Chapter Twenty-One: Regret?

A/N: As always thanks so much to my previous reviewers and to anyone who has followed or favourited this story! And thanks to Lizzybennet16 and Guest who I couldn't PM to thank! :)

Tonks POV

Tonks sighed loudly. She had just finished her shift and was waiting on the right opportunity to sneak down to the Department of Mysteries to begin guard duty. She cringed as she thought about it; she was absolutely dreading guard duty. Normally she didn't mind it, in fact, when it was with Remus; she usually looked forward to it. But Remus had hardly said two words to her since they'd kissed whilst drunk the other night, and he was absolutely and completely avoiding her.

He regretted it; that much was obvious. Yet Tonks couldn't help but feel annoyed at him... after all, he had kissed her and now, well now he was barely even speaking to her. She took one last look around the atrium, observing it carefully, before heading down to the Department of Mysteries.

Of course, Remus was already there.

"Hi, Remus," Tonks said somewhat awkwardly when he didn't immediately notice her arrival.

"Uh... Hi. How are you?" He asked her, although he didn't quite make eye contact with her. It continued this way for a while, Remus being quiet yet civil and Tonks being overly-talkative yet awkward. It was irritating her to no end. Every forced smile and short answer was cutting at her and making her more annoyed by the minute.

Tonks is impatient. She will freely admit that. Patience was certainly not the trait that got her sorted her in to Hufflepuff. So she couldn't help herself when she eventually threw her head back, emitting a loud sigh in to the silence surrounding them.

Remus turned to face her, his eyebrows furrowed together in confusion.

"Don't pretend, Remus! This is getting old now. You kissed me. If you regret it that much, you could just say!" She huffed, feeling the roots of her hair change colour and trying to concentrate on keeping her hair pink. She sometimes hated how much her hair gave her emotions away.

He remained silent for a while… Tonks was beginning to think he was just going to ignore her completely when he eventually answered.

"I don't," he said slowly. She turned to him with one eyebrow raised in his direction. "I don't regret it," he clarified, still not looking at her. She said nothing. If he didn't regret it, then why was he acting so strange?

"Why would you think that?" he asked her, his voice soft and confused, his expression serious.

"Well Remus you've barely spoke to me since the other night," she told him bluntly. He looked surprised; confused even.

"I- Well I thought you might want some space… from me," he said quietly.

"Why would you think that?" she said, repeating his words.

He didn't answer her at first. He seemed to be mulling over what he wanted to say. She thought about it for a second or two before it finally came to her.

"Oh!" she said suddenly. "You think I regret it," she said and by the expression on his face, she had guessed correctly.

"Why wouldn't you?" His voice sounded almost guilty and he averted her gaze completely.

"I don't," she told him bluntly in a tone she vaguely hoped was reassuring.

"I'm a werewolf," he told her, his face scrunched up in a familiar look of guilt and shame, almost as if he was telling her it for the first time. She exhaled slowly.

"You seem to tell me that quite a lot even though I already know…," she told him and he glanced over to her.

"I kissed you," he told her, this time his emotions were hidden and he remained expressionless. He seemed to always be trying to hide his emotions and Tonks could never understand why.

"I was there when that happened," she reminded him with her eyebrows raised.

"I thought you would react differently" he said as though it came as more than just a surprise that she'd reacted the way she did. Remus confused her immensely sometimes and this was definitely one of those occasions. She asked him what he meant by it and he seemed a bit reluctant to tell her. He eventually sighed.

"Well… I thought that you might be disgusted… by, well… by me," Remus told her and if it was possible, she felt even more confused by him.

"What!?" she exclaimed in shock. "I kissed you back if you remember correctly" she reminded him and a phantom of a smile appeared on his face momentarily.

"Yes, I know, but you were drunk and… never mind," he sighed.

"No, no, no. I do mind. I am not disgusted by you and I never will be."

Remus had flushed a bright red colour and was avoiding her gaze as much as possible. He nodded to her but she knew by his expression that he didn't truly believe her. She opened her mouth to speak to him but he shushed her, scanning the place quickly with his eyes wild. He moved himself closer to Tonks, making sure that the invisibility cloak covered them both completely.

There were footsteps; two sets. They were quiet at first, but they were getting louder; whoever was there was getting closer. She noticed the shadows coming closer to her and she tried as much as possible to keep perfectly still and keep her breathing as slow as possible. Her eyes widened when she noticed who it was though.

It was Bellatrix Lestrange and Narcissa Malfoy. Why did it always have to be Bellatrix? She was the one person that Tonks was terrified of, the only person. Instinctively, she grabbed Remus' arm, holding on to him tightly as possible as she tried to keep her nerve. He said nothing and they both continued to observe her two aunts. As she stared at them, she couldn't help but notice her own resemblance to the two women. Her mother was very like her sister and Tonks shared their dark eyes and sharp features.

"What exactly are we looking for, Bella?"

"Shh," the other woman said manically. "There could be spies," she said and Tonks' grip on Remus tightened. They were going to be discovered. Her heart was beating so fast she thought it might pop out of her chest. She concentrated fully on breathing and how they would duel these two should they be discovered. As she focussed fully on her Auror-like thoughts, her breathing slowed and she felt herself enter professional mode.

Bellatrix and Narcissa walked around, their eyes searching the place. At one point, Bellatrix' dark eyes stared right at them, seeming to bore right in to Tonks'. Tonks could feel the nervous energy build inside her and her hand twitched momentarily towards her wand. Bellatrix turned the other way, however.

"There's no one here," Narcissa said, looking impatiently towards her sister.

"We're here to find the prophecy the Dark Lord requires, Cissy," Bellatrix told her sister haughtily. They went further in to the room filled with the mysterious orbs. Remus motioned for Tonks to stand up with him but she was momentarily frozen as she stared at her aunts. She hated the fact she was related to them; people often thought she would be like them. Throughout her Auror training, her loyalties were always questioned because of the Blacks. Tonks was nothing if she wasn't loyal.

Remus put his hand on the small of her back and she got up, both of them following the two sisters. They walked around the room for about ten minutes before they found what they were looking for, Tonks and Remus keeping a safe distance behind them.

"Cissy, here, it's over here!" Bellatrix whispered loudly and manically, her face filled with excitement. Narcissa ran over and smiled when she saw what they'd been looking for.

"We'd better inform the Dark Lord it's still here," Narcissa said to her sister, a flicker of fear momentarily crossing her face. She smiled at her sister and they both walked out of the room, looking very proud.

"No filthy spies here either," Bellatrix declared proudly and Tonks almost managed a smirk at that. The two sisters exited the room in to a cover of darkness. They were gone more than five minutes before Tonks could finally breathe again; her and Remus sat down again on the cold floor. Tonks said nothing, still frozen in a state of near-panic. Tonks was never like this on missions, she was always perfectly calm and unafraid but there was something about those two, especially Bellatrix, which absolutely terrified her.

"Are you okay, Dora?" Remus asked her gently. She realised she was still clutching on to his arm. She quickly let go.

"Yeah, fine" she told him, though he looked at her with obvious worry in his eyes.

"Tell me, Remus… Do you think I'm like them?" she asked him suddenly. "Be honest" she warned.

"I always am" he said seriously. "You couldn't be any less like them" he told her seriously. She looked at him, her eyebrows scrunched together, unsure of whether or not to believe him. "You do have their eyes. But, in terms of character, you're the opposite" he told her honestly. She smiled.

"I believe you… thousands wouldn't" she said to him playfully. "How's your arm?" she suddenly said when she noticed red whelps where she'd gripped him.

"I'll survive it I'm sure," he told her.

"Good" she smiled. "Sorry, I'm not usually such a useless mission partner," she said with an embarrassed smile.

"I distinctly recall you saving my life on our last mission, then again the next night," he said light-heartedly. She grinned at him.

"Remus?" Tonks asked carefully.

"Dora?"

"I meant what I said earlier," she told him seriously.

"About what?" Remus asked cautiously though she thought he knew what she was talking about.

"That I could never be disgusted by you," she told him.

"Oh…"

"And yet you still don't believe me," she said; it was a statement, not a question.

"It's not that…," he started, though he said no more on the matter.

"You're so stubborn…" she said, but in that moment, she decided to show him that she was anything but disgusted by him. So, with her heart beating rapidly against her chest and nervous butterflies fluttering in her stomach, she leaned across and placed her lips gently on his. He seemed to be in a state of shock at first but thankfully, he did kiss her back. She ran her fingers through his hair, pulling him closer to her.

Her hair turned vivaciously pink and in that moment, there was nothing in the world except the two of them, locked in their own moment of contentment.