Fanfiction: Step Into The Night

He conjured one and handed it to her, trying to ignore how very young she looked, and how very old he felt.
"What did he say to you?
She shook her head, dried her face, and pretended she didn't know what he was on about.
"Greyback, Nymphadora, what did he say?"
She turned round to face him fully and drew a shaky breath.
"He said that—he told me what he would do to me if he sees us together again. That he would make you watch and…"
"That he would kill you," he finished for her, numbly.
"No," Tonks said, in harsh voice that reverberated off the tile walls and water, and she finally looked him in the eye. "That you would beg him to."
The girl was holding back, sparing him details that no doubt had been whispered, gruesome and explicit, in her ear. He swore, running a hand through his hair, and he could tell from the look on her face that she knew what he was thinking. The past few days had seemed like a bright spot of light in the bottom of a deep well, and now someone was backfilling it, blocking out the sun with heavy, smothering darkness. His hopes were fragile; Nymphadora didn't understand, or maybe she did; the optimism she had clung to so fiercely since he had asked her to marry him seemed to be buried along with his own.
"I told you this would happen, Dora, and I'm no better than him for bringing you into this—"
He didn't get any farther; she crossed the distance between them in two steps and slapped him hard across the face. He was too shocked to react, and she pulled him down by the collar of his coat until their eyes were level—hers burned with fury.
"You are better, when you admit you are."
The girl let go, turned around and walked away, leaving him to stare, shamed, at his own distorted reflection on the surface of the water.

Source: Step Into The Night, Chapter 31: Broken In