It was half past six in the morning, and it was two days before Christmas. Other than Mrs Weasley, who had gone early to St Mungo's, none of the other residents of Grimmauld Place, temporary or permanent, were known to be early risers. Sirius was making an effort now that Harry and the others were here, but he could still be relied upon to sleep until for hours yet and, unchecked, teenagers existed almost in another timezone as far as sleeping patterns were concerned.
And so, wincing slightly with the residual pains of his latest tranformation, Remus softly shut his bedroom door behind him and padded downstairs, fully expecting to have a peaceful half hour to himself drinking tea and pottering around before he had to contend with any conversation.
In the kitchen, Fred and George were sitting at the table and working through some pieces of parchment with uncharacteristically studious expressions.
"Look, the side effects are too severe to make it worthwhile, anyway," George was saying, heatedly. "We've got loads of other options - oh, morning, Professor Lupin." With this the twins casually leaned over the table, obscuring what they were working on.
"Remus," Remus corrected automatically. In truth he quite liked the kids' inability to move on from considering him as a professor: it made him feel closer to the job that, of all the many on his extensive CV, was the one that had felt like home. "Morning Fred, George. You're up very early. NEWTs revision, is it?" He asked this question in a completely deadpan voice but met the twins' eyes with a grin and a raised eyebrow as they burst into identical laughs.
"This is the only time of day we haven't got Mum breathing down our necks," said Fred. "As to what we're doing, ask no questions and we'll tell you no lies."
"Professor Lupin's one of the original marauders, don't forget," George interjected. Turning to Remus he said, "Bet you'd love what we've got planned."
"I probably would," Remus agreed, popping the copper kettle onto the stove. "But I also love your mum not hexing me. You'd better leave me in a state of plausible deniability."
Fred sighed. "If you were still our teacher we might bother doing some bollocking revision. You were the best defence against the dark arts teacher we ever had."
"That would be more flattering had my successors not been so ghastly, in their different ways," Remus smiled gently. "But I appreciate it all the same."
"Fucking Umbridge and her fucking stupid laws," George said, savagely. Remus didn't raise an eyebrow at the language, but pointed out gently, "Even before those laws, public opinion - well, prejudice- was enough to prevent me carrying on teaching." Then he asked them politely, "Tea?"
"Ta," Fred nodded on behalf of both of them. "We thought about making some but then we reckoned someone else would be up soon and save us the trouble."
"A wise strategy," Remus observed, putting tea bags into the silver teapot.
"We all hate her, though. Even more for her bitching laws than her despotic lessons at school," Fred added, circling back to Umbridge. The twins knew a thing or two about being poor and they had noted the extremely threadbare state of Remus's dressing gown, and the thinness of his shoulders beneath.
"Well, I have to admit that if I saw her falling into her cauldron, I wouldn't hurry over to assist her," Remus smiled his slow, sad smile.
"I wouldn't need to," George replied. "I'd've been the one to push her in."
The three of them chuckled, because after all, what else was there to do? Remus poured the tea and watched the smoke swirl in circles up from the cups in the cold air. Suddenly, there was a crash and thud from the first floor landing. The sound of Tonks swearing crossly told them that no permanent damage had been done.
"Ah, great, Tonks is here," Fred said, brightening up.
"Fred fancies her," George explained with a grin as he reached out to accept his cup of tea.
"We both do, to be fair," Fred answered, matter-of-factly.
Remus felt his fingers clench over his cup and his knuckles whitened.
"Tonks is a grown woman," he reminded them in a voice that sounded so odd to them that he couldn't believe it didn't to them. Yes, but she's much closer to their age than yours, a nasty voice in his head chimed in. He looked at their unlined, freckled faces and swallowed bitterly, thinking of the unlined face he had left sleeping upstairs in his bed.
"We've fancied her since we first met her years ago - she's mates with Charlie, you know. But we're of age now," George said, jovially.
"Yeah. Maybe this holiday is when one of us should finally ask her out," Fred said, thoughtfully. "I reckon I've got the best chance."
"Yeah, right," scoffed George. "Or - maybe both of us? She's pretty open-minded..."
He broke off, drowned out by the sound of china crashing to the floor. He looked up at Lupin, whose cup was in pieces on the floor and whose hand was covered in boiling tea.
"Bloody hell, that must hurt," George said, getting up to fetch a cloth. "Run it under cold water."
Lupin had already moved to the sink and held his extremely painful burnt hand under the tap. By the time he turned around and repaired the damage to the cup, he was pale but collected.
"That's the worst of all this antique fine bone china," he said, mildly. "It isnt terribly strong." Then, putting a great deal of effort into ensuring that his voice remained normal, he added, "As to Tonks, I advise you to take care. She could probably duel any one of us into oblivion if we got on her wrong side."
"And don't you forget it," Tonks said cheerfully, coming into the room in her blue pyjamas and yellow hoody and short pink hair irresistibly tousled from bed. "Morning, all. Who am I duelling into oblivion?"
"Hopefully nobody here," Remus replied primly, not looking at her but carefully pouring her some tea. The twins grinned at her only slightly shame-facedly as she sat down.
"Not that it isnt always a pleasure to see you, Tonks," Fred said, gallantly, "but what are you doing here at this ungodly hour?"
"I'm taking you lot to St Mungo's later - I know, I know, you don't need taking. Just a bit of extra weapons-grade security, that's all," she winked. "Figured I might as well stay overnight."
"Which room do you sleep in, Tonks?" George asked with wide, innocent eyes. "Mum didn't make up a spare room on our floor."
"Oh, there's loads," Tonks replied vaguely, not looking at Remus, "and most of 'em don't even have murderous ghouls anymore. Hey, what was that crash about? Breaking stuff is supposed to be my thing."
Remus coughed. "Just a cup falling apart in my hand," he mumbled.
"That happens to me all the time," she said, cheerfully. "What're you two doing up at this ungodly hour, if it comes to that?" she asked the twins, picking up a bit of the parchment they had strewn across the table.
"Ah, nothing for you worry about, Tonks," Fred responded, taking it firmly out of her hand and forming it and the others on the table into a loose pile. "Nasty inquiring minds, you Auror types have."
"Yeah, you're better off in a state of plausible deniability with Remus here," agreed George. "What d'you reckon Fred, d'you think we should carry on with this somewhere a bit less populated?"
"Yeah, those NEWTs aren't going to revise for themselves," Fred agreed with an expression of earnest diligence. "See you later, Tonks. You're looking lovely today, if I may say so," and the twins apparated off in perfect unison.
Tonks shook her head suspiciously as they left, but then forgot them immediately as she turned to Remus, who had come to stand behind her.
"I thought you'd be asleep ages yet," he said, kissing the top of her head. "Did I wake you getting up?"
"Nah, I think I just- Godric, it sounds so lame - I think I just sensed that you weren't there anymore. And I wanted you."
"I wanted you, too. That's why I had to get up; I couldn't trust myself not to wake you up. I can still smell you on my fingers and it's driving me wild. Or at least, I could until I poured boiling tea all over them," he added, ruefully.
"Yeah, what was that about?" Tonks reached for his hand, still red from the scalding it had taken, and put it tenderly to her cheek. "You're not usually clumsy - you must have been spending too much time with me."
"Never," Remus replied. He pulled her up and gently to him, and rested his chin on her head, breathing her in. She brought his fingers to her lips. Then he added, in a mock serious tone, "By the way, Fred and George have a crush on you and they want a threesome."
Tonks's laughter was so loud that Remus feared it might rouse Mrs Black.
"I knew about the crush but not about the threesome. Cheeky gits. Wait till I tell Charlie."
"You'll be pleased to hear that I may have broken a cup, but I didn't hit them."
"Don't worry. I'll hit them so hard if they ever proposition me that any question of threesomes, or even of more traditional couples activities, will be entirely hypothetical for the rest of their lives," she grinned.
"Mmmm," Remus murmured back incoherently, his face in her hair and his firmly arms around her waist. He pulled her down onto his lap on the kitchen chair she'd been sitting on before and kissed her neck thougtfully.
"Are you coming with us to St Mungo's too?" Tonks asked, nuzzling into him.
"Yes. I'd like to see Arthur's ward-mate. Matthew, the fellow who's just been bitten, I mean. I want to give him as much support as I'm able to. There are lots of people who choose to end things in his position." Remus's matter of fact tone as he said this sent a bolt of pain, and love, straight to Tonks's heart. "And, now Dumbledore has a theory that the other side are reaching out to werewolves and trying to recruit them, there's that risk, too. Which will only get worse once he gets out and sees the reality of how the world will treat him."
"He couldn't have met a better person to help him see it isn't impossible to carry on," Tonks twisted around and ran her hand softly through his greying hair.
Remus grimaced slightly and said, "Well, I'm hardly an advertisement for how prosperous and successful a werewolf can be in this day and age." Tonks leaned her adorable slightly snub nose against his and said "No, but you're an advertisement for how brave and decent and honourable a man can be, despite everything." They rested there a minute and then she added with the hint of a wink, "and, of course, how devestatingly attractive."
Remus smiled a little sadly at that. "Maybe I should introduce him to my unfathomably beautiful girlfriend to show that all hope doesn't need to be lost."
"Oooh, that's a great idea! I can wear my green hair, that's very festive -"
"Dora, I was joking." Remus stopped her sharply. "Of course he mustn't know what you are to me. What if he does end up working with the other side, and he knows that I'd do anything to keep you safe? You know how that sort of information can be turned to advantage in unthinkable ways. Or what if he lets it slip somewhere that Auror Tonks is shacked up with a dark creature? That's the end of your ministry career, and -"
"I know, I know," Tonks replied, wearily. "I just like to daydream sometimes about a world where we can walk down any street hand in hand. With me with my normal face on, I mean. Or even just be able to tell people normally and naturally - Fred and George, for example - rather than having to keep it as quiet as possible in case it gets out and used against us."
"Me too," Remus said, reflecting that in world he would also be able to hold down a job and could afford to take her out and buy her presents and all the things that he bitterly resented not being able to do now. And then, with a wry smile, "I'd be completely insufferable if I were able to tell people about you. I'd tell stories about the amazing things you've done or funny things that you've said to strangers on trains. I'd walk up to defenceless old people who can't get away and show them countless photographs of you. I'd probably take out an advertisement in the Prophet to publicise the incredible, life-changing news that you let me kiss you every morning like this." His hand was around her waist and he kissed her fervently on as much of her shoulder as her hoodie gave access to.
"I'll let you kiss me in more places than that, Lupin," she grinned, the worry and pain forgotten in the heat of his touch. "Come on. Back to bed now and then a hot date to St Mungo's with only a ridiculous quantity of red haired people and two additional moody teenagers to intrude upon our privacy, how does that sound?"
"In all honesty, it sounds absolutely perfect," Remus replied. He placed the tea things neatly by the sink and then followed her towards the staircase, as he would have followed her anywhere.
"Remind me, Tonks, which is your bedroom again?" he asked innocently, as they made their quietly way up the stairs.
"Oh, shut up, you."