Where The Heart Is
Title: Where the Heart is
Author: Jess Pallas
Rating: PG for a bit of swearing
Genre: Romance
Prompt: Want, “I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid.”
Word Count: 3786
Summary: Tonks sighed into her drink. Oh, magnificent. I come here for Remus and get the junior division of the Gilderoy Lockhart School of Smarm…
A/N: I have no idea if this is rubbish or not, as per usual! It felt a bit unbalanced when I was writing and then Remus leapt in and did something unexpected and unplanned on me and so the ending was done on spec pretty much but there it is. I hope you like it. :)
“Ta, Rosmerta.”
Nymphadora Tonks flashed a smile as she accepted her regular evening dose of mulled mead from the landlady of the Three Broomsticks, settled down on her regular bar stool and plonked her elbows on the counter in her regular fashion. Her hair, this evening a vivid shade of turquoise blue to rival even Caribbean seas, curled around her head like wild waves, the one random element of a very familiar equation.
Taking a sip of mead, Tonks grinned to herself. Who’d have ever thought that she of all people would end up taking such pleasure in routine?
Certainly not me. But what the heck. This is one time I like to be wrong.
For it had become their habit, their little tradition, ever since Professor McGonagall had invited Remus to resume his previous position as Hogwarts Defence against the Dark Arts teacher after Voldemort’s final defeat - every week night, allowing for her night shifts or his marking workload, they would meet here in the Three Broomsticks at eight o’clock and share a drink, a snack and laughter. At about nine o’clock, if they felt so inclined, they would either apparate to her flat in London or sneak into Hogwarts down one of the innumerable secret passages that Remus seemed to know and spend the night together. Whether it passed in chatter, in affection or in passion depended entirely on their mood. Somehow it didn’t seem to matter.
No. As long as they were together, it just didn’t matter at all.
That’s love, I guess. Who’d have thought?
She’d always thought that she wanted wild desire, constant excitement, a thrilling rollercoaster of a ride through life with a thrilling rollercoaster of a man. But after the horrors and loss of the war and experiencing the slow, wonderful, painful slide from friendship into love with a kind, gentle, witty man who fulfilled her in ways that rollercoaster thrills never could, all she really wanted was quiet evenings and glorious routine.
She checked the clock above the mantle. Five to eight. Any moment now, Remus would walk through that door, smiling his beautiful smile, eyes brightening as he walked towards her in a way that never failed to warm her heart. Any moment now he would…
The door opened. For an instant, her heart began to leap.
But it wasn’t Remus.
Three young men dressed in tackily bright robes swaggered in through the doorway, beaming around at the room before them as though expecting a round of applause.
No, not three young men. Three boys.
Tonks grinned to herself. Oh, you lads have no idea the trouble you’ll be in when your Defence professor walks through that door in about four minutes time…
Hmmm… They didn’t look much older than fifteen, sixteen at the most, fifth years she would have guessed and they sauntered into the Three Broomsticks with the self satisfied air of young adolescents in the process of breaking the rules. And as they moved closer, a foul tinged dour wafted along with them, a smell that Tonks knew all too well…
She shuddered at the memory of the passageway coated with a viscous and alarmingly slippery green slime that had covered her robes from head to foot after the inevitable loss of footing. She had made Remus swear on pain of death never to make her use that particular access to the castle again. With her feeble skill at householdy spells, it had taken a week of constant laundering to get the stench out of her clothes.
She glanced down. The boots, socks and robe hems of the threesome were all coated in green gunk.
I wonder if they realise just how long that smell’s going to linger. They aren’t exactly going to be attractive to the ladies for the next few…Uh oh…
It was probably the hair. It generally was. But the tallest of the three, a dark haired, firm chinned lad who wasn’t bad looking for his age and clearly knew it, had glanced in her direction and fixed his eyes upon her with sudden, unswerving intensity. Adjusting his robes and exchanging a smirk with his two mates, he turned and swaggered over.
“Well, hello there,” he drawled, propping one elbow against the bar as he rested his chin in his hand and adopted a faux casual stance, smiling in a frankly smarmy fashion that, contrary to what she was sure he believed, made him completely and utterly resistible. Behind her, his two mates lurked together mirroring his pose as they fought to battle down a pair of matching stupid grins.
“And what brings an angel like you to a place like this?” The young man’s lips curled. “Surely it can only be destiny.”
Tonks sighed into her drink. Oh, magnificent. I come here for Remus and get the junior division of the Gilderoy Lockhart School of Smarm…
She glanced up at her young admirer and smiled with false brightness. “Destiny could never be so cruel.”
One look at his frozen smile told her that the meaning of her cheery retort had not been misunderstood. Well, at least they aren’t thick. Thick ones are more persistent. Maybe this lot will actually get the message and bugger off…
“Perhaps not destiny then.” The smirk was back and now one hand was hovering perilously close to her knee. “But tell me, did it hurt? When you fell from heaven?” An eyebrow quirked. “Do you need anything rubbing better?”
Or maybe not…
Tonks indulged herself with a long, necessary slurp of mead. Come on, Remus, get your arse down here before I have to start breaking your students fingers…
Leaning forward on the counter, Tonks crossed her wrists and rested her chin against her hands, fixing the young man with her best Intimidating Auror gaze.
“Actually, I burrowed up from the other place,” she informed him matter of factly. “It was a bugger on my fingernails but I was feeling kind of claustrophobic. Plus the mead’s better here.”
It was tempting, Lord knows it was tempting to indulge in a little morphing, perhaps turning her hair red and spiking it into a pair of horn-like tufts. But unfortunately, such strategy ran the risk of revealing her metamorphmagus status and, as she knew all too well from her own school days, there were few things more likely to fuel an adolescent hormone rush and the suggestion of highly insulting alterations than letting a teenage boy know that he was chatting up a girl who could, if her brain and dignity were first surgically removed, be the stuff of any and all of his wildest fantasies.
Remus had never asked her to change a thing. He took her ever changing hair and occasional disguises entirely in his stride.
Though I wish his stride would hurry up and bring him here faster….
“So you’re a wicked witch then, are you?” Oh, please, somebody spare me…
Fingertips brushed lightly against her jeans as the two sidekicks snickered. The odour of slime grew thicker as he slunk an inch or two closer. “I can just imagine what you get up to…”
This had gone quite far enough. Games and corny chat up lines were one thing but making contact was decidedly across the line. “Well, in that case maybe you should imagine me mincing the fingers of any little schoolboy who dares touch my knee and feeding it to the nearest hippogriff. Hagrid’s got a couple, hasn’t he?”
One look told the lad that she meant business. The fingers withdrew immediately, but the smarmy git himself did not. Indeed, he puffed himself up like a peacock.
“I’m not a school boy!” he proclaimed with insincere fervour. “I’m a professional Quidditch player! I’m with the Tornado Reserves and tipped to be the next big thing in the league!”
“Blimey.” Tonks looked him up and down deliberately. “And I thought the Chudley Cannons were desperate. And please stop thrusting your chest about. You could take someone’s eye out with that.”
Her admirer managed to avoid deflating like a punctured quaffle but it involved considerable and visible effort on his part. For a moment, his eyes left her and roamed around the room, apparently in such of fresh new prey, but since a quick glance of her own told Tonks that the clientele of the Three Broomsticks that evening consisted of two hags, an irritable looking goblin, three old ladies sharing their magical knitting needles, a grouchy looking warlock with a beard the size of a small coppice and Minty Gabbidon, the dropping-strewn postmaster from the Hogsmeade Post Office, she knew that, as the only viable female on the premises, he would be forced to reluctantly press on with her or look a prat in front of his mates.
Oh joy…
Over the mantle, the clock turned eight. Remus was officially late.
Love of my life or not Remus Lupin, if you don’t show up in the next two minutes, I’m officially going to beat you to death with Mr-Next-Big-Thing-In-The-League’s severed head…
“Look.” There was a faintly irritable note to her admirer’s tone now - he was clearly a young man not used to rejection and accustomed to the fact that his brand of cheddarish charm would usually have teenaged girls swooning all around him with eyelashes fluttering and doe eyes filled with lust. “I like the look of you, okay? I just thought I’d do you a favour, you know? Let you get in first before all the ladies want a piece of me? And let’s face it…” His eyes fixed pointed upon the shrub-like warlock and Minty Gabbidon’s blob smeared robes. “I’m the best you’re going to get in here tonight.”
Tonks regarded him slowly. If Remus was so determined not to bother showing up on his white charger with detention slips, which potential amusement was frankly was the only reason she’d endured this charade for so long, then she supposed she’d just have to rescue herself. It would have to be non-violent, unfortunately - Remus was oddly stern about persons twisting his students into interesting Celtic knot patterns and hanging them from the light fittings - and since sarcasm, the Intimidating Auror look and not so subtle hinting had failed, bluntness was all she had left.
“Kid, frankly, the ladies can have you. If you ask Doris over there nicely, she’ll probably knit you a scarf but face it; you’re not going to get anywhere with me. No.” His attempt to intervene was firmly overruled “The grown up is talking now. Given a choice between you and anyone else in this room, I’d take anyone else. I’d take Bernard and his epic beard. I’d take Minty and his eau de Owl Crap. I’d take the goblin. I’d take Doris. In fact, if the Giant Squid oozed in through that very door and begged me for a wild night of lake-weed related bondage, I would agree to that sooner than have a drink with you. And to be honest…” She leaned forward in a vaguely confidential manner and gestured to his slime covered boots. “At least the smell would be better.”
One of the two sidekicks sniggered loudly. His rather more prudent friend kicked him sharply in the shin as the dark haired would be lover-boy fixed him with a glare of death.
“Piss off, Gilbert,” he retorted sharply. “It’s not like she’d have gone for you either.”
“It’s not like she’d have gone for any of you.” Tonks folded her arms pointedly. “Aside from the fact I don’t date teenagers with chat up lines straight out of Fifi LaFolle, I happen to be waiting for my boyfriend. And trust me; you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.”
Her now rather less admiring admirer snorted with laughter. “Let me guess - he’s a hit wizard, right? Or a dragon tamer? Or a curse breaker? What’s he going to do, waltz in here and hex us to oblivion?”
“No.” The quiet voice that drifted from a few feet away set Tonks’ heart soaring almost as high as the three lads jumped in shock. “But he will put all three of you in detention for a month for being off premises without permission.”
If Tonks hadn’t known better, she would have sworn that all three boys shrank by about a foot as they turned, all swagger gone, to face their impassive featured Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. His arms were crossed. One eyebrow was raised.
“Elias Tutt,” he stated softly. “Gilbert Quilkin. And of course, Adrian Clotworthy.” The last was addressed to Tonks’ would-be admirer. “You all know that no student has the right to be in Hogsmeade outside of designated weekends. And you also know the punishment. I doubt that Professor Flitwick is going to be too thrilled to find almost half his Quidditch team will be missing a month of practice in order to scrub out Professor Slughorn’s old ingredient jars. And trust me, they’re not a pretty sight.”
Adrian Clotworthy swallowed hard. “Professor Lupin…” he started.
“In a minute, Adrian.” Tonks marvelled at the way that, even in the process of telling off wrong doers, Remus somehow managed to remain polite. His eyes swept over the filthy hem of their robes. “Ah, yes. The secret passageway that come out in the well of the Three Broomsticks, correct? That is the one nearest your common room after all.” At the amazed looks on the three young faces, Remus cracked a gentle smile. “Gentlemen, I’m afraid you’re all poor excuses for Ravenclaws if you assumed that you’re the only people in a thousand years of Hogwarts School to find a secret passage out of the castle. And every Hogwarts teacher was once a Hogwarts pupil. You’d do well to remember that.” His tone was almost friendly as he added, “And of course, Mr Filch is aware of it too. So you’re probably lucky that I caught you before he did. Now…” His gaze slipped over to Tonks, meeting her eyes with a smile. “Perhaps you’d care to apologise to my girlfriend before I see you back to the school?”
For an instant, Adrian’s mouth worked liked a frantic guppy. “You mean she really is your girlfriend?” he blurted, adding a quick “Sir!” as an afterthought.
Remus’ lips twisted; Tonks could tell that he was struggling not to laugh. That he found this comment amusing rather than frowning disconcertedly and perhaps entering into a short litany about how this was yet another example of how unsuitable he was for her warmed her heart. They’d come so far from those awful days of denial this past year or two…
“Indeed she is.” Remus’ smile was broad. “And she also happens to be an Auror so I’d say you gentlemen are lucky to have emerged with all of your limbs intact. Now, come along.” He ushered the three boys forward, ignoring the way their eyes had bulged at the news that they had, unwittingly, been baiting the Dark Wizard blasting partner of their werewolf Defence professor. “I’ll see you back to the school.” He cast a quick glance over his shoulder, flashing Tonks a grin. “Back in a minute.”
Tonks was still chuckling to herself when Remus returned, smelling faintly of slime.
“That was quick,” she remarked as he settled on the barstool next to her, quietly scourgifying his boots with a few well-placed wave of his wand. “Didn’t you see them all the way back?”
Remus shook his head. “I told them to go straight back to their common room and if I heard they’d done any different, they’d lose more than house points.” He smiled serenely. “I said I’d let my girlfriend use them for target practice. Last time I saw them, they were running at quite a speed.” He tilted his head. “I suppose I could have threatened them with Squid bondage, but it wouldn’t sound quite the same coming from me…”
Tonks fixed him with a steely glare. “How long were you standing there?”
“Long enough to hear your wonderful speech. How long have you had these pond weed urges that only the Squid can satisfy?”
“Git.” Tonks thumped him firmly. “I was trying to get the message across. It was like drilling into granite. Some people just can’t take a hint…”
The look that crossed Remus’ face was vaguely nostalgic. “You know, the last time I heard a girl tell a persistent admirer that she’d rather date the Giant Squid than him, she ended up marrying him. And then she gave birth to the saviour of the wizarding world…”
“Really?” Tonks adopted an expression of faux excitement. “Well, in that case I’d better hurry and see if I can catch up with Adrian the Tornado Boy! He must be the love of my life!”
“You might marry him.”
“I could! And I’d give birth to a son who’ll unite wizards and muggles alike with his love of cheesy chat up lines and clumsy ballroom dancing. He was right. Our meeting was destiny.”
“Or…”
“Or?”
“Or if you don’t feel like destiny…”
“Which I don’t…”
“And you’d rather not be chatted up by any more of my students…”
“Which I definitely don’t…
“Then you could just marry me.”
It took a moment for the words to sink in. “Pardon?”
Remus was staring at her now, his eyes warm, his smile soft. “You could just marry me,” he repeated quietly. “If you wanted.”
Tonks could feel her jaw working but no sound saw fit to emerge. Her heart was pounding like a drumbeat in her ears. Her brain had dissolved into an incoherent, slushy mess. She could feel her stomach rolling somersaults.
Marry…?
She’d never had any burning desire to marry in her youth. It had never seemed like something her rollercoaster man would want and so she’d never bothered to want it either.
But she wanted it with Remus. She’d have been a liar of the highest order to ever claim she hadn’t. But they’d been so settled, happy in their little private routine that the thought had wandered off somewhere to yodel on a distant hillside in the far back of her mind, an echo that reached her only occasionally. She wanted it so badly that she’d let it go and hide away, not daring to hope that he might actually ask…
And now he had. He’d asked. He’d asked her to marry him. And all she wanted to say was…
“Yeah, all right then.” The words tumbled joyfully out before she could frame them into a more coherent dignified whole. For a moment, fear surged through her. Would he take her less than emphatic agreement as some sort of sign she wasn’t sure? Would he doubt how much she wanted this to happen?
But then, she met his eyes and she knew. He understood.
Tonks couldn’t help but chuckle. “That wasn’t the most romantic acceptance, was it?”
Remus’ expression was suddenly rueful. “Well it wasn’t the most romantic proposal, really,” he said with soft laugh. “I’ve been thinking about asking for a while and I had all these vague ideas about asking you on a picnic or taking you to a restaurant but nothing really seemed right. And then when I was walking through the village, I saw that cottage near the gates was up for sale which is why I was late because I found myself thinking about what would happen if we bought it together and moved in as husband and wife and…” His voice trailed off as he grinned wryly. “And then I accidentally proposed.”
“You impulsive fool.”
He laughed out loud. “If you’d rather have that picnic, I can always obliviate you.”
”What, get me to tell you my perfect proposal and then wipe my mind so you can present it with a flourish and look like a god amongst men?” Tonks poked him in the arm. “That, Professor Lupin, is called cheating.” She smiled softly before adding, “Besides, I rather liked the one I got.”
“Really?” For a moment, it seemed as though his heart shone in his eyes.
“Really.” Leaning forwards, Tonks placed a soft kiss against his lips. The urge to deepen the kiss was intense, but she could almost feel the burning eyes of Doris, Bernard, Minty and the rest upon them and so gently pulled away.
“We’ll finish that later,” she whispered softly, gesturing to Minty’s voyeuristic gaze with her eyes. “But for now… Tell me about this cottage.”
To her surprise, Remus looked faintly embarrassed. “That was just an idea. I know how much you love your flat in London and I can always apparate to the gates every morning if you…”
“Sod the flat.” He stared at her emphatic tone as she shrugged. “Remus, home is where the heart is. And my heart’s always with you. Come on.” She scrambled to her feet, only losing her balance slightly as she yanked on his arm. “Walk me over to see this cottage.”
Remus was gazing at her, his smile broadening inch by inch. “I love you.”
Tonks beamed. “I should bloody well hope so seeing as you just proposed. Now on your feet, Lupin.”
He obeyed this time, taking her arm and folding it against his own. “That’s a thought,” he murmured as they moved towards the door, both smiling at Rosmerta who was regarding them with vaguely misty eyes. “It’ll have to be Nymphadora from now on. They’ll be no more taking refuge in Tonks, Mrs Lupin.”
“Sod off.” He winced with a grin as her boot impacted firmly against his shin. “I’ll be whatever I want to be. And I fight for what I want.”
He smiled down at her, gently, lovingly, his eyes filled with the same intensity of emotion that was broiling in her chest. “I know,” he whispered softly. “And I’m grateful for that.”
She smiled quietly in response. “Daft sod,” she murmured in return. “But I still love you. And I did love the offhand proposal. It was very…. us.”
A loose cobble caught under her foot and she started to stumble, but Remus’ grasp on her arm tightened as he held her upright.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I won’t let you go.”
And she knew, in that moment, that he never would.
And, now and forever, that was all she wanted.
THE END
A/N: If the proposal seemed a little out of the blue, then be assured it took me by surprise as well! I never intended that to happen in this fic but Remus just went and did it without asking me first! I guess he just wanted to get it in before DH likely does terrible things to the both of them….
Author: Jess Pallas
Rating: PG for a bit of swearing
Genre: Romance
Prompt: Want, “I wouldn’t go out with you if it was a choice between you and the giant squid.”
Word Count: 3786
Summary: Tonks sighed into her drink. Oh, magnificent. I come here for Remus and get the junior division of the Gilderoy Lockhart School of Smarm…
A/N: I have no idea if this is rubbish or not, as per usual! It felt a bit unbalanced when I was writing and then Remus leapt in and did something unexpected and unplanned on me and so the ending was done on spec pretty much but there it is. I hope you like it. :)
“Ta, Rosmerta.”
Nymphadora Tonks flashed a smile as she accepted her regular evening dose of mulled mead from the landlady of the Three Broomsticks, settled down on her regular bar stool and plonked her elbows on the counter in her regular fashion. Her hair, this evening a vivid shade of turquoise blue to rival even Caribbean seas, curled around her head like wild waves, the one random element of a very familiar equation.
Taking a sip of mead, Tonks grinned to herself. Who’d have ever thought that she of all people would end up taking such pleasure in routine?
Certainly not me. But what the heck. This is one time I like to be wrong.
For it had become their habit, their little tradition, ever since Professor McGonagall had invited Remus to resume his previous position as Hogwarts Defence against the Dark Arts teacher after Voldemort’s final defeat - every week night, allowing for her night shifts or his marking workload, they would meet here in the Three Broomsticks at eight o’clock and share a drink, a snack and laughter. At about nine o’clock, if they felt so inclined, they would either apparate to her flat in London or sneak into Hogwarts down one of the innumerable secret passages that Remus seemed to know and spend the night together. Whether it passed in chatter, in affection or in passion depended entirely on their mood. Somehow it didn’t seem to matter.
No. As long as they were together, it just didn’t matter at all.
That’s love, I guess. Who’d have thought?
She’d always thought that she wanted wild desire, constant excitement, a thrilling rollercoaster of a ride through life with a thrilling rollercoaster of a man. But after the horrors and loss of the war and experiencing the slow, wonderful, painful slide from friendship into love with a kind, gentle, witty man who fulfilled her in ways that rollercoaster thrills never could, all she really wanted was quiet evenings and glorious routine.
She checked the clock above the mantle. Five to eight. Any moment now, Remus would walk through that door, smiling his beautiful smile, eyes brightening as he walked towards her in a way that never failed to warm her heart. Any moment now he would…
The door opened. For an instant, her heart began to leap.
But it wasn’t Remus.
Three young men dressed in tackily bright robes swaggered in through the doorway, beaming around at the room before them as though expecting a round of applause.
No, not three young men. Three boys.
Tonks grinned to herself. Oh, you lads have no idea the trouble you’ll be in when your Defence professor walks through that door in about four minutes time…
Hmmm… They didn’t look much older than fifteen, sixteen at the most, fifth years she would have guessed and they sauntered into the Three Broomsticks with the self satisfied air of young adolescents in the process of breaking the rules. And as they moved closer, a foul tinged dour wafted along with them, a smell that Tonks knew all too well…
She shuddered at the memory of the passageway coated with a viscous and alarmingly slippery green slime that had covered her robes from head to foot after the inevitable loss of footing. She had made Remus swear on pain of death never to make her use that particular access to the castle again. With her feeble skill at householdy spells, it had taken a week of constant laundering to get the stench out of her clothes.
She glanced down. The boots, socks and robe hems of the threesome were all coated in green gunk.
I wonder if they realise just how long that smell’s going to linger. They aren’t exactly going to be attractive to the ladies for the next few…Uh oh…
It was probably the hair. It generally was. But the tallest of the three, a dark haired, firm chinned lad who wasn’t bad looking for his age and clearly knew it, had glanced in her direction and fixed his eyes upon her with sudden, unswerving intensity. Adjusting his robes and exchanging a smirk with his two mates, he turned and swaggered over.
“Well, hello there,” he drawled, propping one elbow against the bar as he rested his chin in his hand and adopted a faux casual stance, smiling in a frankly smarmy fashion that, contrary to what she was sure he believed, made him completely and utterly resistible. Behind her, his two mates lurked together mirroring his pose as they fought to battle down a pair of matching stupid grins.
“And what brings an angel like you to a place like this?” The young man’s lips curled. “Surely it can only be destiny.”
Tonks sighed into her drink. Oh, magnificent. I come here for Remus and get the junior division of the Gilderoy Lockhart School of Smarm…
She glanced up at her young admirer and smiled with false brightness. “Destiny could never be so cruel.”
One look at his frozen smile told her that the meaning of her cheery retort had not been misunderstood. Well, at least they aren’t thick. Thick ones are more persistent. Maybe this lot will actually get the message and bugger off…
“Perhaps not destiny then.” The smirk was back and now one hand was hovering perilously close to her knee. “But tell me, did it hurt? When you fell from heaven?” An eyebrow quirked. “Do you need anything rubbing better?”
Or maybe not…
Tonks indulged herself with a long, necessary slurp of mead. Come on, Remus, get your arse down here before I have to start breaking your students fingers…
Leaning forward on the counter, Tonks crossed her wrists and rested her chin against her hands, fixing the young man with her best Intimidating Auror gaze.
“Actually, I burrowed up from the other place,” she informed him matter of factly. “It was a bugger on my fingernails but I was feeling kind of claustrophobic. Plus the mead’s better here.”
It was tempting, Lord knows it was tempting to indulge in a little morphing, perhaps turning her hair red and spiking it into a pair of horn-like tufts. But unfortunately, such strategy ran the risk of revealing her metamorphmagus status and, as she knew all too well from her own school days, there were few things more likely to fuel an adolescent hormone rush and the suggestion of highly insulting alterations than letting a teenage boy know that he was chatting up a girl who could, if her brain and dignity were first surgically removed, be the stuff of any and all of his wildest fantasies.
Remus had never asked her to change a thing. He took her ever changing hair and occasional disguises entirely in his stride.
Though I wish his stride would hurry up and bring him here faster….
“So you’re a wicked witch then, are you?” Oh, please, somebody spare me…
Fingertips brushed lightly against her jeans as the two sidekicks snickered. The odour of slime grew thicker as he slunk an inch or two closer. “I can just imagine what you get up to…”
This had gone quite far enough. Games and corny chat up lines were one thing but making contact was decidedly across the line. “Well, in that case maybe you should imagine me mincing the fingers of any little schoolboy who dares touch my knee and feeding it to the nearest hippogriff. Hagrid’s got a couple, hasn’t he?”
One look told the lad that she meant business. The fingers withdrew immediately, but the smarmy git himself did not. Indeed, he puffed himself up like a peacock.
“I’m not a school boy!” he proclaimed with insincere fervour. “I’m a professional Quidditch player! I’m with the Tornado Reserves and tipped to be the next big thing in the league!”
“Blimey.” Tonks looked him up and down deliberately. “And I thought the Chudley Cannons were desperate. And please stop thrusting your chest about. You could take someone’s eye out with that.”
Her admirer managed to avoid deflating like a punctured quaffle but it involved considerable and visible effort on his part. For a moment, his eyes left her and roamed around the room, apparently in such of fresh new prey, but since a quick glance of her own told Tonks that the clientele of the Three Broomsticks that evening consisted of two hags, an irritable looking goblin, three old ladies sharing their magical knitting needles, a grouchy looking warlock with a beard the size of a small coppice and Minty Gabbidon, the dropping-strewn postmaster from the Hogsmeade Post Office, she knew that, as the only viable female on the premises, he would be forced to reluctantly press on with her or look a prat in front of his mates.
Oh joy…
Over the mantle, the clock turned eight. Remus was officially late.
Love of my life or not Remus Lupin, if you don’t show up in the next two minutes, I’m officially going to beat you to death with Mr-Next-Big-Thing-In-The-League’s severed head…
“Look.” There was a faintly irritable note to her admirer’s tone now - he was clearly a young man not used to rejection and accustomed to the fact that his brand of cheddarish charm would usually have teenaged girls swooning all around him with eyelashes fluttering and doe eyes filled with lust. “I like the look of you, okay? I just thought I’d do you a favour, you know? Let you get in first before all the ladies want a piece of me? And let’s face it…” His eyes fixed pointed upon the shrub-like warlock and Minty Gabbidon’s blob smeared robes. “I’m the best you’re going to get in here tonight.”
Tonks regarded him slowly. If Remus was so determined not to bother showing up on his white charger with detention slips, which potential amusement was frankly was the only reason she’d endured this charade for so long, then she supposed she’d just have to rescue herself. It would have to be non-violent, unfortunately - Remus was oddly stern about persons twisting his students into interesting Celtic knot patterns and hanging them from the light fittings - and since sarcasm, the Intimidating Auror look and not so subtle hinting had failed, bluntness was all she had left.
“Kid, frankly, the ladies can have you. If you ask Doris over there nicely, she’ll probably knit you a scarf but face it; you’re not going to get anywhere with me. No.” His attempt to intervene was firmly overruled “The grown up is talking now. Given a choice between you and anyone else in this room, I’d take anyone else. I’d take Bernard and his epic beard. I’d take Minty and his eau de Owl Crap. I’d take the goblin. I’d take Doris. In fact, if the Giant Squid oozed in through that very door and begged me for a wild night of lake-weed related bondage, I would agree to that sooner than have a drink with you. And to be honest…” She leaned forward in a vaguely confidential manner and gestured to his slime covered boots. “At least the smell would be better.”
One of the two sidekicks sniggered loudly. His rather more prudent friend kicked him sharply in the shin as the dark haired would be lover-boy fixed him with a glare of death.
“Piss off, Gilbert,” he retorted sharply. “It’s not like she’d have gone for you either.”
“It’s not like she’d have gone for any of you.” Tonks folded her arms pointedly. “Aside from the fact I don’t date teenagers with chat up lines straight out of Fifi LaFolle, I happen to be waiting for my boyfriend. And trust me; you wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.”
Her now rather less admiring admirer snorted with laughter. “Let me guess - he’s a hit wizard, right? Or a dragon tamer? Or a curse breaker? What’s he going to do, waltz in here and hex us to oblivion?”
“No.” The quiet voice that drifted from a few feet away set Tonks’ heart soaring almost as high as the three lads jumped in shock. “But he will put all three of you in detention for a month for being off premises without permission.”
If Tonks hadn’t known better, she would have sworn that all three boys shrank by about a foot as they turned, all swagger gone, to face their impassive featured Defence against the Dark Arts teacher. His arms were crossed. One eyebrow was raised.
“Elias Tutt,” he stated softly. “Gilbert Quilkin. And of course, Adrian Clotworthy.” The last was addressed to Tonks’ would-be admirer. “You all know that no student has the right to be in Hogsmeade outside of designated weekends. And you also know the punishment. I doubt that Professor Flitwick is going to be too thrilled to find almost half his Quidditch team will be missing a month of practice in order to scrub out Professor Slughorn’s old ingredient jars. And trust me, they’re not a pretty sight.”
Adrian Clotworthy swallowed hard. “Professor Lupin…” he started.
“In a minute, Adrian.” Tonks marvelled at the way that, even in the process of telling off wrong doers, Remus somehow managed to remain polite. His eyes swept over the filthy hem of their robes. “Ah, yes. The secret passageway that come out in the well of the Three Broomsticks, correct? That is the one nearest your common room after all.” At the amazed looks on the three young faces, Remus cracked a gentle smile. “Gentlemen, I’m afraid you’re all poor excuses for Ravenclaws if you assumed that you’re the only people in a thousand years of Hogwarts School to find a secret passage out of the castle. And every Hogwarts teacher was once a Hogwarts pupil. You’d do well to remember that.” His tone was almost friendly as he added, “And of course, Mr Filch is aware of it too. So you’re probably lucky that I caught you before he did. Now…” His gaze slipped over to Tonks, meeting her eyes with a smile. “Perhaps you’d care to apologise to my girlfriend before I see you back to the school?”
For an instant, Adrian’s mouth worked liked a frantic guppy. “You mean she really is your girlfriend?” he blurted, adding a quick “Sir!” as an afterthought.
Remus’ lips twisted; Tonks could tell that he was struggling not to laugh. That he found this comment amusing rather than frowning disconcertedly and perhaps entering into a short litany about how this was yet another example of how unsuitable he was for her warmed her heart. They’d come so far from those awful days of denial this past year or two…
“Indeed she is.” Remus’ smile was broad. “And she also happens to be an Auror so I’d say you gentlemen are lucky to have emerged with all of your limbs intact. Now, come along.” He ushered the three boys forward, ignoring the way their eyes had bulged at the news that they had, unwittingly, been baiting the Dark Wizard blasting partner of their werewolf Defence professor. “I’ll see you back to the school.” He cast a quick glance over his shoulder, flashing Tonks a grin. “Back in a minute.”
Tonks was still chuckling to herself when Remus returned, smelling faintly of slime.
“That was quick,” she remarked as he settled on the barstool next to her, quietly scourgifying his boots with a few well-placed wave of his wand. “Didn’t you see them all the way back?”
Remus shook his head. “I told them to go straight back to their common room and if I heard they’d done any different, they’d lose more than house points.” He smiled serenely. “I said I’d let my girlfriend use them for target practice. Last time I saw them, they were running at quite a speed.” He tilted his head. “I suppose I could have threatened them with Squid bondage, but it wouldn’t sound quite the same coming from me…”
Tonks fixed him with a steely glare. “How long were you standing there?”
“Long enough to hear your wonderful speech. How long have you had these pond weed urges that only the Squid can satisfy?”
“Git.” Tonks thumped him firmly. “I was trying to get the message across. It was like drilling into granite. Some people just can’t take a hint…”
The look that crossed Remus’ face was vaguely nostalgic. “You know, the last time I heard a girl tell a persistent admirer that she’d rather date the Giant Squid than him, she ended up marrying him. And then she gave birth to the saviour of the wizarding world…”
“Really?” Tonks adopted an expression of faux excitement. “Well, in that case I’d better hurry and see if I can catch up with Adrian the Tornado Boy! He must be the love of my life!”
“You might marry him.”
“I could! And I’d give birth to a son who’ll unite wizards and muggles alike with his love of cheesy chat up lines and clumsy ballroom dancing. He was right. Our meeting was destiny.”
“Or…”
“Or?”
“Or if you don’t feel like destiny…”
“Which I don’t…”
“And you’d rather not be chatted up by any more of my students…”
“Which I definitely don’t…
“Then you could just marry me.”
It took a moment for the words to sink in. “Pardon?”
Remus was staring at her now, his eyes warm, his smile soft. “You could just marry me,” he repeated quietly. “If you wanted.”
Tonks could feel her jaw working but no sound saw fit to emerge. Her heart was pounding like a drumbeat in her ears. Her brain had dissolved into an incoherent, slushy mess. She could feel her stomach rolling somersaults.
Marry…?
She’d never had any burning desire to marry in her youth. It had never seemed like something her rollercoaster man would want and so she’d never bothered to want it either.
But she wanted it with Remus. She’d have been a liar of the highest order to ever claim she hadn’t. But they’d been so settled, happy in their little private routine that the thought had wandered off somewhere to yodel on a distant hillside in the far back of her mind, an echo that reached her only occasionally. She wanted it so badly that she’d let it go and hide away, not daring to hope that he might actually ask…
And now he had. He’d asked. He’d asked her to marry him. And all she wanted to say was…
“Yeah, all right then.” The words tumbled joyfully out before she could frame them into a more coherent dignified whole. For a moment, fear surged through her. Would he take her less than emphatic agreement as some sort of sign she wasn’t sure? Would he doubt how much she wanted this to happen?
But then, she met his eyes and she knew. He understood.
Tonks couldn’t help but chuckle. “That wasn’t the most romantic acceptance, was it?”
Remus’ expression was suddenly rueful. “Well it wasn’t the most romantic proposal, really,” he said with soft laugh. “I’ve been thinking about asking for a while and I had all these vague ideas about asking you on a picnic or taking you to a restaurant but nothing really seemed right. And then when I was walking through the village, I saw that cottage near the gates was up for sale which is why I was late because I found myself thinking about what would happen if we bought it together and moved in as husband and wife and…” His voice trailed off as he grinned wryly. “And then I accidentally proposed.”
“You impulsive fool.”
He laughed out loud. “If you’d rather have that picnic, I can always obliviate you.”
”What, get me to tell you my perfect proposal and then wipe my mind so you can present it with a flourish and look like a god amongst men?” Tonks poked him in the arm. “That, Professor Lupin, is called cheating.” She smiled softly before adding, “Besides, I rather liked the one I got.”
“Really?” For a moment, it seemed as though his heart shone in his eyes.
“Really.” Leaning forwards, Tonks placed a soft kiss against his lips. The urge to deepen the kiss was intense, but she could almost feel the burning eyes of Doris, Bernard, Minty and the rest upon them and so gently pulled away.
“We’ll finish that later,” she whispered softly, gesturing to Minty’s voyeuristic gaze with her eyes. “But for now… Tell me about this cottage.”
To her surprise, Remus looked faintly embarrassed. “That was just an idea. I know how much you love your flat in London and I can always apparate to the gates every morning if you…”
“Sod the flat.” He stared at her emphatic tone as she shrugged. “Remus, home is where the heart is. And my heart’s always with you. Come on.” She scrambled to her feet, only losing her balance slightly as she yanked on his arm. “Walk me over to see this cottage.”
Remus was gazing at her, his smile broadening inch by inch. “I love you.”
Tonks beamed. “I should bloody well hope so seeing as you just proposed. Now on your feet, Lupin.”
He obeyed this time, taking her arm and folding it against his own. “That’s a thought,” he murmured as they moved towards the door, both smiling at Rosmerta who was regarding them with vaguely misty eyes. “It’ll have to be Nymphadora from now on. They’ll be no more taking refuge in Tonks, Mrs Lupin.”
“Sod off.” He winced with a grin as her boot impacted firmly against his shin. “I’ll be whatever I want to be. And I fight for what I want.”
He smiled down at her, gently, lovingly, his eyes filled with the same intensity of emotion that was broiling in her chest. “I know,” he whispered softly. “And I’m grateful for that.”
She smiled quietly in response. “Daft sod,” she murmured in return. “But I still love you. And I did love the offhand proposal. It was very…. us.”
A loose cobble caught under her foot and she started to stumble, but Remus’ grasp on her arm tightened as he held her upright.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I won’t let you go.”
And she knew, in that moment, that he never would.
And, now and forever, that was all she wanted.
THE END
A/N: If the proposal seemed a little out of the blue, then be assured it took me by surprise as well! I never intended that to happen in this fic but Remus just went and did it without asking me first! I guess he just wanted to get it in before DH likely does terrible things to the both of them….