The Long Fight of Nymphadora Tonks

Chapter 3: Just Good Friends

Tonks walked towards the front door of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place, her footsteps making unpleasant, squelching noises in the sleet, and pulled her coat and muffler tighter around her, wishing fervently that January would hurry up and give way to some pleasanter month - such as July or August. She kicked at a lump of snow and immediately lost her balance, slipped and landed on her backside with a yell. While she was still sitting there, all wet and cold and muttering heartfelt curses under her breath, the front door opened and Remus appeared.

"Tonks!" he exclaimed, hurrying towards her.

"Wotcher, Remus," she replied dully. "I did it again."

"Are you all right?" he asked, helping her to her feet.

"Right as rain - and about as wet, too. I'll probably end up with a couple of bruises you-know-where as well, but don't get your hopes up that I might ask you to examine them."

"I wouldn't dream of it," he said with a laugh.

For some odd reason, this response on his part caused her a faint pang of regret. She pushed it aside and clung on to him as he guided her over the slippery ground and into the hallway.

"Cheers," she said, shaking snow onto the carpet and feeling her toes beginning to thaw.

He smiled, pulling the woollen hat off her head to reveal a tangle of orange curls.

"What's the occasion?" he asked cheerfully. "Are you getting into the mood for Halloween early this year, or is pink just not the colour of the season?"

"Very funny," she replied through chattering teeth.

Becoming more serious, Remus suggested,

"You'd better go upstairs and get out of those wet clothes. I'll bring up some hot cocoa."

"That's thoughtful of you, Remus, but this lot here -" she indicated her clothes "- is all I've got with me."

"Well, I know you like things baggy. Help yourself to anything you can find in my suitcase."

"Oh goodie," she said, brightening up a little and rubbing her hands. "That sounds fun."

"Don't get too excited, there's not that much for choice. Oh, and Tonks," he called after her as she started up the stairs.

"What?"

"If you're thinking of lighting the fire, make sure you roll up the carpet first, and put all my books by the opposite wall, please."

He winked, and she stuck out her tongue at him.

A short while later, Tonks was sitting on the bed in Remus's room wearing an old, frayed sweater of his that was so big for her that it was as long as a nightshirt. She had lit a fire and was comfortably twiddling her toes in the warmth, picking absent-mindedly at a loose thread of the blanket when there was a soft knock on the door.

"In you come!" she called.

Remus entered, carrying two steaming mugs of cocoa. Tonks sat up, intending to come and help him, but he shook his head.

"I think you'd better stay safely where you are. This is hot."

Tonks obeyed with a sigh, and waited for him to set one mug down on the dressing table beside her. He pulled up a chair and sat down, smiling.

"What are you looking so pleased about?" Tonks wanted to know.

"Nothing in particular."

"Hm."

She picked up her mug of cocoa and warmed the palms of her hands against it, staring down into the brown fluid, but very much aware that Remus was still smiling at her. She thought back to the first time she had met him, when she had been struck by that hint of sorrow in each of his smiles. There had been something appealing about that. Did he still smile that way? She turned her head to find out, and discovered with a good deal of surprise that his smile now was not quite the one she remembered. Just now, in this short moment, the sadness seemed to have gone completely as he sat watching her. Tonks smiled back at him, for the first time aware of a certain shyness creeping over her that made her shiver despite the warmth of the fire and the cocoa. Remus must have noticed it at once, because he said,

"Are you still cold? Here, wrap this round your legs."

And he got up out of the chair and put down his mug and sat on the edge of the bed, and he leaned over her to get hold of the other side of the blanket and pull it across her. As he tucked it in around her, for one brief instant his hand brushed the bare side of her leg, and Tonks shivered again, though at the same time she was sure her face must be turning red with the heat rising to her cheeks. Remus rose again, all too soon for her liking, and walked over to the fire with his back to her. She had no idea whether he had felt anything when she had, whether he knew what that breath of a touch had just done to her. Probably not. What was she to him but just a good friend?