Written after seeing movie 3... I was inspired by Thewlis's characterization
of Moony and thought I'd add this scene to my originally planned story...
By the way, my one-shot The Prophet was a companion piece to this story,
this chapter and the next one in particular, but I decided that it was
important enough to make it part of this story. Thus, it has been deleted
as its own story but is now chapter 4 of Housewarming. Ta da! This means I
shall probably have to add more scenes from other POV's than Lupin's... which
makes sense, comsidering what I've got planned for some of the other
characters... evil grin
I don't own Lupin... sniffle sniffle... or anyone else in JKR's world. I'm just
absconding with them for a bit, but I'll return them in the same state I
found them in. Except Lupin might be ruffled up a bit. :-)
Chapter 5: Bounce the Moon
The next day dawned similar to the last. Remus felt as though monotony had taken over his life, and there was nothing he could do about it. With Sirius gone, even the most interesting things, like Order meetings, were glum. A month after his friend's death, he warned himself often to snap out of it, but to no avail.
After a quick bowl of cereal, Remus charmed his bowl clean and glanced at his to-do list. He checked off "Scour the Bathrooms," and read the rest of the list to decide his plan of action for the day.
He chose "Restock Kitchen and Potions Cabinet." Not a big fan of going out in public, he wanted to get this one out of the way. Besides, he reasoned, he could escape an earful from Molly if she saw full cabinets and drawers the next time she came by for an Order meeting, instead of the sparse ones the kitchen of Black Manor now boasted. He went back upstairs, donned trousers, a shirt, and an old cardigan, and placing his wand in his back pocket, made his way out of the house and in the general direction of Diagon Alley.
---------------------------------------------------- #2: Restock Kitchen and Potions Cabinet
It was lunchtime, and Tonks found herself once again with no one to spend it with. She remembered Remus's reaction to her company the day before, and decided, Bugger him; he's going to have to put up with me again. She gathered up her cloak and lunch bag, checked out, and finally went downstairs to floo into the kitchen of Black Manor.
"Remus?" she called out, stepping out of the fireplace. "Remus!" Louder this time. "Hmmm..." She wondered where he could be. Setting her things down on the kitchen table, she wandered up the staircase, down the hall, and into the drawing room, calling his name again. No answer. She took the next flight of stairs into the second floor, and called out again. She decided to check his bedroom, because if he were sleeping, she had every intention of waking him up quite forcefully so that she could have someone to talk to during lunch.
Knock knock knock. "Remus!!" Still no answer. "Damn him!" Tonks thought. She grabbed the door handle and burst in, not realizing that it was unlocked. Recovering from almost tripping over the threshold, Tonks realized Remus must have gone out for something. She was about to close his door and go back to the kitchen downstairs when she realized that she was alone in Remus's room, a place she had never explored before. All of a sudden and quite without any conscious reason, Tonks felt the distinct urge to snoop. Looking around behind her once more to make sure she was alone, Tonks gave in to her desire.
"Hmm. Nothing unusual. Bollocks. I was hoping..." Tonks was disappointed at the plain navy blue flannel of the comforter on his bed, the bare mahogany of his dresser top, and the lack of adornment on his walls and closet door. She opened two of the four drawers in his dresser, only to find simple white underthings and one or two of Molly's handknit jumpers. And to think, a part of her believed that there must be something there behind all of that boringness... The more time went on, the less frequently he teased her by calling her Nymphadora or picked on her about her clumsiness. It had gotten worse when Sirius died. All the life Lupin had had died with his friend that day. And the poor thing wasn't a bad-looking chap either. A little rumpled, in a studious way, maybe, but overall handsome. Tonks sighed. Another good man, wasted...
Then something quite interesting caught her eye.
There was something large underneath Remus's bed, near the foot. She kneeled down to see what it was. It appeared to be one of those old grammophones, like the one in her dad's attic. It had a horn attatched, and looked to be in pretty good condition, except for the fact that it was gathering dust in spades. "Where did he ever find this?" Tonks wondered aloud, dragging the record player out and dusting it off with her robe sleeve. There was a piece of yellowed tape stuck to the side, which read, "Ann Price" in neat script. She made a mental note to ask Remus later on whose name it was. Behind the Victrola was a box, which Tonks heaved out to investigate.
This box was chock full of records arranged in alphabetical order- from Benny Carter to Dizzy Gillespie to Glenn Miller to Artie Shaw. The very last album was by someone she remembered hearing of, vaguely- a muggle named Frank Sinatra. She picked it up and looked at the cover, only to find a note which had been tucked inside but which fell out when Tonks lifted it.
Moony, This is to add to your collection. I got Arthur to pick it up from a muggle shop in London. It's supposed to be a classic, so I thought you'd like it. Happy Christmas, brother.
Padfoot
Tonks fought back the wave of emotion that was threatening to overtake her. This must have been from last Christmas. She had kept the note he had written to her then, accompanied by a Weird Sisters shirt and tickets to their concert. Oh, how she had wished he could have gone with her to that show. Sirius had a way of making everyone feel a little more alive. He always had, even since Azkaban. She recalled moments from her childhood when he had played with her as though he weren't years older, as if he were a child himself. He was so kind, and gentle. And now he was gone.
Pushing those thoughts out of her head, she decided to try to play Lupin's record. Her father had showed her how once, long ago, but she wasn't sure if it would work, and certainly didn't want to ruin her friend's things with her clumsiness. But she was pretty sure... yes, if you put this there, and then set this on it, now...
"YOU MAKE ME FEEL SO YOUNG/ YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE SPRING HAS SPRUNG/ EVERY TIME I SEE YOU GRIN/ I'M SUCH A HAPPY INDIVIDUAL..."
Tonks panicked, looking up to make sure no one had heard. This was perhaps a bit too loud. She cast a silencing charm on the room, continuing to listen to the music. She found that she rather liked it. Very snazzy, she thought, as a new tune started playing.
"It happened in Monterey, a long time ago/ I met her in Monterey, in old Mexico..."
She was up on her feet, dancing to the rhythm of the big band music behind Sinatra's smooth voice, when a noise downstairs alerted her to reality. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, and she glanced at her watch- "Time to Go to Work, You Silly Ass!" it read in great pink digital letters across the face. She scrambled to take the record off of the grammophone, place it back in its cover and its cover back in its box, and to shove the box and the record player back under Remus's bed. A voice downstairs told her Remus was here and had seen her things on the table. "Tonks!" he called. "Where are you?"
"Finite incantatem," she whispered, ending the silencing charm she had placed on the room. When she was safely on the landing, she answered him. "I'm here, Remus! I was investigating the bathrooms!" She jumped down the stairs two at a time, talking as she moved.
"Did you eat?" he asked her when she reached the kitchen out of breath.
"Gotta run!" she exclaimed, not answering him but snatching her things from out of his arms and rushing headlong toward the fireplace. She threw floo powder into it, causing it to turn emerald green. "Ministry of Magic!" she cried out, and within a moment she was spinning away from a bewildered Remus.
Shrugging his shoulders, he unwrapped the packages he had bought in the Alley and began to put them in their rightful places. He saved a slab of chocolate he had rather selfishly bought for himself, and took it up to his bedroom to enjoy before taking a nap.
She had been in here. He could smell her. That must have been why she was so hasty to leave. The prospect of a young woman coming into his bedroom when he wasn't at home and snooping around would have annoyed him, he thought, were it anyone other than Tonks. Still, it did unnerve him a bit. He looked around. Everything looked as it had been, except... What was that? A piece of paper lay on the ground, upside down. He bent over to pick it up, read it, and felt his stomach clench. Sirius. Tonks must have gotten into his old records. He folded the letter up, reached under his bed, and pulled out the box he hadn't looked at since before his friend had died. Then, he hadn't had time for music. Now, he didn't have the heart for it. He sifted through the records, smiling in spite of himself at the memories they invoked- The Christmas that Lily had presented him with an old Ella Fitzgerald album and done her best impression of her; the countless times his poor mother had given him dancing lessons when he was a boy while they listened to those same Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey records; the nights he had sat up, after Sirius had been sent to Azkaban, and just buried himself in books to the sounds of Miles Davis and Edith Piaf. He had grown old since those days. Every minute he was growing a bit older, a bit more grounded and yet still lost.
He reached to the back of the box. He took the final record out and placed it on his bed. He Summoned the Victrola out from under his bed and placed the record on it. He did all of this without thinking. Snapping a corner of chocolate from the bar in his hand, he swayed to the music as he found himself imagining Tonks had done a few minutes before. What a strange person she was, he reflected, the chocolate melting on his tongue as he swayed to Sinatra...
"...You make me feel so young/ You make me feel there are songs to be sung/ Bells to be rung, and a wonderful fling to be flung..."
And then, he heard a commotion downstairs.
Chapter 5: Bounce the Moon
The next day dawned similar to the last. Remus felt as though monotony had taken over his life, and there was nothing he could do about it. With Sirius gone, even the most interesting things, like Order meetings, were glum. A month after his friend's death, he warned himself often to snap out of it, but to no avail.
After a quick bowl of cereal, Remus charmed his bowl clean and glanced at his to-do list. He checked off "Scour the Bathrooms," and read the rest of the list to decide his plan of action for the day.
He chose "Restock Kitchen and Potions Cabinet." Not a big fan of going out in public, he wanted to get this one out of the way. Besides, he reasoned, he could escape an earful from Molly if she saw full cabinets and drawers the next time she came by for an Order meeting, instead of the sparse ones the kitchen of Black Manor now boasted. He went back upstairs, donned trousers, a shirt, and an old cardigan, and placing his wand in his back pocket, made his way out of the house and in the general direction of Diagon Alley.
---------------------------------------------------- #2: Restock Kitchen and Potions Cabinet
It was lunchtime, and Tonks found herself once again with no one to spend it with. She remembered Remus's reaction to her company the day before, and decided, Bugger him; he's going to have to put up with me again. She gathered up her cloak and lunch bag, checked out, and finally went downstairs to floo into the kitchen of Black Manor.
"Remus?" she called out, stepping out of the fireplace. "Remus!" Louder this time. "Hmmm..." She wondered where he could be. Setting her things down on the kitchen table, she wandered up the staircase, down the hall, and into the drawing room, calling his name again. No answer. She took the next flight of stairs into the second floor, and called out again. She decided to check his bedroom, because if he were sleeping, she had every intention of waking him up quite forcefully so that she could have someone to talk to during lunch.
Knock knock knock. "Remus!!" Still no answer. "Damn him!" Tonks thought. She grabbed the door handle and burst in, not realizing that it was unlocked. Recovering from almost tripping over the threshold, Tonks realized Remus must have gone out for something. She was about to close his door and go back to the kitchen downstairs when she realized that she was alone in Remus's room, a place she had never explored before. All of a sudden and quite without any conscious reason, Tonks felt the distinct urge to snoop. Looking around behind her once more to make sure she was alone, Tonks gave in to her desire.
"Hmm. Nothing unusual. Bollocks. I was hoping..." Tonks was disappointed at the plain navy blue flannel of the comforter on his bed, the bare mahogany of his dresser top, and the lack of adornment on his walls and closet door. She opened two of the four drawers in his dresser, only to find simple white underthings and one or two of Molly's handknit jumpers. And to think, a part of her believed that there must be something there behind all of that boringness... The more time went on, the less frequently he teased her by calling her Nymphadora or picked on her about her clumsiness. It had gotten worse when Sirius died. All the life Lupin had had died with his friend that day. And the poor thing wasn't a bad-looking chap either. A little rumpled, in a studious way, maybe, but overall handsome. Tonks sighed. Another good man, wasted...
Then something quite interesting caught her eye.
There was something large underneath Remus's bed, near the foot. She kneeled down to see what it was. It appeared to be one of those old grammophones, like the one in her dad's attic. It had a horn attatched, and looked to be in pretty good condition, except for the fact that it was gathering dust in spades. "Where did he ever find this?" Tonks wondered aloud, dragging the record player out and dusting it off with her robe sleeve. There was a piece of yellowed tape stuck to the side, which read, "Ann Price" in neat script. She made a mental note to ask Remus later on whose name it was. Behind the Victrola was a box, which Tonks heaved out to investigate.
This box was chock full of records arranged in alphabetical order- from Benny Carter to Dizzy Gillespie to Glenn Miller to Artie Shaw. The very last album was by someone she remembered hearing of, vaguely- a muggle named Frank Sinatra. She picked it up and looked at the cover, only to find a note which had been tucked inside but which fell out when Tonks lifted it.
Moony, This is to add to your collection. I got Arthur to pick it up from a muggle shop in London. It's supposed to be a classic, so I thought you'd like it. Happy Christmas, brother.
Padfoot
Tonks fought back the wave of emotion that was threatening to overtake her. This must have been from last Christmas. She had kept the note he had written to her then, accompanied by a Weird Sisters shirt and tickets to their concert. Oh, how she had wished he could have gone with her to that show. Sirius had a way of making everyone feel a little more alive. He always had, even since Azkaban. She recalled moments from her childhood when he had played with her as though he weren't years older, as if he were a child himself. He was so kind, and gentle. And now he was gone.
Pushing those thoughts out of her head, she decided to try to play Lupin's record. Her father had showed her how once, long ago, but she wasn't sure if it would work, and certainly didn't want to ruin her friend's things with her clumsiness. But she was pretty sure... yes, if you put this there, and then set this on it, now...
"YOU MAKE ME FEEL SO YOUNG/ YOU MAKE ME FEEL LIKE SPRING HAS SPRUNG/ EVERY TIME I SEE YOU GRIN/ I'M SUCH A HAPPY INDIVIDUAL..."
Tonks panicked, looking up to make sure no one had heard. This was perhaps a bit too loud. She cast a silencing charm on the room, continuing to listen to the music. She found that she rather liked it. Very snazzy, she thought, as a new tune started playing.
"It happened in Monterey, a long time ago/ I met her in Monterey, in old Mexico..."
She was up on her feet, dancing to the rhythm of the big band music behind Sinatra's smooth voice, when a noise downstairs alerted her to reality. Her eyebrows shot up in surprise, and she glanced at her watch- "Time to Go to Work, You Silly Ass!" it read in great pink digital letters across the face. She scrambled to take the record off of the grammophone, place it back in its cover and its cover back in its box, and to shove the box and the record player back under Remus's bed. A voice downstairs told her Remus was here and had seen her things on the table. "Tonks!" he called. "Where are you?"
"Finite incantatem," she whispered, ending the silencing charm she had placed on the room. When she was safely on the landing, she answered him. "I'm here, Remus! I was investigating the bathrooms!" She jumped down the stairs two at a time, talking as she moved.
"Did you eat?" he asked her when she reached the kitchen out of breath.
"Gotta run!" she exclaimed, not answering him but snatching her things from out of his arms and rushing headlong toward the fireplace. She threw floo powder into it, causing it to turn emerald green. "Ministry of Magic!" she cried out, and within a moment she was spinning away from a bewildered Remus.
Shrugging his shoulders, he unwrapped the packages he had bought in the Alley and began to put them in their rightful places. He saved a slab of chocolate he had rather selfishly bought for himself, and took it up to his bedroom to enjoy before taking a nap.
She had been in here. He could smell her. That must have been why she was so hasty to leave. The prospect of a young woman coming into his bedroom when he wasn't at home and snooping around would have annoyed him, he thought, were it anyone other than Tonks. Still, it did unnerve him a bit. He looked around. Everything looked as it had been, except... What was that? A piece of paper lay on the ground, upside down. He bent over to pick it up, read it, and felt his stomach clench. Sirius. Tonks must have gotten into his old records. He folded the letter up, reached under his bed, and pulled out the box he hadn't looked at since before his friend had died. Then, he hadn't had time for music. Now, he didn't have the heart for it. He sifted through the records, smiling in spite of himself at the memories they invoked- The Christmas that Lily had presented him with an old Ella Fitzgerald album and done her best impression of her; the countless times his poor mother had given him dancing lessons when he was a boy while they listened to those same Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey records; the nights he had sat up, after Sirius had been sent to Azkaban, and just buried himself in books to the sounds of Miles Davis and Edith Piaf. He had grown old since those days. Every minute he was growing a bit older, a bit more grounded and yet still lost.
He reached to the back of the box. He took the final record out and placed it on his bed. He Summoned the Victrola out from under his bed and placed the record on it. He did all of this without thinking. Snapping a corner of chocolate from the bar in his hand, he swayed to the music as he found himself imagining Tonks had done a few minutes before. What a strange person she was, he reflected, the chocolate melting on his tongue as he swayed to Sinatra...
"...You make me feel so young/ You make me feel there are songs to be sung/ Bells to be rung, and a wonderful fling to be flung..."
And then, he heard a commotion downstairs.