Cold Compromise (HP, Remus/Tonks)

[Dusty15]

Written for the Sick Days Tumblr challenge with the prompt "cold". Set sometime between books 5 and 7. 

-----

Tonks stepped through the Floo at the small cottage that she shared with Remus and immediately stumbled over the hearth, sending her bag and wand flying along with a cloud of ash.

“For fucksake,” she muttered under her breath, righting herself and finding her wand before banishing the ashes back into the fireplace.

It was early morning and she'd finally finished a gruellingly long shift in the Auror department. It also happened to be the morning after a full moon and although she'd tried to reschedule her shift, it hadn't been possible. Remus has insisted he'd be fine dealing with the morning alone and so she'd reluctantly left him.

Though he was well equipped with Snape's expertly brewed Wolfsbane potion, Remus still insisted on transforming in the cement root cellar out back rather than the warm and comfortable cottage.

“What if something interacts with the potion?” he always argued. “It's not worth risking. I'll just curl up and sleep out there. I've got enough fur to keep warm for the night."

By now he'd be back inside and hopefully asleep in bed. She was very much looking forward to joining him.

Tip-toeing quietly to the bedroom, careful not to cause any further tumbles, she opened the door and peeked inside. Their bed was empty.

Her heart began to race.

“Remus?!” she shouted. He wasn't in the bathroom or the kitchen either. She raced to the back door and across the small yard to the chained cellar.

“Remus!” she shouted, banging on the metal doors. No response. The winter wind whipped violently against her face as she drew her wand and got to work. The time-sensitive enchantments would be worn off but there were several more layers of spells for her to remove before the magical chains disappeared and she was able to tug open the heavy doors.

Remus was crumpled in the corner, naked and unmoving.

“Remus!” she shouted again, rushing to his side. His skin was cold and he was visibly shivering. Tugging off her cloak, she tossed it over him and cast a quick warming charm.

“Love, wake up,” she urged, rubbing her hands vigorously up and down against his arms.

He stirred a little and groaned.

“That's it,” she said. “Wake up.”

“Tonks?” he said groggily, voice muddled by his violently chattering teeth. He moved to sit up but quickly lay back down with a wince. “My head..."

She pushed back his fringe and examined his head, finding a goose-egg lump at the side.

“You must've hit your head when you were transforming back,” she said. “You've been knocked out in the cold for a while. This is why you'd be better off inside.”

She took his hands in hers and blew her hot breath against them.

“Let's get you in bed and warm,” she said. “Lie still. No use having you fall again.”

She conjured a stretcher under him despite his grumbled protests and sent it floating in front of her back to the cottage.

In the bedroom, Remus insisted he was well enough to sit up on the edge of the bed himself and Tonks watched him carefully stand and stagger to the bed.

He sat, trembling violently with his arms hugged to his torso and her cloak still around his shoulders. His nose and ears blossomed pink in the warmer air of the house and he began to sniffle as his nose started to stream.

Tonks gathered his flannel pyjamas and helped him get them on slowly before bundling his feet in wooly socks and putting a knit hat on his head.

“In,” she said, pulling back the quilts. Remus slid down under the sheets and Tonks circled the bed, climbing in behind him. She pulled the blankets back over both of them and snuggled up against her husband.

“C'mere,” she said, wrapping her arms around him and hugging him close. He was still shivering, although not as violently. She rubbed a hand in a circle on his back, trying to regain some more warmth there. Remus buried his head against the crook of her neck, his warm breath mixing with hers under the tent of blankets.

“How's your head feel?” she asked softly.

“Sore,” he murmured against her shoulder. “But so is everything else so who knows.”

“'kay. We'll have to keep an eye on it. Tell me if you feel dizzy or anything else.”

“Mostly just cold,” he replied.

“I know,” she said. “It'll pass soon.”

She gave him a light squeeze and continued her gentle circles on his back until she felt him tense in her arms.

“Hold on,” he stammered, pulling away from her and turning his head.

Hurh-TSSCHH!

He sneezed with a heavy, wet sound into his pillow and emerged with a thick sniffle and a groan before his head bobbed down again.

Tsh-GHTT!

Tonks propped herself up on one arm and reached for her wand to summon a handkerchief from Remus' dresser. It came zooming out of the top drawer and into her hand.

“Here,” she said, guiding the cloth into his grip. He took it and pressed it to his nose just as one more sneeze burst out.

Ehh-TSCHHH!

“Bless you!” she exclaimed as he gave his nose a sharp blow. “I hope that's from the change in temperature and a not a cold.”

“I suspect it might be a bit of both,” he replied, pressing two slim fingers to his sinuses and wincing.

“Try to get some sleep,” she encouraged, lying back down and snuggling up to him. “You need it.”

“You too,” he said.

In a short while, they were both fast asleep.

 

Tonks awoke later to the sound of coughing. Beside her, Remus shuddered and convulsed with a fit of barking hacks, each more raspy and painful-sounding than the last. He pushed himself up to sit, bending forward with each spasm of his lungs.

“Hey,” Tonks said, sitting up beside him and putting a steadying hand on his shoulder. “Shhh.”

She rubbed his back until the coughs faded away. Her husband, exhausted and uncomfortable, slumped against the pillows with a sigh.

“I'll get some Pepper-Up,” she said, untangling her limbs from the quilts and climbing out of bed. “Do you want some tea too?”

“No, I'm okay,” Remus rasped.

“Okay, be right back."

She went to find the potion bottle in the medicine chest and returned to dose some out for Remus. When she entered the bedroom, she found him half propped upright by the pillows with the quilts pulled up to his chin. He was shaking again, this time with a cold sweat breaking across his face.

“Oh, love,” she said with a sympathetic groan, crossing to his side and feeling his cheek. He was clammy but not yet feverish. “Chills?”

He shrugged.

“I guess. I can't seem to get stop shivering.”

“You'll probably spike a fever soon,” she said. “Looks like you got yourself a nasty flu. This'll make you feel a bit better.”

She poured a dose of Pepper Up into a small cup and passed it over.

He swallowed it dutifully, soothed by the spicy, warm liquid as it settled down his throat and into his belly. A lazy thread of steam began to drift from his ears as the potion began to work.

Tonks climbed back into bed opposite her husband and settled comfortably beside him.

“C'mere,” she said, extending her arms and allowing him to recline against her. She brushed a soothing hand across his forehead and smoothed back his hair, planting a kiss on his brow. “Try to go back to sleep.”

She pulled the quilts tightly around them, creating a nest of warmth as their bodies cuddled together. Remus slipped back into sleep, snoring congestedly against her chest as steam continued floating from his ears.

Tonks lowered him back to the pillows and snuggled up at his side, dozing lightly.

--

She woke again in the late afternoon. Remus was still asleep and though his breathing sounded ragged and uncomfortable, he was still getting rest and Tonks didn't want to wake him. She carefully climbed out from under the quilts, hyper-aware of her notoriously clumsy limbs, and crept out of the bedroom.

She fixed herself some lunch and settled on the couch with some work files. She was halfway through a report about an illegal goblin gold racketeering ring when she noticed a glass of water come zooming from the kitchen, headed towards the bedroom. It has barely passed out of her view when a combination of sounds sent her springing to her feet.

There was the sound of Remus sneezing loudly (Hurhh-TSGHT!!) followed by the shattering of glass in the hall. She turned the corner to find the water and glass shards spread across the floor. A few flicks of her wand vanished the water and repaired the glass..

“Aguamenti!” she said, taping the newly repaired glass' rim. It filled with fresh water and Tonks carried it into the bedroom.

Remus was huddled under the covers, a tissue held to his nose.

“Sorry,” he rasped. “I'm so thirsty.”

“You should've just shouted,” she said, passing over the glass and watching him drink thirstily.

“Can't really shout at the moment,” he said softly after finishing off the glass and setting it on the nightstand.

“How's the head?” she asked, feeling the lump under his hair.

“It's fine. I'm still frozen,” he muttered. “Can't get warm.”

She felt his brow and around to the back of the neck.

“You don't have much of a fever yet.”

“I'm just really cold and achy. I'll sleep it off.”

“No, I think I can help some,” Tonks replied. “Let me concentrate for a minute.”

She raised her wand, performing a series of spells on the quilts to set warming charms. It was a bit of a complex arrangement of incantations in order to keep the quilt warm but not so hot as to burn or overheat Remus.

“Feel any better?” she asked as she lowered her wand.

“Yes, a bit,” he replied. “Thank you. That does help.”

“How about some soup? You must be a little hungry.”

“If it's not a bother.”

“It's not,” she insisted. “I'll be back in a jiffy.”

She found a tin of instant-hot chicken soup in the pantry and poured it into a bowl, triggering the instant-hot charm. The soup steamed with a pleasant aroma. Being extra careful as to not spill the liquid, Tonks went back to the bedroom.

“Here we are,” she said, passing the soup into Remus' waiting hands. “Eat up.”

He carefully slurped a few spoonfuls as Tonks watched.

“It's good,” he said, smiling wanly. “You don't have to stay if you have things to do.”

“I don't,” she said, clambering up to her side of the bed and reclining against the headboard.

“Okay,” he said with a laugh. “Thank you for the soup.”

“Of course, love.”

She watched him eat in peaceful silence, content to be warm and cozy at his side. Her gentle reverie was broken, however, when she felt Remus' body stiffen and a low whine of anticipation sounded from him.

Realizing what was about to happen, she grabbed the soup bowl from him, managing to just barely avoid sloshing the broth all over the bedsheets.

Hurhh-TSSHHT!

Remus pitched forward, sneezing into steepled hands.

He remained with his hands over his nose, shoulders rising and falling with his panting breath. His eyes were clenched shut and his brow was furrowed with a look of supreme irritation.

“Come on...” he moaned, pinching his nose between his palms and wriggling it up and down.

Tonks leaned away to set the soup bowl on her nightstand before returning to Remus' side just as the fit took over fully.

Ehh-GHSGHHH!

He snapped forward, nose exploding with congested irritation. He remained angled at the waist, face in his hands, head bobbing as his nose continued to rebel.

Tsh-GHXXT! Ngh-TXTT! Hehh....ehh-TSHGXTT!

Tonks put her hands on his shoulders, holding him steady and rubbing her fingers soothingly along his tensing muscles.

Ehhh-TSH-GHSHHGHTT!

The final sneeze gushed out, wet and thick and miserable-sounding.

“Here,” Tonks said, picking up his handkerchief from his side and holding it up. Remus tentatively removed one hand to take it and went about the business of cleaning up his face. He gave his nose a gurgling blow and pinched away the last of the moisture before he succumbed to several chesty coughs.

Finally quiet, he slumped back, scrubbing a hand over his face.

“Poor love,” Tonks said, snuggling against him and spreading her hand across his chest, feeling his lungs struggling to get a full breath. “This is why I think you should just stay inside for transformations during the winter. It isn't good, being out in that cold and damp cellar.”

“It's safer,” he rasped.

“It's just as safe here,” she retorted. “I think you forget you're married to a certified Auror. I know how to handle a situation if there is one, but there won't be. You're the most careful person I know.”

“I don't meant to be unpleasant-” he began.

“I don't think you could be unpleasant if you tried,” Tonks interrupted.

“-but it's not up for discussion.”

“Remus, you were nearly blue from the cold and you've come down with a flu because you're too stubborn to remain in the home that we share and that I've insisted time and time again is perfectly safe.”

“I-”

“I don't want to hear excuses, Remus. I've heard them all already.”

He sighed a crackling and wheezy breath.

“We'll try it. But on my terms. With my precautions in place.”

Tonks grinned.

“Good.”

She patted his pillow.

“Now cozy back up. I'll get another dose of Pepper-Up to help you rest.”

“I don't even know if I need one yet,” he said. “Doesn't work well on me anyway and I'm feeling more comfortable with the warming charms. You're good at those.”

“Mum taught me. I guess there's something good to be said about growing up in one of those draughty Black family mansions after all.”

He barked a laugh.

“Well, it's the best one I've had since Lily. She was excellent with charms. Always sent James along with some heat-charmed blankets for after the moon.”

“I would’ve liked to meet her,” Tonks said.

“She would've loved you,” Remus replied quietly. “Because I do.”

Tonks smiled.

“Back 'atcha, Lupin.”

She slid down under the covers, curling her body against his, feeling warm skin against warm skin. He gave a contented hum and was soon off to sleep once more.

[Kaze Wo Hiku]

Jesus Dusty where do I start...

1) How worried Tonks was when she couldn't find him nnnngggggg

2) Tonks repairing the glass, so sweet.

3) This exchange.  

"I don't meant to be unpleasant-” he began.

“I don't think you could be unpleasant if you tried,” Tonks interrupted.

God Lupin is just SO adorable and no he can never be unpleasant

This was just so cute and of course flu ridden Remus just makes my day.

(Cant undo quote marks )

 

[lilysneeze]

Pure bliss!

Stupid stubborn yet yummily adorable Remus! This is so like him. I would imagine him still doing the transformations in lock up despite the wolfsbane potion.

Tonks is taking such good care of him! And the mention of Lily! God the feels.

[queenie]

So darling! Remus ill, Tonks concerned but frustrated, the mention of compassionate Lily (who was the best). Really, truly excellent!

[AngelEyes]

Awww Poor Remus.

On 1/8/2017 at 4:25 PM, Dusty15 said:

“I don't meant to be unpleasant-” he began.

“I don't think you could be unpleasant if you tried,” Tonks interrupted.

Truth.

[frolicking periwinkle]

For fucksake,” she muttered under her breath, righting herself and finding her wand before banishing the ashes back into the fireplace

Lol! So many keep the language pg-13. I loved the very appropriate swear.

[LastHope]

Ahhhhhh yes this ticked all the boxes!! I love it.