Lupin and Tonks are not property of mine! They just like visiting my head every once and a while ;)
"I'm coming to stay with you tonight," she said randomly at dinner the night of the full moon.
"No, absolutely not," Remus replied.
"Remus I've made up my mind, I'm sick of only seeing you in the morning weak and sick, and you're on Wolfsbane." Dora stated, thinking back to yesterday...
"Sweetheart!" Dora called as she opened the door to their home. She sighed, Remus was probably reading in their bedroom.
"Remus? Sweetheart?" She wandered into the bedroom to check on him. The bed was empty.
"Remus?" Dora called, the panic was apparent in her voice. She found him in the basement.
"Remus? What are you doing?" Dora, being the Auror she was, quickly took in the surrounding details of the room. Remus looked rumpled, sitting against the wall and four empty Firewhiskey bottles were on his left side. The Daily Prophet was lying to his right.
"Looks like I'm famous, Tonks," Remus said pushing The Daily Prophet toward her with a slightly trembling hand. Dora was worried, Remus didn't usually drink. Only two other times had she seen him drunk, once on the year anniversary of Sirius' death and the other on the night of Dumbledore's funeral, both times he had called her Tonks, both times she'd been with him all night and the next day when he had been hungover. Dora looked down at The Daily Prophet looking for what would be bothering him, and quickly found it, letting out a gasp of surprise and anger:
Monster Among Us?
Former Hogwarts Professor Remus J. Lupin has been revealed as the only werewolf presiding outside the prominent pack in the UK. Lupin was appointed to Hogwarts by the late Headmaster Albus Dumbledore soon after the late, now cleared, suspected murderer Sirius Black escaped from Azkaban. Lupin was a student at Hogwarts six years after becoming a werewolf.
Minister Scrimgeour was asked for a comment and he replied, "Lupin is presumably safe, but we are keeping a close eye on him." The question is, does Lupin loose control every full moon and is he slowly transforming every decent wizard family's children in the UK?
(Continued on p. A6)
"Oh Remus, I'm so sorry," Dora said shaking her head and crawling closer to sit next to him and grabbing his hand. "Hey you know what? Ever since all the stuff they reported about Harry and Dumbledore half the wizarding world doesn't believe The Daily Prophet any more." Remus sighed and looked around for another bottle.
"Oh I think not Professor Moony," Dora said, zapping the full and empty bottles away with a flick of her wand.
"Tonks...please I just..." Remus said in such a pleading voice that Dora almost zapped the full bottles back, but exercised her Auror trained will power. On a whim, Dora kissed him, her lips molded against his and their tongues connected. When Dora pulled back she saw a different look in Remus' eyes as if she'd woken him from a trance.
"Hi Dora," He sighed, looking ashamed.
"Next time," She said helping him up, "Next time don't drown your sorrows, talk to me all right?" They apparated to the kitchen where, Dora helped him sit down at the table and told him sit and she stood to warm up his dinner.
He put his head in his hands, "I messed up, I shouldn't have let the Prophet get to me." Dora set down a plate of food in front of him and pulled a chair up close to him, and kissed him again.
"Stop putting yourself down, its okay to make a mistake every once in a while. Now drink your Wolfsbane," She told him, kissing his cheek...
Remus put down his goblet with a look of defeat. This would be his first transformation since they had gotten married.
"Fine, but don't come right away, I'd...rather you don't...see me transform...please?"
"Oh, all right but is it that bad? Harry's seen you transform and he thinks nothing of it."
Remus shuddered, "Yes, well, he has more prominent memories of that night, unless something worse happens, which I doubt it will, you could be scarred mentally and physically."
He got up and pushed his chair back, wrapping his arms around his wife, "If I ever hurt you I would never forgive myself."
She could hear the tears in his voice, and around to kiss him, "I know, and I love you."
Remus apparated into their basement, the only way anything could get in or out, because of the charms he had placed on it.
"I'll see you soon," Dora said cheerfully. Remus smiled weakly, there was a crack, and he was gone. Moonrise came, and then exactly ten minutes later, Dora apparated into the attic. Nothing's attacked me, that must be a good sign, she thought.
"Remus?" She called, and then she saw him, huddled in the corner. He was beautiful and frightening at the same time. "Can I touch you?" He hesitated but nodded. She walked forward and put her hand on his head.
He sighed, "Does that make it worse?" Remus shook his head and looked up at her with pleading eyes.
Dora smiled and kissed his head, "Do you ever get any sleep?" He shook his head again.
"Well, why don't you try? I'll be here all night."
Remus sighed again and rested his head on his paws.
Shortly before moonset Remus woke, "What? Do you not want me to see you transform?" Dora asked after he looked at her with pleading eyes again. He nodded and Dora walked to the other side of the room, facing away from him and getting out a bottle of healing potion and a blanket. Soon she heard him stand up, heard a cry of pain, some dreadful cracking sounds, and a thump.
"Dora," he whispered feebly. She turned around and ran to him, wrapping a blanket around him.
"Do you need the potion? Is it bad? Did I make it worse? Do you want to go home or wait a little while?" Remus sunk against her chest and took a deep, shaky breath. "Remus?" She asked worriedly.
"No, no, I'm okay, its always this bad right after the transformation."
"Well, do you need the potion? I have it right here..."
He sighed and shook his head, "The potion only works on injuries, it won't help my weakness." His wife nodded and was silent for a few minutes.
"Are you sure I didn't make it worse? It was...interesting."
Remus groaned, "Did I scare you? I'll be okay if you..."
"Remus John Lupin, don't you dare! I love you, and now that I've seen you, all of you, I love you even more and you are the one I want to be with."
Remus took a sharp breath which started her, "Oh, did I hurt you? I'm sorry." She said this a kissed his head lightly.
"No, no..." He shifted his position and leaned against Dora again, grabbing her hand, "I was just thinking about how it felt when you touched me last night. The second you laid you hand on my back, I felt a warm sensation that lessened the pain, then you kissed me and for a few hours I felt no pain, and sleep came." Remus lifted his head to kiss her.
After a few minutes Dora asked, "Are you in pain now?" The fact that he didn't answer worried her enough.
"Do you want me to apparate us back or do you feel well enough to do it yourself?" Remus nodding and Dora moved to stand up.
When she was standing she look down at Remus, "Ready?" He nodded weakly and stood up, then his knees locked, his head started to spin and he collapsed. Dora caught him and held him while the weakness took over and shudders overpowered his body.
When the shudders lessened and all that could be heard was Dora's calm breathing and Remus' sharp, pained intakes, "Okay, how about I just apparate to our bed?" Dora said, breaking the silence. When she felt Remus nod, she apparated to their bed, hoping that there would be a bucket near the bed.
The bucket was there, and Dora was glad, because almost immediately after they apparated, Remus keeled over, into the bucket. Dora held him close, as the shudders of weakness yet again racked his body. When they stopped, and Remus was lying down, Dora spoke up, "Are you hungry? Do you want to sleep, a book, or to talk?"
Remus winced as he turned on his side, and Dora laid down to face him. "Are you sure I didn't scare you?" Remus asked again weakly.
Dora shook her head and kissed his hair lightly. "Why would you think that?"
"I never imagined...that I would meet some like you...who loved me as much as I loved them...who would love me as a whole...it just seems to good to be true..." As Remus spoke his eyes filled with tears. When the tears spilled over Dora reached out and wiped the tears from his cheeks.
"Why do you put yourself down so much? You're not a monster it's just a little issue you have," Dora said winking.
Remus laughed, and winced, "You, Harry, and James all seem to think the same thing, James even asked me to change him once or twice." He smiled at the memory.
It was then when Dora got up the courage to ask something she'd been wanting to know for a while, "Remus, what would you do, before you met me, on the full moon I mean and the morning after."
He sighed and replied quickly, "Every once in a great while I could afford enough to make a meager Wolfsbane which would help a little. Normally I would go to some field or an abandoned home to transform so others would be safe. In the mornings the pain was sometimes so unbearable that I was numb with it, other times it was better. I would wait until night and then I would apparate home. You make it so much better, just knowing that when I transform back, you'll be there within minutes to stay with me lessens the pain slightly, and last night when you were there, at one point the pain was gone. Its just so amazing, the power of love. There truly is no greater thing."