Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or any of the characters.

Original A/N: Thanks to MaeSilverpaws1, who is beta-ing this story.

Chapter One Hundred Fifty-Five

Coming Back

"Remus, I think you're burning a hole in the rug," Emmeline said from her position at the kitchen table.

"She should have been back by now," Remus said, not stopping the pacing he was doing in front of the fire place. She was supposed to Apparate back, but there was always the possibility that she would use the floo …

"No, actually she's only been gone for twenty minutes," Emmeline said, looking at the clock on one of the walls. Remus looked at it too and scowled. He walked over to the opposite side of the table and took a seat. His foot tapped up and down as he stared at the fire place. "Okay … so maybe pacing was better."

"I can't stand this," Remus said. "I don't know what's wrong with me."

Emmeline raised an eyebrow at him.

"I get that part," Remus said. "I know I love her. But I've been on the sidelines of dangerous mission before. People I've loved have gone off to fight ... some of them have died … Maybe that's why …"

"Remus, Remus, Remus," Emmeline shook her head and laughed. "You are one of the smartest people that I know, but you really don't understand being in love."

"So you're saying it's normal for me to be this anxious," Remus said.

"You don't do normal very well," Emmeline said. "I'm always nervous when Sirius is away from me. It doesn't help that he's naturally a reckless person, though years of rising Harry has helped temper him a bit."

"But you don't go around pacing like a mad person only five minutes after a mission started," Remus said.

"No, I usually wait to do that until Sirius is actually late," Emmeline said. "But I've also been in love with other men. Before Sirius and after him too … it was never the same, never as powerful, but I did love."

Remus grimaced; he knew what she was getting at. He had never allowed himself to get close to any girls. It had been a lot harder at school when girls found his shyness as mysterious (it also didn't help that he was best friends with Sirius and James that everyone was so fascinated with). He really wasn't sure how Tonks had made her way so completely into his heart.

"So you think it makes me even more nervous, because she's the only one I've been in love with," Remus sighed.

"I don't know," Emmeline said. "Maybe I'm thinking too much, or maybe I'm trying to distract you."

Remus looked at the clock, it was five minutes later, it wasn't a very long distraction, and now he was thinking about how much he had changed since he realized his feelings for Tonks. The crazy, light hearted girl that could make him laugh with her amusing stories. What if …?

He was back pacing the room.

Remus felt like he was pacing in the room for days with no word about how Tonks was. When he looked at the clock and realized that it had been two hours his gut clinched. Not the days, but it was a long time. A normal Gringotts visit took half an hour, maybe an hour at most. He reminded himself of what Emmeline had said the last time he sat down, taking a minute break from pacing. She had to take her time getting to Gringotts in the first place, and then go through several different goblin channels before she would be able to get to the carts that lead to the vaults. The vault she was going to was in the depths of the underground maze, it would take time to get there.

But two hours time?

"Is it time for me to really be pacing yet?" he asked Emmeline and noticed her looking at him sadly as she nodded her head. That's what he thought. Two hours was too long.

His dark thoughts were interrupted by the crashing sound coming from the front hallway. He turned from his pacing and ran to were the noise came from.

"Tonks!" he shouted as he ran but he didn't get an answer.

"No … we should levitate …" he heard Moody saying as Remus stopped where he was looking at the limp and bleeding form of the woman he loved. "Move!" Moody snarled at him and even pushed him aside when Remus reminded where he was standing, too shock to understand what Moody meant.

There was a hand on his shoulder and he let it lead him out of the way and then held him back when Tonks stirred and Remus wanted to rush towards her.

"They need to heal her …" Emmeline said; she was one the holding him back.

"She should be sent to St. Mungo's!" Remus said, looking at the blood stain cloak that Kingsley was taking off so he could look at the wound … the wound was a claw mark …

"Do you think she was hit with anything?" Kingsley asked Moody.

"Not by a wizard's curse, but she obviously ran into problems with the goblins," Moody said.

"Move over then," Bill said coming into the room with two potions. Remus was pretty sure he demanded to know what they were but no one answered him as he watch Bill poor one of the potions over the now exposed wound. He felt Emmeline's hands around him keeping him from moving, telling him that he needed to give the other room to heal her. Damnit he knew that … he still wasn't sure why they weren't rushing her off to St. Mungo's …

"Ah …" Tonks groaned as her wound started to seal itself.

Remus didn't let anything hold him back anymore, he ran over to her, Kingsley getting out of his way without a word, and he held her close to him.

"Remus …" she said trying to smiling, "maybe this was a dangerous mission …"

"Sh … Dora, don't talk," Remus said softly. "Save your strength."

"You have to take this Tonks," Bill said, handing her the other potion. "And he's right, you shouldn't exert yourself yet."

Tonks took the potions but she opened her mouth to say something but Remus pleaded her to stop again and she relented. She just sighed and buried her head into his shoulder as he continued to hold her close to him. After a while he noticed that she was asleep and he lifted her up and carried her to the living room where he sat down on the couch. He dimly listened to what the others were saying, making predictions about what had happen.

"Clearly the rumors about the dragons are true," Moody said. "The damn thing nearly clawed her in half. From the looks of the scar she was dodging away from the beast …"

"It's not a beast," Bill said. "If the rumors are true, it's been down there for decades, tortured, beaten, and blinded by the goblins so that it would b…"

"You knew there was a dragon down there!" Remus growled, his full attention now on the conversation.

"The rumors," Bill said. "And I couldn't talk about them more than that unless the person already knew what I did. The goblins are good about keeping the wizards working for them from giving out their secrets."

"Is that why you had that potion ready?" Kingsley asked as Remus felt the need to shout more, but held it back. "You can act on your knowledge; you just can't talk about it, right?"

"Pretty much," Bill said. "I tried to tell someone that I was brewing them, just to be safe, but knowing the eventual question they would have asked me, I found that I couldn't."

"Really," Moody raised an eyebrow. "It might be interesting to learn how they managed to accomplish that."

"They'll never tell you," Bill said.

"Oh, I know," Moody sighed, seeming to respect that about the creatures.

"What was the second potion you gave her," Remus asked. Asking without saying that he wanted to know what other danger Bill might have known about but couldn't talk about.

"It's an antidote for poison," Bill sighed. "I'm pretty sure there was …"

"Remus," Tonks whispered as he felt his chest rumbled with the growl he was about to give. He looked down at her and realized her eyes were open again.

"Sorry," he said softly, forgetting his anger as quickly as it had come when he looked at her. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"No …" Tonks said trying to sit up but not managing it so she relaxed against Remus. "I have to tell what happened …"

"They're all listening," Remus informed her.

Tonks looked over to see the others staring at her, her checks burned a little red as she said "oh." She had thought she was alone with Remus … and knowing that she was being held by him like this while in the same room as her mentor and boss, made her slightly embarrassed.

"Did you get the cup?" Moody asked getting to business.

"Destroyed it," Tonks answered simply.

"I see," Moody said, knowing that had been an option but he had argued to just retrieve the cup.

"The goblin was watching me," Tonks said soundly like it was a struggle to get the words out. "Didn't want him … seeing multiple cups …"

"The Gemino charm," Bill said to help explain what Tonks was talking about so she wouldn't have to say it. This was not one of the goblins guarded secrets. "It causes anything in the vault to replicate if someone touches the objects in a vault that doesn't belong to them. You didn't think your Metamorphmagus ability would prevent that."

"Couldn't risk it," Tonks muttered. "Already … Downfall."

"I see," Bill said and when the others asked him what she meant he tried to explain but shook his head.

Tonks tried to explain too, but she couldn't either.

"I take that to mean they were already suspicious of you," Moody said, they couldn't even nodded their head to agree or disagree with him but Moody seemed to take that as affirmation. "What happen after you destroyed the cup?"

"The goblin was upset," Tonks said.

"It was an ancient goblin made object … highly regarded by all goblins," Remus said, "destroying it in front of the goblin would have offended him greatly."

"Sorry," Tonks said grimly and then glared at him weakly. "Not like I was told that before."

"Sorry," Remus frowned; they should have given her more information if they had expected her to risk her life like this. He was about to tell her what the cup was but wasn't sure how she would react to the fact that she had just destroyed Hufflepuff's cup. She was as proud of her house as he was his after all.

"Goblin ran … dragon came and I just barely jumped away from it," Tonks said and was surprised at how easy it was to talk about the dragon when she couldn't even mentioned the waterfall, "I used …" well so much for being able to talk about the dragon, she couldn't say the word 'clanker' or even describe what she did.

"It's a goblin secret," Bill told her. "You won't be able to say it."

"The goblin tried to run … leave me behind …" Tonks went on to say, and Remus flinched. Thinking of Tonks left in the underground for either the goblins or dragon to come back to finish her off … or just her wondering around in the maze … lost … starving … "I caught him."

"Of course you did, lass, you never let anyone get away from you," Moody said, an uncommon show of pride in his voice.

"We went into the cart … going back," Tonks said. "Passed a mist …" and she struggled to say more but once again she couldn't continue. She remembered holding her breath as long as she could as she passed the slivery mist and was surprised that it hadn't lasted long. She glared at the goblin, sure that he had caused it only to find her vision was blurring. The goblin was smirking but she raised her wand on him threateningly and was grateful that the cart was still moving. Of course the horde of goblins waiting for them at the entrance made her think that they were only moving so that she could be stopped. "Goblins waiting for me on the platform," she found herself say, so clearly this part was okay for her to talk about, but she couldn't tell them that her shoulder was numb were the dragon had wounded her, the poison in the mist having stemmed into her wound as the stupid goblin had planned.

"How did you get out?" Remus asked; he could imagine all too well a wounded Tonks surrounded by goblins …

"Super Nova," Tonks said, confusing Remus completely but Moody and Kinsley smiled.

"What …?"

"It's a concentrated bright light, in the depths of Gringotts it would probably blind anyone's eyes … the goblins would take it worse," Moody said smiling proudly at Tonks again.

"I ran," Tonks said, "people saw me … thought I was him … barely made it out of Gringotts …"

Could things get any worse? Remus groaned in his head. Well yes it could, clearly she had made it back but still.

"Apparated as soon as I could …"Tonks said.

"It's okay Tonks, we've heard enough," Kingsley said. "And the fact that you were spotted as Rabastan can work to our advantage. I better go and make sure I'm the one assigned to tracking him down …"

"Good idea Kingsley," Moody said and then looked at Tonks. "Well done lass … don't think I could have done better myself."

Tonks smiled at her mentor approval and then he walked away. Bill and Emmeline must have left before him because Tonks and Remus were now left alone.

"Are you angry?" Tonks asked as she leaned back against Remus, feeling how tense he was.

"More like mad," Remus sighed. "Completely barney."

"So like normal," Tonks teased and he smiled at her.

"I don't ever want to find out what my life would be like if I lost you," he said softly, admitting his fear as he pulled her closer to him.

"Not lost," Tonks assured him leaning even closer to him and he felt all of his nerves settle down as he held her.