Enough

Enough

By Dimgwrthien

The air in the room was filled with a secret sort of air. Nothing within the plain white walls was different than how it had been that morning. There was still the clock hanging on the wall, ticking away the seconds that passed in depressed silence. A robe was still slung over the chair that had been roughly pushed out from under the desk. The window was still jammed closed, tightly with a cloth under the small crack between window and wall. However, as the two figures sat together on the bed, they knew that everything was different. They no longer had Albus Dumbledore on their side.

The man, a tall and thin middle-aged man with brown hair that had long streaks of grey in it, was staring straight forward, legs draped over the edge of the bed. His hands were shaking very slightly and his breathing was still coming in almost ragged gulps as though willing himself not to stop breathing.

The woman, a younger, also brown-haired girl with dark eyes and pale, almost sickly skin, had one hand over his shoulder, squeezing slightly. She was cross-legged behind him, her head craned up to his neck. She took in a deep breath and said, "Remus, we have to talk about this."

Still not turning from the wall, he closed his eyes and responded, "Please, no. Not yet."

"Remus, I know what just happened, but there's no point in dwelling on it too much. No now, anyway. There'll be a time for that, just not now."

"Dumbledore's dead," he said in a mortified whisper, ducking his head into his hands. She moved closer, sitting right behind him now, her hand moving from his shoulder around his arm and giving him a one-armed hug.

"I know -" she started, impatience starting to run into her voice.

He finally moved his head, facing her, and she could see that his eyes were starting to turn a faint red. He looked almost as he had done when he returned from where Fenrir had been. That night, when she had waited with Molly for him to check back in and acknowledge the fact that he was still alive. He turned up at least an hour after planned, looking gaunt and haggard and tired with his arms crossed around his body and frowning miserably.

"Don't you understand?" he asked her, voice still low, though she could hear the anger as though he were screaming. "He's dead. Don't you see what that will do to the Order? To everyone in the Wizarding World?"

She opened her mouth to will him to stop panicking, but he went over her words.

"Not only that, too. Nymphadora, you truely have no clue what this means..." She then heard the faint end of the sentence, which sounded like, "To me."

"Please, Remus -" she begged.

"He's done so much for me and now he's dead and won't be coming back at all. It's -"

Seizing his shoulders, she brought her face close to his, finally loosing her temper. She tried not to let it show, however.

"Remus!" she snapped at him, staring him in the blue eyes. "Please, just listen to me for once! I know he's gone! I know we're doomed because of it! It's not your fault! It's noone's fault but Snape's!" And his own, came a faint voice in her head, but she ignored it. "But at the moment, we have something to resolve!"

He was silent as he watched her talk and just nodded.

"No matter how many times we talk about this, you always have to argue back. Remus, I really like you. And I know you feel something back. Please, Remus. Just - just tell me the truth. Just once."

His stare went from her eyes to his hands and he started moving them around distractedly for a moment before forcing himself to look back into her face. "Nymphadora, you know I love you. But there's just too many problems there -"

She sighed and put a hand under his chin, forcing him to not look anywhere but at her face again. "I don't care. I've told you that a million and one times. I don't care at all. That's why I love you. I don't want someone just like me that'll make everything uneventful." Her voice became stressed as though complaining to him. "I don't want anyone else. Not Bill, not Sirius -" She stopped and wiped her eyes quickly on the back of her hand.

He gave her a pleading look and pushed her hand away from his face, very gently. He did not look down, however. "You deserve someone younger, your age. Someone... human."

She snorted in distaste. "Remus, if you're saying you're old and inhuman, than I want a thousand year old ape to love me." She was happy to see him give her a small smile, even if it was only the corners of his mouth twitching and going back to normal. "Does it really matter? Remus, you're not going to hurt me. You couldn't."

His smile, this time, was morbid and almost mocking. "Do you really think that?"

"Yes."

"The wolf side of me would."

"I'd never see it, really. Please, Remus, I'm not stupid. I know the limits of werewolves. I know how far we can go. It's fine."

He made no move after the comment, but said, lips barely even parting. "No, you don't."

"What?"

"You don't know how far a werewolf can go before you're injured. Did you see Bill? That was done by Greyback when he was still human. Not transformed. Just human."

Tonks took both of his hands in hers and held them tightly to her neck, breathing on them. "But I wouldn't call him human. You're the most human person I've ever met." He opened his mouth, but she rode over him. "You know what I mean."

For a long moment, no one spoke. The air was still stuffed with raw emotion, flying left and right, trying to sort itself out. Grey eyes and blue eyes locked together, talking without moving their lips. And when Remus opened his mouth, she knew exactly what he was going to say, knew exactly what would happen next. Before a single word could be spoken between the two, she had leaned into him, and they spoke a new language.

Their lips were on each others. His did not move, still shocked at her reaction. Her hands climbed up his body, up his arms, onto his neck, and he accepted it; before either knew what had happened, however, Remus pulled apart.

"I'll admit to liking you. I'll even admit to loving you. But not yet," he said softly, starting to stand up. "But right now, there's too much going on to get that involved."

But that was enough for her.