Tonks is suffering from Sirius' death and hersuffering relationshipwith Remus Lupin. Who would have thought that a red head stranger would be the one to tame her heart?
A/N Well, I have many stories in my head and some have even made it to paper but I've started with this one as it seems to be the easiest to write for the time being. Some of the plot lines don't add up (i.e. Hestia and Lupin) but that's because they interlink with my other story. Don't worry though. Just take this as it comes. Hope you enjoy!.
Edit: If none of the Grimmauld Place stuff makes sense, just ignore it. I was having a blonde day... even though I'm brunette.
Tonks sighed heavily and ran a hand over her tired face. She could feel the smooth skin under her eyes where tiredness had weakened the skin and made it slightly slackened. It had been a long summer, one she would gladly forget given the opportunity. Over and over in her mind the scene ran, Sirius falling through the veil before she herself was hit hard to the ground in a shroud of blackness. She shivered and heard a creak of a chair as the person sat opposite her raise their head. Remus.
"Are you alright?" Tonks raised her head and smiled weakly at her friend. He had done nothing but care about her ever since she had gone to St Mungo's. No. He'd done nothing but worry.
"I'm fine Remus. Stop fretting." Remus gave her an apologetic smile that failed to reach his eyes before heaving a sigh of exhaustion and stretching across the table to reach Tonks' hand.
"Is this the beginning of the end?"
Tonks swallowed, aware that she had matured so much over the past month. It must have been at least 2 weeks since she last tripped over something. The weight of her cousin's death and her lover's loss had at last begun to take its toll on her. Placing her lips on his hand in a chaste kiss she mumbled,
"Yes. It's just the waiting to decide who the victor is that's left." Remus sighed again and scraped his chair back. It screeched across the dusty wooden floor making Tonks shiver before letting go of Remus' hand and standing herself.
"We've got to get this stuff out." Remus gestured towards a pile of papers in the corner of the room and Tonks nodded swiftly before waving her wand and making the debris levitate. Since finding out that 12 Grimmauld Place had gone to the Malfoys, the order had been quick in the process of removing all enchantments, papers and any trace of their being in the place.
It was a mystery as how he did it but Remus had managed to at last destroy the hideous picture of Mrs Black on the wall, a mercy for which they were all most grateful for. If she had remained, the Malfoys could discover any of their plans. The only danger that now remained was the threat of Kreacher. However, Dumbledore had been quick to perform the strongest memory charm known to wizard kind on the servant; he had been unaware of anything that had happened since Sirius' death.
"Tonks, can I have a word?" Tonks looked up at Remus who was gathering up his suitcase in his hand. She would have ignored him until they were outside but the look on his face made her stand rigidly still. She felt her heart rate quicken, her breath coming in shorter, more desperate gasps. His face was stony, of fear and apology, of heartbreak and sorrow.
"What is it?" The elder man slouched against the wall before removing a small flask of whiskey from his tattered cloak. He took a short draft before facing Tonks and instantly she knew that this was it. She had feared it since seeing him with Hestia the first time.
This was goodbye.
"Tonks, please understand. I love you dearly. I love you so much but--" He broke off searching her eyes desperately for a sign she didn't hate him. They came none however. Tonks couldn't think let alone move her face into the correct expression for the moment. She spared his finding the rest of his sentence.
"--you want me to leave." Remus swallowed hard and took another drink. Tonks hated him drinking and what's more, he knew it. Dammit, why did this have to be so hard? Hadn't she known this was coming?
"I'm so sorry my darling."
"No. I'm not your darling unless you start treating me like it," Tonks sighed, sliding down the wall behind her. Her small hands gripped the dresser to stop her hitting the ground hard and she closed her eyes. The growing smell of whiskey loomed over her telling her that Remus was standing just a little way infront.
"Please--"
"Remus, just go. I want to be on my own for a while." Remus hesitated before reaching down for her arm and pulling her up with immense strength for a man who looked so frail. Tonks moaned and smoothed her long dress down before buttoning the similar black leather coat and facing her past mate. "I can take care of myself you know."
Remus flinched and stared into Tonks eyes, apology over filling them. "I know. I just...worry."
Tonks rolled her eyes and bit her lip, surprised at the anger coursing through her. Her brain thought back to the last words Remus had spoken. Did he really know? Silently she moved towards the levitating pile of papers and instruments belonging to the order and walked it to the door, Remus following her.
"If you go on with the stuff I'll hang around her and wait for Harry to come so we can leave with Buckbeak." Remus looked startled by the conversation change and went to put a hand on Tonks shoulder but she promptly knocked it away. "Don't Remus." Her voice was icier than she meant it but the words were out and all she could do was gaze at the dejected looking Remus before walking up the stairs to where Buckbeak was being kept.
The sound of the door slamming loudly signalled a stream of tears to pour down Tonks' face, her breaths coming in short gasps. Slowly she padded up the creaking stairs, her heart breaking with each step that she took. It was too much. This on top of everything that had happened was too much. Tonks knew that as soon as they were living together things would change. For months she had been living in consistent fear. It was all because of the night Remus had hurt Kingsley. Never would she forget that night. The blood, the stench of misery. She had found Kingsley in the corner of the room nursing a gash in his arm that could have been life threatening had she not arrived, and there, in the corner of the room sat Remus, one knee up one down, rocking back and forth, the evidence of his werewolf's attack visible by the blood on his naked skin.
She had told him time after time that the attack wasn't his fault, that the beast was unused to not having Sirius to change with him but Remus have ignored everyone's advice and had retreated further and further into himself until, at last, this had happened.
Tonks shook her head and continued to walk up the stairs onto the landing. She could smell the stale air, the lingering presence of Sirius and the atmosphere of hatred. It wasn't healthy for anyone to be here. She felt her heart jolt again; the realisation of the hell Sirius had to endure over the last year finally beginning to sink in.
If she had only granted his pleas for her to cast a disillusionment charm on him, just for an hour or two each week for some freedom. That's all he had asked for. And now, he would never have any freedom again.
A shout reverberating from one on the rooms awakened Tonks from her reverie and her head shot towards the door nearest to her at the top of the stairs. She could tell the owner was angry and by what she could make out frustrated. Carefully she gripped the icy door handle in one hand, her wand already drawn and poised in the other. With a sharp kick the door swung open and she jumped inside, her back to the wall her eyes narrow. The room was empty save for a solitary man in the picture frame to the left of her.
Tonks sighed a breath of relief and walked up to the portrait. In the left half of the frame Phineus Nigellius was leaning against the wall, his arms crossed, his face an expression of anger and annoyance, so unlike his usual air of coolness.
"Phineus?"
"Nymphadora." Tonks resisted shuddering and instead walked up to her relation who scowled at her. Tonks put her wand in the pocket of her coat and stood facing him, in an equally intimidating posture.
"Why are you here Phineus? Shouldn't you be at Hogwarts?" The man shrugged and rolled his eyes lazily at her.
"You don't do everything you are told to do Nymphadora." Again Tonks resisted flinching at the sound of her name and instead walked to the wall where she removed the dusty frame from the wall. It was heavy, the cool gold frame feeling smooth under her palms, the smell of old metal filling her nostrils. A squeal of surprise and then anger told her that Phineus was unhappy with this movement.
"What do you think you are doing idiot girl!?"
"I'm moving you. We're not leaving you here Phineus."
"Does Dumbledore know this? It was my belief that he wanted me to spy on the Malfoys." Tonks paused, realisation washing over her.
"That's why you were angry. He didn't tell me." Phineus gave her a sarcastic smile before slouching down the wall and fingering a tassel on the curtain beside him. With only a brief seconds thought, Tonks placed the picture against the wall and performed a levitating charm on the frame, moving it towards the door.
"What are you doing?" Phineus' tone was still angry but Tonks caught the glint of hope in his eyes.
"I'm talking to Dumbledore. We'll need you in our new headquarters. You can stay there instead. We have plenty of traps set in the house to spy on the future business of this place." Phineus stood and offered Tonks an almost grateful smile before speaking.
"Thank you…Tonks." Tonks smiled briefly and levitated the frame down the stairs.
"Go to Dumbledore; tell him what I'm doing. If he wants to speak to me tell him he can find me at the Weasleys; I'm staying with them at the moment until--" Tonks stopped abruptly, realisation that she would no longer be able to live in Remus' flat tearing through her. Her sudden pause made Phineus raise his eyebrows and look at her with an atypical concern.
"Is everything alright?" Tonks waved an impatient hand and smiled sadly.
"Fine. If you could just do that for me please?" Phineus nodded and disappeared out of the frame just as it bumped the wall lightly at the bottom of the hall near the door. Tonks turned and walked hastily towards the bedroom in which Buckbeak was kept. She opened the door and bowed before the hippogriff that returned the gesture and smiled at her as she smoothed his beak.
"Hey boy," she whispered gently, taking the rope around his neck and leading the creature out into the misty sunlight of the hall, cast by a single round window high up at the end of the third floor landing. She felt sorry for the creature being cooped up in the horrible house for so long. Sirius had often spent hours with him nd Tonks believed that Buckbeak was probably the only true creature that could understand how Sirius felt. Dust rose with every heavy foot fall taken by the massive creature and Tonks had to stay infront to ensure that she would not get squashed against the wall. Tonks suddenly stopped rigidly still, the sound of the door opening making her throat go dry, fear flooding in. It was too early for Harry to be here and any of the others would have apparated. Slowly Tonks turned and tied Buckbeak to the balcony of the landing before tip toeing to the edge of the stairs and peering down to the door.
A tall, well built man stood at the door entrance, his frame filling the hall. Slowly he began to take off his cloak which swept the ground and placed it over the banister at the foot of the stairs. He looked around with interest before calling out in a husky tone,
"Remus? You here mate? Harry?" Tonks frowned and edged closer, curious as to whom the new stranger was. Slowly she whispered a disillusionment spell and crept down the stairs. She stopped a little way infront of him and peered at him as he scratched his head and walked slowly into the kitchen at the rear of the house.
Conjuring all the skill she had learnt in her way to becoming an auror, Tonks crept thought the corridor without sound, pausing only when she heard the sound of a chair being scraped along the kitchen floor and the figure sitting down. She could smell the musky scent of the stranger, a rich scent of earth, salt, rain and sweat mixed together. Cautiously she looked around the door and look in his state. The man had obviously travelled a long way. His robes were splattered with mud and had large rips some with -Tonks was horrified to see- blood edging them.
Suddenly there was a loud crash upstairs and Tonks saw the man stand up instantly, his eyes weary, his posture alert.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" Another crash from Buckbeak made the man stride swiftly across the kitchen and out into the corridor, a anger and fearfulness now etched in his posture. The man didn't get far however as he collided with Tonks who had tripped over the carpet in an effort to run away from him. With a loud "oof" he landed sprawled across Tonks who closed her eyes, ready for the curse that would end her life. The man however was not as quick to judge her identity and he carefully got off her before taking her wand away and reaching out a hand to help her up. Shaking, she took his offer and stood up, her head dizzy with confusion. His low voice jolted her awake and she stood wearily as he spoke.
"I'm guessing you're not a death eater, and you're too clumsy to be a spy. That only leaves me with one explanation. You're in the order?" Tonks swallowed and nodded slowly, uncertain as to who the man was and how he knew about the order. "And it was Buckbeak who made the crash upstairs yeah?"
Tonks nodded suddenly realising that the man had her wand. With a shaking voice she said,
"Who are you?"
The man grinned, taking in her appearance for the first time and passed her wand back at her. She caught it easily as the man held out his hand.
"I'm Charlie Weasley. Pleased to meet you, Tonks. I've heard a lot about you."
Tonks stood dumbfounded.
A/N Well, hope you like! Now you know the review button? Click it and leave a message grin!