8
TONKS nervously bit down on the wall of her cheek, silently fuming in her anger as she sat down at the end of the table of Headquarters, her hand over the column of her throat as she winced and tried to cover up the strangulation markings that Severus Snape had just dealt her outside her own cousin, Sirius Black's home, following an argument before Disapparating on the heel of his boot, calling her a wretched succubus, and tried her hardest to ignore her fellow Order of the Phoenix members, Mundungus Fletcher and Auror Kingsley Shacklebolt discussing her behind her back, as though she weren't but a few feet away from them. Mundungus's grating voice that sounded like a wooden crate being scraped along a cobblestone street filled her ringing eardrums.
"Don't you think the new girl is pretty, Shacklebolt? Easily one of the most beautiful witches I've ever seen, and that includes all the ladies I've met in Knockturn Alley!" he whisper-shouted rather loudly. Tonks felt a fiery heat creep to her cheeks and was hardly aware her fingers had curled around the tines of her fork in utter agitation and pure rage.
"Yes, she is, isn't she?" Auror Shacklebolt answered in his low, deep baritone, raising his voice loud enough for Tonks to hear, and she was pleased to hear, if nothing else, that her colleague and fellow Auror in the department at the Ministry of Magic sounded displeased by the turn that their conversation had taken as if he did not approve of discussing the obvious physical attributes of a fellow friend behind their back.
Tonks resisted the urge to groan and silently tried to thank Shacklebolt with her eyes, though a fat lot of good it did as Mundungus Fletcher was oblivious. The git, she thought angrily, biting the wall of her cheek as she rose from her spot at the table, almost overturning the kitchen chair so fast in her haste to flee Headquarters' kitchens that she almost tripped on her damn boot.
She could still hear fleeting snippets of Shacklebolt and Fletcher's conversation as it rang in her eardrums, her ears burning bright red in anger.
Fletcher, Merlin damn his soul to the seven hells below, was still going at it, despite other Order members' attempts to steer the conversation elsewhere.
"She would look prettier if she were less thoughtful. That girl always looks like she's thinking about something or other, always frowning. Maybe if she were more feminine, daintier, then maybe…" Mundungus was saying.
Kingsley, Merlin bless his soul, came to Tonks's defense. "I, for one, Mr. Fletcher, am glad she isn't. If that were the case, she'd not last two days here!"
Tonks silently seethed, grinding her teeth in annoyance as she headed for the only place in her cousin's parent's home she knew she'd get peace. Upstairs.
Once upstairs, she walked purposefully through the hallway of Number 12, Grimmauld Place, itching to find Sirius's parents' library and take refuge from being the butt of every joke and ridiculed comment about her appointment. Just because she was the youngest (not to mention the newest) member in the Order of the Phoenix gave no one the right to talk about her in that regard in front of her face, no less, and especially not old Mundungus.
She marveled at how quickly her life had turned around since her induction into the Order. It had been almost a year since Lord Voldemort's return to power. A year since she had graduated from the Auror's training program.
A year since Ollie dumped your ass, her conscience piped up from the dark recesses of her mind. No! Tonks froze, forcing her mind to grind to a stop.
She would not think of him. Could not. She had said goodbye to Ollie Brennan months ago when he had so coldly told her under the shade of the willow tree that they were through, that he was in love with someone else.
Someone that wasn't her. Tonks thought it would have been kinder if her former lover and classmate would have just killed her, but he had not, then.
She had forced that chapter of her life to come to an end, and even as she swore to leave the former Slytherin in the past, as practical as she knew herself to be, there were still times when the pain he had left her would creep its way unbidden to the surface and render poor Tonks nearly unable to breathe at all.
Last night had been one of those times. Tonks had hardly slept at all, finding the quiet and still darkness an unwelcome burden, as she fought to keep thoughts of Ollie from her mind. Tonks had spent the long dark hours forcing her chest to rise and fall and sucking in the cold air around her pushed down past the lump in her throat and filled the gaping, empty hole of his betrayal in her heart. Even now, here in the hallway, it felt as though Ollie watched her.
His face was so sullen and morose, it sent a chill down Tonks's spine. His deep, icy blue glacier eyes pierced her soul. He mouthed her name, but she could not hear his voice. Tonks itched to reach out to her former boyfriend.
To touch him, to feel him, make sure that he was really here, but she knew the second she did, he would vanish, a horrible phantasm of her mind.
Tonks blinked, and the second she refocused her vision more than a few feet in front of her, Oliver James Brennan had disappeared completely from view. Her lungs, starved for breath, gasped in oxygen but they still burned.
Her chest heaved as tears poured steadily down her pale cheeks. Tonks blinked at the sudden clarity that began to fill her mind. If she were to ever move on from Ollie, she understood what it was that she needed to do now.
Steeling herself, feeling as a muscle in her jaw and behind her right eyelid twitched, Tonks sniffed once or twice and brushed away the last wretched tear with a well-practiced flick of her finger as she could hear Professor Dumbledore conversing in low tones with another man, a voice that she did not recognize.
Raising her white-boned knuckles gingerly to the door that stood at her immediate left, Tonks bit the wall of her cheek and knocked, effectively announcing her presence to the Order's founder and whomever else was on the other side of this door that they were no longer alone and had her company.
There was a beat. A pause. And then—
"Come in. The door's unlocked."
Tonks nodded, though she knew the Headmaster and the owner of the second voice could not hear it as she twisted the doorknob gingerly and swung the heavily paneled door inward, revealing Dumbledore and a younger man.
He was handsome enough, this stranger, Tonks supposed, with a pale, if not somewhat peaky appearance. A thick tuft of coarse light brown hair flecked with bits of premature gray covered his slightly lined face and fell to the right side of his slender, almost emaciated-looking face, and he stood an inch or two shy of 6'2 if Tonks had to pinpoint the melancholic chap's face, but that was not at all what her gaze was immediately drawn to as their gazes locked.
She did not gasp, nor flinch, or make any sudden movements as her sharp, inquisitive eyes wandered the length of the man's face, at the three angry, red, and pink jagged lines that slashed diagonally across the poor fellow's face.
They began at the man's left browbone and extended all the way, marring his nose and ending at the edges of his lip, curling his lip downward in a slightly twisted way, which gave the man a permanent appearance as if he were scowling, though she could sense no malicious intent in his brown eyes.
Despite the man's looks, he seemed a good-natured chap, kind, and had a certain aura within that the young Auror could not immediately place, but she could tell by the way a light pink blush speckled along his cheeks, flushing them high with color as he looked away and back towards Dumbledore, that he meant her no harm. She let out a shaking breath and looked to the Professor.
"Ah. Nymphadora." Professor Dumbledore brightened. "You wished to speak to me?" he smiled, his twinkling cobalt pale blue orbs peering at her over the rims of his silver, half-moon spectacles. Tonks mutely nodded, parting her lips open slightly to speak, though before she could announce the nature of her visit, he did not give her the opportunity to speak. "Might I have the pleasure of introducing you to one of our veteran Order members, Remus John Lupin?"
Tonks's gaze flitted back towards the younger man, guessing him to be somewhere in his early to mid-thirties if she had to hazard a guess as to his age.
He inclined his head slightly, though did not speak. His lips were slightly agape, as if devoid of words, and his pale was exceptionally peaky as if hit by a blizzard. There was a strange revolt in the man's light brown eyes that Tonks could not quite place, though she had no time to ponder it as she heard Albus clear his throat, seemingly wanting to direct her attention back to her visiting.
"A pleasure to meet you, Miss Tonks," the stranger murmured lowly.
"Y—Yes, Professor," she stammered, speaking to Albus directly, though not moving her gaze once from the man whose name she knew to be Remus.
Tonks was quite certain she'd never felt timider in her entire life as both men's heads swiveled in her direction and remained fixated upon her.
She was unsure where exactly to begin, or how to phrase her request.
"I…" she began, wincing as she heard the faltering crack and dip in her voice. "I can no longer work with Professor Snape, Headmaster. I refuse. Get someone else to work with that snake, and make sure he keeps his forked tongue between his damned teeth, Professor Dumbledore. He is vile and cruel."
As if to emphasize her point, she felt her shaking right hand instinctively drift towards the pale column of her throat and winced, still feeling the finger markings of where Severus had almost bloody strangled her the other night while on night watch outside of Death Eater Augustus Rookwood's hideout.
Professor Dumbledore looked puzzled, his grey brows furrowing into a light frown as he took a cautious half-step forward, though Remus Lupin, perhaps in his agility and given he was several years younger than Albus, was faster.
"Stop," Lupin commanded in a quiet, reserved tone, tenor-like, and almost musical, in a smooth, rich, melodious kind of way. The kind of voice a man ought to have, Tonks thought, interested, as she took a nervous step as he advanced on her. Tonks shuddered at the touch when the man lifted his left hand and gingerly lowered her hand from around the column of her throat, to better examine the markings more clearly, almost opposing it, but welcoming it, too.
"Please, Miss Tonks, relax. Allow me to see the wounds," Lupin urged, a note of desperation in his voice as his hand lowered and he gestured towards a nearby chair. "You're safe now. Are you hurt anywhere else?" he demanded.
Tonks mutely shook her head, reluctantly allowing the man to lead her towards the chair, upon receiving a slight nod of confirmation from Albus.
"No." The confession escaped her lips as a low, hoarse whisper. The question sounded more foolish than anything she'd bloody heard in her life!
Tonks almost snapped at Remus Lupin before a small semblance of reason came back to her mind. Get a hold of yourself, she scolded herself.
I don't think he means to harm me. He just wants to help me. I hope.
"No." His fingertips, slightly rough and calloused brushed her neck, raising at the sight of a few droplets of blood that had stained them. "Not much," she clarified. "I—I left Snape before things could get any worse."
Tonks turned her head to the side to cough as her lungs heaved for air, and Lupin looked at her in silence for a moment, pulling his hand away from her throat, rubbing his blood-stained fingers against each other in quiet thought.
She tried to mold her features into a mask of gratitude or relief that she was now in the company of another man whom she could hopefully trust.
Tonks wanted to thank the man, this stranger who she barely knew as she watched him wave his wand and conjure a small wooden bowl with what looked suspiciously like a foul-smelling ointment to treat her wound and a roll of gauze. She glanced down at her trembling hands and noticed they bled too.
Tonks cringed, wondering just how much blood she'd left on the chair when she'd sat down in the kitchens downstairs, thinking Molly was apt to murder her if she went back down there, and she decided the safest course of action was simply to stay up here for the remainder of the evening to be safe.
The Auror wanted to thank the man, but she wasn't able to. Her body still violently trembled and convulsed at the aftermath of Severus Snape's attack.
The horrors of the awful way he had looked at her prior to the man's temper imploding when she had taken it a step too far into their partnership.
Thank Merlin her eyes were dry. She didn't want Professor Dumbledore or Remus Lupin seeing her tears, either. Not when she was in such a bloody state, literally and figuratively. The man's eyes went down her arm, stopping at her wand curled tightly in her hand, fully prepared to defend herself if needed.
It was Professor Dumbledore who broke the silence first, saving Remus Lupin the trouble of responding, though Tonks could tell by the way the younger man's face flushed in anger, the skin around his scars pulled tight across his brow, causing him to shirk in discomfort, that he was itching to ask her what had happened, that she had provoked Severus in such a way to elicit the man to jinx her this badly that she very nearly suffocated and bled out to death.
"You will get better protection, Nymphadora. I assure you. You shan't be needing that," he murmured, gesturing towards her wand with a jerk of his head. With reluctance, Tonks loosened her ironclad grip on her wand and handed it to Remus Lupin, whose hand was outstretched, patiently waiting to receive it, and for a fleeting moment, the witch was tempted to jinx him with it. But then she would be left completely at the mercy and whims of Severus Snape, and quite possibly, considering the fate she had very narrowly escaped ten minutes ago, there could be no fate worse than another year as his partner.
She shuddered, the very concept of such an idea making her skin crawl as she watched as Lupin gently took her wand and set it down on a nearby table.
"It would seem, considering the dire circumstances, Miss Tonks, that you are in need of a new partner," Dumbledore murmured thoughtfully, the whiskers of his long grey beard twitching without prompting as he folded his hands together. "Wouldn't you agree, Mr. Lupin?" he asked, his piercing sky-blue gaze turning towards Remus, who jumped, startled at being asked for his opinion that he fumbled the small wooden basin he had been holding as he waved his wand to conjure a second chair so he could sit by Tonks's side.
"Yes, Albus," Remus muttered by way of response, seeming utterly surprised at being asked his opinion, his voice low, and Tonks swore something in the man's hardened gaze softened as his head swiveled in her general direction. "You do not have to remain Severus's partner, Miss Tonks," he declared to her, a fleeting emotion that Tonks could only describe as anger as it flitted across his face like a shadow, and for a moment, she became frightened.
Tonks straightened; her expression hardened as she tried to mask the bitterness that she wanted so desperately to put as far away from herself as possible.
"Forgive me, Mr. Lupin, but who then would you suggest taking his place?" she asked dryly, lifting her chin resolutely. It took what little strength Tonks left possessed within her not already drained from the aftermath of Severus's blows the Potions Master had dealt her with two swift flicks of his wand to keep the anger and bitterness from seeping into her quiet, kind tone.
She had spent the better part of a year in Severus's insufferable company and had no further intention of allowing the bitterness of her former partner's betrayal at what the man had just done to her to shadow anymore of her life.
Tonks tried to tell herself this was the course she was plotting for herself, now in charge of her own fate, but she knew whomever Dumbledore appointed as her new partner here in the Order, it wouldn't be easy.
"I'll do it." Remus Lupin's quiet voice pulled the young Auror from her swirl of dark thoughts.
Though as Tonks's head whiplashed sharply upward to regard the younger man as he was in the midst of pulling his chair closer, the wooden bowl tucked underneath one arm to tend to Tonks's wounds, he had to jerk his head back immediately to avoid his head connecting with hers.
Tonks gaped at the man blankly for what felt like several long moments as the man's words hung in the air between the three of them, unable to function. She tasted bitter acidic bile that lingered on her tongue, and she pulled a face, scrunching her nose in disgust as Tonks forced herself to swallow it.
Professor Dumbledore's twinkling pale blue orbs behind his eyeglasses glistened and the aging old wizard did not bother to stifle the smile that crept at the corners of his mouth, turning his lips upwards into a knowing soft smile.
"That settles that matter, then. Miss Tonks, if you are agreeable to the conditions of accepting the appointment of Mr. Lupin as your new partner in the Order, then I'll leave the two of you alone to get better acquainted, yes?"
"I…y—yes, of course," Tonks stammered, unable to form a coherent reply as she swiveled her head back to the right to regard Remus in utter shock.
The young witch knew she ought to be grateful for the selfless nature of the man volunteering to serve as her new partner here in the Order. If Remus had not just openly volunteered, then she'd still be paired with old Snivellus…
She shuddered at the thought and stifled a low, mournful whimper as her hand instinctively wandered to the bleeding column of her throat and sighed.
"Thank you, Remus, if I may call you by your first name?" she asked, finding it to be the only thing she had the strength left within to utter at this point in time. But Merlin's Beard, she was really pulling out all the stops here, today, wasn't she? On a first-name basis with a man she hardly knew yet!
"You may," he answered her shyly, a light blush developing on his cheeks. She was rewarded with a gentle, soft smile as the edges of his lips tugged upward, and she felt her heart flutter unexpectedly against the confines of its cage. "What should I call you, Miss Tonks? I take it by the way you scrunched your nose in disgust when Professor Dumbledore called you by your first name, you aren't too fond of it," he chuckled, scooting his chair closer and setting the small wooden bowl on the small table beside the armchair Tonks was sitting in.
"Dora, if you insist on calling me by my first name, but if you aren't comfortable with that, then just Tonks," she heard herself mumble in a low voice. She quirked a brow her new partner's way, wondering if the man's motives were merely egotistical for wanting to look after her and help her out, but he had ultimately saved her from a fate worse than death, either way.
He merely acknowledged it with a tiny, curt nod of his head, slowly lifting his head as he waved his wand and a tiny strip of gauze removed itself from the roll of its own accord and flew neatly into his outstretched hand.
Tonks winced, biting the wall of her cheek, and let out a tiny groan.
"Can't we just leave it as is? I—really, i—it's not as bad as it looks, Remus. Trust me. I'm fine," she moaned, feeling her face drain of colors as he brought the basin closer and set it on the small side table near her armchair.
The Auror watched as her new partner shot her an admonishing look and fixed the young witch with a pointed stare that emphasized his displeasure, looking hurt that Tonks would even suggest such a ridiculous thing while hurt.
"No. We can't, Dora," he murmured, and Tonks felt a shiver of an unidentifiable emotion journey down her spine as the man used her first name. "If I allow you to leave it untreated, there's every possibility it'll become infected."
Tonks offered a small nod of her head and heaved a sigh of exasperation as she threw her head back and tilted her head slightly to the right so as to not obstruct Remus's view of the light as he poked and prodded the wound near her collarbone, courtesy of the Sectumsempra Jinx via Severus Snape, his brows furrowed in contemplative thought as he determined the best way to treat it.
He worked in silence for a few moments, not talking much at first, and then when he had finished and scooted his chair back to admire his handiwork, he offered his new partner a curt nod of his head and a soft, gentle smile.
Her heart fluttered unexpectedly as the man's shy smile caught her by surprise. He really did look better when he smiled, Tonks thought, amused.
"Severus won't be bothering you anymore, Dora," Remus spoke up quietly, observing her as he rose from his own chair, the wooden basin of bloodied bandages tucked under his arm as he strode across the room to set it down before turning back around to regard Tonks once more and join her in the chair he had just vacated. "I can promise you that," he muttered darkly.
"What will you do to him, Remus?" Her voice was quiet, meek, not sounding at all like herself, slightly quivering. She discovered that despite Remus's valiant efforts attending to her wounds inflicted by that snake, that she still didn't have much control over her body, as it continued to shake, prepared for an assault, her body tensing up despite her new partner's gentleness.
Tonks froze as a shadow of something dark flitted across the man's features as the man's posture in his chair stiffened and his lips pursed in a thin line. "I'll talk to him," he said, albeit, with great difficulty, his voice strained.
She almost huffed in indignation and resisted the urge to fold her arms across her chest. "And talking will be enough for that—that snake?" she spat.
"Yes." His tone bordered on a finality that Tonks knew better than to argue against as the young witch realized she wouldn't get anything more specific out of the man given his shift in countenance. But maybe that was her clue, as to just how much she could depend on her new partner not to hurt her.
"Mr. Lupin," Tonks began somewhat hesitantly, looking at him with fearful, disbelieving eyes. "If I may say something rather delicate?" she asked.
He looked surprised at her request but quickly recovered, nodding his head, and moving to sit next to Tonks in the chair that he had conjured. "Of course, of course. And please. Call me Remus. I prefer it," he murmured softly.
Lupin fell silent and waited for Tonks to continue. She still swore she felt Severus Snape's ironclad grip around the column of her throat as she rested her hands on either armchair of the chair she was sitting in, biting down on her lip.
If she told her new partner everything that happened with Snape, something would have to be done about the snakelike bastard, though considering the injuries on her throat and collarbone spoke for themselves, she could tell Remus Lupin needed no further explanation from her to figure it out.
Instead, she found herself drawn to the man's eyes. A rich light brown color, like that of hot cocoa on a cold winter's day, instantly thawing her ice-cold heart, taking away the sting of Ollie's betrayal a chip at a time. She sighed.
"He said…if I told anyone what—what happened, that I'd…suffer," she whispered hoarsely, feeling her pale gray orbs widen and go round with shock.
Severus Snape was not a complicated man for Tonks to have figured out, that the Head of Slytherin House and Order members foundations were his fury and pain, and when Tonks had commented on such concepts, he'd lost his temper with her.
He was simple to see right through the various layers, in sharp opposition to the man now currently seated next to her, who she had a hard time reading, though perhaps that was because the man's face was impassive as his brain no doubt was taking as much time as it needed to process Tonks' words. Tonks noticed that as time passed, the overwhelmed man was finding it easier to look upon her for longer lengths of time, which was good.
She swore she saw a muscle in Remus Lupin's jaw twitched as his pale and somewhat peaky face drained of all colors, a look of shock and anger on the man's face. "As I said, Dora, may I call you that?" he questioned, glancing cautiously at the young witch out of the corner of his eye, seeming to let out a relieved, somewhat shaking breath as she quickly nodded her agreement. "You won't have to worry about Severus anymore."
Again, it was everything Tonks was going to get out of her new partner for an answer, but the proper words exchanged between the two of them had already been spoken. This conversation, Tonks recognized, was over. For now, at least. Until next time.
He rose from his chair, wincing at the stiffness in his joints, holding out his hand for Tonks to take. Sensing her hesitations, he offered her a kind smile.
"I don't bite," he joked, the corners of his scarred mouth twitching upwards as he fought back a pained grimace that to her looked like it hurt him.
Tonks bit the wall of her cheek and took her hand, letting out a hiss as the man's slightly rough, calloused palm in hers, despite its roughness, seemed to feel smooth at the same time, and a fiery heat swelled through her veins. Neither had expected the sudden spark from the innocent reaction and they pulled back into themselves quickly and Lupin dropped her hand as though the simple touch of her skin against hers had burned his inner palm.
The man glanced from Tonks to the ground, parting his lips to speak, now seeming nervous. "If you would feel safer, Dora, I—I mean, Tonks, then you might be able to stay here at Grimmauld Place with Sirius and I. Near my room. I would be closer to you and could keep an eye on you."
As he lifted his chin and jutted it out slightly in order to better meet her gaze, his face, Tonks could see, held a dumbfounded expression, as though the man could not believe the words that had just come out of his own mouth.
Tonks smiled, a warm feeling resting in her heart as she gazed back at the man, unknown to her, that Remus Lupin was suffering the same feelings.
All his life, he was judged by his appearance, his monstrous scars, but this woman, this young and really quite beautiful witch, had not. Nymphadora Tonks had chosen to look upon him as though he were a normal human being.
Her smile, Remus knew, unbeknownst to her, was utterly contagious, and he felt a hesitant smile play on his features as he returned her gentle smile.
Tonks paused as Lupin offered her his arm as a gesture of goodwill, intent on leading her out of the upstairs spare room and back down to the kitchens, his ears perked up at Sirius calling both their names, telling them Molly had made a chocolate cake for dessert and was demanding he test it.
"I suppose that's our cue," he joked, stiffening slightly as Tonks slipped her arm around his, her fingers curling tightly over the material of his jacket sleeve. "Think over my offer, Dora. You do not have to, but if it would help put your mind at ease," Remus offered, looking away from Tonks pointedly.
"I'll give it a thought, thank you." Tonks somehow managed to conjure a small, genuine smile as she allowed her new partner in the Order to lead her down the stairs. Suddenly, something in the man's appearance struck her as odd.
The scars on his face were no ordinary-looking scars, too prominent to be the product of a dog attack, or a knife as she had initially thought maybe the poor bloke had gotten on the bad side of someone in The Leaky Cauldron, no.
No. These were different. Cursed wounds. She pursed her lips into a thin line and bit the wall of her cheek as the realization struck her as to what they were, and she reeled back slightly as if she had been doused in cold ice water, and Tonks was unsure whether or not to cry or laugh hysterically at her partner.
Werewolf, oh, those are werewolf bites! Her mind felt like it was reeling.
Remus noticed Tonks's odd frown and furrowed his brow in a frown of his own. "Is there a problem, Tonks?" he inquired gently, so as to not seem demanding or hurt as her gaze settled and lingered on his scars. "You can tell me. If you are not comfortable with this new arrangement, then I can talk—"
"This was all a test, wasn't it?" The words left her mouth before Tonks could even think about stopping them. She'd probably utter them regardless, knowing her and her big mouth and inability to mind her own damn business.
"A test?" His frown deepened as Remus looked at Tonks enquiringly, tilting his head and feigning innocence, which only made Tonks' blood boil.
"Of Severus's intentions. Dumbledore, he—he did this, somehow. I recognize you now that I've met you up close like this," Tonks breathed, wincing as she hoped she didn't sound accusing or hurt as she figured it out. "You sit by yourself during Order meetings. You hardly talk to anyone. Dumbledore wanted to see how my partnership with Snape was progressing. It was a test for both me and Severus. This was all a set-up, wasn't it so that Albus could appoint me as your new partner?" Tonks couldn't believe what she was saying, and neither, apparently, could Lupin, who was looking dumbfounded.
Tonks withheld nothing back, confronting her new partner over this revelation as best as she possibly could. And she couldn't be entirely sure, though she swore there was a spark of interest in the man's glistening brown orbs at her brilliant deduction, impressed with Tonks' ability to figure it out.
Tonks could not help but feeling a little bit wounded as she felt her hand drift of its own accord to allow her fingertips to graze the finger marks on her throat and she winced and noticed from a sideways glance that Remus did, too.
"You—you could have come earlier, you know," Tonks grumbled, a hint of indignation in her voice. "What kind of crackpot scheme was this?!"
Resentment towards Professor Dumbledore's actions grew within her, though she did her absolute best to contain, though she felt it emanating off her in waves, and she sensed her partner did too, for it took him several minutes spent in a long, thick, uncomfortable silence for the young man to speak again.
"It was not my idea, Tonks, let me make that perfectly clear. I was against this from the very beginning, you must know this and trust me on that," he mumbled in a quiet, reserved tone. "Professor Dumbledore wanted to know as much of the nature of your…relationship with Severus Snape as possible, though he had not anticipated the ah, violent reaction the man would have towards you today." He let out a dark chuckle and glanced sideways at her out of the corner of his eye as they paused outside the kitchens. "Remind me never to get you mad at me. You don't seem to be in too bad a condition aside from those," he murmured thoughtfully, his gaze resting tensely on the markings.
Tonks blinked, surprised at the shift their conversation had taken, though as she parted her lips before she had a chance to speak further, he interrupted.
"Tonks, I can promise you that I am drastically different from Professor Snape." A wistful expression overcame his peaky features, a faraway look in the man's eyes, as though Remus Lupin had momentarily been transported to a different place and time and was no longer here in the hallway with her. "Professor Snape is a man who frightens all, but I can promise you, that I do not."
A snort escaped through her nose before she could stop herself at the man's quip against Severus Snape, and before she knew it, a giggling fit had overcome her. "Well, u-uh, thank you, Remus." Tonks's head felt like it was spinning from all the blood that was rushing to her cheeks. "I'll hold you to that." She felt like she really needed a moment to compose herself right now.
Tonks pressed her cheek into her palm as an affectionate smile snaked its way onto her face as the man offered up no verbal retort by way of response, instead favoring silence as an appropriate answer, along with another smile, as she tucked a wisp of her pink pixie cut back behind her ear where it belonged.
Remus relinquished control of her arm and wandered into the kitchens, though not before glancing back over his shoulder and smiling at Tonks again.
Her heart fluttered unexpectedly against its cage of bone and cartilage.
"Aren't you coming?" he questioned, a teasing, lilting edge to his quiet tones now. "Molly's desserts are like nothing else. You're going to love it."
Tonks quickly nodded, and followed her new partner into the kitchen, trailing close behind the man. What a day, she thought to herself excitedly. Unbeknownst to the young Auror, her new partner, who was feeling somewhat flustered, though not necessarily in a bad way, felt the same thing.
What a day….
I do love writing these flashbacks! A great way to delve into their partnership while they're temporarily separated (I promise the fic has a happy ending, I can't bear to see my favorite couple suffer too much lol) and the next chapter is naturally, back to Remus as he and Sirius have a tough conversation about the 'true' nature of Tonks' disappearance.