Title: Evil Encounter

Author: LizetM

Rating: PG ... maybe PG-13, depending on how you see it. :P

Summary: When Remus and Tonks are sent on an Order mission, will they listen to each other, or let their instincts take over? Written for Metamorficmoon LJ

Disclaimer: Me no own them, can only claim that I do to those who are naive enough to believe me. XD

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They had been at it for what seem like the entire day, hidden behind some bushes, making sure to go undetected, and putting all their thoughts and reflexes focused on the mission at hand. There was no time for chitchat, not time to wonder on the other mission they had in a few days, the one more important to both than the current they had. There was only sitting and waiting, waiting for those darn Death Eaters to arrive at the location, waiting for them to prove that they were up to no good, waiting so that when they showed some dark magic they could take them out and go back to headquarters for a nice long meal by the warmhearted Molly Wealsey.

The sun was beginning to settle behind the tips of the gigantic forest trees. The temperature was beginning to drop slowly, not fast enough to cool the hot summer humidity which made anyone who stepped outside sweat almost instantly. And sitting there he was, with nothing to do but try not to stare at the young witch in front of him, the Auror who made him sweat more than the weather itself, who invaded his mind with a million thoughts that had nothing to do with the mission, and who was currently busy trying to finish some over-due paper work for her boss.

He noticed himself starting at her again, and decided that it was no good to keep going like this, without talking, without interacting, without doing anything. It was slowly killing him, not to mention making him bored as hell to the point where he felt he could just lie there and sleep. He opened his mouth and voiced the dominating thought in his mind: “I’m bored.”

She looked up from her paper work with a confused expression on her face.

“What?” she asked.

“We’ve been sitting here all day, nothing but sitting. I’m bored out of my mind,” he responded.

She cocked an eyebrow at him, and said, “Well, why don’t you do something?”

“Like what? You have your paper work, I have nothing.” He hated the way that came out, he sounded childish, like a bratty kid tired of his toys.

She laughed, the sound angel-music to his ears, “Well, why don’t you read?”

He looked at her puzzled; he didn’t have a book on him.

She smiled once again, and turned to her side to rummage through her bag. She took out a decent-sized book and handed it to him with a, “Here.”

He took it and looked at the title. It was Dante’s Inferno.

“I think it’s a great book, definitely something you would like,” she said, in response to him staring at the book a bit incredulously. But how could he not? It was one of his favorites books, he’d read it hundreds of times, and she had it with her, just like that, in her everyday on-the-go bag.

She never seemed to notice just how much she pleasantly surprised him.

He ignited his wand to a soft glow of light, positioned it on the branches of the nearest bush, and began to read, his mind thankful for having something to get itself observed in.

---

About two hours passed where they heard nothing but the sound of the natural environment around them, the flicking every time one of them turned a page, and the scratching of her quill. He was almost half-way through the book, just coming short of canto XIV, when he heard it, a moving sound to his right.

His movement as he turned to look in the direction of the sound caught her attention, and she instantly became alert herself.

“What is it, what did you hear?” she whispered to him.

“Shhh,” he said, now on his knees, looking between the bushes in search for the source of the noise.

He found it just as she came to move beside him, the closeness of her body making him feel stronger and more secure than ever. They saw as a hooded figure began to look around the surrounding area of the clearing he or she was standing on. When the figure directed its attention to where they were hidden, they ducked further down the bushes.

All of a sudden another black-hooded figure materialized right next to the first.

“Is this it?” asked the second figure to the first, a male with a low, raspy, arrogant voice.

“Yes,” responded the first figure, also a male with a much higher voice than the first, “I think.”

“You think?!” roared the second figure, “You don’t THINK with the Dark Lord, you KNOW!”

“Sorry,” quivered the accused man, “I meant that this IS the place.” Remus peaked through the bushes and saw that the man looked as scared as he sounded.

He noticed that the young witch to his left was listening intently to everything the hooded figures were saying. He pinched his own arm and reminded himself that he should follow her example instead of focusing only one her.

When he turned his attention back to the hooded figures, he noticed that there was another person present with them. This man he did not expect to see with these two other men, mostly because he was on his and Tonks’ side.

“What is Snape doing here?” he heard Tonks whisper to him, furry like a dragon’s fire present in her lovely eyes.

Remus couldn’t quite understand it either. Snape should have mentioned if he was going to be present for this little gathering during the meeting that took place the night before at Order headquarters.

“Avery,” Snape acknowledged the second hooded figure.

“Snape,” said Avery.

With a scowl on his face, Snape greeted the other man, “Amycus.”

“Snape,” repeated Amycus.

“Why am I here gentlemen?” Snape asked.

Remus and Tonks exchanged glances. So Snape wasn’t planning on being there, by the looks of it.

“Well, the Dark Lord told us to let you be present while we did this,” Amycus told him.

“He didn’t tell us why, because we didn’t ask,” Avery said sternly, “So don’t ask US why.”

“Fine, show me what I need to see,” said Snape, “what is this thing?”

Both Remus and Tonks saw with horror as Avery waved his wand to the nearest bushes behind him and revealed an unconscious woman stiff as a wooden board, blood all over her body. Remus also noticed the look of disturbance in Snape’s face as Avery levitated the girl in the air and placed her at Snape’s feet.

“We have to do something,” whispered Tonks.

“Yes, but lets wait a bit,” he replied.

“Wait for what? For them to KILL her?!” At that moment she took a potion bottle out of her bag.

“What is that?” asked Remus.

“Drought of Peace,” she responded, “It’s for good luck. I couldn’t find any Felix Felicis in my potions cupboard, I ran out, so this was the closets thing.”

She offered it to him, expecting him to take a sip as well.

“Why do we need it?” he asked her.

She gave him a oh-come-on! look, “What do think we need it for?”

“I told you, we should wait for something more to happen. Plus, Snape is there, he won’t let them do anything.”

“You’re forgetting what side Snape is on when he’s with them. He’ll do what he has to, to keep his cover.” She was starting to rise from their shelter.

He took a sip of the potion as fast as he could, and instantly he felt the effects. He was instantly calm and at peace with himself and the world.

“Stupefy!” he heard her shout out, and saw how Avery went down to the ground, stiff as the poor woman he had captured.

He joined in a few seconds later, stupefying Amycus as well.

“What the hell are you doing here, Snape?” Tonks asked the bat-looking wizard.

“You heard them,” he responded, bending down toward the woman, making sure she was still alive, “The Dark Lord wanted me present for this. I have no idea how….” He trailed off, as if aware that he was voicing too much information.

“CRUCIO” came the voice of a now awake Avery.

Remus saw with horror as Tonks, unaware of her attacker being conscious again, fell to the ground, body contorting as a result of all the pain inflicted by the curse.

“REDUCTO” screamed Remus at the top of his lungs, slamming Avery against a tree trunk.

He ran towards Tonks, checked her pulse, and was relieved that she was still alive; she was unconscious though, the curse too strong for her to take, even though she was a fully qualified Auror.

“Take her and get out of here, they won’t be out for too long,” Snape said, the other unconscious woman in arms.

“Yeah, ok,” he responded, “You take care of her.” He gestured to the woman.

Snape nodded and Disapparated a second later.

---

He carried her to another clearing a few meters away from where they had just been, he made sure to retrieve their stuff before he got both of them out of there. He noticed with sadness the potion bottle in her bag, having accepted that it had not helped them at all.

She awoke a few minutes after he had settled her on the ground on top of his shabby robe.

“What happened?” she asked, a hand to her head, a confused expression on her face.

“Avery, the Death Eater, Cruciod you,” he responded.

“Did they get away?!” she asked, suddenly remembering what had happened.

“They were both still unconscious when I left them,” Remus informed her.

“We have to get them! They can’t get away!” she started pacing, “I’m an Auror, for Merlin’s sake! I should have them on their way to Azkaban at this moment!”

“Tonks, leave it, we can’t risk going back there and getting you unconscious again,” he was seriously hoping that she would listen to him and let him take her back to headquarters so he cold further check that she was completely unharmed.

“No, Remus,” she told him, “We have to get them, we promised Dumbledore.”

“No, we promised him we would find out what they were up to, not to take them out and throw them in prison!”

“You don’t want them in Azkaban?” she asked, a stern look on her face, she was clearly annoyed by his decisions

“Yes, I do,” he told her, “But I don’t think you’re up to the fight you think you can put out there.”

“You can stay here if you want, Remus,” she snarled, “I don’t need you to protect me.”

She rushed pass him, and headed back the way they had come, with anger trailing out of her like her beautiful scent did.

He stood there for a moment, a bit mad at her for not listening to him, but mostly shocked at he words.

How could he not try and protect her? If she knew what she meant to him, if she knew how he hurt when her clumsy side took over and she injured herself by falling down the stairs or tripped on that stupid Troll’s umbrella? Did she even care for him as much as he did for her?

Pushing his thoughts out the way, he ran in her direction, their things left behind once more.

He got there too late.

She was in the ground, unconscious, once more. It infuriated him seeing the two men looming over her, deciding whether to finish her off there or wait until the Dark Lord had his way with her.

This anger made him feel stronger and fuelled his adrenaline.

He took out both men with the same Expelliarmus. He enjoyed the look on their frighten faces as they each Disapparated into the blackness of the night.

He gathered Tonks in his arms and headed back to where they just had been; he did not want to hear a lecture on the importance of retrieving your stuff from the woman in his arms.

He knew that they would have another argument when she woke up, but he didn’t want to think about it as he held her on his arms, walking along the darkness of the chilly forest, the sound of the environment soothing his nerves in a strange, unnatural way.

The End