Gravity Akin to Love

[evenscribbles.livejournal.com]

Author/Artist: Evenscribbles

Title: Gravity Akin to Love

Rating & Warnings: G, pre-relationship, Canon Divergence; earlier on in their timeline.

Word Count: 817 words; so a baby ficlet

Prompt(s):

#3, "You can't blame gravity for falling in love"- Albert Einstein.

#4, A moment of weakness

Summary: Tonks is nervous to tell Remus her life-altering news, but his response gives her the courage and fire to push forward with a new purpose.

Notes:

The idea of Remus being a tutor to Tonks in her youth goes to Fernwithy.
I just fell in love with the idea and wanted to play around with it for awhile.
Tonks is seventeen in this, while Remus is thirty. So this is way before their relationship became more than platonic.

Thank you starfishstar for being a beta-reader on this ficlet.

Gravity Akin to Love

Early December, 1990

Tonks breathed gently onto her tea and hummed under her breath as it snowed outside. The notes of the airy opera piece that her parents had been dancing to as she left stuck on endless repeat in her head. She pushed the words forcibly aside when the bell above the tea shop door sung its greeting.

Tonks looked up, but as it was not the person she was expecting, she hastily went back to savouring her warm Earl Grey. Though now impatience had reared its head and had begun to twist itself like a snake beneath her skin. She wanted him to show up already. She hadn't seen him since her last hols and she had to return to Hogwarts at dusk, since it was only a Hogsmeade weekend, which was a good thing but didn't leave much time-

"Dora? Is that you?" A hoarse voice called down to her.

Tonks blinked and there he was, the person she had been biting her nails and twisting her scarf in nervous anticipation of seeing.

None other than Remus Lupin.

"Mr. Lupin..." She blushed, remembering suddenly what he had requested of her on his last visit. "I mean Remus. You made it."

Remus smiled a sunny grin as he settled into the chair across from her. He pulled a cup and lemons towards himself. "I promised I'd be here. So what was it that you were in such a state to discuss yesterday? Not bad news I hope?"

Tonks licked her lips and shifted in her seat. How to tell him, that was the question. She would just have to start with the good news first.

Noticing his raised eyebrow and concerned expression; she took a deep breath, exhaled and just blurted out her news. "I've been accepted!"

Remus' head snapped up, a smile flashing its way across his face. "To the Auror Program? Oh Dora, that's wonderful. When do you start?"

Tonks laughed, "I have to finish up this term. But as soon as I do I'll be shipped to the trainee barracks. I'm excited but-" Now on to the hard part.

Remus, noticing her hesitation, reached for her hand in a comforting gesture. "But?"

She grasped his fingers to hers in a tighter grip. Feeling warmth from it, even though the rest of her body felt encased in ice.

"But...I'll be restricted to Ministry grounds with rather limited postal access. I was warned about that in the beginning and I was fine when they first told me..." She paused and took a sip of tea to soothe the roughness in her throat. "...however, it just hit me yesterday that we won't be able to continue our correspondence as we do now and I won't be able to make you, your potion."

Remus, who had been shaking his head during the entirety of her last statement, shushed her with a wave of his hand. "Dora, how long have you known me?"

Tonks sighed, knowing what he was probably leading up to but humouring him none-the-less.

"You started tutoring me when I was six. So about ten...no...eleven years now."

"Eleven years. And when in all that time,have I had any real trouble taking care of myself? Give me a little more credit, please. And the six months you need to complete your first phase, where sure I'll have to scrape by without some material luxuries. But that's a small thing to deal with when you compare it to the joy I'll have when you become an Auror. Something I can say without a doubt you have wanted to be since you were six."

"Yes. But-"

"No, no more buts. Let's not gripe or moan about what cannot be changed. Instead let's enjoy our tea and then perhaps make a day of exploring Hogsmeade before you have to go to back up to the castle. How does that sound?"

Tonks wanted to continue, but then it would turn into an argument, which would probably lead to her screaming in frustration, something she never did in public. So she just nodded and sipped at her tea until they moved on to other topics.

No one needed to know she'd been a hair's breadth away from breaking down in moment of weakness. Because of the person across from her, whom she had begun to love as much as her parents, as soon as he had first started teaching her French verbs from a second-hand textbook. And since she loved him, she would figure out some way to help him through the coming months without her. Because like gravity, she would be an unstoppable force of nature until she got what she wanted.

After all, she was a Black on her mother's side and if there was one thing she had learned over the years about that… was that they never gave up.

Fin.

Comments

[articcat621.livejournal.com]

This was a really sweet read. I love that it took place earlier in their timeline and the determination that Tonks has to be with Remus. Wonderfully written <3

[evenscribbles.livejournal.com]

Thank you for the comment. Yes I do love this one and the opening it gives to a entirely new story-line for them. Like maybe Remus is the one to bring in Tonks into the Order, not Mad-Eye, or it is him who teaches her how to cast the Patronus charm (That is the next story I have planned for this AU actually).

So if you want to see more, keep a look out for my LJ or on FF. Thanks again.

[starfishstar]

Finally getting a chance to come back here and check out the final version... Looks great!

I like the change to "...which would probably lead to her screaming in frustration, something she never did in public." It seems very Tonks that she would be able to keep herself from expressing her frustration out loud...but also that she would even consider the option of "screaming in public," even if she wouldn't actually do it. ;-)

[evenscribbles.livejournal.com]

Thank you for your comment and the editing you put into this story before it became this final product. I'm glad that you liked the changes, including the line about Tonks wanting to scream. I can assume that Remus makes her feel that way a lot, what with his noble martyr tendencies.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

One of the interesting things about Remus and Tonks is that we really don't have any idea how they first met or how long they've known each other, which makes a lot of options possible for exploring in fic! I like this scenario a lot (I've read a lot of Fernwithy's fics, too, heh). I especially like the way you've shown Tonks's stubborn loyal streak here, and Remus's determination not to hold her back (even if it makes her worry about him more). Both are perfect foreshadowing of where they'll be in six more years or so...

[evenscribbles.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for your comment. I have to agree, it is always so interesting to see how people interpret their back-story. And Fernwithy's is one of my favorites so I created this story as kind of a ode to that, while trying to make sure it had its own kind of twist.

And I'm so glad that the foreshadowing was noticeable. I wanted to transport them to a different time but also make sure that they were recognizable at the same time. So I'm glad that worked out well.

Thank you again for your comment. You've been sending me a lot of them lately and I have to say it makes me very happy that you're reading my stories, even though the challenge is now closed.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome! But it's just that I'm late; I had a family emergency in January, right as the event was closing, and I'm only recently managing to come back and finish reading the fics I didn't have time to read when the event was on.

[evenscribbles.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about the family emergency. I hope that everything turned out alright.

I'm glad that you are getting to catch up on your reading now.