It All Came Down To This

It All Came Down To This
By Augurey

6am, June 13, 2004.
SPLASH!

“Wake up,” a voice screamed in her ear.

Nymphadora Tonks screeched loudly, her eyes opening abruptly. “How DARE you!”

She looked straight into the eyes of her mother, who looked about as happy as she did on most Christmas mornings. As if she had done some noble deed by splashing a wave of water down on her poor daughters head.

Who wakes up this early? Tonks thought to herself. Suddenly she caught her mother’s eye. Oh. Her.

“Nymphadora Tonks,” she said. “Get up out of bed, you lazy little girl.”

Tonks pursed her lips and growled under her breath. “Don’t call me a little girl. I’m not a little girl.”

“If you keep acting like this you might as well be,” she informed her. “It’s your wedding day, Nymphadora! Don’t you want to get up?”

“He can bloody well wait!”

“We’ll just call off the wedding th-“

Tonks shot out of bed. “Ahem,” she cleared her throat. “Let’s do this.”

The Dress.
“Oops, mind that step, dear,” Andromeda Tonks warned her daughter jovially. “We can’t give you away with scratches and bruises, now can we?”

Tonks carefully stepped up to the pedestal. She was blowing at the lacey veil over her head angrily. “Oh no, of course not,” she said. She was still trying to move the lace out of her eyes. This time, however, she was using her hands.

“I should hope by now he was used to all the scratches and bruises,” Hermione interjected.

Tonks smiled at her nervously and managed to squeak out a laugh. “Right! Of course he is,” she said.

A crowd of women was closing in on Tonks, and she was not used to all the fuss. They came forward with their wands ready. Her mother was holding out the long white stretch of material that was her dress. Tonks had crossed the line of nerves and was now passing into insanity. They would never get that dress on her without some sort of rip, tear, or otherwise inappropriate mark on it.

“Turn ‘round,” her Mum ordered. She did as she was told, and stepped into the dress with the assistance of three or four witches. Tonks closed her eyes nervously. When the last button was buttoned, everyone gasped.

“Nymphadora… you can open your eyes now.”

She dropped her hands to her sides, and slowly (read: reluctantly) opened her eyes.

“Wow,” said Tonks, a smile forming on her face. “It’s not so bad.”

“Not so bad!” Ginny practically squealed, “You look gorgeous.”

“That’s what everyone says to the bride,” Tonks scoffed at her. She examined the dress thoroughly. It was sleeveless and satin, with a flowery lace overlay. The dress was nothing too extravagant; it was a small wedding, and Tonks insisted that she would not come to her own wedding over-dressed.

“My little girl,” her mother sighed loudly. Tears were forming in her eyes. “You’re all grown up!”

“Oh, Mum! Don’t cry now,” Tonks laughed, though seeing her mother cry was enough to cause her eyes to well with tears. “Stop it!”

All the women were quite emotional. Tonks would usually ignore it and have no part, but it was her wedding day. She was allowed to cry at least once, if not three times.

Remus.
“Harry,” he called. “Harry!”

A young man in black dress robes walked into the room, fussing about with his hair, which was in a state of disarray. “It’ll never lie flat!”

Remus rolled his eyes and raised an eyebrow at my best man. “Aren’t you supposed to be helping me?”

Harry paused. “Oh, right. What can I do?”

“Just help me get this damned knot,” said Remus, pointing to the tie he was trying to put on. “I don’t know how to do it, you’ll have to show me.”

Harry approached him and began to fix the tie. “You’ve twisted it up the wrong way,” said Harry, quite agitated. “Look… you just have to do this,” he demonstrated eloquently. “Just… like that, and you’re done.”

“Thanks,” said Remus, inspecting the tie cautiously. He then picked up the Daily Prophet off the table beside him, fell into the chair behind him, and began to read.

“You’re nervous, aren’t you?”

“Nervous? Whatever are you talking about? Me? Nervous? I do not get nervous.”

“You’re, er, reading that upside-down,” Harry told his old friend, as he took the paper out of his hands and righted it.

“Nonsense, all of it.” Remus threw the paper in the wastebasket.

“Oooh my, it’s going to be a long day.”

The Last Touch
Tonks was staring into the mirror for the fifth hour that day, criticizing each look she chose. Nothing seemed to be right. Her hair was too big or too small, her eyes to far apart or too close together, and her nose was too narrow or too pointed.

“Oh, bugger it all,” Tonks surrendered, falling into the plush chair behind her. She screwed up her face one last time, very lazily, and heard a yelp from behind her.

“That’s perfect, Tonks!”

She sat up straight and turned around, everyone was staring at her brightly. “Pardon?”

“Leave your hair like that. Are you wearing makeup?” Ginny was smiling. “Yes, it’s perfect.”

Tonks looked back at the mirror critically. “Oh,” she said. Her hair was long and brown. “This is just my normal hair,” she informed them. They all continued to smile.

“Leave it,” her mother said, laying a hand on her shoulder. “I love it.”

“I’m a little nervous, Mum,” Tonks admitted. “I don’t know if I can go through with this…”

“Oh darling, you’ll be f-“ Andromeda Tonks gasped.

Her daughter had fainted into her arms.

“Fine… Help! Someone, please, will you just get her over to that chair? Just there. That’s very good. All right. What are we going to do?”

Revival
“What if it doesn’t work?”

“My darling Hermione, have you no faith in the Power of Love?”

Hermione raised an eyebrow. “She’s just fainted! We don’t have to call in the whole brigade to wake her up. I’m sure she’d come out of herself…”

Andromeda smiled at Hermione, and they turned their attention back to the task at hand. Suddenly, the doors burst open.

“Whereisshe?” Remus looked around wildly.

“Over here,” Hermione called, but he did not move.

“Where exactly is ‘over here’?” He asked patiently.

Harry appeared at his side and laughed, “I put a charm over his eyes. He can’t see anything.”

“Always resourceful, that Harry,” Andromeda said sweetly.

Ginny stifled a laugh, and met Hermione’s eyes knowingly. How funny it was to watch Remus Lupin stumble over to the chair, having no idea where he was headed or what was in his way. Twice he stubbed his toe, and once he even tripped over a vase (which Hermione summoned before it could hit the ground). When he finally knelt down by her side, Tonks was opening her eyes.

“Remus,” she said quietly, still not fully awake. Then she squealed. “REMUS! GET OUT! WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU’RE DOING, YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE ME!”

“He can’t see you,” said Harry.

She paused mid-wail. “Oh?” He shook his head in response. “Oh, sorry, dear. What’s going on? What are you all doing in here?”

Everyone in the room glanced at each other, and then at Tonks. “You passed out, your mother insisted Remus come and bring you out of it. Not that you needed him,” Hermione said knowingly.

“Well, however lovely it is to see you, darling, could you leave, please?”

“Tonks, I can’t see you…”

“I don’t care! Go!”

“I suppose that whole ‘for better or worse’ thing doesn’t apply yet,” Remus muttered as he was directed out of the room.

A Little Further, Still
It all came down to this.

The Ceremony.

There had been far too much debate as to the location of the ceremony. Remus insisted that it be indoors, as they had no control over the weather. Tonks desperately wanted to get married by the ocean; she didn’t really care which one. Andromeda poked fun at her daughters’ incapability of staying upright for longer than a few hours, pointing out that if she fell on the beach, it’d be quite sandy.

In the end, they came to an agreement.

That is how the wedding ended up beside the lake at Hogwarts. It was close enough to the castle that they could go inside and finish up if they had to. It wasn’t by an ocean, but Tonks had a good imagination. Sometimes when the wind blew, she’d imagine that the cool air off the lake was a nice subtle sea breeze. For Andromeda, Tonks promised that today of all days, she would keep her balance.

Easier said than done, Tonks mused as she began to walk up the aisle arm-in-arm with her father. She already felt a little wobbly, owing mostly to the fact that she was nervous as she could possibly be. Even when she looked up and saw Remus standing before her, his eyes bright, his smile wide, she could not stop shaking.

Snap!

Someone had taken a picture with a rather annoying flash, and she just barely kept on her feet. She smiled up at her father gratefully and they walked the last few feet towards Remus.

It was just as he took her hand and gave her a very lovely smile that everything else seemed to disappear. Suddenly, Tonks felt as though they were the only two people there…

… Well, three, plus the wizard who was performing the ceremony.

She stood in a happy stupor as the wizard prattled on about things like undying love, etc. Things that mattered to her but didn’t. Things that didn’t need to be said; she already knew them. She didn’t need to listen, because it was easier to just gaze into her soon-to-be-husband’s eyes and know, just know that he was never going to leave. (Truly, as entirely cheesy as it sounded, even to her brain. All joking aside, that’s what a wedding is about : being irreversibly cheesy and romantic. Why else would you indulge?)

“Tonks?”

She jumped, “Pardon?”

“Do you take Remus to be your husband?”

“Cor, of course I do!” she said enthusiastically, earning her several giggles from the attending members of the wedding.

“Remus, do you take Nymphadora to be your wife?”

“I do,” he said breathlessly, grinning at Tonks.

“I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.”

Boy, did they ever kiss. It was one of those really unforgettable moments. The kind that sends tingles up your spine. Until you have to look away, that is.

Parties Are Much Better When You’ve Just Been Thoroughly Snogged
The reception was really rather over-crowded. The food was gorgeously decorated, the cake was almost too sweet to eat, and the music was, in a word, atrocious.

That’s what Remus said later on, at least. Tonks thought it was lovely.

Neither Tonks nor Remus was a great fan of dancing, but they figured it’d be safer than standing around. After all, the point of the reception was to celebrate their marriage, and Tonks hardly thought talking to other people was celebratory. So they slow danced (even to the not-so-slow songs) for a very long time. They stayed as close to each other as they possibly could, speaking as quietly as they could without being particularly too quiet to hear each other.

“I love you,” Remus whispered in her ear.

Tonks felt as though she might just hit the roof. “I love you more,” she said before kissing him lightly on the nose.

“I really don’t agree,” he argued.

“Why would you argue about something like that? Don’t you believe me?”

“Of course I believe you, but I love you more.”

Tonks rolled her eyes, “you’re so quarrelsome!”

“Only for you,” he admitted.

“Ah, yes. I’m so lucky.”

“We’re married,” he said bluntly.

“You just figured that out?” Tonks asked incredulously.

Remus pulled her closer and laughed. “No, you daft cow, I was just saying…”

“I’m a cow, now?”

“No, you’re not… you’re indescribably beautiful. I was just…”

“Remus?”

“Yes, dear?”

“Shut up.”

“Yes, dear.”

They Lived Happy Ever After… Sort Of
Except for the time Tonks accidentally burnt down part of the kitchen and part of the library. It was a pretty big mess.

Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

That’s what Tonks said later on, at least. Remus wouldn’t speak of it.