AN: We're Baaaaaaaack (ish). Enjoy this one.

A Modest Proposal

He woke up to the sounds of London in the early morning. Normally, he would groan and turn back over in bed but today, for some reason, he didn't. It was as if the birds were singing in his ears and he could not, for the life of him, place why.

Then he remembered.

You got laid! cackled the Sirius in the back of his head who had been silent since the real Sirius had fallen through the veil.

Let him relish it, will you? said James.

Yes, he thought, smiling to himself. He reached over next to him, to run his fingers over Dora's smooth skin but she wasn't there.

He opened his eyes a smidge, and saw the blankets on the left side of the bed had been thrown back. He wondered where she could be. Then, the door creaked open.

"Are you awake yet?"

He wanted to say yes, but it sounded more like a strangled "ymf."

Dora laughed. How he had missed that laugh! Every tiny thing about it! He missed how it could be low and throaty, or high and shrieky, depending on her mood. He missed how easily it fell from her lips. He missed the glimmer of happiness in her eyes that it accompanied— eyes that were usually blue, but not always.

"I made breakfast." He looked over at her. Sometime during the night—or perhaps yesterday, he couldn't really remember—her hair had returned to it's violent shade of bubble-gum pink.

"So that's where you got to."

"I couldn't sleep. You've been out for nearly twenty-four hours, you know."

"I gathered as much, when I heard the sounds of morning London. I don't suppose you made any coffee, did you?"

"Of course I did. But you can't have any."

"You had really better be teasing."

"And if I'm not?"

"I may have to rethink our agreement of last night."

"You were unconscious last night, so I don't think we made an agreement then…"

"You know damn well what I mean."

She handed him a mug filled with coffee and he drank deeply.

"I've forgotten how grouchy you can be in the morning."

We haven't, said Sirius.

SHUT UP! Remus roared at him (internally, of course).

"I'm not even that grouchy right now," smiled Remus, benignly.

"Oh?"

"Nope."

"Could have fooled me."

"I didn't say I wasn't grouchy at all. But on the scale of not-grouchy-at-all to get-out-of-my-way, the highest I could possibly be right now is mildly-grouchy."

"I feel as though you are mocking me."

"Just a little."

She leaned down and kissed him. "I've missed you."

"You've said that a lot, recently."

"That's where you were supposed to say, I've missed you too, darling."

"Was it? I couldn't tell."

"Oh, shut up."

"I have missed you more than you can possibly realize."

"Good. That was what you were supposed to do."

He laughed.

It felt good, bantering with her. Granted, it always had felt good bantering with her.

They spent much of those early hours bantering, kissing and being happy about their reestablished love. It was better than thinking about reality.

Snape had killed Dumbledore.

He didn't particularly feel like thinking about it, because every time he did, the James and Sirius in the back of his head went on the rampage. It was much easier to think about how the smile he was looking at fit so perfectly into the heart-shaped face.

"It's nearly ten," said Dora at last.

"Mmm," he replied.

"We should be heading over… for the funeral…"

"Yes," he murmured. Climbing out of his bed for the first time in well over twenty-four hours, Remus pulled open his closet, trying to find something appropriate to wear to the funeral of the only man who had trusted him without ever meeting him.

It was strange, he thought as he and Dora disapparated into Hogsmeade and walked to the castle gates, and the grounds beyond them. Strange how one person can change your life so utterly. He could think of five such people, and three were dead, one was dead to him—if not actually deceased—and one was holding his hand.

Dumbledore had given him so much: trust, an education, friends, respect, a job, hope…the list went on and on and on. Dumbledore had given him the four other people who had changed his life: James, whose easy laugh and caring demeanor had prompted the adventures of Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs; Peter, who had been his confidant for so long…until he had disappeared and betrayed friendship for cowardice; Sirius who had reminded it what it was like to have friends who cared about him without worrying about his condition; and Dora, sweet, loving, caring, Dora, with whom he would undoubtedly never had gotten together if she had not been in the Order. He would probably have awoken to the sounds of her having very loud sex upstairs instead of the pleasant sounds of early-morning London. He would not have liked that one tiny little bit.

He didn't cry, listening to the eulogy, although he felt Dora shaking next to him, her grip on his hand vice-like. He listened, very detached, glancing around at the others present. Harry wasn't listening (he looked just like James when James wasn't listening), Hermione was blatantly sobbing, holding Ron's hand; Hagrid periodically blew his nose into his great, spotted handkerchief; Minerva was pale, and looked as though she had already cried too much to be crying now. Aberforth looked stony. He saw Umbridge near the front and did his best to look away. He didn't want her to know he was there. It would cause problems. And while she might miss him—a generic wizard in black robes with a somber expression—he doubted very much that she would miss the electric pink hair of the head leaning on his shoulder.

He looked back over at Harry, who was sitting next to Ginny. From behind, they looked very much like Lily and James. He suppressed a laugh.

What are you laughing at, young Remus? Do you find the situation amusing? demanded James' voice.

Yeah, what's your problem with Harry having a blatant oedipal complex? There isn't anything wrong with that. It's touching, if anything, said Sirius.

Will you prats leave Harry alone, please? He doesn't like Ginny just because she is ginger—which is more than I can say about James liking me, snapped Lily.

When the body had been encased in white marble, when the people all around stood and stretched and began to move slowly away, when Scrimgeour cornered Harry by the lake, Tonks turned to him and said, "Shall we?"

He nodded and turned away from the tomb. She slipped an arm around his waist, and, after a moment's hesitation, he placed his arm over her shoulder and they strode down towards the gates again. Kingsley nodded at them. Molly and Arthur smiled and gestured them over. "If you both want to come over for dinner tonight," Molly began, "we can discuss this summer and getting Harry away from his aunt and uncle's house." Her eyes were very shrewd as she watched them both.

Remus glanced down at Tonks. Normally, he would never say no to Molly's spectacular cooking. Normally, he would be all for planning what would undoubtedly be a dangerous, crucial event. Normally, he would be glad of the Weasleys' company. But tonight…he didn't know…

"Thanks Molly," said Dora, "I'm not sure what we will be doing, but if we swing by, we swing by."

"Of course, dears." Remus wished that Molly's expression wasn't so…knowing. He could tell that she was fully aware of what they would be up to, should they not appear at her house that evening. He was reminded strongly of James' rant about his mother making hints about Lily being around for Easter during seventh year.

They continued their way across the grounds. As they passed through the gates, Tonks burst out laughing.

"What?" he asked.

"You could just see the disapproval rolling off her when I said that, couldn't you. Ugh, I should have said we had made plans to have a romantic dinner or something."

Remus laughed.

"I'm not entirely sure she would have approved of that one either. I mean, we all know where romantic dinners lead…"

"It's because I'm a bloody girl, you know? She doesn't care at all what Bill or Charlie get up to with their girlfriends."

"I would argue that she cares a great deal about what Bill gets up to with his fiancée, but I think that is more because she dislikes Fleur than anything else…"

"Only now she likes Fleur because she refused to give Bill up, so I bet she doesn't care anymore."

"Probably not."

"God. Who needs a mother when you can have Molly Weasley?"

"You say that like it's a bad thing."

"Oh, I appreciate it. A great deal, actually. But…ugh…you know what I mean."

Remus laughed again. "Maybe we should drop in briefly…"

"Except you know what she will do? She will say, Oh, Remus, how hungry you look after your months and months living on rats and mushrooms with the werewolves. Let me feed you twelve servings so that you will be so full all you want to do when you get home is sleep, and that is not something I particularly want."

"Are you implying that you only want me for sex?" teased Remus.

"You got me. Your werewolf skills are more than any woman would dream of giving up, I can tell you that," she said, winking. He kissed her.

"We could drop in and fake some kind of emergency," he suggested, kissing her again.

"Like?"

"We left the gas on."

Tonks snorted. "Yeah. She'll believe that. Sorry, Molly. It is highly likely that our apartment will burst in to flames if we don't go and…erm…put out the fire, if you know what I mean."

"Hmm…I suppose not. What about stopping in for breakfast tomorrow and making some excuse?"

"She'd see right through that. She would know that no matter what we said, it would be cover up for us shagging the night away."

"Not if it was good. So sorry, Molly, Andromeda insisted that we sample her new recipe for…for…"

"Risotto, and we couldn't get out of it. We know that you wanted to talk about Harry and all…but my selfish mother… No, Remus, I don't think that one would work for the sole reason that my mum doesn't cook."

"Your dad then."

"Out of the country."

"All right. There was a band playing at a pub that you really wanted to listen to."

"Who says that I'm the one who wants to go off and listen to dodgy pub music when we have an invitation to a nice wholesome dinner with Molly Weasley, hmm? And besides, remember what I said about her seeing clean through our excuses? Seeing a band in a pub? Honestly…"

"Food poisoning?"

"Nothing that I, a well trained Auror with an Outstanding in NEWT potions, wouldn't be able to handle."

"There is no need to needle my potion-making abilities," grumbled Remus.

"So sorry, dear. I just couldn't resist."

"I bet you could have…"

"Probably, but I didn't feel so inclined."

"I can tell."

"We promised a neighbor we would babysit," she said, drawing him back to what both deemed was a more important topic of conversation.

"We were ambushed by Death Eaters and only just got away."

"We found an adorable stray puppy whom we couldn't resist and brought it home and cuddled all night."

"All of your ex-boyfriends came by, demanding sex, and I had to duel them all off to save your honor."

"I rather like that one."

"I think we can do better."

"Probably. And I don't feel like dragging them into it. Poor dears wouldn't know what hit them if they had to deal with your wrath and Molly's disapproval all in one. No one deserves that."

"I suppose."

"You had a brother we never knew existed, so we took him out for coffee."

"We got married."

He didn't know what made him say it.

She looked at him, not sure if he had been joking or not. They stared at each other for about a minute before she spoke.

"I'm having trouble reading your mind. Care to elaborate on what prompted that one."

"Forget it. I was just…it's nothing…I just…"

"Did you mention that only to be an excuse, or because you meant it?"

BECAUSE YOU MEANT IT, YOU DAFT FOOL!! shrieked Lily.

Remus didn't say anything.

"Well?"

"I suppose I meant it…" he mumbled.

That's not how you are supposed to do it, said James.

Smooth, man, said Sirius.

"I like it," she said. She leaned in and kissed him very slowly. Pulling away, she added, "But just so we are clear, just to provide a legitimate excuse to Molly as to why we are standing her up."

He laughed nervously, and kissed her again.

"Because marrying you," she kissed him again, "would be both a pleasure, an honor, and all that, but most importantly, it is an excellent way to get Molly off our backs. Honestly, she's been trying to get us together for…what…two years ago? Give or take?"

He nodded. He kissed her again.

"Shall we?" he whispered.

"Let's."