Phew, made it!!
Time stood still. One foot froze, suspended in midair as she descended the staircase. Everything around her seemed to move in slow motion as the words she had just heard echoed through her mind.
Bellatrix…family reunion…No Mad Eye let me tell her…
Cold, black, oily fear wrapped around her heart and constricted, hurting so intensely she doubted it was still beating. Her breathing became erratic, shallow as she felt the hot prickling of tears.
No…please God no.
Panicked, she ran through the Burrow’s kitchen, passing Mad Eye and Remus; unable to hear their protests as she flung open the door and sprinted to the apparition point. Taking a deep breath she focused on home.
Her pink and lime green bedspread, the organised chaos of her fathers study, the clean smell of washing powder and daisies that always lingered around her mother. The tree house in the back garden they built together, her mother playfully scolding her for not wanting the smaller, safer dolls house instead.
She noticed that Remus had almost caught her when she turned, and with a loud crack apparated to her childhood home.
Please let it be a mistake. Please let them be ok.
The house was gone. The remnants of a television lay amongst her mother’s hydrangeas. Charred furniture strewn on the lawn. Ash and brick dust settling to rest on the quiet suburb; all shrouded in a green light.
Tonks fell to her knees, instantly forgetting all of her training and focusing only on the skeletal remains of her home. Tears fell as she watched the mark hovering. The hand covering her mouth did nothing to stop the sobs escaping.
Distantly she felt Remus lift her up, felt him take her in his arms, pull her away from the charred remains. But her eyes remained focussed on the mark. Hovering…hovering…
“Tonks...Tonks listen to me!”
Her breathing stalled. Howls of sorrow wracked her frame as she tried to fight her way out of Remus’ grasp. Yet he held on, pulling her ever closer to him, and his beating heart. A contrast, she thought, to the deadened organ inside her chest.
“Nymphadora listen to me. They aren’t dead. Do you hear me? They aren’t in there. We have them. The Order have your parents.”
“What?” she breathed not quite believing what he said. She turned her eyes away from the debris for the first time since apparating there and searched his face frantically. Could what he just said possibly be true? Could the two people she loved as much as Remus still be alive?
“Where?”
“They’re safe. They’re at headquarters. Kingsley is with them. We were warned.”
“Warned?” Who could have known?
“Yes. I’ll explain later but we need to go. It’s too dangerous here.”
Mutely she nodded and held on as he apparated them both back to the archaic premises of the House of Black.
Remus leant against the door frame and watched her reunite with her parents. Her small frame shuddered as she held them, clung to them as if to prove they were real and not illusions of a grieving mind.
Eventually the tears stopped but it was many minutes before she dared let them go, and many more still before they were allowed to retire to bed. Yet, through this Remus silently stood and waited.
When the Tonks’ left for their temporary bedroom, he moved. Remus gathered her limp form to him as silent tears formed again. He held her close as she swore revenge on her aunt. Vengeance for Sirius and for her parents. For the pain Bellatrix had inflicted upon, not only herself, but Remus, Harry and even Neville, for his parents.
Soon enough, the tears and the ranting stopped. The soothing quality of his hands on her back added with a silent calming charm leading her into a blissful slumber.
As he watched her sleep in his arms, felt the deep breathing of one far gone from the world, he swore to himself to get there first.