-Chapter 11, The Morning After.

Tonks woke before her alarm. The sun was only just creeping through her curtains. She closed her eyes and tried to remember every detail of the night before. A big grin spread across her face as she remembered just how Remus lips had brushed aginst her own. A warmness sprung up inside her, that had nothing to do with the warm weather.

She leaped out of bed, turning the alarm off before it had a chance to sound. She gathered herself a bowl of sugary cereal. As she sat down on the chair closest to the window, hoping for a breeze, the silly grin was still plastered on her face. Gaston swooped in through the window, giving a puzzled look at Tonks and the fact that she was awake. Tonks let out a little giggle and passed him an owl treat.

Tonks happy mood didn't leave her all morning. She was early to work, and had managed not to trip, stumble, or knock anything over all morning. This had to be a record. Tonks was sure she hadn't felt this giddy about a boy since 5th year.

"Oi, Tonks," came Steve's voice over the cubical wall, "you there?"

"Sure, am Steve." Tonks replied, smiling like an idiot.

Steve hooked one arm over the dividing wall, and looked down at Tonks. "Just haven't heard anything break all morning. What's the go? You taking some sort of performance potion or somethink?"

"Ha ha, Steve. I'm just having a good day. There doesn't have to be any reason."

"Come on. Is it a steadier, or… it's a focus-in potion in'nt it. Ya know that they're addictive?"

"I'm not taking focus-in, Steve. I'm allergic."

"Oh, really?" asked Steve, "What happens?"

"I start to morph into anything that I'm focusing on. So if I'm here doing paperwork, my hair would turn white with black words. Or my nose would shape into a quill. Stuff like that."

"Cool. Well now I know what I'm gonna slip into your tea when you're not looking." Steve ducked out of sight with a wicked little laugh.

"You're an idiot!" Tonks heard him laugh harder.

Even Steve's teasing hadn't taken the silly grin of Tonks face. She put her head down and continued to work through her paperwork. Her paperwork was becoming very thin, and she hoped that soon they would put her back on to a team working an open case. It seemed that Scrimgeour, was still annoyed at Tonks for mouthing off at the meeting that had happened after the Tri-Wizard death.

"There you are." Tonks turned around and saw her friend Trish walking towards her. "I swear I get lost when ever I come into this office."

Trish pulled an empty chair up to Tonks desk. "So you wanted to meet for lunch?"

Tonks put her quill down. "Yeah, I got news."

Trish perked up. "News, hey. Come on spill. It's 'bout that chap isn't it?"

"It might be."

"Ha. It's not a potion." Steve re-appeared over the wall. "It's a guy!"

"Shut up, Steve." Tonks had turned a vivid shade of red, "Come on Trish, let's go to lunch."

"Oh come on Tonks, tell us the details." Steve called out to Tonks and Trish as they walked away.

Tonks turned around, grabbing a spear bit of parchment of a empty desk, she balled it up and threw it at Steve. He ducked down and the parchment ball went flying to nowhere.

"Tonks! This is a work place not a school yard." Senior Auror, Dawlish, yelled at her.

"Ah, sorry, sir." Tonks said and quickened her steps towards the elevators.

"So," Trish said, looking at Tonks from the other side of the Burger King table, "Tell me, what happened? I'm waiting."

Tonks took a slurp of her soft drink before answering, "We kissed."

Trish's face lit up in a grin. "And then?"

"And then… well … nothing really."

"Nothing!?!"

"Err… yeah. He smiled at me and then mumbled something. Then we sort of both said that we had to get going. And that was it."

Trish sat pointing a limp chip at Tonks. "So you didn't go for coffee after, or a walk, or back to his house or anything?"

Tonks took a bite of her burger, it tasted hollow and she struggled to swallow it. She had been on such a high after kissing Remus that she hadn't noticed that he had been so desperate to get away from her right after. Was she a terrible kisser? Did he not like her that way? Did he think it was a mistake to kiss her? Maybe he wasn't single, had he been hiding a girlfriend somewhere?

"Do you think he has a girlfriend already and that's why he took off like that?" Tonks asked.

"What? Where did that come from? I don't know the guy… how can I tell?"

"You've made me realise that he sort of took off after. Why would he do that?"

"Hey girl, no. You really like this guy I can tell. And I reckon that he's crazy about you too. So I'm sure he's just a shy guy and freaked himself out by kissing."

"Yeah I guess. Good kisser too."

Trish laughed at Tonks. Tonks smiled back at her friend. She was sure that Trish was right about Remus being shy, but her mood was slightly less bouncy for the rest of the day. For the life of her she couldn't get the idea out of her head that all was not going to go smoothly for her and Remus.

"Ah, Sirius, thought you'd be in here. Kingsley! Hello." Remus said as he crept through the kitchen door at number 12, making sure not to disturb the paintings in the hall.

"See Kingsley, some people can get in here with out ringing the bell." Sirius mocked Kingsley.

"Well I didn't want to be rude and just walk in." rebuked Kingsley.

"Hmm, good point, it is rather rude to just walk in," Sirius said in a fake pensive voice. "Really Remus, you should know better." He joked.

Kingsley let out his deep booming laugh, Remus on the other had hardly smiled at all. As he moved to sit down, he saw, out of the corner of his eye, Sirius and Kingsley exchange looks.

"Like I said, I just came to drop off the report for Dumbledore." Kingsley said as, he stood up to leave. "I'm already late for work so I better get moving. Good day."

Remus waved goodbye and Sirius got up to lock the front door behind Kingsley.

"What's wrong, Moony?" Sirius asked the moment he re-entered the room.

"Err.. It's just…," Remus looked about the room, "Where is Harry and the Weasley's?"

"They're all cleaning up stairs. Now come tell me, you look like you've just found out how the world ends?"

Remus dragged his hands over his face, bringing them together to steeple in front of his mouth. "I kissed her, last night."

"Tonks? You kissed her? What happened? Did she not… err… reciprocate?"

"Worse. She did. She kissed me back."

"Remus, help me out here my friend, young Miss Tonks, with whom you are smitten with, kisses you back, and you're upset about this. Why?"

Remus shook his head. "I'm a werewolf, or have you forgotten? She had better to love a dream."

"She's better to love - what's that?" Sirius slammed his hand on the table.

"It's Shakespeare."

Sirius let a long breath as he ran his hands through his hair. "I don't care who said it first. What I do care about is you happiness." Sirius was trying very hard to keep his voice calm, "Now here you have a wonderful young lady, she's smart, pretty, funny, fighting for the right side, and what do you do? You hate the fact that you both like each other. Merlin, she even knows you're a werewolf; thinks it's cool, even."

"She is wonderful," Remus said in a low distant voice, "that's just why I can't ruin her life with the problems of mine."

"How are you going to ruin it, she's falling for you?"

"What if I bite her? What if… I'm too old for her. She could find someone better."

"No she couldn't, I'd even venture to say that you could do better. You know someone who doesn't fall over ten times a day."

"Look, it's not going to happen. I just want to know how I tell her nothing is going to happen?" Remus looked pleadingly at his friend.

Sirius shook his head, "I'm not gonna help you there. I wont help you stuff this up."

Remus stood up, "Fine. I'll leave then."

Remus walked out of the room slamming the door so hard that he was sure the paintings would start to yell at any moment. Luckily they didn't, and Remus was able to leave the house without having to answer to his friend.

By the time that Tonks was walking up the front steeps of number 12, she had worked herself into a frantic state. She was hoping against hope that Remus would be there for dinner as well, with a sneaky smile for her and an offer of ice-cream after dinner. So with her stomach in knots of anxiety, Tonks gave a small knock at the front door.

It was Sirius that answered. "Tonks. Hi, how are you? Have you spoken to Remus today?"

Tonks noticed that he was whispering even more then he needed to. "No. Why? He's talked to you hasn't he?"

Tonks tried to smile, but Sirius concerned face made it hard. She was now sure that Remus taking off so quickly the night before, had been more meaningful then she had first thought. Her heart sank.

Sirius motioned her inside. Tonks slip through the gap into the hallway. "Is he here?"

Sirius shook his head, as he locked the door. "He came over this morning to talk to me."

"What did he say?" Then a thought struck Tonks, "What did you say?"

"Shhh." Sirius looked up the stairwell as if making sure there was no one there. "He told me what happened. He's freaked out. He likes you a lot, but he's scared that he's too old, and that he's too dangerous. He doesn't understand how you could love him. I told him that he was a twat. He didn't really like that, so he left in a bad mood."

Tonks was surprised to find that tears where welling up in her eyes. "But I do like him. I don't care about those things. They make him who he is."

Sirius gave her a reassuring grin, "I know. Your like your mum. You can't give up on him. That's what he'll try to make you do. But don't let him. He likes you, he needs this, he needs you."

Tonks nodded, and manager to get out a weak, "O.K."

A/N: AHHH! Sorry it's been so long, but the silly season took over, and the next thing I know it's New Years, and I've visited both sides of the family, meet relatives I haven't seen in ten years, been dragged along on a family trip, and caught a bad cold. Hope this chapter is O.K. let me know what you think.