Title: The Spoils of the Virtuous
Author: Ange_dela_nuit
Format & Word Count: Fic, weighing in at 1,877 words
Rating: PG with innuendo
Prompt: 1
Warning: No clown porn, unfortunately, as that would merit a higher rating.
Summary: Catching and getting caught, and kitchen tables. Tears and laughter and two of our favorite couples.
Author's Note: Hi all, this is my first fanfic ever, thusly popping my fanfic cherry, if I may be so crude. I humbly ask for concrit and promise not to cry too loud if the news ain’t good. In the market for a beta and friends who understand and commiserate with this mad obsession.
Remus wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh very badly. The pressure of it built up in his nose until he had to lower his head and rub the sore spot between his eyes where the unspent laughter had coalesced into a bit of a headache. Studying the gnarled wood of the kitchen table helped a little, and Remus was able to take a few deep, silent breaths and regain his composure. Risking a slow glance upward, he felt a small jolt of tenderness in the direction of the young dark head lowered in shame, obscuring the red head buried in his shoulder.
“Good evening Ginny, Harry what were you doing?” Remus asked as neutrally as he could manage.
Something unintelligible was mumbled from beneath the fringe, and a small moan of mortification issued from the boy’s shoulder, making the red hair sway a little.
Remus was suddenly thrown back to a shockingly similar scene, when a rogue voice full of laughter had commented on James’ mumble and Lily’s moan of embarrassment, saying that eloquence was not fully developed until the hormones had been irrevocably assuaged by consummation, which was why he, Sirius, was so thoroughly well spoken. When asked by a disgruntled James how then Sirius accounted for Moony’s lack of stuttering, Sirius had only eyed Remus piercingly and said that his time, too, would come. ‘Merlin’ he thought, ‘Sirius should have lived to see this’.
A clearing of a throat behind him brought Remus back to the present, as a cheery voice announced,
“Wotcher, I think that should be rather obvious, Professor. Seems to me like they were snogging.”
“Thank you, Tonks,” Remus said dryly, turning to address the beaming witch.
“Pleasure,” she shot back, smirking at him before turning back to the teenagers. “Now if t’were me trying for a heavy snog in the middle of the night, I would avoid the kitchen entirely and sneak up into the second floor broom closet to the left of the loo, making sure to skip the second to last step on the landing that creaks a little, you know the one.”
Remus was incredulous at her advice. “You’re encouraging them? What will Molly say?”
“She’s not going to find out if we don’t tell her, now will she?”
Harry and Ginny, who had perked up at the sound of Tonks’ voice, were now starring between her and Remus with awe before deciding to end the torture and getting up to scamper to the door.
“Go to bed, you two,” Remus called over his shoulder.
From the door, Ginny’s pleading voice said, “You’re not going to tell her, are you Professor?”
“No, I won’t tell your mother, Ginny,” Remus soothed, turning to face the two. “Oh, and Harry,” he said sternly.
Determined green eyes rose to meet his, “Yes, Remus?”
A small smile tugged at his lips, “It’s the third to last step that creaks.”
Harry blinked twice, then grinned crookedly at Remus and grabbed Ginny’s hand, pulling her through the door while waving hurriedly to Tonks in the way of a good night.
“Well, that was fun, now lets work on your love life, Professor,” Said the perky young witch, coming up to Remus and draping her arms around his neck playfully, bending herself backward for a little mock dip, while sliding her thigh lightly up his leg. “And to think that I only came in for an after-shift tea.”
Remus stared into her dancing eyes and let out a melodramatic sigh, “I’m too old to be condoning this sort of behavior in the kitchen, what if Molly does catch someone next time?”
He knew he was in for trouble when the little furrow between Tonks’ brows appeared, then deepened as she poked him in the chest.
“First of all, Remus, I find your fear of a perfectly harmless mother slightly questionable, regardless of your notable subservience to authority figures…”
“Harmless! Hah, that woman could take down Death Eaters with her eyes, and make the twins behave…and I am not subservient.”
“And second,” she went on as if his interruption never happened, “It’s not as if you’ve never been caught with your hand up a girl’s shirt! Right?”
Remus stilled entirely and looked away from Tonks’ expectant face to the stone floor. There was so much in their relationship that needed to be discussed, so much of his history that went beyond the solid reasons he had given her to discourage her affections, that was complicated. He had not told her these things as he felt it would cause less pain if she didn’t know how much of himself there was to give to her; so much that he felt wholeheartedly that it would be a burden to her, a responsibility she shouldn’t have to take on.
But now that she had loosened his resolve by shooting his reasons in the head with a giant pistol of her hurt and determination, with logic he couldn’t get around and kisses he didn’t want to end. He had nothing left to hide behind, and so he took her hand and sitting with her at the kitchen table, told her all his thoughts.
“So what you’re saying is that you’ve never...”
“No, never,” He said, waiting.
The furrow deepened yet again.
“And it’s because you thought it would be too much responsibility for the girl?”
“You don’t understand. I am a werewolf,” He said it as a matter of fact, but with an intensity meant to convince her of his beliefs.
She gave him a look that said, clear as the moon, that if he was going to harp on that again, she was going to start shooting and ask questions later.
‘I have to tell her’, he thought, ‘she has to know the truth’. He took a deep breath and plunged, “Nymphadora, werewolves mate for life.”
“So?”
“What do you mean, ‘So’? You knew?”
“Of course I knew!” Tonks exploded, “Did you think I just wanted to fool around, see how far I could get and call it a night?”
“No, of course not. I would never think such a thing of you.” He felt the conflict of her indignation obscure his reasoning of things, confusing him anew.
“I love you, Remus. I will love you for the rest of my life. If you can’t handle that, then…” A small sob escaped her and she lowered her eyes to their hands clasped on the table.
How could this woman want to be with him so much when others had run screaming from the thought of it? Hadn’t he been protecting her from his own need all along?
He laid his hand on her cheek and swept his palm along the sweet smoothness of it to her pointy little chin which he tipped up gently and saw all her longing for him clear in her eyes. He decided that that was all the reason he needed.
Bending lower to her, he whispered, “I just never thought I could have this, you know?”
She nodded at him sadly, and sniffled a little. Then as a sudden thought lit up her face she quirked her eyebrow at him and asked in a mischievous lilt, “Remus what happens when the tragic hero gets the girl at the end of the story? Isn’t there usually a ceremony of some sort to proclaim him not tragic any more, you know, like the spoils of the virtuous?”
“Well, in the case of Odysseus, there was a private little reunion at the end…” He teased, knowing exactly what she was fishing for and readying himself for the sweet intensity of it.
“Then what happened?” She queried impatiently.
“Then they had cake,” He tossed out casually while getting up to rummage in the cupboard, producing a half eaten chocolate cake triumphantly and making a grand show of setting it down on the table before her. “My lady, your spoils.”
Tonks’ eyes widened at the sight of the cake and her mouth was already full by the time he came back with the butterbeers, presenting them to her on bent knee.
“I’m onto you, Lupin,” She said around the cake, looking down at him, “all this time, the chocolate has just been a substitute, hasn’t it?”
Pink-again curls and cheeks full of cake, he decided, must be the sexiest look on a woman, either that or he was heavily biased. Pronouncing her irresistible, Remus leaned forward and buried his nose in the hair by the side of her neck, chuckling lightly as she swallowed all at once, and delighting in her little pants of breath as he kissed slowly up the arched column of her throat. Resting his cheek on hers, his mouth by her ear, he murmured, “No more substitutes. I want you, Nymphadora, for as long as you’ll have me, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, probably poorer, but I know, I know you don’t care. I love you. I will love you as long as I live.”
She was silent as she pulled away to gaze at him, his words dancing and weaving themselves in sparkling points of light through her eyes for what seemed like eons to him. Until his need for her made him quietly pronounce,
“Nymphadora? Do you…”
Suddenly, she launched herself at him, tumbling them to the floor. He closed his eyes tight and laughed through the kisses and all of her “I do’s!”
The early morning light was filtering through Molly’s cheery kitchen curtains and sounds of life were beginning to waken the house when Tonks decided it was time to take the honeymoon elsewhere less public. She slid to sit on the edge of the table and began to button her blouse with several buttons missed and more in the wrong holes due to the man driving her to distraction at the hollow of her throat.
“Remus,” she gasped, “I thought you wouldn’t condone such behavior at the kitchen table?”
His reply was to tug on her earlobe with his teeth as punishment for cheekiness. Her hum of contentment turned into a cough, as the door opened and a sleepy Harry shuffled into the room. Remus went entirely still and risked a glance at the boy standing there with his eyes suddenly opened wide at the scene before him, blinking twice, then grinning a wide, dangerous smile. Remus sighed deeply and hung his head.
“Good morning Tonks,” Harry said smugly, as the woman in question buried her head in Remus’ shoulder to stifle her moan of suppressed giggles.
“Professor, what were you doing?”
“Well, you see, Harry, er…that is, Nymphadora, and I…”
“Don’t worry Remus, I won’t tell Mrs. Weasley.” Harry beamed at them then turned to see about finding some toast.
Tonks was still shaking with laughter when Remus grabbed her hand and pulled her out the door, calling a heartfelt “Thank You” to Harry, and making very sure to skip the third to last step.
Author: Ange_dela_nuit
Format & Word Count: Fic, weighing in at 1,877 words
Rating: PG with innuendo
Prompt: 1
Warning: No clown porn, unfortunately, as that would merit a higher rating.
Summary: Catching and getting caught, and kitchen tables. Tears and laughter and two of our favorite couples.
Author's Note: Hi all, this is my first fanfic ever, thusly popping my fanfic cherry, if I may be so crude. I humbly ask for concrit and promise not to cry too loud if the news ain’t good. In the market for a beta and friends who understand and commiserate with this mad obsession.
Remus wanted to laugh. He wanted to laugh very badly. The pressure of it built up in his nose until he had to lower his head and rub the sore spot between his eyes where the unspent laughter had coalesced into a bit of a headache. Studying the gnarled wood of the kitchen table helped a little, and Remus was able to take a few deep, silent breaths and regain his composure. Risking a slow glance upward, he felt a small jolt of tenderness in the direction of the young dark head lowered in shame, obscuring the red head buried in his shoulder.
“Good evening Ginny, Harry what were you doing?” Remus asked as neutrally as he could manage.
Something unintelligible was mumbled from beneath the fringe, and a small moan of mortification issued from the boy’s shoulder, making the red hair sway a little.
Remus was suddenly thrown back to a shockingly similar scene, when a rogue voice full of laughter had commented on James’ mumble and Lily’s moan of embarrassment, saying that eloquence was not fully developed until the hormones had been irrevocably assuaged by consummation, which was why he, Sirius, was so thoroughly well spoken. When asked by a disgruntled James how then Sirius accounted for Moony’s lack of stuttering, Sirius had only eyed Remus piercingly and said that his time, too, would come. ‘Merlin’ he thought, ‘Sirius should have lived to see this’.
A clearing of a throat behind him brought Remus back to the present, as a cheery voice announced,
“Wotcher, I think that should be rather obvious, Professor. Seems to me like they were snogging.”
“Thank you, Tonks,” Remus said dryly, turning to address the beaming witch.
“Pleasure,” she shot back, smirking at him before turning back to the teenagers. “Now if t’were me trying for a heavy snog in the middle of the night, I would avoid the kitchen entirely and sneak up into the second floor broom closet to the left of the loo, making sure to skip the second to last step on the landing that creaks a little, you know the one.”
Remus was incredulous at her advice. “You’re encouraging them? What will Molly say?”
“She’s not going to find out if we don’t tell her, now will she?”
Harry and Ginny, who had perked up at the sound of Tonks’ voice, were now starring between her and Remus with awe before deciding to end the torture and getting up to scamper to the door.
“Go to bed, you two,” Remus called over his shoulder.
From the door, Ginny’s pleading voice said, “You’re not going to tell her, are you Professor?”
“No, I won’t tell your mother, Ginny,” Remus soothed, turning to face the two. “Oh, and Harry,” he said sternly.
Determined green eyes rose to meet his, “Yes, Remus?”
A small smile tugged at his lips, “It’s the third to last step that creaks.”
Harry blinked twice, then grinned crookedly at Remus and grabbed Ginny’s hand, pulling her through the door while waving hurriedly to Tonks in the way of a good night.
“Well, that was fun, now lets work on your love life, Professor,” Said the perky young witch, coming up to Remus and draping her arms around his neck playfully, bending herself backward for a little mock dip, while sliding her thigh lightly up his leg. “And to think that I only came in for an after-shift tea.”
Remus stared into her dancing eyes and let out a melodramatic sigh, “I’m too old to be condoning this sort of behavior in the kitchen, what if Molly does catch someone next time?”
He knew he was in for trouble when the little furrow between Tonks’ brows appeared, then deepened as she poked him in the chest.
“First of all, Remus, I find your fear of a perfectly harmless mother slightly questionable, regardless of your notable subservience to authority figures…”
“Harmless! Hah, that woman could take down Death Eaters with her eyes, and make the twins behave…and I am not subservient.”
“And second,” she went on as if his interruption never happened, “It’s not as if you’ve never been caught with your hand up a girl’s shirt! Right?”
Remus stilled entirely and looked away from Tonks’ expectant face to the stone floor. There was so much in their relationship that needed to be discussed, so much of his history that went beyond the solid reasons he had given her to discourage her affections, that was complicated. He had not told her these things as he felt it would cause less pain if she didn’t know how much of himself there was to give to her; so much that he felt wholeheartedly that it would be a burden to her, a responsibility she shouldn’t have to take on.
But now that she had loosened his resolve by shooting his reasons in the head with a giant pistol of her hurt and determination, with logic he couldn’t get around and kisses he didn’t want to end. He had nothing left to hide behind, and so he took her hand and sitting with her at the kitchen table, told her all his thoughts.
“So what you’re saying is that you’ve never...”
“No, never,” He said, waiting.
The furrow deepened yet again.
“And it’s because you thought it would be too much responsibility for the girl?”
“You don’t understand. I am a werewolf,” He said it as a matter of fact, but with an intensity meant to convince her of his beliefs.
She gave him a look that said, clear as the moon, that if he was going to harp on that again, she was going to start shooting and ask questions later.
‘I have to tell her’, he thought, ‘she has to know the truth’. He took a deep breath and plunged, “Nymphadora, werewolves mate for life.”
“So?”
“What do you mean, ‘So’? You knew?”
“Of course I knew!” Tonks exploded, “Did you think I just wanted to fool around, see how far I could get and call it a night?”
“No, of course not. I would never think such a thing of you.” He felt the conflict of her indignation obscure his reasoning of things, confusing him anew.
“I love you, Remus. I will love you for the rest of my life. If you can’t handle that, then…” A small sob escaped her and she lowered her eyes to their hands clasped on the table.
How could this woman want to be with him so much when others had run screaming from the thought of it? Hadn’t he been protecting her from his own need all along?
He laid his hand on her cheek and swept his palm along the sweet smoothness of it to her pointy little chin which he tipped up gently and saw all her longing for him clear in her eyes. He decided that that was all the reason he needed.
Bending lower to her, he whispered, “I just never thought I could have this, you know?”
She nodded at him sadly, and sniffled a little. Then as a sudden thought lit up her face she quirked her eyebrow at him and asked in a mischievous lilt, “Remus what happens when the tragic hero gets the girl at the end of the story? Isn’t there usually a ceremony of some sort to proclaim him not tragic any more, you know, like the spoils of the virtuous?”
“Well, in the case of Odysseus, there was a private little reunion at the end…” He teased, knowing exactly what she was fishing for and readying himself for the sweet intensity of it.
“Then what happened?” She queried impatiently.
“Then they had cake,” He tossed out casually while getting up to rummage in the cupboard, producing a half eaten chocolate cake triumphantly and making a grand show of setting it down on the table before her. “My lady, your spoils.”
Tonks’ eyes widened at the sight of the cake and her mouth was already full by the time he came back with the butterbeers, presenting them to her on bent knee.
“I’m onto you, Lupin,” She said around the cake, looking down at him, “all this time, the chocolate has just been a substitute, hasn’t it?”
Pink-again curls and cheeks full of cake, he decided, must be the sexiest look on a woman, either that or he was heavily biased. Pronouncing her irresistible, Remus leaned forward and buried his nose in the hair by the side of her neck, chuckling lightly as she swallowed all at once, and delighting in her little pants of breath as he kissed slowly up the arched column of her throat. Resting his cheek on hers, his mouth by her ear, he murmured, “No more substitutes. I want you, Nymphadora, for as long as you’ll have me, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, probably poorer, but I know, I know you don’t care. I love you. I will love you as long as I live.”
She was silent as she pulled away to gaze at him, his words dancing and weaving themselves in sparkling points of light through her eyes for what seemed like eons to him. Until his need for her made him quietly pronounce,
“Nymphadora? Do you…”
Suddenly, she launched herself at him, tumbling them to the floor. He closed his eyes tight and laughed through the kisses and all of her “I do’s!”
The early morning light was filtering through Molly’s cheery kitchen curtains and sounds of life were beginning to waken the house when Tonks decided it was time to take the honeymoon elsewhere less public. She slid to sit on the edge of the table and began to button her blouse with several buttons missed and more in the wrong holes due to the man driving her to distraction at the hollow of her throat.
“Remus,” she gasped, “I thought you wouldn’t condone such behavior at the kitchen table?”
His reply was to tug on her earlobe with his teeth as punishment for cheekiness. Her hum of contentment turned into a cough, as the door opened and a sleepy Harry shuffled into the room. Remus went entirely still and risked a glance at the boy standing there with his eyes suddenly opened wide at the scene before him, blinking twice, then grinning a wide, dangerous smile. Remus sighed deeply and hung his head.
“Good morning Tonks,” Harry said smugly, as the woman in question buried her head in Remus’ shoulder to stifle her moan of suppressed giggles.
“Professor, what were you doing?”
“Well, you see, Harry, er…that is, Nymphadora, and I…”
“Don’t worry Remus, I won’t tell Mrs. Weasley.” Harry beamed at them then turned to see about finding some toast.
Tonks was still shaking with laughter when Remus grabbed her hand and pulled her out the door, calling a heartfelt “Thank You” to Harry, and making very sure to skip the third to last step.
