Chaser 3
Appleby Arrows
Round 12, Season 9
Prompts: You and your soulmate interact in dreams until your first meeting
(Emotion) Disgust
(Color) Blush pink
(Word) Helpless
Word Count: 1,257
A/N: Thank you so much to DaughteroftheOneTrueKing and all of my teammates!
Four-year-old Nymphadora and her mother were shopping in Diagon Alley when the little girl saw her favorite person in the world- Sirius Black. She squealed happily, then ran to him.
Sirius picked her up and spun her around before placing her on his shoulders.
"Uncle Sirius!" Nymphadora exclaimed as she awkwardly hugged his head.
"Little Nymphie! Where's your mummy?"
"Right behind you," Andromeda said irritably. "Nymphadora, how many times have I told you not to go running off without telling me where you're going?"
"Oh, lay off her, Andy. She's safe with me and my friends."
Nymphadora craned her neck to look at the three other people sitting with her uncle. There was a mousy-looking boy who was staring at her anxiously. Next to him was a boy with unruly black hair and a perpetual smirk.
Then her eye caught on the last of Sirius's friends. The boy seemed much older than he really was, with scars covering his handsome face. He smiled kindly at Nymphadora, who became uncharacteristically shy and tried to hide behind Sirius's head.
Sirius lifted Nymphadora from his shoulders and cradled her. "What's gotten into you, Nymph? You're never this quiet."
Instead of answering, Nymphadora buried her face in his chest. Her hair was blush pink to match her cheeks.
"Woah, what did you just do with your hair?" The smirking boy asked.
She looked at him shyly. "I'm a Metamomor- Metamormar- Magamor- I can change things!" She changed the color of her hair to purple to demonstrate.
"That's amazing, Nymphadora," the boy with the scars praised.
She hid her face again.
Sirius chuckled. "I think she's got a little crush on you, Moony!"
As time went by, Remus completely forgot about his little admirer, and Nymphadora no longer remembered the boy with the scars. Soon enough, Nymphadora had turned five. It was on her birthday that the dreams began.
The first dream began in a dark forest. Nymphadora couldn't see anything, but she sensed a presence behind her. She turned around and saw a snarling wolf. The wolf pranced around her, smelling her. Nymphadora screamed, and the wolf growled. It went after her, biting her arm.
Andromeda and Ted came running into the room when they heard their daughter screaming. They cradled her and sang softly to her until she fell into a dreamless sleep.
Hundreds of miles away at Hogwarts, Remus Lupin woke with a start. His worst fear had come true in his dream. He had bit and transformed a child, just as Fenrir Greyback had done to him, and he was absolutely disgusted with himself for what he was. Worst of all, he had been unable to do anything, as the Wolf did what he wanted. He had never felt so helpless in his entire life, and it was all because of a dream.
The next time the Wolf appeared in Nymphadora's dreams, she was less afraid. They were in the same woods as before, but instead of pitch dark around them, there was sunlight starting to filter through the branches.
As the light grew brighter, Nymphadora watched in awe and wonder as he transformed from a Wolf to a man with a scarred face. He looked away from her, and she got the feeling that he was ashamed of something. She wanted to ask him why, but she couldn't find the words. Instead, they stood silently and listened to the breeze rustling through the leaves in companionable silence.
Eight-year-old Tonks (she no longer went by Nymphadora, claiming the name was too embarrassing) was heartbroken. Sirius Black had just been sent to Azkaban. All her mother would tell her was that he did something very wrong, but Tonks didn't believe her. She knew her uncle, and she knew wholeheartedly that he would never do anything bad.
It had been a couple years since Tonks had last dreamed of the werewolf, but she was constantly reminded of him. She remembered every scar on his face, his blue-gray eyes, and his ran-down look.
Tonks cried herself to sleep the night Sirius had been taken to Azkaban. In her dreams, she was still crying, but she was no longer alone.
Remus was standing just behind the weeping child. He seemed uneasy, but he felt a need to console the small girl, even if she was just a figment of his imagination. Careful to not startle her, he walked towards her and sat down beside her. "What's wrong?"
Tonks didn't even jump; she just cried harder.
Remus pulled the girl into his arms, her face buried in his neck, and rocked her back and forth slowly, whispering calming words into her hair.
Finally, after what seemed like hours, Tonks sniffled and looked at the man who was comforting her. "They took Sirius."
The words startled Remus. "He betrayed his friends."
Tonks shook her head emphatically. "No. He didn't. He wouldn't."
Remus was in no mood to argue with his subconscious figment. "There's proof that he's the reason the Potters were killed."
"Things can always be distorted to make someone look like they did something they didn't do."
Now that he couldn't disagree with.
Tonks was a nervous wreck the night before she left to start her first year at Hogwarts. It took her forever to finally fall asleep, and once she did, the man was there again.
"You know, you look like a professor in that getup," Tonks said as soon as she noticed the man.
Remus chuckled. "You would not be the first one to tell me that."
"You'd make a good professor too."
Remus blushed. "Thank you?"
Tonks shrugged. "If the look fits."
They looked at each other, then burst out laughing.
"You honestly would make a good professor, though."
And who was he to argue when his subconscious tells him something so clearly?
Over the next few years, Tonks and Remus sporadically shared dreams, neither of them ever realizing that the person they were interacting with was actually real. The dreams always happened when one of them was having strong emotions. Like the one time Remus had a particularly bad transformation and ended up staying at St. Mungo's for a week. Or when Tonks was stood up by her date to the Celestial Ball. No matter what, they would always comfort the other.
Whenever they did have dreams, it always seemed like the other's problems were mirroring their own. While Remus was at St. Mungo's, Tonks was in the Infirmary because she'd gotten too close to the Whomping Willow on a dare. And when Tonks had been stood up for the Celestial Ball, Remus had once again been broken up with after the woman he was dating had found out he was a werewolf.
Then, as suddenly as they came, the dreams stopped coming. Neither of them forgot the other; it seemed as though the memories of their dreams were burned into their minds for good.
It wasn't until Tonks was about to start her last year at Hogwarts that she had another dream about the man.
"You know, you still look like a professor."
Remus turned around to face her with a big smile. "Hopefully more so now than I did all those years ago."
Tonks's brows furrowed. "Why's that?"
"I'm a professor now. My first day is tomorrow."
"That's awesome! I'm so happy for you. You are going to make such an amazing professor!" And Tonks being Tonks, she hugged him.
Remus stood there awkwardly for a moment, unused to human affection, before returning her hug. "Thank you."
