around and chat with my mum. She used to knit also. When we would debate on events and such, she would sometimes drop stitches. I haven't seen her in a while though. Neither have I seen my dad."
"Maybe you should take some time off and take a visit home," Molly suggest, finishing off her tea and setting the cup aside.
"I dunno," muttered Tonks uncertainly. "I haven't been home in quite a while and when I received letters from them a while ago, they have moved for, which is now the third time in four years."
"It would be best if you sent out an owl with a letter saying you want to visit, but are unsure where they are currently located," Mrs. Weasley suggested thoughtfully. Thinking this over for a minute, Tonks decided to take Mrs. Weasley's advice and write a letter.
"I don't want to send out an owl from the Ministry, can I borrow Errol?" Tonks asked hopefully.
"Sure dear. Just stop by later and we'll send him out," Molly smiled.
Later that day, Tonks went over to the Burrow and composed a quick letter stating her name, Tonks(Underlined three times), saying how she missed them and asked where they were living now, and Mrs. Weasley sent off Errol telling him specifically to find Ted and Andromeda Tonks. After thanking Mrs. Weasley, in turn Mrs. Weasley giving her a nice hug, the Auror left telling her she had duty in the morning and left.
When she returned to Number 12 Grimmauld Place, it was to complete silence; not even Sirius was around. Sighing, Nymphadora went to bed wondering if her parents would receive the letter.