Disclaimer:
I have no possession over these characters! I'm simply borrowing them for a while, and I shall return them unharmed shortly!
Tonks ran out the room. She couldn't believe that she just revealed her feelings for Remus in front of everyone. The Weasleys, Harry, Hermoine, McGonagall – now they all knew. How could she be so stupid? Why couldn't she just control her feelings?
Feeling very young and alone, she ran down the old stone stairs and out the wooden front doors. She furiously wiped hot, wet tears streaming down her cheeks. Her black robes billowed around her, and she stumbled and fell. Twice. But she picked up herself and she kept running like a mad woman. She ran until she reached the edge of the lake, and, once there, she collapsed on the ground, her body shaking as sobs of misery and embarrassment racked her petite frame.
She peered at the still dark waters of the lake, and saw her reflection. Mousy brown hair, dull grey eyes, and a red puffy face stared back at her. No wonder he didn't love her, she looked like hell. But that's what months and months of unrequited love does to a body.it kills it slowly.
"Why?" she asked her reflection, "Why doesn't he love me? Too poor, too old, too dangerous! Rubbish, it's pure rubbish!" Once again, Tonks looked at the still water. A myriad of morbid thoughts rolled through her mind. Dazed, she slowly rose from the cold hard grounds, and placed her left foot in the water, then her right. She continued and was about knee deep when she heard a familiar voice.
"Nymphadora, wait! Isn't it too late for a swim?" Remus mentally cursed himself for saying such an awful joke at a time like this. He quickened his pace. "Nymphadora, why are you in the lake?"
Tonks didn't acknowledge his presence, and took another two steps into the lake. She didn't know who or what was guiding her. She just knew that a life without Remus was not a life worth living. She barely felt the icy water sloshing about her body. Her soul was as numb as her body, it just didn't matter anymore. Nothing mattered. Sirius was dead. Dumbeldore was dead. Snape had betrayed them all. And most of all, Remus didn't love her. No tears fell from her eyes as she continued her sluggish plow into the lake.
Remus briskly walked in the chilly lake, involuntarily shivering at the freezing water. After Tonks had left the Hospital Wing, he realized that all the assurances she and the others had been saying to him over the past months were true. He did love her. And as much as he denied this love and tried to suppress it, it still remained strong,even growing. He couldn't believe the incredible pain he had unknowingly put her through. He struggled to find the words to share his new found revelations with her. He grabbed her shoulders, and turned her around.
She started to struggle against his grip, and cried, "Leave me alone! By Merlin, just leave me alone! I can't find peace or rest in this world, maybe I'll find it in the next. You already killed my soul; I'm just finishing the job."
Remus flinched as her words hit him harder than any hex or curse ever had. He truly felt like a monster for what he had put her through. How could he have turned this beautiful, vibrant, young woman into the frail, lifeless, girl he held in his arms now. Without further thought, he lowered his head and brushed his lips against hers in a gentle kiss. Immediately her struggling stopped, and she went limp in his arms.
"Remus," she asked softly, "why are you doing this to me? If you don't care about me, just let me be."
Remus took a deep breath, then started the most important conversation of his life. "I'm so sorry Nymphadora. I'm so sorry that I've put you through so much pain this year." He looked into the night sky for inspiration. None came, but he continued anyway. "Nymphadora, I'm such a fool. I do love you. God, I think I've loved you since the first Order meeting. How can I not love you? You're a fine woman, a brilliant Auror, and a great friend."
Tonks gasped as Remus talked. What did he just say? A speck of hope rose in her chest, and with every word he said, it grew larger and larger.
Remus continued, "I see the error in my ways now, Arthur was right, even young whole men don't remain that way. I love you so much that all I want for you is to be happy. But how could I ever give you happiness? Between my age, my poverty and my ly—"
Tonks pressed her lips against his to shut him up. He loved her! He said that he loved her! That's all that mattered!
"Oh Remus, you git," she said with a bit of her old fire in her voice once they broke apart, "Don't you realize by now that the only person I'll ever be happy with is you? By Merlin, you're such a prat, and I love you for it!"
She now wound her arms around his neck and deepened the kiss. They stood there for a long moment, mouth to mouth, exchanging feelings in action that words could not describe. After a while, Remus pulled back and reluctantly pointed out, "We are thigh-deep in cold water…"
Tonks slowly let him go, and gazed around them, then declared simply, "Yes, we are, aren't we?"
Remus took her small delicate hand in his large scarred one and they walked towards shore "I don't know how this," he indicated to their clasped hands, "will work, but I'm willing to give it a try."
Tonks turned and smiled at him, "I'll do the thinking in this relationship.You don't worry about a thing."
"Oh, what have I gotten myself into?" Remus uttered with mock indignation and rolled his eyes.
"The time of your life?" Tonks suggested with a smirk. She felt happier at that moment than she had in months.
In a comfortable silence, they walked, hand in hand, towards Hogwarts. Life wouldn't be easy for them, they both knew that. But then again, between the war, the Order, Remus' lycanthropy, it never had been. But for one brief moment, as they strolled through the silent night, they forgot about all the death and evil in the world, and were just content to be Tonks and Remus. Two people who found love by a lake.