A/N: Hey guys! This is the first chapter of my take on Remus and Tonks' story. I hope you like it, please read and review. Feedback is very welcome! :-)
Tonks stood outside a row of old, grimy Muggle houses. This obviously wasn't a very popular neighbourhood; many windows were smashed, litter covered the pavements and the majority of the houses appeared to be abandoned. In fact, the only sign of any inhabitants were the over-flowing bags of rubbish dumped at the bottom of several front steps. She was almost completely surrounded by darkness, the moon had disappeared behind the dark clouds that loomed over them only moments ago and the only light was coming from a poorly lit streetlight a little way down the street. Next to her stood a rather scary looking man, his face almost looked as if it was carved from wood by an extremely untalented person. He had numerous scars across his face and a large chunk on his nose was missing, presumably where he had been hit by a curse. However, if you walked past this man in the streets you most probably wouldn't notice his nose or even his scars. No, you would be too busy staring at his eyes to realise that anything else about his face was unusual. One of his eyes was small, brown and normal looking whereas the other was electric blue, fake and seemed to be moving independently from left eye. This man was called Alastor Moody or as most people called him, Mad Eye.
"This is the headquarters?" She asked, raising an eyebrow slightly. She wasn't sure why she was so surprised at the dingy street. After all, here they were unlikely to draw suspicion from Muggles, as there didn't seem to be anyone in sight.
"Quiet, girl! Not here! Anyone could be listening!" He scanned the street quickly, looking for anything unusual. He obviously hadn't found anything, as he turned back to her and trust a piece of crumpled parchment into her hands. She opened it up and looked down at the parchment. It said:
The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.
"Read it and memorise it, quickly." Mad-Eye grunted, before snatching the parchment back.
Tonks did as instructed, and as she looked back up at the row of houses she was surprised to see a battered door appear from nowhere in between houses 11 and 13. The house looked as if it was pushing the houses either side of it away as it expanded outwards and she let out a quiet gasp at the unusual sight.
"What -?" She began to ask, but Mad-Eye was already half way up the steps and Tonks decided the best thing to do was to follow him.
Once inside the house, she immediately scanned her surroundings, looking for any signs of danger. Merlin, years of Mad-Eyes shouts of 'constant vigilance' must have rubbed off on me, she thought. Although no signs of immediate danger, she was met with some strange sights. The front door opened into a long hallway, lit by numerous gas lamps which illuminated rows of shrunken House-Elf heads, mounted on plaques on the wall above the old, dusty stairs. She shuddered, but made no comment. On the wall to her left hung what looked to be a portrait, covered by a curtain. She made a mental note to never open the curtain; whatever it was, it was obviously hidden for a reason, and this house was creepy enough as it was.
"Tonks! We don't have time to stand here while you daydream all day! Hurry up!" barked Moody, who was already half way down the long, narrow hallway.
Tonks rolled her eyes, something that she knew wouldn't go unnoticed by Moody's magical eye, and began to follow him. Before she could register what had happened, Tonks hit the ground with a massive thud. Great, she thought. I'm meant to be showing them I'm capable of joining the Order! So much for good first impressions.
Suddenly, an ear-piercing screech filled the dark hall. Tonks tried to jump up, but ended up back on the floor as the room spun around her.
"FITHLY HALF-BLOOD, SHAPE-SHIFTING FREAK! HOW DARE YOU STEP INTO THE NOBLE HOUSE OF BLACK?" The woman screeched, looking directing at Tonks, causing her to flinch slightly.
Out of the corner of her eye she saw two men came rushing down the hallway. They started attempting to pull the curtains back together; something which was obviously quite a hard feat. After what felt like ten minutes of struggling, the paintings curtains finally shut and the screeches subsided.
One of the men turned towards her and offered his hand to her, wearing a soft smirk. "Hello, I'm Remus Lupin. Pleasure to meet you."
Tonks took his hand but swayed slightly as she got up. "Wotcher! I'm Tonks, klutz extraordinaire." She managed a grin, despite her throbbing head.
"Are you okay?" He asked, looking concerned. "Did you hit your head?"
"Yeah, but I'm fine! I'm used to it." She shrugged, laughing slightly to assure him that she was quite alright.
"Are you sure? We should probably get Molly to check you over…" He trailed off, still looking quite concerned.
A loud cough sounded from behind her, and Tonks spun around. "Moony, please could you refrain from flirting with my poor cousin? I can assure you, she's perfectly fine. I've seen her in worse states. Oh, and while you're at it, I'm sure you could let go of her hand. She can stand on her own, you know." The man smirked behind a curtain of long, curly black hair.
"S-Sirius?" She asked quietly, not quite believing it. Sirius was here? So many questions rased through her mind that she completely forgot about Remus standing next to her, and their hands which were still together.