34

IT felt to Remus as though all eyes were upon them as he escorted Tonks back up to the castle.

He could feel Professor McGonagall's eyes on him as his hand was on the small of Dora's back as he led her up to her personal quarters that were near his own so he could change and escort the witch who he now knew himself to be hopelessly in love to Hogsmeade for their date.

He felt Tonks nod her head curtly towards the Transfiguration Professor, but never once did she smile, Remus noticed.

He couldn't help but wonder what she was thinking, and just for a moment, he wished he were a Legilimens so he could see for himself what was flitting through her mind, how Tonks was looking exceptionally troubled as the pair walked in silence towards Tonks's bedroom.

Maybe it was their wrinkled clothing or unruly hair, how both of them surely had bags underneath their eyes from lack of sleep. They hadn't done much sleeping last night, not that Lupin regretted a split second of it. But he wondered now what Tonks was thinking of him. Was she thinking of him in awe, disgust at what the two of them had initiated last night?

Did she regret at all spending a night asleep in his arms, waking up next to him this morning? It was easy enough for Remus to pretend he saw awe and respect in those pale grey orbs of Dora's as they finally reached the door that led to her bedroom. He could bear the silence between them no longer as he spoke up.

"How long will you need to get ready?" he asked.

"Fifteen minutes," Tonks answered Lupin without so much as missing a beat, a light pink blush snaking its way onto her cheeks as she raked her fingers through her short bubblegum pink hair, shooting him a soft while smile that made him feel rather weak at the knees, a light, a warm feeling spreading throughout his body before turning her back on the man and gently closing the door behind her, though not before reaching forward to give him a gentle but chaste kiss on the cheek that caused a fiery warmth to spread from his toes and into his chest.

Lupin nodded and turned away from Tonks to head to his own room, literally just across the hall to shower and freshen up as best as he could for his first official date.

He startled at that revelation, though this time, instead of fear that coursed through his veins, it was a wave of excitement that ignited in the man's bloodstream, changing him. Either that or it was the full moon tonight, but he had taken his Wolfsbane, so he would be safe. He wondered if she'd stay with him.

Lupin showered and dressed quickly, opting for a simple white collared shirt and brown jacket and brown trousers that weren't so tattered and threadbare, letting out a tired sigh and raking his fingers through his tuft of light brown hair, swearing in the mirror he could see yet another grey hair that hadn't been there this morning.

Remus inhaled slowly as he offered the man staring back in the mirror at him a simple nod, wishing that he felt more confident and hoping that the fact that Tonks seemed to want to stay with him would be enough to quell his racing heart, which pounded relentlessly against his chest and threatened to break out and escape.

As he turned on his heels to wait in the corridor for Tonks, Lupin found he had a nervous habit of glancing down at his left wrist to his wristwatch that his father, Lyall, had given him when he'd come of age at seventeen.

Ten minutes. Tonks had said to only need fifteen. Only five more minutes, he thought wildly, feeling his eyes widen in shock and awe. Every time he glanced at his watch, he could feel his anxiety beginning to act up.

"Calm down. Don't give yourself a panic attack," he attempted to coax himself through gritted teeth, lowering his voice in the hopes that no one would hear.

A voice from his immediate left startled him, and the poor man who was nearly hysterical, his lungs begging for air that would simply not come to him, and wrought with worry at this point, almost cried out in surprise at the voice.

"First sign of the madness within, my old friend, you know. Talking to yourself when no one else is around to hear it. A sign you might be going touched, Remus. You're just making it worse. You're better off not paying attention. You'll only succeed in stressing yourself out, even more, Professor Lupin," came a familiar-sounding male voice that immediately made the fine hairs on the back of Lupin's neck stand upright. "I think you'll be just fine. The witch likes you."

"Arym, what a pleasant surprise to find you out here this morning," he growled through gritted teeth, turning to his left and found himself once more looking into the eyes of the goblin who'd woken him up the night Sirius had dared to enter into Hogwarts and attacked the Fat Lady's portrait.

The goblin's wild tuft of red hair streaked with white strands was looking somewhat wild and disheveled, as though it could use a good comb. His nose was pudgy and squashed-looking, as though it had been broken a time or two in a tavern brawl, and the red-haired short creature was looking admittedly nervous.

If judging by the beads of sweat along his browbone were any indication, and how his piercing black eyes like that of coal kept nervously flitting to the left and right. The goblin took a deep, shaking breath to steady himself as he looked about, his brow creased, and his arm shot out alongside the wall in an effort to right himself.

"Are you all right?" Lupin asked, not sure at all what the goblin was doing skulking about the corridor, much less in an effort to attempt to engage him in a conversation, wondering what Arym was doing here.

If Remus were being honest with himself, he still felt a pang of guilt towards his behavior the last time he had encountered the goblin, when he'd woken to find his bulbous nose merely inches apart from his own nose.

"Mmm?" The goblin looked startled as his head whiplashed upright to regard Lupin, a look of shock and surprise on his features, stunned at having been asked after.

Though Remus did not know Arym was in actuality Sirius, on his last swig of Polyjuice Potion before it ran out, Sirius himself was not used to having people ask after his well-being, especially not these days. On the contrary, most people expressed a desire that he suffer the Dementor's Kiss or fling himself in the Thames river.

"You are well? You're looking…rather pale, Arym," Lupin finally said at last as he searched for the right words to describe the sheen of sweat along the goblin's protruding brow, furrowing his own brows as his eyes raked over Arym.

The goblin truly did not look well at all, though before Remus could ponder as to the change in the creature's physical appearance, Arym spoke up in a hoarse voice.

"No," the goblin rasped in a lonely voice that immediately caused Remus's ears to perk upright at the sudden surly undertone of the goblin's hardened voice.

Lupin's gaze rested on the goblin as the creature slowly shook his head that he wasn't fine.

"I came to speak to Professor Dumbledore. Is he in his office, Professor, do you know?" he asked casually. What on earth a goblin could want with the likes of the Hogwarts Headmaster, Remus didn't know, but it was enough to arouse the faintest suspicion within him.

He glanced towards Tonks's still closed bedroom door, torn between the desire to knock and escort the woman he loved to Hogsmeade and the desire to continue talking with the unexpected, sudden arrival.

Shadows from the lighted torches resting in their sconces along the walls of the castle's corridor concealed half of Lupin's creased and tired face as the full moon approached. Remus's eyebrows rose in sheer curiosity.

"He is, you might be able to still catch him if you hurry. He has a…habit of frequently pacing his study. He does that quite a lot," he answered cautiously, having seen it for himself on the Marauder's Map less than an hour ago, his suspicions rising. "Would you like Auror Tonks and I to escort you there, we'd be more than happy?" he questioned, not wanting to allow essentially a stranger to wander Hogwarts' halls without an escort, still glancing out of the corner of his eyes towards Tonks's bedroom, the slightest movement of blurred brown against grey stone catching his attention as Tonks's door finally opened.

Wanting to continue his conversation with the strangely tall goblin, most unusual for a creature of his species, he forced himself to tear his gaze away from Arym and instead, looked towards his new girlfriend.

Tonks paused at the sight of Lupin conversing with the goblin she'd encountered exactly twice now, as a cautious little grin snaked its way on her face, her smile threatening to tug her lips upwards as she raked her fingers through her short bubblegum pink locks and glanced down at her outfit, a simple pink sweater and black leggings that were form-fitting and brown ankle boots, her little black purse slung over her left shoulder.

Lupin watched, momentarily amazed as the light from the torch to Tonks's immediate left illuminated her still-tired face and engulfing it in a soft, golden glow of sorts.

In that span of a single moment, Remus felt his breath hitch in his throat, his heartbeat thrumming wildly against his chest, and he felt quite warm all of a sudden.

Tonks looked…gorgeous. Damn, he thought to himself. She's beautiful. And she's mine, Lupin thought. She shot him a shy, soft white smile as she cautiously approached, intertwining her arm around Lupin's outstretched and waiting arm, though his good mood instantly plummeted into a sea of melancholy the moment Tonks turned her attention away from him and towards the goblin as Arym walked alongside the two of them, his footsteps hurried and seeming rather urgent.

"Arym," Tonks murmured in a polite, courteous tone that for reasons unknown made Lupin's blood boil. Perhaps it was an ill side effect of the full moon approaching tonight or the goblin's surprise appearance outside of his bedroom.

That was twice now the creature had shown up unannounced and uninvited around him.

Lupin wasn't sure what to make of it, thinking Arym to be something of an enigma, but nevertheless, he noticed Dora seemed to respect the creature, and so, he forced himself to be kind, though what he wanted most of all was to whisk Tonks away to Hogsmeade as planned, keep her company selfishly to himself for what time he could until the full moon approached later tonight and Remus would have to send her away for her own safety, despite the fact he'd taken his Wolfsbane Potion.

"Remus? Are…are you all right?" Tonks asked.

"Mmm?" Lupin blinked, the sound of Tonks's beautiful voice drawing him back to the present reality of their situation as the pair escorted him to Albus's office. He sanguinely raised his head to meet Dora's gaze but the look of concern in her eyes and expression was not admittedly what Lupin had expected from Tonks.

She cocked her head to the side like she always tended to do whenever she was trying to figure out something or when Tonks was trying to see something in a different, new perspective, though Lupin had found, whenever the young Auror did this, Nymphadora Tonks would come up with some of the wisest answers that he'd ever heard.

The sigh that strung from Tonks's face was exasperated as her gaze flitted from Remus to Arym.

"What's going on, Remus? Arym, why are you here? Has something…" she paused, unsure of herself, "happened?" she questioned, slowly turning her head to look towards the goblin, whose footsteps were almost falling in sync, in line with theirs. The goblin blanched at Tonks's questioning expression as Tonks slowly turned her head to meet his piercing gaze, though Remus couldn't be sure, a flicker of…something, darted through the goblin's eyes.

"It…it was an ambush, Professor Lupin. Miss Tonks. Pettigrew framed Black for the murders of James and Lily and those twelve Muggle bystanders, that day in London. I just thought you should know. I was there. Saw the whole damn thing."

The goblin's voice was low, raspy, and soft, and his head hung like that of a massive idiot's, Lupin quietly noticed.

Tonks's eyebrows shot so far up onto her forehead that they almost disappeared as she exchanged a brief, worried glance with Remus, who was looking and feeling just as equally surprised as she was, Tonks noticed.

"Wh—what?" she breathed, hardly daring to believe it.

"Sirius, the day that he confronted Pettigrew. An ambush, Professor Lupin. A trap," the goblin quickly explained, taking note of both the Defense Against the Dark Arts Professor's and the pink-haired young Auror's looks of utter confusion.

"I…I'm afraid I don't understand," Lupin murmured slowly, though a thoughtful expression snaked its way onto his features. "What do you know of Sirius Black, Arym?"

The goblin made an odd, strangled noise at the back of his throat, and would have scoffed, was it not for the dark look the young professor was shooting the tall goblin.

It seemed to take Arym an eternity to find his voice again, and when the creature did, it was so soft, much more subdued than before, that Lupin and Tonks both had to strain their hearing and lean forward slightly to hear Arym.

"I was there that day, believe it or not. In the streets of London. Saw the whole thing with my own two eyes. Pettigrew's fear had given him away, the wretched whelp."

"What happened?" Remus demanded, his hackles raised in suspicion, his voice as grip and burning as dragon fire. He wasn't sure how Arym could have possibly been there, though he suspected the sooner he and Tonks escorted the goblin to Professor Dumbledore's office, the better they'd be.

"That night he came to your friend, to Black, he—he was unapologetic, yet he conceded, wanting someone to know the truth. I don't know why Pettigrew didn't send for you, or…"

Arym's voice trailed off as he shook his head in disgust. "I knew he knew. His chance was slim, and yet, he refused. I…I don't know how, but…I was paid a lot of money to give this to you, cornered me on the way out of the Hog's Head, said he'd engorge my tongue if I didn't give this to you, sir."

The unusual-looking trio paused outside of the gargoyle statue that led towards Professor Dumbledore's office, and Lupin's mind felt like it was reeling in shock and disbelief.

This creature could not have been there the night Pettigrew confronted Sirius over what he had done, it was virtually impossible. Goblins lived several hundreds of years, but this goblin could not have been older than twenty.

I don't know why Pettigrew didn't send for you.

But…there was no way Arym could have known this. Remus had not met this creature until a few weeks ago, and he certainly would have remembered laying eyes on someone like Arym, as tall as he was, for a goblin. Lupin frowned.

Something wasn't right and this didn't sit well at all. His words rang in his pounding eardrums as Arym gingerly held out a piece of old parchment paper that was half-crumpled, torn at the edges, and soaking wet with bits of snowflakes here and there.

Remus took the parchment almost effortlessly with his cold fingers, hardly aware of a figure nudging beside him, though the scent of her apple shampoo wafting in his noes quickly told him Tonks was peering over his right shoulder to try to get a better look at the paper.

"It was Pettigrew, Professor Lupin. Pettigrew is the one who betrayed the Potters, not Black," the goblin croaked in a hoarse sounding voice. "Believe me or not if you wish it, but I know the truth, hence why I came seeking an audience with Dumbledore. I want to give him my memory of what happened before I might not get another chance to do so."

"May I take a look, Arym?" she questioned. "Sirius is my cousin. I should like to know the truth for myself if I can."

Both men's jaws clenched upon hearing Tonks's words. Lupin observed how Arym opened his mouth and shut it quicker than he himself could even blink his eyelids. A thick discomfort ruptured within the pits of their churning bellies, causing their throats to hollow and constrict and become painful.

Sirius, on the last vestiges of his patience and his disguise, paused. The truth was something of a bitch, Black knew, but to have his cousin surely torn to pieces by it in this dire time, well, it was safe to say Sirius was vexed.

"I'm afraid that…my memory is intended for Professor Dumbledore only, my dear," he murmured in Arym's voice, thanking Merlin his Polyjuice Potion, on its last leg, hadn't worn off yet, shooting both Lupin and Tonks an apologetic look, the edges of his voice quivering. "But…I—I have had…interactions with Black before. I've n—never seen his face, he always speaks to me when my back is turned and his stupid wand pointed at my back, threatens to kill me if I turn around and get a good look at that handsome mug of his."

Arym made an odd noise at the back of his throat that sounded like a cross between a snort and a laugh before the goblin pressed on and continued.

"H—he did express a desire to meet you," he murmured, feeling a sheen of sweat break out along his browbone. "Black has a contact. He said to meet them at the edge of the Forbidden Forest. Black will reveal everything in time, b—but only to you both and to Dumbledore. He says…he said he cannot trust anyone else."

Tonks shared a brief but knowing look with Lupin. This was her chance. She felt like all her prayers to Merlin had finally been answered. Vindication and excitement coursed through her limbs like wildfire, along with the overpowering need for justice and revenge, and a desire to learn the truth.

"What about you, Remus? Would Sirius want to see you?" she asked, lowering her eyes, and tilting her head so that a lock of her long pink bangs concealed the hurt within her eyes. Tonks knew how difficult this was sure to be for Lupin.

Lupin shared a rather dark look with Arym before he nodded. Pursing his lips, he turned towards Tonks, not giving the woman he loved a chance to hide her face from him as he cupped her chin in his hand firmly and raised it, forcing Tonks's eyes to look at him and meet Lupin's gaze.

Remus could see the fear that grazed Dora's pale grey-blue irises as she tried to retreat from Lupin's knowing look.

"I will meet with him," he announced in a slightly raised tone of voice, as much as to convince Tonks that he was not afraid to reunite with his old friend. "Alone, as he wishes it."

"What of me?" Tonks whispered though she did not sound afraid. "Will you come and meet him with me?" Here, she turned to Arym, as if looking towards the goblin for confirmation. "Did he say he wanted to speak to us both alone?"

Tonks's voice was soft, though she did not seem afraid, which both sent a swell of admiration and worry through Lupin's heart. He had no intentions of letting her go alone, and yet, he knew if they did not follow Sirius's wishes, there was a chance the man could possibly harm Tonks.

Lupin did not think he could live with himself if he allowed that to happen. Almost as if Tonks could sense what Lupin was thinking, she shot him a soft smile that instantly made his heart, that feeble muscle within his chest, quiver.

"I won't go alone," she whispered reassuringly. "I'll ask one of the professors, or maybe Norah to come with me. They'll hide within the tree lines in the shadows and listen."

Lupin nodded as Tonks noticed the small lump that bobbed down his throat, still not entirely convinced as he turned towards the gargoyle statue. "Lemon drops," he murmured, and the gargoyle's wings flung wide open, slowly but surely, and allowed Arym to step onto the stone platform. He rested what he hoped was a comforting hand on the small of Dora's back as he steered Tonks away from Arym, unable to shake the feeling of dread from his senses.

Lupin, as Arym's figure, disappeared as the gargoyle statue ascended up the winding stairwell that led to the Headmaster's office, pulled the piece of parchment paper that Arym had given him, supposedly written by Sirius.

He unrolled it to reveal rushed, unruly penmanship. His heart gave a pitiful painful lurch as he recognized Black's scrawling, hasty handwriting, the way he curved his y's.

Tonks drew in a breath beside her as she peered over his shoulder, their eyes scrolling as the two read the letter.

To Moony,

If this reaches you, know by now that there's a good chance I'll be re-captured by the Aurors or suffered the Dementor's Kiss, though not without reason. Tomorrow night, I intend to finally carry out the crime I was committed to Azkaban Prison for twelve years ago.

But know that I will have gone with my wand in hand and ambition intact. I aim to make Peter suffer what he's done, what he took* from us.

In war, Moony, nothing is ever right.

There is blood on both sides, and death on both, and my side is no different. I suspect that cretinous whelp Arym has already told you what I plan to do.

If you and my baby cousin are agreeable, I'd like an opportunity to meet with you both, in private, before it's too late. Two nights from now, in the Forbidden Forest. Tell Tonks to meet me by the boulder.

She'll know which bloody one it is.

And as for you, Moony, well, it seems only fitting that the Shrieking Shack will do. I'm sorry that I did not have a chance to tell you the truth sooner. That time is now long past, like a ship sailing in the night. But let me humor you at least by telling you what I know. Peter was the one who insisted the two of us meet alone that day in London.

Though I highly doubted it, I went, following the betrayer's orders, the only thing on my mind at the time was how badly I wanted Wormtail dead for what he'd done, selling poor James and Lily to Voldemort like that.

The man's a witless, dumb, moronic coward afraid of his own shadow, and when I confront him after all this time, the tip of my wand and his face shall be the last thing he sees before I sent him to the seven layers of hell myself.

A few more things from a man surely on death's row. I wanted you to find your happiness in this world. I've watched you, believe it or not, over these last several months, my old friend, how happy you are with my cousin.

I can see how much Tonks means the world to you, and you have got a greater duty to that young woman now more than anything else. Care for her, love her if she really makes you happy.

If you find someone worth holding onto, never, ever let that person go, Moony. Don't. I regret not having been able to spend more of my miserable life together than we had, but I made my choice.

You and I could have had some stories to tell, hadn't we? I hope to see both of you at least once more before I…before I end things. I only hope that you are amenable. If you are, tell your new girlfriend she's to meet me by the boulder in the Forbidden Forest at 6:00 on Monday, and you, Moony, you come to the Shrieking Shack, ALONE, 7:00.

I'll have him. I don't give a damn how it happens, but I'll capture the bastard, and together, we'll make the rat squeal. I hope to see you one last time…old friend, and Merlin forgives me for what I've done because I certainly don't.

Padfoot.

The letter had reached its end and yet Lupin's eyes kept still and undiminished from the parchment in his hands.

At the back of his mind, Remus could almost picture Sirius hunkered down somewhere, perhaps in the Shrieking Shack itself, in a lonely cold corner of the place that was truly an old haunt for Lupin, writing his sentences in crooked lines, his black ink staining the sides of his palms and the paper.

Warm water started brimming in his eyes, his chest undulating with a horrible pressure that tapered off as a sob that he was desperately trying to swallow down but couldn't.

The parchment paper crumpled within his fist and Lupin swore under his breath the moment he felt Tonks's hand come up to cup underneath his chin and she tilted his head to the right, forcing him to look at her, just as he had done to her moments ago.

He almost didn't want to look at her, for he did not want Tonks to see him as he was right now, a disheveled mess on the brink of a massive new breakdown.

"We'll learn the truth, Remus," she whispered in a soft, reassuring voice. "One way or another." Her hands drifted downward and clasped onto his tightly, giving his hands a light, reassuring squeeze, as though afraid to let go. "Together." She urged, whispering it into the shell of his ear. "Let's…let's go to The Three Broomsticks and grab a drink. We'll talk about what to do there over a butterbeer or a Fire Whiskey or something. We both could use one. It's noisy enough, no one will hear us I don't think if we sit in the back. Nothing's going to be solved yet anyway. We—we know what we have to do," she murmured, swallowing down thickly past a lump in her throat. "I'll ask Norah to come with me. I trust her not to do anything rash over one of the teachers, except for you," Tonks added as an afterthought.

He tried to smile, though he lacked the strength to do so, though before he could part his lips open to speak, her lips were pressed against his, and he felt his hands moving of their own accord, one coming to rest against her cheek, the other pressing softly in the back of her hair, entangling his fingers in her short pink lips, feeling her move against him.

Lupin decided that, as he kissed her in front of the doors that would take them out to the courtyard and to Hogsmeade, that he didn't care if the entire school was watching, as long as he was kissing Tonks when it happened, that was the only thing that mattered to him.

Given the grim nature of the letter they'd just read, he had not expected Tonks to kiss him, and he still loved it. It felt so nice, warm, and yet, somehow, it made his heart feel even heavier at the monumental task that lay ahead of them.

The confrontation with Sirius was a conversation that he both dreaded and feared and was not at all one he was looking forward to having. But he had to do it. He owed it to Tonks to protect her, keep her safe, as Sirius had suggested in his letter. He had to do this for her.

Because…they both needed to be free, to know the truth if Sirius Black really was an innocent man.

Because he cared for her. He knew it now. She was his mate. The two pulled apart at last, and Tonks allowed Lupin to take her by the hand and lead her away from Hogwarts and any prying eyes that followed their backsides, no longer caring. As long as he was with Tonks, he knew that no matter what, everything would work out in the end.

Because she was by his side. And because he loved her.