Young Girl

12- Snivellus

Remus's POV-

"Ask her out." Sirius prompted. We were sat in Tonks's mismatched living room, waiting for any news. It had been to much for Molly to handle, internal bleeding and so on, so Snape had to help. Of course, the greasy git told us to wait outside while he, 'attended to Miss Tonks's more severe injuries'. Unfortunately, and irritatingly, Bellatrix and the other two had escaped when I went to fetch Molly and Sirius, meaning Fudge couldn't do a thing about it.

"No." I repeated for the tenth time in the last five minutes, "She's perfect, and I'm a monster. A beast like me could never do anything to deserve her."

"Yeah but I think she likes you." He whined desperately, "Just take a chance. Hey it might pay off."

"Don't you get it?" I snapped at him, patience finally breaking, "I'm a monster, she's a beautiful young girl. I don't deserve her, I never will. She'll do best to marry some young, posh man. Not me."

"You're a pain in the arse you know that right." My best friend rolled his eyes, "I'll talk you around, as long as it takes. Anyway, I'm gonna go see her. You coming?"

"Alright." I shrugged, "Can't be much worse than putting up with you."

"Oi." He frowned, but his eyes sparkled with a smile that reminded me so much of hers. I pushed myself up and and followed him out, tuning out his constant begs that I should listen to him.

"Sirius, Remus." Molly sighed, walking out of the kitchen and pulling the door shut behind her before leaning back against it. I shuffled my feet impatiently, desperate to see how Tonks was.

"How is she?" Sirius asked nervously and quickly, "Will she make it? Is she awake? Is Snivellus looking after her well enough?"

"She's awake now." Molly said tiredly, "Been asking after you both. We'll have to move her back to Grimmauld as soon as we can. Its not safe to stay here."

"Can we see her?" I asked as calmly as my racing brains would allow, but not quite calmly enough as it earned me a sideways glance from Sirius. Molly poked her head round the door and had a quick discussion with then man on the other side before turning back to face us.

"She's just woken up and Severus says that she'll pull through for definite, so yeah come on in." I sighed in relief as Molly smiled warmly at the two of us, standing back and beckoning through the door. It was dark and deathly quiet in the kitchen, I could only just make out Tonks sitting up on the table and Severus handing her potions which she drank. My eyes slowly became accustomed to the gloom and after a couple of seconds, they noticed us.

"Hey." I said weakly, blushing slightly as she smiled at me, "How are you doing?"

"Never been better." She grinned before adding, "Well, not completely, but you know what I mean." I chuckled quietly and walked over to her. Her top was hanging loose over both shoulders, rips and tears in it displaying the cuts in her skin and spots of dried blood, but the sparkle in her eyes seemed to fill her full of enough hope to heal her instantly, "Thanks for finding me by the way, if you hadn't I'd most likely be dead right now."

"Don't say that." Sirius moaned weakly, stepping forwards and wrapping her up in a tight hug, "If I lost you, your Mum would never forgive me. Besides, I can think of a lot of people who would be terribly disappointed if you left them," adding under his breath so that only I could hear, "My dearest friend Moony for one."

Tonks's POV-

I rolled my eyes at my cousin, but looking over his shoulder I could see a slight blush flicker over Remus's cheeks. Snape sneered at us, muttering something about 'stupid sentimentality' under his breath.

"Problem Severus?" I asked sweetly and innocently, smirking as Sirius smiled proudly at me when he pulled away. Since I woke up about half an hour ago, I'd been giving the slimy git hell, dropping potion bottles, teasing him if he tried to inspect and heal the knife cuts I had all down my back and constantly saying how great Sirius was. Needless to say, he'd gotten rather angry at me, very angry for that matter.

"Not at all. I just don't appreciate such disgusting actions." He said blankly, turning away to fetch another bottle of potion. I stuck my tongue out at his back, resisting the desperate want to kick him. Sirius mimed hexing him and I had to bite my bottom lip to stop myself from laughing aloud.

"Everyone!" Our joke was cut off by Molly running into the room, her state much like it had been when Arthur was attacked, instantly making me jump to my feet, "Severus get back to Hogwarts! Harrys been caught by Umbridge and you're the only she trusts enough to hear whats happening. You need to get the information out of him so we can be ready if something goes wrong. Go now Severus, don't let him get hurt. We have no idea what Umbridge is capable of."

He nodded and practically ran from the room followed by my front door slamming and the crack of him disapparating. Sirius wrapped his arms around my waist as one of my legs nearly gave way and my body dipped down towards the floor. I thanked him quickly, blushing slightly as Remus looked over with an amused hint in his eye.

"Molly what in Merlin's name is going on?" He asked anxiously, stepping in closer.

"Umbridge caught Harry, Hermione and Ron in her office." She said at full speed, "She thinks they were trying to contact Albus, but it was probably meant for you Sirius. Then Neville Longbottom, Ginny and Luna Lovegood got involved. We have no idea what's going on other than that."

"What if he's had another vision?" My cousin said nervously, lifting me back up onto the table before starting to pace, "Voldemort could make him do anything with Occlumency and if Harry believed it, he would play right into his hands."

"We have to go now." I said firmly, "Get back to Headquarters so they have backup. I'll be fine Sirius," I added as he eyed the blood on my top, "I'm not five years old anymore. They need us."