A/N: Takes place during Harry's first year at Hogwarts. Picks up right after the wedding. The term starts that night. The first to chapters were probably the longest. They had originally been one chapter, but it was too long for my blood. Tonks may still be referred to as Tonks, or many other nicknames that she may have.
Mysterious Hearts
~~~Serenity~~~
Nymphadora woke up shortly before Severus did. She rolled on her side and gently ran her knuckles along his cheek, brushing back his black hair.
"Do you regret it?" Snape asked without opening his eyes. Because if she did he didn't think that he could take it.
"No I don't," she said as she pressed her lips to his in a soft kiss, "do you?"
"No regrets."
"Good, but now I have to get up."
"No," Severus said wrapping his arms around her waist.
"Yes," she giggled.
"Why?"
"I have to work," she said getting out of the bed," and you have to get ready for school to start."
Tonks kissed Snape goodbye and went to work via the floo network. They had had her flat connected to Snape's fireplace earlier that summer. Severus made his way up to the great hall for breakfast.
"Ah Severus, I see that your wife has not joined us," Albus said slyly smirking at his potions master.
"How observant of you, Headmaster, but as I am sure you are well aware of the fact that she works."
"That is a pity, will she be here over the weekend?"
"Yes, she will, and she will be joining me in this evening as well."
"Does she have a name?" McGonagall asked sharply getting rather annoyed with the banter between the headmaster and potions master.
"Yes, professor, she does," Snape replied as he speared his eggs with his fork.
"Well?"
"Well what?" Snape said mildly.
"What is her name?" Minerva asked.
"Nymphadora Tonks."
"Ravenclaw," Flitwick said, "about five…er…seven…no…twelve…or…three, wait…it was six years ago…I think."
"Boy Fillius you are good with numbers," Sinistra yawned.
"That is why I teach charms and not arithmancy."
"Congratulations Severus."
"Thank you, Aurora."
" Yes, Severus, congratulations," Flitwick said. The rest of the staff offered Severus their congratulations.
Tonks flooed to her flat and got dressed in her work robes. She ate a quick breakfast and grabbing some fruit she headed off to work. It was Monday she always hated Mondays. On Monday they always had staff meetings; they were not bad normally.
"Good morning, Dora," Kingsley Shacklebolt said with a grin as he entered her office uninvited.
"Kingsley," she said.
"How was your weekend Dora," he asked.
"Don't call me that, and it was fine." She said sitting down at her desk. Kingsley sat in the chair across from her.
"So what did you do?"
"I got married."
"What!!" he sputtered.
"I got married," she said giggling at his reaction.
"Hey Tonks," another co-worker said, "What did you do to Kings?"
"I just announced my marriage."
"WHAT?"
"Is that the universal response?"
"You got hitched, to whom?"
"Severus Snape."
"Congrats."
"Yeah, Dora congratulations."
"KINGSLEY!" She shouted glaring at the large auror; Kingsley grinned sheepishly at her.
"Hey Tonks, we got a meeting," her partner, Caley, said sticking her head into their shared office.
Tonks frowned and grabbed her briefcase and left the office shooing Kingsley out of it as she left. She caught up with her partner as she walked to the conference room.
Both women sat that their usual spot at the table and made tongue-n-cheek remarks to each other about the meeting. They promptly shut up as their boss entered the room with the weekly assignments in hand.
"This meeting will be prompt," their boss said in his strict no-nonsense tone. He sat at the head of the oval table, "Ferguson, McGregor continue you work with the investigations in Knockturn Alley. Malloy, Wilson, Davies, Reynolds you will assist the aurors with the raids, and Sherman and Tonks you to get the security changes at Gringotts. This meeting is dismissed."
"Yes sir."
Tonks gathered up the information that had been gathered on the break in at Gringotts, the Aurors had initially been called in but had relinquished the case to the regulation department for the changes in security measures. She and her partner went back in their shared office to prepare before they headed over to the bank. They grabbed their cloaks and put them on covering their robes with their official insignia. As they walked outside they did not want to draw attention to themselves.
"So, Tonks," Caley said as they walked out the building, "I saw you and Kingsley Shackelbolt flirting again, is there anything there."
"No," Tonks said smirking, "besides if I did get involved with Kings, I have a feeling that my husband would object to the relationship."
"Your what?" her partner looked at her. Tonks giggled softly because Caley had the look of an owl with dilated pupils.
"My husband," Tonks said.
"When did this happen?" Caley asked still flabbergasted by the news and trying to regain her composure.
"Yesterday."
"I didn't know you were engaged, you had just started seeing that Hogwarts professor, right?"
"Yes, Severus and I got married yesterday after a rather short engagement," Tonks stated calmly, "Now what is happening with the case?"
"Well after the break in, the goblins wanted the ministry to set up some new safety regulations in addition to the ones that their curse breakers have."
"And why us?"
"Don't know."
"I have an idea," Tonks said sharply.
"You being a metamorphmagus," Caley commented, "the goblins do have respect for metamorphmagi."
"I always knew my being a freak would come in handy someday."
"Tonks, you are not a freak."
"How many metamorhpmagi do you know?"
"Just you," she said softly, "but you are not a freak."
"Don't worry I have accepted the fact along time ago and have made it part of me, you don't know what it was like being a kid."
Tonks and her partner were committed to at least a week working with the goblins. Goblins do not take kindly to wizards telling them what to do, even when they ask for the assistance.
At the end of the day Tonks was dead on her feet. She couldn't wait to get home and take a long, hot shower. She apparated directly to her flat. She picked up her mail, both muggle and owl. The building that she lived in was combined muggle and wizard. The landlord was a wizard and his wife a muggle. Tonks grinned when she saw the package from the minister that had married her and Severus. It was the pictures that had been taken at their wedding.
Tonks tossed them onto her couch as she grabbed her bathrobe. She would go to Hogwarts after her shower. Twenty minutes she was drying off her hair as she heated some leftovers were in her fridge. She looked through her mail, leaving the package for both her and Severus to open that night. Bills, junk, magazines, more bills, and a letter from the ministry saying that she and Severus had one week to register name changes and other legalities.
She put her dishes into a dishwasher, and ran it. She then grabbed her essential things and flooed to her husband's rooms. She stumbled out of the fireplace and was caught in his strong arms before she face planted into the stone floors.
"Gods, Nymph," Snape said; Tonks could hear the sneer in his voice, "you haven't evenly learned how to floo properly."
"I am tired," she pouted, "you would be too, if you had to work with goblins all day."
"Goblins," Severus asked as he picked up the bags that she dropped as, "what were you doing with goblins?"
"You remember the break-in at Gringotts," she said; Severus nodded, "they wanted new security measures."
"Oh, and why you, might I inquire?" Severus asked as he placed her bags in his bedroom.
"Metamorphagus," she simply said sitting down on Severus' couch. Severus joined her on the couch. Changing the subject she teased, "don't I even get a kiss hello?"
"If I must," Severus said as he closed the distance between them. He kissed her softly on the lips. Tonks smiled when they parted, she ran her fingers through his hair and pulled him back for another kiss. This kiss deeper more passionate and loving.
"Look what I have," she said handing her husband the package. Severus raised an eyebrow as he took the package. He opened it slowly and pulled out the pictures. There were six pictures all in sliver frames. Severus and Nymphadora looked at their pictures. The couple in the pictures just could not keep their hands off of each other. The picture Snape smirked up at his real counterpart.
"How was your day?" Tonks asked her husband.
"Fine," he said grimly, "nothing like screaming little monsters to make my day complete."
"That's nice, dear," Tonks said running her fingertips along his cheek.
"Do you know just how domestic we sound," he said smiling slightly at her.
"Don't do that Sev," she said smiling brilliantly at him, "by smiling to much you might scare the 'little monsters'."
"I can dare to dream," he scoffed.
Later that evening as the newly weds were settling before the fire with a bottle of wine. Severus pulled his wife down next to him on the blankets and pillows that she had tossed on to the floor while he had been in his office earlier. Tonks giggled as she burrowed under the blankets and snuggled with her husband. There is no need to mention that Severus Snape is NOT a snuggler.
"Severus," she said, "I've been thinking."
"I hope that you have not strained yourself," he mocked.
"You're cute," she smirked.
"I am not," he said glowering at her.
"Yes, Severus you are," she said touching his nose to punctuate every word, "You are down right adorable."
"I am not," Snape pouted.
"Do you prefer, greasy and hook nosed?"
"NYMPHADORA!" Severus shouted.
"All right, devilishly handsome," she smiled.
"Much better," he said and rewarded her with a mind-blowing kiss.
"AS I was saying before you so rudely interrupted me," Tonks said after she remembered her train of thought, "I was thinking about living arrangements, because I have no desire to live here and it would be some much easier to live in my flat and go to work from there," she paused to regain her breath, "and it would be a Hogwarts free zone for the holidays, and…"
"Tonks," Severus said, "calm down, you are hyperventilating"
"Sorry," she said flashing him a nervous smile.
"I think that that was a good idea Tonks, your being here would only serve to distract me."
"So glad that I serve some purpose," she said before kissing her husband tenderly. They fell asleep there in the nest of pillows and blankets after making love as the fire died out. A few hours later Tonks woke shivering and tried to pull the covers off of Snape and on to her.
"Severus," she said as he opened an eye to glare at her, "this isn't going work."
"What?" he muttered sleepily.
"You, hogging the covers," she said. Severus growled and pulled her closer to him. She pulled his arm around her waist and smiled as she fell back to sleep.
"Love you," he muttered as he kissed her forehead.
"Severus," she smiled as if to respond in her slumber.
To be continued…