Tonks was starting to debate her own sanity (and ability to hold alcohol) as she walked through the one of the most run-down neighborhoods in London with Kingsley and Moody. Okay, the idea of rebelling against the Minister of Magic sounded REALLY good this morning, but she was fairly certain that she was still slightly drunk. With that explanation, her headache would make much more sense; of course she would have to ignore the explanations offered by the accompanying coworkers ("You've been changing features since you got in this morning, of course you have a headache."; "Dark forces. You should go St. Mungo's for a poison test."). It simply had to be a hangover and she decided to resolutely never touch Muggle alcohol again.
Neither accompanying coworker would tell her exactly what the purpose of the meeting was, only snippets about Dumbledore being in charge and something about fighting against Fudge. Normally, such information would have put Tonks on alert, but the fact that Moody was going along with this so quietly semi-assured her that this was safe, or at least a really well-planned joke. About an hour after agreeing to attend, the idea of polyjuice potion came to mind. Convinced this was the cause of Moody's lenience with the information and death prophecies, she spent the entire morning stalking him and asking questions that she was fairly certain only e could answer.
It wasn't until both Moody and Scrimgeour yelled at her to "return to work goddammit", that she just accepted that something was up and that she was most likely the victim of e horrible joke played on coworkers who knew that she had been hanging out with her Muggle cousins the night before and ingesting some alcohol. That had to be it.
Returning the present, Tonks was starting to get nervous as the neighborhood began to get more run-down and dirtier. She scanned the fronts of each house, hoping to find some form of life in them, as Kingsley and Moody continued to walk forward, talking quietly between themselves. When she heard something along the lines of "Maybe it'll appear for her without the paper," she knew they were playing some form of cruel joke on her hungover mind.
Alas, before she could confront them, they suddenly stopped and collision ensued. Moody was decent enough to help her up without mentioning his amazement as how she became an Auror. Kingsley seemed to be trying to hold in his laughter and it took some minutes before he could look in Tonks' direction without scrunching up his face and tears welling. As she turned away, something strange caught her eye. In between houses eleven and thirteen, there was a shimmer, as if something magical was there. Tonks leaned forward to get a closer look, but Moddy quickly yanked her back.
"Can you see anything?" he hissed in her ear, "Answer quietly, nobody else needs to hear."
"Yeah, a shimmer of something, so if you don't mind letting go, I'd like to take a closer look," she hissed back, trying to worm out of his vice-like grip ob her arm. For an old guy, he was way too strong.
"No, it could have been put there as a trap…." Moody started, but Kingsley interrupted.
"Moody, we were told by Dumbledore that if she saw something, it was perfectly safe. He personally made sure that any errant Blacks would not be harmed if they came into the house."
Errant Blacks? Suddenly, the creepy feeling she was feeling made sense. She remembered her mother saying how her aunt despised Andromeda for marrying a Muggle-born and had tried to stop the wedding at all costs. Great-Auntie Black had hated Andromeda since she was little and hated Tonks on principle. The last time Andromeda had ever openly acknowledged her Black surname and the last time Tonks had ever seen her mother's family was at her grandfather's funeral, held in Grimmauld place when she was very little. She had only met the family once before, when she had attended the Potter's New Years Eve ball a couple months before the funeral and had been so afraid of the family that she avoided them at any cost.
It had been years since Tonks had even thought of herself as a Black; the Sorting Hat had mentioned that she belonged in Slytherin because of her mother's blood, but she begged to be put in Ravenclaw instead. Only once after that did anybody speak to her about her mother's family- Snape had looked at her name on the first day of classes and said that she had a most charming aunt, but that he didn't understand where her mother went wrong. She had served almost two weeks in detention after that.
But now, here she was, being forced to stare at some shimmery thing because she was a Black. This hangover could not get any worse.
"Look, can we explain why I'm being forced to stare at this thing?" she hissed, wanting to get away as fast as possible. "I was quite happy not remembering that I am a Black, and I wouldn't mind returning to that state."
"It's simple really. You're a Black. We are at Grimmauld Place. All you have to do is step a little closer and the house will materialize in front of you. We have to go in and would much rather save the Secret Keeper's papers for more important people," Kingsley stated, as if he was explaining something to a toddler.
"Wait, let me get this straight. You actually want to go into Grimmauld Place?"
"No, we need to. This is where the meeting is."
"Oh my God, I've been tricked into a Death Eater's meeting! Moody-impersonator, I am a fully-qualified Auror. Not only will I kick your ass if you don't let me go, your ass will be on its way to Azkaban sore or not!"
'Moody' fell over laughing at that point, but he did at least let her go. As he rose to face the end of her wand, he shook his head as if trying to clear it for reasonable thoughts. As he was too busy to answer her, 'Kingsley' spoke.
"What did you drink last night? Did you check it to make sure nobody had tried to poison you? Just approach the shimmery thing and let us in the house."
Of course, Tonks had no such intentions, but a particularly loud burst of laughter form Moody caused her to jump backwards, directly in front of said shimmery thing. Suddenly, a house burst from nowhere behind her.
"Jesus fucking Christ!" she screamed, jumping and falling over 'Moody' and causing both of them to fall. As she tried to pick herself up, the front door flew open and Sirius Black stood just behind the doorway, glaring.
She was never drinking again, ever.
"Do you want to alert every Muggle in the neighborhood?" he hissed, rather loudly, as he pulled Tonks up by her arm. For an escaped convict, he was pretty strong.
'Kingsley' shook his head laughing a he walked behind Sirius and called out his greetings to the Death Eaters in the house. Sirius yanked Tonks after him, 'Moody' following.
"You promised us an Auror, Moody," Sirius scolded, "Why the hell did you bring my cousin?"
"She is an Auror, Sirius."
"Impossible. Andy hated us, but not enough to push her child into the Ministry to hunt the Blacks down."
"Mum didn't want me to become an Auror and let me go! I have authorization to kill you and don't think I won't!" Tonks screamed, only realizing afterwards how stupid her words sounded.
Sirius laughed, but let her go. "What the fuck did you tell her Kingsley? Rather, what didn't you tell her?"
Kingsley, however, didn't answer. Another door opened (this time, Tonks was slightly more prepared) and Albus Dumbledore appeared. Oh Christ, they were really doing the impersonation thing up. Tonks decided there was no way in hell she could still be sober and buried her face in her hands.
"Please, just let this fucked-up dream be over, please, please, please. I've made up enough for the bad karma," she pleaded to whichever deity was willing to listen to her.
Dumbledore let out a small laugh and patted her gently on the head.
"Nymphadora, I promise you, this isn't a dream and none of us are pretending to be Death Eaters. Quite the opposite, really. However, what you need to know the most right now, in order to save Sirius' life, is his story," he said in that calming way of his, "But perhaps I shouldn't be the only one to tell it. Sirius, shall we call Remus? He seems to believe it all starts with him."
"Yeah, well, he was always a stuck-up prude."
Remus? Why did that name sound so familiar?
Sirius padded away, but not before yelling out, "Moony, come down here and play storyteller again! We've found you a new audience!"
Moony? That sounded way too familiar…. like something from when she was little…. but what….
Oh sweet Jesus no.
Alas, she knew there couldn't be any other Remus/Moony and she was now about to come face to face with the man whose attention she dominated at the Potter's New Years Ball so many years ago. The man whose girlfriend she scared off, the man into whose mouth she shoved a chocolate doughnut, the man who she kissed as he walked off with his wild and drunk friends. The man who kissed her.
It wasn't a really bad hangover. It was really really bad karma she was paying for now.
"Remus! Look who we've got here, the brat that chased off Isabella for you!"
Tonks didn't give a damn now whether Sirius was innocent or not. She was going to kill him. However, just as she pulled her wand out of her back pocket, someone stepped out from behind the stairway.
Maybe she wasn't paying for karma after all.
He looked much older than before and at least five years older than Sirius, who looked about mid-forties. The grey in his hair suited him perfectly and he looked so human and in need of a warm hug and good meal in his tattered robes. He was barely taller than her and still walked in that uncertain, refined way. His eyes still sparkled and he gave a genuinely happy smile as he looked at her. She was in love all over again.
"I recognized her instantly without the horribly embarrassing introduction Sirius. She only looks older," Remus spoke in that sexy hoarse voice of his.
It took her a moment to absorb his sentences. How the hell did he still recognize her? Unless… She grabbed a lock of hair and her fear was confirmed: she still had the mad face features that she wore when they first met. He should remember the mad face well, since he was the one who mentioned something to her mother. Of course the introduction was embarrassing for him- who wanted to remember the toddler who kissed him in front of all of his friends? How the hell did he think she felt about it?
Who did she piss off in her past life?
"It's nice to meet you again," she murmured, holding out her hand. He grasped it in a surprisingly firm grip and shook it briefly before turning to Dumbledore.
Tonks felt bad, she really did, that for the next thirty minutes she didn't hear a word that was said. All she could do was stare at Remus and imagine what kind of wild side he could possess to become friends with James and Sirius. Too many times she caught herself flushing as her rather active imagination took over and all of them seemed to be at horribly inappropriate times. Thankfully, Remus seemed to be in his own world as he and Sirius spoke, so it seemed as if only Kingsley noticed her.
She spent the rest of her time at Grimmauld Place watching Remus and listening to his voice, barely registering what he said unless he stared directly at her. Her fear of the house almost disappeared (she wouldn't go near the downstairs bathroom), but horrifyingly her clumsiness decided it needed to amplify. By late afternoon she had already tripped over the same tear in a rug four times and had bruised her shin quite badly. Tonks wanted to smack herself, or at least duct tape her mouth shut, each time she opened her mouth, since something either crude or stupid managed to escape. Mercifully, the gathering ended around seven and she thought she had been able to escape without any more mention of the New Years party.
Of course, she was still suffering for some horrible deed.
As she got up to go, Dumbledore led her to the side and explained something about the need for absolute secrecy, so if she was unwilling to enter the Order, she would have her memory modified. Tonks could only nod as she noticed Remus smiling and shaking Moody's hand goodbye. Dumbledore gave an odd smile and let her go.
Tonks had managed to make it to the front door without any accidents or blurting out anything unnecessarily when Remus caught her wrist. As she turned to see what he needed, he lifted her hand to his face and gently kissed it before mentioning how happy he was to become reacquainted with her. It's almost needless to say that Sirius saw.
"Oh Moony, that's just cruel," he moaned, that Black smirk playing across his face, "you don't need to embarrass her in the same way she embarrassed you."
Remus stepped away quickly, horrified, as Tonks turned bright red and ran quickly out of the door. It didn't matter that Sirius was supposed to be innocent- his death was going to be long and painful.
She was amazed that she managed to get home that night without Splinching herself and spent the rest of the evening pacing her flat, alternating feeling joy to be with Remus again and horror at how the afternoon went. It was unbelievable to her how good-looking he still was and how his voice made her mind freeze over. At about two, Tonk was finally able to calm herself and her imagination down enough to be able to get some form of sleep, which was mercifully dreamless.
By the next day, she had decided to lay really low for a while in hopes to gain some good karma before attempting to be in the same room with him again. As she approached her desk, greeting everyone she saw, she noticed a simple manila folder with small, precise writing on it- Kingsley's writing to be exact. As she held it up for further investigation, her heart alternatively skipped a beat and dropped to her stomach.
"Here's the facts about the meeting we attended. Read up on them before this afternoon- the next meeting's at five. I took the liberty of saying you'd join- I think you'll enjoy the perks. P.S- he's single."e was nHe HH HHHhhjfhfdhkjhkdfhhhjjjghfh