Warning: This is soooo long you will not believe it.
PARTIII
Nymphadora walked up the narrow flight of stairs and came to stop at a red door that had received a fresh coat of paint recently. She pressed the electric buzzer that emitted a melody beyond the door. There was a sense of déjà vu that made a smile come to her face. It had been two years since she had been at this place. She left there with tears flowing down her cheeks and bad memories. Now she was back and things were quite different. She was not by any means the happiest person alive but she was satisfied when her life and content with her self.
A small skinny teenager opened the door and looked up at her with wide eyes. "Is that you Miss Tonks?" he asked, looking at her with from head to toe.
"Yes it's me," she said laughing. "You look...exactly the same."
"No," he corrected. "I grew a full inch last year."
"Right," she nodded. "I don't know how I missed it."
"Let me get pa," he said. Tonks assumed he was running off to get Mr. Bates but instead he shouted at the top his lungs that she was at the door.
Mr. Bates came running out to the hall with an apron around his waist; he must have been cooking Lunch. He looked at her and tilted his head to the side and examined her. "Miss Tonks, how long has it been?" He reached out to her and hugged her like she was his grandchild. She laughed at hugged him in return.
"Come in, come in, don't stand in the hall." He pulled her in with her travelling bag and closed the door behind her. "You're so lucky little miss, we have a spear room; that strange man moved out."
She was a bit disappointed because she knew that the strange man he was talking about was Severus. She never expected that he wouldn't be there. She thought that he was quite settled here but she guessed she was wrong. "When did he leave?" she asked.
Mr Bates looked at her questioningly. "I heard form 29 that you were friends with him," he said. Mr bates wasn't good with names and sometimes he used numbers to refer to people. Number 29 was right next to her old room and she was certain that he would have heard and seen her coming and going from Severus' room and him coming and going from hers. There was really no point denying it.
"Yes, I knew him from London."
He opened his eyes wide like the idea of the man in thirty two knowing people was not only surprising but equivalent to paranormal activity. "I see," he said. "It's a pity he didn't leave an address."
"He's not the sort to leave addresses," she said.
"But I know he's still in the city. I saw him about two weeks ago, hardly looked my way."
She smiled at this. She wanted to see him again to thank him but all of this had to be done once she took care of business first.
-o-o-
Her main business in the city was Remus. Like, two years ago he was the reason she came to city. However this time she was invited there; he asked her to come. She surprised herself when she agreed to visit him. When she was back in London she was very angry at everyone for a very long time. She was mad at Remus, she was mad at Severus, she was mad at Chelsea but she was mostly mad at herself. There were days when she could bear her own reflection, no matter what face she adopted she would pin point everything that would make her unattractive. She tried to find reasons why Remus didn't want her and why Severus rejected her. Even when she morphed her face to look identical to Chelsea's she still found that she looked hideous and unattractive and nothing she ever did would help. She had spent so many days and nights crying into her pillow.
She decided almost a year ago that she would stop changing her appearance, her job as a Potion's Master's assistant didn't require it so there was no need for her to change. She decided that for once in very long time she would get comfortable with her own image. It was not an easy task. There were times when she wanted to hide every feature that she didn't find desirable but she decided against it. She took several painstaking months learning to love herself again. She didn't know by extension that she would learn to forgive everyone as well. When she felt the need to come to Remus' aid she had to ask herself why. She knew it wasn't because she loved him, she abandoned that long ago and it wasn't because she wanted to show him that she was doing fine without him. It was genuinely because he was her friend at least and he needed help and friends generally tried to help each other. Just like Severus had helped her when she needed it, she was going to help Remus.
-o-o-
She remembered the last time she stood outside this door. She had been so hopeful and full of excitement; it seemed so long ago because she had changed so much. She knocked three times on the old oak door and waited. Another two years had pass since she last saw Remus. That particular incident was fresh in her mind though. She had been so rude and down right vulgar that night in hopes of infuriating him. She actually entertained the idea of entering in a relationship with Severus Snape just to make him pissed. Now, it seemed like someone else who had those ridiculous ideas.
"Coming," She heard him say in a slow drawl that was worthy of Severus
He opened the door slowly and his face came into view. The Remus that stood before her was not the one from two years ago. Gone was the healthy glow that radiated form his features. He looked sickly and tired even compare to how he looked back in London.
"Tonks," he said. "You came." And he shifted away form her slightly.
She looked taken a back. "Stop being silly, give me a hug," she said. She walked forward and wrapped her arms around his body that somehow felt smaller to her. Her nose was tickled by a strange order strangling her lungs.
He pushed her gently off his body. "Please Tonks, I haven't showered."
"I can smell that?" she said smiling.
He looked slightly embarrassed but held the door open for her. "I have been trying to clean the place up," he said softly. "It can't seem to stay clean."
She walked in and looked around. If he had been cleaning she hated to imagine what it was like before he started. The floor was covered in old news papers and toys and goo that looked like something that had been regurgitated. There was milk spilled on the corner table with flies feasting on it. The couch in the room played host to a pile of laundry that she couldn't tell if it was clean or dirty. The air smelled like a wet dog had been rolling on the floor. But somehow she was more disturbed because in the mess she couldn't see the baby anywhere. "Ah Remus where's the baby."
"In the nursery, don't worry it's very clean." He said sensing her tone.
She knitted her brows together and sighed. "Why don't you go take a shower and I will clean this place up," she said.
"You don't have to do that. I can finish."
"No, I have to," she said quickly. She felt like if she stayed in this room for one more minute her head would explode.
"I'll just be a minute," he said softly, and she could hear the embarrassment in his tone.
"Take ten," she added as he walked to door that lead to another room.
Tonks looked around the room and scratched her brow. She took out her wand and decided to tackle the floor first. Her mother's spells seem to be just the thing that she needed and at the moment, they worked perfectly, maybe because she was so repulsed by the mess. She did it with the ease and accuracy of a person who had been a professional cleaner. She worked until every last corner of the room was spick and span. When she was finished she released a fragrance of berries in the room to lighten the air stale air that was circulating the room.
She took a seat when she was finished on the couch and began to fold the clothes that she discovered were actually clean despite their appearance. After about fifteen minutes Remus finally came out of the bedroom wearing a fresh suit of clothes. "That was really quick," he said looking around the room.
"My mother knew every household spell there was. I take it that you don't know much."
"Not really," he said. He didn't sit next to her. Instead she could hear that he took a seat by the round table that was in the room. She got up from the couch and joined him at the table.
"So how is Chelsea's mother, is she much better."
"She's worse I'm afraid, she might be gone any day now."
"I'm sorry to hear that," she said.
A month ago Remus wrote Tonks asking her for help. He said that Chelsea had been in Portugal with their oldest son Dodger talking care of her ailing mother. Basically he needed someone to help him for a while until he found a suitable nanny to take care of his youngest child Abel. He said for some reason the child had not responded well to any of the people he hired. She knew that Remus was not the kind of man to be so cruel to ask his wife to leave her mother to stay with the baby. She knew that he really needed help. To make matters worse he still had to go trough his transformation every month. What sort of person would she be if she let a werewolf roam in the presence of a baby? She knew that he would never forgive himself if anything ever happened to his child. She knew that she had to help him. Besides it was only until Chelsea returned.
He passed his hand through his hair and let out a heavy sigh. "I miss her," he said.
"Well you should, she's your wife."
He nodded with a far away look in his eyes. There seemed to be some sadness there but she assumed it was a surrogate emotion for his wife loosing her most beloved mother. She looked at him and tilted her head to catch his eyes. "It will be okay you know, when she comes back everything will be as right as rain."
His eyes seem to come back to their moment and he looked at her. He had a strange expression on his face. "You look different somehow," he said.
"Really," she said. "It must be because I'm sporting my actual face these days."
"I have seen your real face before and that's not it," he said, like he was so certain.
She let out a slow drawn out laugh. "This is my face; I have never shown my real face to you until now."
He stared at as if trying to determine if it was true of not, after a moment he looked away and said, "Oh,"
-o-o-
All the time she spent in the city before she never actually got to see it. The times when she walked about the streets she had been so busy thinking about Remus she never had time to appreciate her surroundings. The buildings themselves were works of art. No one building looked alike; they all looked like they had walked off their foundation that was some where in Venice, Barcelona, Paris and all the other beautiful cities in the world and settled there. There was also the fact the road itself was a work of art. She privileged just to walk to it. But the most beautiful part of the city was the ocean.
On the outskirts of the city there was a boardwalk. This was the only place where you could have an unobstructed view of the water. After leaving Remus's apartment found herself walking along the wooden path with the sound of the ocean rushing beneath her feet. The sun was threatening to set on the horizon. It looked abnormally large as it acted as a magnet to the violet clouds that were in the sky.
She walked on looking at all the sea birds try to make their curfew. Flying everywhere their voices were filling the sky. She was so hypnotized by their sound she wanted to sit and enjoy it for a little. She looked to her right and saw a bench painted in a coat of thick royal blue paint that had a single occupant. The gentleman sat with his face buried in a book as if trying to beat the dying light. She took a seat on the far end of the bench and closed her eyes letting the scents and sounds fill her.
"Nymphadora," she head from next to her. It was a delightfully familiar voice that carried over the sound of the crying birds. She opened her left eye only and looked the person who said it. Sure enough it was Severus Snape with an unreadable expression on his face.
"I thought I had seen the last of you," he said mockingly.
By then she had opened her eyes and her body was facing his. She couldn't help but smile. She thought that she would take forever to find him but there he was, right next to her. She reached out and wrapped her arms around him. He felt so stiff in her embrace, an aftermath of the last time she tried to touch him. "Severus, I was hoping I would run into you." She undid her arms from around him and looked at him. His face looked just as it did before, there was a slight sign of a beard coming in on his well shaped jaw but that was the only difference she could spot.
"So you're here again, can I ask why?"
His manners were lacking as always and she would admit to herself that she would have been disappointing if it wasn't. He was always delightfully predictable.
"I'm here for Remus."
He made a noise and rolled his eyes at this.
"No, no, no, not like that. He asked to help him with something. His wife is in Portugal sitting with her mother who's dying, didn't he tell you."
He looked at her with his brows knitted. "You look different," he said out of the blue.
She laughed. "Oh I'm not morphed."
He looked down at her with his long hooked nose from head to toe and then back to head again. "Is that what you look like?"
"Yes, this is pretty much it," she said. She wasn't even going to bother to ask him what that look was about as Severus' facial expressions were unreadable because he wanted it to be.
"So what's the tragedy this time? Why have you lost your powers?"
She opened her mouth in pretend shock. "I'll have you know Mr. Severus Snape that all my powers are in tact. I just don't morph anymore unless it is necessary and I have to admit that it is hardly ever so."
He made a hmm noise that could have been interpreted for him being please or him being totally uninterested.
"As I was saying," Nympadora continued when she realised the 'hmm' was his last contribution to the conversation. "Chelsea's mother is sick and he needs a little hand. I had a vacation coming out so I decided why not."
"Is that what he told you," he said.
"What's that supposed to mean."
He didn't answer the question. "You are dedicating your vacation to him, how touching. I disappointed to see that you are still fanning those flames."
She laughed at this because there was no truth to it. "I'm not fanning those flames, they are very much extinguished but I still consider him a friend so I decided to help him out a bit. I'm glad I did; he's in a bit of a mess isn't he."
"I'd hardly call it a bit. I guess that's where you come in. It must be wonderful to have someone come and clean up your mess, lucky man."
She gripped his forearm. "Okay Severus. I'm not going to argue with you anymore. Walk with me."
"I was doing something before you came here," he said matter-of-factly.
"The light is fading, it's impossible to read. Walk with me," she demanded rising from the bench. He grunted and got up from the bench, storing his book in a bag.
"Where are we walking to?" he asked sounding frustrated.
"You live here, lead the way." She said. He set off in the direction she came from and walked in a slow pace. She met up with him and passed her hand trough his arms and walked by his side. "Where are we going?" she asked.
"I am going home; I don't know where you're going."
"So why did you leave the boarding house?"
"I'm a grown man, I value my privacy. Besides I never intended to stay there long."
"Okay, I can understand that. Why didn't you leave an address?"
"I didn't want to be found. But it seems like my luck ran out today." He looked at her when he said this, his eyes scanning her face once more. "You really do look very different. It's bizarre really."
"Why is it that everyone keeps telling me that? I'm starting to take it as an insult," she said laughing.
"I didn't mean it as an insult."
"Was it a compliment," she asked.
"No," he replied.
She sighed and they continued to walk in the direction he was going. The night that had fallen was a beautiful one. The stars were sprinkled all over the velvet sky looking down on them. There was a sliver of a moon in the sky that hardly provided any light. The boardwalk was lit with lights had glowed softly behind their shade. Had her company been someone else it would have been a very romantic night. Instead she was stuck with Severus who was repeatedly questioning her as if she was on trial.
"Should I write you a book," she finally said.
"That's not necessary, I was just- eh- wondering if you making good use of your time."
"Do you approve?" she asked teasingly.
"Mostly," he said.
They walked and walked until they hit parts that were familiar to her. She realised that he was taking her home. She specifically remembered him saying that he was going home but somehow he was walking her home.
When they reached to the narrow staircases that lead to Mystic Boarding House, he stopped. "I think you can find your way form here?" he said teasingly.
"Come up to my room with me?" she said.
He looked at her with raised brows. "I think its best I leave."
She looked at him and laughed in amusement. She could tell from the look on her face he thought she had some activities planed for the night. "I have something for you Severus, that's all."
"Something?"
"A book," she added quickly.
-o-o-
"I ran into Severus yesterday," she said to Remus. "He looks good doesn't he?"
Remus made a noise that meant that he was not interested in answering the question.
"I told him I was here to see you and he wasn't very pleased."
"What did he say?" Remus asked quickly.
"A whole lot of nothing," she replied. She took the powder and sprinkled it on the baby. She raised up the disposable diapers and fastened them around the little baby boy. "And that is how you change a diaper properly."
He smiled and looked at her. "I never quite got that."
"Happy to help," she said picking up the baby slowly. She held the baby in a playfull manner. "You look so much like your mommy," she said in a baby voice. The child giggled down at her. He did look a lot like Chelsea; he had ice blond hair and the same striking pair of blue eyes. "I bet you can't wait till she comes home."
"You'll make a good mother Tonks," Remus said out of the blue.
She held the baby securely as she handed it over to Remus. "Hardly," she said. "It's very easy to look after a child for a couple of minutes. I think I will go mad if I have to do it full time."
He nodded and looked at her closely, he was actually gazing. She looked at him questioningly and tucked her shoulder length chocolate brown hair behind her ears. "You really do look very different."
She sighed. "I swear if I hear that one more time..."
"But you do, and it's not just that your face is different, it's something else," he whispered. Holding the baby in his arms he continued to stare at her and for one moment she was certain she was something in his eyes that she did not like.
"I think I should be going," she said quickly.
"Can't you stay for dinner?"
"Eh-no. I am actually eating with Severus tonight."
"Really," he said and he sounded almost disappointed.
"Yes," she said stepping away form him. "So next week you start taking the potion, I'll see you then?" she said.
"Yes, of course." He said. She looked at him as he looked at her. She nodded and made her way to the door. When she stepped outside she was very relieved. She did not like the look that he gave her. It was very unsettling.
-o-o-
Severus spent an absurd amount of time trying to figure out what it was about Nymphadora that had changed and even more time trying to figure out why the change was having such as effect on him. When she invited him to her room to give him a book he actually entertained the idea that it was more than a book she had invited him. He would have been happy if she had asked him to stay for a glass of wine, but she didn't. He battled with the fact that she did not desire to spend anymore time with him. When she was there before, she couldn't sleep if she wasn't next to him, now she seemed to be doing just fine without having his company at all. She talked about all the things she planed to do while in the city and none of them included him. She used to try to drag him along wherever she went when she was there before.
He decided that he would squeeze himself into her schedule. Why he felt the need to do this, he had no idea. He told her that he wanted to hear more about what she was doing, which was the truth but it was really so he could have her around him. Nymphadora was the one person he knew that was similar to him in anyway and that was the reason he always felt a connection to her and that was the reason he always wanted spend time with her, and why he didn't mind when she would creep into his bed and wrap her arms around him. She was good to have around. Besides, the more time she spent with him the less time she spent with Remus, which was the last thing he wanted.
He looked at her while he poured a glass of wine into the empty glass and handed it to her. She took it in her delicate hands and swirled in the glass and brought it to her nose. "Concord, nice."
"Aren't you a budding alcoholic," he said with humour in his voice.
"So where's the food?" she asked, ignoring his comment.
He poured his glass of wine and looked at her with raised eyebrows. He hated to eat in front of people. "This is the food," he said simply.
"I hate to break it to you but when you invite someone to your home for dinner, there's usually food involved."
"Do you really mind?" he asked, taking a seat next to her on the sofa.
"Well I am actually hungry if that's what you're asking."
He rolled his eyes in frustration. "You are so difficult to please," he complained. He got up and leaving his glass of wine on the table and walked over to his kitchen. When he rented the apartment, it came furnished and a refrigerator was one of the things it came with. He didn't have much food since he ate out all the time but there was something he had picked up for her earlier in the day. He took one of his normal dishes and transfigured it into a sparkling white China saucer. He reached out into the refrigerator and took out cake that was sitting solitary on the shelves. He took a knife and cut a considerably large slice and placed it on the saucer. He placed the cake back inside and closed the door. He took the saucer with a dessert fork and carried it to her. He placed it on the table in front of her.
"Oh my god," she said slowly. "I can't believe you had me here for ten minutes and you didn't tell me you had this sitting in your kitchen." Her hands reached down and grabbed it immediately. She took the fork in one hand and dug it into the cake. She took it to her mouth and threw her head back and moaned when she tasted the first piece. "I'm in heaven," she said.
He shifted slightly as he watched her devour the cake piece by piece all the while making noises that sounded like she was in the deepest state of pleasure imaginable. He left her to it.
"I haven't had Bavarian Cream cake in two years. I couldn't find it anywhere in London," she said between pieces. "Severus, I can kiss you right now."
It was weird because the moment she said that he realised what it was that changed about her to him. He no loner felt like she was a little thing he needed to take care of anymore, the idea of her touching him in anyway sexual didn't seem to disturbing anymore, in fact he longed for it. He couldn't understand why she didn't went around with her natural face more. Granted her skin wasn't perfect like delicate porcelain anymore, there were now very faint lines that showed she had aged. She did not have the look of someone who had just come out of their teens. She looked like a woman. Her rich choacolate brown hair cascading over her shoulders in waves, were begging to be touched. The slightest bit of cleavage that teased his eyes were glowing softly in the light, her hips seemed rounder and more womanly. She had suddenly become everything he wanted to see in her woman.
When she spoke it wasn't in a playful manner to hide her insecurities like she use to do. Everything was said with authority, there were times when she actually commanded him to do things and it drove him insane, even more so than the times when she completely ignored things that he would tell her. She seemed like someone living out their plan. It was disturbingly attractive to him. Suddenly she had become everything he wanted in a woman.
"Do you ever watch the fishermen come in from a fishing trip?" he said before he could stop himself.
She looked at him with a face that was worthy of the bizarre question he asked her. "What?' she asked, resting the cake on the table?
He repeated the question slowly because he already said it and couldn't take it back.
"No," she said like it was obvious.
"Fisherman rowing homeward in the dusk, no not consider the stillness through which they move. It is a very attractive quality to posses; a quiet confidence."
She looked at him and bit bottom lip as if trying to read him. "I hardly believe that you are trying to tell me that you think fishermen are attractive.
He brought his brows together and let out a heavy, laboured sigh. "How do you sit there and throw your head back in almost orgasmic delight and not care that I am watching you?"
She pouted her lips and looked deep into his eyes. If he didn't know any better he's say she was using occlumency on him but he was too much of a master at detecting it for it to go unnoticed. "It's pretty easy when you give a starving woman a piece of heaven in a slice," she said. His mind almost imploded when she referred to herself as a woman. "It's hardly an art at all."
"Walk with me, come up to my room with me. When did begin to give me commands."
She laughed lightly. "Does it bother you?"
"What is it that moves you do that?"
She sighed and shrugged not taking her eyes his, still peering into him, seeking out his soul. "I don't know," she said with an ironically knowing smirk on her face.
"That's the quiet confidence I speak of, the one that you're not even aware you possess. That is what I believe has changed about you."
He leaned in slowly because he knew that she would not make that move. In the past she would have done it but she was mature enough now to allow herself to be pursued. He took her hand and pulled her closer to him. He cupped her face in the palms of his hand, never breaking eye contact. "Can I have you?" he whispered.
-o-o-
"Tonks told me that she was having dinner with you about a week ago, how did that go?"
Severus glanced over his shoulder at Remus who was holding his baby, trying to quiet down the crying that filled the room the moment his next door neighbour came in the room. She had long left and the child hadn't stopped crying. "Does that child ever stop crying," Severus asked.
"He just doesn't like strangers," Remus said trying to hush the child. "The dinner, how was it?"
"I can't see how it can be of any consequence to you."
"I was just wondering," he said defensively.
"You were not. I know what you are doing and I will advice to stop it."
"What am I doing?" Remus asked annoyed.
He turned his body to him fully so he could read his facial expression. "Why didn't you tell Nymphadora that Chelsea left you?"
Remus' expression stiffened immediately. "Don't talk about what you don't know Snape."
"Oh, but I do know. I can tell what your intentions are," he sneered. "You should know that it is a vain hope."
Remus stood still as the child began to settle in his arms. "I cannot allow you speak that way to me. You know nothing of the relationship Tonks and I have."
He walked over to him. "I know that you walked out on her before and at the first sign of trouble you will do it again, just like your wife."
Remus knew that if it wasn't the child in his hands he would slap Severus across the face. Instead he started to hum a song to his child, to induce sleepiness. He couldn't just say anything he wanted to Snape, he was the man who made the potion that kept him from killing his own offspring for the past six years.
"I'll advice you to tell her the truth or else I will have to, and we all know how she loves being lied to."
The idea of him being threatened by Severus Snape sank in. When did this happen. Why was it that he was standing here with no wife, a child and Snape accusing him using one of his closest friends and someone he cared about so deeply?
-o-o-
Tonks had long resigned the idea of relationships. She always thought that they ended badly and it was hardly worth it at all. This is what she told Severus but it didn't stop them form spending every subsequent night together. This was the same man who told her that she was a little misses and he could never be aroused by her. The room would be so hot with the heat radiating form his body that they will have to leave the window open.
When the night fell on his apartment, there would be flashes of light creeping in the room every ten seconds. The almost blinding light from the light house would illuminate certain parts of his body that made it look like silver in the dark of the night. She would look down at him as he slept next to her and smile.
He used to be a very light sleeper but after exhausting his energy on her he would fall into a deep sleep with his hands still reaching out for her. It wasn't that she didn't care for him, she did. She felt a lot for him but it was feelings that she couldn't allow herself to have. She couldn't be fooled again. She was smarter than that now.
-o-o-
Tonks sat opposite Remus glaring at him. He had just told her that his wife was not in Portugal and she had actually left him and took Dodger with her. "So what was the purpose of bringing me here; to act like some sort of surrogate mother for Abel?"
"No," he protested. "I really did need your help."
"Did you even try to find a sitter Remus?" she asked with her hand on her hip.
"I tried everyone but Abel has a problem, I don't what is it?"
"That his father is a deceitful bastard, no?" she questioned.
Remus shook his head and covered his face with his hands. "No, he cries all the time."
"He's not crying now."
"He threw a knife at Chelsea."
"He's baby he doesn't know what he is doing?" Tonks complained.
He shook his head. "He does, it's like he is possessed. He summoned the knife and launched it at her with his eyes. He did it five times. It hit her three time."
She looked at him having a feeling like he was the worst liar in the world. "If he is such an evil baby how come he has never given me trouble?"
He sighed. "He doesn't give me trouble, he doesn't give you trouble, he didn't give Severus trouble last month but if anyone without magical blood comes near him he just cries and cries. Chelsea had to leave, she couldn't take it; she didn't understand it. I don't understand it."
Tonks looked at him he was almost on the verge of tears. She was angry as hell but she had a feeling that what he was saying was true. There was something wrong with his baby. "Does Severus know what it is?" she asked.
"He hardly thinks anything is wrong with him, he thinks he is cranky but I know how his mood changes when he is around a muggle."
She looked at him and raised an eyebrow. "Well I can only conclude that you or Chelsea have done something piss a very powerful wizard off. I think it might be a curse."
"A curse, on a child, who would do that?"
She shrugged. "It could be a latent curse, something you did years ago that has just started to affect you. Working as an Auror I use to see a lot of strange things. But this, this is worthy of You Know Who."
"You think he placed a curse on me?" he said. She had never heard Remus sound so genuinely scared about something.
"Well didn't you teach Defense Against The Dark Arts, it could be that. Everyone who has ever thought that subject is severely miserable. It could be that it started to act because you were finally happy."
He sighed and slummed in the chair. "What am I going do?"
"Don't worry," she said to him. All her anger had not yet abated; she would not have been opposed to the idea of letting him worry. "Once the caster is dead the curse becomes very easy to break. You can go to any Blightbreaker and have it fixed."
"Are you serious, tell me you are serious."
"That's how it usually works. So you can start looking for Chelsea now because this should be fixed in no time at all."
He looked at her with tears in his eyes and a hand over his mouth. She saw the look in his eyes again, the one that he gave her the other night that scared her. At first she thought that he was falling back in love her but now she had no idea what it was.
-o-o-
"Can't you stay here, with me?" Severus asked her, as she packed her bags. "You won't have to work, I can take care of you or you can find a job here I am sure. Do you really need to go back to London?"
She looked at him and tilted her head to side. "Do you really want be around, bothering you all the time." She had once given up everything for a man and she was not about to do it again. No matter how she felt about him.
He was silent. He looked at her as she took pieces of clothes form her chest of drawers and packed them in the travelling bag. More than five minutes had passed since he last spoke. "I have fallen in love with Nymphadora," he said in an almost inaudible whisper.
She was inclined to pretend that she didn't hear it but instead she stopped her actions and sat next to him. Every bone in her body wanted to repeat those words but she couldn't allow herself to. "Love is nothing but an antique hoax Severus."
"Do you believe that? Are you that cynical?"
She took his hand in hers. "Yes, but I will allow you the chance to prove me wrong." She dropped his hands and continued her packing. She had a train to catch.
-o-o-o-
FOUR MONTHS LATER
Tonks walked around the corner with the cold London air hitting her cheeks. Snow flakes danced in the air around her as she shoved her hands in her pockets. She stopped at a short flight of stairs and ascended them as quickly as her almost frozen joints would allow. As she walked down the hall she could hear the faint sounds of her neighbours stereo playing a Christmas carol.
She took out her wand and opened the door to her apartment. The pitch black of her flat made her think of Severus. She hadn't seen or spoken to him since she left him in her room at the boarding house that day. There were times when the slightest thing would make her think of him. It was almost nauseating to imagine how it would feel to have his arms around her on that cold night.
She flicked on the switch at the entrance of the door. The first thing that stood out for her was the solitary figure that sat on the sofa in the living room with his head in being propped up by his elbows. She recognised it right away. She dropped her bag and pulled her scarf from around her neck and tossed it aside. She walked to the figure and sat next to him.
"What took you so long?" she asked
"I had to teach Chelsea how to brew Wolfsbane; believe it or not but with absolutely no magical ability she is still better at Potions than Lupin."
She took his hand and gripped it hers. "How do you feel," she asked trying to catch his eyes.
"Scared," he said. "I now know what it is like to leave everything behind for someone. I sympathize with you."
She pulled him close to her and let her lips brushed against him. "I love you," she heard herself whisper to him.
"I thought you said that love is an antique hoax?" he asked, all the while pulling her closer to him and kissing her between every word.
"I told you to prove me wrong and you did." She didn't want to be the one to make the grand gesture this time. It was too painful. She couldn't go through that pain again. But there he was willing do that for her. She did love him but she wasn't going to be reckless with her heart as before. It was so easy to say something and not mean it. She wanted to be certain that when he said it he meant it, meant it as much as she did.
THE END
OMG: That was the longest chapter I ever written in my life. I felt like it would never finish. The page numbers just kept going and going and going. I hope someone was actually able to finish this chapter. I actually had to cut some of the Snape and Tonks romance. It would have been so long. I didn't intend for her to want to sleep with her so quickly. Sorry if he came off as randy. I did have this as a Tonks, Lupin and Snape story so I had to put them all in it.
But we got our Snape/ Tonks in the end right.
Let me apologize for the errors. Since this is so long there is NO doubt in my mind that there are countless errors.
And finally I have to put a disclaimer at the end. fishermen rowing homeward in the dusk...they move. and the term antique hoax are not mine. They are form the poem The Harbour, from the selection In a Green Night by Derek Walcott.
I really liked this poem and it was actually the inspiration for the setting of the story. So there you have it; the end at last.
Thanks bundles and don't forget to leave a review.