"Read this piece of paper."
Tonks blinked and looked down into the gnarled hand of Alastor Moody in which was placed a piece of creamy parchment with the words 12 Grimauld Place scrawled in a hand that she hadn't seen since she had opened an owl delivered letter with excited trembling fingers at the tender age of eleven.
"Tonks, speed is the key!" Moody barked making her start and giggle nervously in a very un-Tonks-ish way, she re-read the paper and recited it once in her head and watched as the building appeared, squeezing itself out from between numbers eleven and thirteen.
Once the final few bricks had trundled into place a rough hand on Tonks' shoulder let her know that it was time to go forward, to be initiated into the Order of the Phoenix, to begin her life as a double agent.
This was one of the easiest and most difficult decisions she had ever had to make. Nymphadora Tonks, who her entire life had thought of nothing more than being an Auror and serving the ministry of magic with pride helping to police the magical world and stamp out dark wizards and witches. But when her moral objective of destroying dark magic clashed with her fierce loyalty to the Ministry amongst the rubble of her confusion was where she found her biggest internal conflict.
"Nympadora Tonks I believe?" Moody had said, it had been an honour to have been visited by the most revered Dark Wizard Catcher in an age and she still blushed at the memory of tripping backwards over her chair while trying to greet him. He had told her that for months this society had been watching her, studying reports that she had written and decided finally after much deliberation to approach her. The Order of the Phoenix, the elite secret society with only one objective – destroy Voldemort. They had gone for a walk and Moody had explained that although she was fairly new to the ranks he had spotted a unique talent in her which was born out of empathy, and, if she would permit, he wished to take her on as a protégé.
That night she had tossed and turned in her half sleeping state, between dreams of exile and thoughts of betrayal Tonks had finally let the suspicions she had had about the 'ultimate truth' that the ministry had been broadcasting come to a head and decided that the time for action was sooner rather than later.
Moody tapped the door once with his wand and the tell tale clicking of magical locks began from behind it, "Once we get in here deathly silence is required, understand?"
"Yes, sir." She squeaked as the door swung open revealing a dark and sinister looking hallway. Dark meant low visibility. Low visibility meant Tonks was more likely to trip over something and Tonks was sure that her tripping over something would not produce the deathly silence that Moody had requested of her.
After the doors had been locked behind them they started off down the corridor towards the sound of muffled voices which in spite of their low volume were clearly arguing. Tonks walked a few paced ahead of Alastor and therefore was too far ahead to act on the warning of "Tonks stairs!"
With a horrible lurch in her stomach she felt her heel just miss the top step and she fell ungracefully on her backside "OW FU-" a big hand clamped itself over her mouth cutting her off, but it was too late, whatever it was they had been trying to keep happening had as deafening screams filled the house and the door in front of her burst open and two men flew out towards the corridor they had just come through.
Still lying sprawled on the floor she turned her torso to see what was making such a dreadful noise, she saw the two figures which had sprinted past her struggling to pull thick velvet curtains over a life size portrait of, of all people, her great aunt.
The rough hand that had been over her mouth found it's way to her collar hoisting her off of the floor and steering her in the direction of the warm light of the of the open door. "Get in there."
Stumbling and blinking in the light like a blue haired calf she found herself standing in the middle of a kitchen with a low brick work ceiling, up the middle ran a long heavy wooden table, at one end of which there was a small huddle of people still arguing furtively in tones which were trying to remain hushed. A bedraggled looking man whom she vaguely recognised nudged the man next to him and they stopped and slowly moved apart. As the heavy folds of robe material moved out of the way she caught a glimpse of the man who had been sitting at the head of the table. Haunting grey eyes glinted out of deep set hollows over emaciated cheeks, the face that she had been taught to memorise from briefings and newspapers for years now.
"INCARCEROUS!" she almost threw her wand out of her hand in her desperation to scream the spell, thick black tendrils flew from the tip of her wand and bound the shocked looked Sirius Black who didn't even try to struggle.
"You got me little cousin." He smiled and looked over at, of all people, Kingsley Shacklebot who casually flicked his wand to unbind Sirius. "Sorry, second cousin, isn't it?"
Tonks' jaw dropped, "Kingsley! At the last briefing you told us that he was in Tibet! You told the Minister! You lied to the Minister!"
Everyone in the room laughed a little, it was then that Tonks noticed Dumbledore who was lurking over by the stove, "Nymphadora, would you like to take a seat and we'll explain all that you need to know, you have to be prepared to do a lot of trusting as we no longer have evidence for a lot of what we tell you." He smiled indulgently, "Our evidence has a habit of running off."
Tonks sat semi-numb as she took in the various stories of treachery, deceit and murder committed by Voldemort's followers and the Ministry alike. She looked at the faces around the room and smiled into herself at the mismatch of people – Kingsley Shaklebot sat serenely next to Sirius Black, Ahab to the whale, Mundungus Fletcher sitting in a room full of Aurors talking about his various misdeeds with great mirth and Dumbledore looking over the whole scene with an almost fatherly pride.
Eventually it was time for this odd family to begin making dinner and Tonks is told to set the table, "It's just six, yeah?"
Sirius, who had just shoved a small hunk of bread into his mouth held up seven fingers and promptly began to choke, she watched as Kingsley pointed his wand over his shoulder without even looking and remedied him.
The bustle in the kitchen was pleasant and reminded Tonks of the barracks in Auror training where she was one of few females in a predominantly masculine environment, for a Tom Boy she couldn't feel more secure.
She plodded around the table contently placing the fine china in front of the chairs, she turned her back go back for the cutlery when the door to the kitchen burst open and the atmosphere changed dramatically.