11. If Music Be the Food of Love, Play On

-Twelfth Night

"He's gone."

Tonks stared at the headmaster in shock. "Professor, I need to see Remus now. How can he be gone?!"

"He's gone," Dumbledore repeated calmly. "He should, however, be able to tell you the full story, if you are willing to listen."

"I need to know what happened last night," said Tonks through gritted teeth. "Sirius Black came to the Whomping Willow? I need to know, Professor, and you're disclosing Harry from me!"

"Harry is in no state to help you," Dumbledore said calmly. "He is quite in shock, and an Auror interrogation is the last thing he needs."

"He knows where he is!" cried Tonks. "Remus knows where Sirius Black is! Look, Professor, we need to give Sirius a fair trial. He… He never got one. If Sirius just runs away, they're going to kill him once they find him. He has a chance, right now, to get a fair trial. I've told Gawain, and he's backing it. Professor, I need to see Remus."

"Then you must find him," Dumbledore said simply. "I believe I can assist you in finding his location."

"Where is he, Professor?" asked Tonks desperately. "Please, help me find him."

Dumbledore handed her a piece of parchment with an address on it. "That is his residence. I do not, however, know if he is currently at home."

"Thank you," said Tonks hurriedly, and she swept out of the study, out of the castle in a matter of minutes, and Apparated to the location specified by the parchment in her hand.

She arrived in Wales, the green landscape surrounding her on all sides, as she made her way towards the small cottage that sat atop a small mound, knocking on the door softly, her heart pounding furiously.

Remus opened it.

She saw his expression change as he saw her there, as he took in her appearance on his doorstep, flashing hurt and anger and coldness, finally settling on an impassive face that revealed nothing.

"What do you want?" he asked in a hard voice.

"I…" She felt weak, small, vulnerable under his gaze. "I need to know what happened with Sirius last night."

He stared at her for a few moments before replying, "And this is an investigation?"

"N-Yes."

He took a deep breath and let it out. "And you want to come in."

"I…"

"Come in."

She flinched at the coldness of his tone. "N-No, that's okay, I can st…"

"Come in."

She felt tears well up in her eyes, and she took a deep, shaky breath. "Thank you," she whispered.

She walked into the small home, to where he led her into a small room, and gestured for her to sit.

"What do you want to know?" he asked coldly.

"Are you okay?" she asked in a small voice. "I know last night was the full moon, and…"

"Stop acting like you care, Nymphadora," he snapped.

The words were like daggers thrown at her heart. Willing herself not to cry, she continued. "Okay. W-What happened last n…"

"If this is an official investigation, why haven't you put me under Veritaserum?" he interrupted.

"Remus, please," she begged. "This isn't an official investigation. I just want to know the truth."

"If this isn't an investigation, then I don't have to disclose anything to you," he replied in a hard voice. "So you can leave."

"Why are you making this so hard for me?" she snapped, her temper rising. "I just want to know what happened! I need to know the truth!"

"There are many other people out there who are not being told," Remus replied coolly. "You are no exception."

"You're right, I shouldn't be an exception!" she snapped. "Why do you think you have the right to conceal the truth from everyone?"

"Nymphadora, you need to learn that not everyone shares everything with every random person!" he snapped, finally losing his temper. "You just can't seem to understand that! No wonder you make such a terrible girlfriend!"

The blow did it; she staggered back, breathing heavily, the tears breaking loose and streaming down her cheeks. She knew that he wouldn't be very happy to see her right now, but never had she imagined Remus saying something like this to her. She collapsed to the ground, not wanting to break down like this, not now, not in front of him, but it was too much to bear. She physically couldn't handle any more.

"Oh no, don't cry," he said, a touch of exasperation in his voice. "Stop crying, Nymphadora. You're making a mess…"

"I'm making a mess?" she shrieked, sobbing. "I'm making a mess? What, of your rotten old wood planks? Has it even occurred to you what kind of grief I've been in in the past few hours? Sirius Black came to the Shrieking Shack, to kill Harry and his friends, and Jared King's been on my case to figure out, and he's going to fire me, and then Harry's so traumatized right now, and Dumbledore isn't letting me see him, and I don't know what's going on, maybe I'm going to die, maybe Sirius is going to kill me, and what are my parents going to do then? And you're right. I am a terrible girlfriend, and I'm sorry for what I said to you, but my entire life is a mess right now because I took everything out on you, and now I don't even know what the p-point is…"

"Shh, Dora, stop," Remus said quietly. "I'm… I'm sorry. I shouldn't have said that."

"N-No, you're right," she whispered. "I should've talked it out with y-you. I'm sorry." Her voice broke. "I'm so sorry, Remus."

"It's not your fault," he said quietly. "It's okay, Nymphadora."

And then he was crouched beside her, stroking her back gently, and she couldn't believe that this was the same man who had, only seconds ago, delivered such a low insult to her.

"It's just… there's been so much g-going on, and I m-missed you," she sobbed, aware that her face was extremely ugly right now. She didn't know how those actresses managed to look pretty while they cried in movies. "I missed you, and I h-hated myself for b-being so mean, and…"

"It's okay, Nymphadora," Remus repeated, squeezing her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. It was my fault. I didn't tell you about Sirius. I should've told you."

"Y-Yeah, but that doesn't change the fact that I was so… so despicable about it!" wailed Tonks. "I was such a jerk… and I needed support through all of this and you weren't there and it was because of me." A new flood of tears flowed down her face, and his arms tightened around her back. To think he was the one she'd just been arguing with.

"You weren't," Remus assured her gently. "It's okay, you're not at fault."

"Yes, I am!" she sobbed, burying her face in his sweater. "I am a terrible girlfriend, you said so yourself. And it's true, so don't d-deny it."

"Shh, Dora," he soothed, "that's not true. I'm sorry, that's not true at all. It's the biggest lie I've ever told in my life. I love you so much."

"I do care," she whispered, wiping her eyes. "I do care about you."

"I know you care," he replied gently, brushing the hair out of her face. "I was just acting up."

She let out a half-choked sob and clung to him even tighter. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," he whispered, pressing a kiss to the top of her head. "I'm fine. Here, why don't we get onto the sofa? As comfortable as the floor is…"

She giggled slightly. "Okay." Remus gently helped her up and walked them over a few steps over to the sofa, where he gently set her down next to him. "Here, do you want something to drink?"

"No, it's okay," she whispered. "If you d-don't mind me asking, what…"

"Happened last night?" he finished for her. "Sure. I'm going to start from the beginning."

She nodded, hesitating to snuggle closer to him, unsure if he was still mad at her.

He seemed to have sensed her hesitation, because he said, "It's okay, Dora. Come here." He pulled her closer to him, his hand stroking her thigh gently. "Well, at some point, I just couldn't take it anymore. So I told Dumbledore I was resigning, and I came here."

"I know," she whispered miserably. "Gawain told me. I felt so bad."

"Shh, it's okay. It's not your fault. So, last night, I was missing the castle, so I pulled out the Marauder's Map, which is that thing I took from Harry, remember? It basically lets you see everyone in the castle and what they're doing. So I was looking at the map when I saw something that shouldn't have been there." He stopped and looked at her. "Dora, do you trust me?"

"Yes," she whispered. "I trust you with my life."

He nodded. "What I discovered last night is not what you're expecting. And you're going to have to hear me out entirely in order to get the truth. Okay?"

She nodded, whimpering.

"Actually, there were two things on the map that shouldn't have been there. The first was Sirius Black, near the Whomping Willow. The second was Peter Pettigrew."

"What?" she whispered. "Didn't Peter die, thirteen years ago? And all they could find was a finger…"

"That's what we all thought," Remus said quietly. "But the Map never lies. I made it myself. And I knew for a fact that if I was seeing Peter's name on there, that meant that Peter Pettigrew was alive.

"So that led me to think, how could Peter be alive? And then it struck me. His Animagus form. He could become a rat, and that's why he hasn't been discovered. But why would Peter live as a rat for thirteen years if Sirius was in Azkaban? If he was safe? Was it possible that Sirius was never a threat in the first place?

"And I decided that I needed to be there, in that little reunion that would decide, once and for all, who betrayed James and Lily."

She sniffed and kissed his shoulder.

"It's okay," he soothed, stroking her back now. "It's okay, Dora. So when I reached Hogwarts, I saw the entire scene in front of me. Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Sirius. A rat in Ron's hand. And everything made sense. What if Sirius wasn't the one who betrayed James and Lily, but Peter was? What if Peter was framing Sirius for his betrayal? And it was a flipping full moon night, and I didn't take my potion, so I transformed, and Peter escaped. Harry and his friends know the truth, that Sirius is innocent, and Dumbledore believes him, but nobody else does."

"But didn't Sirius escape?" asked Tonks softly.

Remus nodded. "Yeah. I think Dumbledore has something to do with this, but he won't tell me. Sirius and a hippogriff, who are now both in hiding. I don't know where."

"All he needs is a fair trial," whispered Tonks. "After that, they can do what they want with him. But he was never given a trial in the first place."

"There's no way the Ministry will agree to that," Remus said quietly.

"I can ask Gawain," Tonks answered. "I don't know how much he can do, but I know Scrimgeour likes him, and I think Scrimgeour's pretty influential."

"We can try." He sounded doubtful.

"We have to," she whispered, tracing his jaw with her finger. "It's only fair. Take him to the Wizengamot."

Remus nodded. "Yeah. Okay. You tell Robards that, and I'll see if I can find Sirius and speak to him to come."

"Yeah." She took a deep breath and let it out, and then threw her arms around him. He held her tightly, leaning his forehead against hers.

"I'm sorry, Dora," he whispered. "I love you."

"Everything will be okay, right?" she whimpered.

His hand found her shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze.

"We'll make sure it will be."

A/N: I am so touched that so many of you guys are enjoying this! Your reviews on this are absolutely amazing! I feel like I needed to make it up to you after their breakup, so here we go.

The next chapter is the last chapter, which will end on a positive outlook, I promise. I can never do negative endings, I feel like we all need some happiness in our world, and I'm trying to bring that to us, even if only a little.

But if you're looking for other Remadora fluff (or Jily fluff, for that matter!), then head over to our profile! There are plenty of oneshots, and our epic AU fic The Clock Starts Now (which is our Jily/Remadora AU, like the fluffiest thing in the world). Requests, comments, suggestions, let us know! :)