Title: World Fall Away
Format & Word Count: Fic, 1,078 words
Rating: PG13
Prompt: For the rt_challenge August ficathon #11, a picture of a girl peeking out from under the covers.
Warning: Tonks has a dirty mind in this one. Set during chapter 9 of OoTP
Summary: Remus tells Tonks about Harry’s hearing.
At Hogwarts, Sirius and James had often told Remus that if the Great Hall collapsed around him while he was sitting there reading, he would only notice if the dust obscured a particular word that he came across. On such occasions, Remus had usually rolled his eyes and ignored his two friends, occasionally chiding them about such a blatant exaggeration. Of course, if he was honest, it wasn’t really that blatant; any teasing that came from James or Sirius always had a ring of truth about it.
Besides, Remus enjoyed being able to absorb himself in books, letting the rest of the world fall away, and while his friends took great delight in trying to distract him, they very rarely succeeded.
So it strikes Remus as somewhat ironic that
when he is in the library at
“He got off, he got off, he got off…”
The words make him jump first, then smile
as their meaning sinks in, and he smiles even more when he listens more
closely, hears a distinctly female voice joining in – Ginny, because unless he
misses his guess, Hermione would be too weak with relief to sing. He stands,
intending to go down and join the celebrations – or at least save Molly from
having to quieten the singing herself – but as his foot hovers above the step
downwards, he pauses, thinking better of it. There’s someone else in
Turning, he goes up one floor rather than down, walks down the dark hall towards a bedroom, lets himself in. He smiles again at the sight before him: Tonks, blankets pulled so far up that barely one closed eye and the tip of her nose is all he can see. Her pink hair is a lurid contrast to the dark of the room, but one that he welcomes – not that he’d have told her over breakfast, but even though he likes blonde curls on her, the pink is his favourite.
She stirs when he closes the door behind him, either that sound or the brief blast of “He got off, he got off, he got off,” disturbing her slumber. “Ooo-zair?” she mumbles, burrowing deeper under the covers. He takes a step forwards and one eye opens. “Remus… that you?”
He doesn’t bother answering, just goes over and sits on the side of the bed. “Harry is back,” he tells her quietly. “He got off.”
She shifts slightly, pressing her cheek more firmly against the pillow, showing clear signs of fighting wakefulness. “Harry got off?” she mumbles. “Well, it’d’ve better’ve been with Ginny or I’ll hex him… randy little git…”
Remus has to press his lips together very hard to stop himself from laughing, an impulse that becomes even harder to ignore when he sees her eyes fly open wide, eyebrows rising up towards her hairline. He’s no Legilimens, but if he were, he’s willing to bet that her thoughts would be “Oh bugger,” if not something far stronger. Her panicked eyes meet his, and he allows himself a small smile. “Not with Ginny, no,” he says slowly. “And I rather think that if he had, Fred and George would be working out creative ways to jinx him, instead of singing about it.”
Somewhere in the middle of his speech, her cheeks had become as pink as her hair; by the end of it, she was laughing silently, shoulders shaking as she sat up. “It is absolutely not fair,” she said when she could speak, “That you tell me something so ambiguous when I’m half asleep. I can’t be responsible for any statements I make when I’m less than lucid.”
“That statement could only be ambiguous to those with a dirty mind.” Remus shakes his head, mock dolefully. “Every time I manage to forget you’re related to Sirius, you just have to remind me.”
“Git.” Tonks swats at his shoulder, missing by a mile when he dodges quickly. “I’m telling him you said that.”
“Oh, I think Sirius would be delighted to hear the particulars of our conversation,” he counters. “He’d find it most amusing.”
They also both know that Sirius would never let Tonks forget it, and she shoots Remus a glare to prove it. “Git,” she announces again. Rubbing her hands over her face, she tilts her head to one side, listening to the noises that are still floating up from the kitchen below. “Merlin, they’re loud… d’you think they’re using the Sonorus charm?”
“Shut up!”
A roar from Molly makes them both jump, as well as cuts the singing off abruptly, and when Tonks looks back at Remus again, her lips are twitching. “So that’s why you’re here?” she asks, dark eyes twinkling. “Hiding from Molly?”
“In part,” Remus admits. “Though I did think you’d like to hear the news. Not that you wouldn’t have… you were so tired this morning, I didn’t think you’d remember to imperturbable the door.”
“Didn’t even think of it,” she agrees cheerily, yawning and stretching. “Thought you might have, since you nearly carried me up here…” The last is said with a cheeky smile, unmistakeable flirtation in her tone. “Or didn’t you want the kids to see you casting that charm on your door?”
Remus raises an eyebrow. “I like to think that they don’t spy on everything we do.” Even as he’s speaking, he realises how ridiculous that particular notion is, and if he hadn’t, Tonks’s expression of amazed incredulity would have clued him in. “In any case,” he adds, “I’m reasonably sure they haven’t worked out that you spend more nights here with me than in your own flat.”
“And they don’t know that I’m here now?” Remus shakes his head; Tonks had gone upstairs before the children had got up, and everyone had been so worried about Harry’s hearing that very little had been said. “Well then,” Tonks says, moving closer towards him, winding her arms around his neck, “Why don’t you cast that charm you forgot earlier and we’ll give them nothing to talk about?”
At Hogwarts, there had been little or nothing that would distract Remus from reading.
At
Casting the charm, he pulls her close and lets the rest of the world fall away.