Disclaimer: Characters belong to J.K. Rowling.
It was late evening in lonely street in London, when old and grim-looking man with wheezing blue eye wobbled in the open. Following him was young pink-haired woman with wide smile on her face. Older man was looking at her and scowled. He didn't seem to find anything funny about the situation, that however had no effect on vibrant woman. He handed her a piece of parchment and when she had read it he burned it. After that out of nowhere appeared a house between numbers 11 and 13. When the house was fully visible, man rushed them in.
In the dark and damp hallway of 12 Grimmauld Place, man ushered young woman forward. When she cautiously made her way further to the creepy house, she watched horrible heads of the house-elves on the wall. She wasn't paying attention where she was going, and with loud crash she tripped over a huge, ugly troll-leg umbrella stand. Her clumsy fall was accompanied with loud, insulting shrieks from Mrs. Black's portrait, which curtains had shot open from the noisy crash.
"Nymphadora!" older man grunted to Nymphadora Tonks, who was trying to get up from the floor, her cheeks red from embarrassment.
"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to.." she didn't make it to the end of her sentence, when door to the basement kitchen shot open and a man with long and messy black hair emerged to the hallway.
"Oh shut up you miserable, old hag!" he yelled when he yanked the curtains closed and the shrieks subsided. He then turned to Tonks, who had gotten up from the floor.
"Sirius!" she exclaimed and threw her arms around her cousin's neck.
Sirius Black hugged her and patted her on the back before pulling away. He examined her closely.
"Wow, you've changed! How long has it been since I last saw you? Seventeen years?"
"Roughly", Tonks said and smiled at her cousin.
"Save your happy reunion later, meeting is starting", Mad-Eye Moody snarled as he brushed past them.
Sirius and Tonks followed Mad-Eye downstairs to the kitchen. Sirius took his seat on the end of the table and Tonks sat beside him. She looked around the table and found many familiar faces from Hogwarts and the Auror Department. She recognised her old professors Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape (to her utter displeasure) and Kingsley Shacklebolt and few other aurors. Sirius and Tonks were the last ones to arrive before Dumbledore stepped out from the fireplace and meeting began.
"Good evening everyone. As you can see, we have new member in the Order, Nymphadora Tonks", she cringed at her dreadful first name, but didn't say anything. Everybody turned their eyes to look at her, which se found quite uncomfortable.
Unsure what to say, she started, "Wotcher, I'm Tonks. I've been an auror for a few years now and I'm a metamorphmagus", she said, unable to find anything else she could tell them.
"Thank you, Nymphadora", Dumbledore didn't notice Tonks' frown to herself at the mention of her name. "As we all know, Remus has been in underground mission and I haven't heard of him for two weeks. It's difficult for him to send a report to me without being noticed, so patience, everyone", Tonks wondered who was this Remus and where was he, if reporting regularly was so difficult. She however let it drop, when Dumbledore looked to Snape over his half-moon spectacles and asked, "Your report, Severus?"
As Severus started his long and boring report without any emotion in his voice, Tonks started to pay attention anywhere but to her annoying ex-professor and his dull voice. She spotted Molly Weasley next to stove, boiling tea as she listened (or just pretended to listen) Snape's report. Tonks noticed she wasn't the only one who wasn't giving full attention to Snape, Sirius didn't even try to cover his yawns and his sudden interest in the ugly ceiling above.
When Snape's drawling voice stopped, Tonks let out a long sigh of relief.
"And before our meeting ends, I'd like to remind all of you about your guard duties. Because of recent events, I'd like to have some of you patrolling in Hogsmeade occasionally. Nymphadora, if it's suitable for your schedule, I'd want you to patrol in Hogsmeade from Friday to Monday", Dumbledore said and smiled at her.
"Suits me!" Tonks quipped enthusiastically, she felt very happy and useful when she could help the Order someway.
Shortly after that, Dumbledore finished the meeting and disappeared in green flames. The Order members started leave from their seats to the fireplace and front door. Tonks however remained still, thinking about catching up with her cousin. Sirius was talking with some members who weren't already left, so she got up and decided to talk with Molly for awhile.
"Tonks dear! It's good to see you! How are you? Would you like some tea?" Molly was hugging her and pouring tea for her before she even got to utter an answer.
Molly gave her a hot cup of tea, which she took gratefully.
"Uh, thanks. I'm fine, thank you. How about you lot? How is Charlie?" Tonks asked about her old schoolmate. She hadn't heard of Charlie for two years, so she was very interested about how he was.
"Oh, Charlie is in Romania, he's studying dragons! We haven't seen him much lately, but he writes us once in a week", Molly fussed and started to clean the table from cups.
When Molly was busying herself with the table, Tonks made her way towards Sirius, who was now talking with Kingsley.
"Hi Tonks! Join us, we were just having a lovely conversation with Kingsley here. Someone has spotted me in Germany, which really is something because I've never been there", Sirius said cheerily and let out a laugh.
"Well, I'll be on my way out. Bye Sirius, see you in work Tonks", Kingsley said and left.
Sirius seized a bottle of firewhiskey and two goblets from cupboard before gesturing Tonks to follow him upstairs. He led them to the sitting-room and dropped himself on an old, dusty couch before pouring himself and Tonks firewhiskey. Tonks settled herself on an equally worn and dusty armchair opposite Sirius, two goblets between them on a coffee table. Sirius grabbed his own goblet and took a long swig, when Tonks just sipped her own.
When he had swallowed, he watched her intently and smiled, "So, Nymphadora. We have lots of catch up to do. How are your parents?"
Tonks scowled at him for using her first name, "You know I don't like being called by my first name."
"Yeah, I know", Sirius grinned.
Tonks rolled her eyes, "Anyway, mum and dad are fine. I haven't seen them much lately, I've been busy at work. They're fretting over me being an auror. Mum was very distraught when she found about… you know. We haven't talked about it, but I think she misses you, and never truly believed that you were the one who betrayed them."
Sirius looked thoughtful for a moment, "It would be nice to see Andy, she was my favourite cousin. Can you bring her over?"
"I think I can, I have to ask Dumbledore about it."
Sirius' eyes seemed to brighten up noticeably about this.
"Great! It's very lonely in this hellhole, even more so now when Remus is on his mission."
Tonks tried to recall someone named Remus. He was mentioned during the meeting and Sirius may have mentioned him when he was visiting her when she was a kid, before his trip to Azkaban. Otherwise, Tonks didn't know the man.
"Who is he?" Tonks asked, unable to hold her endless curiosity.
"Oh, he's one of the Marauders, one of my best friends. He's been living here every now and then and kept me some company to prevent me from going insane in here", he told her and grinned, but when he mentioned himself going insane in this miserable house, his eyes darkened slightly. If she hadn't looked close enough, she would have missed it.
"Uh, okay. But where is he now?" she inquired.
Sirius poured himself more firewhiskey and swigged, "Remus doesn't talk much about his missions, but I think he would like to tell you about them himself", he looked at Tonks and smiled sadly.
"Well, I think I'm going now, I have work tomorrow", she said and got up leaving her goblet on the coffee table, followed by Sirius.
"Come back soon", he demanded.
"I promise", she said and laughed at his overly excited expression.
When they reached the narrow hallway, Tonks turned to hug her cousin and said bye to him.
As soon as she got out, number 12 vanished again and she turned to apparate.
Next few weeks passed in blur of guard duties in the Department of Mysteries and Hogsmeade. Tonks was once again in her cubicle in the Auror Department, finishing reports and re-writing some old ones. Her work as an auror wasn't overly exciting and she was bored to death in her dull cubicle.
When she had finished writing all the reports, she prepared herself for her guard duty. Like she had done a lot of times before, she apparated to Hogsmeade.
Tonks watched at the silent village, before she started wandering around empty streets. The waning moon radiated moonlight to the otherwise dark alleys.
She continued her lonely wandering around the sleeping village and hummed some of her favourite songs silently in her head to help her boredom. When she came near the forest, she snapped out of her reverie when she heard someone moving close to her.
"Lumos", she whispered and tried to see who it was. She pointed to the dark forest with her wand, trying to see any movement between thick trees.
Then she heard someone running. Fast. She tried frantically to find the source of the voice, panic raising in her.
And then she screamed when someone leaped at her and everything went black.
So, that was the first chapter! :) I may or may not rewrite it, I'm not sure. It turned out to be quite short, but I'm trying to make chapters longer in the future! ^^ Hope you liked it.