A/N: Hello all! I have another chapter for you guys! I'm glad you guys appreciate how soon I try to update my story. When I start a story I have the whole story already down in my mind so I know what I want to happen and that sort of thing. I know I hate it when authors take weeks and weeks to update, it sucks! But the longest I would go without updating would be a couple days at the most. Well, enough with my yakking! Let's get on with the long love tale of Remus and Tonks!
Grimmauld Place was a lot quieter with the children all of at school. Remus was hardly ever there, however. Dumbledore had been sending Remus on all sorts of missions. Remus didn't mind, he liked getting out and doing something for the Order. He hadn't been on a mission with Tonks since that one several weeks ago; she had been bombarded at work he was told.
One rainy, dreary afternoon, Remus was found entering Headquarters soaking wet. He had been sent to the Hog's Head to try and listen in on Death Eater's plans. He swung his wet hair out of his eyes and trudged towards the kitchen where he would find Molly sipping hot chocolate with Tonks.
"Oh Remus! You look absolutely chilled to the bone!" Molly said when Remus had stepped foot inside the kitchen. "Here, let me get you a blanket." She bustled out of the kitchen and a second later was back with a large blanket.
"Thank you Molly." Remus said quietly. He was very tired. Not only had he been up since before dawn but he was about to transform in a few days.
"Is there anything I can get you? Some soup or a nice cup of tea?" Molly asked hurriedly, ushering the soaking Remus to the table.
"Some tea sounds nice." Remus said softly and smiling.
Molly immediately bustled over to the stove. Remus looked over to Tonks and noticed she had light auburn hair that went just passed her shoulders and greenish blue eyes. She looked absolutely breathtaking, as always.
"Wotcher Remus." She replied smiling. But there was something off about the way she greeted Remus and smiled at him.
"Afternoon Tonks. How's work?" He asked casually.
He had found it much easier to forget his feelings for her, seeing as he had been away from her since that day at Kings Cross, though he still carried a secret torch for her.
"Good, just lots of paperwork." She said dully.
Remus just smiled at her. Molly came over and placed a steaming cup of tea in front of him. "Thank you Molly." Remus said gratefully.
Molly smiled at him then looked at Tonks and jabbed her head ever so slightly towards Remus. What was going on? Normally Remus would have thought about this but his head and whole body hurt too much.
"Did Severus stop by?" Remus asked, acting as though he hadn't seen Molly's actions.
"Oh yes, here he dropped this off." She walked across the kitchen and took a goblet from the cabinet, which she dipped into a cauldron, whose contents were smoking faintly. The cauldron had been sitting on the counter. Remus hadn't noticed it when he had first came in. "Here you are dear." Molly said, handing him the smoking goblet.
"Thanks." He replied quietly. He felt somewhat embarrassed having his potion given to him in front of Tonks, as if he was a child that needed to take his medicine. He purposely avoided her eyes.
"Where's Sirius?" Remus asked after a moment.
"Oh I think he's sulking upstairs in the attic with Buckbeak." Molly sighed. "The poor dear, he's been a bit blue ever since Harry left for school."
"Yea, I think a part of him wanted Harry to be expelled." Tonks agreed.
Remus merely listened and nodded. He sipped his tea absentmindly thinking about going and having a heart to heart with Sirius, to try and cheer him up a bit.
"Well, I need to…um go and clean the…the parlor." Molly said suddenly looking at Remus and Tonks.
Remus gave her a funny look. "What do you mean? Sirius and I already cleaned it."
But Molly ignored Remus who turned to Tonks. She looked terrified at the thought of Molly leaving; she was shaking her head but stopped abruptly when she saw Remus staring at her. She covered it up with a smile. Molly left hurriedly without another word, leaving Remus alone with Tonks. They sat in unusual silence for some time. This wasn't normal for Tonks, she usually had lots to say in front of Remus, and they got along so well. Remus tried catching her eye but he saw that she was determinedly looking at the table and was unconsciously twirling a strand of hair around her index finger.
Remus cleared his throat gently. "So…Tonks what have you been up to?" He asked, hoping this would spark some sort of conversation.
Tonks looked up from the table and into Remus' eyes and immediately began to blush. Her hair started changing to that familiar neon red color but she closed her eyes and forced it back to the auburn color that resulted in her hair being a mix of bright neon red and auburn. Remus found her behavior very peculiar. Why was she embarrassed at the question Remus had asked? And why was she avoiding his eyes?
"Is something wrong?" Remus asked concernedly.
Tonks looked back into Remus' eyes determinedly. "No. Why do you ask?" She asked innocently.
Remus gave her a raised eyebrow. "Well you're not very talkative and you're hair started going to that neon color you get when you're embarrassed when I asked you a simple question. Have I done something wrong?" He asked. He couldn't think of anything he could have done to upset Tonks in anyway and if he did, he felt awful. The last thing he wanted to do was to upset her.
"No, no of course not Remus. What could you ever do wrong?" She said gently, smiling, the twinkle sparkling in her, now, blue eyes, they had changed to Remus' color. He chose to ignore this; he didn't want to say anything else that would embarrass Tonks for whatever reason.
Remus smiled back.
"I guess I'm just a little tired is all." She said. "I've been a bit off lately, I've been having a bit of trouble transforming. It's not as easy as it used to be. I think maybe I've come down with a cold or something."
"You look pretty fine to me." Remus said, staring at her. He immediately began to blush; he hadn't meant to say that out loud! He had only been thinking that. He quickly looked down at his cup of tea and wished that the floor would swallow him up.
"Thank you." She said very quietly. Remus half-glanced at her and noticed she was wearing a smile and was blushing also but her hair wasn't going to that familiar neon red, it was turning to her short, bubblegum pink hairstyle that Remus fancied on her. What was going on with her? Women gave him a splitting headache.
"Well, I best be off. I'm sure you need some rest." She seemed to come back to her normal self.
Remus didn't want her to go, he wanted very much to talk to her, and they hadn't talked in so long. "Actually, I'm not that tired." He said hopefully.
She looked at him for a moment before answering. "You're not?" She asked.
"N-No, actually I was kind of hoping we could…you know talk or something. I haven't spoken to you in weeks." He said, forcing himself to not break contact with her eyes, which were still the same color as his.
She smiled. "I missed talking to you." She said fondly.
Remus smiled back. "Me too. I mean, I missed talking to you too."
Tonks giggled and Remus' heart jumped into his throat. He had been doing so well at trying to forget all about his feelings for Tonks but here she was, right here and Remus found he had no control over his feelings. He had to admit it to himself, he fancied the girl, possibly even loved. So the two talked for a couple of hours, the only sounds coming from the pounding rain outside. Remus felt better than he had in weeks, Tonks always knew how to make him laugh and forget about the tragic reality that was around them.
Tonks thoroughly enjoyed Remus' stories about The Marauders and their pranks they had played on Severus. She laughed exceptionally hard at the prank James and Sirius had pulled in their seventh year. They had slipped several sleeping pills into Severus' goblet at dinner and followed him around and kept him occupied until he passed out. They had then dyed his hair a flamboyant pink and jinxed him so his reflection couldn't be emitted in any mirror. It had taken Severus over a day to realize what everyone was laughing at and over a week for him to turn his hair back to the right color.
"I can't believe you guys did that!" Tonks said laughing.
"I didn't do it! Sirius and James did!" Remus corrected her, also laughing.
For the first time in his life, Remus wasn't that depressed at talking about James and his school days with The Marauders. He wondered if it was because of Tonks. The two were laughing so hard that they hadn't noticed a note appear on the table all of a sudden. It took them a minute before they had noticed it.
"Whose it from?" Tonks asked, wiping a tear away from her eye.
"Dunno." Remus said. He picked up the letter and recognized the handwriting as Dumbledore's. He tore it open and read:
Remus and Tonks:
I am wondering if you two are up for a little assignment. Please respond immediately.
Albus"It's from Dumbledore. He wants us to go on a little assignment." Remus informed Tonks.
"Excellent! I haven't been on an assignment since that one you and I did." She said excitedly.
"It says to respond immediately but how did he get it here? He didn't send an owl." Remus said looking around the kitchen, hoping for some sort of sign that would clue him in on sending the letter back to Dumbledore.
"Here, let me see it." Tonks said, reaching for the letter. Remus handed it to her. She read it over and looked like she was thinking. "I think if we just…yes that has to be it." She said to herself.
"What?" Remus asked.
But Tonks had ignored him and pulled out a beautiful peacock quilland wrote on the letter. She then folded it up and laid it back down on the exact spot that it had first appeared. A second later the letter disappeared.
"How'd you know?" Remus asked astonished.
Tonks smiled. "I'm not as dumb as most people think." She smirked playfully.
"I never thought you were dumb." Remus said.
Tonks smiled. "You are so sweet Remus."
Remus blushed faintly. He wasn't used to compliments, especially from young attractive Aurors.
"Oh wait, are you sure you're going to be up for an assignment? I mean, with your 'condition' and all." Tonks said suddenly.
Remus suddenly felt extremely embarrassed, he could think of nothing to say. Tonks, obviously seeing she had made a mistake by bringing up Remus' 'furry little problem', hastily changed the subject.
"So, what do you think Dumbledore wants us to do?" She asked.
Remus was actually kind of grateful for Tonks' change of the subject. "I don't know. Whatever it is, it can't be too dangerous or time consuming." He said.
Tonks looked a little put down at this thought. "Ah, I never get to do anything fun." She rested her head on her arm.
Remus couldn't help but chuckle. "Well, you hang out with a werewolf, how much fun do you need?" He asked teasingly. This was the first time in a while that Remus had actually joked about his condition.
Tonks chuckled lightly. "Oh, I have lots of fun with you Remus." She said this a little mischievously.
Remus lightly scoffed. "Oh yea, I'm sure I'm loads of fun." He suddenly hated everything about himself, to his shaggy clothes to him being a werewolf. He even hated all these cursed scars that littered his face and body. He truly hated himself. He looked down at himself in disgust.
"Remus! You are fun." Tonks protested. Remus looked up from his self-loathing to Tonks' eyes, which were wide with shock and disbelief that Remus would actually hate himself. "How many times do I have to say it Remus? You're more than a werewolf, you're a man." She got up from the table and sat down right next to Remus. She grabbed either sides of his face with her hands and looked him square in the eye. "You have nothing to be ashamed of. Being a werewolf isn't so bad, heck; it's not even that big of a deal to me. And I know you shut people out because you think you're dangerous, which is a lie." She giggled at this last sentence.
"What?" Remus asked breathlessly, never looking away from her beautiful eyes.
"You. Dangerous. That's so funny. You are no more dangerous than a little puppy dog." She teased.
"Hey, don't get the wrong idea, I can be pretty ferocious you know." Remus said playfully.
She giggled again. "Sure. Whatever you say." She said.
Remus felt like he was floating in the air. How did Tonks know just the right thing to say to make him feel better and forget about everything? He was floating on cloud nine whenever he was with her and he never wanted to come down.
"I can be pretty ferocious." Remus said defensively, with a smile.
She laughed. "Ha! I'd love to see the day you, Remus, are 'ferocious'. She rolled her eyes and laughed some more.
So she wanted him to show his ferocious side huh? He'd show her. Out of nowhere Remus grabbed Tonks' hips and started tickling her unmercifully.
She screamed and began to laugh, she slumped out of her chair and Remus got out of his, he wasn't done with her yet.
"Stop it!" She said laughing when Remus pounced on her and continued his assault of tickling her sides.
She giggle and laughed and squirmed in his arms. Remus was laughing just as hard as Tonks was. She broke free from his grasp and turned to face him.
"That's it Remus, you're gonna get it now." She said with a sneaky smile on her lips.
Before Remus knew what had happened, Tonks had lunged at him, knocking him from his sitting position to a laying position, Tonks on top of him. She started tickling his hips and sides, while Remus laughed.
"P-Please s-s-stop!" Remus pleaded through his laughter.
She relented while giggling. "Told you you were going to get it."
They two wound down their laughter and only when they did was Remus aware of what position he was in. He was lying flat on his back, Tonks on top of him. He never wanted to leave tis position with her, ever. Tonks noticed what predicament they were in also as her face began to blush bright red, but oddly enough, her hair stayed the same bubblegum pink. They looked into each other's eyes for a moment. Remus never wanted to look away from her. He was so busy staring at Tonks and wanting to be with her so badly, that he only just realized his face and hers were mere inches apart. This was it; he was going to be able to kiss her.
Remus snapped back to reality, he couldn't kiss her, he just couldn't. But why? Why couldn't he? Maybe it was time to take everyone's advice and make himself happy for once. After all, he deserved to be happy just like everybody else, right? Yes. He was going to do it; he was actually going to kiss Tonks, whose face drew ever closer to his. Their noses touched slightly and Remus went to put his lips on hers, just a little closer and he'd be able to taste her lips on his.
"Oy Remus! You in here?" Sirius came bounding through the kitchen.
Remus and Tonks hastily removed themselves from their positions but both smacked their heads into one another.
"Ouch! Sorry!" Tonks said.
"Ouch! I'm sorry!" Remus said at the same time.
Meanwhile, Sirius was doubled over, he was laughing so hard. Once Remus and Tonks had finally untangled themselves and managed to stand up, both blushing bright red (Tonks' hair was still bubblegum pink though) did Sirius stop his laughter.
"Sorry, did I interrupt you two?" He laughed again.
Remus shared with Tonks in giving Sirius a very stern look.
"Well, I-I'll see you later Remus." She said, her face still awfully red.
"O-Ok." He said, his face was still very much a deep shade of crimson.
She apparated and Remus started to walk out of the kitchen; Sirius was now on the floor he was laughing so hard.
"I knew it!" Sirius yelled before Remus pushed past the kitchen door and up to his room. But he wasn't really annoyed by Sirius, he was actually quite grateful. If Sirius hadn't intruded, Remus would of lost control and kissed Tonks, not that he didn't want to, but he couldn't. He was too old, too poor and just way too dangerous for her. He pushed open the door to his room, hoping that Tonks wouldn't be back until after the full moon where it was easier to control his emotions.
A/N: Sorry if there are some typos in the story. Anyway, that was funny what Loonie Potter said about David Thewlis being a wereworm 'cause he's played a werewolf and did a voice as the earthworm in "James and the Giant Peach". That was pretty funny Loonie, I gotta admit. Sighs I have a mad crush on him. Anywho, please review and let me know what you thought of the chapter (please don't be mad that I didn't make them kiss...yet I will though, I promise!)