CHAPTER EIGHTY-FOUR

Tonks shivered and tried to control the incessant chattering of her teeth the following morning as she huddled on top of the log as she watched Remus and Norah use their wands to collectively move the fire a little bit closer, so they could all benefit from the warmth.

She was struggling not to feel so damned bloody useless. She wanted to help, she could contribute, though her body was not-so-politely suggesting otherwise. At the present moment, she felt way too exhausted and weak to help out. Tonks had a bad habit of twirling her now-shoulder length dark maroon hair in her fingers, curling the waves until they kinked. She'd made the change shortly after Ollie found her, thinking she was tired of hiding.

This was who she was. Now that she was about to be married, she no longer wanted to hide behind her Metamorphing abilities anymore.

Her body ached and stung, sending fiery swells of heat all throughout the crevices of her body, sore from being shoved and pushed so harshly, her mended shoulder and wrist still throbbed, and her abdomen stung where the centaur's fingernails had raked down alongside her side, and she still felt quite feverish from those damned berries, despite throwing them up earlier.

Tonks could barely keep her damn eyes open, let alone try to be of any assistance to Norah and Remus. But still, Tonks tried really hard. She watched as their guide waved her wand and caused some of the larger logs to tend to the fire's kindling to float seamlessly through the air, and carefully set them down with a flick of her wand, and pointed her wand at the flames and engorged them.

She stared unseeingly into the flames of the campfire that Norah was building. Her hands tightened, and she hissed in pain, a firm reminder of why she ought not to be straining the wrist that she'd broken just last night, around the small mug of makeshift stew that Norah had charged her with eating, but she couldn't stomach it.

Norah had insisted there were no rats in it, though the clumps of meat suggested otherwise, and Tonks's poor stomach gave a painful lurch at the thought of eating rats. Tonks's eyes squeezed tightly shut and ducked her head low, feeling her breaths and her heart rate quicken as her mind dwelled on images she'd soon rather forget.

A decapitated centaur, staring at the bottom of its hoof, feeling certain that she had been about to meet her end, and then hearing her screams as she had murdered it. Dead. It was dead, that centaur. She had taken its own dagger and plunged its tip into his throat. What did it matter that the creature had tried to kill her and Ollie?

That she had no choice? Tonks, as an Auror, understood these things, but the matters of her burdened heart and mind, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. Her conscience refused to let it go, and Tonks found she could think of nothing else.

A half-choked cry of misery escaped past her bruised lips, and she sucked in a ragged breath of cold October air. Her fear threatened to consume her, and yet…Ollie had brought her back, and visions of her best friend's handsome face and bright blue eyes flitted through the front of her mind, and thoughts of Lupin as well.

And then, there was the matter of dealing with Norah. The only way she could see any of this coming to a satisfactory end was to formally apologize to Norah Jameson.

The young blonde werewolf had been so ticked with her, furious beyond belief, earlier, which Tonks, in her mind, didn't think was fair at all. She had protected them! Tonks had only tried to keep the centaurs from going after Norah and Remus and being killed, and this was the thanks she got. To be brutally yelled at and shoved around, talked down to in a condescending manner like she was a twelve-year-old kid.

Why did it feel like, no matter what she did in her life, it was never good enough? By Tonks's ability to justify this in her mind, the way she saw it, Norah Jameson should have been relieved and happy with how Tonks and Ollie handled the situation.

She'd dealt with it the best way she knew how given she'd been kind of wandless at the time. She had refused to give up Norah and Remus's location to those animals. Besides, if Tonks had yelled out for Lupin or Norah to save her, they would all be dead by now, since that would have alerted the centaurs to another presence in the Forest, their territory or not be damned, though, on that regard, Tonks couldn't say.

She had no bloody idea where in the Forbidden Forest they were, only that she wanted to get out and marry Lupin before anything else could bloody happen to her.

Tonks furrowed her brows into a frown and shivered, her arms wrapped tightly around her middle to keep herself warm, though Ollie had taken off his cloak and had insisted she take, saying he had no need for it and couldn't in good conscience wear it to stay warm when his best friend was pregnant and freezing in this cold, dark forest. The young witch was grateful, at least, that Norah had managed to wave her wand and give Tonks a fresh change of clothing.

Now dressed in black skinny jeans and boots, with a long-sleeved black shirt that would keep her warm better than the red shirt she'd worn when she'd made her escape with Ollie from Barty Crouch's estate, it was a much better choice and already, Tonks could feel some warmth start to return.

She raked her fingers through her shoulder-length wavy hair, a dark brown chocolate color this morning, flecked with streaks of butterscotch and blonde highlights to give her pale features some warmth. Tonks didn't think she was quite in the mood for pinks and purples today, and more to the point besides, she knew at some point, she and the blonde She-Wolf were going to have to hash things out and talk this thing through.

And in her mind, Tonks thought that Norah Jameson saw her as unprepared and somewhat immature, so maybe that was the reason she had changed her hair color to something more natural and appropriate this morning. She wanted to be taken seriously.

Tonks let out a tense sigh and fidgeted with her fingers, twirling the little yellow gold wedding band on her finger, and praying to Merlin they got out of here, and soon.

She wondered what would have happened to them all if she had told the centaurs the truth. If Remus and Norah would have been killed. Or maybe, just maybe, there was a slim chance that the group that had taken her would have let her go? Tonks sniffed at that thought, finding it incredibly difficult not to roll her eyes a little bit.

Tonks highly doubted that they would have. And for her part, Tonks had refused to take the easy way out by squealing on their location, Norah, and Remus's.

Instead, she had risked not only her own life but that of her unborn baby's well-being in order to keep Remus and Norah safe. If the centaurs had found them, they would have killed both werewolves and not lost an ounce of sleep over it, either.

Lupin and Norah both with their skilled dueling skills (well, at least Remus was, so far, Tonks had only seen Norah fight with the Sword of Gryffindor, and just that alone was enough to send a chill of fear down her back and beads of sweat start to form on her brow. If she could do all of that with just a sword, then what about her wand?) would have been more trouble than they were worth for the centaurs to keep them.

Remus and Norah weren't at all like Tonks, especially given her weakened physical state and emotionally compromised state of her mind at this point in time. She had never felt so… weak, weak enough to not even be a problem for them, those stupid, vile, boorish, vicious bloody centaurs. The whole group of them was dead.

Thanks to Norah, Tonks thought and clenched her teeth as another shiver of fear traveled its way down her spine at what felt like a petty crawl, a slow snail's pace.

The centaurs had only seemed way too thrilled to enjoy the fact that Tonks was a female, and not strong enough and was at the time being, way too scared to fight back until she was pushed to the brink and over the edge, forced to fight to save Ollie's life.

They surely had to have known that Norah Jameson, that She-Wolf, that witch, who'd lived in the Forbidden Forest just as long as they had, that she would have been too much of a hassle and had proven as such when she'd chopped all their heads off!

Her stomach gave a painful little lurch and twisted, churning as a coil in her gut, and Tonks tasted bile on her tongue, though she swallowed it back down and continued to watch as Norah collected more kindling to tend to their precious fire.

Remus and Ollie had gone off in search of more wood for the fire and something that they could cook for breakfast before starting back down on the path to go and retrieve Umbridge, though Tonks wasn't fooled. She'd seen the look in Lupin's eyes earlier.

He knew just as well as Tonks did that the two women needed to hash this thing between them out, and he had shown her a modicum of respect by volunteering to take Ollie to go in search of food to allow the two women a few minutes of privacy.

A noble and somewhat bold gesture on Remus's part, though Tonks highly doubted that it wasn't going to work, as Norah this morning did not especially appear to be in a talkative mood. The young blonde witch and She-Wolf kept grumbling under her breath to herself, occasionally shooting Tonks dirty looks that would have wilted and frozen over a blooming flower, which made Tonks begin to feel uneasy.

Tonks stuck out her bottom lip and bit down hard on it in a slight pout, eyebrows knitted together as she continued to watch Norah's movements from across the campfire pit, hugging her arms around her middle and shrinking into Ollie's cloak for warmth as much as she possibly could, though the cloak did little against the cold.

She couldn't seem to stop her violent shaking spells or the incessant chattering of her teeth.

At this point, though she'd remembered throwing up those damned Bleeding Mulberries, Tonks thought she couldn't be sure if the poisonous berries were still in her system somehow and were affecting her body and already frazzled mind worse than she'd thought. Her shivering could also have manifested from her state of shock, she supposed from nearly having her and her baby been killed, and Ollie too, she thought.

Or maybe it was due to the frigid October air around them. It was hard to tell. Tonks's frown deepened as she thought of the way Norah had spoken to her, the awful dark, fuming look in the young blonde's bright blue eyes, and how she had shoved her. The werewolf seemed to think that she, as an Auror, was stupid and foolish, and had implied that Tonks had no idea of the true implications of the danger she had put herself and her baby in last night.

Though Norah could not have been farther from the truth. She was aware of what those accursed, wretched beasts could have done to her. The leader of the group had certainly made his intentions well known and was not shy about vocalizing what he and the others had planned to do to her and Ollie.

Just knowing that she could have been hurt way worse than she was, and there was every possibility of her baby getting killed in the process of all of this happening was enough to send another feverish, violent tremor down her spine and she whined.

As much as she hated to admit, Tonks recognized that she owed Norah an apology. If the blonde witch wouldn't have found her and Ollie when she had, there was no telling what kind of physical and mental anguish and torment she'd have suffered while in the captivity of the centaurs, and probably would have suffered for days on end before finally—finally—being granted the mercy of a quick, painless death.

Tonks clenched her teeth and glanced nervously to her left and right, both looking for signs of Ollie and Remus's return as well as signs of any more centaurs.

Norah had already proven she could handle her own against three fully-grown adult centaurs, but this time what if more showed up? What if this time, twenty or a hundred showed up? She had no idea how many centaurs even lived in the Forest!

Tonks in her current physical state and the fact that she was a young woman with a pretty face was the ideal kidnapping victim for a herd of ruthless, lustful centaurs looking for something small and helpless to viciously torture and question why they were in their turf. She could not help but wonder if they were to, unfortunately, run into more of them if they would be like the one's Tonks and Ollie had encountered.

Just as violent and savage, and Tonks would almost prefer being quickly murdered as the more favorable ending outcome in an encounter with a herd of centaurs, and she wondered, for the briefest of moments, if Umbridge was suffering.

What they might be putting the Senior Undersecretary to the Minister of Magic through, and if it was anything like what those three had tried to do to Tonks, or if, considering Dolores Umbridge's intense prejudices towards all things half-blood and inhuman, if it was worse. Much, much worse. There was a sick part of Tonks's psyche that severely hoped so, considering that Umbridge had tried to rid Tonks of her baby.

While the other part, the humane, forgiving, selfless part, hoped she wasn't. Tonks hadn't really realized this until recently, her exposure to the beasts up to this point has been incredibly limited, but centaurs were probably the most terrifying thing she could imagine next to the giant Acromantula spiders that lived in the Forest.

The things that were rumored to live in this Forest…giant spiders, other werewolves, ones who might not be as kind as Norah or as gentle as her Remus…

Just knowing there were more centaurs out there, who was probably going to be royally ticked when they found the lifeless, decapitated bodies of their comrades near the mouth dwelling of the cave, was enough to make poor Tonks feel sick with dread.

The sound of a leaf and twig crunching underfoot a boot heel caused Tonks to glance up as Norah cautiously and nervously approached her, an apprehensive and reluctant look on her pale face. She flinched, sincerely hoping the She-Wolf didn't scream and yell and shove her again. Tonks had had more than enough manhandling.

Tonks bit the inside wall of her cheek as the blonde's inquisitive, sharp blue eyes like that of a hawk's met her gaze, and she swallowed down nervously past a growing lump in her throat. The way Tonks saw it and ran through it in her mind, she was justified in her actions last night.

She'd really only had two choices: run towards Norah and Remus while they were sleeping, and probably get all three of them killed in the process, or run away from them both and likely only get herself killed by the centaurs.

Either way, Tonks still firmly believed that she had made the right choice and had to stick by her resolve, no matter what new claims the werewolf would unload on her, and Tonks stiffened as she felt a muscle in her jaw and behind her eyelid twitch.

Norah and Remus had been asleep at the time the centaurs had noticed her. Both of them upon waking up would likely have been dazed and confused, and way too groggy to just grab their wands and start dueling a small group of three centaurs. How, Tonks wondered, could she have worked it out so that by leading the centaurs towards Norah and Remus, it would have given her a better chance at escape? Such an act would have been cowardly and selfish, something that she did not condone at all given her work as an Auror for the Ministry. No. Way. Anything she could to save her fiancé's and Norah's life, she would do it, after everything so far…

Tonks frowned as she was able to recognize that Norah had been right in that it was usually best to face adversaries and enemies as a group when it was at all possible, but sometimes that just wasn't an option, and last night, she didn't have a choice at all!

Norah stood up slowly from her position in a crouch as she had knelt to tend to the fire, occasionally sending a burst of flame from her wand to make the fire higher.

The young blonde She-Wolf looked down her slender, petite nose at Tonks before speaking, and thank Merlin, the edges of her tone this morning were not as hardened, nor was her voice curt and clipped, which suggested to Tonks she was not about to be on the receiving end of yet another lecture for her actions last night, for which Tonks was immensely grateful. She already felt guilty enough as it was, really.

"Do you…do you think that we could talk, you and me? I—I have something that I think I need to say, and I think you need to allow me to say it, Miss Jameson," Tonks asked nervously, and she was not at all surprised to see the young blonde flinch.

The thirty-year-old She's Wolf's reaction was, as Tonks supposed she ought to have suspected, was an instant weariness and a dimming in her brilliant blue eyes.

Tonks watched as Norah's posture stiffened, and she seemed to shrink into her black leather jacket for warmth, and she heard herself let out a sigh of exasperation.

"You could have left me out there in that cave to die, you know," Tonks began hesitantly, glancing down and fidgeting with her yellow gold wedding ring. Her words were soft, unassuming, and carried, she hoped, no hint of blame towards Norah now.

And despite the coldness of Norah's cerulean blue orbs, she continued to keep her gaze fixated on the young blonde as she studied Jameson with a cautious, raised brow. She did not want her words to lose any semblance of meaning. She meant this.

Tonks watched with furrowed brows as Norah's posture immediately stiffened, and her gaze hardened, her stance becoming more guarded, and Tonks caught the unmistakable flickering and shadow of the Wolf that Norah really was as the dark look flitted across the young blonde's pale features. Though, Tonks swore that as Norah blearily lifted her gaze to regard the young Auror in silence for a good long moment, her tough expression, once so certain and solid, cracked and crumbled slightly under the look that Tonks was currently giving Norah, and she could tell Norah felt unhinged.

The tough, glistening look soon gave way to a look that Tonks could only describe as bewilderment and confusion as the emotions touched Norah's blue orbs.

Tonks drew in a sharp breath of cool fall air, and though the young witch was intrigued by the blonde werewolf's countenance, this sudden shift in her behavior, she said nothing and chose to ignore and pretend that she did not see the look in her eyes.

Tonks rose to her feet, rolling her neck to crack it, before moving to sit on the same log next to Norah, daring to scoot a fraction of an inch closer, desperate to try to make that kind of connection. She did not know how, but she knew that she had to try. If nothing else, then she owed to Remus to at least try to understand Norah better. Norah was, like it or not, their only hope of getting Umbridge back alive and hopefully, relatively unharmed, though Tonks would be first to admit she deserved it.

Tonks sighed and continued, playing with her pinkish tipped fingers to keep them warm. "But you didn't leave me or Ollie to die in that cave, Miss Jameson," Tonks continued seriously and with just the briefest tinges of affection in her tone. "You killed those centaurs when you knew the dangers associated with the risks. You brought me back, helped treat my wounds. Saved my baby. After all the trouble I've caused you, you still saved my life." Tonks felt her words and her breaths catch in her throat and fought back the urge to toy with her wedding ring out of a nervous habit. "I have not once deserved your kindness, but I want you to know that I'm grateful for it."

Tonks dipped her head and bit down on her bottom lip in a slight pout, nervously playing with the cuticles of her thumbs, not sure how Norah would react.

Her words were spent, and she felt as if she had nothing more to give or say. Tonks had hoped, at the very least if nothing else, that she'd steered the conversation in the right direction, though now as her words were left hanging in the crisp fall air between the two young witches, for the thirty-year-old werewolf to forgive her.

Or at least address and acknowledge her, that Tonks was willing to try, though she knew better than most, as did Remus did, that nothing else was going to be resolved if Norah did not want to talk, though the young blonde spoke after a minute.

"We're going to need to try to do something to bring your fever down," Norah spoke up in a soft, dulcet tone, folding her arms across her chest and zipping up her black leather jacket. "I'll build up this fire and you'll be warmer in no time. Promise."

"You sure that's a good idea, Jameson?" Tonks frowned, pursing her lips into a thin line. "What if…" Her voice broke and she hesitated. She didn't want to appear any more scared than she already felt, but neither did she particularly relish the idea of another unexpected visit from yet more centaurs. "What if there are more of them?"

But Norah immediately shook her head in response to Tonks's concerns at the possibility of another herd of centaurs in the nearby vicinity. "There aren't. Trust me. I would hear them," she added, shooting a wolfish grin Tonks's way as one of her slightly pointed, almost elfin-like ears gave a twitch and she froze and became stock still, and for a moment, Tonks felt a stab of a fear prick at her heart as Norah became unmoved.

Though Tonks allowed herself to relax when she saw Norah's shoulders slump.

"It's just your mate stepping on a twig." She paused, closing her eyes, and her pointed ears gave another cute little twitch. "And a chipmunk rustling in the brush. They're getting us some food. I don't think you need to worry, Miss Tonks. If any more centaurs come, I'll protect you. We won't have to worry about them, Tonks."

Her blue eyes drifted, somewhat uneasily, towards the sword of Gryffindor, which had not left Miss Jameson's side once throughout the entire night. She'd been careful to always keep it on hand, though she had no sheath in which to keep it.

Tonks carefully nodded, though something about the tinge of melancholia in the young blonde's tone gave the young Auror pause, and before she could stop herself, the question that had been burning on the tip of her tongue ever since meeting her poured out, unchecked from her lips, and as the words left her mouth, Tonks flinched slightly.

"Why do you hate her so much? Umbridge. I can see it in your eyes and on your face whenever I bring her up, you hate her, but…what has she done to you? You hate her, and I can't help but wonder…why?" Tonks asked, leaving her question hanging uncomfortably in the air for what felt like several long, awkward minutes.

To her surprise, as Norah sat down on the log on the opposite end of the fire, just across from Tonks, the young blonde groaned and thumped her palm alongside her face in exasperation. "It is…not a pleasant story, Tonks, but…if it helps you to understand." She swallowed nervously and coughed once to clear her throat, glancing down at her long nails and absentmindedly began to preen at them, picking at them.

When she spoke again, Norah kept her gaze fixated on the fire's flames so she wouldn't have to look Tonks in the eye. She exhaled a shaking breath and spoke softly.

"I wasn't much older than you at the time. Twenty-six, I think. I can't remember, it's been a few years now, but to me, it feels like…just yesterday, really. I met my husband, Wes, when the two of us were in our seventh year at Hogwarts. I saved his sorry ass when he got into a squabble with another wizard once he found out what he was. The other wizard had conjured a leash and collar with his wand and was humiliating Wes, trying to strangle the poor Ravenclaw with it to death in the courtyard, calling him a dog, saying that he should parade him around like his little pet for all to see," Norah growled angrily. "He—Wes was like me, a Wolf too, and some of the students didn't take too kindly to have us on Hogwarts Grounds, mingling with normal witches and wizards."

The note of bitterness in Norah's voice was almost unmistakable, and Tonks felt her heartstrings give a painful lurch. She didn't know how she knew but considering Norah had a run-in with Umbridge at some point in her life, and she was up to this point in the short time of knowing each other, reluctant to talk about, that her story did not have a happy ending. Norah drew in a shaking breath and reluctantly continued.

Tonks coughed once to clear her throat and nervously pointed towards the sword of Gryffindor. "You um, weren't sorted into Gryffindor by any chance?" She managed a nervous little chuckle and reached up a hand to tuck a stray strand of her hair back behind her ear. "That's…that was really something last night. I've seen plenty of duelists in my time and fights, but I don't think I've ever seen someone decapitate someone's head off with the sword of Gryffindor. That was a first, Norah, truly," Tonks murmured softly, recollecting seeing Jameson decapitate three centaurs' heads from their bodies with nothing but pure skill and an instinct for survival. No magic. Just pure talent. Norah blinked, her gaze following Tonks's as her blue eyes rested on the sword.

"I was," Norah muttered, though her blue eyes glazed over at the admission of the truth. She sighed and raked her fingers through her blonde pixie before continuing.

"Wasn't long after we graduated that we married and had a son. Jax," she murmured, lowering her voice an octave and something in her tone softened a little. "Whenever I was around my family, I forgot how the rest of the wizarding world saw us. I forgot about everything except for Wes and Jax," Norah explained, her gaze lowering a bit, and her fingers fidgeted with the plain silver wedding ring she wore on her hand. Tonks noticed this, and how her blue eyes softened and looked affectionately at it, though she made no comment, sensing that there was more to Norah's story now.

Her voice cracked and broke, though she tampered down the urge to burst into tears, blinking them back. "They made me forget about everything. The horrible names that people called us once they found out about our…our problems," she grumbled. "How we were always waiting for them to scream at us, call us names, try to cage us. But we didn't get it, at least not when we lived in our home, in Scotland in the hills. Until…Umbridge found out about our marriage and our son. We—we didn't register for her ridiculous Anti-Werewolf Legislation Act and the two of us married illegally…"

Tonks frowned, seeing those gravity-drawn shoulders of Norah's painting a picture of the young woman's heart as if neither her heart nor her soul would welcome a beat from that stubborn corded muscle within her chest.

She could see it all in Norah's eyes, that her mind had built some new walls with her so lonely on the other side as she kept people at arm's length. She hoped that in time, Norah would allow Tonks to give her a chance, to tear down this brick wall bit by bit and start to treat her as something of a friend to her. Maybe. Previously, she'd believed Norah Jameson to be rather cold and heartless, given the hostile way that Norah treated her and Remus.

Treating them as burdens, inconveniences in her life, having to save them, and guide them through the worst of the Forbidden Forest in order to get Umbridge back.

Norah's blue eyes shifted to the side again and stared into the depths of the fire as though she could not see Tonks, and her eyes had become glazed, blinking back the onset of briny tears that threatened to escape the confines of her lids, revealing her mood.

This was perhaps the first time Tonks had seen Norah exhibit any sense of vulnerability or emotion other than pure rancor and disdain towards Tonks and Remus.

To see her like this was very, very new, and almost unheard of. No doubt this was a painful story for her to tell, and Tonks did not blame the young German woman in the slightest for burying this part of herself deep within, but still…she wanted to hear.

Norah bit her lip tightly in an attempt to hide any sound that wanted to escape from her mouth, and Tonks felt her heart sink to the pit of her churning stomach that she knew had nothing to do with the cup of stew she'd been forced to eat this morning.

Her lower lip quivered as the next words slowly made their way out of her mouth. "My…my son, my husband, that old bitch, she…she…" she began, yet what followed was engulfed in a single tremor as she ground her teeth in anger and hurt.

"It's all right, Norah," Tonks uttered in what she hoped was a soothing voice. "You don't have to continue if telling the rest of your story makes you uncomfortable."

"No." The single word escaped Norah's lips as a low, wolfish growl, and Tonks shivered, knowing better than to interrupt the young blonde. "It's—it's all right," she stammered, her pale face now flushed a deep crimson red, though whether it was out of a sense of embarrassment at almost breaking down in front of Tonks or something else, something that Norah was not vocalizing her discomfort with to her, she didn't know.

"Tell the rest," Tonks urged in a voice that she hoped was not unkind, though by this point in the conversation her curiosity was piqued, and she wanted to hear it.

"Umbridge came to our home with a team of Aurors in the middle of the night, told me what would happen to us, to my family, if we refused to register under her act. I—I refused. And first," Here, Norah pinched the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger as she swallowed down past the lump in her throat. "Umbridge had the two Aurors hold down my husband. My—my sweet Wes, and…she slit his throat. Though when she got to my son, my precious little boy, h—he was only one, Jax was, a—and… she thought that a 'lesson' needed to be learned here, and I must not tell lies, and I had told one by refusing to register myself and Wes under her stupid fucking legislative bill," Norah whisper hissed her statement through her ground and clenched teeth. "She—she had one of the Aurors drag me outside, while she took my son by his arm. He—Jax was only one, a—and he didn't fucking know what was happening to him and he didn't even have time to scream before Umbridge bashed his head against the bark of a tree. He—Jax didn't have a chance to call for me to help. She—she made me watch, and the last thing that bitch said to me before she Disapparated, leaving me with my son and husband's bodies, was to think about what I had done, that my actions have consequences, the next time I chose to disobey Ministry standard procedure."

Norah's head lowered, and Tonks couldn't be sure, but she could have sworn she heard the young werewolf whimper, much the way a dog would when injured.

She coughed, feeling as though her throat were suddenly tightening and constricting, cutting off her ability to breathe. When she lifted her head and bared her canines at Tonks, there was such an immense look of heartbreak, Tonks couldn't stand it, and as her lips parted open, she said the first thing that came to her shocked mind.

"I—I would have killed her if she—if she did that to me. Oh, my Merlin, Norah, how have you managed all these years? I—I can't even fathom what that must be like for you. How did you not…how have you been able to go on?" Tonks cried, blinking back tears. Norah blearily lifted her head and regarded Tonks, not bothering to flick back the single tear that rolled gracefully down her pale cheek as she sniffed once, twice.

"I—I haven't," she croaked hoarsely. The pain laced throughout her voice was so great, heavy enough that Tonks immediately felt guilty for thinking of Norah as heartless. Their conversation didn't exactly make her feel any better, and now…this.

"I-I had no idea," Tonks cried, flicking back her tears with a practiced flick of her finger. "If I had, if you would have been honest, I never would have suggested…"

But Tonks's voice cracked, and her voice trailed off, and she didn't finish her sentence. If she would have known right from the start, Tonks might have been inclined to agree with Norah and Remus and allow Dolores Jane Umbridge to rot in the forest.

It seemed to take Norah Jameson several minutes to find her voice, and when she did, her German accent was so soft, so faint, that Tonks thought she hadn't spoken at all. "It is all right," Norah murmured gravely. "You did not know the truth, and you couldn't have known my reasonings until this point, but don't change the subject. You're a curious witch, Miss Nymphadora Tonks," Norah murmured, fidgeting with the hilt of the sword of Gryffindor as she rested the weapon between her feet.

Though her tone was bordering on biting, Tonks could swear as the young blonde lifted her gaze and reached up a hand to brush her bangs off her forehead, that there was…something else lingering within, though what it was, she didn't know.

"Given your pregnancy, for the first fight with less than a full herd of centaurs, you did well." Norah almost snorted as she heard Tonks make an odd strangled noise at the back of her throat. She did not necessarily blame Dora for such a reaction, given her own behavior towards the witch and her mate and the kid hadn't spoken kindly of her. Norah shifted at the waist slightly and turned to regard Tonks in silence a moment. The young blonde witch did not miss the careful way that Tonks's injured hand curled instinctively into a loose fist, where it rested idly on her lap, shaking a bit.

Despite being prepared for expecting the young Auror to possibly not trust her fully yet, Norah could not help but feel a strange sense of antagonizing hurt within.

Remus Lupin had not been wrong last night in his assumption that Tonks, to some extent, was afraid of her, and she would have to choose her words carefully to avoid inflicting any further emotional damage on an already fractured, shattered mind.

Norah let out a soft hiss as she was able to recognize that something within her expression must have relayed her overall awareness of the simple observation, because Tonks made a habit of flexing her fingertips, removing her arm from the sling Lupin had given her, and chucking it to the ground, crinkling her nose in utter disgust for it. She let out a sigh and raked her fingers through her short blonde pixie cut, finding it difficult to look Tonks in the eye, though still, she had to at least try to.

"Miss Tonks," Norah began gently, purposefully lowering her voice. "I know that my behavior towards you and your mate and now this Ollie friend of yours has been rather cold and less than desirable as of lately. My actions don't reflect well on my personality, and for that, I…I'm sorry," she murmured, speaking the words through gritted teeth, as though just uttering the apology was causing her pride great pain.

She lifted her head and flinched, seeing Tonks's purple, bruised wrist, and she could have sworn she saw her own claw marks near her collarbones from last night, where she'd grabbed onto Tonks and had shaken her in a fit of unbridled anger. "I—I did not mean this," Norah murmured, lowering her head, not seeing that Tonks was continuing to frown as Norah Jameson rose from her spot on the log and beginning to walk away from Tonks, sensing the young witch needed a minute alone.

Tonks offered a mute nod. "I know," Tonks whispered hoarsely. "I…forgive you," she said softly and offered the young blonde She-Wolf a seemingly small smile.

Small and slightly twitching, but a genuine smile, nonetheless. It was good enough for Norah for now, who returned the smile and turned her back on Tonks.

"Tonks," Norah spoke up after a moment, glancing back towards the fire she had carefully built, just as Ollie and Remus were spotted in the not-so-distant clearing, with what looked like a dead rabbit or two in their hands. Not much, but better than nothing. She must have noticed that Dora was growing worried at the thought of more centaurs popping up without any warning. "You're going to be all right. You should sleep. And finish that. All of it," Norah growled lowly, jerking her head towards the chipped mug of makeshift vegetable stew clutched in Tonks's hand. "You're eating for two, remember. I won't have either one of you starving to death in this damned forest. Just…try to get some rest. I won't let anything else get to you. I solemnly swear it."

Tonks nodded, still not fully convinced, her mind feeling like it was reeling. She hadn't known of Norah's backstory with Umbridge, how the Senior Undersecretary had brutally murdered her husband and one-year-old son, and if she had known…

Then she never would have suggested this, but it was already too late to turn back now, though her temper swelled and bristled at the thought of what happened.

She hoped that Umbridge rotted in Azkaban Prison in a cell for the rest of her miserable, wretched life, as a minimum. Though Tonks was too exhausted and hurt to keep herself awake for too much longer. She didn't necessarily want to fall asleep, per se, for a strange fear that she'd wake up to more centaurs all around her, but she supposed that she could rest her eyes, just for a minute, once she finished the stew.

Once she'd finished her cup of stew and set the mug down by her feet, she was barely aware of Lupin moving to sit next to her, pulling her close and allowing her head to rest against the crook of his shoulder, only faintly hearing his murmured words of love as he whispered them into the shell of her ear, urging her to get a little bit of sleep.

So, she rested her head against Remus's chest and allowed her eyes to close…


A few hours later, Norah furrowed her brows into a frown as she restlessly paced the forest floor of their campsite, back and forth she went until she knelt down in front of the young witch. Tonks was apparently asleep, as was her mate, but shivering as she rested against Lupin's chest, and Norah squinted her blue eyes in contemplative thought, pondering.

Resting up against the bark of a shaded elm tree like this for the two of them didn't look particularly comfortable, and Tonks, despite Lupin giving her his cloak, was still cold, judging by the way she kept shivering and twitching slightly in her uneasy sleep.

Her frown deepening, the young blonde werewolf reached her hand out to feel the young witch's forehead, hoping that most of her fever had dissipated by this point.

Tonks's skin was still warmer and feverish-feeling than Norah would have liked, but hopefully, Lupin's cloak and just the heat emanating from his own body as he cradled the young witch in his arms, both of them sound asleep, would quell her fever.

It was when Norah pulled her hand off Tonks's forehead that she noticed the young witch flinching slightly under her touch, and she was worried to see the Metamorphmagus's wavy hair change to black in her sleep as she mumbled soft whimpers in her nightmare-induced, uneasy and fitful sleep.

"Ngh…don't…touch him…" Tonks squeaked in a soft voice that sounded out of breath. Norah jerked her hand back as though it had been burned and frowned, wondering if Tonks was speaking to her, telling her not to touch Lupin. "No…leave…Ollie…alone…horse's ass…let go of him. Told you...truth..." she groaned in a soft, meek, shaking voice.

"Tonks, you're okay. You're all right," Norah murmured in a quiet voice, trying her best to assure the sleeping young witch of her safety, all while hoping not to wake up Remus, given that the man himself hadn't slept much over the last several hours, and she hoped to break Tonks out of whatever vicious nightmare that she was enduring.

"Norah…?" Tonks's voice sounded so hurt and utterly confused, and the young blonde She-Wolf could swear, she was sure, yes, she was sure, she saw tears building up underneath the witch's closed and fluttering eyelids. Norah frowned and let out a sigh.

She slumped in between Tonks and Remus, wedging herself in between the two, careful not to wake either one of them, and she almost snorted as she saw Ollie sleeping steadily across the way. All of them were asleep except for her, though she couldn't.

As gently as she could, she rested her hand on the witch's shoulder, wondering what the hell prompted her in sleep to involuntarily change her pixie from the simple brown it had been to almost a jet black in color. "Everything's okay," she promised her. Norah didn't want to wake up Tonks if she didn't have to, but if Tonks was going to continue to act like this, she thought she'd have no choice but to wake her and Lupin up. Neither of them would get any rest if she were plagued by nightmares.

Luckily for her, Norah's gentle words, coupled with her soft, sometimes soothing German accent when she wasn't yelling, seemed to have calmed down Tonks enough.

Norah heaved a heavy sigh as she rested against the bark of the tree, silently observing Tonks. Bruises were all over her battered and beaten body from her run-in with the three centaurs from Astelos's herd. Tonks's face was paler than usual, dotted with small cuts and scratches and markings on both sides, and her bleeding lips looked cracked.

It pained her to think that members of Astelos's own tribe could just hit the poor young woman like that, especially coupled with the fact that she was pregnant, though the three she had encountered back at the mouth of the cave hadn't exactly known that.

Not that it would have done her much good. If anything, their violence upon learning she was pregnant would have only worsened their rancor and wrath towards her.

Tonks's almost strange sense of innocence as an Auror broke Norah's heart. The thought of the young witch alone and wandless, facing three fully-grown centaurs made her blood boil within her veins and caused her to feel a wave of overwhelming hot anger within. The pregnant witch had been completely at the mercy of those brutish animals, who were well-known within the boundaries of the Forbidden Forest to be utter savages.

Centaurs were cruel, and Norah couldn't quite bring herself to comprehend this.

There wasn't nearly enough communication between the two of them, not even after their conversation a half-hour ago by the fire, and Norah would be lying to herself if she did not admit that she did not want anything like this to happen to either one of them again.

Especially given her current physical condition, Tonks needed to understand that whenever she kept watching, she could and should always call out for help if she saw something that was a potential cause for alarm. Norah and Remus needed to be made aware of any perceived danger immediately before things were allowed to escalate further.

Exhaling a tired sigh through her nose, she glanced to her left at Lupin, then to her right at Tonks. Like it or not, these two needed to be protected in this damned forest. That much to Norah was clear, they were outsiders. Strangers here, even if neither of them, particularly Tonks, wanted to admit it and ask for help, Norah knew she had to be ready to provide whatever assistance that she could.

The thought of the young witch who was, unbeknownst to her, already worming her little way into the confines of her heart as something akin to the closet thing that Norah could think of as a friend, getting hurt and being in danger like she had last night totally ripped at Norah's hardened heart.

While she'd been incredibly pissed at and frustrated with Tonks for daring to stray off the path of the campsite and into the woods to look for kindling and something to eat and getting the attention of those damned three centaurs, Norah was surprised to find herself growing even angrier with herself by the minute.

She supposed she ought to have been clearer about how a night watch in the Forbidden Forest was supposed to go, though she had been under impression that the young witch was a top-ranking, highly skilled Auror, that Norah had not needed to explain how it was supposed to have gone down.

Though she should have expected as much. Tonks had no wand with which to defend herself, and, from what little she and Remus had told her, that Dark wizard from earlier that the Aurors had arrested had caused her such mental and physical anguish, that Norah was surprised Tonks was still able to carry on as she was insisting that she try to.

Out of everyone here, Tonks was currently the most vulnerable, given that she was pregnant, and Norah could not help but feel a prickling stabbing guilt at her heartstrings, feeling that she should have done even more than she already had to protect her new friend. Friend. Just that thought alone plastered a quiet vibration underneath her skin.

Were they friends now? She glanced back towards the young witch, who was now breathing more regularly and softly as she and Lupin slept underneath the shaded tree. It pained her heart almost, to see how much the two loved each other, just as she'd dared to love Wes once. And her sweet little Jax. Both of them ripped apart from her… Norah shook her head and ground her teeth in anger to clear it, determined not to think of them right now.

She couldn't. She needed to get through this trek with a clear head, and thoughts of her dead husband and son would not help her here, right now. Norah forced her attention to return to Tonks's peacefully sleeping form next to Lupin, still worried that Tonks did not see the situation quite like Norah was able to, or the kid.

Her gaze briefly flitted towards Ollie, who stirred from sleep though didn't wake. Both of them had been incredibly lucky to walk out of that cave alive, especially Tonks.

With no other injuries to speak of saving for the dislocated shoulder, broken wrist that had been easily mended by Lupin, both of them, and a few minor cuts and bruises. It was clear that those two could no longer remain ignorant of the brutality and utter viciousness of the race of the centaurs, or even worse, the fucking Acromantula… She swallowed down hard past the lump in her throat, wondering if she should tell the others that at some point, they were going to have purposefully trek through the spiders' section of the Forbidden Forest and into their territory in order to reach Astelos.

Norah shook her head. No. I can't. Telling them would only send them into a panic. No. It's best that they don't know, she told herself, as she wildly searched for her resolve. Norah stifled a groan and looked out at the dense, vast Forest ahead of them all, closing her eyes tiredly for a moment and shook her head again in order to clear her mind.

There was no point in staying this way, in remaining angry with herself, and at Tonks. What was done was done, as Lupin had so pointedly told her earlier last night. As long as those three centaurs were dead and the others in Astelos's camps weren't made aware of what had gone down, then the centaurs hopefully were no longer a threat. The important thing was that Tonks, Remus, and Ollie were safe and sound now, and Norah was not going to let something like this happen to them again, no matter what. Even if it cost her own life in doing whatever she could to make that happen for them.

Regardless of her newfound strength and resolve as Norah closed her eyes and allowed her mind to float away, to drift into an unsettled sleep filled with awful dreams, she could not quite shake the feeling of guilt that settled and lingered heavily on her chest.

Like somehow, this was all her fault…


A/N: Yaayy the ladies sort of came to an understanding with one another! Sad they killed off Norah's husband and baby! :( Hopefully, Umbridge gets what's coming to her!