A/N There are a lot of direct quotes from Order of the Phoenix in this chapter and subsequent Chapters. No copyright infringment is intended. I'll go through and indicate which lines are derived from the books. This chapter has quotes from pgs 45-57 of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix Hardback American Version. Said lines are indicated with an asterick.
I met that day with apprehension. I was preoccupied with extracting Harry from his relatives, the meeting (which was suppose to be fairly signifigant), and seeing Remus. I was mad at my self for developing a crush on him. The Order wasn’t a place to fish for men, or that’s what I kept telling myself. I arrive at Grimmauld Place a bit after work. I had my broom secured in a guitar case. I thought it was a clever disguise. When I entered the house, I got a rush of butterflies in my stomach. It was a place of fun and excitement in spite of its gloomy décor.
I passed Ginny who was sitting on the staircase looking rather sullen. “Wotcher, Ginny.” I said cheerily.
"Hi Tonks.” She said in a gloomy voice.
“You ok?” I asked sitting next to her on the stairs.
“Mum keeps blocking the Extendable Ears from the kitchen.” She started looking frustrated.
“Ah, yeah. She makes it Imperturbable.” I said remembering her frequent trips to the entry way to secure our meetings. I glanced at Ginny, she was evidently tired of being out of the loop. “You know… if you toss something at the doorway and it bounces off, you’ll know it’s Imperturbable.”
Ginny smiled at me. “Thanks, Tonks. I’ll give it a try tonight.”
I grinned back. “Well, don’t tell your mum I told you; although, I doubt she’ll forget tonight. It’s suppose to be an important meeting.”
“Good luck getting Harry tonight.” Ginny said heading up the stairs. I laughed and said thanks. I headed down to the kitchen excited for the night’s business. I kept running through all the scenarios of how Remus could act around me today. I hoped he’d be the same, sweet guy he usually was. I held my breath a bit as I walked in the door.
I walked into the kitchen where a small coterie there already. I managed to illicit quite a few quizzical looks upon my arrival. At first, I felt slightly mortified; I thought they all knew about the previous night. Then I remembered that my broomstick was in its guitar case, which was slung over my shoulder.
“Going to a peace rally?” Sirius asked sardonically eyeing my hair and guitar case. I rolled my eyes, set down my guitar case, and opened it so they couldn’t see its contents. Then I pulled out my broom. I smiled and said, “I got this guitar case at a Weird Sisters concert. They didn’t give me the guitar though.” I set my broom down and brought the case to a closet upstairs where I checked the color. It looked alright for violet. It wasn’t exactly my color. I piled my broom with the other ones in the kitchen. Molly was going to send them to Privet Drive after we arrived.
I looked around at the group there, a knot building in my stomach. From what I could tell, Sirius wasn’t acting any more immature than usual, so it seemed that Remus wasn’t a tell-all. Or a tell-anything for that matter. I was quite grateful. Moody was there. He was checking the clock every few minutes. I smiled at him and he grunted back. I guess that’s his was of saying hello. Sturgis was seated next to Moody talking in low whispers about duty.
I squeezed in-between Sirius and Moody. I didn’t want to be awkward. Sturgis got up to go right as the rest of the Guard walked in. Everyone sat in excited anticipation when Moody announced that we needed to go and head to our Apparation point. As we headed upstairs, Ron and Hermioned waved us off. Ginny was a few steps above them with friend and George even further up. As I was walking by the umbrella stand, I almost walked into it. Moody grabbed my arm and yanked me ahead. I waved merrily to the kids and flung my hand into Emmeline Vance’s shoulder.
I saw Remus smirking at me from behind. “Something amusing you, Remus?” I asked as we waited by the door for Moody to use the put-outter.
He shook his head. “No, nothing’s amusing me Nympha-”
“It’s Tonks.” I cut across him. Remus rolled his eyes slightly but was still smiling. I eased up a bit. “Well, with a smirk like that I thought perhaps you just got shagged or won the lottery. Seeing as Sirius didn’t look nearly as content as you do, I’m guessing it’s the lottery.” I said in a whisper. Remus didn’t respond but there was a twinkle in his eyes that denoted suppressed laughter. The rest of the Guard was chatting in an excited whisper masking Remus’ and my conversation. Moody was watching the sky for a signal that the coast was clear.
When it came we apparated 30 seconds apart. Moody went first and Remus went last. When I arrived with a slight crack, Moody was finishing up with the lights. I went up to the door and alohamora’d it open. I entered and walked towards what must have been the kitchen. Dedalus Diggle walked into me and I stumbled forward and knocked a decorative plate off the wall.
“Watch it!” Emmeline Vance hissed.
“I am watching it.” I whisper-shouted back. I waved my wand and repaired the plate. I looked at it and cringed. “It was better broken.” I laughed. The rest of the Guard walked in. Then we looked around. We hadn’t agreed on who should go get Harry.
“Remus, go up and get him.” Sturgis said.
Remus looked flustered by our oversight in the plan. “Ok, I’ll go.”
Moody put a hand up. “No need, Potter’s coming.” We all gathered near the bottom of the stairs looking towards the top expectantly. There was a slight buzz of conversation when Harry appeared looking disheveled but lively. He had his wand out and was pointing it in our general direction.
“Lower your wand boy, before you take someone’s eye out.” Moody growled.
Harry looked somewhat uncertain. “Professor Moody?” He asked in a quavering voice. *
“I don’t know so much about ‘professor,’” Moody said disdainfully. “Never got round to much to teaching, did I? Get down here, we want to see you properly.” Harry hesitated and only slightly lowered his wand. I couldn’t quite blame him. Sirius and Remus told me how Mad-Eye had been captured and forced to live in his trunk for a most of a year while a Death-Eater paraded around as him. *
“It’s all right, Harry. We’ve come to take you away.” Remus said consolingly in his raspy voice. *
“Professor Lupin?” Harry inquired, sounding excited. “Is that you?” I thought that ‘Professor’ was a fitting title for Remus. I had the image of Remus sitting behind a desk reading over someone’s essay; it sounded sexy. Then I came to my senses.
“Why are we all standing in the dark?” I said rhetorically. “Lumos.” The stairway lit up. Remus was beaming up at Harry. +
“Ooooh, he looks just like I thought he would.” I said sounding like a bit of a fan girl. “Wotcher, Harry!” I said eagerly. *
Kingsley commented how much Harry looked like his father, and Hestia agreed. “Except for his eyes.” She commented. Harry looked bemused and annoyed by this. I imaged that he heard it often.*
Then Moody brought us back to our task. He was looking dubiously up at Harry. “Are you quite sure it’s him, Lupin? It’d be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We out to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought some Veritaserum?” I rolled my eyes. Of course no one had Veritaserum. Who has that handy in their pocket. *
“Harry, what form does your Patronus take?” Remus asked.
Harry looked uneasy but answered. “A stag.” *
This seemed to be enough for Remus. “That’s him, Mad-Eye.” Harry seemed to sigh with relief and started down the stairs. He was definitely calmed down; he put his wand in his back pocket. *
“Don’t put your wand there, boy!” Moody shouted intensely. “What if it ignited? Better wizards than you have lost buttocks, you know!” *
I raised an eyebrow and asked, “Who d’you know who’s lost a buttock?” I eyed Mad-Eye’s backside. *
Moody glared. “Never you mind, just keep your wand out of your back pocket!” Moody grumbled something about elementary wand safety and went into the kitchen. I rolled my eyes. “I saw that.” He said testily. *
Remus and Harry were talking quietly when I heard Harry say, “You’re really lucky the Dursleys are out.” *
“Lucky ha!” I said snorting. “It was me that lured them out of the way.” I explained the All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition to Harry. He seemed amused by the idea of them being tricked like that. I was taking in the house; it was very clean and museum-ish. I noticed Harry giving Moody an uncomfortable look. Remus noticed it too. *
“This is Alastor Moody.” Remus said reassuringly. Harry nodded and muttered that he knew that. Then Remus seemed to think that some introductions were in order. “And this is Nymphadora—” *
“Don’t call me Nymphadora, Remus.” I said in a long-suffering voice “It’s Tonks.”*
Remus gave me a look but continued undeterred. “—Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only,” he finished suppressing a smirk. *
“So would you if your fool of a mother named you Nymphadora.” I shot back. The corners of Remus’ mouth twitched as he went through and introduced all of the Guard. Harry nodded to each as they were introduced. I continued looking around noting the differences in this house and my muggle-grandparent’s house.
“Very clean, aren’t they?” I called from the kitchen, inadvertently interrupting Remus, who was explaining the plan to Harry. My dad’s Muggle-born and he’s a right old slob. I suppose it varies, just like with wizards?” Harry gave me a look as if he thought my questions were out of place. *
“Er… yeah.” Then he turned to the group at large and said. “What’s going on, I haven’t heard anything from anyone, what’s Vol—” A slight shudder went around the group.
Moody told him to shut it and turned to face Harry. “We’re not discussing it here, too risky.” He said tersely. I noticed his magical eye was stuck looking up. Then Moody swore and popped his eye out with a nasty squelch. *
I raised my eyebrows slightly. “Mad-Eye, d’you know that is disgusting, don’t you?” His eye didn’t bother me, but seeing it taken out like that was a bit much. Upon Moody’s request, Harry got him a glass of water and he plopped his eye in it. After a few minutes of chit-chat Remus suggested that Harry go pack up his stuff.
“I’ll come help you.” I said following Harry up the stairs. I blustered on some about the house being a bit too clean until I caught sight of Harry’s room. “Oh this is better.” I said. Harry’s room was a bit beyond my comfort level of mess, but it balanced the rest of the house. I walked by his wardrobe, which was wide open, and caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. “You know, I don’t think purple’s really my color. Do you think it makes me look peaky?” I asked glancing at his reflection in the mirror. *
Harry looked up from the things he had in his hands and made a non-committal sound. I decided it did make me look something ill and twisted my face in concentration and changed my hair back to pink. *
Harry’s jaw dropped. “How’d you do that?” He asked stopping his packing efforts all together. I explained to him about being a Metamorphagus. Once I told him what it meant, he seemed rather impressed. Still being proud of being an Auror, I explained how much being a Metamorphagus helped in my training. Harry seemed even more impressed that I was an Auror than anything else. After a few minutes of not packing, I looked around and said mid-flow and said we’ve got to get packing. *
We both looked around guiltily. Harry grabbed some more books and tossed them into his trunk. “Don’t be stupid, it’ll be much quicker if I— pack!” His things flew pell-mell into the trunk. I attempted a go at cleaning his owl’s cage, but I only managed to get some of it gone. We made our way down stairs. I couldn’t help but admire Harry’s broomstick. I wanted a Firebolt but I couldn’t afford one.
As we descended the stairs, Remus looked up at us let out a quick “Excellent.” My heart twitterpated then I realized I was being a dope. The Excellent was for Harry, not me. Harry and Lupin had a brief exchange about Harry’s aunt and uncle. Remus left them a note explaining where Harry had gone to. I thought it was a thoughtful gesture. I agreed with Harry that they wouldn’t really care that he was gone and didn’t blame him for not wanting to come back.
Once we were all out on the grass Moody started explaining the flight formation to Harry. Molly had sent our brooms and Sturgis was handing them out. Moody made it sound like we were going to be attacked mid-flight. Alastor sounded somewhat excited.
“Stop being so cheerful, Mad-Eye he’ll think we’re not taking this seriously.” *I said fixing Harry’s trunk to my broom. After a few moments squabbling, we took off. I had a fairly easy job. I led and went the directions Moody told me. After a while (and several strange turns) Moody was starting to get ridiculous with his bearings. Thank goodness Remus was there to mediate. Right when Moody was to have us go an extra 20 miles out of the way, Remus called for us to descend.
After landing Moody fiddled with the Put-Outter and I struggled with Harry’s trunk until Remus came by to help me carry it in. We seemed to come right before the meeting. Molly was near the door waiting. She was ecstatic to see Harry. She conducted Harry and his trunk upstairs to where Hermione and Ron were. Before they got too far up the stairs I tripped over that blasted umbrella stand. I was talking to Remus and was looking at him, not the path. After some chaos Sirius came up and helped us subdue the paintings. I continued downstairs after that.
The room seemed really full even. I managed to find a seat by Bill. When Sirius passed by me he commented on how I change my hair more often that some people in the room, he looked pointedly at Snape, change their underwear. I laughed loudly then stopped. I must’ve seemed like a kid compared to everyone else. Snape sneered at me though I doubted he knew he had been the butt-end of the joke.
It was during this meeting that Snape divulged that Voldemort was seeking a prophecy from the Department of Mysteries. He thought it contained information that would be useful to his cause. There wasn’t more information on who/what the information was about, but that didn’t matter. We needed to stop the Death Eaters from getting it. They had layouts of the Department. Those were top-secret as far as I knew. A bit into the meeting, there was a low rumble from upstairs. Remus looked up and frowned. It sounded like Harry was having a go at Ron and Hermione. Snape continued through his report while Moody went through his explanation of the guard duty we’d be doing at the Ministry. It seemed that he had been doing an alternating vigil there with Podmore up until that night.
After the meeting Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George came into the kitchen followed closely by Molly. Dinner that night was fun and lively. Things calmed down into a lull until Sirius prodded Harry into asking about Voldemort. The chaos broke out. Molly and Sirius seemed to be the main vocalists in this fight. Arthur and Remus mediated. When the adults stopped arguing, Molly escorted Ginny to bed, and Harry started asking questions. Sirius let too much information out, but Remus seemed to cover it up. Molly announced that the kids had to go to bed soon after that. Sirius and Remus started in a whispered argument until he returned. I didn’t get why they were whispering. Everyone left in the room was right there. Bill excused himself to go, and Arthur went to bed.
I decided to follow suit and go. Remus got up and said he’d walk me out. I smiled appreciatively. When we were descending the steps to the street and saw the house disappear I asked, “How do you think it went tonight?” Sirius looked around and said he thought it went well. “I guess that luck helped then.” I said smiling at Remus, who did not return my smile. He looked grim.
“About that.” He started slowly. “I think it’s best if we’re just friends. Nothing more. I’m. I’m a werewolf.” He said lowering his head as if he couldn’t bear to look me in the eyes and tell me this.
I put my hand on his face and raised it up so I could see into his eyes. “I know that, and if bothered me I wouldn’t be here.” I paused for a moment then hugged Remus tightly around the waist. I looked up at him and said, “If I was trying to be more than your friend, you’d know it by now.”
Remus laughed, “You’re more like Sirius than you know.” I smiled waved and disapparated back home. My dreams that night were filled with Remus wearing a “just friends” shirt saying “excellent” about everything in the world but me, and Moody who was giving a seminar on his left buttocks while watching me from afar. The strangest part of my dream was when Moody force-fed me Veritaserum and asked if I liked Remus or him more. Not one of my more restful nights.
A/N: I’m soooo sorry this dragged on! I don’t like writing parts that include chunks from the books, but there was some good flirting there.
Printer Friendly Version
