Well, hasn't this taken twelve million years to get posted. Sorry about the wait! This story line is mine but the characters and settings and everything important comes from the lovely JKR who must be raking in the big bucks from HBP. I wish I got paid for my fanfic. College would be so much easier...
"So, where is Tonks now?" Harry asked. Dumbledore had finally called them into his office, late the following day. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and Ginny all sat in squashy armchairs across the desk from the headmaster. Fawkes was perched on Dumbledore's shoulder, seemingly listening to the conversation.
"She's in the hospital wing right now," Dumbledore replied.
"Is she alright?" Hermione sounded anxious.
"She'll be fine. She's just exhausted. She just learned that Remus has been killed. Though it did not come as a shock to her, Tonks was not prepared to hear it."
"I don't blame her," Ron said earnestly while the others nodded in agreement.
"When can we see her?" asked Ginny, giving voice to what they all were thinking.
Dumbledore smiled. "Tonight. She asked to see all of you. However, I need to tell you, I don't wish for you to bother her about her journey. She's already lived through it again for me and that's enough of an ordeal for today."
Harry nodded. How well he understood that trauma. Many times over the years, Dumbledore had requested the same of him.
"I know that you are curious though and Tonks has given me permission to tell you what I can." Dumbledore folded his long fingers together.
"They were married on the 24th, this you know. That evening they left to spend Christmas with Tonks' family. On the 28th, Remus and Tonks arrived in India. They chose to stay in a remote hotel. As you know, this was the time of the full moon which they both had forgotten. They were out walking in the forest when he...transformed."
Here, Dumbledore rose and moved to the large cabinet. Opening the door, he pulled out a silver basin. Setting it on the desk before the four of them, he prodded the silvery substance with his wand.
"I lent the use of my Pensieve to Tonks earlier. She has allowed me to show you some of her memory. Come close."
They leaned forward, feeling slightly apprehensive. Tonks voice echoed in the basin and the contents smoothed to form images.
"Remus! Remus!" Tonks caught his body as he fell to the ground, writhing in agony.
"-Transforming," he gasped, then pulled her closer. "Run! Get...out! Too dangerous!" He screamed in pain.
"No!" she cried. "I will not leave you! I won't!"
"Do it!" he growled. "Run to safety!"
With a sob catching in her throat, Tonks ran. Looking behind her, she saw Lupin, trying to push himself back up. Something inside begged her to stop but she forced herself to keep running.
When the force driving her finally let up, she stopped running and sat down on a large rock to cry. In the bushes behind her, there was a scuffling sound of a small animal, maybe a rodent. She tensed but relaxed when the sound disappeared until a far more terrifying noise was heard.
"Why the tears?"
Tonks jumped. A short, balding man with water eyes and a twitchy manner stood behind her.
"Who-who are you?" she asked with her wand at the ready. At the sight of it, the ratlike man stopped advancing.
"I think you know. My my, so you're the one that Remus picked." The man had a squeaky voice that grated in her teeth and sent chills down her spine. "You're a pretty one, aren't you? Well, let's see how Moony does when he finds that his, beloved, is gone." He spat the word.
"Wormtail!" she said with a gasp, finally recognizing him.
He raised his own wand before she had time to react.
"Avada Keda-" He stopped. A low growl was coming from behind the bushes. In fear, his eyes wide, he turned. A full grown werewolf came striding forward. Wormtail squeaked and backed away. The wolf seemed to spring for Tonks who screamed and covered her eyes.
A second later, having not felt the werewolf's bite, she looked up. The wolf was...protecting her. He stood growling ferociously at the rat-like man who cowered before him.
Remembering Remus's last instructions, Tonks turned and ran.
Dumbledore gathered up the Pensieve and returned it to the cabinet. Coming back to the desk, he looked with kind eyes at the somber students.
"Tonks never found her way back to that place. She's been slowly journeying here for the last month. Another night in the cold and she could have died." He smiled. "You may have saved her life. She's very grateful for that and asked for me to send you to her. Go on. There's nothing else that we can do here."
Harry, Ron, and Hermione rose to leave.
"Oh, and Miss Weasley?"
Ginny looked up at Dumbledore with red-rimmed eyes.
"My dear girl, don't blame yourself for this."
Ginny wiped her eyes. "Thank you, Professor."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
The four students stepped through the doors of the hospital wing. Madam Pomfrey came bustling towards them.
"You cannot be in here now!" she said, then stopped when she saw who it was. "Did Dumbledore send you?"
"Yes," Harry said, while the others nodded. "We're here to see Tonks."
Madam Pomfrey nodded curtly. "Right. Follow me." She led them over to a curtain.
"Nymphadora!" she called. "The children are here to see you!" Harry saw Ginny roll her eyes and he stifled a grin.
"How many times must I tell you Madam Pomfrey? It's Tonks."
The nurse harrumphed under her breath and flounced away.
"Come sit down," Tonks said, indicating some chairs and sitting up slowly in her bed. The effort seemed to take a lot out of her and she started to cough violently.
"Are you alright?" Hermione asked when her coughs subsided.
"I will be," Tonks smiled. "Thanks to you four."
"And how are you doing?" questioned Ginny, awkwardly.
Tonks sighed. "I feel numb. I knew that we were in danger, I just didn't think it would come so soon."
"You knew this would happen?" Ron sounded incredulous.
"No, nothing like that. It's just...well, none of us are ever really safe. Remus and I knew that. I'm not saying that I'm not sad about his...death. I'm absolutely heartbroken. But, I think about it and it hurts my mind but my heart feels nothing. The fact that he's gone hasn't sunk in. I don't know if it ever does."
"It doesn't," Harry said. The others turned to look at him. He shrugged. "It's just, when you lose someone, they are never really gone. So much of them is stored in your heart that they never disappear. You'll be sitting on your own and you see something that makes you think of them. You feel that it would only be too natural for them to walk through the door...and sit down...with you. And just talk." He looked at the somber faces around him.
"And even though it hurts to remember...somehow, you just don't want to forget." He was startled to see tears rolling down Tonks' cheek.
"I'm sorry," he said hastily. "I didn't mean-"
"Thank you, Harry," she whispered. "Thank you so much." She breathed in deeply. "I never met her, but I imagine that your mother is very proud of the man that you're becoming."
You like? Good! Prove it by leaving me a review. Then you can also gripe about the spoiler, which isn't really too bad as compared to some of the others I've left you.
"You know what, Hermione? I was right. You should write a book translating-"
"Ron," Ginny interrupted. "Just shut up."
Hey! That was fairly painless! Maybe I'm getting better at this spoiler thing...as if. I'm never giving up on evil spoilers! Til next we meet...I guess we won't meet.