Waiting for Her

Waiting for Her

-wulf

Remus Lupin was sitting in his living room, reading for the tenth time the note his wife had sent him through a ministry owl: she was on special Auror duty and would be late home from work. Such owls had become quite frequent in the past few weeks.

Before that night, he had been worrying in a vague sort of way at her frequent late-night returns and obvious exhaustion. Tonight, he was frantic in a completely different way. That evening, on his way home from work in Diagon Alley, he had met Kingsley at the Leaky Cauldron and sat down to have a few drinks with him. The large man had hurried him off however after a couple of beers, winking and saying, "Tonks left early today as well, Remus. You might want to get going." Laughing, but slightly perplexed, Remus had flooed home eagerly only to find no Tonks, but an owl waiting for him with the note.

Old insecurities were fighting to crawl out like ants through a crack. Was she seeing someone? No, he trusted his Nymphadora too much for that. But he was not stupid enough not to realize at least then, that she was indeed hiding something from him. Tonks left work early today as well...

Was she getting tired of his company or perhaps of their frequent arguments, which had escalated lately, that she wanted to see as little of him as possible?

Every month, on the eve of the full moon, Remus set off to his old cabin on the forest-edge, so that he could transform into a werewolf in solitude. Tonks did not want him to go. She wanted him to stay at home. If not, she wanted to be in the cabin with him.

Remus knew that he would never, indeed could never agree, as long as the present circumstances prevailed: as long as there was the tiniest possibility that he might not get the Wolfsbane on time, he could not. After all, the potion he swallowed one week out of four, month after month, did not come to him like clockwork, as it used to at Hogwarts when Severus Snape brewed his potion, but was now doled out by some apathetic over-pressed employee at St. Mungo's and sent via the ancient ministry owls which put Errol to shame. Sometimes, they missed sending the potion one day or two. The Wolfsbane had to be taken every day for a week before transformation. They believed, perhaps, that it would not make a big difference cutting down just a little. But in werewolf reckoning, even a small difference might mean the distinction between sanity and lunacy, safety and terror. He shivered.

Their argument had ended rather heatedly last time. Was she still angry with him?

"You let me when we were in Grimmauld Place!" she had argued.

"That's different," he had said, "Padfoot could restrain me if I turned aggressive."

"But you never turned aggressive."

"That doesn't matter. I'm not going to agree, Nymphadora. It is not safe!" he had said sternly.

"And I'm an Auror!"

"A werewolf can't tell..."

Though angry, his stubborn little nymph had said that she would not be giving up. Was this her way of wearing him down until he finally agreed? The last time he had transformed, she had been disturbingly silent.

That hadn't stopped her, however, from coming to him the morning after as usual to take care of him. She was invariably late for work such days, but Kingsley was the current head of the Auror division and he understood. Besides, she always made up for it by staying late to finish her work. That was what made it so strange that she was apparently leaving work early for no discernible reason.

Clutching the note again, Remus leaned back on the sofa and sighed.

***

He was startled out of his doze by the 'pop' of Apparition outside the house. Opening the door, Tonks greeted him with a smile and a "Wotcher, Remus!" and went into the bedroom. He could hear her moving about in the bathroom. Presently, she went into the kitchen and came back with a pot of tea and two mugs balanced precariously at wand-point. She promptly tripped on the bag he had left lying by the sofa and fell down. In spite of the troubled thoughts within him, he could not help smiling and saved the tea-things from disaster. He helped her off the floor and gave her a quick little kiss on her lips.

She plopped down on the sofa beside him, evidently drained. "Did you just get home?" she asked him.

"Oh, no," he replied, looking at the clock, "I came home hours ago- I fell asleep on the sofa."

Just then, she noticed the note clutched in his fingers and giving a curious glance up at his face, concentrated on her tea.

"I met Kingsley after work today," said Remus.

"Oh!" She put the tea-mug on the table.

"He told me that you had left work early today as well." He paused. She said nothing, but sat twisting her fingers on her lap.

"And so I came home looking forward to being with you early for once and instead, I get a note telling me you have special Auror duty again. I can't help wondering what duty is so secret that the head of the department doesn't know about it?"

She looked defeated but relieved as though she was glad Remus had found her out. "Remus," she said and sighed. "I was going to tell you this week..."

"Whatever it is, tell me now," he said firmly, his heart pounding.

"Ok, I'll show you," she replied, strangely.

Before his eyes, she started changing. Why was she morphing? She was surely shrinking too much...

His jaw dropped- a stunning parrot with red, green and gold plumage was hovering in front of him. Astounded and light-headed, Remus held out his right hand and she landed on it. He raised the parrot to eye-level and placed a tiny kiss on her beak. She squawked and transformed back into the pink-haired witch he loved and had married. He drew her tight into his arms and rained kisses all over her face.

"You are perfectly beautiful," he whispered into her delighted ears.

"Aren't you glad I didn't turn into a slug?" She grinned at her husband.

"So, this is what you've been doing."

"Are you angry with me?" she asked him.

"No, but you scared me ..."

"Why? What did you think?" He was silent. "Did you think I was having an affair?" she asked, incredulous.

"No! Not that, but I was afraid you were very unhappy with me."

"Remus, sweetheart, I am sorry I scared you. You know I am happy with you. What you said about Sirius gave me the idea. You won't be a danger to me if I'm not a human. As I'm already a Metamorphomagus, I didn't want to tell you until I was sure I could also be an Animagus. I've been training and practicing for weeks. They had to run extensive tests on me at St. Mungo's. If everything goes well, I can register this Friday. You are right that you shouldn't transform here, but I can't bear to leave you alone when you do. That's why... But if you still don't want me to go with you..." She gave him a pleading look.

"I do, my beloved, I do." he said, laughing, tears blurring his eyes. Her cheeks were wet too. He drew her close and kissed his darling, daring, faithful, wonderful wife, over and over again.

Finis