Remus opened his eyes slowly, blinking at the bright sunlight that streamed through a nearby window; it took him a moment to remember exactly where he was. He felt a warm pressure on his left side; Tonks was curled up against him, asleep. With a sudden jolt of bemused delight he realized that the head resting on his shoulder was no longer mousy brown, but a vivid bubblegum pink. He shifted slightly to look at her, turning slowly so as not to wake her. He thought she must have felt his eyes on her, however, for after a few minutes she opened hers and smiled sleepily up at him.

" 'S it seven-o'-clock yet?" she murmured groggily, raising her head from his shoulder.

He sat up straighter and checked his watch. "Twenty past."

She rose quickly from the sofa and stretched. "C-coffee okay?" she asked on a yawn. "Or do you want tea?"

He shrugged. "Whatever works best for you. Coffee's fine."

Tonks disappeared into the small kitchen, and after two quick minutes of loud clattering noises she emerged with two steaming mugs. She handed one to Remus and sat down beside him on the sofa.

"Perhaps we ought to drink somewhere else," he suggested, glancing again at the coffee stains on the sofa.

She wrinkled her nose at him. "I happen to think they make the sofa look nicer. Don't you?"

He hid a smile. "Well, why don't we give the kitchen table its share of the goods, then?"

They were sitting at the tiny kitchen table across from each other, sipping their coffees in comfortable silence, when the doorbell rang. "Who could that be?" said Tonks with a slight frown, jumping up and going out of the kitchen.

"More likely you came to see if I was awake," Remus heard her retort with a laugh a few moments later. "Come in...have something to drink?"

"You know better than to ask that question," growled a familiar voice.

"Mad-Eye, do you really think I would try to poison you?"

Mad-Eye Moody stumped into the small kitchen after Tonks. "Morning," he said brusquely, nodding at Remus. He didn't look very surprised to see him there. "You all right?"

Remus nodded. "I'm fine, thank you."

His good eye still looking at him, Moody's electric blue one swivelled onto Tonks' pink hair. "For once, Lupin, I might believe you when you say that." He sat down at the table, stretching out his wooden leg with a groan. "Was just thinking," he said rather gruffly, "that we should all go to the funeral together. Early, if you can be ready quickly enough."

They met many of the others by the Hogwarts lake: Kingsley Shacklebolt, Mr. and Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Fleur, Fred, George. Tonks settled into a chair next to Moody. Remus sat down on her other side and took her hand; he felt her lace her fingers through his. None of them talked much as they waited for everyone else to arrive. They all came at last - the students, the teachers, the Ministry officials, and all the rest - and the grave ceremony began. A collective shiver seemed to go through the crowd when Hagrid walked up the aisle carrying the body wrapped in purple velvet - a shiver, Remus felt, that was all the more pronounced juxtaposed against the strangely sunny warmth of the day. Hagrid had placed the wrapped body carefully on the marble table in front of them and retreated down the aisle; someone was speaking in front of Dumbledore's body, but Remus wasn't listening. He was thinking of the man who had trusted him when no one else would, the man who had believed in him and been there for him ever since the day he agreed to let a young werewolf attend his school. Something in his throat tightened, but he didn't cry; he never cried at funerals, only (if he was granted some mercy) afterwards. Ever since James and Lily's...he remembered that day, sitting there, wanting, needing badly to cry; but all he could feel was a terrible, lonely emptiness. It was that emptiness that he had felt at all funerals since then, an aching sense of being left alone again and again, an icy world in which no one could reach him or touch him...

He felt a warm pressure on his hand. Tonks was looking at him, her eyes overbright. "You okay?" she asked, squeezing his hand again.

He smiled tiredly at her. "I'm fine."

They watched in silence as flames erupted around Dumbledore's body and left a white marble tomb; the centaurs gave their tribute and, as did the merpeople watching from the water, disappeared. It was the cue for many of the people to rise and begin to disperse, though a few of them stayed in their seats, some holding each other and crying, some staring blankly at the tomb in front of them. Remus was doing the latter; he had let go of Tonks' hand and was now fingering the hair on the back of her head absently. She leaned over. "I think it's time to go," she whispered into his neck.

"Yes," he said absently, but he didn't move, and neither did she. After a few moments, he said abruptly, still gazing at the tomb, "I think he would have been happier."

"I think so too," she agreed. "I think he would have been happier to see this - not the sadness or the crying for his sake - but people, his students for example, united, bonding with and comforting each other. It's times like these, most of all, when people need people. I guess that's why in the midst of death there's always more life and love then we would imagine."

He looked rather startled."In the midst of death there's life," he said slowly. "That's a - strange thought." He looked down at her thoughtfully for a moment; then he kissed the top of her pink head gently, adding into her hair, "And it's intensely comforting."

So I think this might be the end...and I got to fit in the title, which is a good thing, heh. If, however, I have cravings, I just might write more...perhaps a nice smutty night-after-the-funeral chapter? ;) Hehe. We'll see.