Tonks watched as Molly rushed towards the castle. Soon she would have her chance of catching him by surprise. It would be better to just get this done with quickly, and then she would be rid of this burden and could quit worrying about her parents losing their house.
Remus’ mind seemed to be far off as he headed for Hogsmeade. This would be easier then she originally thought. As he exited the Hogwarts gate she took aim and whispered, “Avada Kedavra!”
She cursed under her breath as Remus bent down and the curse flew over his head. Doing everything in her power to keep from meeting his eyes, Tonks stared at the end of his wand. She stepped out of the shadows and kept her wand raised.
Fear flashed across Remus’ face, followed quickly by confusion and surprise. “Tonks! What are you doing?” Remus exclaimed.
Tonks realized she wasn’t going to have the easy time that she had thought was coming. Now she would have to look the man she loved in the face as she was trying to kill him. This was going to be a duel of wills and skill. Hopefully she wouldn’t have a moment of clumsiness while fighting him, or she would definitely fail in her quest.
*****
Tonks raised her wand up and took aim at Remus again, without saying a word. Her hood flew back as she pounced forward; almost like a cat moving towards a mouse to play with it before bringing about its end. With the hood back Remus saw madness in her eyes…in fact she had a peculiar resemblance to her Aunt Bellatrix.
Remus reflexively went into a defense position. “Tonks, what are you doing?” he exclaimed again as she started casting a steady stream of curses and jinxes in his direction. It was almost all he could do to defend himself from the woman who had stolen his heart. What is going on here? Why is she trying to kill me? How can I get through to her?
Remus moved back through the gate of Hogwarts and tried to move into the Forbidden Forest to find some cover. It was almost all he could do to defend himself from all her spells that were obviously meant to kill or disable him.
Remus gasped as he tried to defend himself. Finally he found himself moving into the trees, and he almost sighed aloud in relief…he was unsure how much longer he could keep up his defenses…the longer she fought, the more Tonks seemed to lose control. The look in her eyes almost tore Remus in two pieces. There was a mixture of anger, desperation, and madness on her face as she sent curse after curse in his direction. Suddenly she tripped over a tree root and sprawled forward with a sob.
“Momma, Daddy, you can’t lose your house! My heart aches, but I need to do this!” He heard her gasping aloud to herself.
Someone must have hired her to kill me, just like they hired me to kill her. What kind of person would do such a thing….unless they know we are both part of the Order and opponents to He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Is my cover with the werewolves blown? Is my death enough to save her? She deserves to live much more then I. She has her whole life in front of her, my life is forever cursed. If my life is what she so desperately wants, then I’ll give it to her.
Remus gathered his courage and stepped from the shadows of the trees to offer his life up to the woman he loved. It was all he could give her, and he hoped it was enough to stop her suffering.
*****
Tonks followed Remus into the trees with a fog filling her brain. She was moving as if chasing some criminal for the Auror department, and not some obscure mission for some stranger which would just give her some money. The more Remus fought back, the angrier Tonks got. Why did he have to make things so difficult? If she had given herself time to think about what she was doing, she would have realized it was totally insane.
This was all like a bad dream. The curses she fired at Remus came almost reflexively from long hours training with her fellow Aurors. She had given up on the killing curse, figuring she could injure him enough to get him to stop fighting back and then killing. Madness seemed to be separating her from her body as a part of her started to rebel against killing the man her heart wasn’t totally ready to give up on.
Suddenly her foot caught on a tree root and she sobbed on her way to the ground. “Momma, Daddy, you can’t lose your house! “ Tonks felt her heart rebel at her mission as she landed hard. After getting her breath back she gasped, “My heart aches, but I need to do this!”
Tears flowed unnoticed down her cheeks as her already shattered heart broke into even more pieces because of what she was trying to do. She looked up as Remus walked from the shadows of the trees and into plain view. Tonks stared at Remus and saw resignation on his face and noticed his wand sitting comfortable in his hand. There was no way she would be able to jump to her feet in time to protect herself from whatever he was going to cast at her.
The spells Remus has been firing at her had been equivalent to those she had been firing. What if he had been trying to kill her too? Her wand felt heavy in her hand, but the knock her shoulder had received in her fall made her arm feel weak and powerless. Not daring to see what he would cast, Tonks lowered her eyes, and waited for the inevitable.
*****
Remus looked out towards Tonks who was still sprawled out on the ground, having only pulled herself into a sitting position. Her gaze was lowered and she seemed to be waiting. What is she waiting for? I’m in the open now, an unshielded target.
He moved closer to her but she just sat there. “Tonks?” he whispered as he moved in closer with arms spread wide in surrender. “Go ahead, finish your task. Your life is worth much more than mine.”
Tonks let out a small gasp and her head slowly rose to meet his gaze. “You aren’t coming out to kill me?”
“I never tried to kill you! I was trying to find you so that I could warn you that someone is trying to have you killed. I was hired by a mysterious cloaked individual to commit this crime. I had to accept the mission so that my cover with the werewolves was maintained, but I never planned on carrying out the mission!”
He stared at her a moment, for the first time seeing the tears streaming down her face. The manic look was also gone from her features and she looked much more like the woman who had stolen his heart. Her hair even seemed to have just a bit of purple highlights for the first time Remus could remember that year. There was an intensity between the two of them that had been missing for many months now, ever since he had run away and started to avoid her. She deserved so much more then he could offer her.
“In fact, it was all I could do to keep reflecting your curses away from myself! I had no time to cast offensive spells, not that I wanted to!” he finished after a minute of awkward silence.
“But I saw similar spells to those I was casting come back at me,” she replied in shock.
“They probably were your spells. I’ve always been better at reflecting spells then actually stopping them. What are you doing anyway? Get up!” Remus said as he walked over and assisted her back to her feet.
“Oh…I was waiting for you to…to kill me,” she stuttered softly as her eyes fell back towards the ground.
He gently pulled her head up so she was looking him in the eyes. “I could never kill you. You mean too much to me, but you deserve so much more then I could ever give you,”
This time he broke eye contact and backed away. “I’m a worthless, weary werewolf who will never be accepted as a part of mainstream society. I cannot provide for you. I can barely provide for myself sometimes!”
“Stop this nonsense! We will talk about this later. Right now we need to figure out who hired me to kill you and you to kill me. He or she said that they would know when the task was accomplished and would contact me,” Tonks replied, getting down to business.
Maybe I shouldn’t have admitted that I love her. She has a spark in her eyes now. But she is right; we need to figure out this mystery about who is trying to have us killed. They don’t seem to know about our…er…um…feelings for each otherwise they would not have us against each other. It would never work.
“He or she also told me that I would be paid as soon as the mission was complete…but I was under the impression that no further meetings were indicated. They can easily just deposit the money into our personal Gringotts accounts without ever seeing either of us again. Perhaps Dumbledore will have an idea. Molly Weasley went to tell him about my mission and to brainstorm with him about ideas how to keep my cover but keep you safe, too.”
“You told Molly about your mission?” Tonks exclaimed as she hastened towards Hogwarts.
“Yes, where did you think she scurried off to?” Remus asked as he rushed to keep up with the young woman.
“I just thought that maybe you had news from the werewolf underground that you were passing onto the Order. She is going to be so worried! We need to go let her know that I am alright.” Tonks replied as she quickened her pace even more.
When the pair reached Hogwarts they made a beeline for Dumbledore’s office. As they reached the top of the staircase they heard Molly’s raised voice.
“How could you? Do you know the trouble the pair of you have caused? Do you know the distress that you have caused that poor man and woman? You are going to go find each of them and apologize for your ridiculous…” Molly stopped mid rant as she saw the duo standing looking confused in the doorway of the office. A pair of high-backed chairs stood in front of the enraged Molly while Dumbledore stood off to the side of the room, a grin spread from ear to ear at whatever was going on between Molly and those who sat in the chairs.