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Riddles of the Blood Moon

By Vanessa Renadi

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Chapter One: The Unspeakable

Tonks could no longer deny it…she fancied Remus Lupin. Everything about him appealed to her, from his sandy, silvery hair to those soft, intellectual eyes. One may not readily guess it from Tonk's own appearance of pink hair and punk attire, but deep down she was a sucker for the bookish types. She could talk to Remus all day about anything from Transfiguration to Arithmancy. And the fact that such a scholarly soul could be found in such a ruggedly handsome wizard made him all the more fanciful.

She found herself being paired more and more with Remus for missions for the Order of the Phoenix as the weeks went by. She was tactful enough not to ask why Remus had so much free time on his hands. She had had a handful of dealings with werewolves from the Auror Office's collaborations with the Departments of Magical Law Enforcement and Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures. She knew fully well how werewolves were treated, how it was nearly impossible for them to find stable work.

Despite these dismal thoughts tugging at the back of her mind, she was eager to spend any time at all with Remus, especially when it could be cloaked under the guise of work. Tonks was working harder to mask her emotions around No. 12 Grimmauld Place, because she had a nagging suspicion that her meddlesome cousin, Sirius Black was starting to pick up on her feelings towards his best mate. He smiled a little too knowingly whenever he saw her and Remus together.

Like right now, Sirius was wearing a smug expression on his face from across the kitchen table around which all the Order was congregated. Tonks was keeping her eyes deliberately off of Remus, trying in vain to pay attention to Hestia's report. She barely noticed that the witch had stopped speaking and that all the Order members we now looking at her.

"Nymphadora?"

Tonks snapped out of her day-dreaming and glanced over to the end of the table.

"Yes, sir?"

"Would it be a stretch for you to make discrete inquiries into the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures?" Dumbledore asked.

"Not at all," said Tonks. "I've got several Hogwarts chums that work there now. I can easily invite them out for a pint and get them to spill the beans."

"Very good," said Dumbledore. "I am most interested in the recent activities of Britain's vampires, whether the Ministry has detected anything unorthodox in their movements. We need to confirm whether the Death Eaters have infiltrated their covens as deeply as the werewolves."

"You'll have the classified files on this table as late as Friday morning," Tonks promised.

Mad-Eye Moody smiled. "Good lass."

"Remus, Sirius," Dumbledore called. "I trust I can count on you to advise Nymphadora, given your personal experience with vampires. There may come a time where she'll need to impersonate one and gather intelligence from the coven."

"Of course, sir," said Remus.

Sirius, however, dropped his teasing look of Tonks and his face hardened. He crossed his arms and barely gruffed out a "yes…"

"Thank you all again. Before we come to a close, I would like to make a small announcement. I have been very fortunate in that I have recruited an Unspeakable to our cause."

Murmurs of excitement echoed around the table.

"Her specialty lies with the Department of Mysteries' study of time; she will undoubtedly be insurmountable help to the Order. Please join me in welcoming…Miss Diana Lupin."

A young woman who looked not much older than Tonks strode into the room. She had long, strawberry-blonde hair that curled in ringlets down her back. Her soft, hazel eyes surveyed the room, hazel eyes that Tonks knew all too well by now…

Remus immediately stood up, his face wooden.

"Di?" he said. "W-what are you doing here?"

"Typical protective brother," Diana said in a bored, drawling tone. "Leave it to Dumbledore to recruit me himself because the noble prat in you can't bear the thought of your baby sister playing with the big boys."

She looked around the table and her eyes fell on the pink-haired Auror. She grinned.

"Tonks? Is that you?"

And then it clicked. Diana had been a Ravenclaw when Tonks was at Hogwarts, though she had been one year above Tonks. They had never been close, but the Metamorphmagus wondered how did she not piece it together sooner…how many Lupins could their possibly be in Britain, anyway? But being and Unspeakable would explain why she had not heard much of Diana since graduation.

"Wocher!" she said.

"I'll leave you to catch up, then. Meeting adjourned."

The other members of the Order stood and began to file out the room. Tonks waved good-bye to Kinsley and Mad-Eye. Several members shook Diana's hand in greeting before taking their leave. Had Tonks imagined it, or did Snape stalked away faster than normal? Dumbledore stopped by Remus on his way out the door.

"Please, don't be too cross with me, Remus," said Dumbledore. "Think of how much more we can protect Harry and the prophecy with an Unspeakable as capable as your sister on the inside."

Remus nodded politely, but could be heard muttering something indistinguishable underneath his breath as Dumbledore departed. This left only Tonks, Sirius, Remus and Diana in the kitchen.

"Don't give me that look, Remus," said Diana. "It's done! I'm in the Order, you can't protect me. The sooner you make peace with that, the happier we will all be."

Remus said nothing. Sirius, who had watched the scene unfold with great amusement, strode up and extended his hand toward the Unspeakable.

"Well, well, well, little Di, is it?" he said. "You probably don't remember me…"

"How could I not?" said Diana, smiling widely as she shook his hand. "The infamous Sirius Black! I remember when Remus once dragged me along to Diagon Alley and he asked you to watch me for just five minutes. Of course, you were so absorbed in the new Galaxy 180 broomstick in Quality Quidditch Supplies that I easily ditched you and wound up in Knockturn Alley."

Sirius let out a bark-like laugh. "Bless her, she does remember! Your brother nearly had my head for that one."

"Not one of your finest moments, Padfoot, outfoxed by a five-year-old," said Remus dryly. "Given that you did not shriek in terror at the sight of Sirius, I can only assume that Dumbledore told you…"

"That he's innocent? Yes, yes, he briefed me in all the ways that you should have," said Diana dismissively. "Kind of had to, since he was bringing me to the alleged mass-murderer's ancestral home."

She then faced Tonks and stretched out her head.

"Tonks, I must say it is a relief to see you here," she said. "I thought I was going to be surrounded by a bunch of crotchety old men who take themselves too seriously. I'd glad to see that Dumbledore values bringing fresh blood into the mix."

"Oi, watch who you're calling old!" said Sirius indignantly.

"It's great seeing you too, Diana," said Tonks, shaking her hand. "Though I will admit I am a little surprised. Remus never mentioned that he had a sister."

"No real shocker there. My big brother doesn't have much to do with me since I joined the Department of Mysteries. Worries that too much contact with a werewolf would compromise my security clearance." She then scoffed. "As if the DoM has the luxury of being prejudiced. So few wizards can safely dabble in time magic that I could have a banshee with dragon pox as a relative and they would still be disinclined to sack me."

She turned to her brother. "Dumbledore says you're living her now with Sirius. Is this true?"

"Yes."

"Got any plans for dinner?"

"Eh…"

"Right, can't leave two bachelors to fend for themselves…" said Diana. "How does rosemary chicken with Dutch potatoes sound?"

"…"

"Tonks, you cook?" said Diana.

"A bit…when I'm not setting the kitchen on fire…" said Tonks sheepishly.

"You can chop the veggies, then."

It actually turned out to be quite an enjoyable evening. In addition to chicken and vegetables, Diana also prepared a cheddar broccoli soup and a chocolate cake for dessert. Tonks observed the interaction between Remus and Diana carefully as she nibbled the last morsels of her plate. Despite their frosty reunion, the Lupin siblings seemed to have reached an unspoken truce and were now chatting amiably. The four passed the time reminiscing on their time at Hogwarts. It seemed as though Remus had told his sister about some of his shenanigans at school, but evidently not in great detail, a situation Sirius felt compelled to rectify by giving a minute-by-minute recount of their pranks, complete with dramatic voice and theatrically flailing of his arms.

"And then…" said Sirius, wiping tears of laughter from his eyes. "Lo and behold…Professor McGonegall sneaks up on me from behind when I was trying to escape back to the kitchens. 'Mr. Black, do I even need to ask why the Hufflepuff common room is flooded with melted chocolate caramel ice cream? You could at least have employed some basic common curtesy and used plain vanilla so you would not have squandered tomorrow's dessert.'"

Tonks snorted into her tea.

"Four weeks straight of detention after that," said Remus, dipping a small piece of cake into his coffee. "I'm sure we would have only gotten two had it been vanilla…"

The clock in the kitchen struck midnight.

"Blimey, is that the time?" said Diana. "Would love to stay, boys, but tomorrow's gonna be an early starter."

"I should probably head out, too," said Tonks. The two woman started to gather their cloaks.

"Thank you, Di, for dinner," said Remus.

"We should do this again some time," said Sirius.

"Of course, that's a given," said Diana. She looked pointedly at Remus. "And this time…I will hear no more excuses of you shutting me out." She pecked her brother on the cheek, bid good night to Sirius, and disappeared into the hallway. Tonks followed suit, although she restrained herself from kissing the handsome werewolf as she left No. 12 Grimmauld Place. When the two men were alone, Sirius glanced over at Remus.

"So Little Di became an Unspeakable…that would have been a nice detail to have mentioned earlier, Mooney," he said.

"She's so young…just like Nymphadora…"

"We were even younger when we joined the Order," said Sirius.

"That doesn't make it any better," said Remus. "I just wanted her to have a normal life unscarred by war. It was hard enough to swallow the inevitable danger of her working in the Department of Mysteries. And now the Order of the Phoenix on top of that…"

"She'll be fine, Mooney," said Sirius, patting his old friend on the back. "I remember when we finally caught up with her in Knockturn Alley all those years ago. She had already zapped that dodgy Borgin unconscious with wandless magic!"

Remus smiled despite himself.

"And what was all that rubbish she was saying about you shutting her out?"

"It's true. We were closer when she was younger at Hogwarts, for my own sanity after James, Lily, and you…" Remus trailed off, coughing uncomfortably. "But by the time Diana reached sixteen I knew I would have to distance myself if she was serious about a career in the Ministry."

"She's right; you are a noble prat," said Sirius matter-of-factly. "But it seems she's open to you redeeming yourself. I wouldn't waste it."

Remus nodded and together they cleaned up the kitchen.

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Author's Note: Hello everyone and Welcome to my first fanfic since 2013, "Riddles of the Blood Moon."

I was inspired to write this after the Super Blood Wolf Moon that occurred this last January. The fic started off in my head as a purely canon-compliant Remadora story, but somehow it took on a life of its own. The story will focus on Remus, Tonks, Sirius, and OC Diana in their behind-the-scenes adventures in the Order of the Phoenix during the fifth book and beyond.

We all have different tastes when it comes to Fanfiction, so I feel it's only fair to give you a basic picture of what direction my story is going. This is intended to be an AU story with an OC inserted in the Order of the Phoenix and with the survival of certain characters. My goal is to remain as canon-compliant to the core plot as much as possible with the exception of inserting my OC and otherwise deceased characters into original canon scenes. Disclaimer: although my OC is an Unspeakable specializing in time magic, there will be very little, (if any) time travel. I'm all for a good time-travel fic everyone once and a while, but it just doesn't play a large role in my story beyond fleshing out my OC's back story.

So please enjoy and be sure to leave a comment so I know that what I'm doing is worthwhile.