Taking advantage of the fact that Molly had not yet gotten up by some miracle, he conjured up a cup of hot, steaming coffee for himself and sat at the table to drink it, glad he was alone in the house for the first time in weeks. He savored the taste of the coffee, which was sweet. He looked around the dark room - it was only about five-thirty in the morning and still quite dark outside, and there were no lights on in the kitchen. It was a calm, cool atmosphere, just the way he liked it.
The coffee was good until the taste turned bitter in his mouth when he let his thoughts circle back to Tonks for the hundredth time since last night when he couldn't sleep, and the picture of her sleeping face entered his mind. He couldn't stand to drink the coffee now as he was revisited by his regretful feelings. Lately, a lot of strange emotions had been tapping him on the shoulder to visit.
First and foremost, he was so angry at himself for pushing aside his persistent doubts and marrying Tonks; those doubts had come back into play to torture him in his dreams. He'd asked himself over and over again since the day after their wedding: How could he have been so stupid to marry her? Unable to locate the reason he'd originally proposed in his memory, his burning anger thrashed around inside of him, wanting to break out, but eventually it relinquished, and misery took over.
His uncontrollable misery, the emotion he'd shown most, reminded him of the everlasting regret inside of him. He was sorry for ever marrying Tonks, because as they were to remain faithful to each other as husband and wife, till death did they part, and he was at fault for anything he could possibly do as a werewolf to harm her. It was getting harder and harder for him to get Wolfsbane Potion each month - the only person he'd known to make it was Severes Snape, who was a traitor to the Order. Werewolves were not meant to marry and have children; Remus was constantly afraid of the possible mistake of conceiving a child in her.
He was even a little worried about the war against Voldemort. He was not one to fret about anything, but more so brave alongside Mad-Eye. But there was just so much that Voldemort could easily do, such as taking over the Ministry of Magic, which was his second biggest fear at the moment. He also slightly apprehensive about the coming evening, when they'd be carrying out their plan to move Harry, which, as he agreed with Hermione, Harry wouldn't like.
But the most confusing overall was those feelings of unconditional love he still had for Tonks, and knew he would forever have; they had been ingrained deep within his brain all along. Even though he was so regretful about their marriage, he still knew that deep down inside, he loved her, and that it would always be that way. He still wished he hadn't decided to propose, however, but it was a sealed deal now. There was no turning back.
"Who's there?" yelled Molly's shrill, sudden voice in the darkness, shaking Remus out of his deep time of thought and startling him so badly that he spilled his coffee on his knee. The feeling of the white-hot liquid emancipated an incredible pain.
"Shit! Fucking - Molly, it's all right, it's me, Remus -"
Molly turned on the kitchen lights to reveal Remus quickly performing a healing charm on his knee. When he finished this, he looked up at Molly to find her staring at him like an angry schoolteacher. He immediately felt embarrassed for his choice of language.
"You'd better watch your mouth; I don't like that kind of language in my house," she scolded, walking past him to the stove to start up breakfast.
"Er…sorry," said Remus. "I was just startled, that's all." He felt idiotic. Never would he have normally been so scared.
"I can see that, dear," said Molly. "Why up so early? Couldn't sleep?"
Remus made a very barely acknowledgeable grunt and said, "I don't know. Early rest, I s'pose…" He heard Molly say something else, but didn't pay any mind to it as he let his mind swivel back to his revolving string of thoughts, but right as he did this, he noticed Tonks walk into the kitchen.
"Waking up early only to find that I missed you getting dressed isn't much fun," she said quietly to him as she took the empty seat next to him, pausing only to kiss his cheek in morning greetings.
He tried to smile a little. "Didn't mean to make you angry," he said, aiming to sound playful, but she didn't hear him. Instead, she was talking to Molly about what would be on the breakfast table that morning.
At that moment an owl swooped up to the window nearest Remus with that morning's issue of the Daily Prophet in its beak. Remus gave it a couple of Knuts and took the paper from its beak, and shooed it off hastily.
"What's in the Prophet this morning?" asked Molly from the stove.
"Two Muggles from England killed last night at midnight…" said Remus, scanning the front page. "Nothing much, really. Rita Skeeter is writing a book on Dumbledore's life." He scoffed.
"Skeeter, that inaccurate bitch," growled Tonks, saying the last word in a whisper so as Molly wouldn't hear, but she did anyway.
"What was that?" she shrieked, wheeling around to face Tonks, who'd turned around as well.
"Nothing," answered Tonks innocently, but she couldn't stop her hair changing to a very strange orange color.
"I know you're lying," said Molly, "I can tell by your Metamorphosing. As I told Remus earlier, I will not tolerate that sort of language in this house."
"She's like our mother while we're here," Tonks complained in a low voice to Remus.
"I know," he agreed in the same low, quiet tone.
"I heard that!" Molly said loudly.
Hagrid's gigantic motorcycle's engine purred rather loudly next to Remus, Tonks, and the others as they all met up to have a quick meeting before leaving for Surrey to retrieve Harry. It was dark out; most stars had found their way to the inky black skies and winked down at Remus as he looked up at them, playing games with his mind as Mad-Eye spoke, reviewing the plan with all of them.
"So we've got our volunteers, right?" said Mad-Eye, and those who were volunteering nodded. "Right then, let's get going."
Most of them mounted broomsticks, but a couple got on the two thestrals that were there, and Hagrid jumped excitedly into his enormous bike, which had once been Sirius's. Disillusionment Charms were placed over them to keep them disguised in the night. Tonks's hands on Remus's waist almost felt a bit strange because of the way she squeezed, but he faltered to notice it as Mad-Eye spoke again.
"Everybody stay on the lookout and keep closely packed," he shouted over the deathly hum of the motorcycle. "Be prepared for anything that happens. Let's go!"
"Don't miss your Portkey!" screamed Molly from behind them.
And they were off, speeding into the night air. The wind rippling Remus's prematurely graying hair was an indescribable event for him, personally, for he was happy beyond nature to get out of the Burrow for a couple hours. The journey to Little Whinging seemed too short-lived, he realized, as they landed gently on the sidewalk on Privet Drive. The Disillusionment Charms were wearing off as they made their way to number four.
"Hold tight, George!" Remus was saying as he again mounted his broomstick with one of Harry's six look-alikes. The feeling of the slightly big hands of Harry Potter on his waist was more bizarre than anything, but he shook off the feeling as they kicked off into the air, both their wands drawn.
Biting down on his lip so hard he was afraid it'd start bleeding, Remus sped as fast as his broomstick would go into the night again and found that they were surrounded by Death Eaters, as he was sure was happening to everyone else.
"Don't hold back!" he managed to scream at the top of his lungs before casting as many jinxes and spells as he knew at the dark, cloaked figures as they raced along among the stars. Hearing George yell a flurry of curses right behind him gave Remus an assuring feeling as his nerves were taken over by excitement.
As they were rocketing along the London skyline, a Death Eater managed to catch up to them and get extraordinarily close, and as Remus glanced over, he saw that this Death Eater's hood was not on and tried not to let the element of surprise take over him as he saw Severes Snape, wearing a wicked look on his face.
It happened quickly: Remus tried to speed up but his broomstick was at its max - their destination was only a little farther away; he saw Snape lift his wand and in the midst of the wind creating a ruckus in his ears, the curses being yelled by George, who was oblivious to the fact that Snape was right alongside them, Snape bellowed, "SECTUMSEMPRA!"
At the very last second, Remus swerved to avoid being hit, and he'd thought that they'd managed to narrowly avoid the curse, but George's cry of pain told him otherwise. As they reached a hundred yards of the protective charm that'd been cast over the area, the Death Eaters were knocked back, and Remus flew as fast as he could to where he knew their Portkey was. He landed on the ground in a mess, trying hard to keep his balance as he ran off the broomstick, supporting George.
"Grab the Portkey," he uttered to himself, "where the bloody hell is it -"
He stopped as he noticed George's face was covered in blood, and he could see in the dim lighting of the field they were in that George's ear had been severed off by Snape's curse. With big eyes, he asked, "George, are you all right? George!"
He'd gone unconscious, and as Remus saw something blue glowing a couple feet away, he seized it - something that felt like a watch - and forced George's fingers to hold it as well, and he was jerked off into space, going back to the Burrow.
There you have it. Let me know what you think of the little bit of action I put in there - I went through DH to see if I could find out what Remus and George's Portkey had been, and where they were supposed to get it, so I kind of had to wing it.