(no subject)
Title: The Pond
Author: killerforhire
Format & Word Count: Fic, 1523 words
Rating: pg-13
Prompt: 12
Warning: Tiny, tiny bit of profanity
Summary: See, Remus wasn't looking forward to the holidays this year very much. Not that he does most years, but most definitely not this year. He really didn't have much to look forward to.
Author's Note: I haven't really written since January, but this set of lyrics are just so terribly useful when trying to compose an R/T fic. Plus, New Order = amazing.
New Order "Temptation"
Heaven, a gateway, a hope
Just like a feeling inside, it's no joke
And though it hurts me to treat you this way
Betrayed by words, I'd never heard, too hard to say
Up, down, turn around
Please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone
I'll find my soul as I go home.
Each way I turn, I know I'll always try
To break this circle that's been placed around me
From time to time, I find I've lost some need
That was urgent to myself, I do believe
Up, down, turn around
Please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone
I'll find my soul as I go home.
Oh, you've got green eyes
Oh, you've got blue eyes
Oh, you've got gray eyes
Oh, you've got green eyes
Oh, you've got blue eyes
Oh, you've got gray eyes
And I've never seen anyone quite like you before
No, I've never met anyone quite like you before
Thoughts from above hit the people down below
People in this world, we have no place to go
~~~~~~~~~~~
December 27th. Perfect. Bloody perfect.
See, Remus wasn't looking forward to the holidays this year very much. Not that he does most years, but most definitely not this year. He really didn't have much to look forward to.
S'almost the New Year.
Yes, but what use was a new year when he lost both his best mate and his girlfriend in less than a month?
He was walking back over to The Burrow where he was spending the holidays, having some of his first proper meals in weeks, seeing the Weasleys, seeing Harry.
But not to see her. No. No. Not my intention at all.
He was coming back from Diagon Alley where he had just sent Dumbledore an owl updating him on the last three months of his infiltration in the pack. He hadn't been able to get a word to Dumbledore without having to send it through someone else, so he hadn't bothered with the most sensitive information. At least now Dumbledore would know that he had a few precious days to get the goods on Fenrir before Remus had to go back.
He was just coming over the hill when he saw a figure being security-questioned at the door.
"What's your favourite Muggle band?"
"Pulp! Which issue of Witch Weekly did you leave at my flat that one time you got the fabulous idea to come over and try to clean it?"
"The February issue with Randalf Greenwood on the cover! Now, Tonks, come in!"
Shit.
The figure walked inside the house. Remus stood still.
Shit.
Remus backed away.
I'll take a walk around the neighborhood for a few hours. She'll have to leave sometime.
Remus walked past houses belonging to the Lovegoods and countless other wizarding families he'd never heard of. He stopped at a small pond.
It was the same pond where he taught her how to skip rocks over a year prior.
"Y'know, I appreciate the Muggle way of doing things, I really do. Dad pretty much forced me to learn how to drive in case I 'ever got tired of the wizarding world'. But it's frustrating trying to do this when I know magic is readily available to me!"
"Ah, but that is the beauty of it. It's just proper technique-"
Remus aimed the rock.
"And patience, yes, yes. Dad forced me to take Muggle Studies too."
"I'm amazed they're using the same textbook series, actually."
"I'm amazed the writer is still alive."
"You learn anything?"
"Obviously not, since I still can't skip a bloody rock."
Remus chucked.
"I didn't mean the rock skipping." Remus turned to her. "I meant the class."
"Oh. Well... Not really. Dad told me pretty much everything if I asked him. How planes stay up in the air, how a stoplight knows when to change-"
"But not how to skip rocks."
"Never thought it was vital information."
"Oh, but it is!" Remus picked up a rock and placed it into her left hand. "Now, just concentrate."
Tonks looked at the pond and then down at the rock. "This is ridiculous."
"No, it isn't." Remus placed his left hand on hers, stooped a bit to reach her eye level and raised up the rock. "Just... Concentrate." He aimed it for her. "Now chuck."
Tonks chucked. It skipped.
"Now try aiming for yourself."
"No thanks. As much as I got a kick out of that, I'm in no emotional state to aim rocks at water."
"Emotional? Since when has this been emotional baggage for you?" Mock shock had been a recurring joke of theirs.
"Oh, since I've been silently cursing my dad for not teaching me how to skip stones."
"You'd rather not learn from me?"
"Never. In a million years, never."
"Excuse me, Miss Tonks. I must now go repair my heart for you've sliced through it like a knife."
Remus looked at her in mock despair. She looked at him in mock loathing. But not for long. They sniggered after a while and then fell into outright laughter.
"Now since Miss Tonks no longer enjoys my company I shall leave her alone."
"Good! For now Miss Tonks can change her eye colour all she wants."
"But Mister Lupin inquires why she didn't change her eye colour while he was around."
"Because people find it distracting when I do it during conversation. I can see why. I think it'd be pretty distracting if you kept changing your eye colour from green to blue to gray and back again."
"Then why do you do it?"
"It just... For lack of a better word, feels cool. When I change my hair it feels a bit weird. When I change my height it feels uncomfortable-"
"You're tall enough as you naturally are."
"More often I have to shrink myself. Anyway, it's like getting splashed with water."
"I fail to see how that's enjoyable."
"I fail to see how skipping rocks sans magic is enjoyable."
"Well, then change your eye colour from green to blue to gray and back again during this very conversation."
"But first we need a topic."
"Right. So how do planes stay up in the air?"
Green.
"Magic."
"Bollocks."
Blue.
"It'd take a lengthy discussion on physics to properly explain it."
"I wasn't too bad at math."
Gray.
"Well, I was, so I refuse to go in too deep with it."
"How do stoplights know when to change?"
Green.
"Magic."
"Poppycock."
Blue.
"Timers."
"Clocks were a most wonderful invention."
Gray.
"Right, they were."
"I've never met, much less seen, anyone quite like you before."
Tonks stopped changing.
"Told you it was distracting."
"No, no, it wasn't distracting. It was, for lack of a better word, cool."
"Nice to know that I'm entertaining."
Remus wanted to add the word 'beautiful' but he decided against it.
Remus was snapped out of his reverie by a skipping rock on the pond. He turned around saw the mousy brown-haired Tonks standing behind him.
"Well, would you look at that? I skipped a rock without using magic."
"Glad to see you've mastered the technique-"
"But the patience is wearing thin."
They looked at each other in silence for a few moments.
"So, Nymphadora, what're you doing here?"
"Funny. I was about to ask you the same thing."
"Well, I asked first."
Tonks looked annoyed when he played the childish reason.
"Molly wanted to see me. Your turn."
"Fenrir went abroad with a couple of Death Eaters. It doesn't matter if I'm with the pack for the time being." He hadn't even told Dumbledore that. Why was he telling her?
"I see." Tonks' face had blanched a little when he mentioned Greyback's association with the Death Eaters.
"It's not like I could really follow him without getting caught."
"No, I see. I see."
"How was your Christmas?"
"It was alright. Spent it with a few mates. Yours?"
"It was pretty nice at The Burrow. Your boss came."
"I heard."
"Right fellow, he is."
"Nicest man I've ever worked with."
Tonks looked down at her shuffling feet.
"How are you spending New Years?"
"Don't know yet. You?"
"Neither do I."
"I see." Tonks looked up at him. "The Three Broomsticks are having a shindig if you wanted to..."
"I don't think people would appreciate being in the company of a drunk werewolf."
"Right. Well, I ought to be going."
Remus walked closer to her and placed a kiss on her lips. It wasn't a formal declaration of love, or a moment of passion. It was just a kiss. On Nymphadora Tonks's lips.
"Be careful."
"It's been awfully hard to keep that promise."
"But you can keep it much easier than I can."
"Remus, don't say that."
"I'd say werewolves trump dementors any day, but I've been hearing about the attacks... Maybe I'll see you at The Three Broomsticks. I don't know."
"Okay. Well, bye, I guess."
"Right. Bye."
"Oh, but you're much more than just entertaining!"
"Keep flattering me, Remus. You're doing wonders to my ego."
"No. I refuse to take part in your ego-inflating."
"Never said you couldn't take part in any ego-deflating."
"There's nothing to deflate."
"There you go inflating my ego again."
"Be quiet, Nymphadora."
"It's like you've taken a needle to the big balloon known as my head."
"Do you think Molly's done shouting at Arthur yet?"
"No, but do you want to experience that awkward feeling people get when you watch a shouting match unfolding before your eyes?"
"Sure."
Remus and Tonks started walking over to The Burrow. And neither had realized it, for it was an unconscious action completely devoid of any deliberate thought whatsoever, but they were holding hands as they made the trek.
Remus got back into his room at The Burrow and sat down on his bed. He almost didn't see it, but there was a present positioned on the floor to the left of the bed, where Remus always put his shoes. It wasn't very big or thick. He picked it up and opened it.
It was a small manual on various rock skipping techniques.
Author: killerforhire
Format & Word Count: Fic, 1523 words
Rating: pg-13
Prompt: 12
Warning: Tiny, tiny bit of profanity
Summary: See, Remus wasn't looking forward to the holidays this year very much. Not that he does most years, but most definitely not this year. He really didn't have much to look forward to.
Author's Note: I haven't really written since January, but this set of lyrics are just so terribly useful when trying to compose an R/T fic. Plus, New Order = amazing.
New Order "Temptation"
Heaven, a gateway, a hope
Just like a feeling inside, it's no joke
And though it hurts me to treat you this way
Betrayed by words, I'd never heard, too hard to say
Up, down, turn around
Please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone
I'll find my soul as I go home.
Each way I turn, I know I'll always try
To break this circle that's been placed around me
From time to time, I find I've lost some need
That was urgent to myself, I do believe
Up, down, turn around
Please don't let me hit the ground
Tonight I think I'll walk alone
I'll find my soul as I go home.
Oh, you've got green eyes
Oh, you've got blue eyes
Oh, you've got gray eyes
Oh, you've got green eyes
Oh, you've got blue eyes
Oh, you've got gray eyes
And I've never seen anyone quite like you before
No, I've never met anyone quite like you before
Thoughts from above hit the people down below
People in this world, we have no place to go
~~~~~~~~~~~
December 27th. Perfect. Bloody perfect.
See, Remus wasn't looking forward to the holidays this year very much. Not that he does most years, but most definitely not this year. He really didn't have much to look forward to.
S'almost the New Year.
Yes, but what use was a new year when he lost both his best mate and his girlfriend in less than a month?
He was walking back over to The Burrow where he was spending the holidays, having some of his first proper meals in weeks, seeing the Weasleys, seeing Harry.
But not to see her. No. No. Not my intention at all.
He was coming back from Diagon Alley where he had just sent Dumbledore an owl updating him on the last three months of his infiltration in the pack. He hadn't been able to get a word to Dumbledore without having to send it through someone else, so he hadn't bothered with the most sensitive information. At least now Dumbledore would know that he had a few precious days to get the goods on Fenrir before Remus had to go back.
He was just coming over the hill when he saw a figure being security-questioned at the door.
"What's your favourite Muggle band?"
"Pulp! Which issue of Witch Weekly did you leave at my flat that one time you got the fabulous idea to come over and try to clean it?"
"The February issue with Randalf Greenwood on the cover! Now, Tonks, come in!"
Shit.
The figure walked inside the house. Remus stood still.
Shit.
Remus backed away.
I'll take a walk around the neighborhood for a few hours. She'll have to leave sometime.
Remus walked past houses belonging to the Lovegoods and countless other wizarding families he'd never heard of. He stopped at a small pond.
It was the same pond where he taught her how to skip rocks over a year prior.
"Y'know, I appreciate the Muggle way of doing things, I really do. Dad pretty much forced me to learn how to drive in case I 'ever got tired of the wizarding world'. But it's frustrating trying to do this when I know magic is readily available to me!"
"Ah, but that is the beauty of it. It's just proper technique-"
Remus aimed the rock.
"And patience, yes, yes. Dad forced me to take Muggle Studies too."
"I'm amazed they're using the same textbook series, actually."
"I'm amazed the writer is still alive."
"You learn anything?"
"Obviously not, since I still can't skip a bloody rock."
Remus chucked.
"I didn't mean the rock skipping." Remus turned to her. "I meant the class."
"Oh. Well... Not really. Dad told me pretty much everything if I asked him. How planes stay up in the air, how a stoplight knows when to change-"
"But not how to skip rocks."
"Never thought it was vital information."
"Oh, but it is!" Remus picked up a rock and placed it into her left hand. "Now, just concentrate."
Tonks looked at the pond and then down at the rock. "This is ridiculous."
"No, it isn't." Remus placed his left hand on hers, stooped a bit to reach her eye level and raised up the rock. "Just... Concentrate." He aimed it for her. "Now chuck."
Tonks chucked. It skipped.
"Now try aiming for yourself."
"No thanks. As much as I got a kick out of that, I'm in no emotional state to aim rocks at water."
"Emotional? Since when has this been emotional baggage for you?" Mock shock had been a recurring joke of theirs.
"Oh, since I've been silently cursing my dad for not teaching me how to skip stones."
"You'd rather not learn from me?"
"Never. In a million years, never."
"Excuse me, Miss Tonks. I must now go repair my heart for you've sliced through it like a knife."
Remus looked at her in mock despair. She looked at him in mock loathing. But not for long. They sniggered after a while and then fell into outright laughter.
"Now since Miss Tonks no longer enjoys my company I shall leave her alone."
"Good! For now Miss Tonks can change her eye colour all she wants."
"But Mister Lupin inquires why she didn't change her eye colour while he was around."
"Because people find it distracting when I do it during conversation. I can see why. I think it'd be pretty distracting if you kept changing your eye colour from green to blue to gray and back again."
"Then why do you do it?"
"It just... For lack of a better word, feels cool. When I change my hair it feels a bit weird. When I change my height it feels uncomfortable-"
"You're tall enough as you naturally are."
"More often I have to shrink myself. Anyway, it's like getting splashed with water."
"I fail to see how that's enjoyable."
"I fail to see how skipping rocks sans magic is enjoyable."
"Well, then change your eye colour from green to blue to gray and back again during this very conversation."
"But first we need a topic."
"Right. So how do planes stay up in the air?"
Green.
"Magic."
"Bollocks."
Blue.
"It'd take a lengthy discussion on physics to properly explain it."
"I wasn't too bad at math."
Gray.
"Well, I was, so I refuse to go in too deep with it."
"How do stoplights know when to change?"
Green.
"Magic."
"Poppycock."
Blue.
"Timers."
"Clocks were a most wonderful invention."
Gray.
"Right, they were."
"I've never met, much less seen, anyone quite like you before."
Tonks stopped changing.
"Told you it was distracting."
"No, no, it wasn't distracting. It was, for lack of a better word, cool."
"Nice to know that I'm entertaining."
Remus wanted to add the word 'beautiful' but he decided against it.
Remus was snapped out of his reverie by a skipping rock on the pond. He turned around saw the mousy brown-haired Tonks standing behind him.
"Well, would you look at that? I skipped a rock without using magic."
"Glad to see you've mastered the technique-"
"But the patience is wearing thin."
They looked at each other in silence for a few moments.
"So, Nymphadora, what're you doing here?"
"Funny. I was about to ask you the same thing."
"Well, I asked first."
Tonks looked annoyed when he played the childish reason.
"Molly wanted to see me. Your turn."
"Fenrir went abroad with a couple of Death Eaters. It doesn't matter if I'm with the pack for the time being." He hadn't even told Dumbledore that. Why was he telling her?
"I see." Tonks' face had blanched a little when he mentioned Greyback's association with the Death Eaters.
"It's not like I could really follow him without getting caught."
"No, I see. I see."
"How was your Christmas?"
"It was alright. Spent it with a few mates. Yours?"
"It was pretty nice at The Burrow. Your boss came."
"I heard."
"Right fellow, he is."
"Nicest man I've ever worked with."
Tonks looked down at her shuffling feet.
"How are you spending New Years?"
"Don't know yet. You?"
"Neither do I."
"I see." Tonks looked up at him. "The Three Broomsticks are having a shindig if you wanted to..."
"I don't think people would appreciate being in the company of a drunk werewolf."
"Right. Well, I ought to be going."
Remus walked closer to her and placed a kiss on her lips. It wasn't a formal declaration of love, or a moment of passion. It was just a kiss. On Nymphadora Tonks's lips.
"Be careful."
"It's been awfully hard to keep that promise."
"But you can keep it much easier than I can."
"Remus, don't say that."
"I'd say werewolves trump dementors any day, but I've been hearing about the attacks... Maybe I'll see you at The Three Broomsticks. I don't know."
"Okay. Well, bye, I guess."
"Right. Bye."
"Oh, but you're much more than just entertaining!"
"Keep flattering me, Remus. You're doing wonders to my ego."
"No. I refuse to take part in your ego-inflating."
"Never said you couldn't take part in any ego-deflating."
"There's nothing to deflate."
"There you go inflating my ego again."
"Be quiet, Nymphadora."
"It's like you've taken a needle to the big balloon known as my head."
"Do you think Molly's done shouting at Arthur yet?"
"No, but do you want to experience that awkward feeling people get when you watch a shouting match unfolding before your eyes?"
"Sure."
Remus and Tonks started walking over to The Burrow. And neither had realized it, for it was an unconscious action completely devoid of any deliberate thought whatsoever, but they were holding hands as they made the trek.
Remus got back into his room at The Burrow and sat down on his bed. He almost didn't see it, but there was a present positioned on the floor to the left of the bed, where Remus always put his shoes. It wasn't very big or thick. He picked it up and opened it.
It was a small manual on various rock skipping techniques.