Disclaimer: These aren't my puppets, I just snuck in to play.

Chapter 5

"You're kidding me, Tonks. You've really never done this? I would think you of all people would have, at least once."

"And what exactly is that supposed to mean, Remus?" Tonks looked down at the floor. "I guess I just never really found the right person to do it with."

"Surely your mother would have insisted, being brought up the way she was."

Tonks shook her head. "I guess she figured I was just too clumsy. Anyway, can we get this over with, because um, yeah…" she trailed off, not really knowing what to say.

"Hold on a minute, I haven't done this in-well, quite some time. Why didn't Sirius help you with this?"

"Eew, Remus. Besides, he's had a longer break from it then you have. And from what he tells me, you're better at it."

Remus smirked, "Well, the man has a point."

They both turned as they thought they heard a muffled noise from the other side of the door. Silence.

"Well, shall we have a go at it then?" Remus asked.

Tonks looked panicked. "Well wait a second! You haven't even told me what I should do first. I mean, aren't there, you know, moves…or something." By now, Tonks was a bit flushed.

Remus looked amused. Of all the favors Sirius had ever asked of him, this was by far the strangest.

"Has anyone ever told you what's involved with it?" Remus asked, trying not to notice the extremely adorable blush on her cheeks.

Tonks furrowed her brow in concentration. "Well, I asked Sirius once, you know, his mum insisted he learn as soon as possible, and he told me there was a lot of hip wiggling."

Remus laughed out loud this time. "I suppose some types, yes, there is a bit of hip wiggling."

Tonks looked worried. "Types? You mean there's more than one way?" Remus nodded.

Merlin, next time he was going to make Sirius do his own favors. "The way we're doing it is very simple, ok? Don't worry, we'll take it slow first. Wouldn't want you to hurt yourself, right?" he said, giving her a cheeky smile.

"I'm not that clumsy." she said, pouting her lip and pretending to look offended. In reality, she was much too happy about the prospect of getting to dance with Remus than to let anything else bother her.

"All right then. Let's see what you've got." Remus waved his wand and the old phonograph in the corner started up.

Outside the door, Sirius sat with his ear pressed against it. He knew that he probably shouldn't, but seeing as there was nothing else to do, and well, this was better than cleaning.

Ginny was walking down the stairs when she practically tripped over Sirius. "Whoa! Oh, sorry Sirius. I didn't see you there." Her hand reached for the doorknob when Sirius pulled it away quickly. She gave him a quizzical look.

"What are you doing?" he hissed at her.

"I was going to go in and see how Remus' dance lesson is going. Is there something wrong with that?"

"Well, they uh-might need um, alone time." he said lamely as he tried to come up with words to explain to a 14 year old what they might end up doing if they did get "alone time". His original plan didn't include the fact that there were young impressionable minds running rampant through the house. Ginny rolled her eyes.

"I swear, everyone needs 'alone time' around here. Ron and Hermione need alone time so that they can debate about what to put in their letter to Harry. Its not like they have much choice. Its either nothing or nothing. Fred and George kicked me out because they're working on their stupid products. And I'm avoiding Mum so she'll make me clean. I came to watch Tonks and Remus cuz I'm bored out of my mind!"

Sirius nodded sagely. He knew exactly what she was talking about. Suddenly his face lit up.

"Ginny, do you have any of those Extendable Ears?"

Ginny's face paled. Sirius laughed at her expression. "Don't worry, I won't be giving them to your mum. How'd you like to know what's going on in there?" he asked, gesturing to the door to the front room. Ginny nodded excitedly and ran up the stairs to get them.

She returned a few minutes later with two pairs. Sirius was sitting on the floor eating popcorn. She gave him another funny look.

"What? I thought we might get hungry." he said as she handed him a pair of ears. She sat down next to him and slipped her own pair on. Sirius put the bowl of popcorn down between them.

"Tonks, my foot." Remus said calmly. For the tenth time.

"Oh, I'm really sorry Remus." Tonks apologized. For the tenth time. "Maybe I'm just not cut out for this kind of thing." she said rather glumly. She really had wanted to be able to dance, if anything, so she could prove Sirius wrong. But she was thankful enough he had been able to convince Remus to teach her. She plopped onto the sofa as Remus went to turn the phonograph off.

He came and sat beside her. "That's all right. Waltzing isn't for everyone. I remember the first time I tried it, I stepped on my partner's feet at least a dozen times." She still didn't look convinced. He continued. "Look, I'm sure tons of people don't know how to do it. Ballroom dancing shite is mostly a thing of the past. They probably won't even play a waltz at this thing."

She smiled weakly. "I suppose."

Remus sank back into the sofa. He put a hand to his temple and laughed softly. Tonks raised an eyebrow. "Is my dancing that funny?" she asked.

Remus shook his head. "I just-sound so old. I mean, I am old." Tonks opened her mouth to protest. But he kept talking. "No, really. When Sirius asked me to do this for you, I didn't even think about any contemporary dancing."

"Is that the hip wiggling stuff?" she asked innocently. Remus laughed again. Louder this time.

"Yeah, the hip wiggling stuff." He looked at her to see if she was taking the piss. But her face showed nothing except an unusual naivety that wasn't often there. She looked so-innocent. At the moment, Tonks certainly didn't have the look of a girl who had "hip wiggled" with anyone. 'In either definition of the word' the Sirius part of his brain said to him.

Remus shook his head a minute, clearing away any thoughts of hip wiggling of any kind. Bad. Bad to think of wiggling hips. He decided he needed a better distraction.

"Ready to try some more dancing?" he offered, standing up quickly. She looked up at him skeptically.

"I suppose. We're not going to tango or anything are we?"

Remus smiled. "Not unless you'd like to." he said in a very gentlemanly way. He walked over to his moderate collection of records and started flipping through them.

"You know," Tonks started talking to Remus' back but kept her eyes firmly planted on the fraying carpet on the floor, "You're not that old. Maybe just a little old fashioned. Not that that's bad! I mean, I think its kind of…cute how you wanted to waltz." She decided not to say anything else, her face was already as red as she wanted it to be, if not more so.

Remus stopped flipping through the records and smiled. He didn't turn around, but he could just picture her foot tracing nervous circles across the floor. He wanted to turn around and tell her he thought she was cute too. But he didn't. Remus turned around and held up a record.

"How about we polka?" he asked. It was better this way. Better to joke than to put his heart on the line. He wouldn't get hurt with a joke.

Tonks rolled her eyes. Of all times for Remus to make a joke. Instead, of acting serious, he was acting like Sirius. Before she could say anything, he had turned back to the box of records and was intentionally preoccupying himself with them.

"Remus, you can't avoid this." she said firmly, taking a step closer to him. His head was now bent over the player, adjusting the new record under the needle.

He quickly stood up and put his arms around her waist. At first she panicked. Maybe he agreed with her. Maybe he realized he couldn't avoid this forever and had decided to do something about it. Tonks braced herself. She hadn't thought about what for. Perhaps a kiss, or more…

Remus took her hands and placed them on his shoulders. His hands went back to her waist. He pulled her closer until his hands were clasped behind her at the small of her back. She tentatively slid her arms around his neck. The soft hair at the back of his neck was brushing against her forearm and in their close proximity, she was finding it very difficult to breathe.

They were dancing. Tonks felt elated. For once, she wasn't stepping on his toes. For once, he wasn't counting numbers out loud. For once, they were just dancing. For a minute, she looked at him, trying to figure out what he thought of it all. But she couldn't see anything behind the blue.

Remus was trying very hard to breathe normally. This wasn't quite the distraction he was aiming for. Now he was a little too distracted.

He smiled at her. "You haven't stepped on my foot once." he said, amused.

Tonks sighed. "Remus," she warned. She didn't want to hear another joke. She wanted so badly for him to see things the way that she did.

He stopped smiling and looked down. Tonks steeled herself and brought his chin back up so that his eyes met her.

"Remus, don't joke. Not anymore. You can't get around this with a joke."

"Get around what?" he asked, trying to buy himself time before the inevitable confrontation.

She sighed again as she rested her head on his shoulder. She felt his body stiffen as she pulled herself even closer to him. She could feel his shallow breathing ghosting along her neck.

"This Remus." she whispered. "You can't pretend this isn't there."

"Tonks, I-" Remus seemed a bit blank for words. No, he knew he couldn't pretend his feelings for her didn't exist, but he never dreamed that she might reciprocate those feelings. She lifted her head from his shoulder.

"Are you going to kiss me yet?"

Sirius spit out the butterbeer he had just taken a swig of. "What did she just say!" Ginny slapped his arm.

"Ssh! I want to hear what he says." Sirius stared horrified at the closed door in front of him. Ginny might not know, but he knew what kissing could lead to. Merlin, if he was the one to expose Ginny to her first, er, sounds of…something, the consequences would be frightening. Molly would castrate him. Granted, he'd already been out of commission for awhile, but still, he would not be responsible for devirginizing Ginny's ears for very obvious reasons.

Sirius stood up quickly, yanking both sets of Extendable Ears from under the door. Ginny looked up at him angrily.

"Sirius! What are you doing?"

"Ginny, I can't let you-uh, hear anything. I mean, you can't sit there while they-um, just, no more listening!" he said quickly. His face was bright red as she stood up. Comprehension dawned on her and she rolled her eyes.

"Oh please, Sirius. You don't actually think they're going to have sex, do you?" Sirius let out an 'eep'. Ginny continued. "Well, not right this second. Honestly Sirius, they've only just realized its mutual. Now give me back those ears!" She made a grab for the Extendable Ears as Sirius held them over his head.

"No, Ginny! I'm afraid you can't have them back. I've decided it's a violation of their privacy." Ginny jumped up.

"Sirius! It didn't bother you a minute ago! Its not fair!"

Remus stared at her. There she was standing in his arms asking him to kiss her. He felt he had to sit down, but couldn't because Tonks' arms were still wrapped around his neck. He could feel her heartbeat against him and wondered if she could hear how fast his heart was racing.

Cautiously, he bent his head towards hers and she leaned into him, closing the very short distance between them.

"Sirius! Give them back! They're mine anyway!" Ginny jumped again, determined to get them this time. And she did. But as she came back down to the ground, her body went barreling through the doors to the front room. Sirius had managed to hold onto one end of the Extendable Ears, which only meant that he was pulled through the doors after Ginny. The two of them ended up in a heap as the doors swung behind them.

Remus jumped backwards at the loud crash. He ran his tongue over his lips nervously, knowing that if the intruders had barged in any later, they would have seen him kissing her.

Tonks pulled her hand through her hair in frustration. They had been so close…

Sirius and Ginny both looked up at Tonks and Remus, their sheepish faces trying to hide some of the guilt. They both stood up quickly, scrambling for the handle of the door.

"Right uh, we'll just be going. Sorry about the little intrusion. Please, continue!" Sirius said as he shuffled himself and Ginny out the door.

"Tonks-" Remus started. She cut him off.

"This isn't going to work, Remus."

He stared at her. He seemed somewhat taken aback by her statement. "I'm sorry, what?" he asked.

"I still want this, Remus. More than you know. But you aren't comfortable with it. And until you're sure, nothing can happen. It'll just make things worse." She moved towards the door but he grabbed her arm.

"Wait a minute, just because the door opened at an inopportune time means this isn't going to work?"

"Maybe its fate." she said as she walked out of the room.

"You don't believe that rubbish! Do you?" he called after her. As the door closed behind her, he threw himself onto the couch. He massaged his forehead. As if things weren't uncomfortable enough, now there was this. How had everything gone from platonic friendship to awkward teenage romance?

The door opened slowly. Sirius came in quietly and sat down next to Remus.

"Hello, Sirius." Remus said weakly.

"How do you always know its me?" Sirius asked as Remus turned to look at him.

"Smells like you. Cinnamon and smoke." Remus answered as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

Sirius watched him for a minute. "And what does Tonks smell like?"

Remus looked out the window. When he didn't answer, Sirius waved a hand in front of him.

"Want to tell me what's up?"

Remus looked back at him and shrugged. "I know it won't do any good but I might as well." Sirius looked offended.

"It won't do any good? Why Moony, you are talking to the expert on all things woman. Trust me, I can help more than you think."

Meanwhile, a pair of Extendable Ears found their way under the door and the redhead on the other side was happily munching away at the rest of the popcorn.

A/N: Well, I'm not as happy with this chapter as I like to be normally, but I needed to get it loaded because I didn't want to leave y'all hanging with that favor. Anyhoo, Cheers for Reading!