Someone Like Me

Someone Like Me

Nymphadora Tonks knew something was up when she opened the door to her flat, and unexpectedly saw Remus Lupin standing in her doorway. In a brand new suit.

She stood there and gaped at him. It was grey, with a crisp white shirt and burgundy tie. A charcoal-colored cloak completed the ensemble. Tonks didn't know what to do with herself--her heart wanted to melt into a giant puddle; her mind wanted to know where he found the money for it; and the rest of her wondered what would happen if she just ripped off the suit and had her way with him right there.

"Tonks?" There was far too much amusement in Remus's voice. He stood in the doorway casually, one hand behind his back and the other hand stuffed in a pocket. Shiny new pocket. "Are you going to just stand there and stare at me, or are you going to let me in?"

"Yes."

He raised an eyebrow, but it was another second and a half before Tonks' mind came back to Earth.

"Oh, right. Sorry," she said, starting to blush. She moved out of the way so Remus could walk in. Tonks suddenly felt underdressed in her jumper and jeans; though how one can be underdressed when in one's own home and not expecting well-dressed company was a bit of a mystery.

"Erm, were we supposed to have a date tonight?" Tonks asked, shutting the front door. "It's Tuesday. I thought we were going out Saturday night."

"I know," replied Remus. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then shut it again, looking disconcerted. Then suddenly, he regained his composure and smiled. "I decided I didn't want to wait till Saturday."

He pulled a bouquet of flowers out from behind his back and watched as Tonks' eyes lit up and her blush deepened, clashing with today's choice of blonde ringlets.

"Daisies!" she gasped in surprise, practically ripping the bouquet out of his hands. "My favorite! But it's not even the right time of year for daisies."

"What kind of wizard would I be if I couldn't conjure daisies for my lady any time I wanted?"

Tonks grinned and reached up to give him a kiss. Unfortunately, she still had a death grip on the daisies, and wound up smacking Remus in the head with them as she enthusiastically flung her arms around his neck.

"Oops!" she squeaked. "I'll um, just go put these in a vase," she said, as Remus patiently picked leaves out of his hair.

Tonks walked into the kitchen, where she began filling a vase with water. It had been two years or so since that night in the Hospital Wing when she had finally--finally--shaken some sense into Remus Lupin. Since then, their relationship hadn't exactly been all sunshine and butterflies (being in the middle of a war with Voldemort has a way of putting a strain on things). It was only in the last several months that their relationship had started to somewhat resemble a normal adult wizard relationship. She was still the only one with a steady income, but they were able to manage the occasional real date, with dinner and dancing and everything.

But something was different about today. He had never surprised her with a date before, much less shown up dressed to the nines and holding a massive bouquet of flowers. What was going on?

CRASH!

"OW!" The glass vase had slipped out of her hands and onto her foot, breaking into pieces. Tonks hopped around the kitchen on her other foot trying desperately to clean up the mess.

Remus appeared in the kitchen doorway. "What happened?"

"Oh, silly me, just dropped the vase."

With one arm Remus steadied the hopping Tonks, while pulling out his wand and quickly vanishing the mess with the other. "Is your foot all right?"

"Yeah, it will be."

Remus frowned at the daisies. "These flowers seem to be nothing but trouble so far. Well, why don't you go change, and I'll see if I can convince them to get into a vase."

He really is acting quite strange, thought Tonks. But without saying anything, she turned around and hopped to her bedroom.

~*~

"--So then I told Kingsley, if he doesn't like the way I'm filing those reports, he should have said something sooner."

Tonks looked warily across the table at her date. As she shoved a forkful of salad in her mouth, she realized that she had been doing most of the talking since they had arrived at the Diagon Alley restaurant. Remus, meanwhile, seemed terribly distracted and kept fidgeting with his food.

Tonks had tried several times to bring up the topic of his new suit, but each time he had somehow managed to change the subject. She was getting more and more suspicious, although suspicious of what, she didn't quite know.

He looked at her. "I'm sorry, love, what were you saying?"

Tonks frowned. "Is something wrong?"

"No, no, I'm just." Pause. "Not really hungry," he finished lamely.

Tonks was not convinced. "Even for some triple chocolate cake?" she said hopefully.

Remus shook his head no.

"Then why are we here?"

"I wanted to take you to your favorite restaurant. This is still your favorite, right?" he asked nervously.

"Yes, but you just seem so distracted tonight. What's the matter?"

"I'm fine, really," he replied, and cracked a smile which seemed forced.

Tonks' Auror mind went into action. Not only is his mind obviously anywhere but here, but now he's turning down triple chocolate cake? Remus! Something is very off. If I didn't know better, I'd say he's been Imperio'd.

She had learned in Auror training that one of the few ways to tell if someone might be under the Imperius Curse was to look in their eyes and check the size of their pupils. So she leaned across the table and stared deeply into Remus' eyes.

"Tonks?" He was looking at her worriedly. "What are you doing?"

"What, I can't stare into my lover's eyes?"

Remus blushed slightly. Meanwhile, his pupils seemed normal. Hmmm.

"Well, Tonks, it's just that...your sleeve is dangling in my soup."

Tonks looked down and indeed, while stretching across the table she had managed to dip one of her long sleeves in Remus' dinner. She leaned back into her chair.

"Well," she sniffed, "it's not like you're eating it anyway."

A frown crossed Remus' face. He put down his spoon. "I'm going to excuse myself and pop into the men's room," he said quietly.

Tonks watched him get up and leave. She stared at Remus' empty seat, noticing that he had left his suit jacket hanging on the back of the chair. She quickly rushed over and started digging through the pockets. They were empty, except for a half-eaten bar of chocolate. Nothing unusual.

Tonks slunk back into her chair and sighed. Maybe it's not Remus at all, she thought, still puzzled. Maybe it's someone polyjuiced to look like Remus! That would explain a lot.

Remus arrived back at the table. "I--"

But Tonks interrupted him. She had to ask him something that only the real Remus Lupin would know.

"What do I look like when I'm not morphed?"

Remus was taken aback. "Why? What brought that on?"

"Just answer the question," Tonks replied desperately.

He looked at his soup bowl as if it were a pensieve. "You have wavy dark hair--so brown that it's practically black. Large green eyes, a slightly pointy nose, and your usual heart-shaped face. You have a mole on your neck, a scar on your lip from when you got socked in the face by a runaway bludger your third year, and your left ear is slightly higher than your right."

Tonks looked down at her own plate and played absent-mindedly with her fork. He had gotten the answer absolutely right. But instead of feeling comforted by the fact that her date wasn't an imposter, she only felt worse. If that's really him, and he's acting so strangely... Then it hit her. Oh, Merlin, he wants to dump me! Only he's doing it in his oh-so-polite-and-passive-aggressive-Remus Lupin way! He thinks he can feed me and give me flowers to make up for the fact he's going to spring that I'm-too-old-and-werewolfy-for-you rubbish on me. Prat.

"Tonks?" He sounded concerned.

"What?" Tonks snapped.

Remus cleared his throat. "I...I need to talk to you about something. It's important."

I don't want to talk. I want to stab you with this salad fork and then you'll see who's "too dangerous."

He looked around the restaurant nervously. "Erm...not here though. Let's go someplace less...public."

Oh yeah, you know me, Remus Lupin. You don't want Nymphadora Tonks causing a scene in front of everyone. You probably don't trust me not to announce to the entire restaurant that you're a werewolf. Stupid prat.

Tonks opened her purse to pay, but Remus stopped her. "It's all right, I can cover it."

She looked at him. Something still wasn't making sense. She shook her head. "All right, I'll get our cloaks and hats from the cloakroom," she mumbled.

~*~

The late winter air was crisp, but not too cold as they stepped out onto the Diagon Alley street. Normally, Tonks would have loved being out with Remus on a night like this, but tonight she was ready to just get into her ratty old sweatpants, pull out a cheesy romance novel, and cry into her ice cream.

No wonder he hasn't kissed me all night, or complimented my dress, her inner voice moaned, as Tonks glanced up at the crescent moon. All he's done is sat around looking nervous.

Remus was staring at the moon too, but he soon turned his eyes to Tonks. "We should go someplace warm," he said, taking hold of her arm. "We could Apparate to--"

"No." Tonks' voice was firm. "Whatever it is you have to say to me, you can say it here. Just get it over with." Here where it's dark so you won't see me cry.

"Are you sure?" he asked, his brow furrowed. "I really think you--"

"No, Remus." Tonks sighed. "You've obviously been distracted all night, and I refuse to go anywhere else until you say what's on your mind." She sat down on a bench and crossed her arms, a defiant look on her face.

"Well...all right," he said, sounding defeated. He started to sit down next to her, then got back up and began pacing back and forth in front of the bench, hands shoved in his pockets. Tonks briefly let her mind wander to how handsome he looked, all dressed up and pensive. Then she remembered that he was about to dump her, and decided it was better to think about what a prat he was instead.

He finally quit pacing and looked off into the distance. The street was deserted, and most of the light was coming from windows in the flats above the shops. "Nymphadora--err, Tonks," he began, "these last few years that we've spent together have been the happiest of my entire life."

He paused, seemingly collecting his thoughts.

"But?" Tonks supplied.

"But," continued Remus, "I'm tired of worrying that I won't ever have the means to properly support you, or rather, us." He walked over to Tonks, his eyes trying to meet hers, but she wouldn't look at him. "Tonks, you deserve so much more than what I can give you." He sighed. "I don't know what you're doing with someone like me."

Tonks' head snapped up. "Oh, don't start that again."

"Tonks, I--" His voice faltered. He cleared his throat. "You need to know--I'm moving away."

"What?"

"I was offered the position of Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts. Permanently. And I've accepted."

Tonks' jaw dropped and her eyes became the size of Quidditch hoops, and for a minute she forgot all her anger. "Remus, that's brilliant! I'm so happy for you." She raised her eyebrows. "So that explains the shiny new suit."

"However," he continued, "that means I have to go live there. All faculty without families are required to live in the castle. And you know that there's no apparating in and out of Hogwarts, so with you all the way here in London...I don't know how often we'd be able to see each other."

Tonks froze. "I was right," she said, tears starting to form behind her eyes. "You are leaving me." She was torn. On the one hand, she was overjoyed that Remus had finally found a good job; on the other, her heart was breaking.

"That's not what I'm trying to say at all," said Remus, stunned at her words. He took a deep breath. "You see, teachers who are, for example, married can live in Hogsmeade together."

He paused to see her reaction. She just kept glaring at him.

"Do you understand what I'm saying?" he asked hopefully.

"But, Remus, we're not married."

He stared at her. A lesser man would have lost all patience by now. "Tonks. I'm asking you to marry me."

Tonks' mouth opened and closed several times like a fish. "You're--what--no, you're not!"

"I'm not?"

Complete, utter shock had taken grip of Tonks' confused brain. "You can't be proposing to me! You're supposed to be dumping me!"

Remus couldn't hold back a smile. "I'm sorry to disappoint you, love." He got down on one knee.

"Wait--but all night, you've been avoiding me, and you seemed so distracted--"

"Do you have any idea how nervous I've been? I've never had to propose to anyone before, you know. I wanted it to be a surprise. I wanted everything to be perfect. I was worried that if I kissed you, or touched you, or even looked at you too long, I'd lose my nerve. Then I was just waiting for the right moment, and, well, this might not perfect, but here we are."

An enormous smile spread across Tonks' face. She put her hand to his cheek. "It is perfect."

"Nymphadora Tonks," said Remus. "Would you make an old werewolf happy and say you'll marry me?"

"No."

His face dropped. "No?"

"You're not old."

"Tonks--"

"However," she continued, "I would be more than happy to marry a brilliant and exceptionally sexy werewolf, if there are any of those around." She smiled slyly at him before capturing his lips in a searing kiss.

He pulled away. "So that's a yes?"

Tonks laughed. "Of course! Yes."

Remus stood back up and they kissed again, slowly and longingly. They didn't stop until someone peeking out their window began whistling at them.

Tonks giggled. "They're just jealous."

Remus didn't say anything, but took hold of Tonks' hand, turned up her palm, and placed on it a small diamond ring.

"Remus," Tonks said quietly, "I don't need a ring, and where did you--"

He interrupted her. "Minerva somehow managed to squeeze out of me the fact that I was planning to ask you to marry me, and she was so excited that she insisted on giving me a pay bonus straight away."

Tonks almost went cross-eyed trying to imagine Minerva McGonagall excited about anything.

"I must say, I was a bit selfish and did spend most of it on new clothes," Remus added.

Tonks beamed. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

"And," added Remus, taking the ring and sliding it on her finger, "I don't want to hear anything about you not needing a ring. Perhaps you don't need it, but you do deserve it. You're the best thing that ever happened to me, Tonks. You deserve the best."

He kissed her again, but she found herself suddenly pulling away. "Wait a minute, Remus. Where have you been hiding this? I searched all your pockets!"

He looked at her, dumbfounded. "You searched my pockets?"

Tonks blushed. "Earlier, while you were in the loo. I thought you might be an imposter," she said sheepishly.

Remus shook his head and laughed. "You really are something else."

Tonks grinned back. "Really, I don't know what you're doing with someone like me."

Now her heart, mind, and body were all left free to ponder what would happen if she ripped off the suit and had her way with him. She decided to find out.

~*~*~