The past few days had been amazing for Tonks, if you forgot about the shadows still lurking in the background and the ultimate looming figure of Dumbledore's death. Because they were definitely more than mood killers. Mood incinerators more like. But despite that, despite everything, she felt happy. Giddy even. Her and Remus... well, they were sort of a thing again. She wasn't too sure what that thing was quite yet but they were definitely something! Something that could maybe, just maybe, stay this time.

"Good morning, sleepy head," Remus greeted as she shuffled into the kitchen.

Hey, just because she was happy did not mean she was a morning person. Nope. As evidenced by the grunt she gave him in greeting. He handed her a steaming mug of coffee which was extremely grateful for and basically chugged it in one.

As the caffeine hit, she realised what day it was and suddenly all the good feelings she'd been, well, feeling, suddenly dropped like a lead balloon. It was the funeral today. Dumbledore's funeral.

"You okay?" Remus asked quietly, obviously noticing her change in demeanour.

It was sweet of to ask, even though it really should have been the other way around. He had known Dumbledore far better than she ever had, after all.

"I still can't believe it," she admitted, fastening her boots, there were a lot of fiddly buckles.

"Believe what?" Remus asked and then looked questioningly at her. "Are you really wearing those?"

Tonks looks down at her combat boots, which she assumed were the items he was questioning as the last time she checked, a dress and robes were pretty normal things to wear to a funeral.

"They're black!"

Remus just sighed at her and shook his head, a small smile on his face. Tonks would have never thought she would ever have missed Remus scolding her about her wardrobe but she had. It was nice to hear it again. She still wasn't going to listen to him though, that hadn't changed. Combat boots were perfectly acceptable to wear to a funeral. No one was going to be looking at her feet. Anyway, her ankle still kind of twinged from the battle so the more support it had, the better. Something that she had neglected to tell Remus about and it was going to stay that way.

"And what can't you believe?"

"Huh?"

"You said you couldn't believe something."

"Oh yeah, well, I can't believe, well, I can't believe that Dumbledore's... gone."

She couldn't quite bring herself to say "dead" yet. Remus stiffened and then his shoulders slumped.

"Me neither. I don't think anyone thought that Dumbledore would just... die like that."

"Got murdered," Tonks corrected.

"Sorry?"

"He didn't die," she explained. "Well, he did but not of natural causes. He was murdered."

"And by Severus Snape," Remus said slowly.

Tonks frowned, not wanting to think of that that, that thief, that arsehole today. She rubbed angrily at her suddenly wet eyes. Today wasn't a day for anger. It was a day for sadness and grief.

Softly, Remus pressed a kiss to her cheek which made her blush.

"What was that for?"

"You looked like you needed it."

Did she now? That meant... She leaned forwards and gave him a very brief kiss on the mouth which made his eyes widened in shock. Oh, she was sure her face was bright red but she just had to do it.

"Dora," he said hesitantly- he always sounded so hesitant when he used her name now - but there was also some amazement in his voice.

She cooked her head to one side. "Yes?"

Was he quite alright? He was doing a really weird staring thing and his mouth was wide open. Flies were going to go in.

"Dora... your hair?"

Her hands immediately went to it and frowned. Did it look disgusting or something?

"Does it look greasy? It never looks good recently, all limp but I got this new shampoo and I knew it was no good and-"

Remus was shaking his head, a look of absolute wonder on his face.

"You're starting to freak me out a little bit."

Tonks flinched as his hand came near her face and he tugged a bit of her hair free. Hey, that was freshly brushed!

"It's pink," he said breathlessly.

"What?"

She looked at the bit he was holding to see bright, bright, pink. The brightest it had ever been. She grabbed at hair on the both sides of her head and saw they were pink too.

"My hair's link!"

[xxxxxx]

Okay, admittedly, it had taken her a while to come down from her high of discovering her Metamorphmagus abilities worked again!

She had pressed so many tiny kisses to Remus' face that he couldn't help but laugh at and made no effort to stop. Which was one of the reasons they thought they had been running late. Thankfully they had made it to Hogwarts with time to spare and were ushered by a solemn McGonagall out to the seats by the Lake. Wow, that was a lot of seats.

Logically, Tonks knew Dumbledore had been a great man, an amazing man, that's why he was Albus Dumbledore, after all. But somehow that hadn't communicated to the amount of people he had known or influenced. Of course, there were people from the Ministry, the Order - she recognised all those people (even those she would really rather not like Umbridge) but there were so many she didn't. It was unreal and kind of humbling.

Suddenly there was music. Strange, otherworldly music. It swelled in her heart and sent shivers through her all at once.

"Over there," Remus said, nudging her and pointing towards the Lake, over Harry's head.

What was it? And then Tonks saw it. Or them.

There they were in the clear green sunlit water, inches below the surface, a chorus of merpeople singing in a strange language she did not understand, their pallid faces rippling, their purplish hair flowing all around them. The music made the hair on her neck stand up and yet it was not unpleasant. It spoke very clearly of loss and of despair. It was exactly what she needed, in a way. What they all needed.

For someone who had been feeling so numb for so long, all these emotions she had been experiencing over the last few days (and she had experienced all of them) were really running a number on her. She clutched at Remus' hand for some sort of security. He gave her a squeeze in return, which helped a bit.

Then Hagrid was walking slowly up the aisle between the chairs. He was crying quite silently, his face gleaming with tears, and in his arms, wrapped in purple velvet spangled with golden stars, was what Tonks knew to be Dumbledore's body. It hit her then that he wasn't coming back, she wasn't ever going to see him again. Remus seemed to realise this too as he was starting to shake. She looked up to see tears in his eyes and realised that her own vision was blurry. She was crying too.

She didn't know about anyone else but she really couldn't pay any attention to what the man at the front was saying. She just couldn't.

"Nobility of spirit" ... "intellectual contribution" ... "greatness of heart". All very fine words but they weren't all what Dumbledore was, were they? That man couldn't be pinned down in so few words. But he just had been.

Then several people screamed. Bright, white flames had erupted around Dumbledore's body and the table upon which it lay: higher and higher they rose, obscuring the body. White smoke spiralled into the air and made strange shapes: In its place was a white marble tomb, encasing Dumbledore's body and the table on which he had rested.

There were a few more cries of shock, one of them hers, embarrassingly, as a shower of arrows soared through the air, but they fell far short of the crowd. The centaurs' tribute she belatedly realised.

And just like that, everything was over.

AN: Oh my God, guys. That's it. That's this fic finally over and done with. I can't believe it, I started writing this in 2011. I was sixteen. Since then, I've got my A-Levels, got into Uni, graduated Uni and got a job in my field! How life changes. Thank you to those who have read it the whole way through (sticking through years of me not updating at all) and those who have also read the rest of this series. I seriously appreciate each and every one of you like you wouldn't believe. For those who want to read the final instalment of this series, it's already up- 'Forever Falling'. I hope to see you all there!