In Which Misconceptions Occur

-or-

Heart-break at the Ministry!

Disclaimer: I am making no profit off this story. It is simply for my own enjoyment and I thought I'd share it with the rest of you.

The next few weeks found Tonks far too busy helping Ginny and Ron's on-again off-again girl friend Hermione with Charlie's engagement party to visit her parents and thus she managed to keep her suppressed feelings for a certain male at bay. But this was all to change the day of the party when she ran into the man in question in the middle of the Ministry of Magic employee cafeteria.

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The day began innocently enough, Tonks donning black slacks to go with a pink turtleneck and flats and putting her hair up sensibly in a French braid. She fully expected to spend the day at a desk doing paper work for her previous week on duty as an Auror, but if she was called out in an emergency, it wouldn't do to be stuck in a skirt and heels. Criminologist, indeed, she thought, remembering her lunch the weekend prior. I've yet to see a criminologist do this. And here she removed her wand from between her teeth (Wouldn't Alastor be mad. He'd probably tell me some horror story about someone who accidentally blew their own head off… I think I'll just put this down now.) and performed a spell to secure her identification, wand, and other personal effects to her person, as she had a terrible habit of losing them. This finished, she picked up a muffin from a bakery by her building and apparated from an alley to the telephone box entrance to the Ministry of Magic.

Her day had run normally until she decided to stop for lunch. One thing she could say in the Ministry's favour was it's excellent food, due no doubt to it's staff of about seven house elves who not only cooked for the cafeteria, they cleaned areas like the Department of Mysteries where ordinary employees were not free to clean up. House elves were, after all, known for their fanatical loyalty to their masters and their ability to keep secrets.

Tonks sat down at a table in the cafeteria and ordered her food by touching the items she wanted on the menus provided. She sat back to wait for the food to appear. Lost deep in thought, she didn't notice the visitor approaching her table. "Ah, Italian Wedding Soup, mashed potatoes, and cherry cheesecake. Still as eclectic as ever, my girl."

Her head snapped up as her cheeks flamed. Luckily, her "special abilities" allowed her to conceal this. It was him. "He-hello, Remus." So many things flashed through her mind while she uttered these simple words of greeting. How do I look? What's he doing here? He looks bloody great, who cares? Wait, who's that behind him? It's a woman! I..I guess I knew he wasn't here for me. She's pretty, prettier than me. I could look like that… But what's the use? Sighing inwardly, she smiled and continued, "How nice to see you." Here she gave him a friendly hug that he returned. It made her wish that they could share embraces of a more intimate variety, but she supposed those belonged to woman beside him.

"You too, Tonks. It was absolutely hell to find you though. I never know exactly what you'll be wearing. Though this is a surprise. Dress pants? What happened to the "Irish" shirt? And your accent, I like the new one too."

Though she thanked him, inwardly her heart fell somewhere into her stomach, splashing around juices and making her dizzy. He likes me. "Thanks, Remus. I guess I thought it was time for a change. They're always pressuring us to look more professional, so here I am." Here she spun around like a model, narrowly avoiding tripping over her purse. The woman beside Remus steadied her.

"Oh, thanks, umm…what was your name? I don't think we've met."

The woman laughed, a sound that to Tonks rather jealous ears was like the purest music. Then she extended her hand. "Nice to meet you. I'm Elaine. You must be Nymphadora, though I'm told you prefer Tonks. Remus tells me that you went to school with his brother, Markus."

"Yes, do you know him?"

Here Elaine paused and frowned, looking as though the name meant something distasteful. "Yes, I suppose I do. But I'm staying with Remus right now and I'd rather not think about him while I'm here." At this moment, Tonks' fallen heart went from a state of euphoria to a state of despair. She's living with him? But, but…why? I wanted, I'd hoped… Only years of training as an Auror allowed her to keep a cool enough head to avoid bursting into tears as the woman continued. "I know you've already ordered, but we were here anyway, and Remus thought it would be nice to have you along for old time's sake."

Remus leaned close and began to conspiratorially stage whisper. "Tonks, I thought I'd let you be one of the first to know: I got a new job."

Tonks' more mature personal, which she had paid through the nose for, vanished. Squealing with excitement, she forgot her upset about the other woman and launched herself into Remus's arms. "Really! So you now you're not living off your "hard earned savings" and that stint as an actor? Because you know that whole starving artist thing just isn't you…"

Remus chuckled. Tonks had never really been known for being tactful, especially when she was genuinely happy for someone. She tended to blurt the first thing that came to her head, and this was no exception. "No, I don't suppose I make a good starving artist. I'm just genuinely starving. But this job promises to be wonderful. I just had my credentials transferred, and I can start teaching again at the start of the fourth term."

"Transferred? You're leaving England?"

"No, I don't think that they'd ever truly let me leave the country, given my "contagious disease". But I've got a position as a history professor at a Muggle Secondary School."

"No offence Remus, but isn't that somehow worse? You know, letting the," here she lowered her voice, "evil werewolf loose among the unsuspecting defenceless Muggles?"

"Well, they've never been the brightest sorts here, have they? I'm not about to throw away some secure employment, after all, and the curriculum shouldn't be too different than history of magic from school. I figure if I get a new textbook, I'll have some idea of the time period I'm lecturing on."

"Good thing you're not teaching maths, then, since I believe you were too lazy to take Arithmancy," added Elaine, who had grown tired of standing on the sidelines of the conversation.

Suddenly it became very clear to Tonks that this wasn't time for playful banter. Remus had moved on from her. No, she thought bitterly, that's not right. He never even stopped in the first place. And now he was this woman's, a woman who knew a bloody lot more about his past than she ever would, because he wouldn't let her in to his life. I'm never good enough for anyone, am I? she raged, Not the purebloods, not the Muggles, not the "sensible" people, not Remus Lupin! Well, see if I care. I can get on without him. And with that, she turned to her visitors and coolly and indifferently announce, "I just remembered that I have to go and clean my house. My boyfriend's coming over tonight."

This unexpected changed in the personality of someone usually so sunny left Remus Lupin staring. He turned to his sister-in-law, Elaine Lupin, who had had a fight with her husband and left him for a while, "What's gotten into her?"

"Oh honestly Remus, you heard that remark she made about her boyfriend. She's probably having relationship trouble."

And little did she know it, but Elaine Lupin had hit the proverbial nail on the head, though not with the man she expected. For it was one Remus Lupin that caused a heartbroken Tonks to cry for hours before heading to the bakery she'd visited that morning to drown her pain in poppy-seed muffins.