Disclaimer: Same as always. I'm not JK Rowling, however much I might wish to be. I'm simply an 18 year old who drabbles (however poorly) in the art of Fan Fiction. All Charaters and places here-in are not my creations, but those of the aformentioned JK Rowling.

Also, ignore any and all typos I might have made. I've not got enough sleep lately.

Remus burst from the same clump of bushes on Grimmauld Place that he and Tonks had apparated into the afternoon before. To his surprise, even though it was probably 2:00 in the morning, he found himself rushing straight into a group of teenagers.

But he didn't have time for apologies, he only had time to think of saving Tonks, so he roughly pushed several teems aside and sprinted down the road, ignoring the calls from the teens about "crazy, homeless men," and "insolent drunks."

At the far end of the street, Remus chanced a glance back, to find that the group of teenagers had moved on, and allowed himself a brief second to gloat over the fact that he'd probably scared them off.

He ran through all the rooms of Sirius' old house, only to reach the angst-like conclusion that the house was empty; Tonks was not there, and neither were the traitor or the bloodthirsty werewolf who had stolen her.

Distraught, Remus could think of nothing to so. He collapsed upon the ground, knees pulled to his face, feeling the way he'd felt only one other time in his life; the night Sirius had died.

The only difference between the two times was that Remus knew he wouldn't be able to get Sirius back, but now, if he could only find them, he'd be able to save Tonks.

That thought gave him new life, and he instantly left to get help from the one place he knew there was people to give it; The Burrow.

He arrived on the front lawn of The Burrow as the first colors were etching themselves onto the black canvas of the sky to the east, the palest blue first, followed several seconds later by shades or pink and rose.

He had expected to find the house and tents dark with all their members sleeping soundly, without even the smallest inkling of what had happened since Tonks and he had left the previous morning.

But he was wrong.

He found a small group of people sitting slumped around one of the picnic tables, their pale faces glinting in the lantern light. The all looked up in shock as he appeared, and one of the figures jumped up and rushed to his side. Remus, through groggy, heavy eyes recognized it to be Hermione.

"Professor!" She called, "What happened?"

Molly Weasley jumped up and helped Remus into her vacant seat. She quickly filled a goblet with a hot liquid and sat it in front of him.

"Your Wolfsbane, Remus. Horace has kindly agreed to make it for you."

At the moment, Remus had no thoughts of thanking Slughorn, but only of finding Tonks.

As he sipped from the goblet, Remus looked at the other people gathered around the table. Aside from Molly and Hermione, there was also Harry, Ron, Kingsley and Minerva. Remus was relieved to see the later, as he'd recently suspected she might have been taken from Headquarters.

With a small surprise, he also saw Horace Slughorn sitting there, looking as though he felt slightly out of place. Before Remus could ask though, Horace offered up an explanation.

"When Dumbledore was killed, I realized it would be better to die fighting than to just die. I'm going to join the Order.

"When you didn't come back tonight, Molly asked me if I'd kindly mix your potion for you, as you were supposed to start taking it last night," he shrugged, "and I obliged."

However, Remus was only half listening, instead, he was looking past Horace at the person who'd just walked out of the house into the early morning light.

Nymphadora Tonks.

Remus rose and ran to her. She instantly saw him and rushing into his arms.

It was an awkward embrace, but Remus neither cared of gave inclination that he wanted to adjust his stance.

When the kiss ended, Remus swayed on the spot, but refused to let Tonks out of his arms. He never wanted to let her go again, even if she did smell of Greyback and several other foul things.

"Remus," she gasped, "you're holding me too tightly. Come sit down." She urged, and Remus reluctantly let her go and sat down at the table, draining the rest of his potion as he did so, but all the while never taking his eyes off Tonks, who was now seated across from him.

"Are you alright?" He asked, quietly.

"Oh, I'm fine, Remus. I'm just glad to see that you're alright."

"Better not that I've got you back."

Harry looked away embarrassed, but Ron hung on to every word until Hermione gave him a sharp jab with a fork and uttered threateningly, "Don't be rude!"

"Remus," Minerva began, "What's happened to you?"

Remus finally looked away from Tonks and glanced across to Minerva. "Well," he began, and plowed on to tell the rest of the events of the previous night. The he turned to Tonks.

"What happened with you? How did you escape Greyback?"

"Oh, Remus, it was horrible! When you fell, I thought I'd lost you for good. I wanted to die right along side you, or at least be there for you, but Fenrir… I couldn't fight against him, he apparated with me.

"I expected to end up at Headquarters, but we didn't. I have no clue where we ended up, but there were Death Eaters there. Loads of them. I think it was probably The Dark Lord's Headquarters, but I can't be sure."

At this point of her story, Tonks started to weep, her hands covering her face. Remus walked around the table and sat down at her side, taking her in his arms.

"Oh, it's silly of me to cry! I'm safe now… I shouldn't cry," she sniffed into Remus' shoulder.

"Don't talk such nonsense, it's perfectly normal to cry, you must have been so frightened," Remus said soothingly, rubbing her back.

"Let it out dear, let it out," Molly added, as Hermione, sitting on Tonks' other side, gave her hand a comforting squeeze. After several minutes, Tonks seemed to be calm enough to continue.

"He –Fenrir- said the most horrible things. Things he was going to do to me, and how the Order was going to lose to the Dark Lord. And then," she broke off wailing again for a few seconds, "Oh, Lupin, he said the most awful things about you and your past!"

Remus froze; of course Greyback would know all about the secrets Remus kept closer than anything else. But what did he hope to achieve by telling Tonks about his past? If she even believed Greyback, all it would do, probably, was end the relationship between Remus and Tonks, and that didn't seem a very foolhardy way to win a war, or anything.

Remus woke from his thoughts to find Tonks staring at him in a most peculiar way.

"Well, they must have been lies."

Tonks nodded, "Of course, he was just trying to upset me, but I believed you to be dead, I was as upset as I was ever going to be."

The small group sat in silence for a while, each of them reflecting on how it felt to lose a loved one. The only sound was an occasional sniffle from Tonks, and once the crowing of a lone rooster from across the yard.

"I escaped," Tonks said finally, although that fact was obvious.

"It was just like being bullied. They –the Death Eaters – pushed me around and taunted me. It was like they enjoyed toying with their prey before they killed it.

"Bellatrix said she wanted to kill me, something about enjoying killing family. She made taunts about Sirius; she wanted me to be mad when she did it. It didn't work, though, I felt as though I'd never feel anything but agony again. I just wanted to die.

"But then Severus said I wasn't to be killed, because there was more information needed from Lupin, whom he knew was alive. Bellatrix was so shocked that she let me go.

"You were alive, and that gave me a reason to live. I took the opportunity to apparate back here, expecting to find you. That was hours ago, I couldn't believe that you weren't back yet…"

"I'm here now," Remus said solemnly, thinking over some of the details of Tonks' story.

Tonks smiled at him through her tears, as Minerva stood up. "Well, Remus," she started, "you've been our Secret Keeper less than a day and you've already gave away the location of Headquarters. We'll deal with that later, though, for now it would prove a good idea from the other Members to know the location."

Remus remained silent and unmoving, not even giving any indication that he'd heard Minerva's request.

"Remus," she asked, "are you quite alright?"

"Oh? Yes, I'm fine, Minerva," he answered, although it was obvious to everyone present that he wasn't quite alright.

In fact, he hardly seemed alright in anyway. He had begun to run one hand though his graying hair incessantly, while the other hand sat upon the table shaking, just as his whole body was shaking, as though trying to hold back a great opposing force.

Perhaps the most disturbing factor of Remus' blatant lie, however, was his eyes. Normally gentle and amber, they were now wide with emotion, and were starting to grow more and more blazing yellow as the seconds dragged on.

"Professor, are you ill?" Hermione asked as she rose from the table in worry.

It proved to be a smart move on her part, as seconds later Remus lunged across Tonks, pushing her onto the bench where Hermione had been sitting only seconds before.

Everyone at the table jumped up, confused and shocked, as Remus make the sudden move.

Minerva was the first to regain her common sense, "Remus Lupin, what are you doing! Get up, or you'll hurt her!"

Then, quite calmly, aside from the fact that he has managed to wrestle Tonks to the ground and was pinning her down with his knees, Remus answered, "That's the point."

Everyone stood in silent shock at Remus' answer, but not a single one of them was able to gain enough composure to step in, even when Remus reached his hands up and closed them tight around Tonks' throat.