Tonks
A/N: I've been trying to coax Tonks out of the back of my brain for a while now, and she's finally decided to cooperate. It didn't go precisely the way I intended, but I can't really argue with her view of things.
Set sometime during Half-Blood Prince, but before "The Lightning-Struck Tower" chapter.
XXX
"Imp, this is Remus. He needs a bit of looking after. You'll do that right? I'm depending on you."
"I promise, Sirius."
I never realised just how binding that promise was until this year. Sirius had no idea was he had started that summer. He had just been looking for an easy way to keep a bored child amused and foisting me onto Remus meant that he didn't have to do it. Oh, he spent time with me, but only if James was occupied with Lily, and he couldn't think of anything else to do. But it was Remus who would always put aside whatever he was doing to go along with whatever scheme I had dreamed up. He must have been awfully bored, but he never let me know it.
But being bored by a small girl's schemes would have to be better – and safer – that what he has been doing for the Order since Sirius died. I've spent most of this year terrified that he wasn't going to be able to keep fooling Fenrir and the other werewolves, and I'd hear one day that he'd been killed. And he worries himself that the longer he stays with them, the harder it will be to keep the wolf at bay.
And we left things – our relationship – so undecided as well. Or really, Remus has made a decision for the both of us, and I'm trying to convince him that none of the things he believes to be important actually matter to me. Underneath that quiet exterior lies a stubborn streak a mile wide. Except that I'm just as stubborn – bloody-minded, according to Dad – and I am going to win in the end. It's convincing him that he is worth all the love I have to give him, and that I truly don't care that he's older, or poor, or a werewolf, that is the difficult thing. But I shall keep persevering; I love all of him, not just the socially-acceptable bits.
Because for me, a promise, once made, is for keeps.