Hogsmeade was gorgeous in the drifting January snow. Tonks had time to wish the circumstances were different as she hopped back onto the Knight Bus with a last look at the kids wending their reluctant way up the slippery drive to Hogwarts castle.

Still, she was never one to dwell too long and the downsides of any situation. She turned to Remus with a wink, seeing that a chintzy sofa at the back in the first floor of the bus was now free.

"Come on, let's see if it's more fun at the back of the bus," she said, cheerily. Despite the look of worry which was etched into his face at the sight of Harry, so folorn and truculent, heading away from them, Remus smiled back as they made their way down the aisle.

"I think I could have a lot more fun with you at the back of a bus if you were in your natural state," he said, mildly.

"Ahhh, I'd forgotten I'd even morphed!" Tonks put her hand to her hair and face to remind her of the look that she'd gone for. "Oh yeah, that's right. Goes with the coat. Older women not your thing?"

"I'm sure this one could be, if you found yourself unable to morph back," Remus replied with the same mixture of silliness and seriousness. "Though all things being equal, I prefer you exactly as you naturally are."

Tonks smiled, settling comfortably into the lilac arm chair. "I'd morph back, but I don't want to blow my own cover. Don't forget Auror Tonks is busy looking for Sirius Black in Slovakia."

Remus sat down next to her, and then they both immediately lurched forward onto their knees as the knight bus took off with an exuberant pop. He helped her up, and they sat back down on the sofa, unperturbed.

"I'll tell you one nice thing about this bus, it sort of equalises things. Everyone spends as much time on the floor as me."

The bus was busy, but nobody was looking in their direction. Remus placed his arm along the back of the sofa, and Tonks leant into him, trying to find a comfortable snuggling position with their height difference so much reduced by her taller appearance of the day. Finally succeeding, she rested her head against his and said, happily. "All in all, there's worse ways to travel. How was the mood on your deck on the way down?"

"It was uproarious, as you might expect. Those twins are planning something. I studiously tried to hear as little as I could. I had a nice long chat with Ginny, though, mostly about you. She's your biggest fan."

"Ah, she's a cracker of a kid. Is she my biggest fan, though?" Tonks looked at him slyly, and he smiled back.

"Second biggest, I should say." He leaned forward to kiss her, and hesitated before their lips met. "Sorry. I don't want you to think that the way I feel about you is all about your looks. It's just - ah - quite an adjustment."

"Fair enough. Next time I'll morph into a blonde bombshell."

"But that would be as bad," Remus replied, earnestly m. The problem isn't that this severe matriarch look isn't attractive, Dora, although that maybe a side issue. It's that the only face I ever want to kiss for the rest of my life is yours."

"Geez, you're so smooth," she replied, chuckling. And then she turned to look at him. "Oh. You mean it."

"Sorry, I - I'm not suggesting that that will happen, that I get to kiss you for the rest of my life, I mean, nor should it. Godric knows if this -" he gestured to the two of them, and his voice was higher than usual with mild panic at having overstepped - "all ended tomorrow, I wouldn't complain. I'm grateful for every second you've given me, but..."

"Less smooth, now," Tonks observed, with an affectionate eye roll. There was something about her smile, the expression of unabashed enthusiasm in her eyes, which transcended the assumed face and caused Remus to lean towards her to kiss her, undeterred this time.

A violent jolt prevented the kiss from coming to fruition, and once again they found themselves on the floor. Tonks groaned. She stood up as a short round wizard came grumbling down the stairs with a disgruntled barn owl perched on his head and made for the door.

"Oi, where are we now?" she called to Stan Shunpike, who was helping the wizard off the bus.

"Blowed if I know," said Stan, with commendable honesty. "Somewhere in Scotland, still."

"We're in Pittenweem, in Fife," the wizard put in, helpfully, and he raised his hat to Tonks as he trundled off the bus.

"The very place we wanted to go," Tonks grinned and pulled Remus up from his seat. "Come on," she said under her breath, as he looked dubious. "What are we even doing on this joke of a machine, when we can just apparate back? Let's get out of here."

She had already hopped determinedly down the aisle and down the steps onto the street, so Remus followed her off the bus, with courteous thanks to the driver as they got off. There was no snow here, but a hard frost across distant fields that the light of the day hadn't lifted in one direction, and a tiny stone harbour giving way to a choppy ice blue sea in the other. In the middle were narrow meandering streets lined with fishermen's cottages with stone staircases on the outside. The little wizard disappeared up a tiny ramshackle alley.

"Very nice," Tonks said, appreciatively. Then, casting a trained look around to see whether they could be seen, she ducked around a corner behind the harbour wall. Remus followed and watched as she morphed back. In less than the blink of an eye, her body shrank to its usual height, so that the tweed coat hung off her, and her face assumed its natural heart shape and features.

Before she could move, and before he could think about it, he bent to kiss her. "Merlin, that's better," he said, cupping her face with his left hand and pulling her closer to him with his right hand at her waist. She wound her arms around his neck and grinned into his kiss.

"Is this Remus Lupin indulging in a public display of affection, or have you been imperiused?"

"Hardly public, when the Ministry's finest Auror has just checked the field," he replied, tightening his embrace against the bitter North Sea wind. "Besides, I've been longing to do this all morning."

He felt almost like a teenager, carefree and wide eyed with excitement, snogging his girl up against a wall for minutes on end under a cold blue sky. The wind seemed to run straight through him, and he was warm and happy, and only conscious in the very remotest corner of his mind that he was a dark creature who had nothing to offer this beautiful force of nature in his arms, never mind that there was a war on.

The soft tread of feet behind them startled them apart. Tonks already had her wand half out, though still obscured by her oversized cost sleeve, but the noise was simply an ordinary muggle woman, sturdily clad against the weather, walking a west highland terrier. They stood close together, as though casually talking, as they watched her pass. She tutted distinctly, though not without some good humour as she passed, in a soft East Neuk brogue. "Get a room."

Lupin had the grace to look abashed, but Tonks winked cheerfully at the woman as she and her dog made their way down the path.

"I'd love to, actually," she said to Remus, looking around at what they could see of the village. "But something tells me this isn't the kind of place where you can get rooms by the hour."

"Nor even for a night," he agreed, turning around the corner into what they could see of the main street. The place was completely charming but extremely small.

"But maybe a cup of tea," Tonks said, on a brighter note, pointing towards a cosy looking shop front with a sign designating it as a tea room. "Now that I'm not hot with the touch of your mouth and your hands, I'm bloody freezing. I keep some muggle money in my wallet, for just such an occasion."

It had been a few months since he first kissed Tonks, and no less than that since he'd first taken her to bed - or perhaps it was she who had taken him, Remus was never quite sure - but it still stopped him in his tracks to hear her talk so casually of wanting him. He recovered himself and followed gladly towards the warmth of the tea room.

Inside, there was the gentle hum of morning coffee being taken, and conversation being had. Remus examined the notice board in the corner, with posters advertising folk music on Thursdays in the local pub and a jumble sale the following week at the local church. Tonks ordered a hot chocolate and Remus a pot of earl grey tea. Outside a mother with three small boys with sandy hair and identical yellow coats walked past. There was something soothing about the life of a small place unfolding around them, as yet untouched by any of the dangers which threatened further away.

"It's dead nice here," Tonks sighed, looking out of the window at the picturesque harbour.

"Maybe one day, when all this is over, if we're both - if we survive it - we could come back on holiday. Take walks by the harbour, listen to some folk music. Find a little cottage where I can fuck you all night and all morning to the rhythm of the sea in the distance." Remus spoke dreamily, though in his usual mild tones, and he didn't seem to notice Tonks' sharp intake of breath. He was so polite and so guarded that it came as a delicious shock to hear him use that kind of language and talk so unreservedly about what he wanted to do to her. She gulped, felt her blood run warm again, and unconsciously she uncrossed her legs.

Remus looked up and saw her surprised expression. Immediately he recollected himself. "I'm so sorry, Dora, I didn't mean to assume - obviously you may well have - you will have - all sorts of options and ideas when we're not in a war situation, there's absolutely no reason why you should want to -"

"That's not why I'm staring at you, Remus, you absolute dope. It's because I've never heard you talk about fucking me before. You never even use the word "shag"."

Even more crestfallen, he began afresh his apologies, staring nervously down into his tea. He worked so hard at all times to be civilised, gentlemanly, and above all the very opposite of bestial and he was horrified at having let his huard down. "Dora, I wasn't thinking, I'm so sorry. I didnt mean it in a disrespectful way, I hope you know how much I -."

"Remus, stop it. It was hot as hell."

He looked up and met her eyes.

"Oh."

"I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm actually really into the way you normally speak. But this - well, it was - shall we go back to my place?"

Remus swallowed. "All right," he said.

They had to apparate in instalments, because of the distance. It was hard work, and they inevitably got separated on the journey. Tonks's knowledge of UK geography was pretty woeful, and it caused her to insert several unnecessary stops into her itinerary. Finding herself still in Scotland, although near the border, an hour into the venture, she began to think much less critically of the Knight Bus.

"Next time I have one of my bright ideas and abandon a well-laid plan, you have my permission to tell me to shove it up my arse," she said wearily, as eventually she apparated into her flat at about half past three. The January sky was already nearly black, and her flat was unlit in the dimness. She sighed and muttered lumos as she kicked off her boots. There was no sign of Remus. She couldn't blame him for getting sick of waiting and heading back to help cheer Sirius.

As the light spread around the flat, her eyes widened and she paused in the act of taking off her too-large coat. The empty mugs and crumb- covered plates from which several hasty breakfasts over the past few weeks had been taken and which had been strewn around the sitting room were gone, the surfaces clear. Jumpers, scarves and cloaks which had been discarded over the backs of chairs were all neatly folded or hung up, and peering into the little kitchen area which lined the side of the living space she saw the teapot she kept at the very back of the cupboard on the table, with two cups and a plate of biscuits next to it. Tonks had eaten nothing since breakfast, and she stuffed three of the biscuits into her mouth.

"There's a warming charm on the tea," an unaccustomedly hoarse voice said from the sofa, which had its back to the kitchen, and she saw Remus's head pop up. He was squinting in the light and sitting up and looking at his watch. "I'd've made some lunch - or dinner - but the only other food I could find was some soggy cornflakes and a mouldy satsuma."

"Yeah, I've been spending most of my free time at my boyfriend's place recently," Tonks said, her mouth still full.

"I think you mean your boyfriend's Azkaban-escapee best friend's place," Remus smiled, looking more awake and coming round to put his arms around her and claim a slightly biscuity kiss. "How on earth did it take you so long? I would have been worried if I hadn't so much confidence in your skills."

Tonks poured tea into both the cups and described her rambling journey as they drank it and finished the biscuits. "What an idiot," she concluded, grinning at her own shortcomings unrepentantly.

"It's not your fault. I've just travelled around a lot more, one of the benefits of never being able to settle anywhere. Everyone should be taught rudimentary geography at school. I've suggested more than once that the syllabus at Hogwarts should be updated. Just because muggles study something doesn't mean it's not worth knowing."

She looked appraisingly at him. "Y'know, after all this is over, when the laws about werewolves and employment are different, you should be in charge of Hogwarts. No offence to Dumbledore or anything, but he's, what, a thousand years old? He'll need a nice rest. Ron and Ginny told me what a wonderful teacher you were - all the kids have done, actually. It'd be great."

Remus only just stopped himself from asking "And what about you, if I lived at Hogwarts?" Even in this fantasy world where they both survived whatever was coming and centuries of fear and hostility were wound back allowing complete integration of werewolves in the wizarding world, the idea that she would still be his years into the future was something that he couldn't allow himself to contemplate. Tonks carried on talking.

"Y'know, when I see you with them, with Harry and all the rest, you're so calm, and so wryly funny, and so authoritative but like in a gentle way so they don't even notice . It just makes me think. You'd be a great dad, Remus."

Remus almost spat out his tea. It had been years since he'd had cause to mourn the possibilty of having his own family, mostly because the absence of other possibilities, like regular employment or a life free from pain, had been so much more pressing, and this was one of the last things he'd expected to hear from Tonks.

"Dora, there are almost no instances of werewolves going on to have children, and none that have been scientifically documented. It would be catastrophically unsafe and irresponsible, it's just another on the long list of things that I can't ever offer to ... a woman." He had very nearly said "to you."

"Yeah, I know." She seemed unperturbed by the sad, hunched look that he knew had settled back onto him, as it always did when he contemplated all that he couldn't offer her. She hastened on, in case he went down the too familiar rabbit hole of self recrimination and started trying nobly to break it off with her, as he was never far from doing. "I just meant that you're lovely with them, that's all. I don't even know whether I want kids myself. They're a lot of work, aren't they? Anyway, if I had a baby I'd probably drop it on the first day."

"I don't suppose anybody really feels they know how to look after a baby when they first have one," Remus said. Memories resurfaced from what seemed like several lifetimes ago of James and Lily, younger even than Tonks was now, thrilled but shell shocked and holding baby Harry awkwardly in their arms. "I'm sure you'd pick it up."

"Well, obviously I'd pick it up, Remus," Tonks's eyes were twinkling, "even I wouldn't just leave a baby on the floor." He laughed, the unguarded laugh which came from his chest that she so easily elicited and that was so hard won otherwise. That seemed to be the thing about her, about them - somehow they always ended up laughing.

"Anyway, like I say, I reckon being a mum is something I could deal with living without," she continued, eyeing him carefully beneath her smile, to make sure that he was getting the message. "And just to be clear, when this is all over, damn right I'm coming with you on that sex holiday to Pitten-whatever-it's-called. Just try and stop me."

"I never would." Remus looked up from his tea and their eyes met. All laughter instantly died. Tonks bit her bottom lip with eager anticipation, and suddenly the space the table interposed between them was much too vast. Remus was around the table and pulling Tonks up from her chair while his words were still fresh from his lips, and then kissing her as if he could somehow make up with his body for everything he felt he lacked as a boyfriend. His hands were all over her, pulling and unbuttoning her clothes and running over every part of her that he could reach, and she did the same to him.

They didn't even make it to the bedroom, and Tonks had good reason to be grateful that he'd cleaned the kitchen counter tops so thoroughly. They had gone hard and fast, and didn't drop the pace until Remus had come inside her, and was gently lifting her down from the countertops, placing her on the sofa, and covering them both with the woollen throw which he'd neatly folded earlier that afternoon.

"We probably should've closed the curtains first," Tonks commented laconically, her voice a bit shaky from the waves of pleasure still echoing in her body. Remus looked in horror towards the large window, from which the sofa and, behind it, the kitchen area were clearly visible. Tonks cackled and rubbed his arm soothingly, "Just kidding, I charmed it when I moved in so that it always looks like there's a man reading a book in that arm chair, and nothing else can be seen. It's just basic security when you're a woman living alone. That, and I like to walk around naked."

Remus encircled her more snugly in his arms. "Anything that facilitates that is to be commended, in my book," he said. "I still can't believe that I'm the one who gets to be there when you do."

For now, his inner voice reminded himself, sternly. Don't get too used to it. You know this is only temporary. But he also knew as he kissed the top of her head, his nose tickling from her ridiculous, beautiful soft pink hair, that it was getting frighteningly easy to ignore that voice.