Playing Cupid
The tone of her voice was different to how it had been previously in the kitchen and he guessed that she had either spoken to Remus, and not received the sort of response from him that she wanted to receive, or she hadn't spoken to him yet.
He peered around the corner of the door, not wanting to make his presence obvious, and found that Remus wasn't in the room. It was just Tonks and Molly discussing something. He walked into the room so as not to appear too suspicious and they stopped talking as soon as they realised he was there.
"I'd better go and make sure the kitchen is still intact after my boys were in there," Molly said, briefly smiling at Tonks and saying something to her, which he didn't quite catch, before leaving the room.
"Wotcher Severus," Tonks said, a hint of sadness in her voice. Her hair was no longer such a vibrant shade of pink and he knew there was something upsetting her.
"Miss Tonks…" he said, watching her, unsure of what he should say. He never had been particularly good with words when they had to be nice and comforting ones. He was fine with insulting people and twisting words against them but when it came to being reassuring, he just lost the ability to speak.
Tonks glanced up at him and he could tell that she had been crying. Normally, he would have just looked right back at her as coldly as possible but he didn't even look directly at her. He already knew she liked Remus and he had decided to make it his task to get them together.
"He does like you… He just doesn't know how to show it," he said, unsure of whether he should be telling her how Remus felt but guessing he wasn't going to tell her himself so deciding to step in and try and help the process. After all, it could get him in Minerva's good books.
"He doesn't like me, Severus. If he did he would have told me by now," she replied, looking up at him again with a tear in her eye. Her hair had turned to a mouse brown colour now and he knew that she was really upset about Remus' lack of interest in her in her eyes.
"Miss Tonks, he has done nothing but talk about you all evening while you were talking to Kingsley… He thinks you're in love with Kingsley, that's why he hasn't said anything," he said quietly, watching Tonks with his black eyes showing as little emotion as they ever did. As Tonks looked at him she could see that in some strange, twisted way, he did care. She didn't know why but at that moment she didn't want to know.
"He thinks I like Kingsley?!" she asked, a tone of clear astonishment in her voice. Severus nodded slowly and Tonks laughed. "He's got that a little wrong, then! Why on Earth would he think that?"
Severus almost laughed but managed to restrain himself "He saw you and Kingsley together this evening and jumped to conclusions, I believe," Severus replied, remembering that Remus hadn't stopped to listen to the conversation between the two of them, he had just seen them hugging and left.
Tonks looked quite surprised that Remus had seen them together that night and said "How did he know where we were? We went upstairs so that he wouldn't follow…"
"I think he just wanted to spend more time with you but then saw you and Kingsley…" he trailed off as she realised what he meant and nodded.
"I should go and find him and explain. Thanks, Severus," she said, her hair changing colour slightly as she left the room in search of Remus.
Severus briefly smiled to himself before sitting down in a chair again and drinking some more of his firewhisky. He wondered whether Minerva would actually like him for helping Remus and Tonks to get together but his thoughts were interrupted almost as soon as they began by Remus entering the room and sitting down heavily in the chair opposite Severus.
He heard Remus muttering something about Tonks and Kingsley as he downed his glass of butterbeer and Severus sighed, realising that Tonks obviously hadn't spoken to Remus yet.
"She doesn't love Kingsley, you know," Severus said, his cold eyes glaring at Remus for interrupting his thoughts of Minerva once again.
"Then why were they all over each other upstairs earlier?" Remus spat at Severus, unable to stop the glare from being returned straight back to him with the harshness of his voice.
"Why don't you ask me yourself rather than asking everyone else about me?" a voice said from the shadows of the doorway behind Remus. He immediately turned around and saw Tonks standing there, a hurt look in her eyes.
"So why were you all over Kingsley earlier then?" he asked her, sounding quite upset about it. He couldn't help the way he felt about her but he wanted her to tell him if she was going to be with someone else. After all, he thought he was one of her closest friends and didn't expect to have to find out who she was dating quite like that.
"I wasn't all over him, Remus. It was just a hug," she glanced at Severus and then back to Remus, "I think we should continue this conversation somewhere a little more private."
Remus glanced over at Severus, then back to Tonks and nodded. He stood up and followed her out of the room in silence, leaving Severus to only hope they managed to work things out between them.