MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE! Well, In Australia we only have about 25 minutes left of it but oh well : D

I really do live for your reviews so please please please review. I usually give up on my stories really easily and lately I haven't gotten many reviews so I'm wondering if my story is going downhill? Please let me know what you think about the story!

This chapter is mainly some character building, nothing much happened but I felt like writing tonight so here we go : )

Tonks had been so tired when she and Remus had gotten home from Dumbledore's mission that she had gone to sleep at Grimmauld place. There was a spare room that had been cleaned out and that wasn't being used so Sirius had made up the bed and Remus had put Tonks straight into it, before heading to his own room and going straight to sleep.

Two days later they were all sitting in the library. Remus had made sure that the first place he had cleaned out when he arrived at Grimmauld was the library. It was a room that they were almost sure they would not be disturbed in. They cast muffliato and silencing charms around the room so that they would not disturb anyone else in the house by talking. It was after dinner and the others were trying to get to sleep.

Tonks and Remus had not talked about the dementor incident since they had told Sirius about it and both were trying to forget about the whole thing. Tonks was back to being her cheerful self, and though Remus was as quiet as he ever was, he had a small smile on his face - especially when he looked at Tonks. Sirius was smiling widely because he had managed to convince them both to stay up with him.

Remus had taken to calling Tonks 'Nymphadora' just to annoy her and Sirius was still inventing new nicknames for her. Between the two of them, they were quite getting on her nerves. She could see why the two were best friends, and she was starting to see the side of Remus that made him a marauder.

"Little Tonket," Sirius began, "I think its time I enlightened you."

Tonks glared at him. "Enlightened?" she snorted in amusement. "Sirius, you couldn't enlighten anyone about anything."

Sirius pretended to act hurt. "You are talking to the genius that inspired some of the greatest pranks of all times. 'The great shampoo swap' and the 'Who in the Sam heck stole my wand' prank didn't just happen on their own, did they?"

Tonks was laughing so hard she almost fell of the couch where she sat next to Remus, staring at Sirius who sat across from them in an armchair. "Who in the sam heck stole my wand?" she gasped.

"Yeah. Sirius Black mastermind of the century." Remus said, with a twinkle in his eye. "But remember the incident with the broomstick?" Sirius went bright red at Remus's words.

"Don't you dare tell Moony! Or else I'll…" Sirius stuttered for a moment. "I'll tell Tonks about the first time you got drunk!"

The twinkle in Remus's eye faded a little. "If you do I'll tell about that time with the giant squid!" he said.

Sirius frowned. "I'll tell Tonks about the time I sent you that howler." he said, obviously thinking he'd struck gold at this one.

But Remus just smiled and said, "Go ahead and I'll tell Tonks about the time with the owls."

"Well, I'll tell Tonks about the time that you went into the forest and uh…" Sirius raised his eyebrows in a suspicious way.

Maybe it was Tonks imagination but she swore she saw Remus blush a little, but it disappeared before she could tell. "I'll tell about…" Remus started.

"Oh just shut up both of you and tell me about all these times." Tonks said. "I'll find ways to get it out of you now that I know anyway."

Sirius laughed and Remus glared at him. "Look what you did." he said. "You created a monster."

"It wasn't me who started this Moony." he said mockingly.

Remus turned to Tonks. "Curiosity killed the cat Nymphadora." he said seriously.

Tonks swatted him on the shoulder with her hand and glared. "Nymphadora?" she said angrily. "Really?"

Remus grinned. "It's your name. Just thought I'd wear it out." When she glared at him, his eyes softened and he said quietly. "I happen to think it's a beautiful name that belongs to a very beautiful woman, Nymphadora." Tonks had to admit that when Remus said her name it sounded much prettier, but she still hated it. He saw the glare fade from her eyes, even though she kept trying to glare at him.

The moment was ruined by Sirius of course, who started chanting " Nym, Nymmie, Nymphadora, Nymphy Nymphy Nymphadora…"

Tonks turned to him, murder in her eyes. "Sirius if you don't shut it, I'll hex you." she growled.

"Nymmily, Nymphy Nymphadora, Nora Nymphy Nymphadora…" he kept chanting until Tonks drew her wand and shot a hex at Sirius. The next thing Sirius knew, his hair closely resembled Snape's and a thick black grease was oozing from his scalp. His nose had grown long and slightly hooked and the words 'I love Snape!' appeared across his forehead.

This time it was Remus that almost fell off his chair laughing. Tonks had never seen him laugh so much and she stared at him in wonder. He looked so much younger and carefree when he laughed. He was doubled over and Sirius who was unable to see himself, jumped up, grabbed his wand and conjured a mirror. He yelped loudly when he saw his reflection which knocked Tonks out of staring at Remus and made her double over in laughter too.

Sirius started trying to reverse the hex fruitlessly. Tonks and Remus kept laughing as every attempt failed. "Is this a hex of your own design?" Remus gasped between bursts of laughter.

Tonks nodded, proud that he noticed that it was she who had designed the spell and thought that she was smart enough to come up with it on her own. So many people thought that she wasn't smart enough to design her own spell. "Yep." she said and started laughing again.

After a solid fifteen minutes of Sirius trying to reverse the hex, Tonks stomach was hurting from laughing so much and she waved her wand once, restoring Sirius back to his normal, but much more subdued, self. "Don't say I didn't warn you." she said.

There was silence and glaring on Sirius's part while Remus tried to stop laughing. Tonks smiled and then said in a businesslike voice. "So lets start from the beginning. 'The great shampoo swap' and the 'Who in the Sam heck stole my wand' prank?" she said.

Remus laughed and started to relate the story of the great shampoo swap to Tonks. "You know how much we dislike…" he started, but Sirius cut in.

"Loathe, hate, detest, abhor…" he said loudly.

Remus smiled and kept talking over the top of Sirius. "Anyway, we didn't…"

Sirius cut in again. "DON'T!"

Remus glared at Sirius. "Alright, You know how much we don't like Snape." It was more of a statement that a question and Tonks nodded. Remus smiled and continued. "He used to be really good at potions and it was the only thing in the world he was better than Sirius and James at. So they took to turning all his potions into shampoo while we were in class. Then… somehow… the potions had a funny way of ending up in shampoo bottles and then ending up in Snape's bag."

Tonks laughed. "Classic." she said. "Bet that annoyed the hell out of old Snapey."

Sirius laughed as well. "It sure did. Its not the best trick we played on him though. We've done better."

"Like the 'Who in the Sam heck stole my wand' act?" Tonks asked with a grin.

Remus laughed. "Ahhh, no… That one had nothing to do with Snape." he said. "We played that one on Pettigrew."

"One day we stole his wand, duplicated it - you know how when you duplicate a wand, the duplicate has no wand-like qualities and is merely a useless piece of wood - and left him the duplicate. He had the wand through classes for three days before he took it to McGonagall." Sirius said.

Remus snorted with amusement. "But before he did, we swapped them back and he took it to her." he laughed. "And she said, and I quote "Pettigrew. There is nothing wrong with this wand. Perhaps this is an indication that you need to study - well, quite a lot - harder." Then she sent him out and we swapped the wands again."

Tonks laughed. "How did he ever find out?" she asked.

Remus grinned. "One day his wand just started working again. We all claimed it was a miracle."

Tonks and Sirius were both doubled over, laughing hard. When the laughter died down Tonks said "Which brings us to the time with the broomstick." she raised her eyebrows.

Remus grinned. "Right well. Sirius was trying to impress a girl once."

"Once?" Tonks asked, grinning.

"Well, once out of many times." he winked and Sirius groaned, putting his head in his hands. "but this one time… He was trying to impress this girl, and he had a broomstick. Snape was nearby, behind a tree watching, and James, Peter and I were behind another bush watching. He was telling this girl about how well he could fly, and he mounted the broom and as he did, Snape hexed the broom and it started trying to buck him off. He stayed on until it flew him into the side of the castle and he was left hanging by his robes on the side of the castle." Remus laughed to himself softly.

Tonks eyes were sparkling and Remus noticed that it made her even more beautiful, and she took his breath away. "Didn't you help him?" she asked, amused.

Remus laughed. "The girl happened to be Lily Evans so if Snape hadn't done it, she would've." he smiled. "he had it coming to him either way."

Tonks grinned. "So now …"

"The first time old Moony got drunk." Sirius cut in over the top of her, rubbing his hands together. "Needless to say, but he ended up dancing." Sirius chuckled.

Tonks was definitely amused. "Is he a good dancer?" she asked. "Or worse than me?"

Sirius laughed. "Nymphie, I don't think anyone could stuff up the fine art of dancing quite as well as you do." he paused to block the book she had summoned to throw at him. "but he came very close."

Remus grimaced. "I was still better than you on a good day." he said.

"Lets let Tonks decide." Sirius grinned. "Revenge is sweet." With that, he stood and bounded over to the couch, pulled Tonks up and proceeded to waltz her around the room.

Once she got over the initial shock she cursed herself inwardly for not being constantly vigilant and said forcefully. "Do I need to hex you again Siri?"

Remus smiled at her words, and at Sirius's bravery - he was still waltzing her around the room despite being hexed by her only a little while ago. He looked at Tonks glaring at Sirius and trying not to laugh at the same time. Once again he was struck by how beautiful she was, and his breath caught in his throat as his eyes followed her around the room.

"You dropped your wand when I pulled you up." Sirius said laughing at her when she smacked her hand to her forehead.

"I should have been more constantly vigilant!" she cried. "Remus help me!"

Remus chuckled and stood up. Tonks was quite hilarious to watch. She was tripping over everything and Sirius was having to hold her up most of the time. Remus was surprised to realise that he was jealous of Sirius and how close he was to Tonks, and he stepped over to Sirius. "Hand over the lady, or we may just have to duel." he said politely.

Tonks rolled her eyes and Sirius ignored Remus and kept dancing. She sighed and silently hexed Sirius with another of her own hexes before Remus could attempt to duel anyone. Sirius let go of her as a bunch of miniature bricks started flying around his head and trying to fly in his mouth every time he tried to speak. They also started flying at the back of his head over and over.

As he let Tonks go to raise his hands to his head in alarm, she became unbalanced and fell. Luckily Remus was standing right behind her and he caught her before she could hit the ground. One arm went around her waist, the other behind her neck and he held her close to him as they both leaned halfway towards the ground. His face was close to hers and his touch was sending electric shocks through her entire body. She was speechless, and so, apparently, was he. He leaned down a little further until his lips met hers and forgetting Sirius, he kissed her with all the passion he possessed.

They broke apart only when Sirius coughed forcefully. He'd managed to get the bricks to vanish and was standing looking in a decidedly different direction. Remus pulled Tonks up and she turned so that she was facing Sirius. Both his arms came to rest round her waist and on her stomach, his head on her shoulder as they both looked at Sirius and laughed.

"I'm not looking at you." he said, but his eyes flickered in their direction and he smiled.

"Padfoot," Remus said, using Sirius's nickname. "What are you smiling at. You just got told by Tonks - you should be plotting revenge if I know you."

Sirius laughed. "Did not." In a more serious voice he added. "You two are perfect for each other you know. Nothing has made either of you smile the way you are now in the time I have known you."

Tonks laughed. "I thought you weren't looking at us. How would you know? We could be glaring at you for all you do or don't know." she said.

Sirius grinned and looked at them both before heading back to his chair. Tonks twisted around in Remus's arms and hugged him tightly before letting him go and walking back to the couch, sitting down and saying "I believe we were up to the time with the giant squid." she said with an amused twinkle in her eye.

Remus had followed her and he sat down next to her. She moved closer to him, closing the small gap between him, drew her knees up to her chest and leaned back against Remus who put one arm around her waist, causing Sirius to start coughing loudly. This time it was Remus who cast the spells and suddenly Sirius found himself unable to cough or speak.

Remus grinned. "Finally, some peace and quiet." he said, and then began to tell Tonks about the time with the squid. "There was another time when Sirius was trying to impress yet another girl, and he was down by the lake. He had his back to the lake, and he was talking rather loudly and throwing rocks out into the lake over his shoulder." He started to laugh. "The next thing we knew, a giant tentacle was headed straight for Sirius and it pulled him in and under. When he emerged again, he was covered in seaweed, and his robes were quite mangled. He learnt that day that the Giant Squid doesn't always appreciate arrogant wizards throwing rocks at him."

Sirius finally managed to throw off Remus's spellwork and growled at Remus, which only made him laugh harder.

Tonks shook with laughter. "Serves him right." she said, but she was distracted by Remus absentmindedly moving his fingers on small circles on her stomach where his hand was resting. She took a deep breath and struggled to keep herself coherent. She distracted herself by going down her mental list of the incidents Sirius and Remus had mentioned, trying to hide how his touch made her melt into a pile of goo. "What about the time with the howler?" she asked.

Sirius looked eager to start telling her, but Remus, who was looking at Tonks at wonder - wondering how a person like him ever managed to capture someone as amazing as her - asked her "How are you remembering all this in order?" He was referring to the fact that she remembered everything he and Sirius had mentioned in the exact order.

"Auror training." she grinned and then rolled her eyes. "Mad-Eye."

Remus grinned at her, trying not to look into her eyes, because he knew if he did that she would melt him right there and then. Sirius laughed and said, "The howler was a prank thought up by me. I was getting a little payback on Moony here. I managed to send him a howler at breakfast one day."

Tonks grinned. "What did it say?" she asked excitedly. She'd never received a howler herself, but she had seen other students have them.

Sirius cleared his throat and grinned. "I don't quite think we need to discuss it." he said. "it's a bit too much for your delicate little ears Tonskie. Lets just say that it was a very embarrassing howler for Remus to have."

Tonks didn't even bother to glare and just rolled her eyes. "Why did you feel the need to send him a howler in the first place?" she asked.

Remus chuckled. "Ahhh, well we were arguing in transfiguration one day, so I transfigured his robes into a dress."

Tonks doubled over laughing. "No wonder he sent you a howler." she grinned.

"What about the time with the owls?" she asked.

Remus grinned. "Well that was payback to Sirius for stealing some of my chocolate."

Tonks chuckled, and placed one of her hands over the one he had on her stomach, glad that their hands were hidden by her knees. "Of course, You and your chocolate."

He stopped tracing circles over her stomach and held the hand that she placed over his. He took a moment to collect his thoughts, trying not to let her see just how much she affected him with small gestures like that. "James and I, we snuck into the school owlery just before breakfast one morning. We had about fifty blank pieces of paper and we had them all rolled up. We used just about every school owl and got them all to fly the paper to Sirius." Remus laughed. "When the owls came in, all of them flew at Sirius and just about knocked him halfway into next Christmas."

Tonks was amused to hear the pranks that Remus had been behind. She'd never heard him laugh quite so easily, never had the sense that he relaxing as much as he was now. "That just leaves the time you went into the forbidden forest." Tonks said.

Sirius laughed gleefully. "This story's a real laugh." he said and Remus groaned in horror. Tonks tried to ignore the way he made her stomach jump when he groaned and he hid his face in her hair. "Moony here, went into the forbidden forest one time, and no-on has any idea why. We think he was sleepwalking." Sirius rolled his eyes. "Anyway, we noticed he was gone from his bed and we were just heading out into the grounds, when we saw him coming out of the forbidden forest… absolutely naked…" Sirius grinned.

Tonks could feel Remus's warm breath on the back of her neck and she tried very hard to keep her thoughts on track, and not think about Remus naked and walking out of the forbidden forest, because the image made her shiver, and not with disgust either but with something that felt oddly like need. "What happened in the forest?" she laughed a little breathlessly.

Sirius grinned. "That's just the thing… No-one really knows." he said. "Remus was still asleep when we found him. The teacher that found us…" he snorted in amusement. "Was none other than Minerva McGonagall."

Tonks laughed as she pictured the look of Minerva's face when she stumbled across that scene. "The teachers were worried that the sleepwalking was something sinister." Sirius said. "They did all sorts of tests and in the end we found that it was a reaction to stress. It was around exam time, you see."

Tonks nodded and smiled. "We've reached the end of the list, and I am nowhere near entertained enough." Actually, she just didn't want to move out of Remus's arms, just to go back to her cold apartment, even though it was getting late. "Tell me more." she demanded.

There was silence for a moment before Remus laughed. "Padfoot, do you remember the time you and James were dueling over who was better at attracting girls?" Sirius began to roar with laughter.

"YES!" he almost shouted through his laughter. "That was hilarious."

Tonks smiled and asked Remus, squeezing his hand. "What happened?"

Remus grinned. "So Sirius and James were fighting, and they decided to duel it out. They never could stay angry at each other for very long. They were dueling in the common room, and it had been going on for a while when James started grinning for no reason at all. Then he yells out "Expelliarmus!" and Sirius's wand goes flying. The funny thing though, was that James threw his wand away at the same time. Then they both just started laughing and retrieved their wands and just went straight back into dueling. The next thing you know, Sirius is standing there yelling 'Wait! Wait! What's the spell that dangles you up and down in the air? So James does the spell and Sirius ends up dangling upside down over the fireplace." Remus laughed again.

"It was one of our more ridiculous duels." Sirius grinned.

As they started to relate more stories of their time at Hogwarts to Tonks, she felt herself drifting to sleep in Remus's arms. She woke herself more than a dozen times, willing her eyes not to shut and trying not to yawn and give herself away.

Remus could tell that she was getting tired. Her hair was started to change back to a light brown at the ends, and she was leaning against him heavily. He tightened his arms around her, and buried his face in her hair again as Sirius started to tell Tonks about the time he had tried to get into the girls dormitories at Hogwarts.

As she felt Remus tighten his arms around her, Tonks finally fell asleep, unable to keep herself up any longer. Sirius trailed off as he realised that Tonks was asleep. "Am I really that boring?" he asked Remus.

"Yep." Remus smiled, his eyes shining.

Sirius poked his tongue out at Remus and fell silent. Eventually he broke the silence, "I've never seen you so happy Moony." he said softly. "Not even when we told you we knew you were a werewolf and that we didn't care."

Remus sighed. His feelings towards Tonks were now impossible to deny. He looked at the beautiful, lively and clumsy woman who lay asleep in his arms, and he knew he had fallen for her in so many undeniable, irreversible and undying ways. He wouldn't be able to leave her now, even if he wanted to. "Yeah. I guess its because she makes me happy." he replied.

Sirius laughed. "Happy is an understatement Moony. Really, you should see yourself."

Remus grinned. "We should get her to bed." he said.

Remus stood, and picked Tonks up. She didn't wake up, even when he walked her out the door and down the stairs, into her room and then placed her on her bed. The house had gotten considerably colder and he pulled the blankets on the bed that smelled so much like her, even though she'd only slept in them once, up over her shoulders and tucked them in. He kissed her briefly on the forehead before he left, turning out the light as he went.

-RL&NT-

Remus was having trouble sleeping. He was cold - much colder than he should be. When he was asleep he had nightmares where he felt as though the dementors were closing in on him, ever since the dementors had attacked him and Tonks. He could feel the absence of her now, more than he ever had.

In his dreams he relived the night he was bitten by Greyback, he dreamt horrible dreams where he was a werewolf and Tonks was right there with him when he was unsafe and hadn't taken his potion. He dreamt of death and had nightmares of all variations that included him hunting down innocent people and killing savagely.

As a result he was restless at night, not wanting to sleep out of fear, but needing to because he was so damn tired.

Before the dementor attack, he'd been having fewer nightmares, but he hardly slept since then. That evening spent with Tonks and Sirius seemed forever away as he struggled to separate dreams from reality.

-RL&NT-

Both Sirius and Tonks noticed how tired and pale Remus looked the next morning when they all sat down to breakfast. He'd been looking more and more tired since the dementor attacks, as though he wasn't sleeping properly and both were a bit worried. Whenever they asked him however, he just waved them away and said that he was fine, or blamed it on the full moon - a story that neither of them believed.

Even though Remus was tired from all his nightmares, he was still happy. During the day, he had Tonks, and he enjoyed spending time with her. He realised how attached to her he had become when he found that he couldn't stand the fact that she had to go to work that day, for the first time since they had gotten together.

Tonks bounded around the kitchen, knocking over everything in her way cheerfully. Remus wondered where she found the energy to be cheerful this early in the morning, especially before work. She tried to make him a cup of tea, and Sirius laughed as she broke the cup three times before Remus grinned and got up and did it himself.

Tonks didn't quite know why she was so cheerful when she was meant to go back to work that day, and she hadn't gotten a full nights sleep the night before, but she suspected that it had something to do with the memory of Remus and herself on the couch in the library talking happily to Sirius while he held her close. The memory made her grin wider and she snuck up behind Remus while he was making them all tea, and wrapped her arms around his waist and hugged him as tight as she could.

Remus smiled as he felt her hug him from behind, and had to focus to stop himself going weak at the knees. He turned to her and hugged her back, holding her tight for a moment before he turned back to the tea, and asked "What was that for?" in an amused voice. Tonks grinned and shrugged before attempting to skip over to Sirius to ruffle his hair.

On the way though, she tripped over a chair, and fell towards the table laughing as she picked herself up, turned to look at Remus and saw that he had taken a step forward and had an arm outstretched as though to catch her, even though he was on the other side of the kitchen.

She took the cup of tea that he handed to her once he had turned back to the tea and finished making it, gobbled down a piece of toast and ran for the front door, almost late for work. She ran into Molly as she left the kitchen who told her to be careful of the umbrella stand as a way of greeting.

Tonks scowled and slowed to a walk, managing to avoid the dreaded umbrella stand on her way to the door. She unlocked the door and stepped out onto the front steps. She sealed the door again, and turning slowly on the spot, and apparated to the ministry to face another day at work.

So what did you guys think? Please let me know : )

So Merry Christmas! Hope you all have a brilliant day!