It's sometime in the early hours of the morning―around two or three―when Tonks wakes from her unconsciousness the first time; the air around her is heavy and smells of mould. It also smells of rich peppermint and chocolate and a little bit of what she thinks is alcohol soaked aftershave. She can't decide whether she likes it or if the swirling, ringing scream stuck in her head makes her want to puke.

It's that nauseous feeling and the weight of her eyelids that send her back into the precipices of sleep, leaving her stuck somewhere between reality and dream.

Remus watches as her eyelids flutter again. She's been pulling in and out for the last few hours and each time his heart leaps to his throat. He hasn't been able to get his wand hand to stop shaking since he side-along Apparated Nymphadora back to Headquarters after the banshee attacked and has taken to clenching the edge of his chair.

Sirius slips back into the room, unusually light on his feet, and plants himself on the edge of Tonks' bed. She barely stirs, barely acknowledges that she's in this reality, but Sirius' passing glance leaves her and settles on Remus' face, torn with exhaustion and fright and worry that spirals lines around his eyes.

"I should have taken her to St. Mungo's," Remus says.

"She's fine. You're probably the only reason she didn't have to go there. Molly and Mad-Eye both checked her over. You did a good job." Sirius summons the tea tray set on the chest by the door. "Have something to drink," he says. "You need to calm down. I can get someone to track down a calming draught if you want."

Remus shakes his head. That last thing he wants is to sleep right now, despite what his body is telling him.

Sirius shrugs and prods at the brown hair on Nymphadora's pillow. "She looks a lot more like her mum this way."

"I always thought Andromeda bore a striking resemblance to Bellatrix," Remus says. He doesn't quite see it on Tonks. She's softer somehow, more delicate, and less frightening, even with the Black cheekbones. It must be from Ted's side of the family.

"Maybe now; when they were younger not so much." Sirius sighs wistfully and releases the limp strand of hair. "Nope, can't quite get used to her this way. There's just something about the pink, you know?"

Remus mumbles something incoherent. He's lost again, thinking about the assignment: the what if's, the maybes. And maybe just a little bit about how she isn't quite the same without the pink and how terrible it makes him feel inside to see her like this, like a shadow of her usual vibrant self. It's not even a terrible feeling anymore; it's become something closer to fear and it leaves his heart racing the same way it does right before the full moon breaks across the sky.

Sirius doesn't let him stew for long though and continues his assault of questioning, becoming something of a detective in this late night mystery. "Do you think it was a trap? That they knew you'd be staking out the joint?" he asks, his voice low.

Tonks shifts on her pillow and Remus is acutely aware of every time her chest rises. He's been counting her breaths, making sure the lingering effects of the banshee's wail don't do any more harm. She sucks in a pocket of air and Remus holds his breath until he hears her exhale again.

"That tip-off came from Sturgis, didn't it?" Sirius prods again, set in his determination to find out how two Order members walked into what Mad-Eye and Kingsley now thinks was a trap.

"Yes," Remus says. "He also didn't show for his duty yesterday from what Kingsley told me early this morning."

"Do you think someone got to him?"

"I do. And after tonight I think it's clear that they're trying to use him against us."

"He was rather lax about his Order duties lately," Sirius agrees. "But on the same front he wouldn't have been the wealth of information they were hoping for. He's missed most of the key meetings about the prophecy."

"That's exactly why the Death Eaters would have needed someone else: someone more integral to the Order. A Ministry worker if they could have managed it." His fingers tighten around his mug. If he hadn't of been there . . . if Tonks had been on her own―

"It was a smart plan," Sirius says. "Lure you into a false sense of security. Then have a banshee do the hard part and stupefy whoever entered the house. Later they come and collect the body."

"Precisely. Then they have access to everything they want to know. Every detail of the Order."

"Bet they didn't figure on having an ex-defence teacher scoping out the house. That bubble-head charm was quick thinking."

Not quick enough, he thinks, looking at Nymphadora again. But it could have been worse; so much worse.

"So you think Sturgis has been Imperiused?"

Remus confirms it with a tight-lipped nod. "Yes and I think it's only a matter of time before they use him to strike us again. I hate to say it but Moody's right: we all need to be more vigilant."

"Guess the old bugger knows what he's talking about." Sirius nudges Remus with his foot. "Go on and get some sleep. I'll keep watch."

"It's fine―"

"She's not going to go anywhere. And wouldn't you rather be awake when she is?"

Remus relents, dragging his tired bones from the creaky chair, wincing with every pop and snap of his vertebrae as he stretches his long, cramped limbs. "Wake me if something changes, will you?"

Sirius salutes him. "I'll keep detailed notes, Professor."

"None of your sheet strangling charms either."

Sirius looks affronted. "What do you take me for?"

"A Marauder."

"Oh, yes, alright then. I promise. No funny business until she's up and looking like her old self again. Now go, before the sun rises."

"You know, that's the same thing she said to me before we went inside the house. It's uncanny how alike you two are."

"Well it was inevitable that not all the Blacks could turn out to be heartless, narcissistic, pure-blood loving assholes. I'd say she's coming along just fine."

Remus chuckles to himself, hand on the doorknob. "Goodnight Sirius."

"Cheers. And just so you know you're in charge of breakfast when the sun does come up."

"Kibble and Bits, it is."

"Oh, well now who's uncanny? Taking a page out of her book now are you?"

"I never said anything about you having fleas."

"Yes, but I wonder where she got that idea in the first place?"

Remus shrugs. "You are a rather scruffy dog."

"And you're a sodding werewolf, but I don't see her complaining about that."

He's right. Remus throws Tonks a curious look as he exits. It's something to think about really, but maybe after he's had a few hours of rest. Or maybe he'll just be thinking about things too much again.

"Morning, darling, have a nice rest?"

Tonks blinks at the yellow light streaming in through the window mounted along the ceiling. Her fingers snake into her hair―her brown hair?― and she winces as she squeezes her head. "I feel like I have a hangover."

"You took a pretty nasty fall."

"Is that what happened?"

"After you were attacked by a banshee."

"A―really?"

"Probably would have ended up in St. Mungo's if it wasn't for Remus," Sirius tells her matter-of-factly. "He cast a bubble head charm before the banshee could do any serious damage. You should thank him. Get him some of that chocolate he's always going on about."

Tonks shuffles up against the headboard, dragging her body into a sitting position and almost tips forward.

Sirius props her back up with a wry smirk. "I didn't mean right now."

"I have to get to work," she says. "Scrimgeor will be expecting me in an hour."

"Well now just hold on. Let me go get Doctor Remus and see what he has to say about that."

Sirius props another pillow against her, making a show of the fact he thinks she's about to topple out of bed when she's really only a tiny bit dizzy, and then he disappears. When the door opens again Remus is standing there, looking blurry eyed, but surprisingly alert.

He's still in his clothes from last night.

"You're alright then?" he asks, forgoing the chair and sitting on the edge of the bed.

She starts to nod, but stops as the room starts to spin. She holds the side of her head, hoping to stop the swirling movement behind her eyes. "Thanks to you, I suppose."

"Well, it is what I do."

Her eyes furrow in confusion at that, and he can't really blame her, not when she was almost stupefied by a banshee. Her mind's probably still a little foggy with the residual scream.

"You know, the whole defence against the dark arts thing."

"Ah. Professor Lupin at his finest," she says, a small smile replacing the look of discomfort. "Wish I could have seen that."

He sighs and brushes a strand of limp hair away from her face.

The way he looks at her stops her heart for a fraction of a second and she definitely forgets to breath until he smiles at her, but it's not his friendly teasing grin, it's softer than that, more gentle and sincere. She takes a breath out of pure shock; no one's ever quite looked at her like that before. "I'm really glad you're okay."

She swallows and doesn't know what to say. He fills the silence for her.

"You really should stay and rest up."

Tonks moves to stand, wobbling a little and Remus steadies her with a hand on her shoulder. "I ought to be off," she insists. "Can't really explain this one to Scrimgeour."

"Yes. You're right," Remus relents. "At least stay for breakfast then? A spot of toast might help with the dizziness."

"Is it that obvious?" she asks, running a hand through her hair.

Remus smiles gently. "Only to a seasoned observer."

"Oh, well, I don't think I could stomach breakfast right now anyhow." She's holding the side of her face. Even her jaw feels achy. "Nothing feels quite right."

"The effects will fade," he assures her. "By tonight you should be back to your old self."

She accepts that with a sigh. "Here's hoping. But thanks again, Remus. I owe you one."

"I'll put it on your tab."

"I'm really going to have to start paying that off soon." She squeezes his hand and walks into the hall. He hesitates a moment before following after her.

"Nymph―Tonks, just . . . please be careful today," he says, taking the stairs two at a time to catch up with her. "Last night wasn't just an accident. So if you run into Sturgis don't confront him. We think he's been Imperiused."

"I thought he seemed a bit funny the last time I talked with him. Guess Mad-Eye's right with all his harping on instincts and vigilance." A sigh and she stomps down the last few steps. "Lock up for me, would you?"

He walks her to the door like always and when he waves, she Apparates home. She changes into her Auror robes and after brushing her teeth, attempts to do something with the mess she's calling hair this morning. She can't believe Remus had an entire conversation with her even though she looked like she had just toppled out of a barn and through a tree.

She also can't believe she's this worried about the way she looks. She's gone into the office on less sleep, looking far more dishevelled before.

The stupid banshee has her all out of sorts today.

There's a large slab of Honeydukes finest on her desk when she arrives an hour later, wrapped in a note written on pale pink loose leaf. To my favorite Auror, it reads. Hope you're feeling well today. P.S. The chocolate really will help.

His favourite? Well of course she is, she thinks. Who's he got to choose from: Mad-Eye and Kingsley?

Still, she smiles like she's just won the Quidditch World Cup. But wait. How had he gotten it to her this quickly? She scans the room and spies Kingsley in the corner, flicking lazily through a report. He catches her eye and winks.

Very sneaky, Remus.

"Okay, so you're getting presents now?"

Tonks rolls her eyes at the shadow before turning her chair, knees drawn up to her chest. "Bugger off, Chavers."

He ignores her the same way he usually does and plops himself down on her desk, taking a swipe at the note that Tonks quickly stows in her pocket. "And you expect me to believe there's not a guy. Who is it? Some rock musician with a dragon tattoo?"

"Why do you care so much anyway?"

"I don't."

"Hmm. Well you're awfully noisy."

He disappears rather swiftly after that and Scrimageor drops a thick folder on her desk filled with old reports that need transcribing. "Bugger," she whispers, but the note in her pocket has her smiling stupidly until she sees the first draft of what looks to be an incident with a Dark Wizard hunt in the mountains. There's something that looks particularly like blood on the corners of the page and Tonks is sure her finger tips are burning when she drops the paper to stretch her hand and refill her ink.

She's taking one of her post morning coffee breaks when something unusual happens. An owl gets sidetracked by a thick stack of memos destined for the Department of Enchanted Artifacts and knocks the coffee all over her desk.

She siphons as much as she can with her wand before retiring to the loo to clean her robes up a bit.

When she exits the loo she's almost trampled by someone. Looking up, she sees Sturgis. He's bulldozed by her, completely oblivious.

Tonks races back to the Auror Department, scattering an elderly witch's purse as she escapes from the lift and barges into Kingsley's office.

"Kingsley! I―"

"Nymphadora," Scrimgeor says, looking up from behind Kingsley's desk. What in Merlin's name is he doing here? "Did you need something?"

"Where's Kingsley?"

"Just left on assignment."

And you're raiding his office? Never mind that now, she thinks. Bigger problems. Sturgis Podmore is in the Ministry of Magic.

Crap. Kingsley's gone. Now what? She could get Arthur. But her venturing into his office might draw too much attention. Scrimgeour clears his throat.

"Uh, right . . . nothing, sir. Just looking for his approval on a report."

She backs out of the office, turning on her heel and marching back towards the lifts.

"Tonks?" Chavers says as she stalks by his cubicle. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah fine. Girl problems you know. I'm in the loo in case anyone asks."

She scurries around the first corridor and as soon as she's sure it's empty she sends a Patronus to Headquarters, hoping someone will see it. Remus had said not to confront him. But this wasn't confronting. This was just following.

Tonks takes the lift back down three floors and out past the loos. She finds the emergency exit and races down the stairs. Sturgis had a head start, but he can't have gotten that far.

She emerges into an alley in some slum part of London. The exits always open up in some inconspicuous place.

There's noise to her right and immediately she spies Sturgis fighting his way through some sort of garbage dump.

She's only taken two steps when a pale shimmering figure dissolves around her feet and a hand wraps around her mouth, locking her lips; for an instant she panics, reaching into her pocket for her wand, but there's another hand on her wrist then, halting her.

"Shhh, Nymphadora," a voice says and the panic in her chest settles. It's Remus.

He releases her and she turns. "You got my Patronus?"

"Yes."

Sturgis doubles back and Remus yanks them both against the wall. He's holding her against him, body flush to his, using the shadows to hide. Sturgis scurries down the alley in the other direction, oblivious to their presence for now.

"We need to go after him," she says.

Remus nods and releases her, but keeps pressure on her lower back, letting her know he's there. Keeping her from rushing ahead. That was Remus for you. Always level headed. Always calm. Even when in pursuit of someone who was potentially going to try to kill them.

They follow Sturgis through half a dozen back alleys until they end up in a more familiar part of the city and Tonks realizes they're outside the Leaky Cauldron.

Sturgis slips inside and they follow, watching him gun past the bartender and into the back cupboard.

They give him a moment before following him to Diagon Alley.

The street is less busy during the lunch rush, most of the shoppers have moved indoors for a bite to eat. It makes keeping tabs on Sturgis easier. That and the fact that Remus is so bloody tall.

"Knockturn?" Tonks whispers when Sturgis makes a sharp right and Remus nudges her into another alley.

They trail him sideways, catching brief glimpses of his pale, expressionless face between store fronts.

"He's been summoned," Remus says.

"By who?"

They stop suddenly, seeing that Sturgis has halted beside a grey building, the alley next to it filled with wrecked furniture and an assortment of old cuckoo clocks. The faces are carved in disturbing shapes and the skeletons of real birds spill from the openings above the numbers.

There's a second figure in the alley, cloaked in black, hood drawn over the face.

Sturgis is speaking to him . . . or her. Oh, what Tonks wouldn't give for an extendable ear right now.

Suddenly voices rise and Tonks doesn't have to guess what they're shouting about. It's a plea for life. Arms flail. And then a wand comes out. Tonks doesn't realize she's gasped until the green jet of light has passed into Sturgis' chest and he sprawls forward, lifeless.

The sound of his body smashing against stone sends a freezing chill down her spine.

He's dead.

She bites down on her lip to prevent herself from crying out any further, but her knees are suddenly weak, too shaky to support her, and she thinks she's falling. He's dead. Just like that. A life snuffed out by darkness. She's ready for the contact. Ready to hit the ground. But she never does.

Instead the smell of chocolate and peppermint invades her senses. The soft pill of a worn jacket brushes across her nose and between her fingers and she grabs hold. There's a moment of divine clarity in which she realizes she's been turned in Remus' arms. He's clenching her face to his chest, keeping her sobs muffled so they're not found.

She doesn't think being trapped in his embrace should make her feel any better but it does and she squeezes his coat just a little bit harder.

"You can't say anything to anyone," Remus says, walking her back towards the entrance to the Ministry.

"I know."

He pulls her off to the side, taking her by the shoulders. "Are you alright? You're very pale."

She's just seen a man get murdered. But yes she's fine. This is war, right? Why wouldn't she be fine? "I'm fine."

"Come to Headquarters tonight. Molly and Arthur will be there." When she doesn't respond he adds a quiet, "Please."

She gives a vague shrug and wanders off towards the public loo. When she steps into the toilet and flushes herself back into the Ministry she feels a terrible clawing sensation in the pit of her stomach. Sturgis is dead because of the sacrifices he made for the Order. It made him a target. It made him weak. And now his cold, lifeless corpse was going rigid on a back street in Knockturn Alley where no one would think twice about it. And there was nothing she could do; but certainly the Order should do something. He was one of theirs and the least he deserves is to be buried and remembered by the people he called friends. If they can't at least give him that then what does any of this matter?

There won't be anything left of him by the time we can arrange to go get him, Remus had told her.

They'll want to make a spectacle of him. Of the Order.

Tonks finishes her shift in a daze and returns home to her flat. She can't even remember how she got there: whether she Apparated or walked or if she flooed. For some reason it doesn't matter.

She slips out of her robes, leaving them in a tired heap on the ground, and turns the shower on full, stepping inside and releasing a breath that's been building since this afternoon.

The water in the shower is hot enough to scald, but she's feeling so out of sorts she doesn't realize until she steps out of the stream, twisting in front of the steam covered mirror to find her usually creamy skin red and hot.

Her hair's lost some of its vibrance, the bright pink faded back to an almost brown. She can't be bothered to change it though and lets the almost pink settle in wet waves on her shoulders.

She slips into her favorite pajamas: a pair of cotton shorts and an oversized jumper and fiddles with the lights in the kitchen before going to bed.

The dark makes her squirm a bit more tonight. She suspects it will for several days: at least until she can get the images of Sturgis being killed out of her mind.

Tonks collapses on her bed, wrung out and ready for the day to simply end. That's when she hears it: someone pounding against her front door.

The knocking is so persistent that she's drawn her wand and stopped two feet from the door.

"Who is it?" she calls, fingers itching with anticipation.

"Remus."

She opens the door slowly, wand still drawn.

"You didn't show for dinner," he says. He swallows. He's breathing like he's just run a marathon. "I had to be sure."

"Sure of what?"

"That you didn't go back for his body. Kingsley's just received a call. They found the dark mark over Knockturn." He's almost breathless now. "I thought maybe . . . and when you didn't show up."

His eyes are wide, almost chaotic looking, an air of fear in their appearance. But she's right here, she wants to say. She didn't go anywhere.

"I was so worried."

She blinks, something registering in her mind. Then don't begrudge him his worry. It's what people do when they care about each other. They worry. That's what he had said to her the other night about Mad-Eye.

She takes his hand then, the one wrapped around the door frame and squeezes. He's shaking and cold. "Would you like to come in?" she asks, though she's already pulling him inside. "I'll make tea."

He doesn't resist and let's her lead him to the kitchen table. He sits, resting his hands under his chin and watches her: watches her fill the kettle, search for tea bags, pour the water, stir in a dash of milk.

He doesn't stop watching her until she's sat down across from him. Then he finally looks down at the tea in his hands. "I'm sorry to barge in like this. I didn't mean to intrude. I just―"

"It's okay, Remus," she says, placing her hand gently on his arm. "I worry about you, too."

Hello Readers!

I just want to take the time out to say thank you for following and reviewing. I hope you've enjoyed the story so far and continue to do so. I love hearing your thoughts on the chapters, even if it's just to say you're looking forward to more, so don't hesitate to drop me a line!

On another note, as I continue to plot out this story it's looking more and more like it will take a slight shift from canon eventually and end up in an alternate universe stream. (Teddy won't let me kill them; he really won't.) I think it will still borrow from most of the main canon events, but I'd like to try my hand at a story where these two end up with some sort of happily ever after.

They've got a long way to go yet, but I think they deserve it after everything they had to go through.

I hope you continue to enjoy this story, just wanted to give everyone a heads up so there are no surprises come future chapters :D