I own nothing. All Rowling's.
It's a story about Remus' and Tonks' first meeting. It's not romantic. I didn't think, given their age gap, that the magic would happen in their first meeting itself. I might add a second chapter but it can also be read as an independent story.
Please R&R!
"Eat cake! Oh wait, don't– YOU'RE FAT ENOUGH ALREADY!"
"Oooo…lot of spunk….scream on, you freak, it's not every day that we capture a pink haired auror!
"OI! Who're you calling a freak ?! Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?! Tattered clothes, black teeth and LORD, THAT STENCH! You'll stink up the whole city with that horrid smell of yours! I'm warning you, if you don't release me now, I'm going to be so cruel to you that Voldemort will begin to look like a benign puppy – RELEASE ME NOW!"
There was a loud resounding crack in the room and the stinky fellow saw with alarm that Tonks broke the arms of the chair she was bound to and was now shaking her hands free of the rope. He lifted his wand and yelled, "Petrificus totalus!" but was shocked to find himself petrified.
Tonks was watching him with a wicked gleam in her eye, with his wand now in her hand.
"Not so brave now, are we? You thought a trained auror would run around without some basic anti-hex defence?! Where's my wand and more importantly, who are you and what do you want with me? You better answer me quickly because I don't need a wand to cause you a world of pain! Now start – ''
"That's enough Tonks, you're alright, you're safe, leave the man alone."
"Moody! How did you know I was here? ", asked Tonks, watching him suspiciously, as Moody released the petrified fellow from the binding spell. When Moody turned back he was a little surprised to find a wary Tonks, pointing the wand at him.
"Good Tonks...I trained you, so I should've known you wouldn't trust a man, simply because he saved you or because he is your mentor."
"You didn't save me; I did a pretty good job of that myself. And as for being my mentor, you could be anybody who drank some polyjuice potion. My mentor wouldn't walk in and free my captor while I'm interrogating him, so, if you want me to believe you, answer my question – How did you know I was here? And hell! Where is 'here'?!"
Moody took a calming breath, he through his wand at Tonks' feet, surprising her, and then, raising up his arms in a gesture of surrender said, "I'm unarmed now, the idiot's wand is in your hand, so calm down and listen to me. We are in 12, Grimmauld place, the Black residence. I belong to the Order of phoenix, a secret society that aims to check Voldemort's rise to power. I was the one who stunned you, so that other members of the order can get a chance to speak to you, and find out whether or not you'd like to join the order."
While was Moody was talking, Tonks was throwing all manners of disguise breaking spells at him and failure of everyone of them to reveal the true identity of the man who was speaking meant only one thing – The man speaking was really Moody. If a man like Moody, paranoid though he may be, thinks that Voldemort is back and that there's a need to revive the old order (she heard stories of it from her mum) then maybe there's some strength to the rumors doing the rounds, that Voldemort is back.
Tonks still had some questions though.
"I thought I was well shielded, how did you stun me?"
"I know your anti hex shields are always up so I tried an old fashioned trick, sedative in your tea."
"Hmm…if the order members want to talk to me, why stun and kidnap me ?"
"The ministry has already marked you down as a potential order member, given your background. They were having you followed. If they saw you being kidnapped, instead of you willingly attending a meeting, they would be less suspicious. Look, I know you have your doubts, but why don't you make up your mind after talking to the other order members ?"
"Fine, give me my wand first."
"Sure. We only took it from you because we didn't want you hexing the first person you saw after waking up. Remus, you can come in now. Also, bring her wand."
A tall man with brown hair generously flecked with gray, came in and handed her wand, saying, "You gave us all a scare, we thought you were going to kill Dung."
"Dung?!"
"This idiot here", said Moody irritably nudging the stinky person, "His name is Mundungus Fletcher. I left him with you, to calm you down once you wake up but it seemed to have the opposite effect. What did you do , you idiot?!", he said, addressing the last part to Fletcher.
"You just asked me to stand guard and left. I thought she was one of those ministry officials we were spying on, and well…"
"And provoked me…" , said Tonks finishing his sentence for him. Then turning back to Moody, she said, "Well? Where are the other order members ?"
"In a minute. First you should be clear about some things. Remus?"
"Yes..I better take over from here", said Remus. He then turned to Tonks and continued, " Hello, I'm Remus Lupin, you probably never heard of me –''
"I know you, you're Sirius' friend. Not being rude or anything, but I'm actually surprised that you're in an order that's against Voldemort."
"Hmm..surprised ? Why?", he said with a slight smile, as if he was expecting such a question.
"Well, you are Sirius' friend, you disappeared after his trail and showed up right before he escaped from Hogwarts. Do you want me to continue ?"
"She is good, Moody. Yes, Tonks, all valid reasons to be surprised I'm on this side. Now, listen to me carefully. You trust Dumbledore and Moody, right ?"
"Yes, I do."
"Good. Then you should know that they already know what I'm going to tell you, so no quick reactions. Before you do anything, just completely hear what I'm going to say, and react only when you are sure about yourself, o.k ? Here, just to reassure you, I'm giving you my wand. Now you already have Moody's and Dung's. You have no threat from us now. So remember what I said, no quick reactions, o.k ?"
"O.k."
So, Remus told her the whole story about his lycanthropy, the animagus forms of his friends, Pettigrew's betrayal and about what happened in Hogwarts.
Tonks was just standing there, unsure about what to do and how to react. How was she to believe anything that she was hearing ? True, she trusted Moody but even then, to actually believe that a convicted mass murderer is an innocent man and that the innocent heroic man who died for his friends is the actual rat (literally and figuratively) is very hard.
"I'm sorry, Moody..But I don't know what to say…How do you expect me to believe all this stuff. What evidence do you have to support all this ?"
"I told you, it would be tough, convincing her….Good thing we thought of the alternative. You know what to do Remus."
"Yes, give me a minute." Remus went out and came in carrying a large basin like thing covered in runes.
"That's a pensieve, so you're going to show me a memory?", asked Tonks.
"Whatever it takes to gain your trust Tonks, apparently it means a lot to your cousin. He is anxious to meet you, tell you his story himself. But we don't want to start a dueling match, so we said that we will let you meet him, but only after making sure you know the truth. Now I promise I won't hurt you, but I need my wand to extract the memory" said Remus.
Tonks gave him his wand, albeit warily. He slowly extracted a memory, dropped it into the pensieve, and stepped back. Tonks looked at the three men, took a deep breath and entered the pensieve.
She saw everything that happened in Shrieking Shack – the map, Snape, Peter changing in to a rat – everything. When she came out, she was in tears. She believed him now, completely. And anyway, she thought, there's no reason for anybody to fabricate a huge memory to make a junior auror trust her cousin.
Controlling herself, she said, " I trust him. I think I'm ready to meet him."
She handed over the wands of Moody and Fletcher and started following Remus down a dingy staircase.
When they reached the bottom of the staircase, Remus opened a door to show a long haired man, sitting pensively at the table. He turned to look at the people coming in and when he saw Tonks, he stood up, as if waiting for her to say something.
She just ran straight to him and hugged him saying, "Oh, I'm so glad you're innocent! You were my most favorite cousin, but they were saying such horrid things about you in the paper, I didn't know what to believe, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"
"Its o.k. Tonks, You trust me now, and that's all that matters. God! How long has it been. And look at you! All grown up, and an auror"
"Yes, I'm surprised I'm an auror too…"
It was a happy reunion for the cousins. They talked for a long time. Tonks brought him up to date with everything he missed. They were still talking, but then the other order members started coming in and Sirius started talking to them. Tonks was just sitting there, looking at him and the other order members and her eyes stopped on Remus. He was talking to Professor McGonagall. After all the things she said to him, she thought she owed him an apology so she slowly approached him and stooped a few feet away. The professor spotted her, gave her a smile and said, "Hello Tonks! It's great, seeing you here. I see you've become an auror. I'm glad your clumsiness didn't come in the way."
"Thanks professor. It almost came in the way, but being a metamorphmagus earned me some brownie points."
"Don't be so modest Tonks, you know becoming an auror is no easy task – '', before she could finish her sentence, somebody else called her and she excused herself to go talk to them, leaving Remus and Tonks awkwardly standing beside each other. Tonks was the first person to break the silence.
"I'm sorry I said all those things back there, in the room. It's just that when you're an auror is difficult not to be suspicious about everything and everyone. I'm really sorry."
"It's o.k. Tonks. Anyone in your position would've thought the same way. I'm sorry for what Dung did. We didn't think he would actually tie you to that chair. That idiot gets some strange notions in his head."
Tonks just burst out laughing. Remus was puzzled. She was stunned, bound and then she met her long lost cousin and here she is, laughing her head off. When she stopped laughing there was a bewildered smile on his face.
"What?"
"Nothing, you are a strange person Tonks. It's just that after all you've gone through in the last few hours, I didn't expect you laugh at the fact that you were essentially kidnapped."
"Well, come to think of it, it is a bit funny, now that it has all been cleared up. Poor Dung…someone should've given him clear instructions about what was happening. And talking of strange, the furry little problem that Sirius used to talk about…"
"Ah..He talked about it, huh? Yes, the furry little problem is my lycanthropy. Trust Sirius to put a comic spin on everything.."
"Yes, he does that a lot…anyway, I guess some interesting days are ahead of me. Working with you, Moody, Sirius, in secret, without the ministry knowing…WOW!"
She is interesting alright….crazy girl with crazy pink hair, doesn't mind my lycanthropy, actually excited about joining a secret society, yes, interesting days are ahead…thought Remus.