Hey guys! Thanks for the feedback. Sorry for any mistakes - I don't have a beta, so I'm relying solely on my spell and grammar checkers. Any volunteers for beta-ing would be greatly appreciated :p

Crap, Lupin thought when he saw Dumbledore in his fireplace. Part of him had been expecting this ever since Charlie had confirmed that he and Tonks were seeing each other. And he currently had her in his bedroom, wearing not much.

Despite himself, he felt guilty, and knew his thoughts were at the forefront of his brain. Dumbledore was a talented Legilimens, as Lupin had discovered in his time at Hogwarts when he had been reluctant to share his thoughts and feelings regarding to lycanthropy. Lupin squirmed and felt like an eleven-year-old again. "I understand you have a certain metamophmagus over," Dumbledore said dryly, reading Lupin's mind easily – his thoughts were coming off him strongly, he practically had them written on his face. "Nymphodora, you may as well come out, save me having to repeat myself," he called through the small apartment.

A few minutes later, Tonks emerged from the bedroom, looking flushed and harried. "I was curious why you turned down my generous offer," Dumbledore said calmly. "I'm aware how difficult it is for you to find work."

Tonks looked at Lupin in confusion. "He offered you a job?" she asked. "At Hogwarts?" Lupin nodded slightly. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want to be that close to you," he said. He could feel the heat of Dumbledore's gaze on him, taking in their shared chemistry and he felt he sounded like a horny teenager. But it had been his main reason for turning down the Hogwarts job – as much as he could have done with a stable position with a boss who didn't judge him for being a werewolf, he didn't trust himself to be so close to Tonks and could easily picture things going haywire – the opportunity to steal kisses in the shadows, the temptation to call her into his office under any excuse. No, it was definitely for the best that he hadn't taken the position.

"I'm beginning to see why young Charlie Weasley is so annoyed," Dumbledore said mildly, his comment mostly directed at Tonks. "To be honest, I never felt you were all that attracted to him. Now I know why."

"I never meant to get involved with her," Lupin insisted.

"I already figured that out," Dumbledore said, and Lupin got the impression he'd been practicing Legilimency on him just then, extracting his thoughts with such subtlety that he hadn't even felt it. "The question now is – how are you going to proceed?"

"You can't make us stop seeing each other," Tonks spoke up, grabbing Lupin's hand possessively and looking defiantly.

Dumbledore laughed good-naturedly at that. "My dear, I learnt long ago that it was futile trying to convince a Black to part with their beliefs," he said. Lupin himself resisted the urge to laugh at the certain truth of that. Andromeda and Tonks might be very different to Andromeda's sisters, but just as Andromeda and Tonks were determined to be with the men they loved, convention and respectability be damned, so Narcissa and Bellatrix determinedly held onto their beliefs of maintaining pure blood. "I was hoping to appeal to your better nature," Dumbledore said, addressing Lupin.

Lupin took a deep breath. If there was anyone he could give Tonks up for, it would be Dumbledore. The man had not only admitted him into Hogwarts, he had done everything he could do accommodate his lycanthropy. Dumbledore had been the first to treat Lupin like a human being since he had been bitten, and if he were asking for anything else, Lupin would have been prepared to part with it. But not this. "I'm sorry, I can't," he said. "I love her."

Tonks gasped and squeezed his hand. He had often called her 'love' and 'my love' but never said he loved her. "You realise what you'll be exposing her to if you continue to see her?" he asked.

"Of course I realise. I tried to keep my distance. She kept – she was rather insistent," he said, realising how lame it sounded to blame a seventeen-year-old for a thirty-year-old being unable to turned her down. "Anything else – but I won't give her up."

Dumbledore nodded. "I thought you would say that. How, then, do you plan on dealing with Andromeda and Ted? They won't be happy," he said.

"They can't stop us," Lupin said.

"I think you'll find there's a vast difference between what they can do legally and what they're prepared to do off the record," Dumbledore said sagely. The power of protective parents was mighty – you only had to look at Harry Potter for proof. But there was clearly no moving them. "I can see you're determined to go through with this," he said. "Very well, then, I will leave you to your own devices. Nymphodora, I'd appreciate it if you stopped using the Hufflepuff fireplace to transport here. Professor Sprout had expressed her concern over your absence. I bid you good-day," he said, waving goodbye to the two lovers before disappearing in the fireplace.

Tonks turned to Lupin. "What do you do now?" she fretted.

"It'll be OK."

"How?" she asked.

"I don't know," he admitted. "But I'm not going to give you up." He sighed fretfully and began pacing the room. "If you were smart, you would leave me," he said.

"You won't give me up but you're telling me to give you up?" she asked. "No deal. Can you – please – stop it," she begged when he wouldn't stop pacing."I could really do with being held right now."

"Of course. Sorry," he said distractedly. He crossed the room and led her to the shabby couch, taking her in his arms. "It'll be alright," he crooned in her ear. "I love you." But she could hear it in his voice that wasn't sure if putting her through this was such a good idea.

"This was definitely a good idea," Lupin said. Andromeda and Ted were away for the week, and Tonks had suggested – actually, more like insisted – that they spend a few days at her place rather than in his small, shabbily furnished apartment. It was far more spacious and luxurious than his place. "I'm glad you talked me into it." He stretched out luxuriously on Tonks's bed. "What is this?" he asked.

"Hippogriff feather."

"Sounds pricey."

She grinned at him. "Why d'you think I suggested you come here? It's much nicer than yours." She cuddled up to him, draping an arm across his chest. "My grand-dad's will was such that it couldn't be broken by mum's betrayal – " she stressed the word, intending for it to sound ironic, " – and then Bellatrix forfeited her share when she was convicted so mum and Narcissa inherited half each. I heard Narcissa and Lucius went mental over it, they were hoping for the lot."

"So that means if we ever get married and have kids, it flows on to them," Lupin said, picturing the look on Narcissa Malfoy's face should the Black family money filter down in that fashion.

"Are you serious?" Tonks asked.

"About having kids... theoretically, I guess. I've looked into it. There's no set answer – I mean, in regards to my kids inheriting the werewolf thing – we're more inclined to breed by biting – but from what I can gather, it mostly depends on the time of conception. The closer it is to the middle of the month, the better."

Tonks's eyes went wide; she had never thought about falling pregnant. "I never thought – " she started to say.

"It's OK," he said. "I did. I worked out a potion that works for me years ago. Actually, Lily did. She was a dab hand with potions. I didn't like relying on women to be responsible for contraceptive charms and they tend to be mistrustful of condoms."

"Of what?"

"They're a muggle contraceptive for men. I liked them but some people are really distrustful of anything muggle. So now women can use their charms to their hearts content and I'll stick with my potion."

"I had no idea," she said. "I should have asked earlier."

"Love, it's fine. I've been dealing with it for a long time. I prefer being responsible for my own contraception. There's far more potential to go wrong with a pregnancy with me and I'd rather be in control of it myself."

She trailed random patterns on his chest. "People really misunderstand you," she said, meaning werewolves in general. "You're the most responsible person I know."

He laughed ruefully at that. "Actually, no, they don't. Werewolves in general are pretty vicious. They guy who bit me believed it was his goal in life to create an army. He took things something to the extreme but in general they don't give a damn about who gets hurt in the process of satiating their desires." He grinned and reached for a nipple. "Kinda like me close to a full moon."

She smiled at him coyly. She liked both sides of Lupin – the rough, animal side that he was close to a full moon, and the softer, more gentle side he was the further away it got from the full moon. She reached out for his penis and started stroking it until he was well and truly hard. He straddled her and she grabbed his hips, guiding him into her, shuddering with pleasure when he was inside her. "Remus," she cried as he began pumping her. She wrapped her legs tightly around his waist and clawed his back – he was no more disinclined towards roughness than she was. "Ahhh..."

At that point, Ted and Andromeda came home early to hear moaning coming from their daughter's room. They rushed in, thinking she was being tortured – it was an ongoing fear that someone might try to take revenge for Andromeda so-called betrayal out on Tonks – to find her going at it with their so-called friend, that werewolf Remus Lupin. The first thought for both of them was that he had forced himself on her, but within a few seconds it began clear from the way she was crying out his name that it was fully consensual. And from the way she had her legs wrapped around his waist and was digging her fingers into his back – not to mention the healing scratches that, given a werewolf's built-in healing abilities, could only be a day or two old – this wasn't the first time. Nymphodora Tonks had well and truly been deflowered by Remus Lupin.

Neither of them noticed Ted and Andromeda, they were so wrapped up in their pleasure. Lupin released a drawn-out groan, thrust hard into her and obviously climaxed. The thought of him spilling himself inside her daughter made Andromeda shudder with disgust, and it was enough to attract both their attentions. With a gasp of shock, Lupin scrambled off her, grabbing the comforter as he went to cover their nudity. "Out!" he gasped to Tonks's parents. He scrambled for his want, hoping they wouldn't perform a counter-spell before he could force them out of the room, but they obeyed his command and exited the room, shutting the door behind them with a wave of Ted's wand.

"Shit," Lupin said, fumbling for his clothes. "I thought you said they weren't back until the weekend. Shit," he repeated. This was not the way he wanted them to find out about him and Tonks. It felt sneaky, deceitful. Not to mention dirty. He was thirty years old, his days of having parents walk in on him having sex should be long over. But then, that was what he got for dating a teenager.

She was crying. "They said they wouldn't be back!" she sobbed. "Do you think they suspected something?"

"They sure as hell do now," he said sarcastically. His tone only served to make Tonks cry harder. "Love, I'm sorry. This just really isn't the way I wanted them to find out." He'd had fantasies of them coming clean to be received by their approval which he had known was unlikely to happen, but was still a pleasant daydream. He leaned in to kiss her. "It'll be OK," he said, lying through his teeth, because he knew he could never make it be OK, having been caught out under these circumstances. "We'll get through it." He kissed her again, long and deep, because something told her he wouldn't be kissing her much anymore. Ted might understand what it was like to love a woman who was far above you, but Andromeda never would.

He waited for her to dress, took her hand and led her out of the room. Ted and Andromeda were waiting outside the room. Ted lunged at her and struck her hard across the cheek. "You slut!" he spat at her. "And you," he said, addressing Lupin –

Lupin already had his wand out, unable to just stand there and watch the woman he loved be struck violently. "You hurt her again and you'll answer to me," he growled.

"You touch her again and you'll answer to me," Ted retorted, although he was clearly rattled by a furious Lupin. He had always known that his anger and aggression flared up around the full moon, but he had never actually witnessed it until now. A thought occurred to him. "Merlin's beard, you were exposing her to that side of you!" he yelled at him.

"He's not dangerous, dad!" Tonks cried.

"Shut up!" Ted yelled at her. "You," he addressed Lupin, pointing his wand at his chest. "Get out. I'll kill you if I see you here again."

"I'll leave if I have your word you won't hurt her," Lupin said quietly.

"You're not in a position to bargain," Andromeda said with a haughty sneer and for a moment Lupin was struck by how much she looked like Bellatrix.

"I'm not leaving until I have your word," Lupin repeated. Especially when she was looking so much like her sister; he had no intention of leaving Tonks with the woman who looked so much like Bellatrix LeStrange, at least not without her word that she wouldn't hurt Tonks.

Andromeda glowered at Lupin as she realised that he had no intention of leaving without her word. "Fine," she said.

"I'll know if you do," he growled.

"I told you, you have my word," she said, offended that he didn't believe her and a little frightened of him right now. She had no doubt that he was capable of extracting revenge for any hurts inflicted on her daughter, if only out of his animal's sense of entitlement that he had taken her virginity so now she was her possession. "Now get... out."

But he didn't go immediately. He turned to Tonks and said softly, "You can come to me for anything, OK?" She nodded. "I'm going, I'm going," he said when Andromeda waved her wand at him menacingly. With a long backwards glance at Tonks, he reluctantly departed from the house.

"Tonks! Love, you look awful," Lupin growled. He should have known that they wouldn't keep their word. "Come, sit down. What happened?"

He led her to the couch, his arm wrapped around her waist; she looked ready to collapse. Tearfully, she recounted how Andromeda had inflicted a series of nasty gashes across her face, arms and back in a fit of fury. "I should have known," Lupin muttered angrily. Andromeda might have been frightened of him yesterday, when he had been there, but as soon as he had left she would have felt safer in her own home. He ran his wand over her face, to little avail. "I can't fix these, love," he said. They looked suspiciously like the slow-healing wounds that were impervious to magic and had to heal like a regular muggle wound. Bellatrix had excelled at them and it wouldn't surprise Lupin in the slightest that there had been a lot of practice going on in the Black household. "You should go to Pomfrey. Or Snape."

"And tell them what? That my mum attacked me after she caught me in bed with my werewolf boyfriend who's almost twice my age?" she asked bitterly.

He kissed her forehead in one of the spots that wasn't gashed or bruised. Sadly he realised that his relationship with her couldn't continue. Andromeda's reaction had been extreme, but he didn't blame her for being angry, and if he insisted on continuing his relationship with Tonks, he knew there was a good change her parents would force her to choose between them and him. And Tonks was sentimental enough to choose him, and he knew he couldn't let her do that. "Come into the kitchen, I'll make you a hot chocolate," he said.

She allowed him to lead her into the kitchen and sank into one of the chairs. "Thanks for taking me," she said.

"I'm hardly going to throw you out," he said, feeling guilty because that was exactly what he was planning on doing.

"I can't believe she did this."

"She's angry, love. She wanted something better for you than me."

"She likes you well enough."

"As a friend, yes. As a potential son-in-law, not so much. I don't blame her, love. She shouldn't have reacted that way but I don't blame her for wanting something better than me."

"I'm seventeen, I can see who I want," she insisted, accepting the hot chocolate. She took a long drink of it. "This is good," she said distractedly. "I feel so empty."

"You can be seventy and you'll still be her little girl," Lupin said diplomatically. "Hell, it took me a while to stop seeing you as a little girl."

"Why are you defending her?" Tonks asked suspiciously.

"She's your mum. And she's a good mum, most of the time at least. She certainly beats either of your aunts."

She suddenly realised what he was doing, be so defending of her mother, as the effects of the strong sedative potion he'd mixed in with her hot chocolate. "You bastard..." she spat. "You can't make me go back to her – you can't..."

He stopped her from sliding off her chair as she dropped off and carried her back to the couch. "Forgive me, love," he whispered, cradling her in his arms. "This is for the best." He held her in his arms for a few seconds, savouring the feel of her, vowing to remember it because it was the last he would have of her.

He contacted Ted and Andromeda via the Floo network. "I've got her, I've given her a sedative," he said. Andromeda started to protest at him drugging her daughter, and his patience snapped. "Oh, shut up," he said. "You're lucky I didn't encourage her to report you. She would have run off if she'd known what I was trying to do. You can come and get her, but so help me, if you hurt her again I'll return the favour. And don't think I won't find out. It took me less than a day to find out this time."

Ted and Andromeda arrived a few minutes later. "She's on the couch," Lupin said.

"Thankyou," Andromeda said stiffly. Then, "I'm sorry. I overreacted last night."

"Damn straight you did. She's the sweetest girl who fell in love with someone she shouldn't have. I tried to make her work on her relationship with Charlie. She only wanted me."

"And you wanted her?" she asked dully.

"Yeah, I did. I still do," he admitted flatly. "But I'm leaving. She'll get over me once I'm not around."

"You're leaving?" Andromeda echoed.

"Yeah. She'll keep trying to get in touch with me if I don't and she deserves better than me. It's best for everyone if I drop off the radar for a few years."

Andromeda let the news sink in and it occurred to her that maybe Lupin really did love her daughter – enough that he realised in order to do the right thing by her in the long-term he had to hurt her in the short-term. But in that case, why did he give into her come-ons in the first place? She was just a kid who didn't know better, whereas he was an adult who didn't have that excuse. Especially from an adult who knew how dangerous he could be. "Thankyou," she said. "We won't forget this."

"It's only what I should have done in the first place," he said. "Can I – can I just have a moment with her?" he asked. Andromeda looked like she was going to refuse him, then decided it was best to grant a last request to someone who could turn her daughter against her, and she nodded slightly. He walked over to the couch and kneeled next to her. "Love," he whispered soft enough that Andromeda and Ted couldn't here, although hopefully she could hear through the sedative he had given her. "I'm sorry I had to do that. But it's for the best and I think you'll realise that soon enough. Find someone who's young and whole, he'll make you much happier than I ever could. I love you." And he leaned in to kiss her forehead.

Abruptly he got up. "You can take her," he said stiffly, and walked to the bedroom, shutting it behind him and sealing it for good measure, sealing himself off from the person he had loved most in the world and who he had to let go of for her own good.