A/N: Tonks' Point of view.
Tonks was pacing out in the snow, to the point that she had worn a meandering path through the Weasley's front lawn. It hadn't been too long that she had heard the faint sound of dissapparation followed by the Severus' message. I will be at my home on Spinners End in Cokeworth. She almost wanted to hug him for giving her the space she desperately needed. However, that meant that Remus was still here.
She didn't know what she would have done, what he would have done, had Severus not shown up when he did. With her arms pinned she hadn't been able to reach her wand. This seems familiar…Shut up! Her mind argued trying to relate tonight to Severus after the Solstice. He didn't know who I was…Remus did. He knew full well. Tonks let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding when she heard the second crack of disapparation.
As the breath left her lungs she wasn't quite sure if she wanted to cry, scream, laugh or punch something really hard. Tonight had been the first time she had really admitted to herself how much she did care for Severus and in that same instance created a rift between her and the man she thought she loved that she wasn't sure could be bridged. Fuck.
"Tonks?" Harry's voice called from the front door as he and the rest of the trio made their way outside, Hermione a bit more reluctant than the other two.
Fuck. Tonks cursed again as she silently watched the three approach. Her eyes narrowed as they fanned out. If they do that naturally the three would make great aurors…makes whomever they are approaching feel trapped. Her hand itched for a wand, and irrational or not, right now cursing the "boy-who-lived" into oblivion seemed like a smashing idea, especially when he spoke next.
"Lupin couldn't have meant his actions earlier; he is under a lot of stress. He had an extremely hard time with the pack. You should have seen him when he arrived on Christmas," Harry added apologetically.
"We are all under a lot of stress, Harry. That is no excuse…and I would have been here at Christmas had he thought to invite me…had anyone thought to invite me." Tonks slung back, already irritated that she had gone from arguing with werewolves to arguing with teenagers.
As guilt crossed Harry's face and Hermione reached out a comforting hand towards Tonks, Ron butted in, "Well you can't really blame him…between the Profit picture and tonight… I mean, why are you even around the greasy git in the first place?"
Tonks focused on Ron and for a split moment forgot all else. Before she had even thought it through, her fist had connected with his face. The next thing she was completely aware of was Harry looking at her with a wide-eyed bewilderment, Ron holding his now bleeding nose with his eyes scrunched in pain, and Hermione trying to comfort him while giving Tonks a look of admiring satisfaction. Tonks looked down at her hand in wonder, unsure what had possessed it, but not feeling remorseful in the slightest.
Moments after the trio had rushed inside, the twins came out…holding not one, but two full bottles of fire-wiskey.
"We come baring gifts…" George announced.
"…Or rather 'we come in peace'…" Fred followed.
"..Yes…the gifts are only if we don't get hit…" George said, playfully ducking before putting his hands up like fists, one of which was still carrying a bottle.
"…Not that we don't entirely approve and applaud your previous actions…" Fred interjected waving the bottle enticingly.
Tonks couldn't help herself as she smiled at their well calculated antics. She needed laughter, she needed to not be judged, she needed a drink…Or ten. A slightly desperate giggle escaped her lips.
George looked at her with a worried expression, "It's worse than I feared Mate…"
"Oh aye, we may not have brought enough!" Fred exclaimed has he quickly opened a bottle and produced a class from Tonks could only guess where, filled it and handed it to her.
Tonks took the shot, looking at the twins skeptically. Both nodded severely, as if it were the only thing that could bring her back from the brink. Tonks rolled her eyes and downed the shot, slightly surprised when the glass was taken from her hands and refilled.
The twins cast a warming charm around the three of them as they moved her over to the porch. The fireworks would start in less than an hour and this spot gave the three of them a great vantage point. Laying out three full shot glasses, the twins stopped her as she reached to down her glass again.
"Nuh uh uh! If we are going to do this properly there needs to be rules!" Fred tsked.
"A game." George added when Tonks scowled.
"I Never!" Fred grinned.
"I never, what?" Tonks asked confused, pouting slightly at the shot just inches from her fingertips.
"Exactly!" George clapped her on the back.
"One of us announces something we have never done and if the other members of the group have done it they need to take a shot." Fred's grin got bigger.
"This sounds like a perverse form of interrogation." Tonks grumbled, wanting her shot.
"It's fun…" George encouraged.
"We promise!" They both said at once holding their own shots.
"Fine." Said Tonks picking up her own shot, "I have never driven…or flown a muggle car." Tonks smirked, remembering the story that had traveled like wildfire through the Ministry about Aurthur's flying car.
"Drat…" Fred downed his shot.
"She got us there mate!" George raised his glass in cheers before downing it as well.
"I have never finished my seventh year at Hogwarts" George grinned as Tonks downed her shot.
"I have never had sex in Hogwarts library" Fred challenged, smirking at his brother who had to down a shot. Tonks giggled, before the very vivid images of where she had had sex in Hogwarts, rather recently, flew through her mind, causing a bright blush to darken her cheeks.
"Oh that looked like a good thought!" Fred winked at her, "Fibbing about the library are you?"
Tonks blush deepened, "No…but other areas, like the Astronomy tower, hold some good memories."
"Ooooo the Astronomy tower! I never did get up there…but always wanted to," George said matter-of-factly a tinge of admiration coloring his voice.
"You mean there is an area of Hogwarts you left untouched!? Say it ain't so!?" Fred's hand flew to his forehead in a mock faint as Tonks broke out in laughter.
"I have never fucked a bloke," Fred said in a slurred but slightly forlorn voice.
Tonks downed her shot, "FUCK MEN!" she proclaimed as she roughly hit her glass on the porch.
"If only…" Fred said glumly looking down at his shot, causing Tonks' eyebrows to shoot up as she looked at him.
"Some are okay." George announced cheerfully, setting his now empty shot glass down on the porch, causing her to look from one brother to the other.
"What? So we don't have everything in common, he fancies them all of the time and me…well eh, why limit my choices right? Speaking of limiting choices... Snape's got to have some awesome pecs and arms." George said wagging his eyebrows at Tonks, who in turn tried to figure out why the bottle was moving so much as she tried to pour herself another shot.
Fred perked up, downing his shot anyway, "Yeah, all that stirring we do manually once we realized self-stirring cauldrons are shite? Bless that man."
"Complete prat to Gryffindors..." George said as an aside.
"...but the same could be said to most of Slytherin." Fred parried.
"I'm just saying, if I had to be buggered by Flitwick, Snape, or Hagrid... Snape totally wins." George shrugged.
"You'd have to consider all of the men. Like Lupin. And Dumbledore. And Filch." Fred gagged slightly "Okay, Snape it is."
The twins continued, both leaning on each other slightly to stay upright. Tonks finally gave up on pouring herself another shot, and with the conversation being who the twins would prefer to be buggered by, picked up one of the bottles, now almost half empty, and decided to simply drink from that instead.
All three jumped slightly, trying to scramble out of the way, as the rest of the party goers came out the front door already counting down, "8!...7!...6!...5!...4!...3!...2!...1!...Happy New Year!" Everyone shouted and the sky became alive with color as the fireworks were lit off. The twins were having a great time trying to point out which fireworks were their creations. As one turned into cat and another into a rat, the cat chased the rat around the sky.
"Look Hermione! It's Crookshanks!" Ron announced pointedly.
"Crookshanks never ate your rat, Ron! Even after Scabbers turned into Pettigrew you never did apologize to my cat!" Hermione responded hotly.
"Why should I apologize!? He was still my rat and that furball still wanted to eat him!" Ron responded indignantly. The petty argument was cut short in an uproar or "oo's and ah's" as a giant dragon firework lit up the sky.
Harry turned to the twins, "That one has always been one of my favorites, although it's missing a certain something when not chasing a screaming Umbridge out of Hogwarts." His face turned into a wide grin at the memory.
"Why thank you!" Both twins responded in unison, staggering noticeably. Molly scowled sharply as she realized how drunk they were. The twins' grins simply grew wider in response. Tonks was slightly amazed they had made it to their feet, because she was almost certain she couldn't without help.
The fireworks ended and Mad-eye lumbered over to her, "Ready to go home?" He asked. He could tell she wasn't sober enough to apparate by herself and he really couldn't blame her.
Tonks scrunched her nose trying to remember why home didn't sound quite right … home… Spinners End …Cokeworth. Tonks tried to stand up and would have slipped falling immediately back down had Mad-eye not immediately reached out and caught her. "Home it is." He said more to himself than anything.
Tonks tried to push away, "No! I's going to Spinns End…in Cockworth!" She heard the twins snort behind her and abruptly tried to turn around to glare only to sway even more.
"If you won take me, I'll take mysf!" Tonks fumbled around in the inside of her hoodie for her wand.
The thought of stupefying her and taking her back to her house that way ran through Mad-eye's mind. Accompanying that thought was the realization of how angry she would be at him in the morning, especially if this current plan of hers wasn't simply a product of the whiskey. He cursed to himself as he strode forward and grabbed the wand out of her hand, wondering if he went along with it how angry he would be at himself in the morning.
Looking at her now empty wand hand, before glaring up at Mad-eye, Tonk countered defiantly "I can sill floo."
"I know. That is what has me worried." Mad-eye snapped back, "Bloody hell." He cursed as he grabbed her arm and dissapparated them both to Spinner's End.
As the two of them landed on a deserted street lined with dark, close-knit brick houses Tonks grinned, even as Mad-eye had to steady her on her feet. As her mind flashed back over her mood earlier in the night she thought that firewhisky must surely be one of the Wizarding world's most superb creations. Mad-eye kept a steadying arm around her as he leaned on his staff with the other, his magical eye swiveling to detect threats. They made their way quietly down the gloomy street or as quietly as they could with Tonks humming softly to herself and giggling every few minutes.
Walking up the steps to Snapes door, Tonks reached out trying to catch one of the door knockers. There seemed to be two and neither would hold still long enough for her to grab hold. Tonks started giggling again as Mad-eye used his staff to knock on the door.
The door opened cautiously as Severus peered out. "Nymphadora," He responded and opened it wider, his brows drawing together suspiciously when he saw the other Order member outside his house. "Alastor?"
"Sev!...Your door has a wonderful pair of knockers!" Tonks exclaimed, looking pleased with herself, before turning serious "But, they are very hard to grab hold of." She scolded even as she swayed and both Severus and Mad-eye reached out to steady her.
Severus glanced questioningly at Mad-eye, "She's Drunk." He responded simply.
Tonks shook her head earnestly, before the resultant spinning suggested to her that that may not have been the best idea, "Pfft! I'm just wonderfully refreshed!" Tonks hickuped and promptly broke out into a fit of giggles.
"What happened?" Severus, although holding Tonks steady, directed his question at the older and much more sober auror.
" Drinking game. Weasley twinks.. " Tonks hiccupped again and scrunched her nose to concentrate, "twins.." Mad-eye simply motioned his hand towards Tonks as if that explained it all.
Severus sighed in order to hide his smirk at her Freudian slip. With a hand on each side of her shoulders he bent down slightly, looking in her eyes to see how much focus she had. Shaking his head, he announced "We'd better get you to bed."
"thass the best offer I've heard all day…care to join me?" Tonks said with a lascivious wink, the effect she was going for rather spoiled by Severus loosening his grip momentarily, resulting by her pitching forward, only to land with a solid thunk against Severus' chest. Looking up into his face, she smiled dreamily and closed her eyes. "Mmm, nice."
"Nymphadora?" Severus' voice sounded faintly amused, before going deeper and forming an order, "Nymphadora." Tonks startled slightly, looking up at him. Severus' voice softened but was no less direct, "You're going to have to try and stand up." His arms moved around to support her as he tried to move to get her inside.
"Now wait just a minute, Snape" Alastor cut in.
"Yes?" Severus sneered in response. He had less forgotten about the other auror than he had simply wished he would leave quietly.
"She needs a potion to sober up. Now. I don't want you getting any ideas with her like this!" Mad-eye demanded.
"Excuse me. But you brought her here." Severus stated cooly.
"Only because she blatantly refused when I tried to take her home! She threatened try to floo here or, Merlin forbid, apparate here on her own if I didn't take her." Mad-eye snarled in response.
Severus' eyes widened as he realized how disastrous either of those attempts could have been for her, given how drunk she was. If she slurred her destination while flooing? Or splinched herself apparating? Severus' arms tightened protectively around her and she snuggled closer.
Mad-eye's one normal eye narrowed at the closer contact even as his magical eye stayed trained on Severus' face, "I don't like you. And I care for her immensely. Keep both of those facts in mind as she is in your care tonight. I expect to be notified in the morning." Mad-eye responded gruffly.
"You have my word." Severus responded honestly. Mad-eye nodded curtly before he turned on his heel and apparated away, leaving Tonks in Severus' arms.