Disclaimer: I don't own anything from Harry Potter. It sucks, I know.
Chapter 2: A Pleasant Encounter
Tonks walked swiftly down the crowded London street into a dinky little pub, that was so pushed out of view that even if you were looking carefully you probably wouldn't spot it.
As she entered, a short, bald-headed, and quite frankly ugly, man went up to her immediately, giving a sort of welcoming nod and saying gruffly, "Your mother said we should be expectin' you today," he said, looking at her carefully. "You-are-Nym…Nymfidorie Tonks, right?"
She nodded impatiently.
"Well, then come this way please, no, no, let me take those," he said, gesturing impatiently to her bags.
"Here we are," said the innkeeper, "Room 209. Hope you have a nice stay." He threw her trunk carelessly into her room and went toddling off down the rickety old staircase.
Tonks sighed and moved into the extremely unclean room. There was an ancient four-poster bed laying in tatters at the far corner of the room, a cracked mirror in the opposite corner, and a large grey sofa beside a matching wardrobe near a filthy window, which overlooked the crowded Muggle street in which she had just previously emerged.
She moved slowly over to the mirror, and promptly tripped over her large brown trunk. Tonks straightened up quickly and peered into the mirror. She delicately strung her hands through her long silky black hair and twirled it absentmindedly. Then, she scrunched up her face as if in pain and held her breath. After a second, her beautiful black hair turned a vivid violet. She smiled, satisfied.
"There," she said, winking into the cracked mirror. Tonks walked over to the window and looked into the street below. She watched as a very fat muggle tripped over his own shoelace and fell straight into another muggles newspaper rack. The newspaper rack muggle came out and yelled angrily at the fat man, throwing her skinny arms up in the air. The hefty muggle looked very flustered and seemed to be trying to apologize, also shaking his arms wildly. But something else had caught Tonks' eye. A young, extremely thin, man with light-brown wavy hair was walking solemnly towards the Leaky Cauldron.
Tonks blinked and rubbed her eyes furiously, murmuring in disbelief under her breath.
When she looked back out towards the street the man was gone, yet the two muggles seemed now to be in a very violent wrestling match.
Tonks rolled her eyes and went over to her trunk. She opened it fast, and grabbed a small slip of paper before closing it tightly with a soft 'bang'. Tonks folded the piece of parchment into quarters and tucked it safely into her pocket. She went once more to the window and looked hopefully over at the crowd, but after a moment, shrugged and continued on her way. She leapt down the stairs, glancing out of the corner of her eye at the innkeeper, and bolted out the back door.
Facing her was a solid wall of heavy red bricks. She took out her wand and prodded a few of the bricks lightly. Suddenly, the bricks began to shift apart to make a large doorway. She stepped briskly through and shoved her wand forcefully into her pocket.
There were many people in Diagon Alley, bustling about, as this was, after all, the time that all the Hogwarts students came and bought what they needed for school.
Tonks passed a couple of giggly girls near Madam Malkins and recognized them to be fourth-year Hufflepuffs. They stared pointedly at her as she walked by, and she answered with a very rude hand gesture. Some of the girls let out gasps and clapped their hands to their mouths at this, making Tonks even more annoyed. What flakes.
As she neared Florean Fortescue's Ice-Cream Parlour she saw a friendly freckled-filled face. When their eyes met, she put on a fake look of annoyance. He laughed heartedly and this and waved.
Tonks chuckled; Bill Weasley was probably one of her favourite people at Hogwarts, as she had basically no friends. Though she was only in third year, and he was in fifth, he was great fun, though they never got much time to spend together. His mother and brother followed closely behind. Molly gave Tonks a sweet smile, which Tonks tried her best to return, while Charlie stuck out his tongue at her. Even though Tonks and Charlie were in the same year, they didn't get on like she did with Bill.
Tonks turned left into Obscurus Books and immediately began to look around for a copy of 'Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them' as her last one had fallen victim to a very powerful Jelly-Legs Jinx. She searched for a few minutes, and finally found a copy underneath an old pair of shoes.
She had just bought it from the scrawny old witch whose breath was almost to bad to bear, when she saw him. And this time she was absolutely sure it was him. The thin, brown-haired man she had seen from her window in The Leaky Cauldron was standing just outside Slug & Jiggers Apothecary, looking curiously at a large dragon claw.
"Remus?" she spluttered. The man turned. He was no older than twenty-six, but looked very weary and tired, his brown hair already beginning to grey. "Oh, I knew it was you!"
She ran and hugged the man tightly around the neck. Remus looked quite taken aback, and he had the expression on his face as if he wasn't precisely sure who the person was that was hugging him. "Nymph-Nymphadora?" he asked, now that she had finally let go of him.
"Yes! Well, it's Tonks," she said, giving him an angry look. "I haven't seen you in ages! Not since-" She bit her lip and decided not to finish the sentence; the last time he and Sirius had visited was a month before Lily and James' deaths, and Sirius' betrayal. "Well, anyways, how are you?"
"Er…fine…fine," he muttered, apparently still shocked from her outburst. "And you?"
Tonks let out a huge grin, "Oh, fantastic, Hogwarts is so great. Though…" she frowned slightly and looked at him, "I can't wait to get out of there. I know I'm only in third year…but I've decided I want to be an Auror."
Remus raised his eyebrows and smiled, "Really? That is a great career choice…but," his smiled widened, "from what I've heard your not an-er-'star student'."
Tonks was not fazed in the least by this. Not a 'star student' hardly covered what she was. She chuckled a bit before answering, "OK, I almost got expelled once, why does everybody have to put that against me?"
Remus laughed. They began to walk, Tonks telling him vividly about her school and how exactly she was going to manage to pull off becoming an Auror.
"Well, I mean, my grades aren't terrible, I just lack being at being goody-two-shoes." She stopped walking and turned to him, "I suppose you don't really want to waste your time talking to me, do you? You probably having more important things to do…"
Remus shook his head, almost sadly, "No, and I quite enjoy your company," he gave her half a smile.
"Why are you down in Diagon Alley, anyways?" she asked, and they began walking once more, though much more slowly; they were approaching Knockturn Alley.
He looked over at a nearby joke shop and frowned, "I promised someone I'd do an errand for them," he looked at his hands and began twiddling his thumbs. "Pick up the new Cleansweep…I'll say I almost wished I hadn't now; I'd forgotten this is the time for Hogwarts students to come and buy their school things. That's what you're here for, I'm guessing?" he looked at her inquiringly.
Tonks nodded and glanced at her watch. She gasped and clapped a hand to her mouth, which reminded her infuriatingly of those giggly Hufflepuffs. "I've really got to go, I was supposed to meet my mother an hour ago!"
Remus looked at her guiltily. "I'm terribly sorry I kept you," he said, turning.
"Don't be silly," said Tonks plainly, and kissed him gently on the cheek. He looked rather surprised and embarrassed at this, but smiled warmly all the same.
"Goodbye, Nymph-" but Tonks cut him off angrily.
"It's Tonks, TONKS!" she said, slightly exasperated, "And see you, Remus."
He waved helplessly, "Perhaps…Tonks," he said, putting special emphasis on her preferred surname. He smiled and started off into Knockturn Alley.
Tonks frowned and wondered why he was going down there. She had doubted immediately that the real reason he was here was to pick up a broom.
She shrugged and started off when a distressing thought filled her mind. What if this was the last time she was to ever see him again? Though she had only ever met him a handful of times before, she grown quite attached to his quiet nature and was heartbroken when he stopped coming to visit, although it was hardly plausible after Sirius' betrayal. Tonks sighed deeply at this and began to walk off towards the Leaky Cauldron, and her (presumably) fuming mother, her mind full of gloomy possibility that she would probably never see Remus Lupin again.
How wrong she was.
A/N: I'm sorry if that last bit sounded cheesy, I couldn't help but add it. I'm a sucker for lines like that. And I love Remus/Tonks stories. They're just so cute.