Masks and Mirrors, Chapter Five
Title: Masks and Mirrors (5/?)
Author: MrsTater
Rating: R
Summary: As Remus and Tonks rebuild their relationship, a dangerous Order mission only she can undertake dredges up the same old problems -- as well as an entirely new set when the family she was born into clashes with the family she has made for herself within the Order of the Phoenix.
1. Homecoming | 2. Family Reunion | 3. You Can't Go Home Again | 4. The Dust Settles |
This chapter contains a reference to one of my favorite R/T fics. Can you find it?
As always, many many thanks to godricgal, especially for betaing when she's ill.
5. Visiting Hours
"Gmmmmmng!"
It was supposed to be good morning, but Tonks' mouth was too full of scrambled egg to form clear words. She had a thought that talking with your mouth full was bad manners, but on the other hand, she wasn't entirely sure what manners were. What a funny word, manners. Was it even a real word?
Manners.
She giggled.
Maybe she'd made it up.
Her mind worked sluggishly, as if trying to find its way through a thick fog that had wrapped itself around coherent thought. Probably she had made it up. Except that when she said the funny word over again in her mind, it occurred to her that if chewing meant she shouldn't try to talk at the same time, she could still be polite and wave a greeting to Healer Pye.
So she waved...
...but it was, unfortunately, the hand holding her fork. Yellow bits of egg flaked onto the crisp white sheets folded over her lap.
Stopping mid-stride several yards from her bed, Pye's billowing robes swirled around his legs; for a moment he looked as if the fabric would tangle around him and tug him off his feet.
"Good morning, Miss Tonks." Pye's voice pitched high at the end, almost a question.
Tonks swallowed, then chuckled. "Was I that bad a patient?"
Pye's mouth opened, as if to reply, but then his lips pinched together and a crease formed between his blond eyebrows.
Tonks felt her expression mirror his. He wasn't following her train of thought. Why not? Then again, she felt a bit confused herself.
At least she was in a good mood; and her leg, which had made her wake twice in the night with tears in her eyes, and once again this morning, wasn't hurting. The pain potions were darned effective before they wore off -- which they seemed to do more quickly than they ought. Maybe there was only so much they could do for injuries as severe as hers. For now, at least, the potions allowed her to enjoy her eggs.
She started to ask Pye if the St. Mungo's staff ate the same food as the patients, when she noticed he was still standing in the middle of the ward, looking at her with that same baffled expression. She must have said the thing that had confused him. What was it?
"Why would you think I think you're a bad patient, Miss Tonks?"
Oh yeah.
"When I woke up here last night you said you were sorry to see me. Now it's good morning. Is it cos I was a total bitch to you? I deserve this because I was a right royal pain in the arse?"
If Tonks wasn't mistaken -- which she might well be, given the way her eyes seemed disinclined to focus -- Pye was smirking. Like he thought she did deserve it.
"Oi!" She shovelled more eggs into her mouth. "Din' you take the...the...Hippogriff Oath?"
Pye laughed -- far higher than any ought to do -- And Tonks knew she'd said something wrong. Only she couldn't think what, so she went on eating her eggs.
"Don't worry, Miss Tonks." He smiled patronisingly as he approached her with his fingers hooked around his lapels. "Believe me, you are by no means the worst patient I've dealt with. And the families of the patients can be far worse, so you've at least got Mr. Lupin in your favour."
Tonks snorted at the indirect insult. "And he thinks he's too bloody dangerous."
"I beg your pardon?"
Bloody hell, had she said that out loud?
"Nothing," Tonks said. "Only...Do you reckon you could tell him that when he's here?"
"Tell him what?"
"That he stands in my favour."
"I'm not sure I follow--"
"Eggs?" Tonks changed the subject, realising it was beyond her drugged mental capacities to explain to a stranger that her partner had difficulty seeing past the stigmas society had branded him with to the way his steadiness and natural poise compensated for her ineptitude. She took a bite of scrambled egg, then nudged her plate toward the Healer.
Pye begged his pardon again.
"These are the best damn eggs I've ever had," Tonks said by way of explanation, "and I'm very happy to share."
"Oh!" Pye jumped back from her, and for what had to be a full minute, his mouth hung open in an O. Then, with another tug at his robes, he appeared to pull himself together again. "No thank you, Miss Tonks. I've already eaten this morning."
"Please?" Tonks said as he returned to her bedside and took his Internospecs out of his breast pocket. "You know, as a peas offering."
"Oh, it's peas now, is it?"
"What?" Tonks looked at her plate. "I haven't got any peas. I offered you eggs."
Pye half-chuckled as he huffed on the lenses and buffed them on his robe. "Bad joke, never mind. A peace offering won't be necessary."
The crisp refusal, and the dismissive wave of his hand which sent her breakfast tray to the bedside table -- made her heart feel very heavy, even though part of her was sure it was a silly thing to be sad about.
But eggs and feelings of sadness about them gave way to curiosity as the Healer drew the sheets back, pushed the hem of her gown up, and peered at her knee through the Internospecs. He frowned, and gave a small hmm.
"How's it look?"
"It appears that the immobilisation spell is working against the spell that's holding your patella together."
"That doesn't sound good."
Pye bent further over her knee. "I think a non-magical splint would be a more prudent course of treatment."
Despite not really following anything he'd said, Pye's words rubbed her entirely the wrong way. "You and your Muggle--"
"You'll be in considerably less pain."
That killed Tonks' random burst of temper. She looked down at her hands, clutching her yellow gown. Really, could the St. Mungo's Hospital Gown Colour Selection Committee have picked a more unflattering shade for peaky sick people? Yellow never did for her at all, unless she was morphed, and of course she wasn't allowed do that.
"Sorry," she muttered.
"Accepted." Pye straightened up and pocketed his Internospecs. Straightening his robes, he said, "There is one Muggle medical procedure which I thought of last night, which may give us better insight for treating you more quickly whilst maintaining full use of your powers."
"Wassat?" Tonks asked around a mouthful of eggs.
"I believe that if I were to draw out some of your bone marrow and take a sample of your muscle tissue, I could, perhaps, sort how magic ties into your physicology--"
"How?"
"How?" Pye looked as if meant how did his explanation need clarifying.
"I'm high as a bloody kite," Tonks said. "How d'you draw out bone marrow and get muscle tissue samples?"
"Oh! Of course!"
Pye's mood shifted from annoyance to delight, as the interruption gave him the chance to show off his fount of Muggle medical knowledge. Which Tonks suspected she wouldn't have been at all curious about had she not been on pain potion; even now his pompous smile was already making her second guess the impulse.
Except that he'd used the words quicker and full in regard to her morphing. She owed it to the Auror department, to the Order, to Remus, and to herself, to heal as quickly and fully as was possible. If Muggle medicine was the only way to do it...
Suddenly she understood why Arthur, apart from simple interest in the Muggle way of doing everything, had been so easily persuaded to let Pye stitch him up. Granted, that hadn't been successful; the magical nature of Arthur's bite had responded negatively to non-magical treatment. Her very body was made of magic, and here was Pye, looking like the Weasley twins giving a sales pitch of their latest Wheeze, going on about sticking great needles into her hip, and sucking out bone marrow. What if it damaged her? Left her in worse shape than she'd been in before? Even if it didn't, there was no guarantee Pye would learn anything at all, much less cure her.
Not to mention the fact that having something like one of Molly's knitting needles stabbed into her hip sounded like it would hurt like hell.
She must have cringed to imagine it, because pain exploded in her knee like a Wild-Fire Whizz-Bang.
"YOU'RE MAD!" She doubled over, clutching at her knee. "BLOODY, BARKING--Wotcher, Remus!"
He'd just entered the ward and, judging by his deeply etched features, she'd no doubt terrified him when he'd come in to her shouts and obvious bout of pain; she'd forced out her customary greeting to stop him from dropping her small hot pink and green plaid suitcase he clutched in one hand, and the rainbow bouquet of gerberas in the other. The pain actually had subsided somewhat -- or maybe it just seemed like it because she was relieved that at least a small measure of Remus' worries seemed to have abated.
"Good morning." His lips smiled slightly as he approached her bedside; his eyes scrutinised every inch of her before moving to Pye. "What's this about barking? Has a dog got loose?"
The bout of pain had cut the potions' grip on her mind, making her alert enough to recognise that he was resorting to his typical trick of using humour to hide the extent of his concern, and so as not to cause her undue stress. Which, for once, she was glad of, because she had a feeling it had been stress that made her knee hurt in the first place.
"This quack wants to suck out my bone tomorrow," she said, "with a bloody great needle--"
"Bone marrow," Pye said heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. "And all I said was that it might give us a little more insight about her physiology, if she's up for a bit of experimentation."
"I wouldn't, and I think you just fancy the sound of your own voice saying physy..." Physy what? "Physical..." No, that wasn't right, either. "Physician..."
"Physiology," Remus said, leaning over her bed to kiss her forehead as he set the flowers on the bedside table. He looked up at Healer Pye. "Perhaps not the best subject for a drugged patient? Only it seems she might need more for her pain?"
"Perhaps," Pye ceded, not meeting Remus' eyes. He tapped Tonks' knee lightly with his wand. "Cohaereo Patella."
"It's better now," Tonks said. "Just a passing wave."
"Mr. Lupin, when we meet so I can teach you the charm for Miss Tonks' knee, perhaps you might be willing to discuss experimental treatments as well?"
Remus looked at Tonks as if he were asking her a question, though for a moment Tonks couldn't imagine what that might be. Then it occurred to her that he was asking permission. She nodded to him.
"I don't see what harm talking could do," he told Pye.
"Excellent!" said the Healer. "You wouldn't believe the medical marvels I've seen on Muggle telly whilst visiting my Nan. The ideas the programmes have given me--"
"Are bleeding mental," Tonks said, fully aware she was contradicting what she'd just communicated to Remus.
Pye looked at her through narrowed eyes, then summoned her breakfast tray to hover once more over her lap.
"Enjoy your eggs, Miss Tonks, and try to keep that leg still. I shall return in due course to splint it, but I'd like to let the fibres recover for a period from the spells."
"Fine."
He turned to go, but then looked back over his shoulder. "Thank Merlin she's got you in her favour, Mr. Lupin."
With one final pointed look at Tonks -- who glowered back; that was not how she'd meant for him to say it -- Pye turned on his heel in a twirl of lime green and clipped out of the ward.
Ignoring Remus' raised eyebrow, Tonks tucked into her eggs. All trouble seemed to be consumed in that one bite, and she sank back against her pillows, closing her eyes and letting out a low mmm of pleasure.
"Good eggs, then?" asked Remus. Tonks opened her eyes to see him watching her with interest as he set her suitcase on the floor next to the bedside chair and lowered himself onto it.
Tonks nodded. She'd never been much of an eater, at least not of comfort food. Certainly in the past year she hadn't indulged at her lowest points, but rather had eaten less than ever, despite Molly's best efforts at tempting her with tasty morsels. But these eggs...They were like chocolate after prolonged exposure to Dementors.
"Best damn eggs I've ever had," she said, and had the feeling she'd said it before. "Better than Molly's even."
Remus looked sceptical.
"No, really!" Tonks said. "And they're making me feel better, too."
A slight smile played at the corners of Remus' lips. "Are you sure it's not the potions?"
"No, it's really these eggs. You should have some." She noted the lines around his mouth and eyes, and the bluish bagging beneath his eyes, as well. "You look tired."
"Thank you," said Remus dryly, and with a quiet snort.
Tonks frowned. She knew exactly what had kept him up last night. He'd stayed by her beside until Healer Pye made him leave; spoken with Robards; owled her parents and probably the whole Order about their misadventure at her parents', and what condition she was in, asking them to find out what they could about Rabelais Lestrange. He ought to have been in bed, recovering from the long, awful night, and his week's journey -- not to mention pacing himself for the gruelling week ahead, leading up to his transformation. Hell, he ought to be in bed still, having a proper lie-in.
Yet here he was, with her; this was all her fault and he was losing sleep.
Guilt fuelling her with a sense of urgency, she squared her shoulders despite the dull ache in the one she'd dislocated, preparing to do battle with him about looking after himself.
But Remus leant forward in his chair, his chin propped on one hand. "Go on, then. You've got to prove it to me they're better eggs than Molly's."
His blue eyes were twinkling and flirty, and apparently as effective as cheering charms at changing the mood of the person they were looking at. Tonks giggled. (Maybe it wasn't Remus' eyes so much as the pain potions making her daft.)
Scooping a heaping forkful of eggs, she fed it to him, spilling a little on the coverlet.
He gave an mmm as she had.
"See! I told you!" Tonks cried, triumphant -- but then, abruptly, her grin fell. "You're not humouring me, are you?"
"Of course I am," he said, grinning.
"Oh. Well that's all right." Watching his fingers pick egg off the bed, she noticed her ugly hospital gown again. "What colour should I do my hair to take attention off this awful thing?" It would be all right to change just her hair, wouldn't it? That couldn't hurt her knee.
"Actually..." Remus reached down for her suitcase. "I've brought you some things that might influence your decision."
He set it on the edge of the bed, gingerly, so as not to jar the mattress and her leg, and his long, deft fingers undid the clasps. Opening the suitcase, he revealed it to be packed with what had to be every pair of knickers she owned, a number of bras, a wide selection of her favourite pyjamas, slippers, socks, her fluffy pink dressing gown, and a pouch of makeup and toiletry items.
"I thought you might prefer to wear other clothes than that drafty hospital gown with the stream of visitors you shall no doubt receive."
"I'll have to kiss you for that," Tonks said; but Remus only managed to brush his lips across her cheek as, at the moment he'd tried to kiss her, she'd been absently rifling through her suitcase and discovered that it contained one item that didn't belong to her.
She pulled out a pair of soft blue cotton men's pyjamas and looked at Remus. "These are yours."
His smile became sweetly self-conscious and made him look so boyish, even though the hair that fell across his forehead, into his eyes, was silver.
Quietly, he said, "I also thought that if you missed me anything like I missed you last night, these might help."
It definitely wasn't the potions responsible for the floating sensation she was experiencing now. She was a lucky, lucky girl to have such a lovely, lovely fiancé.
And such a teasable one.
"Does that mean you slept in my pyjamas?" she asked.
Remus raised his head and glared playfully at her through his fringe. "I've told you before, I haven't the shoulders for those little spaghetti strap camisoles you sleep in. Or the figure. I hope you're not offended."
"More like relieved."
They shared a quiet laugh, and Tonks reached for his hand and kissed his knuckles as she laced their fingers together.
"Thank you, Remus. I'd have asked you to bring me these ones -- you know, if I were cohesive."
"Or coherent." Remus chuckled as he kissed the tips of her fingers.
"S'what I said, isn't it?"
"Probably I misheard."
"Probably. You do look tired."
He made a noncommittal sound, but seemed preoccupied with picking at a loose thread on his pyjamas.
"Remus?"
Not quite meeting her eye, he said in husky tones, "You slept in my pyjamas this week, when I was away."
Tonks gawped. "How...?"
He looked at her, and raised an eyebrow. "They were crumpled on the bathroom floor when I got home yesterday afternoon."
Tonks felt her face grow warm. "Sorry."
"Don't be." Remus' warm hand squeezed hers. "I was touched."
So was she. A lump swelled in her throat, and he swam before her eyes.
"I really missed you," she choked out. "It's hard to sleep without you."
"I know."
She felt the words as a whisper against her mouth, and then his lips were on hers. He kissed her gently, a little too carefully, especially since his fingers weaving into her hair spoke clearly of his longing. Drawing his hand to her breast, she parted her lips to encourage him. But Remus only gave her one, brief kiss before he pulled away, sitting back in his chair with a sigh.
"I'm afraid..." he began heavily, then paused to give another sigh that left his face looking grey and as his eyes bent with guilt as they watched his fingers run absently over the edge of her suitcase. "I hate to say, I'm not going to be able to be with you all day. I've owled your parents, and I'll escort them here to see you...But after that I've got to go to the Hog's Head and make arrangements for them with Aberforth." The lines of his face deepened as his lips curved in a smirk. "Of course it would be simpler if he could read and write and we could actually send owls."
"Maybe you could teach him," Tonks suggested.
"Do you never want to see me again?"
Remus looked up at her with a wry expression which, for a moment, she didn't quite understand. It seemed a perfectly reasonable suggest--Stupid! With all Remus' duties, he didn't have the time to teach someone to read!
"You could send him here," she said, "and I could teach him while I'm bored."
"Would that be more or less torturous than your dealings with Healer Pye?"
Tonks had a vague impression that Remus was making a joke she didn't get. She was pretty sure that that normally would have driven her mad, but at the moment, she couldn't have cared less.
"I could give him some of these eggs, too," she said, using her fingers to push the last crumbles onto her fork. She ate them, then looked at her empty plate for a long moment before glancing up at Remus. He had a lot to do today, but... "D'you reckon you could ask the assistants to bring me some more?"
"I reckon I could do that on my way out." He chuckled softly as he said it, but his eyes were soft and looked at her so kindly as his fingers stroked her hair.
But then his smile faded with another sigh. "I'm sorry I've got to leave. I wish I didn't have to."
His hand started to fall, but Tonks covered it with her own, pressing his palm to her cheek.
"S'okay. I know the Order doesn't stand still just because I've got to. Or lie still, rather."
Though Remus nodded, he argued, "But I should be here with you."
"Don't feel bad about it."
"I can't help it."
"Then make it up to me."
She felt his lips smiling against hers as he kissed her briefly. He pulled away to sit on the edge of the mattress facing her, the bedsprings creaking beneath his weight. When he leant in to resume the kiss, Tonks put a hand on his chest and held him back.
"I meant by bringing me more of those yummy eggs."
"Thought you went to get mum an' dad," said Tonks through a yawn when she opened her eyes to find Remus standing over her, one hand on her shoulder from having gently shaken her awake.
"I did," he said, and nodded, indicating for her to look across the bed.
Tonks turned her head and barely remembered to cover her yawn with her fingers as her bleary eyes focused on the forms of her parents.
"Oh," said Tonks, noticing that mother looked like she hadn't slept, and she might have been leaning against Ted for support as he stood with an arm around her slim waist.
"You did. Was fast."
"Not really," said Remus. "It's a bit later than you think."
Lowering her hand, she saw the long sleeve of one of her favourite pairs of pink and lavender stripey pyjamas instead of the yellow hospital gown she remembered having on before she'd slept. She smelled nice, too, like her favourite soap and hand crème, and then she remembered, as though she'd dreamt it, a faceless St. Mungo's assistant helping her clean up and change. Pye had come back, too, and splinted her leg Muggle-fashion. There didn't seem to be as much pressure in her knee now -- though that could have been the second dose of pain potions.
"We took the Underground," Ted said. He held out a squat green bowl of violas. "And stopped to get you these."
Tonks smiled. "You always bring me violas when I'm in hospital."
"Course I do -- Viola."
He placed them on her bedside table, slightly in front of Remus' taller gerberas. Ted reached out and ruffled her hair (which she thought she might have morphed pink), but the creases across his wide forehead belied the grin he tried to flash as he tweaked her chin.
"Only I wish you'd do something besides put yourself in hospital to give me an excuse to send you violas. Er..." Ted's face went red. "That didn’t come out right."
"I know what you meant," Tonks said. "We'll have violas at the wedding, okay? Remus, are violas okay with you?"
Remus hmmed. "I'd thought lupins. You know -- for the significance."
"Oh."
Significance? What did lupins signify? Tonks just picked flowers because she liked them. She didn't know what violas signified except to her dad. But Remus was smiling at her like she would know -- like she was a bloody...florologist.
"You've thought about wedding flowers?"
"I think he's pulling your leg," her dad said, and Tonks recognised Remus' teasing expression.
"That's not very nice to do to a person with a hurt knee," she said.
Remus chuckled and kissed her hand. "I haven't thought about wedding flowers, "and I shall be happy with whichever ones you choose. Mostly because I'll only have eyes for you."
Tonks smiled -- until her mother spoke.
"Unless you want to carry a potted plant down the aisle," Andromeda said, "I'd encourage you to consider something besides violas." Glancing at Ted, she added, "Sentimental though they may be."
"You never like my ideas," Tonks muttered.
Andromeda continued breezily, as though there had been no interruption, "Lupins would make for lovely altar arrangements, though. There are truly exquisite purples, and even a pink to match the ridiculous hair colour you're so fond of."
"My hair's not--"
Tonks' retort died as she looked at her mother and saw that she, too, was teasing. Her flawless porcelain skin showed signs of strain, indicating that while she might think pink was ridiculous, she was glad to see it.
Smiling, Tonks looked at Remus again. "We can have lupins if you--Oh! I'm such an idiot."
"Not an idiot," Ted said. "Only high."
He seemed perfectly polite, as he had been last year when she'd been in hospital and he'd met Remus for the first time. He even glanced over her head and winked at Remus. Thank Merlin he wasn't cold as he'd been last night (only last night?) at dinner.
Even so, Tonks wondered whether she'd made him -- and her mother -- uncomfortable mentioning her upcoming marriage. Not that she cared. If they were uncomfortable, then that was their problem.
Her mind wandered, and her gaze went to her mother's lined face.
"You hate the Underground," she said.
As a child, when the family had travelled up to London for her annual school equipment shopping trip, she'd always begged to ride the train her dad had told her so many magical stories about. But Andromeda never let her, saying it was too dirty and they'd only get coughed on. Tonks had always suspected it had more to do with the fear that she'd get over-excited and accidentally morph, as she had when Granny Tonks took her on a double-decker bus on her fifth birthday.
"Remus thought it would be the safest means of travel in case we are being watched," Andromeda explained, " I agreed."
"Oh."
A lengthy silence followed, during which everyone smiled stiffly at one another. Tonks thought the air thickened with every second that ticked by on her Weird Sisters clock, which Kingsley's owl had delivered before her snooze; she had a feeling that the tension might have adverse affects on her knee if someone didn't relieve it soon.
Luckily, Remus always had impeccable timing. "Did they bring you more eggs? I put in your request on my way out."
"No. Maybe they tried while I was sleeping."
"Would you like me to make you some, dear?" Andromeda asked, smoothing the blankets over her legs. "Your father could run down to the shops, and I could--"
Tonks shook her head vigorously. "I want the ones they make here. Best damn eggs I've ever had."
"Nymphadora!" cried her mother, looking scandalised and at the brink of a lecture.
But Ted laid his large hand on her shoulder. "She's high as a kite, 'Dromeda."
"S'what I said." Tonks blinked her eyes against the pull of sleep, but didn't miss that her mother hadn't corrected Ted's diminutive of her name. She really must be worried.
"Are you in a great deal of pain, Nymphadora?" she asked.
"'m high as a bloody kite," Tonks answered, and had a feeling of déjà vu. "Sorry 'bout your house."
"Not at all." Andromeda was smoothing the blankets in earnest, rubbing Tonks' good leg. "I'm sorry we pressured you to go."
"You didn't. I pressured Remus to go." He squeezed her shoulder, as if absolving her of blame, but she didn't look at him. "Then I was stupid."
"You've never done a stupid thing in your life," Ted admonished gently. "I think that staircase gave you enough of a beating without you flagellating yourself, as well."
"Might change your mind after you see it."
"Gawain Robards plans to take us over later, after the Aurors have investigated thoroughly," Andromeda said. "We won't be able to stay, of course. But Remus says there's a safe place."
"Yeah. We know people." Tonks wanted to mull over what it meant that her mother had -- not once, but twice now -- talked about what Remus thought was best for them, but her thoughts were drifting away from her, swirling into nothingness, and her eyes would not stay open.
"Rest, Dora," Remus murmured, fingers brushing her fringe back from her forehead so he could kiss her. "You had quite a night."
Tonks' eyes snapped open, and the fatigue etched on Remus' features gave her a flash of coherence. "So'd you."
"I'll sleep tonight. Don't worry."
But he seemed almost to be brushing her off, especially given his track record of not looking after himself. Too controlled by the potion to argue with him, Tonks managed to croak out a reminder not to forget his potion -- and saw, in her peripheral, her parents exchange a nervous glance -- before her eyes shut.
"I won't," said Remus, quietly. "I've already owled an order to Mr. Yuhong. I'll pick it up before I come to see you this evening."
"Satisfaction is guaranteed," Tonks heard herself say, and she registered relief that Remus wasn't using the old inept Knockturn Alley apothecary his limited funds had forced him to before she'd learnt to brew the Potion. "'Specially if you bring me some eggs."
"What in Merlin's name have you been saying about me?"
At Tonks' accusation, the expression on the small reflection of Remus' face in her hand mirror relaxed from mildly surprised to mischievously guilty-as-charged.
"I should think you'd have a pretty good idea," he answered.
Tonks did a quick levitation charm on her mirror so she could fold her arms across her chest in an intimidating Auror stance. Well -- the most intimidating one she could manage without actually being able to stand. And somehow she had the feeling Remus was thinking she was cute rather than intimidating.
Nonetheless, she said, "Believe me, I've a damn good idea--"
"Pain potions make you swear more frequently than usual, did you notice?"
Tonks' mouth hung open, soundless. No, she hadn't noticed. She had noticed that Remus had said it to wind her up, but that didn't stop her skin beneath her -- his -- pyjama collar from itching as heat began to creep up her neck, into her face. Andromeda's lessons on householdy spells might not have taken, but the ones about bad language certainly had. In fact, when Tonks tried to swallow, she choked a little on the recalled taste of strong soap.
In the lamplight, Remus' blue eyes glinted from beneath his raised sandy brows. Smug git. But of course she couldn't say that, now he'd commented on her language.
"Don't change the subject," Tonks said. "This is about your character flaws, not mine."
"Of course," said Remus pleasantly. "Do go on."
"I'm in hospital with a shattered patella, under the care of Pye the Pr..."
Prat was another word that would have earned a sharp, Language, Nymphadora. Which was rather what Remus' expression was saying to her at the moment. Two-way mirrors really didn't lie, did they? She felt like he was right here with her, irritating her in her hospital ward.
She wished he was.
"I could have done without the lecture from that Pokeby woman--"
"Bertha. She's been an assistant since I was a small boy."
"Is she just old and crotchety, or has she always had the bedside manner of a Harpy?"
Remus chuckled. "I'd say she's naturally a bit of a curmudgeon."
"So when you told her you forgot to bring my makeup mirror this morning and I let you hear all about it, you knew there was a pretty good chance she'd let me hear all about how I really oughtn't treat my lovely fiancé the same way I treat Healer Pye."
"Did she really say that?" Remus' shoulders shook as he continued to laugh silently. "I'm sorry."
"Are not."
He pushed off from the lamppost, and the image in her mirror shifted as, beyond the frame, Remus spread his hands in a gesture of innocence.
"Would you have preferred I not scheme my way around the visiting hours? It wouldn't exactly have kept our mirrors secret if I'd simply said it was very important you have it, now, would it?"
"I'm supposed to cheerfully accept a lecture and marvel at your Marauder genius, am I?"
"Yes." He grinned at her as he inclined his head in a slight bow. "That was precisely the response I'd hoped for. Go on then, marvel away, my dear."
"Sorry to dash your hopes. I hope your ego isn't too bruised."
Tonks rather diminished her show of being unimpressed by bursting out laughing. She never could resist Remus when he was being playful and smug, and the round of potent potions Healer Pye had prescribed to help her sleep through the night were starting to make her loopy. She was pretty sure she'd started this whole conversation as a lead-in to something else she'd wanted to talk to Remus about, but when she wandered back through her memory, she couldn't remember anything further back than when Remus' face had appeared in the mirror.
The mirror. She deflated a little at that. This kind of mock verbal duelling almost always ended with the most pleasant of rewards for the both of them, but now she couldn't even kiss him.
And he did look absolutely annoyingly kissable when he was smirking like that.
"I miss you," she said, sinking back into the pillows stacked behind her. "I want to come home."
"I know. I really am sorry I was too late." There was a sighing note in Remus' voice, and for just a moment his eyes bent and looked grey, making Tonks feel forlorn. Then he looked at her again, eyes bright and brilliantly blue, crinkling at the corners as he asked, "Are you wearing my pyjamas?"
Something about the way he said it -- maybe it was his eyes glancing down from her face, then filling with disappointment when they saw only the edge of the mirror -- struck her as suggestive.
Impulsively, she tilted the mirror to chest level to show him the light blue cotton top that was slightly too large for her shorter, slimmer frame. He smiled -- and Tonks did, too, as she followed his gaze to the hollow of her throat...
...and then down beyond that to her fingers, which were working clumsily to unfasten the button below.
She heard herself giggle at the widening of his eyes, and her heartbeat quickened as her hand moved to undo the next button down.
Or rather, her heartbeat quickened when, in response, Remus' features relaxed into a sexy smile as he leant back against the lamppost, his image shifting and enlarging as he drew the mirror in closer to his body, as if to ensure privacy. Her breath hitched, and she caught her lower lip between her teeth at the darkening of his eyes, which were locked on an expanse of fair skin and pale pink cotton bra.
"I don't know whether to say thank you," he said, huskily, "or to tell you that it's just not fair."
"Payback for getting me in trouble. And this isn't even one of my sexy bras. You didn't pack me any of those."
Was it the pain potions, the pastel sunset behind him, or were Remus' cheeks touched with pink? "I thought you'd prefer comfort. And anyway, I think all your bras are sexy."
Beneath the blankets, Tonks wiggled the toes of her good leg in delight. "Your turn!"
His eyebrows knit. "My turn?"
"Show me which underwear you've got on."
Definitely he was blushing. More than just his cheeks.
"I'm in a public park, Dora."
"Apparate home, then."
Remus chuckled. "You know there's a reason why hospitals have visiting hours."
"Wassat?" Tonks asked through a yawn that happened before she could think of covering her mouth.
He tilted his head in a way which, if he'd not been talking to her through a mirror, would have been conspiratorial; she could almost feel the tickle of his soft fringe against her forehead as he spoke in a hushed done: "I hate to be the one to break it to you, love, but you're a wee bit high."
"As a bloody kite!" But Tonks had a sudden sinking feeling. "Did I just ask you to strip for me?"
Remus tried, not very successfully, to hide a snigger behind his hand. "You did, yes."
"S'not a bad idea, really."
"No..."
"If I wasn't high, and you weren't in public, would you? Maybe later this week, when I'm off the pain potions?"
"I'm sure that somewhere, Sirius and James are expressing their hearty approval of me using their mirrors that way."
"Harry'd be squicked!" Tonks giggled, and wiggled her toes again. "Maybe I could eat some of those eggs."
"So these eggs are aphrodisiacs, are they?"
"Afro...?" Tonks wrinkled her forehead as she tried to work it out. "No, just plain English eggs, I think."
"Chatted to the hens, did you?"
Chatted to the...? What the hell was he going on about? Had he taken a pain potion? Maybe something had gone wrong with his Wolfsbane Potion.
"Don't be ridiculous, Remus," she said. "There's no hens here. I'm in hospital."
"Ah, of course. Very silly of me."
Remus' chuckle faded, and his gaze softened into a tender one as he looked at her through the mirror for a long time. She could drift away on the image of his eyes, so blue, tranquil as a lake at sunset...
"I could amuse myself for hours talking to you while you're sky high..." His rasping tones startled her slightly, as though they'd broken her out of a doze. "...but I think I ought to stop misbehaving and tell you to go to sleep."
Tonks didn't remember saying anything amusing. "What've I said?"
She could've sworn his fingers came through the looking glass and caressed her cheek.
"I'll put it in a Pensieve and show you."
Tonks pulled the covers up under her armpit and shifted slightly onto her side. "Probably show everyone else, too."
"Of course not. We were talking about doing naughty things via two-way mirror."
"We were?"
Remus chuckled. "Good night, Nymphadora."
Her eyes had drooped shut, but they snapped open and narrowed on him. "Don' call me Nymphadoremus."
"Nymphadoremus? All right, I won't. See you first thing."
He touched his fingers to his lips, and then to the mirror, and mouthed I love you.
"You, too." Tonks pressed the mirror to her mouth and planted a smacking kiss on the image of Remus' amused face. "Oh, bugger!" she said, noting the lip gloss smudge. She pulled her sleeve over her hand to buff it out. "Don't tell Harry, okay...?"
If Remus agreed to it, she didn't know, because she was floating away on a wave of sleep.
"Please."
The word came out pinched and small, swallowed by Tonks' rapid breath and drummed out by her heart pounding in her ears. She turned her eyes, blurred with pain, up from the knee she was attempting to bend, to the Healer at the foot of her bed who held her foot, helping her to bend her leg, and who kept saying, Go on, Miss Tonks, as an Auror I'm sure you've faced more challenging tasks than this.
"In the name of all that is good and magical," she panted, "please give me more bloody potions!"
Healer Pye gave her a pitying smile as he gently released her leg. "I've told you, Miss Tonks, you've already had the maximum dosage."
Tonks had been clutching the blankets, but now that her injured leg was resting, straight and still, on the bed again, she opened her white-knuckled fingers and released the sweat-drenched linens. "It's too soon for this. Hurts like the devil."
"I know," said Pye, straightening his robes as he sat up straighter on his stool. "It's very painful to force movement against the spells that are holding the fragments of patella in tact, but I assure you, the longer you wait to exercise your knee, the more it will hurt, and the more you risk permanent loss of mobility." He placed one hand on her heel and another on her ankle. "Right, then. Let's give this another try, shall we?"
He lifted her foot, and the knee started to bend as he pressed it toward her. Tonks gritted her teeth against the swell in her throat and blinked against tears. She would not cry in front of Pye. She was an Auror, damn it.
"Very good, Miss Tonks," said Pye. "Do you know Muggles have machines that do what I'm--?"
"YOU!"
Tonks jerked her head up, startled, and cried out as Pye, also surprised, dropped her leg and spun on the swivel stool.
Molly Weasley, fire burning in her eyes, shoved a basket and a potted geranium into a bewildered Arthur's arms, then stalked toward Tonks' bed, looking exactly like she'd always imagined angry mother dragons must look. Next time Charlie was in the country, she'd have to ask him if that look on his mum's face was how he faced his career so fearlessly.
Pye, on the other hand, would never make it working with dragons. His face went pale as an Inferius', and he straightened his robes compulsively as Molly approached.
"M-Mrs. Weasley." He stuck out his hand. "How do you--?"
He jumped backward as Molly stopped, toe-to-toe with him.
"What in Merlin's name are you doing to that poor girl?"
"Only...only exercises. F-for her knee."
Of all the things Tonks had heard in the past two days, Pye stuttering in terror brought the most comfort. Her eyes stayed glued to his frazzled face as she reached down to gingerly rub her aching knee.
"Muggles call it physical ther--"
"More Muggle nonsense?" Molly interrupted. "You mean you didn't learn your lesson from what happened with Arthur? I can't believe they even allowed you to continue practicing healing at all, but I especially can't believe you'd put more people's lives at risk!"
"Molly," said Arthur, joining the group with a nod and weak smile at Tonks, as Pye, to her great disappointment, recovered his pompous air and rejoined, "Her life Mrs. Weasley? Simple knee exercises!"
"Are you trying to cripple her? Can't you see how much pain she's in?"
Mouth hanging open, Pye turned. All eyes on her, Tonks realised for the first time that she was sniffling, and her cheeks were sticky with tears. Her face went hot, and she raised her hand to wipe them away, but stopped as that would draw more attention. She balled her fingers into fists in her lap, and flashed a grin. Her lips felt wobbly.
"That will do for today, Miss Tonks," said Pye, mouth curling in a scowl, presumably at his defeat. "When Mr. Lupin arrives, tell him I'd like a word with him."
"About what an awful patient I am?"
With the slightest roll of his eyes -- an awfully bold, not to mention utterly stupid, thing to do in front of Molly -- Pye said heavily, "To show him the exercises, since he seems to be the only one capable of getting anything through your exceptionally thick skull. Tell me, do you morph it that way?"
"OUT!" Molly roared, all furious eyes and flaming red mane. A true Gryffindor lioness -- and the way Pye slunk away, casting a baleful look over his haughtily thrown back shoulder, was as Slytherin as could be, even if he did have a fascination with Muggle medicine.
"Hello, Augustus!" Arthur greeted him cheerfully, shifting the plant and basket to one arms so he could shake hands with the Healer. He glanced furtively at his wife, then asked, his words half-swallowed, if he could hear sometime about physiothingy.
Pye puffed up and said, cutting his eyes significantly at Tonks, "You might also be interested to know about knee replacement operations."
"For heaven's sake, Arthur, don't encourage him!" cried Molly, hands flying to her ample hips. "Would you put that plant here on the bedside table, please? Only she's got such a lot already, I'd better enlarge it first. Engorgio! Oh, a cactus, that's different," she observed. "Who brought you that, dear?"
"Gawain Robards," Tonks croaked, feeling rather dizzied by the rapid fire of comments and questions.
"To symbolise how hardy and resilient you are, no doubt," said Molly. "A very thoughtful gift. I hope you like geraniums, as well? And I've brought you ginger biscuits and treacle tarts and cauldron cakes because they're all such nice comfort foods."
Tonks nodded and thanked Molly, and started to tell her what she'd told Remus about a cactus being a very thoughtless gift for a clumsy person, as well as what Remus had said about it being wise not to consider carrying a cactus down the aisle at their wedding. But there was too much set-up to that story, and she didn't have the energy to go into it.
Anyway, Molly seemed to have conversation under her control. "How are you, dear? I wanted to come right up to London the second Remus Flooed us about you, but of course it wasn't visiting hours. And yesterday we felt you ought to have time with your parents and Remus--"
"What's he up to today?" Arthur chimed in.
"Yes, I was sure he'd be with you," Molly added.
"He's at the Hog's Head, getting a room ready for my parents." Sighing, Tonks glanced at the two-way mirror on her night stand, ridiculously paranoid that Remus just come on the other end, and had heard what Molly had said.
Remus had been here first thing, but once again had been unable to stay with her long. He'd been up late the previous night, which didn't help the matter of his usual pre-transformation fatigue, and hadn't done as good a job as she imagined he'd have liked at hiding his frustration. That was what had stirred up the embers of her own frustration. If she hadn't wrecked her parents' house, Remus wouldn't have so much extra work. Nor would he have to worry about hospital visitation hours, as she wouldn't be laid up here with a shattered patella that needed physical therapy -- which would also fall on Remus' shoulders, since she apparently lacked the ability to cooperate with Healer Pye as woefully as she'd lacked the ability to behave herself in school.
"Merlin bless him!" cried Molly. "As if that man doesn't have enough to do without losing a day to cleaning up Aberforth's pigsty--"
"More a goatsty, isn't it?" Arthur joked.
Molly rolled her eyes at her husband, but said, "I'll just go up to Hogsmeade and do it myself. I'll have it done in no time, it won't be any trouble at all, and Remus can stay right here with you, where he ought to be."
Before Tonks could respond, Arthur laid a hand on Molly's shoulder and intervened quietly, "Not that we shouldn't help Remus if he needs it, but he might well want to do this for Ted and Andromeda so they can get to know their future son-in-law a bit better."
A look passed between them which Tonks could only assume was the memory of the long-ago time in which Arthur had been in Remus' shoes.
Buoyed at the thought, she said, "Lucky for me the way to Mum's heart isn't a perfect Scourgify. Actually, Molly, I'm sure Remus would really appreciate a hand if it's not too much trouble. His to-do list's a mile long, even if he would love to spend the day showing off for the in-laws."
"We'll go straight to Hogsmeade from here, then -- the both of us, won't we, Arthur?" said Molly.
"Course we'll lend a hand where we can!" Arthur said. "We ought to pop over to Diagon Alley and see if Bill and Fleur are free, as well."
At the name Fleur, Tonks saw Molly visibly bristle; her smile was too wide, clearly not in favour of her new daughter-in-law tagging along for Order work of the householdy nature. Tonks herself was none too thrilled of what her mother would say at her next visit: Why can't you be more ladylike, like the new Mrs. Weasley? There's a proper bride.
"So!" Molly said. "Dinner with your parents."
Though Tonks dreaded the conversation this opener was leading to, had to smile a little at how Molly must have been dying of curiosity over the past two days.
"How was it?"
"A total disaster."
"Oh, I'm sure it wasn't--"
"I'm here because I couldn't stand to be there with them."
The words, uttered sharply, hung for a moment in the air, echoing off the immaculate tiles and pale grey walls of the hospital ward. Molly and Arthur stood so silently that Tonks felt as if something were hanging between them, separating them, and she felt alone and small in the world. She crossed her arms, hugging herself.
"Arthur, dear," she heard Molly's voice, very quiet, "would you please go up to the fifth floor and fetch Tonks a spot of tea?"
"Of course." Arthur stepped around Molly to squeeze Tonks' shoulder affectionately.
She looked up to see him smiling gently at her before he turned to leave, but it was Molly's eyes that captured her. Brown, warm, gazing at her with a look of pure mothering. A hardness inside, which Tonks had been too incoherent to recognise before now, broke. Everything that had happened since Remus' trip to Godric's Hollow had been locked up inside her. Not that she'd been capable of talking about it; but even if she had been, before now, there had been no one here to talk to, or even to enfold her in her arms and have her cry out.
"Miss Tonks."
She and Molly looked up to see Arthur leaping out of the way as Madam Pokeby strode through the door, levitating a tray.
"Healer Pye thought you could do with some eggs."
"They do have excellent eggs here!" said Arthur, expression suddenly hungry as his eyes followed the assistant. "Molly, you ought to go down to the kitchen and see if you can't find out the recipe."
Tonks' barely noticed Molly's put-out expression because at the same moment, the tray hovered over her lap, and Tonks saw not just a plate of scrambled eggs, but a phial of potion, as well.
"I thought I'd had the maximum dose of pain potion?"
"That's Sleeping Draught," Pokeby replied. "Drink up."
Tonks' chest constricted. She didn't want to sleep again. She wanted tea and sympathy from Molly. She looked to the older red-haired witch for help, but Molly only leant in for a brief hug and pressed a kiss to Tonks' cheek.
"We'll let you rest and go and help Remus. And we'll talk soon, dear."
Minutes after they'd gone, Tonks watched the door as her eggs, untouched, grew cold and inedible on her plate. She forced herself not to cry as she choked down her bitter potion.
She'd made this bed for herself. She had four days to lie in it. But even lying there in Remus' pyjamas didn't make it any easier to bear. Despite her efforts, she felt her spiky hair droop and the pink drain out as the tears leaked out of her eyes and dampened her pillow.
(Read the rest of the chapter here.)
Author: MrsTater
Rating: R
Summary: As Remus and Tonks rebuild their relationship, a dangerous Order mission only she can undertake dredges up the same old problems -- as well as an entirely new set when the family she was born into clashes with the family she has made for herself within the Order of the Phoenix.
1. Homecoming | 2. Family Reunion | 3. You Can't Go Home Again | 4. The Dust Settles |
This chapter contains a reference to one of my favorite R/T fics. Can you find it?
As always, many many thanks to godricgal, especially for betaing when she's ill.
5. Visiting Hours
"Gmmmmmng!"
It was supposed to be good morning, but Tonks' mouth was too full of scrambled egg to form clear words. She had a thought that talking with your mouth full was bad manners, but on the other hand, she wasn't entirely sure what manners were. What a funny word, manners. Was it even a real word?
Manners.
She giggled.
Maybe she'd made it up.
Her mind worked sluggishly, as if trying to find its way through a thick fog that had wrapped itself around coherent thought. Probably she had made it up. Except that when she said the funny word over again in her mind, it occurred to her that if chewing meant she shouldn't try to talk at the same time, she could still be polite and wave a greeting to Healer Pye.
So she waved...
...but it was, unfortunately, the hand holding her fork. Yellow bits of egg flaked onto the crisp white sheets folded over her lap.
Stopping mid-stride several yards from her bed, Pye's billowing robes swirled around his legs; for a moment he looked as if the fabric would tangle around him and tug him off his feet.
"Good morning, Miss Tonks." Pye's voice pitched high at the end, almost a question.
Tonks swallowed, then chuckled. "Was I that bad a patient?"
Pye's mouth opened, as if to reply, but then his lips pinched together and a crease formed between his blond eyebrows.
Tonks felt her expression mirror his. He wasn't following her train of thought. Why not? Then again, she felt a bit confused herself.
At least she was in a good mood; and her leg, which had made her wake twice in the night with tears in her eyes, and once again this morning, wasn't hurting. The pain potions were darned effective before they wore off -- which they seemed to do more quickly than they ought. Maybe there was only so much they could do for injuries as severe as hers. For now, at least, the potions allowed her to enjoy her eggs.
She started to ask Pye if the St. Mungo's staff ate the same food as the patients, when she noticed he was still standing in the middle of the ward, looking at her with that same baffled expression. She must have said the thing that had confused him. What was it?
"Why would you think I think you're a bad patient, Miss Tonks?"
Oh yeah.
"When I woke up here last night you said you were sorry to see me. Now it's good morning. Is it cos I was a total bitch to you? I deserve this because I was a right royal pain in the arse?"
If Tonks wasn't mistaken -- which she might well be, given the way her eyes seemed disinclined to focus -- Pye was smirking. Like he thought she did deserve it.
"Oi!" She shovelled more eggs into her mouth. "Din' you take the...the...Hippogriff Oath?"
Pye laughed -- far higher than any ought to do -- And Tonks knew she'd said something wrong. Only she couldn't think what, so she went on eating her eggs.
"Don't worry, Miss Tonks." He smiled patronisingly as he approached her with his fingers hooked around his lapels. "Believe me, you are by no means the worst patient I've dealt with. And the families of the patients can be far worse, so you've at least got Mr. Lupin in your favour."
Tonks snorted at the indirect insult. "And he thinks he's too bloody dangerous."
"I beg your pardon?"
Bloody hell, had she said that out loud?
"Nothing," Tonks said. "Only...Do you reckon you could tell him that when he's here?"
"Tell him what?"
"That he stands in my favour."
"I'm not sure I follow--"
"Eggs?" Tonks changed the subject, realising it was beyond her drugged mental capacities to explain to a stranger that her partner had difficulty seeing past the stigmas society had branded him with to the way his steadiness and natural poise compensated for her ineptitude. She took a bite of scrambled egg, then nudged her plate toward the Healer.
Pye begged his pardon again.
"These are the best damn eggs I've ever had," Tonks said by way of explanation, "and I'm very happy to share."
"Oh!" Pye jumped back from her, and for what had to be a full minute, his mouth hung open in an O. Then, with another tug at his robes, he appeared to pull himself together again. "No thank you, Miss Tonks. I've already eaten this morning."
"Please?" Tonks said as he returned to her bedside and took his Internospecs out of his breast pocket. "You know, as a peas offering."
"Oh, it's peas now, is it?"
"What?" Tonks looked at her plate. "I haven't got any peas. I offered you eggs."
Pye half-chuckled as he huffed on the lenses and buffed them on his robe. "Bad joke, never mind. A peace offering won't be necessary."
The crisp refusal, and the dismissive wave of his hand which sent her breakfast tray to the bedside table -- made her heart feel very heavy, even though part of her was sure it was a silly thing to be sad about.
But eggs and feelings of sadness about them gave way to curiosity as the Healer drew the sheets back, pushed the hem of her gown up, and peered at her knee through the Internospecs. He frowned, and gave a small hmm.
"How's it look?"
"It appears that the immobilisation spell is working against the spell that's holding your patella together."
"That doesn't sound good."
Pye bent further over her knee. "I think a non-magical splint would be a more prudent course of treatment."
Despite not really following anything he'd said, Pye's words rubbed her entirely the wrong way. "You and your Muggle--"
"You'll be in considerably less pain."
That killed Tonks' random burst of temper. She looked down at her hands, clutching her yellow gown. Really, could the St. Mungo's Hospital Gown Colour Selection Committee have picked a more unflattering shade for peaky sick people? Yellow never did for her at all, unless she was morphed, and of course she wasn't allowed do that.
"Sorry," she muttered.
"Accepted." Pye straightened up and pocketed his Internospecs. Straightening his robes, he said, "There is one Muggle medical procedure which I thought of last night, which may give us better insight for treating you more quickly whilst maintaining full use of your powers."
"Wassat?" Tonks asked around a mouthful of eggs.
"I believe that if I were to draw out some of your bone marrow and take a sample of your muscle tissue, I could, perhaps, sort how magic ties into your physicology--"
"How?"
"How?" Pye looked as if meant how did his explanation need clarifying.
"I'm high as a bloody kite," Tonks said. "How d'you draw out bone marrow and get muscle tissue samples?"
"Oh! Of course!"
Pye's mood shifted from annoyance to delight, as the interruption gave him the chance to show off his fount of Muggle medical knowledge. Which Tonks suspected she wouldn't have been at all curious about had she not been on pain potion; even now his pompous smile was already making her second guess the impulse.
Except that he'd used the words quicker and full in regard to her morphing. She owed it to the Auror department, to the Order, to Remus, and to herself, to heal as quickly and fully as was possible. If Muggle medicine was the only way to do it...
Suddenly she understood why Arthur, apart from simple interest in the Muggle way of doing everything, had been so easily persuaded to let Pye stitch him up. Granted, that hadn't been successful; the magical nature of Arthur's bite had responded negatively to non-magical treatment. Her very body was made of magic, and here was Pye, looking like the Weasley twins giving a sales pitch of their latest Wheeze, going on about sticking great needles into her hip, and sucking out bone marrow. What if it damaged her? Left her in worse shape than she'd been in before? Even if it didn't, there was no guarantee Pye would learn anything at all, much less cure her.
Not to mention the fact that having something like one of Molly's knitting needles stabbed into her hip sounded like it would hurt like hell.
She must have cringed to imagine it, because pain exploded in her knee like a Wild-Fire Whizz-Bang.
"YOU'RE MAD!" She doubled over, clutching at her knee. "BLOODY, BARKING--Wotcher, Remus!"
He'd just entered the ward and, judging by his deeply etched features, she'd no doubt terrified him when he'd come in to her shouts and obvious bout of pain; she'd forced out her customary greeting to stop him from dropping her small hot pink and green plaid suitcase he clutched in one hand, and the rainbow bouquet of gerberas in the other. The pain actually had subsided somewhat -- or maybe it just seemed like it because she was relieved that at least a small measure of Remus' worries seemed to have abated.
"Good morning." His lips smiled slightly as he approached her bedside; his eyes scrutinised every inch of her before moving to Pye. "What's this about barking? Has a dog got loose?"
The bout of pain had cut the potions' grip on her mind, making her alert enough to recognise that he was resorting to his typical trick of using humour to hide the extent of his concern, and so as not to cause her undue stress. Which, for once, she was glad of, because she had a feeling it had been stress that made her knee hurt in the first place.
"This quack wants to suck out my bone tomorrow," she said, "with a bloody great needle--"
"Bone marrow," Pye said heavily, rubbing the bridge of his nose between his thumb and index finger. "And all I said was that it might give us a little more insight about her physiology, if she's up for a bit of experimentation."
"I wouldn't, and I think you just fancy the sound of your own voice saying physy..." Physy what? "Physical..." No, that wasn't right, either. "Physician..."
"Physiology," Remus said, leaning over her bed to kiss her forehead as he set the flowers on the bedside table. He looked up at Healer Pye. "Perhaps not the best subject for a drugged patient? Only it seems she might need more for her pain?"
"Perhaps," Pye ceded, not meeting Remus' eyes. He tapped Tonks' knee lightly with his wand. "Cohaereo Patella."
"It's better now," Tonks said. "Just a passing wave."
"Mr. Lupin, when we meet so I can teach you the charm for Miss Tonks' knee, perhaps you might be willing to discuss experimental treatments as well?"
Remus looked at Tonks as if he were asking her a question, though for a moment Tonks couldn't imagine what that might be. Then it occurred to her that he was asking permission. She nodded to him.
"I don't see what harm talking could do," he told Pye.
"Excellent!" said the Healer. "You wouldn't believe the medical marvels I've seen on Muggle telly whilst visiting my Nan. The ideas the programmes have given me--"
"Are bleeding mental," Tonks said, fully aware she was contradicting what she'd just communicated to Remus.
Pye looked at her through narrowed eyes, then summoned her breakfast tray to hover once more over her lap.
"Enjoy your eggs, Miss Tonks, and try to keep that leg still. I shall return in due course to splint it, but I'd like to let the fibres recover for a period from the spells."
"Fine."
He turned to go, but then looked back over his shoulder. "Thank Merlin she's got you in her favour, Mr. Lupin."
With one final pointed look at Tonks -- who glowered back; that was not how she'd meant for him to say it -- Pye turned on his heel in a twirl of lime green and clipped out of the ward.
Ignoring Remus' raised eyebrow, Tonks tucked into her eggs. All trouble seemed to be consumed in that one bite, and she sank back against her pillows, closing her eyes and letting out a low mmm of pleasure.
"Good eggs, then?" asked Remus. Tonks opened her eyes to see him watching her with interest as he set her suitcase on the floor next to the bedside chair and lowered himself onto it.
Tonks nodded. She'd never been much of an eater, at least not of comfort food. Certainly in the past year she hadn't indulged at her lowest points, but rather had eaten less than ever, despite Molly's best efforts at tempting her with tasty morsels. But these eggs...They were like chocolate after prolonged exposure to Dementors.
"Best damn eggs I've ever had," she said, and had the feeling she'd said it before. "Better than Molly's even."
Remus looked sceptical.
"No, really!" Tonks said. "And they're making me feel better, too."
A slight smile played at the corners of Remus' lips. "Are you sure it's not the potions?"
"No, it's really these eggs. You should have some." She noted the lines around his mouth and eyes, and the bluish bagging beneath his eyes, as well. "You look tired."
"Thank you," said Remus dryly, and with a quiet snort.
Tonks frowned. She knew exactly what had kept him up last night. He'd stayed by her beside until Healer Pye made him leave; spoken with Robards; owled her parents and probably the whole Order about their misadventure at her parents', and what condition she was in, asking them to find out what they could about Rabelais Lestrange. He ought to have been in bed, recovering from the long, awful night, and his week's journey -- not to mention pacing himself for the gruelling week ahead, leading up to his transformation. Hell, he ought to be in bed still, having a proper lie-in.
Yet here he was, with her; this was all her fault and he was losing sleep.
Guilt fuelling her with a sense of urgency, she squared her shoulders despite the dull ache in the one she'd dislocated, preparing to do battle with him about looking after himself.
But Remus leant forward in his chair, his chin propped on one hand. "Go on, then. You've got to prove it to me they're better eggs than Molly's."
His blue eyes were twinkling and flirty, and apparently as effective as cheering charms at changing the mood of the person they were looking at. Tonks giggled. (Maybe it wasn't Remus' eyes so much as the pain potions making her daft.)
Scooping a heaping forkful of eggs, she fed it to him, spilling a little on the coverlet.
He gave an mmm as she had.
"See! I told you!" Tonks cried, triumphant -- but then, abruptly, her grin fell. "You're not humouring me, are you?"
"Of course I am," he said, grinning.
"Oh. Well that's all right." Watching his fingers pick egg off the bed, she noticed her ugly hospital gown again. "What colour should I do my hair to take attention off this awful thing?" It would be all right to change just her hair, wouldn't it? That couldn't hurt her knee.
"Actually..." Remus reached down for her suitcase. "I've brought you some things that might influence your decision."
He set it on the edge of the bed, gingerly, so as not to jar the mattress and her leg, and his long, deft fingers undid the clasps. Opening the suitcase, he revealed it to be packed with what had to be every pair of knickers she owned, a number of bras, a wide selection of her favourite pyjamas, slippers, socks, her fluffy pink dressing gown, and a pouch of makeup and toiletry items.
"I thought you might prefer to wear other clothes than that drafty hospital gown with the stream of visitors you shall no doubt receive."
"I'll have to kiss you for that," Tonks said; but Remus only managed to brush his lips across her cheek as, at the moment he'd tried to kiss her, she'd been absently rifling through her suitcase and discovered that it contained one item that didn't belong to her.
She pulled out a pair of soft blue cotton men's pyjamas and looked at Remus. "These are yours."
His smile became sweetly self-conscious and made him look so boyish, even though the hair that fell across his forehead, into his eyes, was silver.
Quietly, he said, "I also thought that if you missed me anything like I missed you last night, these might help."
It definitely wasn't the potions responsible for the floating sensation she was experiencing now. She was a lucky, lucky girl to have such a lovely, lovely fiancé.
And such a teasable one.
"Does that mean you slept in my pyjamas?" she asked.
Remus raised his head and glared playfully at her through his fringe. "I've told you before, I haven't the shoulders for those little spaghetti strap camisoles you sleep in. Or the figure. I hope you're not offended."
"More like relieved."
They shared a quiet laugh, and Tonks reached for his hand and kissed his knuckles as she laced their fingers together.
"Thank you, Remus. I'd have asked you to bring me these ones -- you know, if I were cohesive."
"Or coherent." Remus chuckled as he kissed the tips of her fingers.
"S'what I said, isn't it?"
"Probably I misheard."
"Probably. You do look tired."
He made a noncommittal sound, but seemed preoccupied with picking at a loose thread on his pyjamas.
"Remus?"
Not quite meeting her eye, he said in husky tones, "You slept in my pyjamas this week, when I was away."
Tonks gawped. "How...?"
He looked at her, and raised an eyebrow. "They were crumpled on the bathroom floor when I got home yesterday afternoon."
Tonks felt her face grow warm. "Sorry."
"Don't be." Remus' warm hand squeezed hers. "I was touched."
So was she. A lump swelled in her throat, and he swam before her eyes.
"I really missed you," she choked out. "It's hard to sleep without you."
"I know."
She felt the words as a whisper against her mouth, and then his lips were on hers. He kissed her gently, a little too carefully, especially since his fingers weaving into her hair spoke clearly of his longing. Drawing his hand to her breast, she parted her lips to encourage him. But Remus only gave her one, brief kiss before he pulled away, sitting back in his chair with a sigh.
"I'm afraid..." he began heavily, then paused to give another sigh that left his face looking grey and as his eyes bent with guilt as they watched his fingers run absently over the edge of her suitcase. "I hate to say, I'm not going to be able to be with you all day. I've owled your parents, and I'll escort them here to see you...But after that I've got to go to the Hog's Head and make arrangements for them with Aberforth." The lines of his face deepened as his lips curved in a smirk. "Of course it would be simpler if he could read and write and we could actually send owls."
"Maybe you could teach him," Tonks suggested.
"Do you never want to see me again?"
Remus looked up at her with a wry expression which, for a moment, she didn't quite understand. It seemed a perfectly reasonable suggest--Stupid! With all Remus' duties, he didn't have the time to teach someone to read!
"You could send him here," she said, "and I could teach him while I'm bored."
"Would that be more or less torturous than your dealings with Healer Pye?"
Tonks had a vague impression that Remus was making a joke she didn't get. She was pretty sure that that normally would have driven her mad, but at the moment, she couldn't have cared less.
"I could give him some of these eggs, too," she said, using her fingers to push the last crumbles onto her fork. She ate them, then looked at her empty plate for a long moment before glancing up at Remus. He had a lot to do today, but... "D'you reckon you could ask the assistants to bring me some more?"
"I reckon I could do that on my way out." He chuckled softly as he said it, but his eyes were soft and looked at her so kindly as his fingers stroked her hair.
But then his smile faded with another sigh. "I'm sorry I've got to leave. I wish I didn't have to."
His hand started to fall, but Tonks covered it with her own, pressing his palm to her cheek.
"S'okay. I know the Order doesn't stand still just because I've got to. Or lie still, rather."
Though Remus nodded, he argued, "But I should be here with you."
"Don't feel bad about it."
"I can't help it."
"Then make it up to me."
She felt his lips smiling against hers as he kissed her briefly. He pulled away to sit on the edge of the mattress facing her, the bedsprings creaking beneath his weight. When he leant in to resume the kiss, Tonks put a hand on his chest and held him back.
"I meant by bringing me more of those yummy eggs."
"Thought you went to get mum an' dad," said Tonks through a yawn when she opened her eyes to find Remus standing over her, one hand on her shoulder from having gently shaken her awake.
"I did," he said, and nodded, indicating for her to look across the bed.
Tonks turned her head and barely remembered to cover her yawn with her fingers as her bleary eyes focused on the forms of her parents.
"Oh," said Tonks, noticing that mother looked like she hadn't slept, and she might have been leaning against Ted for support as he stood with an arm around her slim waist.
"You did. Was fast."
"Not really," said Remus. "It's a bit later than you think."
Lowering her hand, she saw the long sleeve of one of her favourite pairs of pink and lavender stripey pyjamas instead of the yellow hospital gown she remembered having on before she'd slept. She smelled nice, too, like her favourite soap and hand crème, and then she remembered, as though she'd dreamt it, a faceless St. Mungo's assistant helping her clean up and change. Pye had come back, too, and splinted her leg Muggle-fashion. There didn't seem to be as much pressure in her knee now -- though that could have been the second dose of pain potions.
"We took the Underground," Ted said. He held out a squat green bowl of violas. "And stopped to get you these."
Tonks smiled. "You always bring me violas when I'm in hospital."
"Course I do -- Viola."
He placed them on her bedside table, slightly in front of Remus' taller gerberas. Ted reached out and ruffled her hair (which she thought she might have morphed pink), but the creases across his wide forehead belied the grin he tried to flash as he tweaked her chin.
"Only I wish you'd do something besides put yourself in hospital to give me an excuse to send you violas. Er..." Ted's face went red. "That didn’t come out right."
"I know what you meant," Tonks said. "We'll have violas at the wedding, okay? Remus, are violas okay with you?"
Remus hmmed. "I'd thought lupins. You know -- for the significance."
"Oh."
Significance? What did lupins signify? Tonks just picked flowers because she liked them. She didn't know what violas signified except to her dad. But Remus was smiling at her like she would know -- like she was a bloody...florologist.
"You've thought about wedding flowers?"
"I think he's pulling your leg," her dad said, and Tonks recognised Remus' teasing expression.
"That's not very nice to do to a person with a hurt knee," she said.
Remus chuckled and kissed her hand. "I haven't thought about wedding flowers, "and I shall be happy with whichever ones you choose. Mostly because I'll only have eyes for you."
Tonks smiled -- until her mother spoke.
"Unless you want to carry a potted plant down the aisle," Andromeda said, "I'd encourage you to consider something besides violas." Glancing at Ted, she added, "Sentimental though they may be."
"You never like my ideas," Tonks muttered.
Andromeda continued breezily, as though there had been no interruption, "Lupins would make for lovely altar arrangements, though. There are truly exquisite purples, and even a pink to match the ridiculous hair colour you're so fond of."
"My hair's not--"
Tonks' retort died as she looked at her mother and saw that she, too, was teasing. Her flawless porcelain skin showed signs of strain, indicating that while she might think pink was ridiculous, she was glad to see it.
Smiling, Tonks looked at Remus again. "We can have lupins if you--Oh! I'm such an idiot."
"Not an idiot," Ted said. "Only high."
He seemed perfectly polite, as he had been last year when she'd been in hospital and he'd met Remus for the first time. He even glanced over her head and winked at Remus. Thank Merlin he wasn't cold as he'd been last night (only last night?) at dinner.
Even so, Tonks wondered whether she'd made him -- and her mother -- uncomfortable mentioning her upcoming marriage. Not that she cared. If they were uncomfortable, then that was their problem.
Her mind wandered, and her gaze went to her mother's lined face.
"You hate the Underground," she said.
As a child, when the family had travelled up to London for her annual school equipment shopping trip, she'd always begged to ride the train her dad had told her so many magical stories about. But Andromeda never let her, saying it was too dirty and they'd only get coughed on. Tonks had always suspected it had more to do with the fear that she'd get over-excited and accidentally morph, as she had when Granny Tonks took her on a double-decker bus on her fifth birthday.
"Remus thought it would be the safest means of travel in case we are being watched," Andromeda explained, " I agreed."
"Oh."
A lengthy silence followed, during which everyone smiled stiffly at one another. Tonks thought the air thickened with every second that ticked by on her Weird Sisters clock, which Kingsley's owl had delivered before her snooze; she had a feeling that the tension might have adverse affects on her knee if someone didn't relieve it soon.
Luckily, Remus always had impeccable timing. "Did they bring you more eggs? I put in your request on my way out."
"No. Maybe they tried while I was sleeping."
"Would you like me to make you some, dear?" Andromeda asked, smoothing the blankets over her legs. "Your father could run down to the shops, and I could--"
Tonks shook her head vigorously. "I want the ones they make here. Best damn eggs I've ever had."
"Nymphadora!" cried her mother, looking scandalised and at the brink of a lecture.
But Ted laid his large hand on her shoulder. "She's high as a kite, 'Dromeda."
"S'what I said." Tonks blinked her eyes against the pull of sleep, but didn't miss that her mother hadn't corrected Ted's diminutive of her name. She really must be worried.
"Are you in a great deal of pain, Nymphadora?" she asked.
"'m high as a bloody kite," Tonks answered, and had a feeling of déjà vu. "Sorry 'bout your house."
"Not at all." Andromeda was smoothing the blankets in earnest, rubbing Tonks' good leg. "I'm sorry we pressured you to go."
"You didn't. I pressured Remus to go." He squeezed her shoulder, as if absolving her of blame, but she didn't look at him. "Then I was stupid."
"You've never done a stupid thing in your life," Ted admonished gently. "I think that staircase gave you enough of a beating without you flagellating yourself, as well."
"Might change your mind after you see it."
"Gawain Robards plans to take us over later, after the Aurors have investigated thoroughly," Andromeda said. "We won't be able to stay, of course. But Remus says there's a safe place."
"Yeah. We know people." Tonks wanted to mull over what it meant that her mother had -- not once, but twice now -- talked about what Remus thought was best for them, but her thoughts were drifting away from her, swirling into nothingness, and her eyes would not stay open.
"Rest, Dora," Remus murmured, fingers brushing her fringe back from her forehead so he could kiss her. "You had quite a night."
Tonks' eyes snapped open, and the fatigue etched on Remus' features gave her a flash of coherence. "So'd you."
"I'll sleep tonight. Don't worry."
But he seemed almost to be brushing her off, especially given his track record of not looking after himself. Too controlled by the potion to argue with him, Tonks managed to croak out a reminder not to forget his potion -- and saw, in her peripheral, her parents exchange a nervous glance -- before her eyes shut.
"I won't," said Remus, quietly. "I've already owled an order to Mr. Yuhong. I'll pick it up before I come to see you this evening."
"Satisfaction is guaranteed," Tonks heard herself say, and she registered relief that Remus wasn't using the old inept Knockturn Alley apothecary his limited funds had forced him to before she'd learnt to brew the Potion. "'Specially if you bring me some eggs."
"What in Merlin's name have you been saying about me?"
At Tonks' accusation, the expression on the small reflection of Remus' face in her hand mirror relaxed from mildly surprised to mischievously guilty-as-charged.
"I should think you'd have a pretty good idea," he answered.
Tonks did a quick levitation charm on her mirror so she could fold her arms across her chest in an intimidating Auror stance. Well -- the most intimidating one she could manage without actually being able to stand. And somehow she had the feeling Remus was thinking she was cute rather than intimidating.
Nonetheless, she said, "Believe me, I've a damn good idea--"
"Pain potions make you swear more frequently than usual, did you notice?"
Tonks' mouth hung open, soundless. No, she hadn't noticed. She had noticed that Remus had said it to wind her up, but that didn't stop her skin beneath her -- his -- pyjama collar from itching as heat began to creep up her neck, into her face. Andromeda's lessons on householdy spells might not have taken, but the ones about bad language certainly had. In fact, when Tonks tried to swallow, she choked a little on the recalled taste of strong soap.
In the lamplight, Remus' blue eyes glinted from beneath his raised sandy brows. Smug git. But of course she couldn't say that, now he'd commented on her language.
"Don't change the subject," Tonks said. "This is about your character flaws, not mine."
"Of course," said Remus pleasantly. "Do go on."
"I'm in hospital with a shattered patella, under the care of Pye the Pr..."
Prat was another word that would have earned a sharp, Language, Nymphadora. Which was rather what Remus' expression was saying to her at the moment. Two-way mirrors really didn't lie, did they? She felt like he was right here with her, irritating her in her hospital ward.
She wished he was.
"I could have done without the lecture from that Pokeby woman--"
"Bertha. She's been an assistant since I was a small boy."
"Is she just old and crotchety, or has she always had the bedside manner of a Harpy?"
Remus chuckled. "I'd say she's naturally a bit of a curmudgeon."
"So when you told her you forgot to bring my makeup mirror this morning and I let you hear all about it, you knew there was a pretty good chance she'd let me hear all about how I really oughtn't treat my lovely fiancé the same way I treat Healer Pye."
"Did she really say that?" Remus' shoulders shook as he continued to laugh silently. "I'm sorry."
"Are not."
He pushed off from the lamppost, and the image in her mirror shifted as, beyond the frame, Remus spread his hands in a gesture of innocence.
"Would you have preferred I not scheme my way around the visiting hours? It wouldn't exactly have kept our mirrors secret if I'd simply said it was very important you have it, now, would it?"
"I'm supposed to cheerfully accept a lecture and marvel at your Marauder genius, am I?"
"Yes." He grinned at her as he inclined his head in a slight bow. "That was precisely the response I'd hoped for. Go on then, marvel away, my dear."
"Sorry to dash your hopes. I hope your ego isn't too bruised."
Tonks rather diminished her show of being unimpressed by bursting out laughing. She never could resist Remus when he was being playful and smug, and the round of potent potions Healer Pye had prescribed to help her sleep through the night were starting to make her loopy. She was pretty sure she'd started this whole conversation as a lead-in to something else she'd wanted to talk to Remus about, but when she wandered back through her memory, she couldn't remember anything further back than when Remus' face had appeared in the mirror.
The mirror. She deflated a little at that. This kind of mock verbal duelling almost always ended with the most pleasant of rewards for the both of them, but now she couldn't even kiss him.
And he did look absolutely annoyingly kissable when he was smirking like that.
"I miss you," she said, sinking back into the pillows stacked behind her. "I want to come home."
"I know. I really am sorry I was too late." There was a sighing note in Remus' voice, and for just a moment his eyes bent and looked grey, making Tonks feel forlorn. Then he looked at her again, eyes bright and brilliantly blue, crinkling at the corners as he asked, "Are you wearing my pyjamas?"
Something about the way he said it -- maybe it was his eyes glancing down from her face, then filling with disappointment when they saw only the edge of the mirror -- struck her as suggestive.
Impulsively, she tilted the mirror to chest level to show him the light blue cotton top that was slightly too large for her shorter, slimmer frame. He smiled -- and Tonks did, too, as she followed his gaze to the hollow of her throat...
...and then down beyond that to her fingers, which were working clumsily to unfasten the button below.
She heard herself giggle at the widening of his eyes, and her heartbeat quickened as her hand moved to undo the next button down.
Or rather, her heartbeat quickened when, in response, Remus' features relaxed into a sexy smile as he leant back against the lamppost, his image shifting and enlarging as he drew the mirror in closer to his body, as if to ensure privacy. Her breath hitched, and she caught her lower lip between her teeth at the darkening of his eyes, which were locked on an expanse of fair skin and pale pink cotton bra.
"I don't know whether to say thank you," he said, huskily, "or to tell you that it's just not fair."
"Payback for getting me in trouble. And this isn't even one of my sexy bras. You didn't pack me any of those."
Was it the pain potions, the pastel sunset behind him, or were Remus' cheeks touched with pink? "I thought you'd prefer comfort. And anyway, I think all your bras are sexy."
Beneath the blankets, Tonks wiggled the toes of her good leg in delight. "Your turn!"
His eyebrows knit. "My turn?"
"Show me which underwear you've got on."
Definitely he was blushing. More than just his cheeks.
"I'm in a public park, Dora."
"Apparate home, then."
Remus chuckled. "You know there's a reason why hospitals have visiting hours."
"Wassat?" Tonks asked through a yawn that happened before she could think of covering her mouth.
He tilted his head in a way which, if he'd not been talking to her through a mirror, would have been conspiratorial; she could almost feel the tickle of his soft fringe against her forehead as he spoke in a hushed done: "I hate to be the one to break it to you, love, but you're a wee bit high."
"As a bloody kite!" But Tonks had a sudden sinking feeling. "Did I just ask you to strip for me?"
Remus tried, not very successfully, to hide a snigger behind his hand. "You did, yes."
"S'not a bad idea, really."
"No..."
"If I wasn't high, and you weren't in public, would you? Maybe later this week, when I'm off the pain potions?"
"I'm sure that somewhere, Sirius and James are expressing their hearty approval of me using their mirrors that way."
"Harry'd be squicked!" Tonks giggled, and wiggled her toes again. "Maybe I could eat some of those eggs."
"So these eggs are aphrodisiacs, are they?"
"Afro...?" Tonks wrinkled her forehead as she tried to work it out. "No, just plain English eggs, I think."
"Chatted to the hens, did you?"
Chatted to the...? What the hell was he going on about? Had he taken a pain potion? Maybe something had gone wrong with his Wolfsbane Potion.
"Don't be ridiculous, Remus," she said. "There's no hens here. I'm in hospital."
"Ah, of course. Very silly of me."
Remus' chuckle faded, and his gaze softened into a tender one as he looked at her through the mirror for a long time. She could drift away on the image of his eyes, so blue, tranquil as a lake at sunset...
"I could amuse myself for hours talking to you while you're sky high..." His rasping tones startled her slightly, as though they'd broken her out of a doze. "...but I think I ought to stop misbehaving and tell you to go to sleep."
Tonks didn't remember saying anything amusing. "What've I said?"
She could've sworn his fingers came through the looking glass and caressed her cheek.
"I'll put it in a Pensieve and show you."
Tonks pulled the covers up under her armpit and shifted slightly onto her side. "Probably show everyone else, too."
"Of course not. We were talking about doing naughty things via two-way mirror."
"We were?"
Remus chuckled. "Good night, Nymphadora."
Her eyes had drooped shut, but they snapped open and narrowed on him. "Don' call me Nymphadoremus."
"Nymphadoremus? All right, I won't. See you first thing."
He touched his fingers to his lips, and then to the mirror, and mouthed I love you.
"You, too." Tonks pressed the mirror to her mouth and planted a smacking kiss on the image of Remus' amused face. "Oh, bugger!" she said, noting the lip gloss smudge. She pulled her sleeve over her hand to buff it out. "Don't tell Harry, okay...?"
If Remus agreed to it, she didn't know, because she was floating away on a wave of sleep.
"Please."
The word came out pinched and small, swallowed by Tonks' rapid breath and drummed out by her heart pounding in her ears. She turned her eyes, blurred with pain, up from the knee she was attempting to bend, to the Healer at the foot of her bed who held her foot, helping her to bend her leg, and who kept saying, Go on, Miss Tonks, as an Auror I'm sure you've faced more challenging tasks than this.
"In the name of all that is good and magical," she panted, "please give me more bloody potions!"
Healer Pye gave her a pitying smile as he gently released her leg. "I've told you, Miss Tonks, you've already had the maximum dosage."
Tonks had been clutching the blankets, but now that her injured leg was resting, straight and still, on the bed again, she opened her white-knuckled fingers and released the sweat-drenched linens. "It's too soon for this. Hurts like the devil."
"I know," said Pye, straightening his robes as he sat up straighter on his stool. "It's very painful to force movement against the spells that are holding the fragments of patella in tact, but I assure you, the longer you wait to exercise your knee, the more it will hurt, and the more you risk permanent loss of mobility." He placed one hand on her heel and another on her ankle. "Right, then. Let's give this another try, shall we?"
He lifted her foot, and the knee started to bend as he pressed it toward her. Tonks gritted her teeth against the swell in her throat and blinked against tears. She would not cry in front of Pye. She was an Auror, damn it.
"Very good, Miss Tonks," said Pye. "Do you know Muggles have machines that do what I'm--?"
"YOU!"
Tonks jerked her head up, startled, and cried out as Pye, also surprised, dropped her leg and spun on the swivel stool.
Molly Weasley, fire burning in her eyes, shoved a basket and a potted geranium into a bewildered Arthur's arms, then stalked toward Tonks' bed, looking exactly like she'd always imagined angry mother dragons must look. Next time Charlie was in the country, she'd have to ask him if that look on his mum's face was how he faced his career so fearlessly.
Pye, on the other hand, would never make it working with dragons. His face went pale as an Inferius', and he straightened his robes compulsively as Molly approached.
"M-Mrs. Weasley." He stuck out his hand. "How do you--?"
He jumped backward as Molly stopped, toe-to-toe with him.
"What in Merlin's name are you doing to that poor girl?"
"Only...only exercises. F-for her knee."
Of all the things Tonks had heard in the past two days, Pye stuttering in terror brought the most comfort. Her eyes stayed glued to his frazzled face as she reached down to gingerly rub her aching knee.
"Muggles call it physical ther--"
"More Muggle nonsense?" Molly interrupted. "You mean you didn't learn your lesson from what happened with Arthur? I can't believe they even allowed you to continue practicing healing at all, but I especially can't believe you'd put more people's lives at risk!"
"Molly," said Arthur, joining the group with a nod and weak smile at Tonks, as Pye, to her great disappointment, recovered his pompous air and rejoined, "Her life Mrs. Weasley? Simple knee exercises!"
"Are you trying to cripple her? Can't you see how much pain she's in?"
Mouth hanging open, Pye turned. All eyes on her, Tonks realised for the first time that she was sniffling, and her cheeks were sticky with tears. Her face went hot, and she raised her hand to wipe them away, but stopped as that would draw more attention. She balled her fingers into fists in her lap, and flashed a grin. Her lips felt wobbly.
"That will do for today, Miss Tonks," said Pye, mouth curling in a scowl, presumably at his defeat. "When Mr. Lupin arrives, tell him I'd like a word with him."
"About what an awful patient I am?"
With the slightest roll of his eyes -- an awfully bold, not to mention utterly stupid, thing to do in front of Molly -- Pye said heavily, "To show him the exercises, since he seems to be the only one capable of getting anything through your exceptionally thick skull. Tell me, do you morph it that way?"
"OUT!" Molly roared, all furious eyes and flaming red mane. A true Gryffindor lioness -- and the way Pye slunk away, casting a baleful look over his haughtily thrown back shoulder, was as Slytherin as could be, even if he did have a fascination with Muggle medicine.
"Hello, Augustus!" Arthur greeted him cheerfully, shifting the plant and basket to one arms so he could shake hands with the Healer. He glanced furtively at his wife, then asked, his words half-swallowed, if he could hear sometime about physiothingy.
Pye puffed up and said, cutting his eyes significantly at Tonks, "You might also be interested to know about knee replacement operations."
"For heaven's sake, Arthur, don't encourage him!" cried Molly, hands flying to her ample hips. "Would you put that plant here on the bedside table, please? Only she's got such a lot already, I'd better enlarge it first. Engorgio! Oh, a cactus, that's different," she observed. "Who brought you that, dear?"
"Gawain Robards," Tonks croaked, feeling rather dizzied by the rapid fire of comments and questions.
"To symbolise how hardy and resilient you are, no doubt," said Molly. "A very thoughtful gift. I hope you like geraniums, as well? And I've brought you ginger biscuits and treacle tarts and cauldron cakes because they're all such nice comfort foods."
Tonks nodded and thanked Molly, and started to tell her what she'd told Remus about a cactus being a very thoughtless gift for a clumsy person, as well as what Remus had said about it being wise not to consider carrying a cactus down the aisle at their wedding. But there was too much set-up to that story, and she didn't have the energy to go into it.
Anyway, Molly seemed to have conversation under her control. "How are you, dear? I wanted to come right up to London the second Remus Flooed us about you, but of course it wasn't visiting hours. And yesterday we felt you ought to have time with your parents and Remus--"
"What's he up to today?" Arthur chimed in.
"Yes, I was sure he'd be with you," Molly added.
"He's at the Hog's Head, getting a room ready for my parents." Sighing, Tonks glanced at the two-way mirror on her night stand, ridiculously paranoid that Remus just come on the other end, and had heard what Molly had said.
Remus had been here first thing, but once again had been unable to stay with her long. He'd been up late the previous night, which didn't help the matter of his usual pre-transformation fatigue, and hadn't done as good a job as she imagined he'd have liked at hiding his frustration. That was what had stirred up the embers of her own frustration. If she hadn't wrecked her parents' house, Remus wouldn't have so much extra work. Nor would he have to worry about hospital visitation hours, as she wouldn't be laid up here with a shattered patella that needed physical therapy -- which would also fall on Remus' shoulders, since she apparently lacked the ability to cooperate with Healer Pye as woefully as she'd lacked the ability to behave herself in school.
"Merlin bless him!" cried Molly. "As if that man doesn't have enough to do without losing a day to cleaning up Aberforth's pigsty--"
"More a goatsty, isn't it?" Arthur joked.
Molly rolled her eyes at her husband, but said, "I'll just go up to Hogsmeade and do it myself. I'll have it done in no time, it won't be any trouble at all, and Remus can stay right here with you, where he ought to be."
Before Tonks could respond, Arthur laid a hand on Molly's shoulder and intervened quietly, "Not that we shouldn't help Remus if he needs it, but he might well want to do this for Ted and Andromeda so they can get to know their future son-in-law a bit better."
A look passed between them which Tonks could only assume was the memory of the long-ago time in which Arthur had been in Remus' shoes.
Buoyed at the thought, she said, "Lucky for me the way to Mum's heart isn't a perfect Scourgify. Actually, Molly, I'm sure Remus would really appreciate a hand if it's not too much trouble. His to-do list's a mile long, even if he would love to spend the day showing off for the in-laws."
"We'll go straight to Hogsmeade from here, then -- the both of us, won't we, Arthur?" said Molly.
"Course we'll lend a hand where we can!" Arthur said. "We ought to pop over to Diagon Alley and see if Bill and Fleur are free, as well."
At the name Fleur, Tonks saw Molly visibly bristle; her smile was too wide, clearly not in favour of her new daughter-in-law tagging along for Order work of the householdy nature. Tonks herself was none too thrilled of what her mother would say at her next visit: Why can't you be more ladylike, like the new Mrs. Weasley? There's a proper bride.
"So!" Molly said. "Dinner with your parents."
Though Tonks dreaded the conversation this opener was leading to, had to smile a little at how Molly must have been dying of curiosity over the past two days.
"How was it?"
"A total disaster."
"Oh, I'm sure it wasn't--"
"I'm here because I couldn't stand to be there with them."
The words, uttered sharply, hung for a moment in the air, echoing off the immaculate tiles and pale grey walls of the hospital ward. Molly and Arthur stood so silently that Tonks felt as if something were hanging between them, separating them, and she felt alone and small in the world. She crossed her arms, hugging herself.
"Arthur, dear," she heard Molly's voice, very quiet, "would you please go up to the fifth floor and fetch Tonks a spot of tea?"
"Of course." Arthur stepped around Molly to squeeze Tonks' shoulder affectionately.
She looked up to see him smiling gently at her before he turned to leave, but it was Molly's eyes that captured her. Brown, warm, gazing at her with a look of pure mothering. A hardness inside, which Tonks had been too incoherent to recognise before now, broke. Everything that had happened since Remus' trip to Godric's Hollow had been locked up inside her. Not that she'd been capable of talking about it; but even if she had been, before now, there had been no one here to talk to, or even to enfold her in her arms and have her cry out.
"Miss Tonks."
She and Molly looked up to see Arthur leaping out of the way as Madam Pokeby strode through the door, levitating a tray.
"Healer Pye thought you could do with some eggs."
"They do have excellent eggs here!" said Arthur, expression suddenly hungry as his eyes followed the assistant. "Molly, you ought to go down to the kitchen and see if you can't find out the recipe."
Tonks' barely noticed Molly's put-out expression because at the same moment, the tray hovered over her lap, and Tonks saw not just a plate of scrambled eggs, but a phial of potion, as well.
"I thought I'd had the maximum dose of pain potion?"
"That's Sleeping Draught," Pokeby replied. "Drink up."
Tonks' chest constricted. She didn't want to sleep again. She wanted tea and sympathy from Molly. She looked to the older red-haired witch for help, but Molly only leant in for a brief hug and pressed a kiss to Tonks' cheek.
"We'll let you rest and go and help Remus. And we'll talk soon, dear."
Minutes after they'd gone, Tonks watched the door as her eggs, untouched, grew cold and inedible on her plate. She forced herself not to cry as she choked down her bitter potion.
She'd made this bed for herself. She had four days to lie in it. But even lying there in Remus' pyjamas didn't make it any easier to bear. Despite her efforts, she felt her spiky hair droop and the pink drain out as the tears leaked out of her eyes and dampened her pillow.
(Read the rest of the chapter here.)