Hey there. As ever, anything I write that JKR has already written remains hers - I don't make any presumption towards claiming it as my own.
This is my first proper Lupin Meets Tonks story. I'm going to do my utmost to complete it, but I need all the encouragement I can get so please Read & Review if you have time. Even if you don't have time - push back what ever would stop you from reviewing and tell me what you think!
I also could do with a lovely beta tester. I know, I'm always asking for them, but you just can't get the staff these days... Please volunteer - the first two chapters of this are utterly un-beta-ed, and will most likely be unreadable because of it.
Enjoy!
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Chapter One – Nymphadora Tonks
Merlin's Cauldron was squeezed underneath a block of flats in Norwich, Norfolk. Its entrance appeared boarded over and as derelict as the crumbling remains of the rest of the building, and was located at the bottom of steep flight of concrete steps. The inlay of the door was scrawled with graffiti, and the yellowing light over the double door was weak and flickering, but illuminated the sign across the entrance: 'DANGER: KEEP OUT'.
It was not the kind of place that respectable – or even unrespectable – people wanted to find themselves, and for that reason it was particularly strange that there was a rather large amount of activity in the area. People for ever seemed to be coming and going from this place, walking briskly along the mottled pavement and disappearing down the steps towards the cellar underneath, and staggering dazedly back up them again hours later at two or three in the morning, stepping into nearby telephone boxes and vanishing.
There was also a rumour circulating around the area that the barely inhabited blocks of flats around the abandoned one were cursed. Bizarre and abnormal happening had a tendency to occur in the neighbourhood, and it seemed that the residents were either highly eccentric individuals, or at the very least, exceptionally odd.
One particularly clear night just after the full moon, residents would be forgiven for thinking that for once, someone vaguely normal-looking appeared to have arrived, walking a large, black dog. There was no lead, but that was the only thing that seemed unusual about him. If it had not been for that, he would have been unremarkable. Which, in this place perhaps, made him rather more remarkable than the average passer-by.
His pace was intent but unhurried. He seemed to know exactly where he was going, though there was little chance he'd ever been seen the area before. His dog trotted happily at his side, bounding ahead occasionally and turning to watch its master catch up. It sat on the corner of the pavement above where the concrete steps to the basement of the boarded-up block of flats was, and waited for his owner to approach. His owner ruffled the fur on the dog's head roughly, before proceeding down the steps. The dog pawed at his ears, almost as though irritated, then followed his owner.
The man's name was Remus Lupin. He reached the bottom of the steps and glanced around, examining the graffiti on the walls. Eventually he seemed to find what he was looking for, and pulling a short, blunt stick from his inside pocket, tapped the wall in three places.
"There you go, Padfoot," he said, as the wooden blockade on the door slid back into the wall, and the shattered glass melted until it looked new again. "You were right." He glanced down in time to see the dog lower its head in an unmistaken bow.
" 'Merlin's Cauldron,' " he read out loud from a sign about the newly restored door. "I have every doubt that Merlin would ever have been seen in a place like this, Sirius."
The dog growled softly.
"All right, all right, I'm going."
Lupin pushed open the door, and was assaulted by a cacophony of barely synchronized sound. His expression changed to one somewhere between apprehension and amusement. The dog, on the other hand, simply scampered through the door past Lupin, nudging his leg as he went, and disappeared from view behind a crowd of people.
Merlin's Cauldron was famed for entertaining some of the wizarding world's loudest, most raucous and most fashionable young witches and wizards, but Lupin had doubted that it would be this bad.
Once you stepped through the doors, there was nothing you could do to escape the noise coming from the stage, where five grim-looking individual's were playing an array of instruments at least slightly off-key, and peering bleary-eyed through thick, black fringes of hair in varying degrees of grubbiness. The air was thick with the multicoloured smoke of several dozen pipes, and the floor felt decidedly sticky to the peeling soles of Lupin's shoes.
Lupin steered his way through the jostling, bumping crowd, aiming for the bar, and praying that Sirius was staying well and truly out of trouble. He didn't think that Sirius staying out of trouble was at all likely, but hoped at least that he wasn't causing too much damage. Although, it might have been difficult to discern what damage Sirius caused from the years worth of abuse the bar appeared to have suffered already.
Sirius was in his element. As a dog, he evidently found it even more hilarious than he normally did to come to these places and behave the huge loveable dog. Lupin smiled to himself. Sirius had always relished being in his Animagus form – more so perhaps than any of the others. Perhaps that was because of the amount of times he'd used it while shut up in Azkaban to temporarily escape the torment of the place, but he seemed almost dog-like in his human form sometimes. Lupin knew, though, that Sirius's days as Snuffles, being allowed to run and stalk around the neighbourhood near Grimauld Place were most likely about to meet a sudden hold. The longer Wormtail was with the Dark Lord after he had provided his master with a new body, the more likely it was that the rat would tell Voldemort all about Sirius's disguise: it was soon to be useless.
Lupin sat down at the bar and acquired – through a strange mix of raising his voice and wild hand gestures – a butterbeer from under the counter. The barman was a large individual with a leather waistcoat that did nothing to hide his massive stomach, and Lupin felt that he really would not like to meet this gentleman on a dark night, whether he was armed with his wand or not.
He had barely taken two sips from the rather mucky-looking bottle when Sirius sprung out of the crowd towards him, with a small, pink-haired girl in tow. She couldn't have been more than twenty, with a smooth, clear, heart-shaped face, large brown eyes and vividly blue, spiked hair. She also wore what looked a lot like a dragon skin corset.
Lupin slipped off his stool and held out his hand. "Nymphadora Tonks?"
"Wotcha." She shook his hand. "And it's just Tonks. Who're you?"
He realised how strange it would be to be led across a bar by an exceptionally well-trained dog and thrust into the company of a ragged-looking stranger who was entirely out of place in the setting. She was supposedly an Auror – of course alarm bells would be ringing by now.
"I'm a friend of Mad-Eye Moody and Kingsley Shacklebolts'." Her eyebrows – which had been lowered into a soft frown – lifted slightly.
"Oh, really?"
He nodded. "They said you'd been expressing some rather verbal doubts about the running of the Ministry of Magic."
Her brow knit again, this time in a rather more anxious expression. He knew that she was imagining him to be working on the side of the ministry, trying to catch out disloyal staff.
"Do you work for Fudge?" she asked, referring to the Minister for Magic. He was mildly surprised at how blunt she was being.
He laughed. "No. My name is Lupin – I work for Albus Dumbledore."
"You're the werewolf," she said suddenly, her air lightening immediately. "You must be dead tired – wasn't the full moon last night? Hang on, though, didn't you resign from Professor Dumbledore's service?"
"Yes. But I still work for him – though in a somewhat different capacity," Lupin replied. He didn't miss that fact that she'd expressed knowledge of his health suffering.
"I get it. So what do you want with me, Mr. Lupin?"
"Remus is fine," he corrected, smiling. "Could we step outside? It's a bit loud in here for my liking."
He led the way up the steep concrete steps and onto the pavement, under the watchful gaze of two or three yellow streetlamps that drained all the colour from their faces. Sirius followed, Tonks in tow. Lupin conducted them left, along the side of the building and into a darkened alcove. Drawing his wand he cast a few distraction and determent charms, and turned to Tonks.
"I represent a secret organisation called the Order of the Phoenix, founded my Professor Dumbledore before Lord Voldemort's first rise to power," he began, keeping a careful watch on Tonk's expression. "I can't give you thorough details of its operations at this particular moment in time, but I can tell you that it has a significant number of members, and that it plays a very active role in attempting to derail Lord Voldemort's plans and impede the actions of his supporters."
"I still don't understand what this has to do with me," Tonks said defensively, after a short pause.
"It's been brought to our attention – you can place the blame for this with Kingsley and Arthur Weasley – that your loyalty the Ministry is… strained, at best. The Order is of the opinion that the Ministry is acting very wrongly in its handling of the situation, and we felt perhaps that it might be able to provide you with a method of helping the cause."
"What makes you think," Tonks said slowly, "that I feel I'm not helping the cause enough with my work as an Auror?" She looked vaguely insulted. "And what is this 'situation' supposed to be, anyway?"
Lupin smiled a small, rather grim smile. "Ms. Tonks. You know very well that I'm referring to the return of Lord Voldemort to health and activity. And we feel you most likely do not feel fulfilled in your work because you have spoken to Kingsley on numerous occasions, expressing as much. According to him, you feel that 'the Ministry is playing a dangerous game with ordinary wizard's lives,' and that 'they'd do better to put more effort into trying to catch the bastard than cover-up the fact that he's back'."
Tonks' mouth fell open. Apparently having her own words repeated back to her was enough to convince her.
"I'm still not certain why you think I'd be of any use to you?" she said, after a moment. "There are plenty of other people in the Ministry who feel the same way."
"Yes, but they haven't voiced their complaints in front of Order members," he said coolly. "You're young," Lupin continued, by passing her look of mild annoyance, "agile, energetic. From what I've heard you're sharp-witted and bright, and a talented Auror. Plus it's undeniable that your status within the Ministry has some decided advantages. I'm also aware," he continued, "that having only been a fully-qualified Auror for a year, your workload is likely to consist of a large amount of administration. The Order would give you a good opportunity to use your considerable talents in a much more active manner."
Lupin watched her as she thought about it. He was well aware that this meeting could go one of two ways. Either she would find herself so fascinated and intrigued that she would agree to come with him to meet with some of the other members, or she would state plainly that her loyalty lay with the Ministry, and then attempt to arrest him. He hoped it would not be the latter – he found performing memory charms incredibly unpleasant. However he felt almost certain that she would accompany him: he could sense her interest bubbling just behind her large, dark eyes.
"What kind of 'active'?" she asked shrewdly.
"I can explain more at our headquarters," he said, smiling again. "They are guarded by the Fidelius Charm. You will have to come with me now – you will not be able to find them on your own."
"Now?" she said. More a moment he thought perhaps that he had over-stepped the mark and that she had become suspicious. But then she went on, "but the band's still playing. I paid fifteen galleons more the tickets, Lupin, I'm not leaving yet," she grinned. "You can join me, if you want."
He blinked. "It's not really my sort of gathering, Ms. Tonks. I'm a bit—"
"You're not that old," she said candidly. "What are you? Thirty-two, thirty-three?"
"Thirty-five," he said, shocked at her guessing an age younger than his actually was. Ordinarily he was perceived as vastly older. "But still. It's only a day since the full moon. I'm in no fit state."
"You look fine to me," she argued. She looked at him for a moment. Just as he was about to restate that he most certainly should not, she opened her mouth again. "I'm not taking no for an answer, Lupin."
He swallowed. In truth, he couldn't think of anything he wanted to do less than return to the noise and the bustle downstairs. But if that was what it was going to take to secure her trust, he really had no choice but to follow Tonks.
"It's Remus," he said again, and she beamed.
"Good," she said. "What about the dog?"
"He can come too. I don't expect he'd let me tie him up outside and have him miss all the fun."
Sirius let out a sharp whine, and tipped his head to the side.
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It was nearly two o'clock in the morning by the time Tonks allowed them to leave. Lupin was tired, his muscles and bones seemed to ache beyond all belief, and Sirius had gone positively insane with the unscheduled freedom. Lupin tried carefully to conceal his many aches and pains, and the feeling of unhappiness that was eating away at the edges of his mind, but as they walked quietly away from the still thumping sounds of the underground concert, Lupin found his skull felt as though it had tightened uncomfortably around his brain, and before long he was nursing a rather nasty headache. He of course did not make Tonks aware of this.
"So where're we going," she asked.
"I can't tell you that," he said briefly, his heart pumping abnormally hard from the loudness and smokiness of the bar.
Tonks glanced at him sideways.
"Is there anything you can tell me?" she asked. "I mean, I'm sorry, but in my job I have to be dead suspicious of everyone – as Mad-Eye's probably told you, if you really do know him – and you're not making it easy for me to trust you."
He nodded. "Yes, I understand that. Unfortunately there's little I can do about it. As a group, the Order is at very real risk if we allow ourselves to be discovered by Ministry officials or Deatheaters alike." He glanced down to where Sirius was walking very close on his heel. "There is one thing I suppose I could tell you. There is a high probability you won't believe it anyway, so its detriment to us is minimal."
She shrugged. "What is it?"
"This dog is really Sirius Black."
Tonks froze. She glanced down to the dog, who was staring at her avidly. Her eyes narrowed.
"Prove it," she said, smirking slightly. Clearly she thought he was joking, or bluffing.
"Certainly. Sirius," he said, turning to the dog. "If you really are Sirius Black, raise your left paw."
The dog did so. Tonks scoffed.
"Come off it – you think I'm going to believe this mutt is Sirius Black, escaped convict, murderer, betrayer of Lily and James Potter, Godfather to Harry Potter, Boy-Who-Lived? Sorry, mate," she laughed, "not bloody likely. You'll have to do better than that. All you have here is well-trained dog."
Lupin raised an eyebrow.
"Sirius, if you really are Sirius, raise your left paw. Then stand on your hind legs, perform three circles chasing your tail and bark seven times."
Again, the dog performed each action flawlessly, and then sat, watching Tonks with an expression of supreme smugness. She still shook her head.
"An exceptionally well-trained dog. I need more," she laughed.
"You'll have to wait, then," Lupin said, smiling at her refusal to accept the dog's true identity. "We have to Apparate. As you do not know where are going, we'll need to Side-Along. Is that alright?"
"It'll have to be, won't it?" she said, holding out her arm but drawing her wand at the same time. Lupin took hold of the top of her arm, firmly but gently, with one hand, and took a tight hold on the scruff of Sirius's neck with the other, and raised his wand.
With a soft pop, they landed three streets away from the Order's headquarters. Tonks looked around as Sirius bounded off up the street and through a passage way that cut between two rather austere-looking houses.
"Where are we?"
Replacing his wand in the pocket of his overcoat, Lupin set off after Sirius.
"It's not far. You'll need to read this." He pushed the piece of parchment that read: 'The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix is located at Number Twelve Grimauld Place' into her hand. "Memorize it, please."
They reached Grimauld Place swiftly, and Lupin looked down at Tonks, whose eyes were still repeatedly travelling over the paper.
"Done?" he asked. She nodded.
He took the parchment back and set fire to it in his hand, before vanishing the ashes.
She glanced up, to see that Grimauld Place had been expectedly plunged into utter blackness as Lupin used Dumbledore's Put-Outer to douse the streetlamps. She also did a double take when she evidently noticed that a house that had not been there a moment ago had appeared between numbers eleven and thirteen. Lupin wasted not time in silently crossing the square and jogging up the stone steps to slip through the front door.
"If you could keep your voice down, Ms. Tonks. It's rather late."
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R & R PLEASE!