Spilled Perfume

Spilled Perfume

Part 3

A single beam of sunlight darted through the dark heavy curtains to slant across the rumpled sheets of the large bed. Two bodies lay entangled there, scantily covered by the silky material and wrapped up in each other's limbs.

Remus threw an arm over his eyes with a single movement, blocking the sun from his vision as he continued to doze on. Tonks grumbled and tried to burrow farther into the tall werewolf's side. Her hair was a tumultuous pink, disorderly arranged over the pillow beneath it. Bare freckled shoulders warmed in the sun.

After the brief adjustment to sunlight, the two lovers settled back down. The only movement of their bodies was the soft rise and fall of their chests as they took in deep breaths. The silence around the room was profound in the morning light.

All that was broken with the consecutive series of thumps from outside the door, unbearably loud for the atmosphere that had developed in the classically beautiful room. Of course, the thumps were over quickly enough, though unfortunately replaced almost immediately by a riotous screaming that could be vaguely distinguished as words.

"Filthy muggle lovers! Disgraces to the word wizard!" The voice was shrill and obscenely loud. "An eternity of torture on my damnable son for allowing you to dirty this ancient and noble house of Black! Out! Out!"

Remus' eyes had snapped open at the screaming of the late Mrs. Black and Tonks groaned loudly. "Why won't she ever shut up? Are they ever going to get rid of that bloody picture?" Remus' attention speedily shifted at that from the portrait of an old, dead woman to the very real and alive woman that was lying next to him in his bed.

Turning wide amber eyes to the witch next to him, Remus couldn't believe that he had actually allowed this to happen. He tried to grasp the memories of last night, but they slipped away from him like fog, disturbingly similar to the memories of his transformations.

Tonks continued to mutter for several minutes without knowledge of her companion before she turned to see Remus. Vivid blue eyes widened and flickered briefly to mirror the amber they saw before the young woman looked down and let out a shrill squeak at her lack of clothing.

Nymphadora Tonks grabbed the sheet covering her firmly and pedaled her legs, propelling herself right off the edge of the bed. It also had the unfortunate side effect of bringing Remus with her due to the entangled state the two of them were in.

Lying on top of each other on the cold hardwood floor they stared in complete silence. For several minutes. Continuously. There's no telling how long it would have lasted if it hadn't been for Molly Weasley's firm knock on Remus' bedroom door.

"Remus! Remus? Are you in there?" The kind maternal woman sounded worried as she continued to knock on his door. Remus gulped a deep lungful of air before replying.

"Yes, Molly." he kept his voice as calm as possible. "What can I do for you?" His question was voiced lightly, and he hopped the mother of the Weasley clan wouldn't think him rude for not inviting her in. He hardly thought this was an appropriate circumstance for an open door policy.

"Sorry to bother you, dear." Molly's voice had the same overly sympathetic tone she had been using around him since June, "But, I just finished making breakfast, and I really think you should come down. You haven't been eating near enough lately."

Remus sighed at Molly's coddling. "Of course, Molly. I'll be down in just a minute. Save me some bacon?" Hopefully she would leave so he could solve this little conundrum. Glancing down he saw that Tonks was still there and she was still as flabbergasted as he was.

"I'll pry some strips out of Fred and George's hands if I have to," Molly replied, her voice far to cheerful. "One last thing, Remus. Have you seen Tonks anywhere? I'm afraid no one has seen her since last night."

Another squeal emanated from the figure beneath him, quite loud. Remus slipped his hand quickly over the Auror's lips before allowing himself to speak. "No, not this morning. Don't worry though, Molly. I'm sure she'll show up."

The only reply he got for that was a muttered, "I'm sure," before he heard footsteps retreating down the stairs towards the kitchen. Remus let out a relieved breath and dropped onto the floor beside his new 'roommate'.

It was only when the small hands of said roommate gently pried his fingers away from her mouth that he even realized they were still there. The two of them swiveled their heads in opposite directions as Tonks stumbled to her feet and grabbed desperately at various discarded pieces of clothing.

When the scrambling stopped, Remus was already opening his mouth to start a conversation he really didn't want to be having, especially not with Tonks. He would still have started it, if he hadn't been interrupted first.

"Wotcher, Remus. Must be going." The short brief sentences forced out of her mouth were followed by Tonks quickly cracking open his door, checking for a clear path and barrowing down the hallway in the direction of her own room, clothes in hand and bare end on display.

Remus let his mouth gape open as he stared after the pink-haired cousin to his deceased best friend; the woman he had just slept with. Remus blinked several times in quick succession before pushing himself to his feet and collecting some clean clothes for himself.

"Guess you're losing it, Moony."

~

Tonks stumbled into the kitchen exactly one minute and thirty-seven seconds after Remus. She knew that because he had been heading down at the same time as her and she had been forced to take refuge in that dingy closet. Kreacher had bitten her.

She had chosen one minute and thirty-seven seconds because it was long enough to make their entrances seem completely unrelated, but a random enough number to make it seem as though she wasn't trying to make their entrances seem unrelated.

All her optimism at a perfectly planned ignorance of last night was ruined when she noticed where the only free chair at the table was. Right next to Remus. As well, as if that wasn't bad enough, right next to Fred, who was right next to George. Bloody fucking brilliant.

Tonks configured her features, not through any magical powers this time, to determination as she stomped towards the chair and sat down, eyes looking straight ahead. Which managed to be right at Harry, who was giving her a look of complete bewilderment. Tonks decided bewilderment was a good change from his regular forlornness.

Giving the table a quick smile of reassurance, the young metamorphmagus piled her plate with bacon, eggs, toast and the myriad of other foods made available by Molly Weasley. Picking up her fork, she began to hurriedly stuff food into her mouth to block any ability to answer questions coherently.

She should have known that wouldn't stop the Weasley twins. Fred grinned at her sneakily as he chewed thoughtfully on a sausage. Tonks felt a nauseous feeling in her stomach and it wasn't just because the smile gave her a clear view of what Fred's teeth had done to that poor sausage.

"So, Tonks..." his voice was light as he swallowed his food and took a nicely sized swig of pumpkin juice. George gave her an identical look as his twin and deemed it his duty to continue Fred's thought.

"What did you do last night?" The Cheshire cat grins on their faces were insufferable as Tonks felt the red raise up on her cheeks. A quick flick of her eyes showed that Remus was having a very similar reaction.

Both the twins winked in tangent at her. As she stabbed her fork visciously into a home fry she could swear she heard Remus growl. The Weasley twins had had something to do with this.

Breakfast continued and grew more and more awkward and tense by the second. Everything those twins said had a conceivable innuendo and each was directed at her or at Remus. She could feel the coiled tension radiating off the werewolf next to her and she knew she wasn't much better.

By the half hour point she was ready to burst.

"Remus, how's it hanging?" George's comment was highly inappropriate given the small undertone to his question.

"It's hanging just fine, George." Remus' reply was clipped, but Tonks couldn't help the snort that escaped her at it. Everyone turned to stare but she couldn't have helped it if she tried. Remus was hanging more than just fine.

It was with her relief that the table finally cleared. Tonks was quick to her feet and heading towards the door. She was halfway down the hallway before he finally caught up with her. She turned around to meet Remus' eyes for another time today.

"Tonks, we need to ta...." She didn't know what had possessed her to do what she did next. Maybe she just really didn't want to have that talk. Whatever the reason, Nymphadora Tonks pressed her lips quickly to those of Remus Lupin.

She stared. He stared. They both stared. Tonks opened her mouth and gaped, unable to form words for a second before they finally came. "I... I really didn't mean to do..." It was Remus' turn to cut her off as he bent down and caught her lips.

The kiss was hard and hot and seemed like an eternity to Tonks, who was left gasping with breath and far to aroused for this early in the morning when it ended. Remus, on the other hand, turned to the twins with a feral smirk on his face. They were staring with astonishment.

"Happy?"