A/N: Slight warning ahead for some rough, coarse language ahead, but since it's coming from Norah's trash mouth, I don't feel too terrible about it. Norah is downright ticked at Tonks for straying so far from the campsite in search of food, and in my mind, rightfully so, for obvious reasons, and…well, I won't say anymore. Read on, my lovely readers, and I hope you continue to enjoy it!
CHAPTER EIGHTY
The aforementioned dark-haired Stranger maintained his firm grip on Tonks glanced upwards at the young blonde werewolf, finally managing to pry his gaze away from the discarded sword of Godric Gryffindor laying on the forest floor at the front of Norah Jameson's black boots, and nearly cried out in relief and joy at seeing their savior alive and unharmed.
He struggled to loosen his grip on Tonks's waist and stepped back a half-step, though the man close to Tonks's age made no move to relinquish his hold on her waist, wanting to hover nearby in case the young witch's equilibrium failed.
"Oh, thank Merlin! Someone bloody came for us both!" he breathed, his voice and body trembling.
The poor guy to Norah looked and sounded like he was on the brink of collapsing wholly.
"I—I need help, miss! I—I think Tonks, th—that's her name, Tonks, is ill! This stupid centaur did something to her. She—she was screaming earlier and struggling to breathe a—and then just…she just…she—she just…" he trailed off, his voice cracking and wavering, as was his resolve. "I—I don't know if she's d…"
But the poor man's voice broke and he couldn't seem to complete his sentence. He was practically near hysterics at this point, seizing what little tufts of his dark hair that was growing back from being shaved off, it looked like, and tugging on them hard.
Norah was quite sure slick tears would slip from the guy's lids at any moment, and she watched in silence as the poor boy buried his head in blood-covered hands in despair.
"Are you hurt?" Norah demanded, not so much as sparing the sword on the ground a second glance as she strode towards Ollie and Tonks, grasping onto the boy firmly by the shoulders and giving him a firm, rough shake to try to snap him out of his swell of a panic attack. "Kid?" she growled. "You gotta talk to me, kid, and stay awake."
The poor man merely shook his head back and forth, his face still hidden by his hands. Norah ground her teeth in anger and pinched her front temples with her thumb and forefinger, feeling her temper rapidly swell in her veins, hotter than any dragon fire.
"Merlin's left saggy testicle, what the fuck happened here, kid? Talk to me," she growled, letting out a hiss and bearing her canines. Her mood was not improved by the sound of rustling leaves, a twig snapping, the sound of a human's voice cursing under his breath, and Jameson didn't even have to look behind her to notice that Remus Lupin had disobeyed her command and followed her here.
Her balled hands continued to stay clenched into fists at her side and she growled.
Norah shifted slightly at the waist just in time to see the other werewolf barrel through a, particularly thick brush, practically stumbling over himself in his haste to appear at his pregnant fiancée's side.
"I thought I told you to stay at the camp!" she shouted, finally lifting her gaze to meet Lupin's gaze, but the wolf wasn't paying her any mind. He only had eyes for his mate, and Norah watched as his face drained of color.
"Tonks? Where's…what happened?" Remus demanded, and then went rigid.
Off to the side, still barely able to stand up, was Nymphadora Tonks. Her head was turned away, so Remus could not get a good enough look at her face in this dim night light, but her body was twisted awkwardly in an uncomfortable tangling of her broken limbs.
However, it was the slight, uneven rise and fall of her chest, and her dislocated shoulder and wrist that were the most cause for alarm.
Drawing in a sharp breath that pained his lungs, Lupin tried to fight off his own rising mounting panic and anger.
In the effort to take some control, Lupin turned towards Ollie, and swallowed down hard past the lump in his throat, finding the poor man ready to burst into tears.
"She…th—thank you," Remus managed hoarsely, extending his hand to Ollie and not even looking around at all the carnage around them, the four dead centaurs' bodies now lay lifeless and bloodied, scattered throughout the mouth of the old cave.
Ollie seemed stunned, though offered no comment and took Lupin's hand and shook it, making an odd muted, little strangled noise at the back of his throat and lifted a shaking hand towards the ground.
Remus furrowed his brows into a frown, noticing where Tonks's best friend was looking, and as his gaze landed on the discarded sword, his face paled.
"Is that—is that the sword of Gryffindor?" he demanded, feeling his head whiplash sharply upwards to regard Norah, a stupefied expression on his face, as though he were seeing the blonde werewolf in a brand new light for the first time. "How is it that you just happen to have the sword of Gryffindor, Miss Jameson?" Remus growled.
Though Norah was paying Remus no mind, her narrowed blue eyes fixed on Tonks. Norah stifled a growl and strode towards Tonks, who was thankfully regaining some semblance of consciousness, and ignoring Lupin's hardened voice and protests as he demanded to know what she was doing, Norah closed off the gap of space between herself and Tonks and seized a fistful of the young witch's red shirt and shook her hard.
"TONKS!" Norah bellowed, shouting her words through gritted teeth, as she shoved her wand in the interior coat pocket of her black leather jacket.
She pulled Tonks close so that the tip of her nose was almost touching hers. Norah could have sworn she heard Tonks whimper a little.
Good. She ought to be scared of Norah.
She had this coming, and this time, Norah didn't allow for anything to be held back.
"Fucking shit for brains! The only fucking reason we're not dead right now is that for some fucking reason, the sword of Gryffindor decided to appear at just the right fucking moment! Maybe it was Merlin's grace or your great sense of humor that saved your ass tonight, I don't know!" she shouted, her fingers curling into a tight fist on the material of Tonks's shirt. "Yeah, I agreed to be your guard while you're in the Forest, but this is fucked! I could protect you through the fucking Battle of Waterloo if I had to, but it's just not possible to protect a girl who's trying so damn hard to get fucking killed all the time!" Norah roared, not giving a damn that she winced.
"Norah!" Lupin shouted, sounding thoroughly disgruntled, and when the man so much as set a single finger on her shoulder, Norah mentally snapped and spun around. "This is hardly the time to lose your temper! What happened was an accident! Leave her alone! What happened to her is not Tonks's fault! She's in no condition to—"
Norah let out an instinctive growl that started as a low rumble deep from within the confines of her chest and promptly cut Remus off from whatever he'd been about to say next.
"What?" she barked wolfishly through clenched teeth, letting go of Tonks's shirt.
Norah was not in a patient mood right now, so Remus had better say his piece or else. White knuckled from clenching her fists too hard, and gritted teeth from the effort to remain calm, though she was well beyond the point of no return right now, her rigid form exuded an animosity that was like acid—burning, slicing, potent.
Her face was white with suppressed rage, and when Remus set another hand on her shoulder, she lost it. "Your mate almost got this boy and me here killed! Not to mention her baby! Oh, you half-witted, blind, bloody fool, Lupin, I told you to stay put!" she cried.
She was right. Norah knew that she bloody was right, and they didn't listen. She could explain all damn day to Remus and Tonks of the dangers of the Forbidden Forest and they still wouldn't listen.
Her pale face had become rigid, jaw clamped tight, teeth grinding in anger.
It was time for her to get out of here before she did something stupid that she would regret, but first, she had to take care of Tonks first and tend her injuries.
Both Remus and the new boy were glaring at her like she was the one who had done wrong by yelling at Tonks just now. Never mind the fact that Norah had just a nonnegotiable land mind just now by slaying, not one, but three centaurs.
This would spell hell for the rest of the wolves in the Forest if Astelos found out that she was the one behind it, and screwed over their plans to get Umbridge, never mind the fact that she had just saved all of their asses just now. Oh, no.
In their heads, this was a victory already. In their warped logic, the anger that was threatening to consume her, engulf and destroy the boundaries of loyalty and her moralities, meant that Remus was right.
Just because they kept their cool, it didn't prove the veracity of his argument. A small noise shattered the otherwise tense silence.
"Will—will she live?" The younger man asked, his voice faint and hoarse.
"And you!" Norah snarled, rounding on the dark-haired boy close to Tonks's age, who immediately shirked back and made a muffled noise at the back of his throat that sounded like a whimper, though he made no move to remove himself from Tonks's side, not even when Lupin murmured something to the boy about how he'd take her. "I've met idiotic people in my life, and I've met vicious people, but I don't know if I've ever been cursed with the misfortune to know a vicious idiot like you, kid! What in the bloody hell were you thinking? Trying to take on a centaur with no help at all? Are you stupid?" she growled, no longer giving a damn if she was offending anyone.
The boy did not immediately answer, though he steeled his facial muscles as a muscle in his jaw and behind his eye twitched, and he stood up straighter, frowning.
"Don't take this out on Tonks, Wolf," Ollie growled, the edges of his voice hardening and his sky-blue eyes darkening the angrier he got, almost cerulean in color. "This isn't her fault, dog. The centaurs kidnapped her, Miss Norah," the boy snapped.
Norah blinked owlishly at the young man, startled as to how this He-Stranger knew her name, not to mention the rude insults this man-boy kept piling on her, reproach after reproach, though she shook her head to clear it and shoved that thought aside.
The younger man puffed out his chest slightly and lifted his chin upwards to better meet Norah's gaze. He flinched only once as he no doubt saw the shadow of the She-Wolf, that Beast within Norah, cross over the young blonde's pale features, but he did not back down or change his stance.
"I was the one who came after Miss Tonks," he hissed. "I was the one who behaved recklessly. Punish me for this if you want, but not her. She's hurt. She needs medical attention," the younger man snapped, sounding hurt.
"Oh, you arrogant son of a bitch! This isn't about you! She put us in danger with no regard for the consequences of her own actions! NONE!" Norah yelled through clenched teeth, huffing in frustration. "Kid, you half-brained, dim-witted—"
But whatever the young She-Wolf had been about to spew out as poisonous venom towards Ollie and had a mind to say, died on her tongue as she heard Tonks make a muffled whimpering noise of immense pain. No one moved.
Lupin had knelt into a crouch and was cradling Tonks in his arms, whispering something inaudible in his ear. The poor man could barely hold his wand steady to try to do what he could for his fiancée in order to mend her wounds.
Norah ground her teeth and silently seethed, fuming in her anger, waves of fury rolling off of her as good as any thunderclap.
"Kid!" she barked in a wolfish snarl, throwing the command bitingly from over one shoulder as she turned away, her jaw tight and a muscle behind it twitching as she looked towards Ollie, whose expression darkened as he prepared himself for another of the She-Wolf's outburst. "Tend to Miss Tonks and treat her wounds. Remus is in no condition to treat her wounds adequately enough. He's emotionally compromised. I'm going back to the campsite to make sure it's not overrun by more centaurs. Call me if something comes up. Send up a shower of red sparks with your wand if you run into trouble. Any more trouble," she added darkly through gritted teeth. "Lupin. I'll see you back there in a while," she snapped, the edges of her voice hardened and sounding thoroughly pissed.
Ollie stiffened slightly at hearing the curt and clipped tone in the young woman's soft German accent as Norah Jameson turned her back on Ollie and Remus, shoving her fists into the pockets of her black leather jacket, grumbling darkly under her breath, kicking aside one of the centaurs' decapitated heads with her boot as though it were a football, though Ollie was not given a chance to respond as he moved to kneel by Tonks's side and Remus shot out an arm to stop him, a hardened look on his features.
"No, Ollie." The command was just one word and escaped his lips in the form of a low threatening growl, courtesy of the Wolf within him, that demon, that Mad Beast.
Ollie froze, blue eyes wide and unblinking as he promptly stared at Remus, his lips parted open slightly in shock, though just one look at the older man's face was enough.
Remus did not tear his gaze away from Tonks, lifting a shaking hand to brush away a lock of her bangs away off her forehead to better assess a lump of congealed blood, not her own, that had gathered in her hair.
When he lifted his head, something within Ollie shifted and he felt himself relent as Lupin's hardened expression softened.
"Let me. Please. I need to do this, Mr. Brennan. She—she's my responsibility, not yours. You have done more than enough. You—you saved her life tonight when I was not there," he pleaded, swiveling his head to the right to look at Norah's retreating form, who was heading back to camp, the sword of Gryffindor clutched in her hands. "Go with Miss Jameson, Ollie," he instructed, hardening his voice so that there was a hint of steel in the former Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor's voice that told Ollie he had to listen to Lupin. "She'll find you something to eat. Get some sleep. I'll take care of Dora, Mr. Brennan. She's my fiancée."
There was a finality in his tone that spoke on the border of indifference, and Ollie knew that Remus's mind was made up. Ollie bristled at the slight note of jealousy that seeped through the man's otherwise quiet and reserved tone, and his posture stiffened, though he made no comment on it right now, thinking it to be in poor taste.
Ollie offered a mute nod, though he couldn't seem to will his feet to move, for they felt as lead, firmly cemented into the ground.
He wasn't going anywhere until he received solid confirmation from Lupin that his best friend was going to survive, never mind the She-Wolf's footsteps were already fading, and if he didn't catch up to her, and fast, Ollie was likely going to lose Norah.
But he just couldn't. Not until…not until he knew for sure if his friend was alive. He watched as Lupin knelt to one side of Tonks, gingerly taking hold of her uninjured shoulder and with his free hand, pressed as lightly as he possibly could against her hip.
Lupin rolled Tonks's limp form onto her back, using one of his hands as a brace to support her head, revealing a deathly ashen face, and— "Merlin's Beard," moaned Ollie, feeling his heart give an odd murmur as it constricted and tightened in his chest.
The warmth of his blood cooled almost instantly as he looked on his best friend's limp and unresponsive form. Tonks was not merely pale. No. She looked like Death.
From the corner of her delicate mouth, blood had congealed and dried, swelling from a rather nasty looking abrasion that Ollie recognized she'd gotten when the centaur interrogating her for more information had backhanded her across the cheek.
The blood didn't gush in a constant flow, but in time with the beating of Tonks's heart. At first, it came thick and strong, flowing through her fingers as they weakly clasped the ripped flesh.
Ollie wondered if Tonks felt the blood move over her hand, the thick fluid no warmer or cooler than her own skin.
After a few moments more the blood was still leaving Tonks's rapidly paling flesh, but the pulses were slower, weaker. Lupin raised his wand at her chest, taking a moment to try to steady the violent trembling in his hand, taking slow, deep, steady breaths and exhaling through his nose.
After a moment of battling with his troubled state of mind at seeing the woman he loved in such a horrible way, Lupin managed to steady his wand long enough, and when he spoke, his quiet, reserved voice was lowly, and the incantation he had uttered almost sounded like a song.
"Vulnera Sanentur…" he murmured, almost whispering it.
Ollie watched, stunned, as the blood around Tonks's face, arms, and collarbones slowly vanished, and her wounds began stitching themselves up of their own accord.
Though it was her shoulder and hand that disturbed Ollie the most. If Lupin couldn't find the essence of dittany, it was going to scar, and then there was the painful process of popping the dislocated appendage back into the place where it rightfully belonged. He barely managed to repress a shudder, knowing it was going to hurt.
Lupin let out a hiss as he gently lifted Tonks' broken wrist in his hand not clutching onto his wand as he continued to treat his fiancée's various wounds.
The first thing he noticed was the incredible heat emanating in waves from the appendage. The second was that Tonks had somehow broken her wrist in two places.
Her hand, which she had fallen on not even a day ago and had sprained it, now fared in far worse condition that was going to take more than the Episkey Charm to fix.
Remus lifted his head, wanting to tear his gaze away from Dora's hand, flecks of blood, crimson scarlet, and ebony, dotted the pale surface of her delicate left hand.
"She—she used to her broken hand to fend off the—the centaur," Ollie managed to croak out hoarsely, noticing Lupin's look of dawning horror as he gingerly examined her hand.
Remus nodded silently and snapped his jaw shut with a hard crack, molars grinding. Lupin carefully pressed an ear to Tonks's chest, closing his eyes, listening.
He kept his eyes tightly shut to avoid looking at the sheer brokenness both body and in mind, of the woman he would marry in a few days. If we get out of here, he thought angrily, teeth still clenched in anger, before James and Lily spoke to him again.
Of course, you'll get out of this, Moony, James snapped, sounding annoyed. You've been in tougher spots than this one before. Tonks is tough. She's an Auror. If anybody can handle a simple broken hand and dislocated shoulder, Tonks can, Moony.
Lily's gentle, soothing tone piped up at the back of his mind. Be mindful to be gentle with her, Rem. You don't know the full extent of the damage, and there's a good chance she's going to be hurt, scared, and confused when she wakes up, Remus.
Remus shot a silent prayer to the heavens and his friends above. Many thanks.
Ollie drew in a sharp breath of cold night air that pained his cracked and bruised ribs and waited with bated breath as Lupin continued to keep his eyes closed, listening.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity spent in awkward, uncomfortable silence, Lupin did not stir, though, after another two minutes with his ear pressed against Tonks's chest, he rose and opened his eyes, letting out an exasperated, tired groan.
"She's unconscious, Mr. Brennan. Shock, if I had to hazard a guess," Lupin said, raising his chin slightly and offering Ollie a morose expression. He ran a tired hand along his face and raked his fingers through his hair before lowering it and settling it on the flat of Tonks's stomach. "But she's going to be all right. The sooner I get her back to the camp, the better. More light there and I can better assess her arm and her wrist."
"Oh, thank Merlin!" Ollie exclaimed, shooting out an arm to latch onto a groping tree branch nearby for support, relief washing over his ashen features as he swayed precariously on the spot, and had he not latched onto the branch, he'd have fallen.
"Tonks is stronger than she looks. Stronger than anyone gives her credit for," Remus murmured lowly, returning his gaze to Tonks's form cradled in his arms.
Ollie nodded mutely, swallowing down hard past the lump in his throat, sensing that, as the man needed a moment alone, turned his back on the werewolf and made to leave.
"I'll tell the Wolf the two of you are coming," Ollie muttered in a quiet voice. "I'm sure she'll have plenty to say about what's happened, but I'll try to calm her down," he grumbled, though even as he spoke the words, he knew his voice lacked the conviction to sell the argument he really wanted to make.
That there was no calming that blonde bitch down. Her temper was already on a hair-trigger as it was tonight.
Lupin merely grunted in response, favoring silence as an apt response. He would deal with Norah Jameson later. Tonks's uninjured arm rested over her stomach, the other at her side, and he waited until Ollie's footsteps faded before making any kind of noise.
The first thing he noticed was how doll-like she felt, entirely too relaxed, loose. Her eyes were closed, delicately arched eyebrows knitted together with worry.
Tonks's mouth, still suffering from a nasty, bleeding cut on her lower lip, was pressed together in a slight pout and she was looking paler than normal, way too pale to be considered healthy, and Remus did not like it at all, nor did he want to move her yet.
There was no telling the true extent of damage to unseen injuries she might have. No, he could not risk moving Tonks without examining her further, and he wanted to be alone for this next part. He wanted his face to be the first thing Dora saw when she woke up. Not Ollie's, not Norah's, not the decapitated centaurs' heads. But his.
He shifted her in his arms and used the nearby bark of a tree he was behind to support his back as he shifted Tonks and used the crook of his elbow to support her head. With a somewhat shaking hand, Lupin lifted his free hand and laid it gently on his fiancée's chest, exhaling a relieved breath when he felt the steady rise and fall of her chest, indicating that the poor young witch was, at least, for the moment, breathing.
Remus allowed his eyes and hand to wander as he looked over Tonks's injured form more closely now that he was alone, noticing a few ugly purple splotches, nasty bruises alongside her abdomen and ribcage as his hand wandered beneath her red shirt.
The bruises, Lupin noticed, bore the shape of the centaurs hooves, and he sincerely hoped the sheer force of the blows Tonks had been dealt wasn't going to cause her body to become too taxed and stress and endanger her life or their baby's.
Remus let out a frustrated sigh that was more of a growl as he tiredly closed his eyes. Dora did not deserve this. Not for an instant.
Drawing in a breath meant to steady himself, Lupin forced himself to remain calm and get back to work of examining her.
Dora needed him to be the strong one right now, for him to be calm. It would do neither one of them any good if he allowed himself to become emotionally compromised.
Then her wounds wouldn't be able to be treated and could do further damage and run the risk of becoming infected, and like her future husband and father to their baby, he could not allow that to happen. Remus gave his head a shake to clear it.
There was no use in Lupin expending all of his energy right now focusing on the dark, twisted thoughts of revenge on the centaurs as it clouded his mind in a hazy fog, or giving in to the Mad Beast's ire, savage, rabid growling, and snarling within his chest.
Remus winced as he ran his hands delicately along the skin over Tonks's ribcage to check for broken bones, and he let out a hiss and drew his hand back sharply, as though the very touch of her skin against his burnt his hand.
He flinched as he realized just how hot poor Dora's flesh felt. Moving his hand to her forehead, she was definitely feverish. Furrowing his brows in a frown, he wondered if perhaps Tonks had lied to him if she had managed to consume a few of those Bleeding Mulberries Norah had warned them both against, since he recollected the blonde werewolf saying a mild to moderate fever was one of the consequences of consuming the berries, but this was the least of Lupin's concerns at the moment.
He needed to check for further injuries before worrying about what may or may not be a virtually harmless fever Tonks suffered from.
Lupin ground his teeth in anger as unpleasant visual images flitted through the forefront of his mind as he wondered what in the name of Merlin had happened to Tonks during her captivity in this wretched cave.
How the centaurs had kicked her all over. Any number of Tonks's bones could have easily been broken by those violent beasts who were known for their volatile dispositions and even more lustful behaviors.
Remus allowed the pads of his fingertips to delicately roam beneath the fabric of Tonks's shirt, over her ribcage and across the top of her abdomen, frowning when he realized perhaps for the first time just how fragile and delicate his fiancée truly was.
Her bones did not appear to be broken, thank Merlin, though that did not mean there wasn't some semblance of damage. If the centaurs had wanted to crack Tonks's ribs, all it would have taken was one swift kick, with virtually no trouble to them at all.
His frown deepened, even more, when he wondered if the centaurs had actually taken care to restrain themselves against killing Tonks. It wasn't usually in their nature to show any semblance of mercy towards a human, much less a female, though centaurs were a race that held a fondness for pretty faces, and in Lupin's mind, just Dora's face alone was pretty enough and held the power to stop entire armies frozen in their tracks.
Tonks's battered, broken body would mend, in time, though Remus knew he was going to have to make good on his threat from earlier and tether a rope to her waist and keep an eye on her that way.
"No more wandering off on your own, sweetheart," he snapped, aware that his voice came out gruffer, coarser than he would have liked it. "From now on, where you go, I go too."
He wondered if Tonks could even hear his words in her unconscious state. He hoped so. Remus knew that there was going to be some scarring unless he or Ollie or Norah could find the essence of dittany, and it was her dislocated shoulder that concerned him the most.
Lupin knew that centaurs were more than capable of such vicious acts of brutality, and Tonks, by comparison, was so small and delicate, like a fragile china doll.
Those centaurs could have killed Tonks at their first opportunity, and the fact that they hadn't truly surprised him, though he was immensely grateful they didn't. Unless they had kept her alive just so their twisted psyches could enjoy having her as an abused little trinket, little more than a plaything for the lustful, carnal desires.
Lupin let out a wolfish growl at that unpleasant thought and shook his head to clear his mind, closing his eyes and letting out a tense, shaking breath through his nose.
It made him so…so angry, to think of those creatures hurting the woman who was going to be his wife in such a despicable manner, and for no other reason than to watch a human witch suffer because they believed her to have encroached on their turf.
Lupin continued his thorough examination of Dora's form, being as gentle but as thorough as he possibly could, all the while grinding his teeth in the effort to keep calm.
He could not allow his anger to consume his entire being, to prevent him from ensuring his fiancée was safe and relatively out of danger for the time being right now. He couldn't.
Drawing in another deep breath to calm himself, he continued, moving his hands over the rest of Dora's intact ribs (thank Merlin) before moving his hands down to her injured arm.
The second his hand hovered, pausing over her left forearm, her wand arm, as it were, Tonks's cracked, and bleeding lips parted open.
She stirred in his arms and let out a pained and muffled whimper, wrenching away from Remus's grasp so fast that Lupin flinched. He swore he heard a muscle crack.
"Ngh—n—no! Get off of me, you—you horse'sass!" she screamed, eyes flinging wide open and seeing something, though it quickly became evident to Lupin she did not see him. "P—please! L—let go! I—I told the truth!" Tonks gasped in a truly meek and trembling voice that sounded so incredibly small, it did not sound like Dora at all.
Remus's heart practically wrenched at how exhausted Tonks sounded, and so scared. And she did not seem to be able to comprehend in her panicked state of mind who she was talking to.
Tonks did not seem able to understand that he was right here. Maybe her eyes hadn't adjusted to the darkness yet.
Maybe she was still in a state of shock, it was hard for him to tell. Due to the way the two of them were positioned, with the campfire that the centaurs had started, and the dimming light behind Remus, it was likely that Tonks could merely only see Lupin's tall, towering shadow, a silhouette.
"Dora? Love, can you hear me? It's Remus, it's me, Tonks," Lupin spoke in what he hoped was a calm voice, though he swallowed down hard past the swelling lump in his throat as he recognized just how cracked and faltering his reserved voice sounded.
He felt anything but calm right now. In fact, he was furious right now, though not with Dora, never with her, but at the centaurs who had needlessly hurt an innocent woman, and one who was pregnant. Tonks could have been killed, so could their baby!
Lupin wanted to wrap his arms around her waist in a tight embrace and not let this young witch go, though he didn't want to traumatize and scare poor Tonks any more than she already had been, so for now, his hands remained firmly resting on her arms.
"Y—you're alright, Dora," he murmured, whispering it into the shell of her ear. "I—I've got you. Deep breaths, nice and slow, that's it. You're safe. No one is going to hurt you. They're dead. The centaurs that took you, they're all dead. Norah killed them. They won't hurt you, love, I promise. Not anymore. I'm here with you, love."
"Rem? Remus? Is—is that you?" Tonks managed to choke out in a breathy little squeak in an uncertain and heart-wrenchingly weak voice that made his stomach churn before practically barreling him over with her one good arm into Remus's chest, in a pitiful sort of half-hug, at least, as well as she could manage with only one working arm.
Tonks immediately began to sob into Lupin's shoulder. She sobbed into his chest unceasingly, hands clutching at Lupin's jacket. A tiny lapse let her pull away for second, blinking lashes heavy with tears before she would collapse again, her wails of misery worsening.
The pain must have come for her in waves, minutes of sobbing broken apart by short pauses for recovering breaths, before hurling her back into the outstretched arms of her grief.
"It's all right, Dora," Lupin soothed, resting his chin on top of her hair, attempting to reassure the woman that he loved as he rested his hand softly against the back of Tonks's head and pulled her as close as he dared, careful to be mindful of her injuries.
Remus swallowed, not entirely certain if his fiancée's tears were a result of the immense pain of her injuries, fear, relief that she and her baby were relatively unharmed, save for her dislocated shoulder and wrist, and the bruises on her face, or a combination of all three, or maybe it was something else bothering Tonks entirely.
But whatever the reason or reasons were, all Lupin knew was that he wanted to bottle and keep whatever grief and other negative feelings were causing Dora so much inner turmoil and anguish. Tonks needed to know that she was going to be just fine.
That Lupin wasn't going to let her out of his sight again, not even for a second, and neither, if he had to hazard a guess, was Norah, given how volatile her temper was.
Tonks needed to realize that she was going to be just fine and that no further harm would come to her or their baby. She also needed to know that Remus would be there to help her heal from whatever torture poor Tonks had just endured and suffered.
Her shoulders wracked with heaving sobs as another choked cry, muffled by Lupin's shoulder, echoed through the forest clearing the two found themselves in.
Her poor cries sounded so pained, like just drawing in breath was an effort. "Rem," Tonks managed to whimper in between heaving, gasping sobs and frantic, shaking breaths. If the young Auror had intended to say anything else, whatever it was that she wanted to say to Remus was lost as more uncontrollable sobs followed her.
"Shh," he soothed, his fingers curling onto the back of her shirt as he clung to her tightly, moving the fingers of his other hand through the short stray strands and wisps of her hair, wincing as he felt a good-sized lump the size of an Occamy egg at the base of her skull. "You're going to be all right, Dora. I promise. I'm not going anywhere," he added, noticing how Tonks's fingers of her one good, uninjured hand seemed to cling to the fabric of his jacket, as though afraid the Forbidden Forest would play another cruel prank on her and cause Remus to vanish again and separate them for a fourth time, afraid that in a split second, she would be left to her own devices once again.
"You're safe," Lupin reassured her in a quiet and calm voice, though he felt anything but calm at the present moment, pressing his lips to her forehead, visibly cringing as he pulled away at how feverish her skin felt, and how clammy she looked.
One way or another, he would need the truth from her. Later, Rem, Lily advised quietly. Right now, just focus on calming Tonks down and getting her back to camp.
He offered his friend a curt nod of his head that Dora missed, given that she had buried her head in his shoulder and made a muffled, half-choked sobbing sound at the back of her throat. "I'm not going anywhere, Dora. I won't let you alone. I promise."
And this time, he thought through clenched teeth as he held her, he aimed to keep that promise.
A/N: So, there you have it. Both Norah and Remus are annoyed and upset with Tonks for what happened, though for entirely different reasons, and both characters are going about handling their varying emotions in different ways. Hopefully, the two of them and Tonks will be able to come to an understanding and reconcile and move past this!
