As a triumphant return to fanfiction writing and publishing, and challenges from HPFC, I give you a Lupin/Tonks introduction fic incorporating not one, but THREE challenges.
HPFC Quotable Questions: "Who is that girl I see staring straight back at me?" from Mulan. You'll see I merely used it as inspiration, and also took an unexpected turn from the intended meaning of the quote.
HPFC One Word Challenge: "sometimes"
HPFC The Game Is On Challenge: Tough choice here, but I'll go ahead and enter this as A Study in Scarlet.
As everyone knows, I do not own Harry Potter or any character or location mentioned in this fic. It all belongs to JKR, and I'm just enjoying playing in her world.
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They were at 12 Grimmauld Place. Sirius was, as usual, muttering about how unfair it was that he was stuck back in his family home, and couldn't do anything useful. A few other Order members had arrived, and were chatting about inane matters. Molly Weasley shot a wary look at Sirius, concerned, perhaps, that maybe he was still dangerous. He didn't know.
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She was outside, on a street in London, looking at house numbers 11 and 13, her mentor by her side. Both wore heavy cloaks, hidden, for the most part, to curious Muggle viewers. Her mentor handed her a piece of paper. Without having to be instructed, she obligingly read it, set her wand to the corner, and set the small paper aflame. It quickly burned up, and she looked up again, calmly watching number 12 materialize between the other two houses.
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At a nod from her mentor, the two calmly approached the door. The grizzled older man tapped the door once with his wand and stood aside, ushering her in. She looked around, preparing to make some witty comment about the less than pristine condition of the house. Barely had she opened her mouth, however, than she tripped over an unfortunately placed umbrella stand.
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The shrieking of Sirius's mother's portrait garnered the attention of the Order members gathered in the kitchen at the end of the hall. He stood, dragging Sirius up along with him, and announced that they would take care of the old bat. Amidst several cries to hurry, the two left the kitchen, wands drawn.
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He barely registered Mad-Eye's presence, and was never sure whether the shrieks from the portrait diminished due to spells cast by Sirius and the Auror, or simply because the sight that greeted him allowed him to tune it out.
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She struggled to extricate herself from the fallen umbrellas, and was surprised to see a hand reaching down to offer assistance. She looked up, following the hand to the body that owned it. It was a man, several years older than she, but she guessed that he actually looked older than he was. Warm brown eyes met hers, and the unconscious smile playing around his lips led her to believe there was more than meets the eye to this scarred, graying man.
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The young woman currently covered in umbrellas had a rueful smile on her face, as if tripping over umbrella stands and waking screeching portraits was an everyday occurrence. She huffed a bit as she shoved the fallen umbrellas off of her, and he reached out a hand to help her up. Her eyes met his, and he was lost in their twinkling depths. She started blushing, and, without thinking about it, her hair, about shoulder length today, changed, lightened, to something similar to the man helping her stand. Just for an instant, though, until she got ahold of herself. Then, he couldn't help but be amused as – it wasn't bad vision before – her hair returned to a surprisingly vivid pink. Not even realizing he hadn't released her hand, he led her to the kitchen without any major mishaps.
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She followed him quietly, secretly relishing in the fact that he hadn't released her hand. She wasn't sure whether it was because he felt that spark between them, or whether he was just ensuring that awful portrait wouldn't start up again. She mused that her mother was probably glad to be away from that horrible screeching. She noticed finally that he was eyeing her curiously. Waiting.
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He looked back at the young woman following him, her eyes downcast. Moody stumped by, announcing to the whole kitchen that he had brought his young protégé from the Auror office to join the Order of the Phoenix. So this girl was an Auror. He almost shied back from her automatically, but, perhaps unknowingly, she grasped his hand even harder. He stopped and looked at her. She seemed lost in her own world. He asked if she was always this quiet, then mentally kicked himself for acting so bold.
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She could have kicked herself. After all the lessons about constant vigilance that Moody had drilled into her head, she was blindly following some stranger, not paying an iota of attention to her surroundings, and above all, missed a direct question intended for her. Fortunately (or maybe embarrassingly was a better word), another man piped up and repeated the question for her.
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Sirius watched as Remus led the young woman – his cousin, if Moody's introduction was anything to go by – into the kitchen. Remus was immediately protective of her, and she was... not paying attention, obviously, because he had just asked her a question, and not even a very difficult one. He watched a dozen emotions cross both their faces before deciding to rescue them.
Despite his repeating the question, her murmured answer was so quiet, Sirius decided he should probably invest in the Weasley twins' Extendable Ears, if only so the two budding lovebirds could actually hear each other speak.
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Remus saw a blush creep across her face as she quietly answered, "Sometimes..."