"Is he okay?" Hermione asked worriedly.
Tonks shook her head. "Hermione…"
"He's dead, isn't he?" Hermione cried. "Oh, that's not fair!"
"Fair?" Tonks asked, bewildered.
"I don't think he had a very happy life," Hermione said, her eyes brimming with tears.
Tonks tried to decide how she felt about his passing. She never liked him, his sneaking behind her, and how he kept calling her a whore. But any death saddened her.
She knew that she would responsible for his burial. She had heard of a house-elf cemetery. It was connected to a wizard's cemetery. The house-elves who ran the cemetery were bound the caretakers. She would take Kreacher there. She looked at Hermione, who was now crying.
"This isn't right," she said, "It isn't right that a servant has died and no one cares."
"You care," Tonks reminded her.
"That's not enough!" Hermione cried. "That's not enough," she repeated.
"Hermione, I'll see to everything here. Why don't you go upstairs to Ron?" Tonks said gently.
Hermione nodded. She gave Kreacher one last look and went upstairs. Tonks gently closed Kreacher's eyes and went to tell Remus the news.
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The next day Tonks woke up early to let in the house-elves who would be taking care of Kreacher's body. Tonks was grateful that they worked fast and were out of the house within minutes.
Then Tonks started the long journey to Azkaban, were she currently was stationed. It was difficult to get the prison Azkaban, which meant it was difficult to escape. Unfortunately, far too many people had escaped lately. She apparated to the Harris Pier, where she picked up the ferry to the prison. Tonks wasn't even sure where the prison was, just knew that the ferry ride alone took forty-five minutes.
Tonks was always scheduled to patrol the women's corridor. She was grateful that she never had to patrol the men's section. Mainly, she simply didn't want to see Lucius Malfoy. She had spent close to a year as his mistress, as a spy for the Order. During the Battle at the Ministry, she had captured both Lucius and Narcissa Malfoy.
Tonks thought it over. She wasn't in the mood to be taunted by Narcissa either. She rarely did this, but she changed her face, so that she was unrecognizable. She gave herself a very dark complexion with cornrows in her hair. No one would know who she was.
Luckily, her shift went quickly, and without incident. Tonks morphed back to herself and made the journey back to London. She had plans to meet Severus tonight.
She made it to her bedroom, picked up some floo powder and spread it over the fire. "Professor Snape's bedchamber," she said. Nothing happened. Severus had his fireplace charmed so if he was not there, no one could use his fire.
That posed a problem for Tonks. She didn't want to use the dungeon's fireplace, because she knew he might be working, and wouldn't want to harm anything. Finally, she decided to apparate to Hogsmeade and walk.
Fifteen minutes later, she was walking down the dungeon steps and knocked on the door. "One minute!" she heard him cry. Tonks still couldn't believe how his voice could give her butterflies in her stomach.
The door opened and Tonks stuck her head in. "Ready?" she asked. Tonks was going to morph her face, and they had planned to have a late dinner in Hogsmeade.
"That's not the time?" Severus asked, amazed.
"Yep! Let's go, I'm hungry," Tonks said cheerfully.
"I can't Dora. I'm sorry," Severus said, looking back down at his work.
"You can't take an hour out of you life to have dinner with me?" Tonks asked, upset.
"I have to work," Severus said quietly.
Tonks took a good look at him. It had been a day and half since she had seen him. He looked like he hadn't slept since that time.
"When was the last time you ate?" she asked sternly, "Or slept?"
Severus looked up at her. "I'm fine."
"Well I'm hungry," Tonks complained. "I just spent eight hours in the least happiest place in the world. I was looking forward to spending the evening with the man I love. And now he tells me he's busy."
"Dora…" she could tell he was weakening.
"Tell you what. I'll go to the kitchen and get us some dinner. We can eat quickly. Then I'll go up to your bedchamber and relax till you come up. How's that?" Tonks pleaded.
Severus nodded, barely taking his eyes off the cauldron in front of him. "That's fine."
"That's fine. Honestly, Severus," she shook her head and ran up the stairs.
Ten minutes later she returned with four toasted tomato and cheese sandwiches, some chips and two flasks of pumpkin juice. "Can I come in?" she yelled through the door.
The door opened and Tonks slipped inside. She put the tray on one of the student's desk. "Take a break," she told him.
Severus quickly took off his apron and cleaned his hands with his wand. He gave Tonks a quick kiss and sat down next to her. "Thank you," he said. "I hadn't eaten since breakfast."
"What's so special about this potion?" Tonks asked, "Why are you obsessed with it?"
"Because I can't figure it out," Severus complained.
"Maybe you should take a break from it. That might clear your head a bit," Tonks suggested.
"I have to have this finished before the school year starts," Severus said.
"Well, that's more than five weeks away," Tonks said.
"I know," Severus sighed, taking a bite of his sandwich. They ate in relative silence for the remainder of the meal. Tonks could tell Severus was thinking only of this potion he was working on.
"I guess I'll go to your room now," Tonks said. "Will you be up really late?"
"I'll be up by midnight," Severus promised.
Tonks looked at the hourglass on his desk. It was eight thirty. She quickly pointed her wand at the hourglass and charmed it so an alarm would go off at midnight. She gave him a kiss and went upstairs.
He had told her the password to his bedchamber a bit ago. Tonight would be the first time that she actually would be using it herself.
"Metamorph," she whispered, and the door opened. She let herself in and noticed that his room was still a mess. She had said something two nights ago, but apparently, he hadn't found the time to clean it up. She was still learning things about Severus everyday. Now she knew he would become obsessed when he couldn't figure out a problem.
She decided to take action. Tonks knew she was horrible at cleaning spells, but she would try to straighten the place up a bit for him. She reminded herself to tell not to get used to this kind of treatment.
Three hours later, Tonks was finished. Then the door opened. Severus came in, looking exhausted. She was trying to decide whether to ravish him now and then let him sleep, when he came behind her and hugged her.
"I love you," he whispered in her ear.
"Does that mean I'm not getting laid tonight?" Tonks joked.
"We'll see," Severus said seriously. "I need a bath. I only did a quick self-cleaning spell this morning. Would you like to join me?" he said seductively.
"Hmm…" Tonks said, "I think I can be persuaded."
Tonks jumped out of his embrace and ran into the bathroom. The teachers had the most wonderful bathrooms. The tub was very deep and very wide. Plenty of room for two people, Tonks noted.
She started fiddling with the knobs when she heard Severus say, "You might want to leave that to me, Dora," behind her.
Severus turned on the faucet, and the tub quickly filled with water. Tonks unbuttoned his shirt and he stroked her long, curly emerald green hair. Tonks knew that Severus liked seeing her real hair, so she scrunched her nose and her strawberry blonde spikes appeared.
Severus shook his head. "You should really give me some warning when you do that," he laughed. "Your hair feels different when it changes."
By then, Severus had already taken Tonks' t-shirt off. They both took off the rest of their clothing quickly and stepped inside of the bathtub.
The warm, soapy water felt wonderful against Tonks' skin. Severus made a grab for her, but Tonks scooted away and went to look at his toiletries. She saw that he bought the cheapest soap and shampoo that Hogsmeade had to offer. That would explain his hair, Tonks thought.
Tonks straddled herself over Severus and ran her fingers through his hair. "Severus?" she asked.
"Yes," he said warily.
"This is not meant to sound mean at all. But have you thought of using a different shampoo?" she asked.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
She reached over and picked up the bottle of shampoo. "Stellar Shampoo isn't a very good brand," she said quietly. "Maybe you could try something else?"
"I know my hair gets greasy, Dora," Severus said matter of factly.
"Well, then why don't you do something about it?" Tonks asked curiously.
"I've never really cared about my appearance," he said.
"I care about your appearance," Tonks said quietly.
Severus smiled at her. Since he so rarely smiled, even at her, just a little one made her melt.
"What would you suggest?" Severus asked.
"I use Gordon's Complete Shampoo and Conditioner," Tonks said brightly.
"Is that a girly shampoo?" Severus asked.
Tonks burst out laughing. "No, it's not a girly shampoo," she said, picking up his soap. She went to scrub his back, when he grabbed her waist and started kissing her.
She was so surprised that she dropped the soap. She opened her mouth slightly and met his tongue with her own when it entered her mouth. Tonks hands started roaming his back, lightly scratching with her nails as she went.
Severus flipped her over, so that he was on top, his knees on the bottom of the tub as he straddled her. He started to gently kiss her neck, his intensity growing with each nibble. Her hands went lower and felt his hardness. Due to the water, her hands slipped as he tried to stroke him. Tonks giggled, and tried again.
The warm water was very nice, but Tonks couldn't figure out how they would actually make love in the tub.
"Bloody hell," she heard Severus mutter. He stood up very suddenly and helped Tonks to her feet. They both stepped out of the tub and Tonks looked at Severus, an eyebrow arched.
"Now what?" she teased. A slight scream quickly followed as Severus picked her up and brought her into his bedchamber. Within five steps he was at his bed and tossed Tonks down.
She looked up at him seductively. Severus laid down on top of her, and the furious kissing began again. Tonks spread her legs and stroked his legs with her feet. Severus' hands couldn't seem to get enough of her body. Her nipples were hard, and still wet. Tonks arched her back as he tugged at them.
Quickly, he plunged into her and started rocking. Tonks matched his speed and worked right along with him. Tonks reached her climax first, but kept moving until he was done as well.
Severus placed his body weight on top of her, putting his wet hair right in her face. Giggling, Tonks moved his hair out of the way.
"We should take another bath," she whispered, "seeing as this one wasn't very successful."
Severus raised his head and looked at her. "I'm not quite sure what your idea of success is, but I found that to be very successful," he teased as he moved to the side of his bed, leaving his arm out.
Tonks placed herself in his arms and within minutes, Severus was asleep. Well, Tonks told herself, they always had tomorrow morning to take another bath.