Tonks knew Remus had his own room at Grimmauld Place, but she hadn't known which it was until he led her there. He pulled a rucksack from the wardrobe and went around the room tossing things in it as quickly as possible to keep her from getting a good look at how little he had, shutting drawers with quick movements and standing between them and Tonks standing in the room's doorway.

Despite the way angled himself between her and whatever he was packing, he couldn't disguise the entire room from her. When he was finished packing, he turned back to Tonks with a sheepish smile and tossed his bag over his shoulder. They both knew that she was aware of how little he had to bring with him, and he didn't try to hide it anymore even if it embarrassed him.

"Sirius was always offering me money," he said, his frown deepening.

Tonks knew he wouldn't have dared share that much with her if he hadn't gotten lost in his own thoughts.

"I rarely accepted it," he continued, hanging his head. "I never wanted to be a burden, but he never stopped asking."

"He wouldn't have offered you anything unless he didn't genuinely want you to take it," she said with a gentle smile. "He cared about you a lot. Besides—" she motioned around at the ornate furnishings in the guest room "—the Black family Gringotts vault won't be running out of money anytime soon."

Remus fiddled with the strap on his bag instead of answering.

"Shall we go?" he asked, maneuvering around Tonks and out the door without touching her.

"Uh, yeah," Tonks said, shaking her head to clear it. She kept babbling as they talked to keep her own nerves at bay. "We can Apparate there if you're okay with side-along Apparition?"

Remus gave her a tight-lipped smile and assured her it would be okay. After that, they fell into an awkward silence that Tonks didn't know how to break. She'd always prided herself on being a fun person who was able to break any tension in the air, but Sirius' death weighed heavily on her conscience. The most innocent of jokes felt like they would be disrespectful even though, logically, Tonks knew that Sirius himself would have loved them.

A few steps outside the house, she took Remus's arm, doing her best not to think about getting a chance to touch him. They were outside her apartment building a moment later, and Remus dropped her arm as if it had burned him. Tonks couldn't bear to look at him as she hurried to the building's door and fiddled with her keys.

The trip up three flights of stairs to her flat felt longer than it ever had, and once there, it also looked smaller as Tonks imagined it through Remus' eyes. Tonks was a second away from apologizing about the size before she remembered why Remus was there in the first place. A place to stay was a place to stay, she supposed, no matter the size.

"The extra bedroom is this way," she said, hardly glancing at him as she led him down the hall. "To be honest, I kind of throw stuff in here whenever I don't have another place to put it, so I don't know…"

She trailed off as she stopped in the bedroom doorway. Somehow it was worse than she'd imagined. She hadn't seen the floor in months. She chuckled nervously and gave her wand a wave, but instead of organizing itself into neat piles, the junk just flew to other places and fell to the floor again.

"Sorry," she apologized, her cheeks warm. Remus smiled patiently back. "My household spells are pitiful."

"It's not a problem."

Remus leaned around her and waved his own wand. Everything flew into ordered piles: shirts with shirts, trousers with trousers, and...other things with other things. Tonks stared in wonder and secretly thanked the universe that nothing scandalous appeared.

As soon as the last set of robes had settled, they shifted on their feet, neither sure what to do next.

"Thank you again for letting me stay here," Remus eventually said, giving her his best attempt at a smile.

"It's not a problem," Tonks replied.

Her response was too forceful, and she cringed a second later. Sirius had still just died. Remus wouldn't appreciate her practically yelling in his face, but if he did mind, he didn't let on.

They stood there for another moment.

"Would you like a cup of tea?" Tonks blurted out. "And don't say no just because it's a gift and you don't deserve it. It's only bloody tea."

Remus chuckled.

"Tea sounds nice. Thank you."

Tonks hurried towards the kitchen, unable to keep herself from smiling over her shoulder as she went.