By the Way…
By: Sinead Usagi
Chapter Four: Soup is Easier to Spill Than BeansAlright, so she didn't get around to filling her parents in on the minute details. And she had weaseled her way out of talking about it further with Remus. But, standing on the doorstep of her childhood home, beside her future husband, Nymphadora Tonks couldn't help but feel a sense of foreboding. The knot was back in her stomach, stubborn as ever.
"Go away!" she muttered to it, under her breath. Remus looked at her.
"Did you just tell me to go away?" he asked, surprised.
Tonks jumped and looked at him. "No, no, no!" she sang, her voice dripping with false cheer.
"Shall we knock on the door, then?" he asked uncertainly.
Tonks looked from Remus, to the door, and back to Remus again. "Do we have to?" she questioned, with a touch of pleading in her voice.
"Yes." Remus resolutely knocked on the door twice, loudly and clearly. They strained their ears to listen. There was a loud crash, bang, and the sound of Andromeda telling Ted to "GET OUT OF THE KITCHEN BEFORE YOU RUIN THE DINNER!"
Tonks could hear her father's footsteps falling down the hall, towards the door. Each one sounded as her heart pounded, rising louder and louder in her ears.
The door opened.
"Nymphadora! Remus! Come in! Come in!"
Ted Tonks beckoned them into his home, looking a bit stressed out, but otherwise quite pleased. He wasn't tall, but he wasn't very short. Remus recognized his mousy brown hair as the same Tonks acquired during the time she lost her ability to morph. He was of a thick build, but had obviously been gaining a bit of weight during the past few years. Remus noticed, that as he was observing this, Ted Tonks was observing him too, but intensely. Remus was suddenly, and very acutely aware of his ragged clothing. He had chosen his newest, and smartest looking suit for the occasion. It had seemed like a fine choice at the time, but now he could feel his confidence slowly deteriorating, starting with his outermost appearance.
Trying to banish these thoughts to the back of his mind, Remus shifted his weight onto his other foot uncomfortably, and offered his hand to Ted.
"It is a pleasure to meet you sir," he said politely. Ted shook his hand jovially.
"Now, now, we'll have none of that SIR business. Not here, right Andy?" he directed the last part of that to the entrance to the kitchen behind him, where the strong scent of dinner was wafting out towards them.
"Right!" Andromeda chirped and, with the sound of a lid being closed over a pot, Andromeda rushed out to greet them, still wearing oven mitts. Remus moved to shake her mitted hand too, but she ignored this and hugged him as if he were a long-lost friend.
Andromeda, Remus could see, was where Nymphadora got most of her looks. She was on the tall side, and slender, with long, flowing, black hair. Her face revealed a kind disposition, and a pretty smile. Remus was struck, for a moment, not by how much she resembled his fiancée, but by how much she resembled Sirius.
Tonks, noticing his momentary stunned silence, hugged her mother too and began talking about how hungry she was.
"Now, now, Nymphadora, it will be ready in a few minutes. We can all sit in the living room and have a nice chat." She turned to Remus, "I am so happy to be meeting you, finally! Though, I have to say," she gave Tonks what might have been a stern look if she hadn't been so cheerful, "I haven't heard much about you at all from Nymphadora!"
"Mum!" Tonks protested at her name being used twice in such a short period of time.
"Don't be silly, Nymphadora. Come, let's sit, yes, just in here. I've been dying to show you- I have some embarrassing photos of her I've been collecting all day, you know--" Tonks groaned as Andromeda took Remus by the arm, and lead him into the living room, where she sat next to him on the sofa.
Ted sat in what seemed to be his own, personal reclining chair, and kicked the newspaper off the footrest and onto the floor before putting his feet up.
"Now, Andy, don't suffocate the man. He needs some time to get used to you, you know!" Ted said with a chuckle. Their daughter, turning red in the face, picked up the newspaper and put it onto the newly cleaned coffee table.
Andromeda, however, wasn't listening. She was gesturing animatedly to various pictures in a photo album that was resting between her and Remus.
"And this is when she got her first bike! Oh, and this is her bike after she rode it! We never did find those missing spokes..." she laughed. "You'll like this one! This is when she first rode a pony!" Andromeda flipped the page to reveal a very muddy, yet widely smiling, eight year-old Tonks. "And this is after she rode the pony! We never did find those missing hooves!"
Andromeda and Remus dissolved into fits of laughter, and Tonks, annoyed at the whole dissecting of her clumsy childhood, and the overuse of the "missing hooves" joke (every single time! she thought angrily), grabbed the album away from them and put it on the topmost shelf.
"Hey! We were looking at that!" Andromeda cried indignantly.
Tonks looked thoughtful for a moment, and then said, "Mother? Do you smell something burning?"
Andromeda leaped out of her seat at this and practically flew into the kitchen. Tonks smiled happily, and took the spot beside Remus.
Ted was still chuckling. "Ah, you may be clumsy, Dora, but you're sharp as a tack. Your mother... well, she's got more free space up there than most." He tapped his head and nodded knowingly.
Tonks rolled her eyes at this, and hoped her father wasn't giving Remus a horrible impression of the gender roles in the household.
"Andy tells me you've been having a horrible time at work lately, Dora. Have they been working you too hard? Don't let them take advantage of you, just because you are a young, hard worker!"
Tonks waved her hand to dismiss this. "Really, Dad, everyone is working hard. We can't afford to slack off now, not with everything that is going on. Besides, Kingsley has been hinting that I'm going to get a promotion of some sort for a week or so now."
Remus and Ted both looked delighted at this. "That's great!" they said in unison, and then looked at each other and laughed.
"Now, Remus, what is it that you do? Tonks hasn't told us anything, really..." Ted leaned forward in his chair and looked at Remus expectantly.
Remus cleared his throat nervously, but before he could reply, Tonks butted in.
"Actually, he doesn't have a job now because he has been doing some very important, full-time work for the..." she gave a half shrug with her shoulders, and raised her eyebrows. "You know, the Order." She mouthed the last word, as if speaking it out loud was forbidden.
Ted looked intrigued. "Oh, really? What sort of thing would that be?"
Tonks cut in before Remus could say anything, again. "Now, Dad! We can't discuss this so casually! Remus has been indispensable for the... for us, even now that his mission has been changed, there's always constant things that need to be addressed, and he is such an accomplished wizard that he is always put onto them."
Ted, still looking at Remus with more curiosity than before, was not satisfied.
"Surely you can tell me something about what it is you two are up to! I'm not hiding any spies in here, you know."
Tonks, however, crossed her arms against her chest and shook her head. "No can't do. If you want to be involved, then join. If not, then stop nosing." She looked at Remus sternly. "Don't tell him anything," she said darkly.
Ted laughed at his daughter. "Really, you're no fun! Why're you acting so grown-up all of a sudden?"
This sincerely offended Nymphadora. "Because I am!"
"Oh, right. Speaking of which, how old are you, Remus?"
Ted gave Remus another one of his intense stares that made Remus feel like he was on trial. He knew it. He was right. He was too old for her. The lycanthropy thing hadn't even come up yet and Ted already hated him.
"Well, I'm--"
"DINNER'S READY!" Andromeda called, sticking her head into the living room. She did have such an uncanny talent of interrupting people; Tonks had to hand it to her. They filed into the kitchen, and took their places at the elaborately set table. There were flowers in a vase and candles, just like one might find at a fine dining restaurant.
Andromeda set bowls of hot beef and barley stew in front of each of them before sitting down herself.
"I even dug up the old silverware I forgot we had!" she announced delightedly. This took a moment to register with Tonks, as she glanced over and saw Remus (much to her horror) slowly moving a shaking hand towards the soupspoon. She reached out to grab it away from him, and ended up spilling the hot soup into his lap as she did so.
Pandemonium ensued.
Tonks, horrified at what she had just done, jumped out of her seat, spilling her own soup as she did so. Remus jumped out of his seat too. He had expected his hand to get burned in that split second, not his lap.
"Remus! I'm so sorry! I—"
"Nymphadora, what on earth are you doing!"
"It's alright, it's alright, I'm fine!"
"Will you two stop shrieking?"
"I'm sorry! I can't believe I—"
"I spent hours on that soup! If you didn't want to eat it you could have just said so!"
"Stop yelling!"
"Really, it's okay..."
"—Look at the mess!"
"It's no problem really. It isn't even that hot—"
"—so sorry—!"
Ted walked in between the three of them and then, one last time, ordered Nymphadora and Andromeda to be quiet.
"QUIET!"
The kitchen fell silent, but for the steady dripping and glopping sound of the stew as it ran off the table onto the floor. The front of Remus's trousers was completely soaked, and caked with bits and chunks of barley and strings of beef. Somehow, when knocking over her own soup, Tonks had managed to have it fall behind her, so Remus was the only one who had visibly come into contact with the stew.
Ted sat down at his seat wearily, and waved his hand at Andromeda.
"Andy, please," he muttered. Andromeda sighed, pulled her wand off the counter, and began waving it every which way. As she did so, the soup left the tablecloth, floor, and trousers, and disappeared into thin air.
"There, see? No harm done!" Ted said happily, and gestured for everyone to sit back down. Andromeda took Nymphadora and Remus's bowls and refilled them with the remaining stew.
"Now, eat. Don't spill," she ordered, as she set the bowl in front of her daughter.
"Thank you Andromeda," Remus said with a smile, thoroughly appreciative to be restored to his normal, clean attire. She smiled back at him and resumed her seat.
Then, Tonks made a grab for Remus's utensils again, before he could even begin to touch them. She proceeded to snatch her own up, then her mother's, and finally her father's, before she let them fall with much clanging onto the counter. There were loud banging sounds as she searched through drawers, until finally pulling out the usual, worn sets of spoons, forks, and knives to replace the dangerous silver ones.
"What on earth are you doing?" Andromeda asked, completely dumbfounded, as Nymphadora set the utensils at her spot.
Tonks laughed nervously, unwilling to explain Remus's werewolf allergy to silver. "Mother, really, it's silly bringing out the fine silver. I don't want this to be some stuffy formal occasion! I just want to have a nice, familiar dinner with my parents, so you and Remus can become acquainted."
"But, this is a special occasion. I wanted to celebrate," Andromeda said sadly.
Tonks finished doling out the forks, sat down at her own seat, and smiled at her mother.
"We are celebrating. Your wonderful cooking is more than enough, and it won't taste any better on the fine silver than it will on the forks I've used all my life."
Andromeda sighed to herself, finding this touching, and Tonks sighed to herself too, but out of relief. Beside her, Remus couldn't decide whether to be relieved or edgy.
He didn't have to worry about deciding, because as soon as everything was settled, Ted set him back on the edge again.
"So, Remus. You were saying?"
Swallowing what was in his mouth, Remus raised an interrogative eyebrow at Ted.
"What was I saying?"
Ted grinned at him. "I was asking you about your age."
"I'm old enough to get a discount at the grocery-- OW!"
Tonks had pinched his arm angrily. "Don't listen to him, he's being silly. He's just turned thirty-eight this year."
Ted nodded thoughtfully, but didn't say anything. Tonks was looking at him as if the next thing he would say might be the last. It was Andromeda who spoke next.
"If I may, I'll say it's a nice change!" she informed them in her bubbly sort of way. "All those other boys Tonks used to bring home for us to meet. Complete idiots, if you don't mind me saying now. I remember that one who drank the whole bottle of wine he brought. Do you remember that dear? Then, he drank so much more after dinner that he spent the rest of the night dancing around in the living room and throwing up in the bathroom!" Andromeda began laughing, more to herself than anyone.
"Mother!" Tonks was terribly indignant. "That was almost ten years ago!"
Andromeda wasn't listening. "Or what about that one who tried to burp the alphabet? Or the one who kept making suggestive comments to me? Or the one who was covered head to foot in tattoos? I don't mind tattoos or anything, but really! Oh! And remember that one who got in a fight with you, Teddy? Teddy?"
"Yes, dear," Ted said, sounding tired. He scraped up the last of his stew and looked at Tonks pointedly. "Your mother's right you know. We were afraid you were going to end up with some brainless, frat-boy, Quidditch fanatic. Not that I don't enjoy Quidditch..." he chuckled. "Yes, I agree, Andy, this guy doesn't look like he's going to drain our booze supply."
Remus wasn't sure what to think. Ted hadn't really insulted him... but he had called him "this guy"... and he might have been making a crack at his masculinity. Remus was so confused, and the smell of the steak at the other side of the room was overwhelming his senses, and making him feel a bit slow.
Remus, unsure of how to respond, smiled at Ted vacantly. Then, Andromeda got up and began collecting their bowls, replacing them with plates. On each plate was a large, succulent steak, and a few sides of vegetables.
"Nymphadora says that you like your steak as rare as can be, so I took her to her word, and well... if you want me to cook it more, just say." She seemed unsure if she had been informed correctly.
"No, no, this is perfect, thank you," Remus said happily, and then hoping that the family wasn't too repulsed at his steak preferences.
"Only a real man can eat a steak like that!" Ted said heartily, obviously impressed. "I'm always telling Andy not to cook it so long, but she and Dora here like theirs done to death." He illustrated his point by savagely stabbing his slab of meat with his fork. Remus prayed that the cow wasn't watching this barbaric display from Bovine Heaven.
"I think it was Roguen Zephir Mortelbon who believed that he could become as strong as a bull as long as he didn't cook the "power" out of his beef. I suppose he was referring to the iron content of the meat, but more recent studies have shown that he was right in inducing this because the iron is depleted the longer it is cooked..."
Remus didn't know where this was coming from and why he was saying it. His nerves were finally getting the better of him. Ted, however, looked even more impressed.
"Old Mortelbon! I wrote an extensive report on him in History of Magic, back in, oh... what was it? Sixth year! That man never got enough credit for his work, I'll tell you that much. He was the one who found the first two uses of dragon's blood, did you know that?"
Remus nodded. "Of course. He also set Acromantula againstManticores to see who would emerge the victor. I don't think he was as brilliant as he is depicted to be, if that is true."
Ted was grinning. "You sure know your stuff, I'll give you that! Tonks, you should listen to him, he knows what he's talking about!"
"I do listen to him," Tonks snapped irritably.
Ted took a sip of wine. "So, you're thirty-eight years old, brilliant mind, but no source of livelihood. Full time work with the Order. What did you do before the Order reunited?"
Remus chewed slowly to lengthen the time before he would answer this question. He knew the time of reckoning was near.
"I taught Defence Against the Dark Arts at Hogwarts for a year. That was definitely my favourite job of any I've done."
Andromeda let out an impressed "Ooh!" and Ted, looking a bit skeptical, asked, "Why only a year?"
Tonks cut in. "The position is cursed, you know! They haven't had a teacher last for more than a year for... twenty-five years now, I think it was. More, even! Remus is just lucky he didn't get brutally murdered or something."
"Alright, so the position is cursed," Ted rolled his eyes in a very Nymphadora-like way, as if he thought the whole curse deal was nonsense. Then, his demeanor changed into that of earnest anxiety, and he leaned forward, clasping his hands together.
"The thing is, Remus, what's got me worried is that you have no source of income," he looked very awkward saying it, but determined to get it out. "You know... with you marrying my daughter and all..."
Remus felt the heat rushing to his face. "That's not entirely true..." he said slowly, and began chewing his meat with the least haste he could muster. The seconds seemed to drag by before he swallowed again. "I do get a Lycanthrope Pension from the Ministry."
A/N: Dun dun dunnnn!
Ah! I am sorry to cut it off there! Chapter Four was originally from the beginning of this chapter to the end of the story, but it was just so long, especially compared to the rest of the chapters I have posted here (18 pages, I think). So I just cut it in half, and this seemed the best point to do it (thanks, Steph). I know I said you would see their reactions in this chapter because that is what I had originally planned and I just changed my mind now. Next chapter will be the last one, I promise!
And just incase it wasn't clear: Remus is a werewolf so,(in this fic) he is allergic to silver and touching the silverware would burn his hands.
Anyway, I have been really encouraged by everyone's feedback. You guys are awesome and please do review because I love hearing what people think, even if you don't like the story.
Trish: Thanks! Let me know what you think of the rest!
nycgrl: Ah! Yes! I am very excited to hear what everyone thinks. Go Lupin/Tonks!
Metalmonkey: Moony is the cutest werewolf ever. I fear his fangirls- including myself. I hope the rest of the story is to your liking!
dancer8428: I'm happy you liked the story! I've been updating pretty quickly!
Bograt: I'm so glad it made you giggle! It just seemed like such a Tonks-y thing to do. I hope you enjoyed this chapter too!
Jensco: I've updated very soon, and I'm looking forward to seeing what you think of this chapter!
AutomnBreeze25: Wow! Two people liked the Tonks "by the way—!" joke! Thanks! Like I said, it seemed like a very Tonks-y thing to do. As you can see, it wasn't quite that simple after all.
Carnivalgirl: I don't see how anyone can't love Remus because he is so adorable and wonderful, but… well, Snape doesn't like him too much. But then again, Snape doesn't really like anyone now, does he? Anyway! Thanks so much for following the story- I really hope you enjoy the rest!
Bailz: Yes, they kissed! Tonks really just wanted to shut Remus up, and what better way to do it? I hope I didn't corrupt you too much. Maybe I can use you as an example of the "Innocence to Experience" archetype in Lit. Poor, poor Bailey. She never saw it coming! Thanks so much for reading, you rock more than geology!