AN:Well here you go everyone chapter 4 is here. I've got to Thank you for Everyone who has reviewed or added my story to your alerts. It really does make me want to write faster when I know that people want to read my story. So keep it up, let me know what you think of the next Chapter... and I'm already working on the next Chapter.

Chapter 4: Should have Stuck with the Tesco's Dinner

Over the next several days Tonks made her way over to number 12 for dinner numerous times. On most occasions the party was made up of the Weasleys, Sirius, herself and Remus Lupin, (moon cycle permitting). The addition of Ron's school friend Hermione Granger, made Tonks feel as if she had steeped back in time and was a student at Hogwarts again. The feeling was only enhanced when one of the Weasley or Hermione would call Lupin, Professor.

"Why do you they call you that?" Tonks had asked, after Ginny had once again called Remus, Professor Lupin.

Hermione answered before Lupin could, "Professor Lupin was our Defence against Dark Arts teacher in our third year. Best one we ever had, but he only stayed the year."

Tonks smiled over at Remus, the smallest hit of a blush creeping into his cheeks, she politely looked away.

Sirius shook his head, "If only Snape hadn't let it slip…. I think you could have at least lasted another year, before it came out some other way."

"No, way." said George

"Everybody knows…" said Fred

"The job's cursed." finished George

Tonks gave a sharp look back at Sirius, "Wait, Snape did what, with the who-what-now?"

Remus, foreseeing an old argument, gave a deep sigh, "Now look, there is no reason for you to -"

"Snape!" Sirius began to talk over Remus as if he wasn't there, "The slimeball that he is let slip to some of the Slytherin students that Remus here, is a werewolf. Next thing you know the whole bloody school knows."

Remus looked directly at Tonks "Nymph-"

"It's Tonks, Remus." Tonks said with the air of a mother telling off her misbehaving child.

The small sort of blush rose again in Remus cheeks and Tonks wondered if she had been overly forceful in her manner. "Sorry, Tonks, as I was saying. You shouldn't let Sirius fill your mind with any rubbish that he will tell you about Severus Snape."

Tonks rolled her eyes and snorted, something that she instantly realised was un- attractive and not the most polite thing. She heard her mother's voice telling her that that is not the way a real lady behaves. The pure blood socialite had never totally disappeared out of her mother. "First, Snape was my Potions teacher all through Hogwarts, and my mind is made up, he's a git. And a world class one at that, but I am also convinced he's on board with Dumbledore.

"Second: why should it matter who knows?"

Lupin looked hard at Tonks. She watched as his eyebrows moved closer together and his eyes moved ever so slightly from left to right watching her eyes. The creases in his brow oddly disfigured by an old scar, his mouth muttered soundlessly.

Finally Remus spoke very softly, "No parent wants to send there child to a school where one of the teachers turns into a life treating monster once a month. And I tend to agree with them."

The sad smile, that Tonks had seen the night of her first Order meeting, moved across Remus face again. It would be a smile that Tonks would learn to hate one day, but for now it pulled at her heart making her see just how isolated this man felt.

"Right" Molly's voice pulled Tonks from her thoughts. She had hardly noticed that the rest of the room had been caught up in her conversation with Remus, it was only now that Molly began to clear the plates, that other conversations started to fill the air again. Molly kept talking over the accumulating noise, "I've got pie for puddings tonight. Who's going to help me serve it up?"

Tonks now seeing her exit out of her awkward situation, jumped to her feet. "I will." Unfortunately she had somehow become entangled in her chair in her rush to help. First she bumped into the table sending cascades of butterbeer, rose wine, and water over the table from various cups and bottles. Then, backing away from the mess on the table that now began to trickle to the floor, Tonks backed right into the pies, sending them crashing to the floor. Molly dashed forward in a futile attempt to save the pies, a loud moan of disappointment came from Ron and Charlie, a squeal escaped Hermione's lips, Ginny, Bill and Sirius all laughed openly and loudly, while Remus and Author tried hide their smiles.

"Don't worry mum will help clean it up." Fred and George yelled out, the two of them sending bits of pie flying about the room.

Tonks pulled herself up from the crumpled mess she had made on the floor, a new tear in her jeans and a look of horror on her face.

Molly gave Tonks a swift steely look before rounding on her twin boys, "Oi! You two! Stop that right now or you wont be seeing those wands again till you're at Hogwarts and I owl them too you! I said stop it!!…."

Hermione, Ginny, and Ron practically run from the room, Sirius not far behind them muttering about feeding something called Buckbek, while Bill and Charlie both turned to their father and started a forced conversation which had them all looking mysteriously in the opposite direction to the now, all out arguement happening in the room. Remus stood up, said a thank you for the dinner, that would never have been heard and then grabbed Tonks hand and led her out of the house.

With a small surprise, in amongst all the chaos, Tonks felt a slight tightness in her stomach. Tonks tried franticly, in the short distance between the kitchen and the front door to work out where such a feeling came from. In the end deciding it was the fact that Remus was saving her from her self made chaos and nothing more. Pushing from her mind the idea that it had something to do with the way his hair fell across his face, or the way his amber eyes lit up he really laughed.

Remus Lupin had never had a steady girlfriend. In all his 35 years he had not once kept a girlfriend for longer the a month. It wasn't that he had never found a girl that he liked enough. No, there had been a few girls that he had day dreamed about for months, some of them had even returned his feelings. He had watched these girls slowly slip from his reach and inevitably from his life. Reminding himself all the time that these girls would have a safer and much happier life without him. Remus had long ago given up on the idea that he would find such a life as that of the girls he let slip away.

Yet despite his inexperience with the ladies, he had been around long enough to know the signs that he was developing what one would call a high school crush, on Tonks. It was in his relief that Bill had a beautiful girlfriend, that he had finally admitted to himself that the said crush existed. Because if Bill had a girlfriend, then there was no chance that Tonks and Bill would hit it off, as Sirius had suggested.

When Tonks had once again seen Remus' condition as a mere technicality, his heart had leaped for joy. The idea that any girl he fancied could think that he was just as normal as the next man, that she could think nothing of his condition, made him feel light and free, if only for a moment. And it was only for a moment, because he soon had told her why the parents of Hogwarts students wouldn't want him as a teacher. He had watched as her face fell and she began to understand just how dangerous he was.

Remus' dark reflective mood had not stayed around for long, as he watched Tonks leap up and become entangled in her chair. The room soon feel into chaos, the Weasley twins, now of age, helping only to enhance the chaos when they started to use their newly legal magic. Remus tried not to laugh when he saw the look of horror on Tonks face. She was glued to the spot, looking terrified of Molly.

An instinct to get far away from Molly when she was in such a sate, kicked in. And without thinking Remus had walked out of the room grabbing Tonks hand and lead her to the front door. His rush to leave the softness of Tonks hand, the tightness that came across his chest, and the way his hand instantly started to sweat, did not go unnoticed by Remus.

It was a relief to feel the cool summer night air on his face. He dropped Tonks hand as if it had been burning him, not daring to linger holding it.

Tonks seemed to relax once outside a shy smile creeping across her face.

"You didn't hurt yourself did you?" Remus could hardly keep the concern from his voice.

Tonks looked down at her knee where the new rip in her jeans, now had a dark red stain to accompany it. She bent down and pulled open the hole, to reveal a small graze that had already stopped bleeding, with a broad smile Tonks said, "I think we may need to amputate."

They both laughed.

"Sorry for just dragging you out like that."

"No, it's fine, thank-you for saving me like that. Molly is never going to let me near the kitchen again. Sorry I ruined the pie."

"That's alright. I have been getting used to having a pudding, but I'm sure I'll live without one."

"Well," said Tonks, "we could go over to Leicester Square, and get some Häagen Daz."

Remus' mouth went dry. Tonks wanted to go somewhere with him, just the two of them. He knew that she was not interested in him other then as a friend. How could she be, he was a werewolf and a good 10 years older then her, what would a young, amazing girl, who had so much going for her, ever see in him. What harm then, would it do to go for ice-cream with her, if all she wanted was friendship? "That sounds like a great idea."

And then with two soft cracks they were on there way.