A/N: Another notebook idea, which I decided would work nicely as a non-HP story as well. Huzzah! I typed this one up forst, but FFnet was being stupid so I forgot about it. Then I found it, so here it is.
Disclaimer: I own nothing… especially not Harry Potter.
Happy Reading!
Every Step of the Way
Remus Lupin pulled his old, tattered cloak tighter about his neck and briskly walked in the direction of his house. It loomed ahead; old, decrepit, with peeling paint and old shutters; he lived there with his wife of three years. The war was long over and Voldemort had been defeated once and for all by Harry Potter and this two best friends. A thick snow was falling about Remus as he trudged along and reached the house. He walked up the crooked cement stairs and stomped his boots to get rid of the snow caked on them, then opened the door. The house was silent as Remus came inside and closed the door behind him. He slowly removed his jacket and hung it, his face expressionless. Tonks appeared in the doorway to the kitchen with a duster in her hand, her second trimester barely visible.
"Remus, I've been worried. You've been gone the whole day," Tonks said quietly, approaching Remus with caution. She added in a quiet whisper, "Did you get the job?"
He said nothing as he sunk to the floor and untied his boots. He pushed his boots aside, stood, and cupped his wife's face in his hands, his expression solemn. She dropped the duster.
"You're getting thin," he murmured quietly, peering at the malnourished, dark circles under her eyes. "Look at you. How's about I make you a steak? A steak with potatoes and salad and – and wine. Red wine. What do you say to that?"
Tonks seemed sort of confused. She pulled her head away from her husband and shook it slowly.
"Aw, Remus, you know we can't aff –" Tonks' eyes suddenly grew wide in realization. "You got the job, didn't you?"
Remus mimed her expression of shock in amusement.
"I got the job."
Tonks' face broke into a wide smile and she gave a joyful shriek, jumping into Remus' arms and wrapping her legs around his waist. Arms around his neck, she kissed him deeply, beaming as he held her up with strong arms.
"Today is the beginning of a new era," Remus said in his slightly hoarse voice. "I, Remus-the-Ministry-chauffeur-Lupin, will henceforth be respected for what I can do, not shunned for being a 'dangerous half-breed'. From this day forward, anything you want, you'll get. Just say the word and I'll give you the world."
Remus put Tonks down and mimed handing the world to her, and she laughed.
"Here, you'll see," Remus said, grabbing her hand.
He pulled her over to the wall, where his old cloak was hanging on a peg. He swung it over her shoulders, pulled off his snow-covered hat and put it on her head.
"There," Remus said admiringly, imagining the best clothes money could buy. "Look at you now, you're practically royalty! Just think, someday we'll travel across the world." He stood beside her and bent his knees so he was her height, making a grand opening gesture with his arms as if the world was right in front of them. "Just you and me and our son." He poked Tonks in the stomach with his index finger. "And they'll call you Madam Lupin and they'll say –" he got down on one knee and snatched up the abandoned duster "– 'May I fetch you a drink, Madam?' 'May I clean your shoes, Madam?'" Remus got up and opened the front door as if he was a servant of sorts, stiff-backed and with good posture. "'May I get the door for you, Madam?'"
Tonks said nothing. She only smiled at Remus, who was fantasizing about his simple job as if he had been chosen for Minister of Magic. She could hardly blame him and his enthusiasm, though, for Remus had not had much to celebrate over for a long time. He hadn't had a job since his position at Hogwarts, and with Tonks being pregnant, their need for Remus to find employment doubled. She couldn't very well work as an Auror with a baby strapped to her back – she would have to take maternity leave. Tonks couldn't keep from smiling at her husband's unusual behavior and wondered if this was all the pent-up emotion pouring from him in a new form.
"And there'll be ballroom dances," he said, grabbing her and dancing with her like a gentleman. "And we'll never need anybody again. We can get the Umbridge toad out of office and free the good werewolves, and I'll never need to struggle for a job ever again. And we con move out of this old place." Remus was rambling now, rambling happily nonsense with Tonks in his arms. He gestured to the cracked windows and the peeling paint which they had fixed with magic to the best of their ability. "We'll get a mansion in the country and we'll have servants and – and nice clothes! No more of this –" he pulled the cloak from her shoulders and threw it aside "– or this –" he did the same to the patched hat on her head "– and we'll be the happiest people alive. And it'll be just us."
"The three of us," Tonks said in the whimsical voice Remus was using, speaking for the first time since Remus' ramble began.
He placed a gentle hand on her abdomen.
"Yes," said Remus, "just the three of us. I'll take you anywhere you want to go. Here!" He pulled a chair over and sat her down in it, then pulled up an adjacent chair and sat in it, miming his hands on a steering wheel and his foot on the gas pedal. "Where do you want to go?"
"Paris," Tonks said wistfully.
"Paris it is then," Remus, said, miming driving a car.
Tonks laughed, stood, and pulled her husband to his feet. She kissed him again, laughing as he smiled down at her.
"You are the best man a woman could ask for," said Tonks simply, grinning from ear to ear.
"Are you sure you're not saying that because of my great new job?" Remus teased, snaking an arm around her waist.
She slapped him playfully in the face and traced his jaw line with her finger.
"For better or for worse, remember?" said Tonks. "We've been through the worst, now we're heading for the best. And I'll be with you every step of the way, Remus-the-Ministry-chauffeur-Lupin."
Remus could only grin. Things were starting to fall into place; the world was beginning to right itself after much toil, and he finally believed that he was, at long last, the happiest man alive.
-
FIN
A/N: I don't think Remus was OOC in this. Think about it: if you finally got what you wanted after years and years of struggling, even if it was just something small, you'd probably go nuts and be ecstatic too, wouldn't you? I know I would.