Hi, sorry its been a while but I'm free of exams now! So I'll hopefully be more reliable... ;) Huge Dumbledore cuddles so everyone that's reviewed so far and a massive thanks to my Beta ThisLoveHasNoCeiling without whom... I don't even want to think about it. Anyway, I shan't keep you waiting any longer.

Daybreak

For the entirety of that evening Tonks had been filled with happiness, excitement and a rich powerful feeling that she only ever felt when she was around Lupin. She had been having a wonderful time. She was wearing a dress for Merlin's sake. A dress! If her mother had seen it she would have burst into tears of joy.

And now it was all gone, and she was suddenly finding herself stumbling backwards, trembling, shaking; heart pounding and looking around wildly like a child, trying to find somewhere to hide, trying to find a snippet of hope. Any happiness, any calm was gone. She was filled with a hot surging, blinding fear. At that moment, Tonks knew she was going to die. She had never been so sure of anything in her life.

'Here!' an urgent voice echoed as if it were right in her ear yet far away at the same time. Tonks had frozen to the spot. 'Come on, Tonks… Come on!'

She took a few short, quick steps in its direction.

'We can't afford for you to-bloody-freeze-right-now.' She turned and suddenly saw Lupin hurtling towards her. He looked just as terrified as she did. His arm reached around her waist and he dragged her along, she began to run with him. He was using one hand to pull something out of his pocket.

'Come on!'

They ran together past one building, two buildings, then…

'Shit!'

It was a dead end. The alleyway stopped, just like that. A cold, dark, merciless brick wall stood, towering above them. Taunting them.

Crack!

The sound of somebody apparating threatened to stop Tonk's heart completely. Her instincts took over. Her wand was in her hand and stretched out in front of her in a second.

Crack!

Crack!

Tonks was raising her wand when she felt somebody grab her and pull her to the floor. She yelped loudly. A hand clapped over her mouth. She tried to see what was happening in the dark.

Crack!

There were footsteps echoing off the walls of the buildings and through the silent night air. Tonks lost her struggle and hit the ground with a very muffled thump. She yelped again.

'Shut up! Shut up Dora.' Lupin hissed in her ear. Tonks obeyed at once because he would never tell someone to shut up unless he was really could just about see him shaking out whatever he had retrieved from his pocket. It shimmered a little in the moonlight.

It was an invisibility cloak.

He seized her around the middle and they both began trying to kick and drag themselves into a corner. The footsteps were getting louder, closer and faster. Tonks felt a jagged piece of stone cut her leg and she took a sharp intake of breath. Suddenly, she was surrounded by the silvery, silky material. Her back hit a cold, hard brick wall.

Crack!

She and Lupin grabbed fistfuls of it, pulling it around in panic to cover themselves. She tried to bring her knees to her chest but one of his legs was somehow intertwined with hers. Her foot was sticking out of the cloak, freezing in the cold air.

'Over here, Avery! I said I heard it over here…'

A bone chillingly close voice pierced though the quiet and shattered any kind of false security that the night had given them. Both of his arms snaked around her middle and squeezed. Tonks clung onto one of his legs and they bent towards each other, making themselves as small as possible. They could feel each other's hot, rapid breath, warming their faces and necks.

There was another crack, a bang, and a flash of light. Somebody had just blown up a rubbish bin outside the pub.

Tonks did a mad, last minute check to make sure they were completely covered by the cloak. She could feel Lupin desperately trying to steady his breath, to make as little noise as humanly possible.

There were figures in the darkness looming ever closer. Five, six… wait, seven, no, eight. Tonk's decided to stop counting. Lupin's hand found hers and their fingers intertwined.

'…Now what?' She dared to breathe, knowing that Remus would be able to feel her pounding heart against his arms.

'We pray.' He breathed back.

The footsteps were mere metres away from them now.

Tonks held her breath, shut her eyes and took his advice.

They were out of time. The two of them might as well have been made of stone, for they stayed stock still, barely even breathing as they listened, waited, and pleaded their fate. Let them not be seen.

Avery towered in front of them, rotating slowly on the spot, looking around the alley and even up at the sky. The whites of his eyes glinted maliciously in the moonlight. Tonks saw two men over each of his shoulders. Tonks recognised one to be Fenrir Greyback. The other face wasn't familiar. There were a few others, circling Avery, pacing the alleyway, their wands aloft and their expressions hungry. She felt Remus tense beside her. It had been Greyback that had bitten him, she recalled. She squeezed his hand.

'They were supposed to be here.'

'Are you sure they're not still in the pub?'

'Yes, I'm sure, Nott. Dolohov saw them leave didn't he?'

Lupin's heart plummeted. They had been followed to the pub. His hair stood on end at the thought of Dolohov watching him with Dora. Part of him felt angry. That was private.

'Well it looks like he scared them off.'

'If they did magic we would know… you know what, just don't say anything at all, Nott. Your stupidity is aggravating me…' Avery had spotted something move on the other side of the alley. The hooded figures wheeled around in a terrifying chain reaction, there were several flashes of green light. A Barn Owl fell down onto the floor and into the light, dead. Greyback cursed loudly.

'How pathetic.' Avery spat. He spoke loudly and deliberately, as if he were addressing a large room of people. His voice echoed down the street. He was trying to talk to them wherever he thought they were. He knew they were hiding.

At that moment Lupin felt that he would rather come out, with his hands up in the air, or even go down fighting, than be discovered by eight Death Eaters, cowering on the floor with Dora in his arms.

'How… pathetic,' Avery repeated himself. 'Two fully fledged members of the Order of the Phoenix, can't stand up and show themselves. Dumbledore's finest and wisest, playing hide and seek like a pair of children.'

Somebody laughed. For Lupin and Tonks, Avery's words had done the opposite of what they'd been intended to achieve. They both understood that they were being chased. The cowardly thing to do would be to run away to Grimmauld place, the only place to guarantee them safety, but they couldn't risk being followed to the Order Headquarters. To try and contact someone be incredibly selfish of them because that would involve dragging others into danger. And it would have been plain stupid to try and fight their way out.

For once, Zain was right. To hide was the best option. And even though they didn't feel very brave as they sat, curled and terrified together on the cold, hard floor, it was just about the most courageous thing they could have done.

Avery could have no effect on them. They didn't move a muscle.

'Come out, come out, wherever you are…' Avery cooed. He was turning his wand over in his fingers expertly, like a baton. The footsteps along the road became scattered as the group slit apart, apparently searching for them. Tonks didn't notice in the dark but her hair had become a terrified light brown teetering on the brink of blonde. Remus stroked her hand rhythmically and gently, with his thumb and with every comforting brush of warmth, her hair flushed pink.

Greyback hadn't moved. He took a step towards the wall that was a dead end and placed his hand upon it, fumbling across the texture of the brick with his fingertips. After a couple of seconds of this he turned around purposefully. He was facing them now and as the moon lit up his face dramatically.

Remus prayed he was imagining that Greyback's eyes were staring directly into his.

Zain sat on his favourite armchair, only half worrying about the events of that evening. He knew that at this moment Death Eaters were out in a desperate bid to finish off members of the Order.

He paused for a second to listen to her breathe in, and out.

It was a plan that hadn't gone quite as smoothly as they've hoped. Yet again the dark forces had failed to take into account, just how brilliant Albus Dumbledore was. The only people whose fates he wasn't sure of were Nymphadora Tonks and Remus Lupin.

Again, he put his thoughts on hold and concentrated just for a fleeting moment on how peaceful her face was.

If Zain was being honest, he didn't particularly care for either of them so it was hard to worry too much. He knew Snape was probably at number twelve at that moment, trying to save lives and fix things and generally being Dumbledore's right hand man.

Zain snapped out of his thought process once more as he watched her lips part slightly.

He sighed. For somebody who acted like he couldn't care less, Snape did a hell of a lot for the Order. But Zain wasn't losing any sleep over the fate of the Order tonight. No, he had his own problems.

'You.'

The most immediate of those problems being that the young woman who had formerly been sleeping peacefully on the bed he was facing had just woken up. She had ruffled hair and dark patches under her eyes and generally the look of a person who had been held against their will for the last forty eight hours. The expression she wore was not one of fear, but one of apoplectic rage.

Slasior Zain was going to have to explain himself.

Meanwhile, time could not have been passing slower for the couple under the cloak. Each passing second was slow, torturous and brought with it a new wave of fear.

After a good bit of searching, cursing, jeering and even a hilarious outburst of Avery's anger at Nott, the Death Eaters finally seemed to be admitting defeat. One by one, they began to disapparate. Eight loud cracks rang around the cobbled road. The noise was music to their ears.

Tonks and Lupin waited in silence, still not moving for a good few minutes after Avery, who had been the last to go, had disappeared into the night.- At first they were simply in shock. Then the relief washed and swept over them like sun on their skin, warming their entire bodies. They were alive. They were alive.

Tonks felt her face break out into an unexpected smile. Lupin breathed out heavily and laughed very quietly, very nervously. They untangled their interlocked fingers. Lupin buried his face in his hands, shaking with laughter of relief. Tonks merely leant her head backwards and stared at the stars, mouth open, the corners twitching slightly. They untangled their legs and Tonks pulled the cloak off them. It slid off easily and rapidly to the floor. The cool of the night air greeted their clammy faces and hands, calming their skin and their minds. They gulped it in, as if it was somehow purer, somehow richer than the air they had just been breathing.

Lupin was first on his feet. He staggered a little as his legs got used to having pressure on them again. He stretched out his back and then, with a very earnest expression, he held out his hand for Tonks to take. Tonks took it and he pulled her up slowly.

And then they were kissing. And it was unlike anything that had happened between them before. It was passionate, desperate, yet everything about the way their lips worked on each other's screamed relief. He wrapped his arms around her waist and he wondered for a second was she was doing. She seemed to be stumbling and shuffling around with her feet as he clung onto her, still kissing furiously.

Before he knew what was happening, Remus got that familiar feeling of being sucked into a vacuum, there was a loud pop and they were staggering backwards across his living room. As he reached a hand back to grope around for the handle to his bedroom door, he found himself laughing for what seemed like no reason. He wasn't sure why he laughed. It partly out of relief, yes, but mostly due to the irony that two people who had just spent several hours tangled together under covers would want to spend their new found freedom doing exactly the same thing.

The old clock on the wall stuck three in the morning and several things happened at once.

The owl outside the window gave a soft hoot.

Slasior Zain received a hard punch to the face.

Lord Voldemort shrieked in anger.

Sirius Black buried his troubled face into his trembling hands.

It began to rain.

And Nymphadora Tonks' lovely new dress; crumpled as it met Remus Lupin's bedroom floor.

The sun was just rising in the wet, grey sky as the cold morning began. Rays of light filtered and cut through the silence and heavy air of the kitchen in Grimmauld place.

Sirius Black was sat at the head of the dining table, his hands placed steadily upon it and his eyes staring downwards. His face was beginning to show the stubble of a man who hadn't shaved in twenty four hours. The near empty bottle of firewhiskey gave the impression that he hadn't moved for that time either. His face was pale. He was waiting.

His expression was almost completely blank, but his eyes gave him away. They were glinting slightly in the early light, almost as if the terrifying ex-convict was on the brink of tears.

His ears rang with the silence of the empty house.

The sound of no news.

The sound that told him Remus and Dora had yet to be found.

Every second of it drained a little bit more of his dwindling hope.

The door opened and Sirius stood so quickly that his chair fell to the floor with a loud bang. He didn't care. Albus Dumbledore, Severus Snape and Kingsley Shacklebolt entered the room.

'Anything?' He said immediately.

'Not yet.' Dumbledore replied, his piecing blue eyes infuriatingly calm. 'But not nothing' He added ambiguously. Kingsley sat down. Mundungus entered the room too, as did Molly Weasley, but Sirius ignored them.

Snape spoke. 'The Death Eaters were unsuccessful in all their attempts.' Sirius heard Kingsley helping himself to the remaining firewhiskey. 'The Dark Lord is furious. Wherever they are, it's not with him.'

'Are you sure?' Sirius cut back aggressively, not quite daring to believe it.

'…Yes.' Snape replied after a very deliberate long pause.

'No really, Kingsley, I'm fine' Molly turned down the firewhiskey being offered to her.

The knot in Sirius' stomach lessened ever so slightly as Arthur Weasley entered the room too, pale faced and serious. 'Arabella, Moody, Dedalus and Hestia, are all fine.' He smiled weakly 'So are Bill and Charlie.' He added in Molly's direction.

'Good.' Dumbledore answered. 'That just leaves…'

'I went to Tonks' place with that key you gave me, no sign I'm afraid.' He shot Sirius a nervous, sympathetic look. 'She's not with Moody either, which was my second guess.'

'And Remus?' Sirius asked desperately as the exhausted Arthur took a seat next to his wife.

'I didn't have a key to his place. I didn't want to go too close, just in case he took up Moody's advice on those property defence spells…' He looked at the glass being held out to him and then at his watch. 'Kingsley, it's half six in the morning.'

Sirius turned back to Dumbledore, who looked reassuring. 'Albus, he keeps a spare… I remember. In the lantern outside his door…' Dumbledore nodded and then nodded once more at Snape who left at once.

'What, no!' Sirius protested, looking as if he would rather eat flobberworm soup than have Snape enter his best friend's house without permission. Dumbledore ignored him, however.

'Ah, Kingsley, there wouldn't be any more of that going spare, would there? It's been a tremendously long night.'

The gaggle of devastatingly tired people sat down after the horrible night of fighting, hiding and searching and talked quietly as the sun slowly rose in the sky.

'WHAT-DO-YOU-THINK-YOU-ARE-DOING? YOU ABSOLUTE TROLL- YOU LITTLE…'

She was hitting and punching and kicking every inch of him she could reach. Soon he was on his back on the floor and blood was pouring out of his nose.

'OW!'

'SO YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST KIDNAP ME, IS THAT IT?-'

'Urm-' He spluttered for a couple of seconds. In all honest truth, at that moment, he found her absolutely terrifying.

'DON'T ANSWER THAT!' She shrieked. 'I DON'T CARE, JUST TELL ME WHAT THE FU-'

'Shhhh!' Zain hushed her desperately.

'DON'T YOU DARE HUSH ME-'

He was pinned beneath her on the floor. She brought back her fist and he caught it in his hand before she could hit him again. She fell silent for a second.

'I saw the letter you left for Tonks' He said calmly 'With the little secret code. You don't trust me.'

'I care about her. She's my best friend.' Her face was bright red as she backed away from him.

'You were running away.'

'Yes.'

'That wasn't the plan.'

'No.'

'Well, you can't just run off.'

'Why?' She raised her voice again 'I saw that thing. The dark mark, on your arm. That's why you didn't want to help Tonks.'

His expression changed. 'Beth, it's not what it seems like.'

This did not calm her down. She looked terrified of him and it broke his heart.

'Beth, I was trying to protect you! You and Tonks are the only ones who know what that password to Hogwarts is. The Death Eaters found out! They'd kill for it, they'd…'

'You told me you were in the Order of the Phoenix.' Her eyes were shining with tears.

'… I am.'

'What the fuck am I supposed to believe then?' She yelled, her eyes prickled with tears. He ducked as one of the books, stacked neatly on the table next to the bed was hurled at his head. There was a loud noise as she threw another.

Zain didn't think. He didn't think to calm her down, or explain all the way through or even just let her leave. He ran out of the room, magically locking the door behind him before crumpling to the floor and burying his face in his hands. He sat there for what seemed like forever, ignoring the sound of books colliding against the back of the closed door.

Slowly but surely, Tonks began to wake up. She was lying face down, her head tilting to the side and facing a wall she didn't recognise. She shut her eyes again. She was warm and comfortable and sleepy but soon her memories came dripping slowly back. One by one the events of the previous night hit her in a wonderful explosion of reminiscence. She grinned and bit her lip.

There was a soft breathing sound coming from next to her. And she felt something pulling at her hair. Gently and occasionally she got small a tugging sensation. It irritated her at first, until her groggy mind truly grasped the situation she was in.

She was in Remus' bed. He was lying next to her, waiting patiently for her to wake while occupying himself by picking up odd locks of her hair and twirling them round his fingers or rubbing them against his thumb before letting them fall against the pillow. She shut her eyes again. It was as close to perfect as life had ever been.

She turned around under the covers to face him and stretched out her tired legs. He looked into her eyes and smiled.

'Good morning.'

'Good morning.'

There was a low rumble as Meg jumped onto the bed, purring loudly. She began to try and get Remus' attention. Tonks laughed and looked at the embarrassed Remus who was stroking the cat's reddish brown fur.

'I didn't know you had a cat' She raised her eyebrow and bit her lip in amusement.

'Are you jealous I have another woman in my life?' He teased, tickling under Meg's chin.

Tonks looked at the cat who was purring even louder than before 'That bitch.'

Remus laughed and then leant forwards to kiss her. They paused millimetres apart for a second before she met the difference. She sunk into his warmth as his gentle fingertips grazed the length of her back. She laughed quietly against his lips and he smiled against hers. His fingers were just exploring the back of her neck when…

'MERLIN'S F-' He jerked away.

'What is it…' She saw the terrified, frozen look on his face as he stared over her shoulder. Tonks turned round to follow his gaze.

'Shit!' She grabbed the sheets and covered herself with them, pulling them off Remus.

For a single second, all three people in the room looked at each other.

'Oh my god…'

Snape staggered backwards out of the room, one hand clapped over his face as Lupin desperately tried to pull some of the sheets back.

'No, wait!'

Tonks, who's hair and face now made her look like an overripe tomato, had shot beneath the sheets and curled up into a ball, eye's shut, listening furiously.

Lupin grabbed a pair of trousers off the floor and hopped towards the door trying to simultaneously run after Snape and put them on. He fell flat on his face and sprung up again.

'Wait, it's not what it…' He stopped. What on earth was he supposed to say? It was exactly what it looked like. 'I didn't know… why are you in my…?'

Snape half shouted as he strode towards the door 'Dumbledore sent me to check you were still alive, Lupin. Believe me, that was all I wanted to see.'

'…. And everyone else?'

'They're fine.' He strode out of the door.

'Wait! Severus, please, you won't say anyth-'

He stopped for a very brief moment, his back still to Remus. 'You have nothing to worry about, Lupin. This isn't something I'll be wanting to reminisce about too soon. There's a very large possibility I'll have my own memory wiped after this anyway.'

'Thank-' But he couldn't finish his sentence. Snape had disapparated, leaving him stood in his doorway, one leg in his trousers and looking very disturbed.

The silence was broken with a stifled call.

'At least they didn't send him to check on you last night.'

Remus snorted with laughter. He heard her join in with a wonderful, muffled laugh from the other room as she melted into hysterics, still hiding under the covers.

The sound was enough to lessen the led weight that felt like it had just been dropped into his stomach. The sun had finished rising now and Remus' small house was suddenly very full of light.

He didn't say it or even know it himself yet really, but that was the moment he fell in love with Nymphadora Tonks.

It was also the moment he decided to keep his extra key safely indoors.

So what do you think? Snape, Remus and Dora are probably all scared for life now... but it was worth it for my own childish amusement! Please leave a review letting me know your thoughts and hopefully it wont be as many decades before the next chapter is up. Thank you! xxxx