Note: A piece of unadulterated FLUFF! I hope somebody enjoys it!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter, nor am I making any profit from this piece of writing.

First Dance

It was early evening at the Burrow, and outside the world seemed to be slowly winding down for the day. The birds cheeped lazily from the trees and the wind blew softly across the fields, gently rustling the long grass beyond the Weasleys' back fence.

A lone figure sat upon the back step, booted feet spread out before her as she stared aimlessly across the landscape, glad to be out of the chaos that was going on within.

That was until the back door was flung open behind her, and footsteps stomped across the threshold, coming to an abrupt halt behind her.

"I look HIDEOUS!" Ginny Weasley exclaimed in disgust, and Nymphadora Lupin paused in her fiddling of the thin band of gold upon her finger to glance up at the teenager with a raised eyebrow.

"You don't look so bad to me." the Auror reasoned, and as the back door swung shut again, Ginny dropped down upon the step to sit beside her.

"That stupid bridesmaid dress!" Ginny elaborated, face contorting in disgust. "It's...it's just..."

"Hideous?" Tonks supplied, looking down at the ring upon her finger and resuming her fiddling.

"Yes!"

"I thought it looked alright on the hanger."

"Yeah right! It's covered in frilly bits and ribbons! You wouldn't be seen dead in it, Tonks!"

Tonks failed to suppress a smile.

"No," she agreed, glancing sideways at the girl again. "You're right, Ginny, I wouldn't. But that's all part of the joy of being a bridesmaid, wearing things you wouldn't usually wear even if somebody paid you."

Ginny gave a snort of disgust.

"I bet if I'd been YOUR bridesmaid you would have picked me a decent dress!" When Tonks merely smiled, Ginny shifted closer to her and, gaze piercing, asked: "Would you have had me be your bridesmaid? If you could've, I mean."

"Of course I would've."

"Me and Hermione?"

"Yep."

"Not many cousins to ask, are there?"

"Nah. I asked Remus if Draco could come and be an usher, but he said he thought it might not be wise."

The pair shared a snigger as somewhere within the house behind them, raised voices could suddenly be heard.

"Phlegm's in a flap because her shoes aren't the same shade of white as her dress." Ginny explained as Tonks glanced back at the door with a small frown. "I don't see why it matters, the dress is long enough you can't even see the shoes!"

"You wait until you get married, you'll be just the same."

"No I won't! And you weren't either, I bet! What was your wedding dress like, Tonks?"

"Old..." Tonks recalled, reaching to brush a stray speck of dirt from her jeans. "It was my mum's dress. We didn't have time to shop for a new one."

"What did it look like?"

"It...was rather like your dress. It had a few too many frills on it. I managed to persuade Mum to cut must of them off, but still..." she sniggered at the memory. "I looked a bit like a giant lace doily. Apparently that was all the fashion, back then."

"Did you have flowers?"

"Dad bought some pink roses."

"What about music? What did you walk down the aisle to?"

"There wasn't any music...not really much of an aisle either. We pretty much just signed the papers, said our vows and then legged it back to Mum and Dad's house. Few glasses of champagne and...well, there you have it. Off to an Order meeting an hour or so later." The pink haired witch's gaze drifted skywards as she concluded: "It was perfect."

At that precise moment, the door behind them creaked open and, before either could turn around a hand reached over Tonks' shoulder to offer a steaming mug of tea. The Auror accepted it, leaning back to look up at the newcomer with a wide smile.

"Thanks love." she murmured as her husband withdrew his hand in order to wrap it around his own mug, and Ginny too glanced back at him with a small smile.

"What did you have as your first dance?" the girl asked him, as if he had been part of the conversation all along, and whilst he took a moment to consider exactly what she meant, Tonks told her:

"We didn't."

"My wife doesn't do dancing." Remus said, raising an eyebrow when Tonks turned to offer him an indigent look.

"Oh and you do, do you?" she asked, reaching to slap him gently upon the leg as Ginny suppressed a giggle.

"I've been known to dance the Cancan around your mother's living room from time to time." Remus claimed, before his gaze came to rest upon Ginny and he told the girl: "Your mother wants you, Ginny. Something about a petticoat to go with your bridesmaid's dress."

"Petticoat?" Ginny grumbled as she pushed herself reluctantly up and onto her feet. "What does she think this is? The Middle Ages?"

The two adults watched her stomp her way back inside and Remus reached to push the door shut behind her before settling himself down in the vacant spot beside his wife. For a long moment they sat in silence, sipping at their tea, before Tonks broke the quiet with a poorly suppressed snort of amusement into her mug. When offered a questioning look she broke out into a fit of laughter, slumped sideways until her head came to rest upon his shoulder.

"I...I was just...just imagining you...in Mum's living room...!"

"Ah." Remus reached to set his mug down carefully beside his foot before twisting round a little so that they were facing one another. "Would you have liked that, then? As our first dance?"

"Maybe..." she sniggered, only to slump backwards, throwing her head back and laughing when he instantly got eagerly to his feet. "Oh Merlin!" she cried as she found herself offered a hand. "What are you doing?"

"We," he corrected, prising the mug from her hands and setting it down next to his own, "are going to have our first dance as man and wife."

"We've been married three weeks, Remus. I'm pretty sure the first dance is supposed to happen on the wedding day."

"And I'm pretty sure that it doesn't really matter. We've been married three entirely dance-free weeks, so that means it's still our FIRST dance."

She allowed him to pull her up onto her feet and lead her out onto the grass just outside of the kitchen window. Linking arms they paused, glancing sideways at one another with matching grins.

"This is completely crazy." Tonks pointed out, and Remus mused:

"It is rather."

"I'm going to fall flat on my face."

"In which case I'm going to fall straight after you."

They both turned to stare through the window and into the kitchen where a number of Weasleys and their guests were busy helping to set the table for tea.

"They're all going to see us."

"Yes...they are."

Husband and wife exchanged another look, both grinning broadly.

"Are you ready, then, Mrs. Lupin?" he asked as she tried her best to swallow the giggle that was fighting to escape her lips.

"When you are, Mr. Lupin."

"On three then. One...two...THREE!"

Inside the kitchen of the Burrow, Ginny Weasley was busy piling sausages onto a plate, her lips pressed together into a firm line as she listened to her mother and her future sister-in-law babble incessantly about wedding cake. She glanced sideways at the twins who were busy setting knives and forks down upon the table as they chatted to their father about something or other. The youngest Weasley rather wished she had been paying attention to their conversation so that she could join in, talk about something other than shoe sizes and bouquets of flowers...

At that moment a loud shout of laughter drew her attention to the window, and as the laughter swelled, both conversations inside halted. As Ginny's eyes widened in surprise and she let out a loud laugh of her own, everybody turned to stare out of the window.

And there they saw Remus and Tonks, jumping haphazardly and kicking their legs up into the air, both laughing louder than the spectators by far.

"HIGHER!" Tonks shrieked between laughter as they kicked their legs up towards the sky once again, and as she gazed out of the window at the couple, Ginny was convinced such a thing wasn't possible.

Because once you reach Cloud Nine, there isn't anywhere higher to go.

Finish.