A Pink and Silver Lining

Disclaimer: Nothing you recognise is mine.

A/n: A glimpse of Remus and Tonks' life together throughout the final months of the second war. I originally wrote this as a oneshot but have decided to expand it. This story follows on from where my first story, A Lone Wolf's Reflection left off which is just after Remus comes back to Tonks, but it is written from a more neutral point of view. Updates might be a bit slow as I am quite busy, but please read and review!

Before They Knew

September 1st 1972

The scarlet steam engine made its slow, winding journey through the woods and fields to take its many hundreds of passengers back to school for another academic year, as the four Hogwarts students in one of the compartments spread themselves out over the comfortable seats.

Remus Lupin looked up from the book he was reading, an amused crease in his forehead as he watched his two best friends throwing several items from their trunks, attempting to find the food they had packed for the journey. They had not packed strategically at all, and clothes, shoes and spell books now covered the compartment floor. They had been on the train for little over half an hour and it already looked much like a bomb had hit it. Remus was used to their mess, of course, having already lived with them for a year, but this seemed to surpass even their normal standards.

"You do know that we're only on this train for a few hours don't you?" he joked.

Sirius just grinned over at his friend and was about to reply, when the door to their compartment slid open, and all four of them turned to see a tall, slim, blond haired girl standing over them, a look of disdain spreading over her beautiful but haughty features. It might look like the disdain was for the mess they had made of the compartment, but all four of them knew better. Narcissa Black had always reserved her most contemptuous looks for her rebellious cousin, and Sirius's eyes glittered provocatively at the sight of her.

"What do you want?" he asked brusquely, not troubling to remove the rudeness from his voice. "Still promising Mummy and Daddy that you'll keep an eye on me?"

Narcissa scowled and looked at him witheringly. "I gave up on you a while ago, Sirius," she replied haughtily. "You're a lost cause. I was actually looking for your brother. I can't find him anywhere!"

"Avoiding you, is he?" James said, in a mock sympathetic tone. "Maybe it's the smell." He, Sirius and Peter burst into raucous laughter, while Remus, a little more reserved, just grinned and rolled his eyes at the childish joke.

"Very funny," Narcissa said, sounding anything but amused as she looked coldly to each of them in turn.

"Well, if he's avoiding you he must have more sense than I thought," Sirius added, not even attempting to speak in an undertone, and Narcissa narrowed her pale blue eyes at him.

"You want to watch it this year, Sirius," she said warningly. "Now that Lucius is Head Boy-"

"Yeah yeah, your boyfriend's in charge," James gave an exaggerated sigh and rolled his eyes. "Like we're scared!"

Remus looked between his best friends and the older girl, and couldn't help feeling that they would do better not to antagonise her too much. Sirius and James may be the best students in their year, but Narcissa was a NEWT level pupil, a highly intelligent one at that and, although Sirius always refused to admit it, had quite a lot more skill than they did when it came to duelling. As for Lucius Malfoy who, as she had just pointed out, was to be Head Boy that year, he was equally able but twice as cruel. But none of that ever made any impression on Sirius and James, and they just sneered back at her. "Go on, what's he going to do to us then?" Sirius persisted in a singsong sort of voice, winking at James. Narcissa adopted a lofty tone of voice as she replied.

"You'll find out the hard way, I think," she said.

"Oooooh will we?" Sirius and James imitated her high and mighty tone of voice and she tossed back her hair impatiently. "Honestly," she sniffed. "I don't know why I bother talking to you in the first place! I just hope Regulus has more sense!"

"Well go and find him then," James said pointedly. "We're not stopping you. We don't want you damaging your reputation, do we, mixing with us blood traitors and half-bloods?"

"Speaking of which, how is Andromeda?" Sirius enquired smoothly, the taunting look now back on his face. Narcissa's own face blackened even more.

"I wouldn't know!" she snapped. "She's no sister of mine anymore!" And with that she slammed the door shut and stalked off down the corridor with her nose in the air.

"What was that about?" Remus asked with interest, turning to Sirius in confusion as he gazed triumphantly after his cousin. He was grinning as answered.

"You know her sister, Andromeda. My favourite cousin. Ran off last year to live with a muggle born?"

"Yeah, I think so." Remus did vaguely remember Sirius telling him about Andromeda, because he had actually had something good to say about her. She seemed to be the only member of his family he had any respect for at all.

"She and Ted are going to have a baby." Sirius's eyes sparkled wickedly. "Her parents found out a few weeks ago. And when my mum heard she blasted her off the family tree!"

"Surprised she hadn't done that already," James said, yawning as he stretched himself back out over three seats. They were all used to Sirius moaning about his parents' prejudiced views and, as he would frequently tell them, he would consider it a notable acheivement if he too was unceremoniously removed from the Black tapestry one day.

"Oh well they were none too happy with her when she ran off with Ted," Sirius conceded. "But I think they were holding out a vague hope that she would come to her senses. Not now though!" He made a face and put on a crude imitation of his mother's snobbish tones. "There is no greater shame to the name of Black than dirtying our noble blood!"

He scowled viciously and muttered a stream of profanities under his breath that let them know exactly what he thought of his family's views on blood purity. Not that they didn't know already, of course.

"Something tells me you'll be "dirtying" the blood aswell if you can!" Remus laughed.

"Yep!" Sirius said confidently. "I'm marrying a muggle born or I'm not marrying at all! And I'll be the first to visit Andromeda when she's had the baby! I might even offer to be their permanent babysitter. Any excuse to annoy my parents!"

Remus, very accustomed to Sirius ranting about ways to annoy his family, simply smiled patiently and returned to his book, the news of Andromeda's baby leaving his mind within a few minutes as he absorbed himself in the new charms they would be learning that year.

He didn't know. How could he possibly know?

February 3rd 1979

"Nymphadora! Sirius is here!"

Hearing her mother's call, the six year old girl came bouncing joyfully down the stairs, her bright blue hair flying in all directions as she tripped over her trailing shoelaces and went lurching forwards. Luckily Sirius was quick enough to catch her as she came tumbling down towards them.

Andromeda smiled at Sirius as he gave his young cousin a hug. Since he had finished school, he had become a regular visitor to the Tonks residence, and despite the fact she knew him to be a little bit rash and impulsive, she trusted him absolutely with her child's well being, and was grateful that she could rely on him when her work called her away on urgent duty. It was hard to trust anyone at all in times like these, and there was no denying how well Sirius and Nymphadora got on. She just hoped that his troublemaking nature wouldn't rub off on her too much, as her daughter was already perfectly adept at causing trouble without further assistance.

Nymphadora continued to bounce around in excitement, knocking over a large china vase that stood on the sideboard in the hall. Her mother gave a deep sigh as Sirius, trying to hide a grin, pointed his wand at the pieces and joined them back together in an instant.

"Nymphie, dear, do try and be a little more careful!" The girl had inherited her father's two left feet, which meant that the sounds of breaking china, deafening clatters and loud thumps were a regular occurrence in their house, but no amount of gentle reminders to pay more attention had managed to make an impression on her. Even now, she merely looked up at her mother and glowered.

"Don't call me Nymphie!" Her hair turned bright red as she stamped her foot, and Sirius chuckled.

"Got a bit of a temper hasn't she?" he laughed and Andromeda nodded. "Yes," she agreed. "I'd love to say that wasn't my fault but there's no point pretending she got it from Ted!" They both smiled as they reflected on Ted Tonks, who was so laid back he was practically horizontal. Then Andromeda looked up at the large grandfather clock in the corner of the hallway and, looking a little flustered, made towards the door.

"I hopefully won't be long too Sirius, thanks for this!" she said gratefully, grabbing her coat. "Ted is here, of course, but he has so much work to do, and with everything going on-"

"It's fine," Sirius assured her with a smile. "I'll keep her safe and we'll see you later!"

He was very fond of his young cousin, and thoroughly enjoyed the time spent with her, showing her magic tricks, telling her stories about his days at Hogwarts, answering her relentless questions as she grew ever more impatient to attend the school herself.

"When will I be able to go?" she asked crossly, that afternoon, as she watched Sirius produce several fireworks out of the end of his wand.

"In five years time," Sirius told her patiently. She asked the same question every time he was round. "It won't be long!"

She contemplated this, wrinkling her nose. "That ages!" she protested, and Sirius supposed that it would seem like ages to a six-year-old, as it was almost her entire life once over again. But for him, the last five years – the last seven years - had passed in the blink of an eye, and he wasn't sure where all that time had gone.

"Will I have friends like your friends?" his cousin persisted. She loved hearing tales of the Marauders, although she was only told them on the condition that she wouldn't say a word about them to her mother. As well as they got on, Sirius wasn't sure Andromeda would be too thrilled about him passing on his mischief making habits to her beloved daughter.

"Oh I should think so!" he replied confidently, as she continued to jump around between the furniture in the sitting room. Where she got her boundless energy from, he wasn't sure, but it was exhausting just watching her.

"I hope so!" She grinned as she leapt onto the sofa beside him, her hair, now bright pink, falling over her eyes. "I want a group of Marauders like yours." Sirius just laughed. "I do!" she said insistently. "Like James and Peter and-" she paused and screwed up her forehead, trying to remember the third name.

"Remus," Sirius supplied, and she nodded.

"Yeah. Remus. I knew that."

"Of course you did." Sirius laughed again but did not argue. Even at the tender age of six, the girl had a fierce determination and hated to be told she was wrong. She was part Black, after all. Some things would always run in their family.

"Remus," she said again, very firmly, no doubt trying to cement the information in her mind so that she wouldn't appear ignorant on the subject again, before jumping back up and resuming her energetic leaps all over the room.

She didn't know either. Why should she know?

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