Chapter Eight
Remus and Tonks stood for a moment in prolonged shock from the days events. In shock induced silence they set about examining the room. Tonks opened the closet and discovered its charm. Inside were clothes that could very well have been taken from her wardrobe at home. Weird Sisters T's and some ripped jeans hung in one half of the closet. The clothes in the other side looked tailored to Remus. They were his style of clothes, but without the faded patches. She almost laughed. They were so different, yet in this closet their styles coexisted in a beautiful arrangement. If only the rest of life could be that simple.
She plucked out a large t-shirt that the closet had probably intended for the room's male occupant and some comfy looking sweat pants from a drawer. She headed to the bathroom to change.
Remus placed his wand and jacket on the far bed, the one Harry had conjured. He ran a hand through his already disheveled hair and sat to remove his shoes.
Tonks stumbled out of the bathroom and only just managed to catch herself before striking a bedside table. Despite her near fall she continued humming. Remus glanced up at her and was rewarded with a sight he hardly knew he'd missed. Dora's hair was still mostly the limp brown it had been for months, but there were definite streaks of bubblegum pink weaving their way through.
His mouth spread into a grin quite unconsciously. "You're hair." His voice was hoarse and quiet, but she whipped around at the sound of it. Tonks reached an unbelieving hand up towards her short mane. She tossed her clothes onto the other bed and raced for the upright mirror.
Her hair was pink. She hadn't been able to morph since Remus had told her no for about the tenth time when his answer had really sunk home. But here she could. Now she could. Somehow though, Tonks knew it wasn't the time or place, but the company that gave her powers.
She gazed at her reflection in the full length mirror. She could morph. Tonks grinned. She felt like herself again. Remus quietly padded over to stand beside her. His reflection was grinning too.
Tonks watched in the mirror as Remus' reflection brought a hand up to gently finger a lock of pink. She held her breath, afraid she was imaging this. "I love your hair this color." He spoke softly and his words took a moment to register in her stalled brain. When she turned to face him, Remus had already crossed the room and entered the bath, leaving her wondering if the encounter had happened at all.
Tonks staggered over to the bed her clothes had claimed and sprung onto its soft surface. She sprawled out, arms and legs flailing in all directions. She tried to memorize the feeling of Remus standing beside her, of his breath on her cheek, of his hand in her hair.
She lay staring up at the ceiling until Remus reentered the room. He strode over to his bed and sat down. Tonks sat up to make her presence known. As exhausted as she was, she wasn't going to sleep without discussing some things first.
"Quite a day, huh?"
Remus turned to face her. "It certainly has been." He paused a moment before voicing one of the day's major events. "We died," Remus said quietly.
The light in her eyes gave way a bit at that sobering thought, but she focused on a, in her opinion, positive revelation. "We got married!"
He couldn't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm. "Probably not in that order," he pointed out.
She acknowledged his remark by tossing her hair with a shake of her head. A smile did touch her lips. "Everything has changed so much."
"It has been seventeen years. A lot can change." He paused, reminiscing. "Seventeen years ago I was straight out of Hogwarts and a groomsman at my best friend's wedding."
"Seventeen years ago I was running around in pigtails trying to hex the neighbor's cat."
He sighed and pursed his lips as he examined the room's carpet. "You just provided more evidence for my 'too old' case."
Tonks glared at his bowed head. His greying hair was sticking up in a boyish cowlick, and she wasn't able to maintain the glare for very long. "At least I know you finally stop being 'too stupid' to see what's right in front of you."
Now Remus looked up to meet her eyes. Something between a smile and a grimace flitted across his face. He still wasn't sure about this. "Apparently." Remus was aware that he had begun to accept their relationship even today.
"I don't know why you're so surprised. What did you think was going to happen?" Tonks waited for a reply but received none. Remus didn't have one to give. "Did you think I would give up? Give up, maybe steal Bill away from Fleur, and live happily ever after without you in the picture? Did you think that would happen?"
Remus thought and replied carefully. "No." He couldn't see Tonks giving up on anything she was committed to. And for some reason she was committed to him. "I don't know what I thought."
Tonks snorted, not buying it. "You do too. You've been thinking it for six months at least."
Silence for a minute, then, "I just thought it would be best if I wasn't a part of your future."
Tonks didn't know how to respond. "Guess you were wrong." It was quiet as Remus laid his clothing on a nearby trunk and Tonks lobbed her garments on top of a chair.
"My hair's pink," she murmured, playing a strand through her fingers and reliving the sensation of Remus doing the same. It had been so long since she could morph that her usual hair color was now something extraordinary.
"Yes," Remus said simply. Amazing how much he had missed that color. "How?" he wondered aloud. For so long it had been brown, and while he loved her natural color, seeing her hurt had torn at his heart.
Tonks contemplated for a moment, unsure of the facts herself. "I think it has something to do with the company," she told him. Realizing he would take this to mean Harry and Ginny in the future, Tonks decided to clarify. "Namely you."
Remus remained silent, and Tonks continued. "I guess realizing it wasn't hopeless helped me morph again. Now I know what the future for us looks like, and I'm happy." He raised an eyebrow in some confusion. "I can morph when I'm happy, Remus." She shrugged. "And face it. You make me happy."
"I still don't understand why." Tonks sat on her bed with her knees tucked up under her chin in a way he found quite adorable. After everything he had done to hurt her, she was most joyful in his company. It didn't make sense.
Tonks watched him closely for a moment before responding. "Because you're funny and caring. Because you know me better than anyone." She picked a corner of the room to stare at as she continued, but she could feel his eyes on her every movement. "You noticed me that first day we met. You didn't write me off as a nobody or a freak the way most people do, you cared to get to know me. And it's made all the difference."
Remus watched as she snuck a glance his way. How could a beautiful young woman like Tonks really care for him? While he didn't understand it, he was beginning to be grateful. "For better or worse," he started, "I'm glad to have known you."
Tonks' smile lit her eyes. His words were ironic, and she grinned cheekily. "For better or worse. I think that's the idea." But his assurance meant more than her words conveyed. Luckily, she knew he felt that under her humor. Remus was always good at knowing her heart.
Understanding dawned and he grinned back at her. He had not intended to make the marriage pun, yet he was glad for the message it had communicated. He stood to put out the lamp. Tonks rolled onto her side and pulled the blankets around her.
Remus plunged the room into darkness and meandered back to his bed. He slipped silently past the obstacles blocking his way and decided it was a good thing Tonks wasn't the one navigating the dark room.
The creak of mattress springs told Tonks that Remus had reached his side of the room without mishap. She would have undoubtedly been less fortunate. The sudden darkness brought back her overwhelming weariness of mind, body, and spirit, but she was not ready to end the day without speaking to her future husband about their future child.
"What do you think of Teddy?" she asked the darkness, hoping Remus would hear her.
It was quiet a moment, but she knew he heard her and was thinking up a reply. "I would like to know him better." I would like to know him at all, he mused internally.
Tonks listened to the sheets rustle and added, "He looks like you."
Remus cocked his head even though he knew she couldn't see the gesture. "Does he?"
"You didn't notice? His hair is just like yours."
Remus chuckled. "My hair wasn't blue last time I checked. Grey maybe, but not teal." The boy had the color preferences of his mother.
Tonks scoffed at his humor. "Not the blue, the brown! In the graveyard when his hair turned brown. We must have scared him so bad he dropped his morph. It's the same color and he wears it the same way." She had long ago memorized the fall of Remus' light brown hair into his eyes.
"I hadn't really noticed." He heard her shift across the room. "He has your eyes."
Tonks shuffled noisily grasping for her wand. She had slid it under her pillow for easy access in case of an emergency. A muttered lumos illuminated her face in the dark. "These eyes?" she asked as her eyes flashed a bright lime green.
"Not quite."
Her eyes darkened to their natural brown. Those were the eyes he loved. "Yes, those. He's got them too." His son had his wife's eyes. Son. Wife. Words he would never have used in context to his life.
She smiled and doused the light. "I hadn't really noticed." Tonks again hid her wand and yawned widely. It had been quite a day.
She snuggled down into her pile of blankets and Tonks could hear Remus do the same across the room. She let out a long breath and decided to risk it. "Good-night, love," she whispered.
Tonks wasn't sure if her words reached the other side of the bedroom, but she felt she had to say them anyway. Now she wondered if it had been the right choice. While they had known their feelings before, today was the first they had learned of their marriage. Remus was still grasping, and Tonks wasn't even sure he was accepting yet. She held her breath waiting for a response.
He heard her. The simple endearing title drove home the changes of the day. And how incredibly lucky he was. It might be hard to stop fighting at first, but Remus knew he would be infinitely happier when he did. They both would.
"Good-night, love," he murmured in reply. Quiet, but powerful. And just because it had taken him forever to say the words didn't mean they hadn't always been true. Already after saying them he felt freed. And happier than he had in months.
Tonks smiled. How long had she longed for some sign he cared? Some sign he loved? Those few words whispered in the dark sent her flying, higher than any broom could take her. She closed her eyes and she fell into sleep with a smile on her face and her dreams were filled with him.
