Love at First Crossword Puzzle
Tonks stood in the shadows, plastered against the wall of a dark alley, hidden from view, waiting for something to happen, anything at all, but nothing did.
She had been grossly misled as to how exciting being a secret operative would be. Heroic acts and grand adventures, those were what she'd expected upon joining the Order of the Phoenix, but reality proved itself to be far less gripping. She spent most of her free time nowadays standing around and waiting, doing nothing at all to fight the darkness that was closing in.
What the Order stood for was important, she knew that, but the inactivity was slowly driving her up the wall.
A couple passed in front of her alley—his arm wrapped around her waist, her head resting on his shoulder. The low murmur of their voices tickled Tonks's ears. She couldn't make out the words, and she wasn't sure she wanted to. Envying strangers for their shared confessions of affection was not on her to-do list.
She took out her notebook and wrote down the time as well as a description of the pair, glancing back up in time to see the man tilt his head and press a kiss to his companion's forehead.
Tonks's hands fumbled with the notebook, and it clattered to the ground with a soft thud. The couple was too intent on one another to notice anything else. Tonks bent to pick up the book and wiped the dust from its cover, tracing the phases of the moon etched into the leather.
Glancing up at the night sky, she glared at the full moon that hung cruelly among the stars.
There had been a time when she'd loved the starry sky, particularly on full moons, when even the dead of the night seemed brighter. But not any more. Now, she looked at the moon and saw only pain, silvery scars marring pale skin and hollow, haunted eyes that so rarely smiled—but oh, how they shone when they did.
She remembered the first time she'd seen them light up, a sight so wonderful that she would never forget it.
Two months ago, Remus had sat at the kitchen table in number 12, Grimmauld Place, flipping through the Daily Prophet, solemn gaze fixed on the crinkled paper. Tonks had hopped onto one of the counters, sitting cross-legged and eating her cereal. Her attention kept getting dragged away from her breakfast and toward the quiet man in front of her.
There was something peculiar about Remus Lupin, which she couldn't put her finger on, something that went beyond his lycanthropy and made it nearly impossible for her to look away. Something special.
"No news of any attacks," he said, folding the newspaper and pinching the bridge of his nose.
She swallowed down her mouthful. "That's good, right?"
"I suppose."
His sigh and the tired look in his eyes said otherwise, and Tonks understood why. People still weren't entirely convinced that You-Know-Who was back. Until the newspapers started reporting Death Eater attacks, people's guard would be down, leaving them all the more vulnerable.
She slid from her perch and carried her now-empty bowl to the sink, but the sight of the half-completed newspaper crossword puzzle stopped her in her tracks.
"You like crosswords?"
Remus nodded and smiled, a polite smile that didn't reach his eyes. "I find them relaxing."
Tonks lifted her brows and pursed her lips. "Maybe I should give them a go."
"Be my guest," he said, waving a hand at the paper.
She set aside her breakfast bowl and sat in the chair next to his, glancing over the puzzle and finding it more difficult than she'd anticipated. It was like the crosswords her first year Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher had handed out as homework. Educational? Yes. Fun? No.
She took Remus's discarded quill, knowing that a quick spell would erase what she was about to do if he wasn't a fan. "Seventeen letter word or expression that strikes fear in most hearts." She pressed the tip of the quill against the paper and wrote, "CONSTANT VIGILANCE."
Remus snorted. Tonks glanced up, but he'd bent his head, hiding his eyes and rubbing his hand over his mouth. "It fits," he said.
Intent on seeing this mystery of a man smile, Tonks kept going, filling out all of the missing spaces with the most ridiculous things she could think of. Remus watched and listened, throwing in a suggestion or two when she struggled.
When finally the crossword was complete, their eyes met over the newspaper, and, for a second, Tonks's mind went blank. Her heart stopped because there it was—that smile she'd been so desperate to see, and it was beautiful. Remus's lips spread wide, showing off a crooked incisor and dimples in his thin cheeks. His eyes shone like the most precious of gems, crinkling at the corners.
Tonks couldn't have looked away if she'd tried, and she didn't try all that hard.
Back in her dark alley, Tonks's fingers grazed her lips. The night felt warmer, and the sky felt brighter, and it had nothing to do with the full moon.