A/N: Tonks and Remus. Yup. I figured anything with them would be cliché, but I'd try anyway. Based on my mom's experience of locking herself in a room when a coyote got into the house. On a sidenote, I wonder what happened between Tonks and Remus after this scene? Hmmm…

Tonks sat at the table, hands wrapped around a hot cup of tea, listening to the furniture upstairs rattle and creak. It was her first full moon with Remus, and she couldn't tell which of them it hurt more. Remus wanted her out of the house entirely, but she had refused. "I'll be fine," she had insisted, and kissed him before locking him into the room with the strongest doors.

Then she waited.

It was the screaming that was the worst, more than the destruction of furniture or the scratching at the door. Every howl sent a shudder through her. Such pain, and she couldn't do anything to help. Once, behind Remus' back, she had looked up the wolfsbane potion so that he would be able to keep his mind when he transformed, but it was horridly complicated with millions of things to screw up, each with dangerous side-effects. And potions had never been her forte.

It was quiet, and her senses sharpened.

Faintly, very faintly, she heard the sound of nails tapping on the wood of the upstairs hallway. Remus had gotten out of the room.

She was terrified, but Aurors knew how to keep a cool head. While she silently rose from her chair, she mentally slapped herself for being scared of Remus and all that werewolves represented. It was an old fear instilled from childhood, but experience had taught her that such generalizations and horror stories did more harm than good.

She moved too fast. Her chair overbalanced and crashed to the floor. The werewolf started running. He reached the stairs.

Tonks bolted in the opposite direction. The only room with a door in this part of the house was the bathroom. She ducked in, slammed the door shut, locked it, and threw herself against it. She tried to catch her breath and not breathe at the same time. Remus slammed into the door.

She was ashamed of herself for being frightened. Half of her didn't care if Remus bit her then and there. They would both be werewolves and he could stop worrying about being too dangerous for her. But the other, more rational half, recognized that Remus would never forgive himself if she too became a werewolf. And that Remus was one she never wanted to meet.

He slammed into the door again. She thought it would give way this time, but it held. She couldn't think of any spells that would help fortify the door. All she could do was wait.

Remus paced back and forth in the hallway, as if waiting for some sign. Tonks shivered and tucked her knees up to her chest. She didn't know what time it was, but hoped morning would come soon, for Remus' sake more than her own.

Otherwise it would be the longest night of her life.