(no subject)
Title: In Earnest
Author:
godricgal
Prompts: 20, the perfume bottle. 24, the dressing table. 29, the empty bed. 31, Celistina Warbeck.
Format and word count: ficlet, 811
Warning: Character death. Innuendo, at best.
Summary: Feelings of dread and horror washed over him, for this is where her body was found, it’s gone now but the chill of death lingers still.
Author’s notes: This piece has a bit of fluff as well as the angst indicated in the summary. I haven’t participated in this ficathon nearly as much as I’d intended to. RL is a bitch like that, eating up my fandom time. Thanks to everyone who has taken the time to comment on or read the pieces that I have managed. I've really enjoyed reading every one else's fics, I have a feeling I will be revisiting many of them. Thanks to
mrstater for beta-ing this and for her input.
Remus wandered into the bedroom. This was where her body had been found.
They had taken her now, but the chill of death lingered. His keen eyes assessed tangled curtains and rumpled bed sheets. How long had she struggled with her assailants before succumbing to the most terrifying of all curses?
His eyes trailed over the dressing table, one of the few things in the room that seemed to have survived the attack relatively unscathed. It was a cluttered surface, adorned with lipsticks and candles, an elegant perfume bottle that seemed to Remus to be a reflection of its former owner.
If there was one word to describe Emmeline Vance, it was elegant.
There was nothing left for him to do here. He was attempting this final sweep of the house because previous searches had yielded so little, and his had uncovered no more. He felt utterly useless for it.
The war had indeed begun in earnest. They had reached a point that Remus would quite happily have put off indefinitely.
There was only one place he wanted to be right now.
***
He opened the door to another bedroom, this one evoking far pleasanter thoughts than the one from which he had so recently come. There was a strange power to looking at the rumpled sheets in this bedroom, and a much needed comfort to be gained from the knowledge of how they’d come to be in that state.
When a voice interrupted his musings, it was to inform him that a smile he hadn’t realised had formed was evident on his face.
‘I didn’t think you’d be capable of a smile this evening. At least, not till after I got here. I came fully prepared to beat a sombre mood right out of you.’
‘And so you might have done, had you made the bed this morning.’ he replied as he turned to face her fully.
The confused look that passed across her delicate features prompted him to explain, as he walked towards her. ‘I’ve only just got back myself. This scene greeted me,’ he swept his hand in the direction of the bed, before wrapping his arms about her waist, ‘served as a fairly effective reminder of what happened here last night, it’s quite the smile inducing memory.’
‘Ah, I see. And it’s a clear image for you then?’ she asked with a twinkle in her eye as she smoothed his jumper down his chest.
‘I’d say so.’ he replied, dipping his head to kiss her. She responded readily, moving her lips against his, a teasing tongue darting out fleetingly before she drew back slightly.
‘So you’re not overly in need of a reminder then?’ her dark eyes sparkled with a desire that belied her teasing tone.
With a sound that was as much a laugh as a growl, he tightened his arms around her slender waist, pulling her into an enthusiastic hug that made her squeal with laughter. She squirmed in his arms until she managed to disentangle herself from him.
‘I bought you something.’ she said somewhat giddily. ‘I thought it might cheer you up, but now that I see you don’t need cheering up, it might have its other uses.’
‘Oh?’ Remus asked, just a little bit intrigued. He watched as she turned and bent over to peer into the bag she had dumped by the door when she came in. He wasn’t wholly unappreciative of the view.
After several moments of frantic rummaging she righted herself and with a victorious look on her face, she thrust a flat, square package in his face. He took it and turned it in his hands before giving her a very sceptical look. ‘Celestina Warbeck, Tonks?’
‘It has its possibilities, Remus.’ she said as she walked back towards him with seductive determination.
***
Later that night, when the warbling tones of Wizarding world's most celebrated diva were nothing but a memory to echo between walls, Remus watched her as she slept. He could feel every inch of her body pressed against his. Even in unconsciousness, she wanted to be close.
His mind drifted towards what he might face tomorrow. Dumbledore had requested an urgent meeting with him. Did it relate to the death of Emmeline? Or did it relate to the altogether more terrifying prospect that he’d feared ever since Voldemort's return?
When Tonks twitched in her sleep, he found himself thinking that, for now, tomorrow didn’t matter, that for the moment, at least, he should just take full advantage of sharing his bed with the woman he loved. With the combined comfort of her arms about his waist and the hypnotic quality of her breathing, it wasn’t long before he joined her in slumber.
It was to be the last night they spent together for almost a year.