Remus knocked on Tonks' apartment door and it immediately opened. It never ceased to amaze him how quickly she managed to do that. It was as if she was waiting behind the door for him to knock. Maybe she did.
"Oh, wotcher, Remus, come in, tea's ready!" she gushed breathlessly.
Maybe she just dropped whatever she was doing and charged over to the door the second it knocked.
Remus grinned and stepped inside her small abode. It was generally messy and tended to look more like a teenager's bedroom than a fully-grown adult's flat.
Tonks led him through the cluttered living room and into her humble kitchen. A beautiful tea of coffee, cake and sandwiches were arranged daintily on the small table.
"Wow, it looks great," Remus complimented as they sat down.
Tonks blushed. He wasn't cruel enough to mention the coffee stains on the white, lace tablecloth.
Once they had settled down and helped themselves to food and drink, they started to chat casually about anything and everything.
After tea, they retired to Tonk's tiny living room and watched a funny programme on her T.V, cracking up with laughter several minutes after it had finished.
Tonks had recently moved into the Muggle block of flats, and after an unexpected guest exclaiming that she didn’t had one, had found herself acquiring a variety of different Muggle objects. The T.V, a telephone (or as Tonks called it, that weird ‘ringy’ thing) a football table and a second-hand box of Scrabble were just a few.
Dumbledore supported the idea too, even buying himself his own ‘weird ringy thing.’ He had told Remus, when he has asked, that it helped him to keep in touch with the Muggle world, therefore understanding them far better than the average wizard.
Quite frankly, Remus hadn’t agreed, but if Dumbledore supported the idea, so would he. Although rotting his brain whilst watching some guys trying to speak Swedish wasn’t exactly his idea of fun, Tonks loved it, so he did too.
"D-do you want another cup of tea?" Tonks asked politely, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes and breaking Remus’ train of thought.
"Better not, I should be going, it's getting late," he poked her shoulder playfully, sending chills throughout her body, "it's past my bedtime."
"Oh! But you can't go yet! It's not even six!" Tonks cried desperately. Remus raised an eyebrow and looked pointedly at her clock (another Muggle souvenir) which proudly told them it was half seven. Tonks coughed sheepishly and smiled, her dark eyes sparkling childishly.
"Oh no, not the eyes! Don't do the eyes, Tonks!”
But it was too late; Tonks had already transformed her eyes big and brown, the metamorphmagus’ version of puppy-dog eyes.
"Ok! Ok, I'll stay, but only for one cup of tea, then I really should go," Remus gave in.
He had vowed that he would always be home by eight when he was on duty the next day. Seven if his transformation was within that week. So much for that rule.
"Yes!" Tonks cried, jumping up and charging into the kitchen, tripping over her own feet as she went.
As soon as she had gone, Remus sighed and slumped back on the sofa.
Their evenings together almost always ended like this. Tonks pleading and bribing him to stay, never relenting unless he made up some stupid excuse like "Oh my God! I think I left the gas on!" and him leaving in a hurry, feeling very guilty until the next night, when they would usually do the same thing.
He thoroughly enjoyed their time together, but it was at the same time, wracked with pain, distress and guilt. He was a middle-aged man and a werewolf at that, as Tonks well knew. He should be at home, reading a book with a mug of coffee, not spending his evenings at a crazy, young, Muggle-obsessed woman's house.
At that moment, Tonks came slumping back in the room, her face forlorn and her hair a mousy brown colour.
"What?" Remus asked, immediately concerned.
"There’s n-n-no," a massive sigh shook her body. Remus jumped up and wrapped his arms round her, acting more like a concerned father than a worried friend.
He gently led her to the sofa and sat her down next to him, his arm still round her shaking shoulders.
"What? Tell me. I won't be cross. What's happened?"
"There's no tea left!" she cried.
Remus had to prevent himself from bursting out laughing, but even he couldn't stop a small smile escaping his lips.
"That's all? You’re not hurt? Nobody's died?" he asked, still trying to stop himself from laughing.
"No! Of course not! But you said you'd only stay for one cup of tea, and then you had to go. And there's no tea, so you'll have to go!" she babbled like a child in trouble.
"Well, I suppose I don't have to go immediately, I'll stay for ten more minutes, ok?"
Tonks grinned happily and brushed away her tears, turning her hair back from mousy brown to bubblegum-pink.
"How about ten minutes and a couple of games of Scrabble?" she asked, her eyes big and hopeful.
"But you hate Scrabble, you always lose!"
She had never quite got the hang of that particular Muggle game.
"Yes, but you love it and you always win!"
Whereas he, despite his Wizarding heritage, was something of an expert.
"No, I'm sorry Tonks, It's a full moon tomorrow night and I need a good night's sleep, ok? Maybe next week when I've recovered a bit, ok?"
Tonks nodded sadly, ashamed that she had made him speak of something he didn't like. Remus noticed her sadness and rested his hand on her shoulder.
"Cheer up, next week is only three days away," he said.
Tonks smiled but her eyes showed her true sadness.
Three days could seem like a lifetime when you were pining for a friend.
The next ten minutes past in an uncomfortable silence and Remus was almost relieved when he made his excuses.
They walked awkwardly out of Tonks' flat and down the stairs to the front door. Tonks tripped a couple of times and Remus had to catch her, which made the descent even more uncomfortable.
They eventually reached the door. Tonks opened it and Remus stepped outside, turning round to say goodbye.
"So, I'll see you tomorrow?" Tonks asked hopefully.
"Definitely, we'll meet up around three, do whatever and go on to duty together, is that alright?" he replied, equally as hopeful.
Maybe things would be different the few hours before sunset that they were following out Dumbledore’s carefully planned orders for.
"Yep, see you!" she waved.
Remus turned and walked briskly down the path, stopping himself from turning in case he ended up running straight back to Tonks.
When he reached the end of the pathway leading from the block of flats and turned onto the street, he turned back and gave his normal wave, a sort of salute and grin.
He watched with amusement as Tonks copied. He chuckled as he turned the corner where his expression immediately turned sour.
He sighed and sat down on a garden wall for a moment, resisting the urge to turn back.
Lately he had been getting a strange feeling whether he was around Tonks, or not. When he was with her he wanted nothing but to get away, to be somewhere else, hide. However, when he was on his own, he wanted nothing but to be with her, laugh with her, just be in her amazing presence.
He groaned. He was impossible.
Forgetting about his early night, Remus Apparated into Hogsmeade.
He slumped into The Hog's Head, preferring it to The Three Broomsticks where people tended to stare and avoid him. He sat down on one of the stools at the bar, next to a woman in a veil.
The woman lent over to him, lifted up her veil ever so slightly, so only Remus could see her - or rather his - face. Remus grinned.
"A life-time of being barred from this pub not suiting you then, Mundungus?" he whispered.
Mundungus grinned, winked and covered his face up again.
Remus rolled his eyes, typical Mundungus Fletcher, stretching the law or just downright disobeying it.
The bartender came over and looked questioningly at Remus who had only been in there once before.
"Firewhisky, please," Remus said.
The bartender nodded and placed a grubby bottle of the strong alcohol and a dirty glass onto the counter.
Remus opened the drink and poured it into the glass before holding it to his lips. It smelt putrid. Remus put it back onto the table, glaring bitterly at it. He had been there before; he wasn't about to do it again.
He had felt much like this the night before the last full moon, but instead of going home and to bed like a person with any sense would do, he had come to this pub and drowned his sorrows with firewhisky and other spirits like it.
That transformation had been the worst he had ever had. He didn't want to go through that again. Sighing, he dropped a couple of sickles onto the counter, patted the "woman" on the shoulder and Apparated back to his house.
On arrival, Remus crawled into his neatly made bed without undressing and promptly fell into a deep sleep.
*
The next morning, Remus woke up early, much earlier than he normally did. After trying to sleep for a few fruitless minutes, he climbed out of bed and slouched into the kitchen to make himself a cup of tea, snatching up a book on the way.
He settled down on his worn sofa and was just beginning to start reading when the fireplace in front of him burst into flames. Remus flinched, not realising what a bad headache he had.
He briefly wondered who would be contacting him so early, before kneeling in front of the fireplace as the wrinkled head of Albus Dumbledore appeared.
"Good morning, Albus! This is an unexpected surprise.”
"Remus, my apologies for appearing so early, how are you?”
"I've been better."
"I didn't wake you?"
"No, I was up," Remus replied, wondering where this was leading.
"Well, I'm glad you answered. I have been trying to contact Tonks all night, I have sent owls to her flat, apparently alarming several muggles, I have rung many times and considered apparating. After her neighbours’ responses to the owls, I decided this would be unwise, you wouldn't happen to know where she is, would you?"
"She's missing?" Remus asked, faintly.
But he had been with her just the following evening. He remembered with a pang of guilt how relieved he had felt to get away from her company.
If only he had stayed, he might have been able to protect her from - from what? An attacker? And intruder? Herself? He didn't know what had happened to her, so why jump to conclusions? He took a few deep breaths and calmed himself before turning his attention back to the head in the fire and realising that Dumbledore was still speaking to him.
"We - me and Snuffles - know that you are her closest companion and wondered whether you knew where she was or could look at places she could be at."
"Of course, I'll get right on it. You'll let me know if she's found, won't you?"
"You'll be the first to know, Remus, thank you and good luck."
Dumbledore smiled and vanished, dousing the fire and Remus immediately dashed into the bathroom, had a quick shower, changed his clothes and made himself look half decent and as if he hadn't been lying awake at intermitted periods throughout the night thinking about the very woman who had mysteriously vanished.
He then dashed to the front door and was about to open it and step outside when he remembered that he was in fact a wizard and could Apparate to her flat, which he promptly did.
He rather rudely barged in and started frantically called her name, becoming more worried by the minute. She wasn’t there.
What was Tonks doing out of her flat at six in the morning? Surely someone like her would sleep until at least midday.
He strolled through every room in the flat, eventually arriving at her bedroom door. He knocked out of habit, then nervously opened the door and peered in, a light flush creeping to his pale cheeks.
It was dark, so he flicked on a light. His eyes were immediately drawn to a large, leather bound book lying on her unmade bed.
He picked it up. It was hand embroidered with pink flowers and looked eccentrically out of place in the bright, vibrant room.
Remus flipped it open and found a date scrawled across the top, with the title "Dear Diary" beneath it. With a flash of alarm, Remus snapped the book shut and threw it back on the bed.
Who knew what embarrassing secrets he could have stumbled upon lay in that book? Tonks' diary. Remus shuddered, he could have read any number of weird things about her personal life she would die to prevent him from knowing.
His cheeks hot and red, Remus backed out of the unnerving room, only to find himself dashing back in there and opening the diary once more.
What had Tonks written about him? He was her best friend and she was one of his, surely he must have at least been mentioned.
Taking the diary into the living room where he and Tonks had joked about just the previous night, Remus settled down to read, forgetting that his friend was missing. Not knowing that, at his own house, that very friend was knocking on the door three times.
On My Own by JC_Cainstone
Chapter Notes: My sincere and humble apologies to Erin of the MNFF staff for wasting her time with my stupid mistakes in this chapter, I hope the way I have corrected them is sufficient and thank you for correcting me.
To my readers, I hope you enjoy!