Note: This should be over in about 2 chapters or so! It is almost certainly the last story in the Blood 'ficverse, unless somebody twists my arm. A lot!

Thanks to my reviewers! You make me smile!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter.

22: Flames

When she had awoken that morning, for the briefest of moments, Tonks had wanted to giggle. Falling asleep on the sofa together usually meant that she and Remus had drunk a bit too much wine, or that they'd been a little too enthusiastic about having the house to themselves whilst Teddy was at school, or even that they didn't have the house to themselves but had decided to throw all caution to the wind and pretend otherwise. She was just wondering what time it was and how long they had before Teddy bounded down the stairs in search of breakfast, when she finally bothered to open her eyes...

Shit!

The Auror froze, staring in horror at the arm that was draped around her middle.

Oh sweet Merlin, what the bloody hell...?

Alright, just...just...let's not cause a scene, let's just...slowly, slowly...

Teeth gritted in concentration, she reached to carefully take hold of Artemis' wrist, before gently lifting it from around her, only to drop it in surprise when a voice in her ear mumbled:

"Morning, Sweetheart."

She wanted to tell him to hush, but before she could berate him he reached to pat her comfortingly on the shoulder and told her:

"Relax, Dora."

At this suggestion, Tonks snapped.
"RELAX?" she cried, throwing his arm from around her and sitting up abruptly, narrowly avoiding toppling straight off of the sofa and onto the floor. "Are you bloody MAD? Remus could come downstairs at any second and...and we're...we're lying here...!"

"We've done nothing wrong." Artemis pointed out, sounding infuriatingly calm, and had she known the whereabouts of her wand, she might have hexed him there and then.

"Yes we have!"

"No we haven't, we fell asleep, that's all. It's not like we had sex, is it? Trust me, you'd know about it if we had..." When she looked utterly revolted by this final comment, he simply smiled at her and said: "Sorry, I'm in a good mood. It was...nice sleeping with you...not...not like that, obviously..." he trailed off into silence, deciding that it was probably best to sit up too, and she got hurriedly to her feet and set about straightening her dressing gown, expression distinctly agitated. "I wouldn't worry." he told her, smirking despite himself. "Remus won't mind."

Tonks couldn't help but feel that Remus would mind a great deal, but she didn't suppose it would be very helpful to point this out.

"When did I fall asleep?" she demanded to know, folding her arms firmly across her chest and fixing him with the firmest look she could muster.

"Quite early on." he recalled, smiling infuriatingly. "When we were talking about the Duelling Championship."

"And?"

"And...then I fell asleep too?"

There was a long silence as she scrutinized his face, only to conclude that she had no idea whether or not he was telling the truth.

Bugger...

"Fine," she muttered, swallowing the panicked lump in her throat. "I'm...I'm going to go and get some breakfast. You should...leave. Now."

"Of course." he agreed, sounding unnaturally gracious, and she hated that it made her feel nervous.

"And it didn't mean anything." she added, nodding her head resolutely. "Like you said, we just fell asleep."

"Right." he nodded back in a distinctly patronizing manner, but she ignored him.

"Go on then. Get out of my house."

It was worrying that he appeared to have a spring in his step as he got obediently to his feet and headed for the front door. She trailed after him and watched him pick up his discarded coat, shaking the creases from it and pulling it around his shoulders.

"By the way," he said as she opened the door for him in an attempt to get him out of the house a few seconds faster. "Next time you fancy a slumber party, try actual pyjamas, won't you? Because whatever those few bits of material are masquerading as..." he sucked in a deep, slow breath, eying her up and down before she insisted:

"Get out, Art."

Once she had shut the door firmly behind him, Tonks turned to lean back against the door, eyes drifting closed as she drew in a series of deep, calming breaths.

Sweet Merlin, what if Remus had seen them?

He couldn't have done, if he'd opened the door she would have woken up...

She was going to have to tell him, either way. She couldn't lie to him, that much she knew...

But not now. She couldn't tell him now, she just couldn't bear the thought of it...

And so she straightened up, dusted a spec of non existent dirt from her dressing gown, and shuffled towards the kitchen to talk about something else instead.

Remus simply stared. It took a long moment for his mind to process the question that had just been directed at him, and he gaped at the witch sat opposite him for a full minute before managing:

"What...?"

"I know how this must sound," Tonks said, though Remus was pretty sure that she had no idea how it sounded because she seemed entirely unconcerned by the absurdness of her request, "but...but Artemis needs a favour."

Remus felt himself pale.

He wanted to ask if this was all some sort of joke, because if it was he didn't find it even remotely funny, but he didn't think Tonks would understand what he meant by it, she looked much too serious. If he were honest, he would have to admit that he found the whole scenario deeply insulting, and he failed to suppress the urge to inform her:

"Actually, I'd much rather discuss why Artemis thinks he can attempt to get my family torn apart, lie about me to the Wizengamot, show up and cause a scene in front of my students at Hogwarts, then turn up at my house at Merlin knows what hour and spend an entire night asleep with my wife upon my sofa, and then expect me to do him a favour."

There was a long, pained silence and he felt only marginally guilty for being so blunt when Tonks reached to bury her face in her hands. He didn't think that he was going to get much of a response, in fact she might well have started to cry, but he leant back in his chair and waited anyway.

"Nothing happened." she finally whispered into the palms of her hands, and she seemed to realise that this didn't sound very convincing, so she dropped her hands down upon the table and fixed him with an almost challenging look. "Nothing happened, we were just sleeping, and that's the truth. You...you don't need to let it bother you."

Remus waited to feel relieved, or for the anger to dull, but for some reason it just wouldn't go away. He tried to tell himself that if he couldn't squash the fury he should probably leave the room before he said something he was sure to regret. But he couldn't seem to move a muscle, he still felt much too confused and insulted to successfully reason with himself.

"What is it about you falling asleep curled up on our sofa with somebody else that you think I shouldn't be bothered about?" he asked, and she pursed her lips together, gaze falling to her lap. She fidgeted for a moment, one hand sliding rather hopefully across the table towards him, but he ignored it.

"I've made a stupid mistake, Remus. I...I know I have, and I know what it looks like...I know, but...he...well he was upset..."

"In which case a cup of tea would probably have sufficed. I seriously doubt you needed to sleep with him..."

"Don't say...that."

"That's what you did though, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, but...not...not like that."

"Who fell asleep first?"

"What?"

"I said who fell asleep first?"

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"A whole lot."

"Why? I don't see why it matters."

"It matters."

"It does?"
"Yes. A lot."

Silence.

"It was you, wasn't it? You fell asleep before he did..."

"So what? Why, what d'you think happened?"

Silence.

"Don't try and over analyse everything, Remus, it's bloody painful..."

"Don't try and tell me how to react to you sleeping with Carrow-Smyth."

"Don't say it like that."

"Again, that's what you did though, isn't it?"

"Yes but...sweet Merlin...!"

"You have absolutely no right to sound so offended, Dora..."

"I'm not bloody offended, Remus, I'm...I'm...!"

"You're what?"

"ASHAMED!"

Outside of the room, Teddy paused midway through reaching for the door handle, jumping a little at the sound of his mother's raised voice before he heard fists slamming down upon the kitchen table and he heard her shout:

"THERE! I SAID IT! I'M ASHAMED! ARE YOU HAPPY NOW?"

Teddy immediately turned to flee back up the stairs, heart hammering in his chest, whilst back inside the room, Remus did not so much as flinch.

"Not particularly, no." he told the red faced witch across the table, and she slumped forwards, forehead coming to rest upon the wooden tabletop.

"I...I've never...I've never done anything more stupid in my whole...l...life!" she sobbed, and at last he felt the anger begin to slowly seep away from his insides. "I just...he was hysterical, I mean completely hysterical and...and I sat him down and we talked about...about what to do and...and then he mentioned the bloody broom cupboard incident again and I...well I told him why I really did it and he freaked out! He sobbed his eyes out, he said I didn't give a damn about him and I wasn't going to help him...and...and I felt awful so I...I don't know! We ended up talking and talking and talking and I was so tired...I just fell asleep! I don't remember lying down...as if I'd do that! And then I just woke up and there we were...!"

Remus couldn't seem to help but let out a heavy sigh, which seemed to upset her further and he once again wished that he could take his own advice and just walk away.

Or just forgive her, tell her it was all fine, that he understood...

Except he still wasn't sure that he understood. At all.

It wasn't that he thought she was lying, it wasn't that he didn't trust her, indeed he trusted her beyond reason. That much was clear, after all reason was rather stacked up against her here and yet the notion of an affair had still not really occurred to him as a viable explanation.

But that was what made the whole scenario so deeply confusing. If it looked like cheating, sounded like cheating and probably smelt like cheating...whatever that smelt like, he didn't care to wonder because that would be just another bizarre and difficult question to muse upon...if everything pointed towards cheating of some kind and yet he resolutely believed that it was something else entirely...

Well then...what the bloody hell was it?

He had briefly considered labeling it as a Misunderstanding, but really that hadn't felt very satisfying at all. Because if it was a misunderstanding, he'd expect Tonks to use words like embarrassed, cringe-worthy, awkward...

Not ashamed. Reasonable people didn't get ashamed by simple misunderstandings. After all, people make silly mistakes, they can be embarrassed about them, but not ashamed.

Because with shame comes guilt.

But he'd already decided that Tonks wasn't guilty...

It wasn't a misunderstanding.

He'd tried to shrug it off as just one of those things...but it wasn't just one of those things at all because the sight of the pair snuggled up upon the sofa had done something rather horrible to his insides, and he felt sickly and a little weak-kneed. And the feeling had yet to pass. At first he'd put it down to confusion, uncertainty, and he'd ignored it because he'd been sure that it would go away once he and Tonks had sat down to talk...like it had done before when Teddy had appeared in his office to announce that Carrow-Smyth had kissed Tonks at St. Mungo's...only it didn't. It got worse. Every time she spoke, every time she looked at him...

Every time he looked at her...

Looking at her wasn't supposed to make him feel like that. That was one thing he knew for sure. The other thing he knew for sure was that there was no chance in Hell that he would help Carrow-Smyth in any capacity whatsoever. Because it was entirely his fault. His fault that Remus was sat having this argument or whatever precisely it was in the first place, his fault that Remus could hardly bear to look his own wife in the eye, his fault it was all so painful, like a great weight on his chest, like Remus was suffocating...

Suffocating...

Oh Merlin...

"Look," Tonks began to babble, voice an couple of octaves higher than usual as she staring into her lap, "I know...I know this is difficult, but..."

Breathe...

"...but I swear, you have to believe me Remus, I'd never, NEVER do anything to hurt you or...or us..."

Don't cough. Just breathe...

"And I know what...what you think of Artemis, I...I know, I understand, but I'm sure he wouldn't...well...you know..."

Breathe...

"...it's all completely stupid and...and silly, isn't it? I mean...come on, have...have you looked at Artemis recently? He's...he's bloody hideous..."

Can't breathe...can't breathe...

"He's a bastard. Not...not that I'm entirely blameless, I...I know..."

"Dora..."

"No, no! Let me...let me speak! I know what your like, love, you'll just tell me it wasn't anything to do with me, but...but well I DID fall asleep..."

"Dora..."

"...and that was very stupid of me. I understand why you're angry..."

"D...Dora...I..."

"That's okay, that's understandable. I'm just asking you not to...not to blow this all out of proportion, I don't want us to have a fight, I hate it when we fight. This isn't really any different from before, don't you think you can forgive me for being stupid?"

"I...can't..."

"You...can't?" At last, Tonks' gaze snapped up to look at him, instantly agitated. "But...but it was a silly mistake! I just told you...! Artemis is a bastard, like I said, he...he means nothing to me, you know he doesn't!"

"No...I..."

"You don't? But what about what you said before? After the hospital? You said you weren't worried, you said you knew I didn't love him! How can you just...change your mind? You can't change your mind, this isn't any different than back then! I swear, Remus I...I...!"

"Dora I...can't...breathe."

At long last, Tonks stopped babbling.

"What?" she asked, reaching to swipe tears from her eyes, but Remus' only response was to slump forward, reaching to rest his forehead upon the table in front of him.

Then he started to cough.

Meanwhile, upstairs Teddy was sitting upon the window sill of the spare bedroom, staring miserably out of the window, attempting to make sense of the world. Before he could come to any real conclusion, however, he heard a soft popping noise and two figures appeared just outside of the Lupins' front garden, and at the sight of them, Teddy's stomach clenched in panic. He watched, heart thumping in his chest as Artemis Carrow-Smyth led Elijah down the path towards the front door. The young Gryffindor reached to clutch at his hair in agitation.

"Not now!" he complained as they came to a halt before the door, and he heard the knocker tapping impatiently.

"TEDDY?" the boy heard his mother bellow from the kitchen downstairs, and so he reluctantly got to his feet and went to open the door.

Carrow-Smyth practically pushed his way inside as soon as Teddy reached to open the door, pulling a pale, blank faced Elijah after him.

"Where's your mum?" the wizard demanded as Teddy reached to gingerly shut the door behind him.

Teddy drew in a deep breath in an attempt to squash the overbearing desire that he felt to be incredibly rude, instead mumbling:

"She and Dad are in the kitchen, but..."

Carrow-Smyth was already striding across the hallway, and before Teddy could protest he had reached to fling the kitchen door wide open.

And Teddy's eyes widened in horror as he watched his mother look up from her position knelt upon the cold tiled floor, his father's head cradled in her lap, seemingly choking on thin air.

"We're running out of time!" Carrow-Smyth announced impatiently, as if oblivious to the alarming scene that he had just burst in on. "We have to act now, Dora, the Ministry are getting suspicious..."

"Act now?" Tonks shrieked, mousy hair streaked suddenly scarlet. "Can't you see I'm a bit bloody busy, Artemis?" She yanked the cork free of the small glass bottle she was holding, sending a puff of silvery dust up into the air, before hastily instructing: "Bag, Ted!"

Teddy immediately leapt into action, pushing past a daydreaming Elijah and making a beeline for the nearest kitchen cupboard.

Carrow-Smyth's gaze at last came to rest upon the collapsed werewolf on the floor, and he frowned a little as he asked:

"Is he alright?"

"Does he bloody LOOK alright to you?" Tonks asked furiously, glowering up at him with bloodshot, watery eyes. "Just get out, will you? This is all your bloody fault..."

"We can't." Carrow-Smyth informed her dully. "The Ministry showed up at Mungo's looking for Elijah. We've run out of time, there's no point sending Remus to Azkaban to try to stall them, they're already convinced Elijah's the Child..."

"I don't care." Tonks said bluntly, snatching the bag that Teddy offered her and pouring a generous amount of dust inside. "I can't help you, I've got Remus to worry about. Your on your own, Art."

"Dora, please..."

"I said I can't help you!" she paused in her arranging of the paper bag to look up at the wizard with such a hateful look that it made Teddy flinch. "Now get out! You've done enough damage already!" And with that she turned her attention back to her husband, reaching to raise his head and press the bag's opening to his mouth, furiously attempting to blink back tears as he spluttered into the paper.

Teddy leant back against the kitchen counter, lips pursed tightly together in worry as he observed his parents upon the floor, only to look back towards Carrow-Smyth when a voice called:

"Auntie Dora!"

Elijah's eyes had at last at last seemed to focus upon something, and he wandered forwards, as if in a daze towards the couple, slowly taking in the scene before before his uncle reached to put a firm hand upon his shoulder.

"Not now, Elijah..." Carrow-Smyth mumbled, and Teddy turned to see the wizard staring at his parents, expression suddenly pained.

"That's it," Tonks whispered as at last Remus managed to draw in a deep, shuddering breath. "That's it, keep breathing, you're going to be fine..."

"Auntie Dora doesn't hate them." Elijah announced, and his uncle took a few steps forward, one arm around the boy's shoulders.

"No, Elijah," he said, voice suddenly unnaturally soft. "She certainly doesn't, she's married to one."

Tonks glanced up at them again, suddenly calmer as Remus' coughing subsided to a series of muffled wheezes, and Carrow-Smyth murmured:

"I had no idea he was this sick."

"Yeah, well...maybe if you'd stop and listen to me for once in your life..." Tonks muttered, trailing off for a moment and sighing heavily. "And he would have done it, you know. He'd have gone to Azkaban. He might not have done it for you, but I'd bet he'd do it for Elijah if he knew what I do! And look at us, Artemis. Look how we've behaved!"

And Teddy was shocked to see that Carrow-Smyth looked genuinely ashamed of himself.

"Then he's a better man than me." he mumbled, and Tonks reached to swipe at her eyes again with a sniff before agreeing:

"Yes, he is."

It was then that Teddy noticed Elijah had stepped free of Carrow-Smyth's hold and had dropped to his knees beside the werewolf, and he reached to lay a hand upon Remus' arm before looking up at Tonks and observing:

"He is sick."

"Yes, Elijah, he is." the witch agreed, reaching to sweep the hair back from Remus' forehead as he gave another splutter.

"He's one of them."

"That's right."

The boy stared down at Remus for a long moment, apparantly thinking very hard, before he turned to gaze up at his uncle with the same wide, blank eyes.

"You did this?" he whispered, and when Carrow-Smyth failed to answer immediately he tried again: "You did this to him? You made him sick?"

Carrow-Smyth shook his head as Tonks mumbled:

"Not...not exactly, Elijah love..."

"No, Elijah. No, I...I didn't make him sick, that's not what Auntie Dora meant..."

"You made him sick."

"No Elijah, you see..."

"You did this to him."

"Listen to me, Elijah..."

"You hate them too!"

Silence descended upon the kitchen like a dense fog, and even Remus seemed to pause in his wheezing as Elijah rose shakily to his feet, eyes brimming with sudden tears as he reached to point an accusing finger at Carrow-Smyth's chest.

"You hate them!" the boy accused, his faraway, soft voice sudden fierce. "YOU HATE THEM!"

"Of course I don't, Elijah. You know I don't, you know I...I cared for your father very much, I didn't hate him and I don't hate any of them, not at all..."

"LIAR!" the boy shrieked, free hand balling into a tight fist, and despite himself Teddy shuffled back to press himself firmly against the wall in alarm.

"Elijah," Tonks called clearly, pausing with one hand tangled in Remus' hair as she stared up at the boy with unnervingly worried eyes. "Listen to Uncle Artemis..."

"YOU ALL HATE THEM!" Elijah screeched, and before anybody could mumble another word of protest, there came a sudden bang and the entire kitchen was filled with light...

As he instinctively reached to clamp his hands to his face, Teddy felt a sudden rush of heat as if he were stood much too close to a fire.

And when he dared open his eyes and peer out through the gaps between his fingers half a second later, he discovered that that was the exact truth.

Because the kitchen had suddenly become engulfed in a mass of roaring emerald flame.