"So what's the plan Harry?" said George.
"There isn't one," said Harry, still distorted by the sudden appearance of all these people, unable to take everything in while his scar was still burning so fiercely.
"Just going to make it up as we go along, are we? My favorite kind," said Fred.
The above quote could be fittingly applied to my current writing situation. Here begins Part III of FHNWFL. I had never planned this far ahead, so from here on out-its going to be me writing this as it just comes. Part I and II were slightly more planned out, or outlined. This, much less so.
But I'm back! It's taken ages, I know. I'm sorry. The amount of work I've had to do these past few months has been something of a living nightmare. I've written NOTHING since I last posted here several months ago- not even my other non-fanfiction stories.
But here we go! :D
Ps. I went back and read some of the old chapters of this story to get back in the mood…what the HELL is with the numerous spelling errors? It's slightly embarrassing and it annoys me but I'm too lazy to go and fix it.
Pps. Oh and one more thing- YOU GUYS ROCK! So hard. All the loving reviews made me both sheepish and happy. Thanks for being so patient.
Part III
"PART"
Chapter Twenty six-Upon the brink of disaster
By the marble white tomb there was a man.
He wasn't entirely alone. There were many others wandering about nearby, conversing quietly in small groups- but he was standing by himself in front of the new tomb. The bright sunlight sparkling off of it was making it look as white as bleached bone.
Remus Lupin standing in front of Dumbledore's final resting place could only numbly stare at what lay before him. It still seemed so incomprehensible that the great man who had given so much was finally gone. The one wizard powerful enough to lead them in the war against Voldemort …He closed his eyes…war was cruel and death even crueler in the random choosing of its victims.
He drew a deep breath to try and steady himself when he felt a familiar hand touch his arm, right where his old scar from Fenrir Greyback was. He opened his eyes, but did not turn around.
"Let's go." said a soft voice.
"Where?"
"Painting." she said. "Let's paint the town red."
And even through his threadbare robes he could feel the warm touch of her hand. That gentle, pliant hand he had held through Dumbledore's funeral offering him strength and silent support… there was something to live for this time…
He stared at the tomb for just a few seconds longer and then turned around. A young pink haired woman was standing behind him- a promise in her eyes.
"Alright." he said.
It seemed strange to be going out to a restaurant after just coming back from a funeral earlier that day, but stranger still to be with somebody. Remus had often left funerals alone and rightfully morose, but this new change was oddly comforting. With Tonks whom he knew was also still mourning the loss of Dumbledore, it felt that there was someone to share the pain with and yet also take much needed comfort with. It had only been a few days since the Battle of the Tower but Remus had taken unashamed consolidation that he and Tonks were finally, gloriously together at last.
After an impromptu (and rather lengthy) Order meeting that set about trying to organize the tasks to be accomplished in the days to come, Remus and Tonks were at a small muggle restaurant in London. As evening pressed on the city, the large window by their private booth was slowly darkening. The room was lit up by two rivaling sources of brightness- the overhead light hanging from above their table, and Tonks's blinding pink hair.
They had ordered drinks when they came in, and when Remus had ordered tea, Tonks had let out such a loud snort, half the people in the room looked over in alarm. At her persistent nagging, wheedling, and well-versed cajoling he finally had agreed to let Tonks order him a real drink.
"Oh look! They put an umbrella in it!" said Tonks gleefully after the waitress set down the drinks and headed off. She reached across the table and snatched at it.
"You collect paper umbrellas?"
"No, I just think their cool." She said happily as she tucked it behind her ear.
Remus smiled but his features slowly slid into a frown as he looked down at the drink before him.
"So this is a Pina Colada."
It looked harmless enough. The pineapple slice on the side of the rim and the ice bobbing on the surface made it look perfectly refreshing.
But appearances were deceiving. He reached for the straw and slowly stirred it.
"You'll like it." said Tonks.
"And if I don't?"
"You will."
Remus stared shrewdly at her for a moment before finally picking up the drink and taking a small sip. The rum was quite strong but it actually wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Of course he didn't say this to Tonks because doing so would be admitting defeat.
Instead he grimaced and Tonks burst out laughing.
"It's not that bad." he admitted.
Tonks's slim fingers were now edging across the table to steal the slice of pineapple that was on the rim of his drink.
"You're first cocktail, Professor?"
"Actually Sirius made me one once, shortly after we had graduated from school…it was at a party."
"What was in it?"
"I don't want to know." Remus said closing his eyes to fight back the wave of nausea as he remembered the foul concoction.
Tonks laughed.
He opened one eye. "You think it was funny?" he asked pretending to be offended. "I was ruthlessly force-fed some dangerous and most likely illegal brew and you find it amusing?"
"I find it amusing that you have so many bizarre stories that you would never guess about you, judging from appearances alone."
"Thank you Tonks." he remarked dryly.
She smiled and then pushed her own bright red drink towards him. "Try my drink!"
"No thank you, I'm working on this one."
"Have you ever had a margarita? Come'on!"
"No."
"What're you afraid of? Getting the lurgy?"
"I'd have thought that kissing you as much as I have these past few days would've given me lurgy rather than sharing the same drink."
Tonks looked smug at this but her voice was mockingly stern. "Are you suggesting I'm carrying the lurgy?"
"A woman as beautiful as you? Impossible."
"Very flattering."
"I do try."
Tonks laughed and Remus gave her a small smile in return and used his straw again to try and stir his drink around a bit.
Tonks was now staring at the menu lying off to the side. "Let's order a brownie or something."
"Chocolate. Excellent." said Remus, perking up at once.
"Who said it was going to be chocolate?"
He frowned. "Most brownies are chocolate."
"Some are vanilla flavoured."
The silence that followed stood as a sort of invisible challenge. Remus and Tonks's eyes locked and neither of them moved or blinked for several tense seconds. Finally, Remus spoke first.
"Are we going to have an argument over what flavoured brownie to order then, Tonks?"
"Yes." she chuckled, the tense moment gone as quickly as it had come. "And it'll end with me throwing my drink in your face and run screaming from the place, leaving you to stare about the stunned room before throwing down some money and running off after me."
"How very dramatic."
"There are times when one has to be dramatic." She grinned and then took along sip of her margarita before leaning back, looking rather thoughtful.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about the Order."
"What of it?"
She shrugged. "Well Mad-Eye mentioned to me after the meeting about how we're going to have to start thinking of a plan to move Harry before his seventeenth birthday, and I was wondering how we're going to go about doing it."
Mad-Eye had unofficially and unanimously become the head of the Order following Dumbledore's death. In Remus's opinion there was no better choice and in the dark times ahead, Moody would be the perfect, fearless leader needed to lead the Order. "No ideas on your part?"
"I'm afraid that no creative bursts are coming from me today. The best idea I've come up with so far is to end the war and get rid of Voldemort before Harry turns seventeen but I don't think that's a likely possibility at this point."
"We'll get by." said Remus quietly. But he didn't believe it. Not in the slightest.
Nor apparently did Tonks judging from the skeptical look on her face.
Remus took another sip of his drink. "How do you think we should go about getting him?"
"You're asking me?"
"You were the one that came up with the idea to get him out of his Uncle's house two years ago."
Tonks looked pleased at this but her answer was modest, "Anybody could have thought of that Remus- it just so happened that I voiced it first."
"But it worked." he said warmly.
"And if it hadn't it would have been my arse on the way out." She said. "I remember one grumpy old man was against it from the start."
"The 'grumpy old man' appreciates you Tonks."
"I'm talking about Mad-Eye, Remus- not you."
"I was talking about Mad-Eye as well. He thinks very highly of you."
"He should. Because he knows that I am the one with the connections." Tonks said mischievously. "He knows that one day he's going to look for a nice decent woman to settle down with and I am the only one who can arrange a meeting with a suitable mate-to-be. He'd never try to find a woman on his own."
"He might." said Remus, but without much conviction.
Tonks let out an obnoxious snort of laughter. "Sure if he wants to settle down with Mrs. Figg or any of those other mothball smelling crones, he could. But with me I can provide more options-"
"I don't think Mad-Eye is really on planning on settling down, Tonks-"
"Well he should."
There was a pause between them as Tonks smiled and looked thoughtfully out of the darkened window.
"Tonks…"
"Hm?"
"Nothing." Remus said quietly. "I was just thinking of your name again."
She flared up instantly. "If you so much as THINK of calling me the infernal N-name—!"
"I'm not." He said hastily. "I know you hate it but Tonks just doesn't seem…"
"What?" she asked in a slightly worried tone. "What's wrong with it?"
He smiled. "Nothing is wrong with it. But there's not many nicknames that come from Tonks, you know."
"You're thinking of giving me a nickname?" she said deviously. "Like what sort of a nickname?"
"Well a creative variation of 'Tonks' is not easy to come by."
"Maybe an anagram?"
"A what?"
"Remember?" grinned Tonks. "Christmas Eve at Grimmauld Place- we all gave each other anagrammed names."
He raised his eyebrows in surprise that she had remembered. "That's right…" For a minute he thought back on that day where an inebriated Sirius had had a shining moment of drunken brilliance- "But I'm not calling you 'Mad to Horny Spank'."
She shrugged, her grin in danger of falling off her face. "I wouldn't complain."
He pushed some of his hair that had fallen into his eyes off to the side- "Nympha-"
Tonks kicked him from under the table.
"Ouch, alright- fine…" he winced. "Would you be upset if I called you Dora?"
Her mouth opened angrily in protest but then she paused and closed her mouth looking thoughtful. "You've called me that before…"
Remus stared at her in surprise. "I have?"
She nodded, still looking lost in thought. "At Christmas…"
He thought back on the rest of that wild night at Grimmauld Place…the drinking…the uncontrollable laughter…kissing Tonks…
"I don't remember." he said honestly.
"This most recent Christmas…" she said. "The one where you came to visit me and then I verbally attacked you along with some poorly made snowballs."
"Ah…" Remus said awkwardly, scratching the back of his neck. "Yes."
He remembered calling her Dora before she snapped at him, reminding him that it was Tonks- "I called you Dora several times. Once inside because you had already told me off for calling you Nymphadora and then several more times while out in the snow and you were yelling at me."
A faint blush had spread over her cheeks.
"You had ever right too." Remus conceded.
"I might've gotten abit out of line. You got really angry."
He smiled. "Yes."
She looked pained. "Because I called you a coward."
"Yes."
She frowned and looked slightly confused at his calm almost amused reaction from him. "You're not upset about it now though."
"No I'm not. It's in the past…to be remembered but defiantly left behind."
"Wisely put." she smirked.
He smiled but then asked, "So what about 'Dora'? It seems to be the most natural option."
She pretended to mentally debate it for a little while and then a large smile spread across her heart shaped face. "I'll take it." she said.
"Good." he said. "Because I think it's quite endearing."
She tossed back her head loftily and ended up bumping the back of her head on the wall behind her.
"Ow- graceful." She winced, rubbing the back of her pink haired head with a pained expression.
"Take a sip of your drink to take away the pain." Remus suggested jokingly.
A dark eyebrow rose sharply, "Professor, are you trying to get me drunk?"
"Yes." said Remus, his tone suggesting anything but.
"I can hold my drink quite well you know."
"I'm sure."
"Looks like you'll have to find some other way to get me all helpless and unresisting then." she laughed.
He saw her hand on the table and boldly reached for it before lifting her hand to his lips. Amazing how just several months ago, such a task would have seemed unbelievably daunting.
"I shall try my best." He said, gently kissing her hand.
"You gentleman you." she said teasingly, and Remus was delighted to see her cheeks grow a rosy pink which morphing couldn't appear to hide.
"Is there something wrong with that?"
"Are you kidding?"
Remus reached for his own drink and took another sip.
Tonks watched him looking thoughtful. "Remus?"
"Yes?"
"Do you remember that day when I went to visit you before you went Underground with the pack?"
His head shot up as he started intently at her.
"Do you remember what you said to me about—?"
"Please Tonks, don't bring that up again." he grimaced.
"So much for 'remembering the past before leaving it behind'. But you know, I said some pretty nasty things too." Tonks admitted. "Right before I ran out on you…"
"I remember." he said hoarsely. It was unlikely he would ever forget.
"But that wasn't what I was going to ask if you remembered."
"Oh?"
"Yeah…what you said about us having to end it there and now. Did you ever think after that we'd get back together?"
"Truthfully?"
She rolled her eyes. "No, I'm just asking you so that you can lie. Yes, truthfully."
He smiled at this but then sobered. "The day we last saw one another before my assignment…I wasn't sure. I hoped we wouldn't see each other again because I was worried about your safety, but I think perhaps deep down, I wanted us to get together after it all ended. I didn't ever allow myself to even think on it though in case the worst should happen."
She was looking at him closely, her eyes thoughtful.
"What about you?" he asked her.
She nodded slowly. "I hated you after that even though I knew what you were saying made sense. I wanted nothing to do with you after that, but when I realized I couldn't forget about you I hoped we would get through it."
There was a pause that was punctured by other couples talking noisily around them. Remus reached for his drink again and took a sip watching Tonks whose customary smile was strangely absent.
"Sorry." Tonks said heavily.
He looked at her, surprised. "For what?"
"For bringing up all this depressing rubbish again. I just feel all out of sorts still…"
Remus knew what she meant and he reached across the table to hold her hand.
She squeezed his hand tightly and he watched as her dark eyes darted about the room distractedly, unable to rest on any one particular object for too long. Then he realized with a jolt of shock that her eyes were starting to shine with tears.
"Dora…"
"Sorry." Tonks sniffed and grabbed a napkin from off the table to quickly wipe her eyes with. "It's just that I keep thinking that I never quite made up with Dumbledore. I was so angry at him for all these months because he let you go on that stupid mission. And then he died and I never got to properly apologize to him."
"I'm sure he knew that you were just upset over the situation-"
But she talked right over him, with words that she was apparently was unable to stop from coming, "I use to try and corner him after Order meetings when you were gone. When he hadn't gone to several of them, I went to his office up at the school-"
"To say what?" asked Remus.
"I asked him to bring you back. I hated him for allowing you to go on that stupid mission because I knew if there was anybody's word you would have listened to, it would have been his so I thought that maybe if he told you to not do it, you'd come back."
There was a brief moment of silence between them, where tears were still streaming heavily down Tonks's pale face. He had noticed that it took a lot for Tonks to actually cry. She was so strong and always smiling or talking away to others to try and cheer them up with her extrovert personality. As an Auror, she was as tough as nails and about as fearless as the Chimaera who had killed Dai Llewellyn while he was on holiday in Greece.
"I hated my self for some time because I was so angry at you, but I really hated Dumbledore for forcing that mission upon you. For using you like some sort of useful but disposable puppet. And now all I can do is feel guilty that I didn't snap out of it in time."
"How would you have known what was going to happen and when?" Remus said gently. "And Dumbledore being who he was, I'm sure he knew that you truly didn't hate him."
"You think so?"
He nodded. "I do."
She took a shaky breath and Remus handed her another napkin since the other one was rather crumpled.
"He was always so good to me, at school and then afterwards with the Order and everything."
"He certainly was." Remus agreed. "And with me too."
Suddenly there was a noise at their side and they turned in surprise to see their buxom waitress standing there, clearing her throat impatiently. "Would you like to order anything? Maybe something from our desert menu? We have excellent cakes and brownies."
They looked at each other in surprise and laughed. The waitress raised her eyebrow and Remus gave her an apologetic smile.
"What flavoured brownies do you have?"
"Chocolate and vanilla."
Tonks snorted and wiped away the last of her tears with her napkin.
Remus turned back to the waitress, "Could you give us a moment to decide?"
She nodded and shuffled away.
Remus turned back to Tonks. "It looks as though we're going to make a decision, Dora. I hope you're ready to be dramatic."
"Or we could just order a vanilla flavoured brownie and avoid the drama altogether." She said sweetly, moving the crumpled napkins off to the side. "I'm enjoying this margarita very much and I really don't want to throw it in your face."
Remus sighed. "Perhaps we ought to order two brownies."
"That's stupid."
"Well I'm not eating a vanilla brownie. It just sounds revolting."
"And chocolate brownies make me feel dehydrated."
"How on earth could a brownie make you feel dehydrated?"
"I don't know. They just do! Its like an overload of thick gloopy sugar all congealed into a dark mass- ugh."
"That is ridiculous."
"You're ridiculous!"
Unfortunately, the waitress was back again. "Are you ready to order something now?"
"We'll take two brownies." Remus said. "One chocolate and one vanilla."
As she left, Tonks poked Remus with a spoon lying on the table. "I'm paying."
"You will not." said Remus firmly.
"Two brownies is embarrassing, letting you pay for both would be even more mortifying. Let me pay."
"No."
"Remus-"
"We'll argue about it later." He said quickly. "For now, lets just try to enjoy ourselves."
She grinned, but said nothing. "At least I didn't have to dispose of my drink in your face and run away."
"I wouldn't have gotten up and followed you if you had."
"Oh yes you would have."
He smiled faintly, knowing perfectly well that she was right. As Tonks slurped some more of her margarita, Remus looked out the window- just over the line of buildings he could make out the silver glow of the nearly full moon.
"That's coming up soon, isn't it?" Tonks said.
He nodded. He hoped they wouldn't have to talk about it.
Tonks looked at him, but he just gave her his bravest face and a reassuring smile before stirring his drink absentmindedly.
It seemed to have worked….
…almost.
Her voice cut across his blank thoughts,
"You really were going to kill him at the Battle of the Tower, weren't you?"
He looked up at her.
"Fenrir I mean…" she said looking slightly nervous. "You lunged at him and I'd never seen you look that way before. Almost…reckless…"
Remus inclined his head at her words. "Yes. I was going to kill him."
She seemed surprised, either at his declaration or at how calm his voice was.
"Dora," he said gently, leaning across the table so she could hear him better in the noisy room. "I'm not as noble as you might believe. I do occasionally get angry, and when I do I tend to put not only myself in danger, but others."
"I don't think I've ever seen you angry except for that day in the snow." she said thoughtfully. "And the battle of the tower of course, but that was different. I just got a bloody spectacular kiss that Christmas, but at the Tower…" an odd emotion that looked like a contained shudder crossed her face. "It was like you were an entirely different person."
Remus felt his heart sink. What wouldn't he have given for her not to have seen that. He sighed heavily and ran a hand through his hair. "Sometimes…" he said slowly. "Sometimes I can't keep it in any longer and I just have to succumb to rage-"
"Righteous rage I should think."
"Perhaps." Remus said without much conviction. "But it happens very rarely. I worked for many years to keep my emotions under tight reign."
She looked startled. "Why?"
"When I was a student at school, the knowledge that I was different from everyone and more importantly, I was an actual physical danger to them made me want to control my thoughts and emotions beyond the ideal disciplinary behaviour. I wanted to see all my friends and schoolmates truly happy and carefree and never have to worry about the terrible events that I usually did."
"So you were to content to suffer as they lived in blissful ignorance?" Tonks asked in annoyance.
"I think 'suffer' is a strong word, Dora."
"But that's essentially what it was."
He shook his head. "No. It wasn't. I just had to be careful, that was all. I wasn't always cautious as you well know- just look at some of the numerous detention records at Hogwarts."
"I would've given all the gold in Gringotts to see the little Professor running around setting off dangerous pranks before running behind a suit of armor to giggle over it."
"I certainly didn't giggle." said Remus stiffly. "Though Sirius did on more than one account with his occasionally feminine laugh."
Tonks let out a snort of laughter that she managed to bury in her drink.
Remus cleared his throat quietly. "But sometimes Tonks…it catches up with me. That night in the Shrieking Shack-after years and years of believing Sirius's guilt, the night when I finally realized the truth as I saw it laid on the map before me and later heard it at last from Sirius's own lips- something inside me snapped. Though I appeared calm and collected that night, my fingers were all but trembling as I held my wand, aching with every cell and fiber in my body to kill Peter."
He let his head drop into his hands, unable to meet Tonks's piercing eyes straight on. "It's times like that when I'm ashamed of myself afterwards but more disturbing still- I still feel that what I was about to do was right."
He felt Tonks's gentle fingertips lift his chin up so she could look straight into his eyes. She shook her head gently, her eyes warm. "Remus…there's nothing wrong with that. I don't think there's ever been a man with a more direct moral compass…perhaps it works a little too well." Her small smile faded as she grew more serious. "Everyone suffers lapses like that, and sometimes you have to take justice into your own hands…but you're only human."
Human…Half human, half wolf…
He opened his mouth, but Tonks beat him to it. "And don't you dare start on that whole, 'I'm a dangerous werewolf' rubbish!"
Another couple who appeared to be muggles, sitting at one of the nearby tables looked over at them in confusion and then scooted their chairs further away from Remus and Tonks as if they were mad and the madness was contagious.
Tonks rolled her eyes at them before turning back to him with a lowered voice. "I mean it though. It's not your 'wolf side' or whatever you think it is coming out. That's just another part of Remus Lupin that not everyone gets to see everyday. We should sell tickets it's so bloody rare."
Remus let out a reluctant chuckle and she smiled encouragingly at him.
She reached across and punched his arm lightly. "Come'on Professor. Don't be so worried about it. I trust you, and you know me well enough by now that my trust of people, despite what others might think, is not something I throw out to everybody I come across."
His heart feeling lighter than it had in days he allowed himself a genuine smile, "You're right."
She took another sip from her margarita and then her eyes seemed to grow wider as a random idea struck her, "Lets go skydiving!" she exclaimed wildly.
"I beg your pardon?"
"Skydiving! Let's go! Let's do something mad! Travel the world! Go to Venezuela! I always wanted to see 'Angel Falls'…it's the highest waterfall in the world, you know."
"Really?" he said, rather surprised at this new, unexpected knowledge coming from Tonks.
"Childhood dream of mine." she said, her eyes misting over. "I used to imagine scaling the side of the cliff with the water roaring nearby and all the trees on the ground so far below…a rainbow shining through the mists…"
"One day we'll see it together."
"Is that a promise?"
"Of course it is. But I am rather old, Tonks."
"Shut up you git." she said, rolling her eyes.
"I'm just pointing it out as a fact. There's no getting around it."
"Well then I'll just buy you a cane and some prune juice for your birthday, alright?"
He laughed loudly at that.
"Seriously Remus, you need to stop thinking of yourself as old. It's all mental. You need to start using positive terms for your own mental health- instead of saying 'I'm old' you need to say, 'I'm vintage'."
Remus nearly chocked on his drink.
"What?"
"Positive thinking! Its like either looking at the glass half full or half empty. Your gloomy perception is fixed on half empty. You need to start thinking of things as half full."
"I'm old." Remus said again with a smile.
"'Vintage.'" She immediately corrected him.
"Too poor."
"'Bohemian.'"
He almost snorted at that but then sobered at what he was about to say next, thinking of what they had been discussing earlier.
"Too dangerous…"
There was a small pause as Tonks looked at him thoughtfully.
"'I make things interesting with my martyr complex.'"
Reluctantly he let out a small chuckle and she smiled at him but her dark eyes were serious.
"You're not having second thoughts about all this are you?"
"Not anymore."
"Good." She grinned, the smile finally meeting her eyes.
For a moment Remus felt a stab of nerves. Since that fateful day neither of them had mentioned marriage but the thought had come up more than once or twice in Remus's mind over the past few days. And as they sat there he thought of it again.
Slightly panicked, as if Tonks would suddenly be able to use Legilimency, he swiftly changed the subject-
"Perhaps we could go out to dinner next week." he said in a light hearted voice.
"That might be nice."
"Skydiving might have to be put off for a bit."
"That's alright."
"We're still going to do it though?"
"Without a doubt."
"We'll have to get rid of Voldemort first."
"Good plan."
"Well then we'd better get to work. I'm so eager to jump off of a cliff at several hundred metres with nothing but a piece of cloth to save me."
"The danger is what makes it exciting!"
"You have thrill-seeking issues Tonks. I see us jumping off the cliff and you realizing you'd forgotten your parachute or something along that line."
"You'd just save me." Tonks laughed. "As always."
Remus smiled at this.
The waitress finally arrived with their two separate brownies, setting the vanilla one in front of Remus and the chocolate one in front of Tonks before moving off.
Almost immediately they reached for the other's plates and nearly knocked over their drinks as they switched brownies.
Tonks steadied her drink just in time before turning her attention to her brownie. "And no, for your information, I do not have 'thrill-seeking issues', I just inherited crazy genes from my Mum's side of the family."
"Undoubtfully." said Remus, using his fork to start eating some of his chocolate brownie. "I suppose I should be thankful you don't possess a motorbike."
"You know, I always wanted to get a hold of Sirius's motorbike and take it for a spin."
Remus winced as he thought of Tonks being as clumsy as she was being on a speeding motorbike. "It wouldn't take a seer to recognize that that could be a very bad idea, Dora."
"Well I'd love to see you try it sometime Professor!"
"I was never very good at it."
Tonks dropped her fork, sending bits of vanilla brownie everywhere. "You actually rode a motorbike?"
"Sirius's bike? Several times in fact."
"No…bloody…way."
Remus smiled. "Another deep dark secret you never knew about me."
"You're kidding!"
"I'm not. Sirius insisted I learn how to ride it before things started getting too grim during the first Order, and on one occasion I…how would you put it? 'Borrowed without asking permission' the motorbike from him."
"You're lying!" Tonks said desperately.
"I can assure that I am always a man of my word. Although I have no one that can vouch for me, I can always show you the memory the next time we get a hold of a pensieve."
Tonks looked torn between being stunned and furious. "Now you've made me jealous."
"Sorry. Perhaps we'll get a hold of a bike and go for a ride one of these days but until then, how does dinner sound to you?"
"Will you be up for it after the full moon?"
"With you, of course."
Tonks beamed and Remus smiled at her contagious happiness. Despite the knowledge that they were both standing on the edge of something—the brink of a dark and dangerous war that would make everything till now seem mere shadows in comparison—he simply couldn't think of it. All of it pressed too heavily on his mind at once, Dumbledore's recent death…the Order barely held together…protecting Harry…trying to keep the Ministry from being overthrown…trying to keep people safe from Voldemort…it was all too much and it was all worth fighting for, but as he looked at Tonks's smile from across the table he knew personally what was worth fighting for the most. Perhaps it was selfish, but if it was- Remus didn't care.
He sighed and turned his head to look at his dim reflection in the dark, glass window. "I may be 'vintage' Tonks, but my hair is grey..."
Tonks leaned forward to steal a sip from his pina colada and with a surprisingly graceful gesture, brushed back a strand of hair from his eyes. "No," she said, her eyes shining with happiness as she looked at him. "Your hair is perfect."