Some of the dialogue in this chapter is from Deathly Hallows Ch8 Fallen Warrior (one of my favourites). Written by JKR and I'm not making any money off it. Some of the dialogue was written by me, but I'm not making any money off it either. Hope you like this one.
Fallen Warrior
Tonks hasn't let go of him since she leapt off the broomstick and hurled herself into his arms. The whole time they'd been outside with the others, sharing their stories about what had happened while nervously waiting for the last pairs to arrive, she'd been clutching Remus' arm with her other hand snaked around his waist to hold him against her. It was embarrassing, in front of Harry and Ron and Hagrid and everybody, but Dora's grip was so tight and she seemed to need him so much that it would have been cruel to shrug her off or mutter, "Later". And then Bill and Fleur had arrived and Mad-Eye was dead. After a moment of frozen shock Remus had felt Tonks crumple into him, and now, inside, she's whimpering into his shoulder. Molly and Hermione are weeping too. Harry looks too shocked to cry, which is how Remus feels. Mad-Eye Moody- tougher than steel with a tongue twice as sharp. Missing an eye, a leg and part of his nose but showing no interest in slowing down or giving up the fight. Blasted from the sky like a shot pigeon. Remus had known that they'd have to find the body from the moment Bill had told them that Moody was dead. The thought of the Death Eaters getting their hands on Mad-Eye's body is the only thing worse than him dying.
"We've got work to do," Remus announces.
Tonks has been half-listening to them all. Fleur suspects Hagrid of letting something slip, Harry, nobly, had declared that he trusted them all, Remus told him he was like James. It will matter in the morning but it doesn't matter now because Mad-Eye is dead. Mad-Eye- her friend since she answered back to him during her first week at the Ministry. They'd worked and planned and bickered and teased and survived together. Everybody knew she was his favourite. The first year Tonks was qualified he'd gone away to teach and she'd been more nervous than she'd ever admit to be an Auror without him. Mad-Eye could tell she was worried, of course, and he'd promised her that she'd be fine. And she was, but he wasn't. After months of silence from him, when Tonks had worried that perhaps she wasn't as important to him as she'd thought, Mad-Eye sent her an owl. In code, he explained that he was sorry for not writing and that they needed to speak urgently in utmost confidence. She'd met him, disguised obviously, in Victoria Park, and they'd walked around the pond while Mad-Eye recounted everything that had happened to him over the last year (his voice, Tonks remembered, had been matter-of-fact, and after the third time she'd gasped "No way!" he'd told her to shut up. Tonks snarked back that he was trying to show off by acting so causally about being locked in his suitcase for nearly a year). Mad-Eye explained that Voldemort was back, and the secret society he'd been in the last time was reform, and he wanted Tonks to join. And she had, and now she's got Molly and Arthur and their kids, Hagrid and Harry and Daedalus. Remus. And Mad-Eye, who had brought all these people and all that knowledge and experience and advice into her life, is dead.
"I can ask Kingsley weather-" Remus says above her and Bill interrupts, "No, I'll do it. I'll come".
What? Come where? What are they going to do? "Where are you going?" Tonks blurts, as Fleur asks the same question.
"Mad-Eye's body," says Remus, "We need to recover it,"
In the shock of his death Tonks hasn't even thought about that.
"Can't it-" Molly begins, but Bill cuts across and tells her that it couldn't unless she wanted the Death Eaters to get hold of it. The threat drops heavily in the room. Remus puts his hands on Tonks' shoulders and moves her away from him. She realises that he and Bill are leaving immediately.
"Wait," she mutters. She doesn't want to let Remus go, not after everything that's happened. He glances down at her.
"Be careful," Tonks implores.
"I know," Remus replies seriously. But he doesn't know. Waiting for the others outside, Tonks had wondered whether she should tell him. She hadn't been sure and had reckoned that she could decide in the morning. But if Remus is going back out there now he has to know. Tonks closes her eyes and leans up towards his ear.
"Bellatrix knows about us,"
Her mother's sister had taunted her as the Death Eaters chased them through the sky. Bellatrix had cackled gleefully about the things she hoped Remus does to her, the things she'd make him do once she caught him. Tonks had wanted to yell at her to shut up, to get her husband's name out of her mouth (although Bellatrix hadn't called him by his name. She'd called him...other things), but they were surrounded. Ron was shooting curses everywhere and Tonks was trying to duel while flying, and Bellatrix had got angrier. The cackles were replaced by screeches and she started hurling killing curses and screaming about how dirty and sick it was to marry a werewolf, but it wasn't a surprise considering Andromeda and "that Mudblood". Jets of green whizzed past them and Ron was yelping and swearing and the air was full of streams and stars and smoke, until they skidded into Muriel's garden.
Remus looks down at his wife. Bellatrix knows. The news must have leaked out with whoever it was who betrayed them to Voldemort. Bellatrix knows. That's why she tried so hard to kill Dora. This is all his fault. He'd known that marrying her was a mistake from about the day after he agreed to it, but this is worse than he thought. Bellatrix wanted Dora dead already and now he's made her even more of a target. And Bellatrix doesn't just duel to kill, she duels to torture and humiliate.
"I'm sorry," Remus manages to murmur. He can't meet her eyes, but Tonks puts her hand on jaw to make him look at her.
"Be. Careful," she repeats. It isn't him who needs to be.
"Yes," he manages to agree and she squeezes him hard.
"Come back to me," Tonks whispers. He doesn't take risks and he'll be with Bill, but she doesn't find that hugely reassuring with the threat of Bellatrix out there. Her husband isn't' the kind of guy who will smile to make her feel better, or promise that of course he'll be back, so Tonks isn't surprised when says nothing and gives her only a grim look. She wants to kiss him goodbye, but he'll hate that in front of everybody. He's probably irritated at her for being so clingy all night. So Tonks lets him go, and he moves away from her, says a couple of words to Molly, claps Harry on the shoulder, and disappears through the living room door with Bill. He does not look back. And he does not know, because of neither of them do, that inside her the thing has started to grow.
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