DISCLAIMER: Don't own it blah blah blah J.K.Rowling blah blah blah don't sue me blah blah etc.
Mirror, Mirror
Chapter Three: Becoming
Later that evening, Tonks was once again hiding in her room. She remembered Remus' words earlier that day. "your cousin's eyes" she recalled, peering into the mirror yet again. She had not remembered changing her eyes since this morning, when they had gone from black to a subtle green. They were most certainly not that now. As she looked closer, almost bumping her nose on the cold glass, she knew what Remus had meant. They were now almost identical to her cousin's. She peered into them and what she saw was not Sirius like she though it would be. On first hearing her friend's words, she had assumed she must have copied the portrait's eyes to an extent, during her hours of staring that morning. What Tonks actually saw in her new eyes was, in fact, herself. She hadn't seen that in a long time.
As she looked at her reflection, it began to change. She hadn't furrowed her brow, she hadn't concentrated, she hadn't felt any pain. She had done nothing to trigger this change. In fact, she would not have noticed it at all had she not been staring at herself in her mirror yet again. She examined the new person that stood looking back at her.
She had the same distant grey eyes Remus had seen and she had to admit that there was something a little Sirius about them. She also had quite a defined brow line, well, she was quite a facially expressive person after all. The shape of her face hadn't altered drastically. It was still quite heart-shaped, though her jaw was a little squarer, resembling her muggle father's. Her nose was no longer the cute button nose she usually preferred, but was instead bigger, more pronounced, even pointed. She knew that to be her mother's, and regrettably her aunts' as well. She had remembered.
Her face was now definitely the one she had been born with nearly twenty-five years ago, but her hair! It wasn't black, or brown, blonde or even red. It was not a normal colour at all, or style for that matter. She giggled at her reflection. She was bald! Tonks took this as a sign she had creative control over that piece of her anatomy. She supposed that her mad hair really was the real her. She thought for a moment and decided on a silver bob and made her way downstairs again.
It was 2.13am, she noted as she stepped into the living room. Everyone's sleeping habits had completely reversed since that fateful night, in fact both herself, Remus, Harry and a few others who'd stayed a night or two, had become total insomniacs. She sat down in a large armchair and hugged her knees silently. She heard the clinking of glass and peered into the kitchen. Remus was there, pouring himself a rather large glass of Firewhisky. Remus looked up, pointed an empty glass at Tonks and raised his eyebrows quizzically.
"Only a small one, I'm not one for liqueur," she lied, recalling the thirty bottles of the stuff she had got through, alone in her room, when she left St. Mungo's and returned to the house of Black. They had helped her deal with it for a while. Not for long though.
Tonks had taken some time off work to deal with it properly. Kingsley, on the other hand, had dealt with it by immersing himself in his work, so much so, she hadn't seen a peep out of him in two weeks. She wondered what the ministry had him doing now that the search for Sirius had stopped. Whatever it was, she felt sure there was a lot of paperwork involved.
Tonks smiled as Remus joined her, handing over her glass and stretching out on the sofa. They sat in silence, sipping the intoxicating warm liquid. It wasn't an awkward silence, more of an agreed respite in pointless small talk, which she knew Remus hated. His sips turned to gulps, then gulps turned to glugs. Pretty soon he would venture back into the kitchen for a new bottle.
Tonks was just about resigned to this, when her eyes came upon the gramophone in the corner of the room. A cunning grin crept over her face. She knew what would keep him from opening that second bottle. She gulped down the rest of her drink and reached for her wand.
With a slight flick of her wrist, Remus' old music player spluttered into action. The upbeat swing jazz took Remus completely by surprise, and did indeed take his mind off the whisky. Tonks craned her head to catch her friend's reaction, a beaming smile erupting from her face. She stood up, walked over to his chair and held out her hand.
"Professor, may I have this dance?" she asked tentatively. Remus did not answer, he simply took her hand and stood up, fearing for his toes.
They danced with surprising ease. Remus was shocked to see Tonks fall over only once in three songs, she was actually quite good. They twirled each other, held each other close, looked deep into each other's eyes, then swung the other around their head. They hadn't danced in a long time. As they spun and entwined they became different people. It was almost as if they became themselves in each other's arms, together they were completely free. As the last song faded into memory, Tonks placed a delicate kiss on Remus' cheek and to her amusement he had blushed. He giggled like a school girl.
Remus thanked her dearly and retired to his room, leaving Tonks alone with the empty silence. Tonks felt happy, and she wasn't happy with that. She flicked her wand at the gramophone and all thought of the fast-paced jazz disappeared as Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata flooded her senses. Much better, she thought, nice and melancholy.
She sat and thought. She hadn't a clue why she felt so alive in her friend's arms, it had been simply amazing. She had felt nothing like it in her life. Tonks decided it was because she really did love Remus. Not in that way, she reassured herself, but as a true friend and in some ways it was much more meaningful to her. She had never had much time for friends since her Auror training, and even before that she hadn't been particularly close to anyone she had called her friend. But now, she felt like she could tell Remus absolutely anything. Now she just had to think of something.