A slight sigh left Tonks's mouth as she was once again in her office, doing paperwork for her boss Rufus Scrimgeour. She was not alone. On the other side of the room was a tall, broad shouldered dark wizard sitting at his own desk. He was bald and wore a golden hoop earring. The room they were in was extremely dark. The floor had was a dark wooden one and the walls were painted brown. There were no windows, just a few lamps which were lit. On her left hand was the door to freedom and on the right, the door to her boss's office.
Three years ago, she started her Auror training. Concealment and Disguise were extremely easy for her to pass. She didn't need any training for it, since she is a metamorphmagus. The tricky part of the training was Stealth and Tracking. Tonks is extremely clumsy. She almost failed that course. Luckely she had her mentor Alastor Moody, for whom she had a lot of respect. He trained her and made sure she was to pass.
A few weeks ago she heard from Moody that Voldemort had returned. When she heard that, she thought that herself and the other Aurors would go out and fight him. But instead, she was inside, reading through a big pile of paper. She told Moody about her problem with the fact that the Ministry was telling everybody that it was all lies. The minister made sure that none of it would be in the Daily Prophet, because he didn't want to cause panic.
Moody got so tired of her ranting on about it, that he told her there was a secret society which was actually fighting Voldemort. Tonks begged him if she could join in. After at least three days of whining, he gave in and said he would talk with the members of this society. She was not to tell anyone about this matter.
When she had finally finished working, Moody was waiting for her at the other side of the door to freedom. He had a wooden leg. You could see from the scars on his face and his glass eye that he had been through a lot already. His spinning glass eye could see everything and it made Tonks nauseous most of the time. He also was holding a big walking stick, to lean on.
"I talked to them," he said with his usually grumpy voice, "they were fine with it. Dumbledore-"
"Dumbledore?!" Tonks shouted.
Moody muttered, "are you out of your right mind? We are in the Ministry of Magic. To shout his name is uncalled for. You know how much they hate him here."
"I'm sorry," Tonks said, throwing in her usual big doll eyes.
Moody growled, "he was happy to hear someone in the Ministry wanted to join in. You could spy for us. Tell us what they are doing here."
Tonks squealed, "Thank you."
She hugged Moody. He growled once again, "yeah sure kid. Whatever."
She had so much questions. Who was she going to meet? What would these people be like? Are they kind? Does Dumbledore still look the same as he did six years ago?
They walked out of the Ministry, into London. It was still a little bit warm out now, since it was summer. The sun was starting to set. Tonks could hardly keep her emotions cropped up inside. She squealed once again.
"Will you stop making those noises? It's extremely annoying, Nymphadora."
How much she hated to be called by that name. Her fool of her mother had called her that. Any name would have been better. She'd rather just be known by her surname only, which was Tonks.
She was about to make a remark at Moody when he suddenly came to a halt and she bumped into him, making her flinch and stumble.
"What-"
She was cut off by a loud hiss from Moody. They had stopped at a row of tall but small apartments. Suddenly he started banging his stick on the floor, one, two, three times. Tonks heard a loud crack and suddenly the apartments on the left started moving and made place for another one.
"It is well protected," was the only thing Moody said.
They walked up the garden path up to the front door. Moody swung the door open and a big cloud of dust floated off into the sky.
On the floor of the small corridor was still a lot of dust lying. There hadn't been anyone in this house for a long time. At least, that was what it looked like. On the right of the corridor was a staircase and on the floor lay a long carpet.
"Wait here," Moody said.
He walked to the end of the corridor, while making a lot of noise with his wooden leg on the wooden floor. Tonks noticed a painting on the end of the corridor, which was covered with a blanket. She sat down on the lowest stair, put her elbows on her knees and her head in her hands. Whispers came from the room on the end of the hallway. She heard Moody mentioning her by her first name once again. Tonks could not hear the rest of the conversation. All she could hear were soft whispers and all she could see was Moody's back.
The front door opened and someone came in she did not quite expect to see.
"Kingsley?"
It was the Auror who sat on the other side of her office, Kingsley Shacklebolt.
"Tonks?" He looked down at her, raising an eyebrow. His voice was deep and reassuring.
"Wotcher," she said, smiling.
"What are you doing here?"
"I'm here with Moody," she said, pointing at his back, "told me I could be part of this society."
"You were the pupil he was talking about?" Tonks nodded. "And why are you sitting on these stairs?"
"Moody told me to stay here."
"He did, hmmph."
Kingsley walked up to Moody, tapped him on the back and said, "you think that's funny? Leaving her in the corridor? What do you want to do, starve her?"
Moody groaned, "come here, Nymphadora"
"Don't call me Nymphadora," Tonks said, while jumped up from the stairs.
Suddenly the door at the end seemed so far away. Moody and Kingsley moved away from the door into the room. Finally she could see into the room. A table was standing in the middle and one person sat at the table. Nerves hit her and she shivered. She wanted to belong to this society, blend in with these people. She would not ruin this moment. She walked up to the door and when she almost reached it, she felt her foot got a hold on something. A small umbrella stand at the end of the hallway. Before she could even understand what was happening, she heard a loud bang.
Everything became blurry afterwards. A loud scream was sent through the house. Tonks felt warm hands gripping her and turning her over. A warm sensation crept over her face, from her forehead to her temple. Kinglsey said something. A chair cracked. Footsteps. She heard running water. Footsteps again. A cold hand cupped around the back of her head and then a wet cloth covered her forehead.
"Tonks, stay with us," she heard Kingsley say.
All she could do was moan and reach for her head, which had started to feel like it had split in two. She felt a cold hand holding the cloth.
"Stay still," a man's voice told her, which she had never heard before. It was soft and calm. Tonks let her arm fall down.
Her vision became less blurry. Kingsley and another man were taking care of her. The man holding the cloth on her forehead was a tall and thin man. He looked like he barely had any sleep. His face was pale and showed some premature lines. Across his face were some thick scars. His hair was light brown and flecked with gray.
"And that, Tonks, is why you almost failed Stealth and Tracking," she heard Moody say.
The man, which had been holding the cloth, was now holding his wand in his hand. "This might hurt a little," he said. The man muttered a healing spell. She whinced. Tonks now understood that the warm sensation she had felt, was actually blood flowing down her face. She noticed she was lying on the ground. When she looked up, she could see the chair which she had bumped into with her head.
"Now that is a wonderful entrance," a voice said, which Tonks knew.
"Sirius?" she whispered.
The two men, Kingsley and the cloth holder, lifted her and put her on a chair. She finally could see everything clear again. The man which had held the cloth, sat across her on the other side of the table. She knew him as well.
"Aren't you Remus Lupin? You're a werewolf, right? I read about you in the Daily Prophet."
She just said something she shouldn't have said. The man looked at her, emotionless. It scared her, but nevertheless she put our her hand to shake his, "nice to meet you," she said.
All he did was raise an eyebrow. She could actually see his green eyes now. Tonks put her arms across her chest. She could not believe how rude this man was being.
"Dora. You're still as kind and clumsy as I remember."
When Tonks turned her head to the right, she noticed Sirius Black, standing in the corner of the kitchen. She had known him for a very long time.
"Sirius," she stood up to give him the biggest hug ever, but the aftermatch of her fall was burning in her head. She felt dizzy and struggled to keep standing. Instead, Sirius came to her and got hold of her.
"You've grown," she heard him say.
"You haven't."
Sirius chuckled, "how long has it been, Dora? It must've been at least twelve years."
"If you hadn't escaped Azkaban, I wouldn't even know who you were," Tonks said.
Sirius Black was the first person ever to escape the higly guarded prison of Azkaban. It must have been a nightmare to him. He sat there, because the Ministry of Magic thought he had betrayed his best friends, James and Lilly Potter. This was not true. Instead of Sirius, it had been Peter Pettigrew who betrayed them. Everybody knew about it in the Ministry, but they wouldn't let the Daily Prophet write about it.
Sirius's expression had changed when he heard the name Azkaban.
"I'm sorry," Tonks said.
Suddenly, Sirius was all smiles again, "welcome to the Order of the Phoenix." He raised his arms in the air, like as if he was presenting the most wonderful invention that could ever exist.
"Order of the Phoenix?"
"Yes, that's us. We're still looking for new members. Tonight we're having a meeting, so you'll meet all the others then," he lowered his arms and put his hands on her shoulders, "this was my parental home. Now we're using it as the main base for the Order."
"That's amazing."
"Well not that much. I can't go out, because the Ministry is still looking for me. Anyway when I heard you were wanting to join us, I said 'yes' right away, of course. Some of us said 'no' like-"
"Me," Remus said.
Tonks turned her head to Remus, "why?"
"Because you're too young. You shouldn't be fighting in these dangerous circumstances," he said, folding his hands together, "You'd better be off letting us take care of it."
"Do you think I can't handle this?" Tonks got annoyed by this man's behaviour, "well I can. I'm strong and I want to fight."
"That is your decision," Remus said, while still holding on to his emotionless expression.
Tonks wanted to punch this man in his face. What was wrong with him? She didn't train to become an Auror for nothing. She wanted to help the world. She wanted Voldemort to die.