and the stream runs in circles from the chasm to the core
Who: MULTIPLE THREADS! Expected: there are some plans. Unexpected: how would I know?
When: Right after this-with flexibility. All sparked by this after this.
Where: The Clinic
Format: [hates choosing] Whatever I start with, do your own thing!
What: Tonks visitations. Lupin's return. Shirley in da house. Trepkos the Grouch. AND MORE.
Warnings: Ow ow ( Read more... )
When: Right after this-with flexibility. All sparked by this after this.
Where: The Clinic
Format: [hates choosing] Whatever I start with, do your own thing!
What: Tonks visitations. Lupin's return. Shirley in da house. Trepkos the Grouch. AND MORE.
Warnings: Ow ow ( Read more... )
His mind is blank of stories, not ones that feel worth anything, but for her… he opens his mouth and trusts that something will be there for her.
It may be.
"Every world goes to war. People carry their wars from one world to the next, whether they apply in the new one or not-whether they ever applied at all. It's easy to look at this trend and think war is eternal and people are incapable of doing or wanting anything else. But then one is reminded-one is shown-that some wars end. And can be worth something. When they leave a better world in their wake."
Shifting away from her ever so slightly, only just enough to free a space over his inner pocket; and rather than displace her further by reaching into it, he held out his hand and murmured, "Accio ecfigia."
Something square and white slipped free from his jacket and flew into his hand. He brought it down to put it into her hand.
She won't know that Io was the one who gave this to him. [ 1 ] That he doesn't know the exact circumstances that would (when?) create it. That he doesn't know rightly how or why it was given to him, except that Io asked someone powerful, because at that time she still cared for him. That showing it to Lestrange had provoked her to mass-murder [ 2 ]-so you see because of her I've killed people here too, for far less reason than you-and may have been the spark that led to the first trick that had made him bleed. Nor that it had helped him back out of it. [ 3 ]
But she can know, as surely as he did, that it's real:
The wizarding-world artifact, the moving photograph of grown-up Harry, Ginny, Ron, and Hermione, standing in a peaceful, repaired street, smiling and waving and laughing, surrounded by (unmistakably their own) children. Alive, victorious, at peace.
"This has helped me many times here," he murmured into her hair. "You take it for a while."
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There's Harry. He does not seem to carry the weight on him as an adult that he did as a child. Harry seems at ease. Ron looks the same almost, just older, a true Weasley that way. Then there's Ginny and she is beautiful.
"I was thought Hermione and Ron had a thing for each other." She says softly, still watching the photograph. Hermione often seemed too annoyed with Ron and Ron, at least in Tonks' perspective, seemed to almost antagonize her. Ron is a Weasley after all and she knows a thing or two about certain members of that family operated.
Ginny and Harry isn't quite a surprise. Ginny had once told her that she had a crush on Harry, her first crush. "They all look... happy." In spite of it all, she smiles. "I hope they learned from me and didn't name them anything that'd make them want to be known by their surname only."
Remember how you had introduced her Remus? Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only.
So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Nymphadora. Hadn't she on a previous occassion told Arthur that it had been stupid of her? Maybe it's a sign. Not that she's better but maybe it's a sign that she eventually can be.
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Hermione.
Suddenly Lupin remembers his own last forgepost-he hasn't corrected it, if Hermione sees-
He shifts away from the wall to face Tonks again, his arm still circling her.
"I should tell Hermione you're all right. After my... moment of panic... I don't want her to think... I'll just step into the hall for a moment." Glances at the empty doorway. "And repair the door. Do you think you can get some rest, for a little while?"
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"No. No!" Her hand encircles his wrist. "You promised you weren't going to leave me." She starts to tear up again. "Please don't go, please." Tonks is begging, she is starting to get frantic again. "Can't you just stay for a little while."
She's begging, pleading, offering and compromising. She's saying anything that can think of to make him stay.
"I need you to stay Remus."
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Her hand convulsively gropes for his again. "Remus please don't leave." *
His eyes flicker to her hand on his wrist. His blood again goes cold.
I wanted it all back with her but not this, not like this, I didn't ask for you didn't have to put her through…
He pulls her (or lets her pull him) into a tight embrace and smooths his free hand over her hair.
"I'm sorry. I didn't- Of course I'll stay."
Cupping her face again to part them, only enough to look in her eyes, he said, "Why don't you lie down while I fix the door and call Hermione-I'll stay in the room for both-then I don't need to do anything else. I can do anything you need."
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"Thank you Remus."
Tonks is able to pull away from him. In one hand she has her wand and in the other is Remus photograph. She half-scoots, half-climbs up onto her bed. She lays down on her side with the photograph coming to rest near her pillow. Tonks isn't going to let anything happen to it.
A funny thing happens when her head hits her pillow. Her eyes immediately close. Dende and Shirley had both done wonderful things when they had healed her. Malnourishment was fixed. The infections and cuts had vanished. Even her energy had been restored somewhat.
However, her exhaustion stems from more than lack of sleep.
She trusts Remus. She trusts that he'll be there. Maybe that's the reason she falls into an immediate slumber. It might be enough to keep the nightmares away, his presence.
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-right now this is staggeringly difficult-
-and unpocketing his wand to turn to the door.
Taking the pieces of it off the floor, reconnecting them, and putting the finished product back on its hinges is only a matter of a few minutes' work.
He spares one more moment to back into a chair, across the room in an opposite corner from Tonks's bed, to try not to disturb her. Slumping forward, elbows onto knees, he took out his forge to check the moment of panic, see if Hermione had responded.
She had.
He keeps his voice low for the ensuing conversation. Part of him wishes Tonks would hear some of it, but she really seems to be at rest. It shouldn't be overheard, he'll tell her directly, when it's time.
...He'll also deal with the fact that she must have heard him cry She killed her again. When it's time. She may not have processed it. He barely had.
When at last he switches his forge back off-really off, so that it won't self-activate, he'll rejoin the world when he-when she is ready for him to-he spends one more moment in the chair, looking at the woman on the bed.
He won't leave. Never leave someone sleeping to wake up and find you gone. He'll stay here all night.
It's a private room, so only the one bed. Exhausted as he is, he doesn't think he can fall asleep in the wooden chair.
The last time they'd played this scene, he'd fallen asleep holding her.
But he doesn't climb into the bed with her. Even if she were still awake right now he wouldn't. Only if she'd asked, which she hadn't.
Instead he moves the chair, silently-partially levitating to avoid a noise-to her bedside. He lays his hand close to hers. Still sitting in the chair, he leans forward to fold the other arm onto the mattress beside her pillow and rests his head on his forearm.
Like her, he hadn't expected to sleep at all.
Like her, he's so drained, so relieved to be in her presence again no matter what else, he falls asleep almost at once.
It's first thing she'll see when she opens her eyes: him asleep in the chair, resting his head on her bed, beside her.
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Sometime during the night, her left hand sneaks its way out. Her hand glides over his head and neck to come to rest on his shoulder. It will remain there throughout the night.
Remus provides an anchor. During the night and well into the late morning hours, no dreams will come to Tonks. She goes beyond that state and doesn't wake during the night. It will be almost afternoon before she wakes up.
For the first time, in many days, she's finally able to rest.
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