The Thing Before The Thing
After an Order meeting Remus usually stays behind to chat to people, so this time Tonks makes sure to corner him in his chair before he has the chance to stand up.
"So, it's you and me taking the kids back to school next week," she announces.
"Yes," he says looking up at her. Her hair's ginger today, as it often is when she's been hanging out with Ginny. Tonks seems to have semi-adopted Ginny as her little sister, which Remus reckons is nice of her since Ginny's got many brothers, and Hermione, the only girl here her age, is usually off with Harry and Ron.
"I'm on lates at work so I'll see you here about eight?"
He winces.
"What?" Tonks laughs, then cuts herself off abruptly, "It's not a full moon, is it?"
No, it can't be. Dumbledore and Kingsley always let him have the days around the full moon off. They won't have given this job to him if it is.
To her relief, Lupin smiles. "No, nothing that dramatic. I just don't like early mornings,"
"Well, lucky you'll be with a bunch of teenagers, then. I'll be the only one of us properly awake,"
"Bye, you two," calls Daedalus on his way out of the door.
"See you," Tonks answers. It's peculiar to be referred to as a "you two" with Remus. It's nice.
The talk of early morning makes a memory pop into Remus' head and he hears himself snort with laughter again. "Fred once told me that their Quidditch captain made them get up a six in the morning to practice,"
"Olly Wood? Yeah, he was always intense," Tonks shrugs.
He balks at her, then remembers that she was at school with Wood, and the twins, and that she only missed Harry by a year. Remus suddenly feels uneasy and his eyes flick away from Tonks as he fiddles awkwardly with his collar
Tonks frowns, confused by his sudden shiftiness. Sometimes he tenses up like this but she can't work out why. Is he uptight about something? Perhaps he's tired- he's often tired. She should ask Sirius about it. Tonks glances around for somebody else to pull into the conversation, but the kitchen's emptied. Typical. Well, she resolves, she might as well plough onwards despite whatever Lupin is closing up about. Tonks slips into the chair beside him and announces, "Harry's lot have got their OWLs next term,"
She perplexes him and she fascinates him. There he is, bristling with discomfort about how young she is, and she obviously doesn't want to be around him when he's being so strange and obtuse, especially since it probably seems to have come from nowhere- but now she's sat down next to him and wants to keep talking. How strange. It's no wonder he keeps thinking about her.
"Yes, and as their former teacher I'll be sending them revision timetables and crib notes,"
"You know Hermione actually makes them revision timetables. Non-ironically,"
He chuckles, "That doesn't surprise me,"
"A girl after your own heart," Tonks says, then grimaces. That was a Freudian slip and a half. God, what a stupid thing to say about a sixteen-year-old. Lupin's going to think she's a proper weirdo now. Hurriedly, Tonks changes the subject. "Go on, then, what did you get?"
"In what?"
"OWLs,"
Remus feigns trying to remember for a moment, as if he can't recite his results straight off. Then he wonders why he's doing that. Why doesn't he want her to know what he knows his OWLs?
"Four Os, four Es, two As," he lists eventually, "You?"
"Six Os, two Es, a P and a T. So I win," Tonks grins.
He can tell that she wants him to rise to it and he does. "How? You failed two,"
"Yeah, History of Magic and Arithmancy. I knew I was going to fail History so I doodled all over the exam paper, didn't even look at the questions,"
Remus shoots her a shrewd, thoughtful look. It's not exactly kind and Tonks wonders what she's said wrong.
"What?" she asks, confused. She's not asking too many questions, is she? Is she irritating him? It's alright when Sirius calls her annoying and nosey, but she doesn't want Remus to think the same. She wants him to like her, to think she's cool. Maybe more than cool.
"Sirius and James used to do the same," Remus murmurs. He'd always been appalled when the pair of them strutted out of the hall bragging loudly about not having written a single answer. The arrogance of it, the laziness- the privilege of knowing that they didn't need ten OWLs to get a job because their families were wealthy and well-connected enough to sort them out. Remus finds himself going off Tonks, just a bit.
"So, what were your Os?" he says wearily, because he's known Sirius long enough to know when one of the Blacks is desperate to show off about something.
"Defence, Charms, Transfiguration, Ancient Runes, Astronomy and Potions," Tonks rattles off, making sure to mention Potions last because she knows it'll impress him. Which isn't much of a way to redeem herself from asking too many questions, but Lupin's so poker-faced that she doesn't have any other ideas. At least she's talking about herself and not bombarding him with further interrogation.
"You got an O under Snape?" Lupin asks. She grins, pleased that it's worked.
"Yep. And at NEWT too. He hated me," she says with relish.
"Join the club,"
"So what were your Os?"
"Transfiguration- I'd spent the better part my school years being the only one of my friends to read the theory, Defence, Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes,"
It's probably silly that it still matters to him, Remus decides. Sirius doesn't know his OWL results anymore (well, that's hardly his fault, Remus reprimands himself, twelve years of Dementors has an effect on memory). Molly had given Fred and George a talking-to before they went back to school in September, and it transpired that they'd already forgotten their OWL results even though they had only taken them the year before.
Remus decides it's best to come clean. "Is it odd I still remember this?" he asks.
"Nah. Yours were really good, of course you should remember them," Tonks says quickly. She's starting to think that bragging about her O in Potions had sounded childish. This whole 'seeming cool' thing is much harder when Remus is concerned, because he's so effortlessly cool and controlled.
They lapse into silence. Remus should go. He's got things to be doing. No, you don't, points out a voice in his head, you've got nothing to do and you like staying here while this brilliant woman pays attention to you. Remus isn't sure if the voice is sneering or sympathetic. It sounds strangely like Sirius.
"Remus?"
Lupin jumps when she said his name. He must be thinking about something important, Tonks reckons. Something clever and interesting, like he is. Something far more important than the question she wants to ask. She should stop asking him questions, but this one had popped into her head months ago and she's only just remembered it now. It's important, and she doesn't want to ask when too many people are around.
"Hmm?"
"The Malfoy boy," Tonks says, and even the words sound odd coming from her mouth.
"Draco Malfoy? What about him?"
"Right, that's his name," Tonks notes, clicking her fingers as she remembers, "You taught him didn't you? What's he like?"
She watches Lupin consider for a moment- she likes to imagine the gears turning in his brain. Finally he says, "Bright. Works hard. Absolute brat,"
Tonks snorts. Remus likes it when she does that- such a daft, unladylike laugh. Her Morphing and her clothes and her hair and her Black cockiness all give the impression that she cares a lot about her appearance, but then she'll do that laugh and he'd be reminded that she isn't vain at all.
"Knew he would be," Tonks smiles, and Remus realises with a thump that Draco Malfoy is her cousin. He's always had it in the back of his mind that Tonks is related to Bellatrix Lestrange, but he'd forgotten that Mrs Malfoy is Andromeda's sister too.
He isn't sure what to say next, but helpfully Tonks continues, "Mum always said Narcissa would spoil him rotten,"
"You could say he's been somewhat indulged," Remus acknowledges, "He's not a pleasant lad by any means but he's very intelligent. Always had his homework in on time,"
"You're too nice, Remus,"
"I was his teacher," Remus points out, electing to omit mentioning Draco's sneers about his tattered robes and pallid complexion.
Tonks can't tell if he's picked up on why she was asking, so she explains, "We're cousins,"
"I know,"
"Never met him, obviously. I was hoping you'd tell me he's an arsehole,"
"He's a teenager," Remus shrugs, "D'you think you'd want to meet him?"
It's a topic she's given a lot of consideration to over the years. Tonks shoves her hands into her skirt pockets and says, "Yeah, I would. Just to see what he's like, see if he's as much of a bastard as I want him to be,"
Hoping that a fifteen-year-old is horrible, just to prove herself right is pretty nasty. Remus looks at the floor to avoid glaring at her. "Has your Mum told you that he is?" he asks, attempting to get to the bottom of Tonks' bitterness.
"Nah. She mentions Narcissa sometimes, and I run into the husband at work occasionally, but Mum doesn't talk about the kid. Don't think she cares,"
"And you?"
"Do I care? Sometimes,"
Even when her unnecessary cuttingness is irking him, statements like that make Remus want to know more. More about what she thinks and how she thinks. More about what it's like inside her head, because she's not like anybody he's ever met. More about her.
He tries a different route. "You don't look like him," Remus proposes, then realises that that's an inane comment to make to somebody who can and does change her appearance whenever she wants. That's another daft thing he's said to her in the last five minutes.
Thankfully, Tonks laughs, "Give me a photo and I could have a crack at it,"
Look like the Malfoy boy? No thanks, she scoffs internally. Well, she hasn't actually ever seen him, not even a picture, but from his parents Tonks imagines he's be all pale, pointy and prim. Remus is being overly generous, she decides- he doesn't want to admit how horrible the Malfoy lad is. Lupin's too soft on people.
"Bet you were a real pushover teacher," she says.
"Perhaps. You'd have to ask the kids. I enjoyed it a great deal,"
"Oh, I bet you did. Imparting your wisdom and all that,"
He shrugs. Tonks isn't sure what that means.
"Well, Ginny says you were really nice to her after what happened in her first year, and I heard Ron say with my own ears that you were cool," she babbles on.
"High praise indeed, although it's probably because I ignored the fact that most of his and Harry's essays were coped from Hermione,"
"Told you you were a pushover,"
"You may have a point," he concedes. She liked how self-deprecating he is. And she honestly would like to know about his teaching career, and she tells him so.
"I'd hardly call it a career," Remus says, more baffled than flattered by her interest in a jinxed job that he only held down for a few months two years ago. But she had asked, so he tells her. He explains the assault course exam he arranged for his third-year class, and the defensive counter-jinxes he taught fourth. He tells her about Emilio, the Muggle-born lad in his first-year class who didn't say a word out loud until Christmas, and the irritating sixth-year class who all mysteriously fell ill the weekend after one of the girls, Ailayah, turned seventeen.
"You remember all their names," Tonks observes, impressed.
"Suppose I've got a good memory for that sort of thing,"
"Better than mine. I can never remember the Malfoy kid's name,"
"It means dragon, if that helps," he supplies.
"Not really. The Malfoys aren't a dragon-y family,"
"No?"
"No, they're a...hoarsey family. A rooster family, I dunno," she gabbles. Hoarsey family? Tonks winces at herself- what the hell is she talking about?
The Malfoys are like roosters- Remus smiles to himself, making a mental note of that one to tell Sirius. He almost mentions that Draco was the first legislator of Athens, although he reckons it through and it sounds pretentious, so he keeps quiet.
It'd been good chatting to him, but Tonks reckons she should go probably sooner rather than later before she really puts her foot in her mouth. She'd about to stand up to leave when two teenage boys hurtle into the kitchen. The bigger boy stops abruptly when he reaches the table, causing the scrawny dark-haired kid to skid into his back.
"Oh. Hello, you two," says the big lad.
"Are you alright, Harry?" Lupin asks. Harry Potter appears from behind the other boys' back, rubbing his nose.
"He's a Seeker, he's used to it," shrugs the first boy.
"Which one are you?" Tonks asks.
"George," says the boy, "We've come to see if there's any food in here,"
"There's always leftover stuff after the meeting," Harry adds.
"Sorry boys, we scoffed it all today," Tonks tells them theatrically, "Better luck next time,"
"Well, that's a lie," George snarks, wrenching open the breadbin.
"While you're here, you might want to hear that it's us two escorting you back to school next week," Lupin informs them.
"Oh," mumbles Harry, looking abruptly crestfallen. He's had a difficult few weeks so his spirits have been up and down, to say the least, over the Christmas holiday. Remus was pleased to see him dashing around with George looking for sweets, but the reminder of the impending new term has cast a miserable expression over Harry's face. George, meanwhile, flicks his own ear and winks at Tonks, but says nothing.
"I'll pretend I didn't see that, shall I?" Remus says loudly. The kids spy on almost every Order meeting when they're here, using an invention of the twins', so they probably already know everything that was discussed in the meeting. Remus has long suspected that Tonks had a hand in helping the twins get round the shield charms. Of course he disproves of that, but he's never got round to bringing up with her.
"See what, sir?" George asks innocently.
Remus pins him with a Professor Lupin look, but lets it go.
"We're going to be leaving regretfully early so you'd better be packed by the Sunday night," he continues.
"I never really unpack," Harry shrugs. He's given up searching in the cupboards and had jumped up to sit on the kitchen counter.
"Practical thinking, Harry. Saves time. I like it," Tonks notes, "Listen, boys, I'd better head off. I'll see you on Monday, if not before?"
"Yeah, bye," says Harry.
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!" George adds.
"I'll see you soon, Remus," she says. She reaches over and pats his shoulder, which immediately feels awkward. But she might as well commit, so she does it again like patting somebody goodbye is a normal, friendly thing to do. To be honest he probably thinks she's a total weirdo anyway, so it won't make much difference.
"Yes, goodbye," Remus says, reminded she's got far more important things to do than natter with him all day. It's been nice of her to stick round for as long as she has. Very nice.
Remus only realises that he's smiling when George chucks a biscuit at him and asks what he's looking so pleased about.