Chapter Two

1987

"Nymphodora, how are those metamophmagus skills of yours coming along?"

Nymphodora glared at him. "I've told you not to call me that, Remus," she complained.

Lupin laughed. She had tolerated being called Nymphodora until she had started at Hogwarts, and then, after merciless teasing, had insisted on being addressed by her last name. "Fine, Tonks," he said good-naturedly, thinking that she was every bit as wilful a fourteen-year-old as she had been an eight-year-old. "How are those metamophmagus skills of yours coming along?""

"Excellent," Tonks said pleasedly. "I can look like almost anyone the same size as me. Course, that means I can't pretend to be Dumbledore," she added sadly, and Lupin laughed again. Tonks was a constant source of amusement to him, with her boisterous personality and love of fun. There was no doubt she would get up to a bit of mischief impersonating her Headmaster until she got caught.

Lupin looked at her critically. She was tall for her age, which was good. "I want to go and see Harry, and having a metamophmagus with me will be handy."

Tonks's eyes widened with delight. "Really? How did you find out where he is?" she asked.

"Dumbledore let it slip. He's staying with his aunt and uncle in Little Whinging. There's a kindergarten there that he's enrolled in. I requested a tour saying we were prospective parents. I need someone to pretend to be my wife and I'd rather it be someone whose description people won't recognise should my memory charm fail."

Tonks caught her breath at the mention of wife. She realised Lupin was only asking because, as an metamophmagus, she could transform herself into a woman that no-one would recognise in case they got caught – Lupin clearly wasn't supposed to be checking up on Harry – but still, she liked the idea.

There was something about Lupin that fascinated her. His werewolf status made him something on an outcast, and the loss of his three best friends was something he had never gotten over. And yet he was so interesting and knowledgeable and never treated her like a kid the way most of her parent's friends did. And he was so much more interesting than the boys she went to school with – even Charlie Weasley, who was a year older than her but still far lacking in Lupin's maturity and wisdom.

She knew she shouldn't have the feelings she should towards him. He was way older than her. Hell, he was the same age as James Potter – or, rather, had been – and Charlie had a brother who would be the same age as Harry, so didn't that put him in the category of 'friends of the parents of her schoolfriends'? Sure, he was only thirteen years older than her, hardly old enough to be her father, but thinking about the age difference between them made her feel uncomfortable. Why couldn't he been even five years younger? Why did he have to be so easy to talk to and comfortable to be around and be so much older than her?

"What do you want me to do?" she asked him.

Tonks, with some research, looked every bit the respectable young muggle mother in her mid-twenties, dressed in a simple white cotton dress and white sandals. "Is this really what muggles wear?" she asked. "It's so uncomfortable. My dad never wore anything like this."

"Your dad's a man, this is women's attire," Lupin said. God, but Tonks was never so enchanting when demonstrating that she was ignorant of anything but the loving, secure world she had grown up in. She didn't resemble her natural physical self in the slightest, but that only seemed to emphasize the fact that she was Tonks. And in the body of a woman his own age, it was hard to remember that she was only thirteen. In fact, this body seemed to suit her better, because despite her impish, mischievous streak, she was a very mature, wise adolescent who, she had told him more than once, was easily bored by kids her own age.

"Whatever. It's too tight." She wriggled uncomfortably as if to free herself of the clinched waist, and Lupin really wished she wouldn't do that, because it showed off her cleavage – the cleavage of a woman in her mid-twenties.

"Nymphodora, stop it," Lupin said casually, and Tonks stopped immediately. He had discovered years ago that the quickest way to stop her when she acted up was to call her by her Christian name, a name she linked with her childhood, and therefor thought of as a childish name. "Thankyou."

Tonks smiled. She loved the way Lupin didn't take her to task when she acted a little childish the way her parents did.

They went into the kindergarten that Harry was enrolled in and were greeted by the teacher, Miss Sarah Croft. "So good to meet you," she said, taking in their carefully-constructed affluence. "And where is young...?"

"Ryan," Lupin offered. "Ryan Thomas." Same first initial as his, same last as hers. "And he's with my sister." An outright lie; they were both only children.

Sarah Croft showed them around the kindergarten, emphasising all the good things the institution offered. Lupin charmed Sarah into letting them have a wander around the place to see how the children interacted, and they zoned straight in on Harry. It was easy enough to find him; he looked like a younger version of James, with a lighteningbolt scar cutting across his forehead. Lupin felt Tonks shiver next to him, and he knew she was thinking about how he had gotten that scar.

They introduced themselves to Harry and chatted with him briefly – not too long, or Sarah might get suspicious, and while lupin planned on using a memory charm on her, he didn't want her asking too many questions. Besides, they didn't need to ask questions. It was clear Harry was unhappy, and just as clear that his cousin of the same age, Dudley, was a vicious bully who had taken to tormenting other children when he had been just smart enough to realise that tormenting Harry in the presence of two adults was not a good idea.

"I wish there was something we could do about it," Tonks said afterwards when he took her out for milkshakes in muggle London. She had changed back to her original state, and he was aware of the looks they were getting – both because of her and because it was natural for people to wonder what someone like her was doing with someone like him.

"We can't," Lupin said. "Dumbledore must know what he's doing. Maybe this is a bad idea. I've just upset you."

She smiled brightly, determined not to let Lupin know just how much it had saddened her to see the kind of life Harry Potter had when he was right – there was nothing they could do about it. "You didn't upset me," she said. "I'm really glad you took me with you."

"Told you, I needed someone who could change their appearance," he said casually. She smiled to herself at that. Be that as it may, he wouldn't have invited her if he couldn't stand her presence, would he have?

They talked for hours. Tonks loved being around Lupin, he didn't treat her like a kid the way her parents and their friends did, and he didn't act like a kid the way the people she went to school with did. If he was just a few years younger...

She found he was good at giving advice on people and relationships, which surprised her, because she figured he didn't have much experience in that department. "I thought you were all, like, not-getting-involved," she said.

"I am now – although not entirely by choice," Lupin admitted. "My, uh, state isn't something I care to advertise to everyone, and I don't think it's fair not to let a girl – a woman – know something like that. It's a catch-22 situation."

"But you've been with women before," she prompted, dying of curiosity.

Lupin laughed, shocked at her blatant curiosity – but all the same, feeling a little indulgent towards her. "I'm ashamed to say that in my younger days, I took shameless advantage of the fact a lot of women would do a lot of things to get close to James and Sirius. All I can say in my defence is that Peter was just as bad as me – maybe worse."

Tonks released a raucous laugh. "Remus!" she said, shocked. "I can't believe you'd take your best mates leftovers."

"They weren't leftovers," Lupin said defensively. "They were more like... cast-offs. And I said I was ashamed of it now. It's not something I would do today, even if –" he broke off as he was just about to say even if James and Sirius were still around. He shrugged. "It seems very irresponsible for someone in my position. I was horny and reckless enough not to care back then, but I'm older and wiser now. I certainly wouldn't like someone like me then trying to get someone like you."

Tonks felt flushed at this, and concealed it by throwing her head back and changing appearance. She couldn't imagine Lupin being as reckless and irresponsible as he reckoned he was. Certainly, if he was a little younger or she was a little older, she could totally picture herself going out with him – lycanthropy be damned.

He took Tonks home with an iron-clad story about how he'd taken her around muggle London – which was kind of the truth, they had seen muggle London. "Thanks," Andromeda said when Tonks went to her room and Lupin gave her a hand with dinner. "She loves having you around, you know. She's so mature for her age and gets so frustrated with the kids her age."

"Give it a year or two, suddenly the boys she's complaining about will take on a whole new level."

Andromeda made a face. "That's kind of what I'm worried about. She could be the most sullen brat and she'd still be the most desirable girl in school. Was it the same when you were at Hogwarts?"

"What, that a metamophmagus was the ideal woman because she could be everything you wanted?" Lupin asked. Andromeda nodded. "Yep," he admitted. "Sorry," he added, realising that maybe having it confirmed that the boys would soon be chasing after Tonks for no other reason than the fact she could be every fantasy was not what Andromeda wanted to hear.

"You're not telling me anything i don't already know, Remus. I just hope she learns to tell false promises from real and meets someone who appreciates her for who she is and not what image she can project. Someone like Ted – or you."

Lupin laughed at that. "I don't count, Dromeda," he said. "I'm practically a eunuch." There was no equivalent in the magical world to someone who chose to practice life of abstinence for personal convictions, so it was handy to spend a lot of time with a family that was familiar with muggle terms. Which was somewhat ironic, considering in years gone by Andromeda had been one of the famed Black family and wouldn't have wasted the energy to spit on Lupin in the street.

Andromeda flashed Lupin a warm smile. "Don't be so hard on yourself, Remus," she said. "There's plenty of women out there who won't care that you're a werewolf. You just have to bide your time."

Says you, Lupin thought silently. He didn't hold it against Andromeda, but he was well aware of the fact that there was a massive chasm between accepting a werewolf as a friend, and lowering your guard enough to be interested in one romantically. And that was without taking into account the vast majority of the population who thought werewolves should be hunted to extinction the way some muggle nations thought that way about rabbits.