He had never known peace like this, finally being with his beloved Nymphadora Tonks, or as she liked to be called now, “Mrs Lupin.”
They lay next to each other, shrouded in white linen sheets, savouring the warm sunlight that seemed to be engulfing them. She was sleeping quietly, her chest rising up and down very slowly, along with the slow, soft rush of air that passed in and out of her beautiful nostrils. Her eyes were closed, her eyelashes gently curving outwards from her delicate eyelids. Her cheeks were peachy soft, and he ran a finger gently down the side… because his willpower didn’t stretch enough to prevent him from doing so. Needless to say, she awoke.
“Remus?” she said softly, and she breathed out. It was a sound of relief, happiness, as though they had recently endured immense agony and now they were free from it. But that couldn’t be true… Remus felt as though he’d been laying here all his life, in this strange white place, with the woman that he loved more than life itself.
“It’s warm here…” she said, and she sounded tired. Very, very tired. Her eyes would open blearily, and then they would close. But Remus was not worried; a feeling of eternal calm emanated from her, and Remus knew everything was all right.
“You’ll never be cold again,” Remus promised her, brushing a few strands of her pink fringe off of her radiant white forehead. Something deep within him also told him that he’d never suffer again either; the werewolf in him was dead.
“But – but,” Tonks suddenly sat up, her dark eyes mad and desperate, searching around the strange white place and shattering the beautiful calm, “Where – where is my son?”
Remus felt his heart stop, and everything was destroyed and ruined – the white place was dead –
“WHERE IS TEDDY?” Tonks screamed. Her face contorted, her hands gripped her hair and her eyes were wide and mad – she tried to get out of the linen sheets but she was too tangled up in them. She struggled and panicked, screaming for her son. Remus felt tears grace his eyes; she wasn’t ready for this, whereas he was. He’d had a long life of hard suffering; she’d had a beautiful, young, free unblemished life and she couldn’t cope with being here –
“Tonks!” Remus tried to comfort his writhing wife, “He’s not with us.”
“IS HE DEAD?”
“No… no,” Remus looked at her painful struggle, and the sight went through his heart like a shard of sharp mirror.
“WHERE IS HE? TELL ME, PLEASE!”
Her face was glazed with tears as she grabbed Remus, breathing hard, desperate.
“He’s still alive…” Remus held her hands in his own, boring his own grey eyes into her manic dark ones.
“Then – then where – ?”
“Tonks… we’re – we’re dead.”
Tonks looked around, and then realised that she Remus was right. They were dead.
******
Death is a funny thing, but is interesting. I guess I think about it a lot, because there's not much to do at 1.51 am, and I can get bogged down in topics like this! Don't even get me started on stars and space and "what's out there..."
Anyway, I only typed the above because the chapter's too short but I didn't want to change it! So ignore my ramblings. :)
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