42 Pairs of Socks
Title: 42 Pairs of Socks
Author: darklyromantic
Rating & Warnings: PG
Prompts: A prank, "One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair." J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Tried for both, hopefully got one :)
Word Count: 3,842
Summary: How socks and Death Eaters brought Remus and Tonks together. AU (Remus isn't a wizard).
Author’s Notes: Hullo, long time lurker, first time taking-parter here, so I’ve probably done something silly :) Anyway, this is an attempt at a minimalist style, something I've been wanting to try for a while. It came out slightly angstier than I'd planned for, but hopefully it's still on the lighter side of angst. Thanks to my betas, alfrinsia and Katie.
As Remus flipped over the page of the magazine, something bright caught the corner of his eye. He glanced up, expecting to see one of the Christmas decorations that lined the shop walls, but started when he saw a woman standing there instead.
The clothes she wore were dark and subdued, and her skin was bloodless from the cold, but her hair had been the striking contrast that had caught his eye. It was short, spiked and deeply pink. She smiled at him, and Remus weakly returned the gesture, whilst trying not to stare too obviously.
When she turned her attention back to the shelves and other things, Remus forced himself to remember that staring was rude, and did the same.
A few minutes later, five pairs of garish socks landed on the counter before him, followed by a bright, “Wotcher!”
Remus wasn’t surprised to see that the customer attached was the unnatural redhead; somehow the green and yellow penguin socks seemed to fit.
“Hello,” he replied.
“That looks nasty,” she said, gesturing towards Remus’ face. “How did you get that?”
Remus’ hand automatically rose to finger the tender skin around the sharp, still-healing gash along his jaw. “Oh, it was nothing,” he said softly, “walked into a door.” It was an obvious, hackneyed lie, but it was easier than having to explain why he’d been trying to attach silver chains to basement walls.
She studied him speculatively for a moment. “Must have been some door.”
“Yes, well…” He quickly looked away to hide the blush while he put the socks through the till. Then he murmured the total, directing it at his hands as he packed the socks into a shop-branded bag. She fumbled with the money for a moment, squinting at the notes like an obvious foreigner, before finally handing it over.
Remus dutifully traded the money for the bag, carefully not meeting her eyes as he did so. The woman hesitated a moment, then grabbed her bag and left.
***
Remus was carrying out his fifth box of festive stock when he bumped into her the next day. At first he thought he’d walked into one of the displays, because as everything went flying he’d caught a streak of green behind it all. But then she’d knelt down to help him.
“I’m sorry,” he said, picking up a handful of crumpled ties. “I didn’t see you there.”
“Me either,” she replied. “Don’t worry though, I’m used to causing accidents. I didn't feel a thing.”
Remus looked up, blinking around the too-bright light of the shop. His eyes were always sensitive around this time of the month, and the added fairy lights of this particular month did nothing to ease that. It was only when his eyes readjusted themselves that he realized just how close she was.
He didn’t miss the fact that she’d dyed her hair green today, but this close to it was easier for him to notice the face below it this time; heart-shaped, with nicely rounded cheeks and darkly twinkling eyes. He swallowed painfully as he realized that even underneath the bright hair, she really was quite striking all by herself.
“Back for more?” he asked quickly, nodding to a fresh pile of socks that she had collected up in a small wire basket.
“Oh, yes, I liked the last lot so much I couldn’t resist.” She sat back on her heels and pulled up the hem of her long coat enough to reveal one of the pairs she’d bought the day before.
Remus couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth, but he ducked his head as he stood and led her over to the till.
***
Remus raised an eyebrow when his newest, and quite possibly strangest, serial customer pushed a third plethora of socks onto the counter.
“One can never have enough socks,” she quoted, clearly imitating someone Remus didn’t know.
Remus looked at her incredulously before handing over the receipt.
***
The light beyond the shop windows grew darker, and Remus watched as the last of the late-night shoppers hurried past them. Not one of them had either green or pink hair though, and none of the customers that had filed through during the day had either.
Remus suddenly shook his head and wondered at what point he’d become so accustomed to seeing her. Admittedly she had come in every day, for the past six days, practically plowing through their entire catalogue of multi-coloured socks. But then when had he started actively looking out for her?
Remus slid off his chair and went to fetch his coat from the back room, where he saw that someone had pinned an advent calendar to the wall above the pegs. Remus usually avoided calendars of all types, if he could, he didn’t need them to tell him when the moon was coming. But he looked at this one now as it not only counted down the days until the next full moon, but also clearly illustrated just how short a month really was.
Any kind of relationship with her, he reminded himself firmly as he looked at the painful limit of days, would be an impossible one to keep.
***
Remus winced as he bent down to open a new box and almost all of his bones crackled with the move. Today all lights were blinding, his joints were sore, and his skin felt as if it was already trying to reform itself around his bones.
“You look awful,” a voice informed him unnecessarily.
“Thank you,” he said dryly, glancing up at the now purple-haired woman. He straightened up with difficulty, cricking his back in the process, but almost smiling at her return despite it all.
“Should you be here today? I mean, you’re obviously not feeling well.”
Remus sighed. “True, but I’ll be feeling even worse in a few days if I don’t have this month’s rent in on time.”
“Right. Well, here, at least let me help you sort through these,” she offered, turning to reach almost excitedly into the box.
“Oh, no, that’s all right, you don’t have to-“ he began.
“It’s no problem,” she assured him, emerging from the box with ticketed socks dangling from each hand.
“But I’m the one getting paid to do it,” he said weakly.
“I’ll start a tab and bill you later then.” She winked at him as she knelt to arrange the shelves.
“Really I-“ Remus began, another protest at the ready. But then he stopped. Something about the set of her shoulders and the look in her eye told him that just letting her get on with it would get him much further than trying to argue with her would.
Besides, it was mostly due to her that he’d needed to shelve more socks in the first place, he reasoned, so it’d probably save them both some time and much needed energy this way.
As he moved to help her though, Remus’ stomach twisted violently and the room spun. He managed to grit his teeth long enough to finish up, but he hastily retreated to the cloakroom without another word the moment that they were done.
***
At some point during the three blurred evenings of pain and days of broken sleep, Remus found himself wondering if she’d been into the shop again, or if he’d already managed to scare her off. When he told himself it was inevitable and for the best, a faint pang of regret wound itself around the words.
***
Remus limped through the snow laden High Street, determined to help out at the shop but wishing he had a magic wand to take the residual pain away. Luckily, there were no new visible bites or scrapes to worry about, but the damage was there nonetheless.
The eccentric owner of the shop in which he worked had assured him it wasn’t necessary to come in today, not if he still looked the same as he had those three days ago. But he knew he’d feel too guilty staying at home on one of the busiest days of the year.
His unexplainable monthly absences had never been a problem for her, but he didn’t want to push it too far. She may have been the type of person that would tell you everything about themselves within minutes of meeting them, but she also instinctively knew when to stop asking awkward questions and that, in Remus’ experience, was rare.
But as Remus rounded the last corner, he suddenly felt a strange sensation blaze across his skin. It was almost as if a bubble had just burst around him, and one filed with sound more than anything else.
“…DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING OR WHY, BUT IT HAS TO STOP!”
Remus collected himself enough in time to see of a scrap of red going up in flames, and his green-haired customer turn to him with wide eyes. She’s a witch. He barely had time to feel his heart sink at the realization before another woman rushed around the corner.
“What was that?” the newcomer demanded.
There was a heavy pause, filled only with the sound of wild breathing from three sets of panicked lungs.
“It was nothing,” Remus found himself saying at length. “Just some kids messing around.”
“But - I could have sworn -“
He shook his head. “Just the lights reflecting on the snow. It’s fine.”
The stranger frowned, but visibly relented even before she spoke. “Well I guess, if - if you’re sure…?” After one last look around, and a quick reading of both their faces, she trudged slowly back the way she’d come.
“Thanks for that, I’m awful at memory charms.” The green-haired witch smiled, but it quickly faded when she saw Remus’ expression.
“You’re a witch,” he said lamely, not quite liking the justified accusation in his voice.
“Yes, is… that a problem? I mean, they told me you already knew about the Wizarding World, but…”
Remus shook his now pounding head, all words seemingly lost to him as a feeling of betrayal he wasn’t sure he was entitled to flooded through him. He desperately wanted to walk away, and he almost tried, but he suddenly swayed unsteadily on his feet as some muscles belatedly spasmed.
She rushed over to him, eyeing him anxiously as she tried to take his arm. Remus instinctively flinched away, and she stood back to hold her hands up in placation. “All right, but please, let’s go somewhere where you can sit down, and then we can talk about this.”
Remus hesitated for a long moment before he weakly agreed. He still wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do, but it was certainly the only thing he could do.
***
The café was small, but just crowded enough to afford them a strange amount of privacy. Remus wasn’t sure how they’d made it there, but he’d suddenly found himself sat at a table in the corner, a hot mug of something sweet steaming in front of him, and a witch sat in the place across from him.
“I’m sorry I startled you,” she offered. “When I got the Howler I guess I tried to run and cast a silencing charm at the same time, so of course I tripped over my laces and ended up doing neither.”
“It was certainly… unexpected. Look… uh… I’m sorry,” he interrupted himself softly, “but I still don’t know your name.”
“Call me Tonks,” she said.
“Tonks. I’m Remus,” he replied, almost reaching out his hand through habit, but at the sheepish and slightly guilty way she twisted in her seat he sat back. “But you knew that already,” he guessed.
Tonks nodded. “I’m sorry, Remus, but I'm an Auror - a dark wizard catcher - and I was sent here to watch you. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but werewolves all over Britain have been disappearing; we’re not sure how or why, or what happens to them afterwards, but with all that’s going on in the Wizarding World at the moment, we need to find out.
"I was supposed to stand back and wait to see what happened. If someone had come for you, then we would have stepped in and stopped them. If not, if it had been the other way around and you’d gone to them, then… well… Either way, we’d have had our answer.”
Remus frowned uncomprehendingly at her for a moment, until something important suddenly clicked in his mind. “Why did you come into the shop, if you were only supposed to watch? Was someone -?”
“No, no, I needed socks, and you sold them. Technically, I didn’t even need to leave my post, though my boss doesn’t seem to agree with me on that point, as you might have heard.”
Remus’ frown deepened as he eyed her suspiciously. “And just what were you planning to do with forty-two pairs of socks?”
Tonks flashed a mischievous smile at him. “You kept track?”
Remus pinned her with a pointed look. “If I was in danger, Tonks, then I think I’ve a right to know about it. I’m not a child that has to be taken care of, or a criminal that needs to be watched.”
Tonks sighed, her smile wilting, though she didn’t quite lose the impish glint in her eye. “All right, I’ll tell you the truth, but if anyone asks, you didn’t hear this from me. A pair of troublemakers I know asked me to get hold of a few dozen pairs for a prank they have in the planning. It’s sort of an annual tradition for them, pranking the Christmas dinner.
“Honestly, Remus, you’re not in danger. Despite what anyone else might think, I’ve seen that you’re a decent person, that you’re not the type to join the other side by choice, so we’ll be there to stop them from getting anywhere near you if they try. I’m sorry you feel like you’re being treated unfairly, but I really didn’t think there was any need to worry you about it because we're here - I’m here - to do that for you.”
Remus still wasn’t all the way convinced by what she’d said, but he found himself nodding anyway.
“Okay,” she said slowly, studying his reaction and obviously not believing it. “Look, I - I like you Remus, and I thought that we were getting along really well before. I’d really hate for any of this to ruin that, so would you mind me stopping by the shop again to see you?”
“I don’t know,” Remus said honestly, though it strangely tore at him to do it. “I’m sorry, Tonks, but my interactions with your world, even before this, have been somewhat less than favorable. And after everything that’s happened today I - I just need some time alone to think.” He pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, the need to get out of the suddenly restrictive space pressing on his chest.
“Al-all right,” Tonks replied uncertainly as she watched him leave.
***
Remus thought about nothing else from the moment he stepped out of the café, till well into the sleepless night. But instead of dwelling on what he felt he should - the fact that he might be in danger - he instead found himself thinking mainly about Tonks.
Probably because she was a fact, he decided, whereas the danger was a relatively abstract concept. And an absurd one at that, since he couldn’t imagine himself being important enough for such things.
But whatever the reason, he thought about how she had shown genuine concern for him, from the very first time they’d met, and the way she’d helped him when he’d been in pain. Even though she’d known who and what he was, she hadn’t walked up to him with the soul intention of hurling abuse at him, like others had, and she’d never backed away like he’d had a communicable disease when he’d got too close.
Granted, Remus hadn’t met many witches or wizards in his lifetime, and he tried hard never to tar them with the same brush, but she was certainly the first to treat him like he was human, and he couldn’t help but feel a little encouraged by that.
And yet she’d been secretly watching him for who knew how long, and she’d kept a lot hidden on top of that. She was also still very much a part of the Wizarding World, whereas he… well, he wasn’t.
***
Untraceable hours later, Remus found himself standing on a frosted pavement, staring absently at the Christmas displays in shop windows. He tried not to wonder if he was being watched right then, by how many eyes, and by how many sides. But, deep down, he was hoping that, if he were, Tonks was amongst them. At least then he’d have someone agreeable watching over his wellbeing.
“Wotcher,” a voice said softly from behind him.
Remus smiled blandly as he glanced over his shoulder. Tonks stood close by, a yellow and black scarf covering the bottom half of her face. Her now red hair was suddenly long and thick enough to act in lieu of a hood, and covered up everything else but her eyes.
“Shopping?” she asked lightly.
“No, not really. You?”
She shook her head. “Can’t, I spent all my money on socks and the twins haven’t reimbursed me yet.”
“But can’t you just…” He glanced around, before waving his hands through empty air.
Tonks frowned for a second, before her face cleared with understanding. “Oh. No, it doesn’t work like that. We can’t just wave up things that aren’t already there.”
“Ah. Well there goes that theory,” he murmured to himself. He glanced around at the street again, and they stood in an almost companionable silence for a time.
“So, how is the investigation going?”
“It’s not really,” she admitted with a shrug. “You’re still here though, that’s something at least. And it does seem to point to the others going voluntarily, so for now it looks as if you might be off the hook. But… you don’t have plans for Christmas do you? Like visiting your family, or…?”
“No, I… I don’t have any family left,” he said quietly, looking away. “My parents died while I was young, and… well, they were my only family.”
“I’m sorry, Remus. What about friends, then?”
“I don’t really have any of those either, at least none that are close enough to spend Christmas with. With my… problem, I have to lie too much to begin with and it’s not a good basis to build a friendship on. There were once though, three friends that I trusted enough to tell the truth to eventually. But they’re gone now too.”
“You don’t have to lie to me any more,” Tonks said softly. Then she beamed up at him, sympathy nevertheless still clear in her eyes, as she moved to thread her arm though his. “Well, anyway, that’ll make my job of tailing you a lot easier, we can both just hang around your place through Christmas. Of course, I’ll be keeping an eye on you from a stealthy distance and being cleverly discreet about it, but...”
Remus glanced nervously down at their joined arms, but something kept him from pulling instinctively away this time. He felt the warmth of her weight pressed against his arm, saw the complete sincerity of her words, and within seconds the whole moment simply felt right.
Maybe a friendship wouldn’t be so impossible, a voice at the back of his head tried to say as his pulse sped. Though anything more still had to be, he countered. After all, she must have been half his age.
***
Tonks became a regular visitor at the shop after that, her demeanor moving from cautious back to what it had been within a day. This time though, with no money left to spend on garish footwear, she’d taken it upon herself to help Remus with whatever needed doing that day.
Despite his lingering reservations, and her particular ability to trip over her own feet and cause her own brand of chaos, Remus found himself enjoying her company implicitly. If nothing else, she made the day more colourful, and that alone forced him to remind himself of their respective ages more times than he could count.
***
Crash.
“Hello, Tonks,” Remus called, standing up from his place by the bottom shelf and turning towards the sound.
But this time he didn’t see Tonks standing in the middle of her own chaos. Instead there was a dark figure, a slash of a leering white mask marking the place where a face should be, standing in the middle of the shop floor, a wand grasped firmly in hand.
Remus dragged a shallow breath into his lungs, no idea of what he would do beyond that coming to mind as he did it. But as the flash of red light left the strange wand, a streak of black and green bowled into Remus’ side, knocking him to the floor and out of the way. Tonks turned to stand between the two men as she deflected the next volley of spells.
The fight was short but seemingly brutal, and Remus had nothing to fight with though he desperately wished he did. He didn’t want to think what could happen to Tonks while he lay, embarrassingly powerless, on the floor. Every part of him shouted at him to help, to leap in and protect her, but doing anything else would probably just ensure that something did.
Then finally, Tonks stood in the middle of the shattered shop floor, out of breath and brushing herself off. She smiled tiredly at him as she came to help him find his feet again. “Sorry, we managed to stop the others before they made the High Street, but this one managed to slip through. Luckily for you, I noticed.”
“Thank you,” Remus said shakily, trying not to think too closely about the fact that she’d been the only one. “Looks like you got your answer now, at least. I hope it was worth all this.” He forced his eyes from Tonks long enough to look around at the devastation.
Tonks followed his gaze and cringed. “Oh, don’t worry about that,” she said, “the others will be along in a moment to clean it up. As for you though, I’m afraid it looks like you’ll be spending Christmas with me, so I can keep a closer eye on you. But look on the bright side, Remus, at least you’ll get to see what happens to the socks this way.”
She moved over and carefully wound her arm around his. “And it will be worth all this in the end. Even if I do have to beat you over the head to get you to ask me out,” she muttered.
Tonks Apparated them both away before Remus even had time to finish his first confused protest.
Author: darklyromantic
Rating & Warnings: PG
Prompts: A prank, "One can never have enough socks. Another Christmas has come and gone and I didn't get a single pair." J.K. Rowling - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Tried for both, hopefully got one :)
Word Count: 3,842
Summary: How socks and Death Eaters brought Remus and Tonks together. AU (Remus isn't a wizard).
Author’s Notes: Hullo, long time lurker, first time taking-parter here, so I’ve probably done something silly :) Anyway, this is an attempt at a minimalist style, something I've been wanting to try for a while. It came out slightly angstier than I'd planned for, but hopefully it's still on the lighter side of angst. Thanks to my betas, alfrinsia and Katie.
As Remus flipped over the page of the magazine, something bright caught the corner of his eye. He glanced up, expecting to see one of the Christmas decorations that lined the shop walls, but started when he saw a woman standing there instead.
The clothes she wore were dark and subdued, and her skin was bloodless from the cold, but her hair had been the striking contrast that had caught his eye. It was short, spiked and deeply pink. She smiled at him, and Remus weakly returned the gesture, whilst trying not to stare too obviously.
When she turned her attention back to the shelves and other things, Remus forced himself to remember that staring was rude, and did the same.
A few minutes later, five pairs of garish socks landed on the counter before him, followed by a bright, “Wotcher!”
Remus wasn’t surprised to see that the customer attached was the unnatural redhead; somehow the green and yellow penguin socks seemed to fit.
“Hello,” he replied.
“That looks nasty,” she said, gesturing towards Remus’ face. “How did you get that?”
Remus’ hand automatically rose to finger the tender skin around the sharp, still-healing gash along his jaw. “Oh, it was nothing,” he said softly, “walked into a door.” It was an obvious, hackneyed lie, but it was easier than having to explain why he’d been trying to attach silver chains to basement walls.
She studied him speculatively for a moment. “Must have been some door.”
“Yes, well…” He quickly looked away to hide the blush while he put the socks through the till. Then he murmured the total, directing it at his hands as he packed the socks into a shop-branded bag. She fumbled with the money for a moment, squinting at the notes like an obvious foreigner, before finally handing it over.
Remus dutifully traded the money for the bag, carefully not meeting her eyes as he did so. The woman hesitated a moment, then grabbed her bag and left.
***
Remus was carrying out his fifth box of festive stock when he bumped into her the next day. At first he thought he’d walked into one of the displays, because as everything went flying he’d caught a streak of green behind it all. But then she’d knelt down to help him.
“I’m sorry,” he said, picking up a handful of crumpled ties. “I didn’t see you there.”
“Me either,” she replied. “Don’t worry though, I’m used to causing accidents. I didn't feel a thing.”
Remus looked up, blinking around the too-bright light of the shop. His eyes were always sensitive around this time of the month, and the added fairy lights of this particular month did nothing to ease that. It was only when his eyes readjusted themselves that he realized just how close she was.
He didn’t miss the fact that she’d dyed her hair green today, but this close to it was easier for him to notice the face below it this time; heart-shaped, with nicely rounded cheeks and darkly twinkling eyes. He swallowed painfully as he realized that even underneath the bright hair, she really was quite striking all by herself.
“Back for more?” he asked quickly, nodding to a fresh pile of socks that she had collected up in a small wire basket.
“Oh, yes, I liked the last lot so much I couldn’t resist.” She sat back on her heels and pulled up the hem of her long coat enough to reveal one of the pairs she’d bought the day before.
Remus couldn’t help the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth, but he ducked his head as he stood and led her over to the till.
***
Remus raised an eyebrow when his newest, and quite possibly strangest, serial customer pushed a third plethora of socks onto the counter.
“One can never have enough socks,” she quoted, clearly imitating someone Remus didn’t know.
Remus looked at her incredulously before handing over the receipt.
***
The light beyond the shop windows grew darker, and Remus watched as the last of the late-night shoppers hurried past them. Not one of them had either green or pink hair though, and none of the customers that had filed through during the day had either.
Remus suddenly shook his head and wondered at what point he’d become so accustomed to seeing her. Admittedly she had come in every day, for the past six days, practically plowing through their entire catalogue of multi-coloured socks. But then when had he started actively looking out for her?
Remus slid off his chair and went to fetch his coat from the back room, where he saw that someone had pinned an advent calendar to the wall above the pegs. Remus usually avoided calendars of all types, if he could, he didn’t need them to tell him when the moon was coming. But he looked at this one now as it not only counted down the days until the next full moon, but also clearly illustrated just how short a month really was.
Any kind of relationship with her, he reminded himself firmly as he looked at the painful limit of days, would be an impossible one to keep.
***
Remus winced as he bent down to open a new box and almost all of his bones crackled with the move. Today all lights were blinding, his joints were sore, and his skin felt as if it was already trying to reform itself around his bones.
“You look awful,” a voice informed him unnecessarily.
“Thank you,” he said dryly, glancing up at the now purple-haired woman. He straightened up with difficulty, cricking his back in the process, but almost smiling at her return despite it all.
“Should you be here today? I mean, you’re obviously not feeling well.”
Remus sighed. “True, but I’ll be feeling even worse in a few days if I don’t have this month’s rent in on time.”
“Right. Well, here, at least let me help you sort through these,” she offered, turning to reach almost excitedly into the box.
“Oh, no, that’s all right, you don’t have to-“ he began.
“It’s no problem,” she assured him, emerging from the box with ticketed socks dangling from each hand.
“But I’m the one getting paid to do it,” he said weakly.
“I’ll start a tab and bill you later then.” She winked at him as she knelt to arrange the shelves.
“Really I-“ Remus began, another protest at the ready. But then he stopped. Something about the set of her shoulders and the look in her eye told him that just letting her get on with it would get him much further than trying to argue with her would.
Besides, it was mostly due to her that he’d needed to shelve more socks in the first place, he reasoned, so it’d probably save them both some time and much needed energy this way.
As he moved to help her though, Remus’ stomach twisted violently and the room spun. He managed to grit his teeth long enough to finish up, but he hastily retreated to the cloakroom without another word the moment that they were done.
***
At some point during the three blurred evenings of pain and days of broken sleep, Remus found himself wondering if she’d been into the shop again, or if he’d already managed to scare her off. When he told himself it was inevitable and for the best, a faint pang of regret wound itself around the words.
***
Remus limped through the snow laden High Street, determined to help out at the shop but wishing he had a magic wand to take the residual pain away. Luckily, there were no new visible bites or scrapes to worry about, but the damage was there nonetheless.
The eccentric owner of the shop in which he worked had assured him it wasn’t necessary to come in today, not if he still looked the same as he had those three days ago. But he knew he’d feel too guilty staying at home on one of the busiest days of the year.
His unexplainable monthly absences had never been a problem for her, but he didn’t want to push it too far. She may have been the type of person that would tell you everything about themselves within minutes of meeting them, but she also instinctively knew when to stop asking awkward questions and that, in Remus’ experience, was rare.
But as Remus rounded the last corner, he suddenly felt a strange sensation blaze across his skin. It was almost as if a bubble had just burst around him, and one filed with sound more than anything else.
“…DON’T KNOW WHAT YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING OR WHY, BUT IT HAS TO STOP!”
Remus collected himself enough in time to see of a scrap of red going up in flames, and his green-haired customer turn to him with wide eyes. She’s a witch. He barely had time to feel his heart sink at the realization before another woman rushed around the corner.
“What was that?” the newcomer demanded.
There was a heavy pause, filled only with the sound of wild breathing from three sets of panicked lungs.
“It was nothing,” Remus found himself saying at length. “Just some kids messing around.”
“But - I could have sworn -“
He shook his head. “Just the lights reflecting on the snow. It’s fine.”
The stranger frowned, but visibly relented even before she spoke. “Well I guess, if - if you’re sure…?” After one last look around, and a quick reading of both their faces, she trudged slowly back the way she’d come.
“Thanks for that, I’m awful at memory charms.” The green-haired witch smiled, but it quickly faded when she saw Remus’ expression.
“You’re a witch,” he said lamely, not quite liking the justified accusation in his voice.
“Yes, is… that a problem? I mean, they told me you already knew about the Wizarding World, but…”
Remus shook his now pounding head, all words seemingly lost to him as a feeling of betrayal he wasn’t sure he was entitled to flooded through him. He desperately wanted to walk away, and he almost tried, but he suddenly swayed unsteadily on his feet as some muscles belatedly spasmed.
She rushed over to him, eyeing him anxiously as she tried to take his arm. Remus instinctively flinched away, and she stood back to hold her hands up in placation. “All right, but please, let’s go somewhere where you can sit down, and then we can talk about this.”
Remus hesitated for a long moment before he weakly agreed. He still wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do, but it was certainly the only thing he could do.
***
The café was small, but just crowded enough to afford them a strange amount of privacy. Remus wasn’t sure how they’d made it there, but he’d suddenly found himself sat at a table in the corner, a hot mug of something sweet steaming in front of him, and a witch sat in the place across from him.
“I’m sorry I startled you,” she offered. “When I got the Howler I guess I tried to run and cast a silencing charm at the same time, so of course I tripped over my laces and ended up doing neither.”
“It was certainly… unexpected. Look… uh… I’m sorry,” he interrupted himself softly, “but I still don’t know your name.”
“Call me Tonks,” she said.
“Tonks. I’m Remus,” he replied, almost reaching out his hand through habit, but at the sheepish and slightly guilty way she twisted in her seat he sat back. “But you knew that already,” he guessed.
Tonks nodded. “I’m sorry, Remus, but I'm an Auror - a dark wizard catcher - and I was sent here to watch you. I’m not sure if you’ve heard, but werewolves all over Britain have been disappearing; we’re not sure how or why, or what happens to them afterwards, but with all that’s going on in the Wizarding World at the moment, we need to find out.
"I was supposed to stand back and wait to see what happened. If someone had come for you, then we would have stepped in and stopped them. If not, if it had been the other way around and you’d gone to them, then… well… Either way, we’d have had our answer.”
Remus frowned uncomprehendingly at her for a moment, until something important suddenly clicked in his mind. “Why did you come into the shop, if you were only supposed to watch? Was someone -?”
“No, no, I needed socks, and you sold them. Technically, I didn’t even need to leave my post, though my boss doesn’t seem to agree with me on that point, as you might have heard.”
Remus’ frown deepened as he eyed her suspiciously. “And just what were you planning to do with forty-two pairs of socks?”
Tonks flashed a mischievous smile at him. “You kept track?”
Remus pinned her with a pointed look. “If I was in danger, Tonks, then I think I’ve a right to know about it. I’m not a child that has to be taken care of, or a criminal that needs to be watched.”
Tonks sighed, her smile wilting, though she didn’t quite lose the impish glint in her eye. “All right, I’ll tell you the truth, but if anyone asks, you didn’t hear this from me. A pair of troublemakers I know asked me to get hold of a few dozen pairs for a prank they have in the planning. It’s sort of an annual tradition for them, pranking the Christmas dinner.
“Honestly, Remus, you’re not in danger. Despite what anyone else might think, I’ve seen that you’re a decent person, that you’re not the type to join the other side by choice, so we’ll be there to stop them from getting anywhere near you if they try. I’m sorry you feel like you’re being treated unfairly, but I really didn’t think there was any need to worry you about it because we're here - I’m here - to do that for you.”
Remus still wasn’t all the way convinced by what she’d said, but he found himself nodding anyway.
“Okay,” she said slowly, studying his reaction and obviously not believing it. “Look, I - I like you Remus, and I thought that we were getting along really well before. I’d really hate for any of this to ruin that, so would you mind me stopping by the shop again to see you?”
“I don’t know,” Remus said honestly, though it strangely tore at him to do it. “I’m sorry, Tonks, but my interactions with your world, even before this, have been somewhat less than favorable. And after everything that’s happened today I - I just need some time alone to think.” He pushed himself unsteadily to his feet, the need to get out of the suddenly restrictive space pressing on his chest.
“Al-all right,” Tonks replied uncertainly as she watched him leave.
***
Remus thought about nothing else from the moment he stepped out of the café, till well into the sleepless night. But instead of dwelling on what he felt he should - the fact that he might be in danger - he instead found himself thinking mainly about Tonks.
Probably because she was a fact, he decided, whereas the danger was a relatively abstract concept. And an absurd one at that, since he couldn’t imagine himself being important enough for such things.
But whatever the reason, he thought about how she had shown genuine concern for him, from the very first time they’d met, and the way she’d helped him when he’d been in pain. Even though she’d known who and what he was, she hadn’t walked up to him with the soul intention of hurling abuse at him, like others had, and she’d never backed away like he’d had a communicable disease when he’d got too close.
Granted, Remus hadn’t met many witches or wizards in his lifetime, and he tried hard never to tar them with the same brush, but she was certainly the first to treat him like he was human, and he couldn’t help but feel a little encouraged by that.
And yet she’d been secretly watching him for who knew how long, and she’d kept a lot hidden on top of that. She was also still very much a part of the Wizarding World, whereas he… well, he wasn’t.
***
Untraceable hours later, Remus found himself standing on a frosted pavement, staring absently at the Christmas displays in shop windows. He tried not to wonder if he was being watched right then, by how many eyes, and by how many sides. But, deep down, he was hoping that, if he were, Tonks was amongst them. At least then he’d have someone agreeable watching over his wellbeing.
“Wotcher,” a voice said softly from behind him.
Remus smiled blandly as he glanced over his shoulder. Tonks stood close by, a yellow and black scarf covering the bottom half of her face. Her now red hair was suddenly long and thick enough to act in lieu of a hood, and covered up everything else but her eyes.
“Shopping?” she asked lightly.
“No, not really. You?”
She shook her head. “Can’t, I spent all my money on socks and the twins haven’t reimbursed me yet.”
“But can’t you just…” He glanced around, before waving his hands through empty air.
Tonks frowned for a second, before her face cleared with understanding. “Oh. No, it doesn’t work like that. We can’t just wave up things that aren’t already there.”
“Ah. Well there goes that theory,” he murmured to himself. He glanced around at the street again, and they stood in an almost companionable silence for a time.
“So, how is the investigation going?”
“It’s not really,” she admitted with a shrug. “You’re still here though, that’s something at least. And it does seem to point to the others going voluntarily, so for now it looks as if you might be off the hook. But… you don’t have plans for Christmas do you? Like visiting your family, or…?”
“No, I… I don’t have any family left,” he said quietly, looking away. “My parents died while I was young, and… well, they were my only family.”
“I’m sorry, Remus. What about friends, then?”
“I don’t really have any of those either, at least none that are close enough to spend Christmas with. With my… problem, I have to lie too much to begin with and it’s not a good basis to build a friendship on. There were once though, three friends that I trusted enough to tell the truth to eventually. But they’re gone now too.”
“You don’t have to lie to me any more,” Tonks said softly. Then she beamed up at him, sympathy nevertheless still clear in her eyes, as she moved to thread her arm though his. “Well, anyway, that’ll make my job of tailing you a lot easier, we can both just hang around your place through Christmas. Of course, I’ll be keeping an eye on you from a stealthy distance and being cleverly discreet about it, but...”
Remus glanced nervously down at their joined arms, but something kept him from pulling instinctively away this time. He felt the warmth of her weight pressed against his arm, saw the complete sincerity of her words, and within seconds the whole moment simply felt right.
Maybe a friendship wouldn’t be so impossible, a voice at the back of his head tried to say as his pulse sped. Though anything more still had to be, he countered. After all, she must have been half his age.
***
Tonks became a regular visitor at the shop after that, her demeanor moving from cautious back to what it had been within a day. This time though, with no money left to spend on garish footwear, she’d taken it upon herself to help Remus with whatever needed doing that day.
Despite his lingering reservations, and her particular ability to trip over her own feet and cause her own brand of chaos, Remus found himself enjoying her company implicitly. If nothing else, she made the day more colourful, and that alone forced him to remind himself of their respective ages more times than he could count.
***
Crash.
“Hello, Tonks,” Remus called, standing up from his place by the bottom shelf and turning towards the sound.
But this time he didn’t see Tonks standing in the middle of her own chaos. Instead there was a dark figure, a slash of a leering white mask marking the place where a face should be, standing in the middle of the shop floor, a wand grasped firmly in hand.
Remus dragged a shallow breath into his lungs, no idea of what he would do beyond that coming to mind as he did it. But as the flash of red light left the strange wand, a streak of black and green bowled into Remus’ side, knocking him to the floor and out of the way. Tonks turned to stand between the two men as she deflected the next volley of spells.
The fight was short but seemingly brutal, and Remus had nothing to fight with though he desperately wished he did. He didn’t want to think what could happen to Tonks while he lay, embarrassingly powerless, on the floor. Every part of him shouted at him to help, to leap in and protect her, but doing anything else would probably just ensure that something did.
Then finally, Tonks stood in the middle of the shattered shop floor, out of breath and brushing herself off. She smiled tiredly at him as she came to help him find his feet again. “Sorry, we managed to stop the others before they made the High Street, but this one managed to slip through. Luckily for you, I noticed.”
“Thank you,” Remus said shakily, trying not to think too closely about the fact that she’d been the only one. “Looks like you got your answer now, at least. I hope it was worth all this.” He forced his eyes from Tonks long enough to look around at the devastation.
Tonks followed his gaze and cringed. “Oh, don’t worry about that,” she said, “the others will be along in a moment to clean it up. As for you though, I’m afraid it looks like you’ll be spending Christmas with me, so I can keep a closer eye on you. But look on the bright side, Remus, at least you’ll get to see what happens to the socks this way.”
She moved over and carefully wound her arm around his. “And it will be worth all this in the end. Even if I do have to beat you over the head to get you to ask me out,” she muttered.
Tonks Apparated them both away before Remus even had time to finish his first confused protest.