Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter. I'm just playing around in her sandbox.

Summary:

Andromeda was washing the dishes.

Ted was listening to the wireless.

Tonks and Remus were dancing.

Then the Ministry fell to Voldemort and the whole world broke underneath them.

Now these four hunted fighters, scholars, rebels, and gardeners must learn to live and work together to see themselves and their friends through to the brighter days to come.

This is the story of Remus Lupin and Nymphadora, Andromeda, and Ted Tonks during the months that lead up to the Battle of Hogwarts. Cannon compliant. Ye be warned.

Chapter 1: August 1st, 1997, 11:39 pm

"Where is Harry Potter?"

"How in the hell should I know?"

The Death Eater sneered at her. Andromeda had not caught his name.

"We know he came here, where are you hiding him?"

"That was a decoy. I've never seen Harry Potter in my life."

Nymphadora would certainly know this Death Eater on sight. But she was not here. She was at Bill Weasley's wedding to Fleur Delacour. And Andromeda was wandless and tied to a chair in her own kitchen.

"Yaxley! What does the mudblood say about Potter?"

"He's a half-blood," Andromeda protested.

Ted would say the same. That story they had straight, at least.

"He says it was a decoy," was the reply from the dining area. Andromeda dearly wished she could have heard it in Ted's voice.

It had been such a normal evening; the washing up was still carrying on in the sink. By the time this was over, those would be the cleanest dishes she had ever seen. Actually, that rather depended on how this ended, didn't it.

"Are you calling Bellatrix Lestrange a liar?" Andromeda's Death Eater demanded of her.

"I wouldn't dare."

Despite the evidence of her eyes and ears, the numbness in her bound hands, Andromeda still struggled to believe that this was actually happening. Two Death Eaters in her home, rooms ransacked, fireplace destroyed, herself and her husband questioned, maybe…probably…definitely…soon to be tortured. She had dreamed this so many times but always struggled awake before finding out what her unconscious mind thought would happen if the Death Eaters were denied what they wanted for too long.

"What are the Order's plans?"

"I don't know."

The clock on the wall over the Death Eater's head read 11:51, but that could not be correct, it must have taken a freezing charm. It can't have been less than an hour since Ted rushed into the kitchen with the first indication that something had gone terribly wrong, it must have been two days at least.

At first Andromeda had looked at the silent wireless in his hands without comprehension: if it was broken then surely by now he knew better than to ask her for advice on how to fix it, and why did he look so concerned? But then he had cycled through the channels until finally finding one that had not yet gone dark.

They'd had their heads bowed over the wireless, listening to the last stand of a pair of Quidditch commentators, somehow still not understanding how deeply the world had broken, feeling secure in their well warded home, when the front door exploded inward. The wireless had fallen to the floor in the kitchen when the Death Eaters dragged them apart and it lay there still, off or broken or just silent again.

"Are you sure these two are in the Order?" the other Death Eater, Yaxley, asked from the next room.

"Bellatrix says they must know something," Andromeda's Death Eater said. "Even if they're not, the daughter is. The one with the hair, you've seen her."

"She's related to these two?" Yaxley said. "You're going to wish I didn't know that, mudblood."

"He's a half-blood," Andromeda repeated, and thought she heard Ted say the same.

"And I suppose you can tell me who his magical parent is."

He held his wand so close to Andromeda's nose that she went cross eyed trying to keep it in view. She could feel her distraction growing and wished he would stop mentioning Bellatrix, every time she thought about her sister the door to the room in the back of her head opened a little further, inviting her to come inside where it was safe and quiet, where she could see and hear but not feel, where anything could happen to her body but the core of her would still be all right.

"Where is Harry Potter?" The Death Eater pointed his wand at her chest and twisted, just a little, and Andromeda felt something inside of her twist with it. She grunted at the sharp pain and gripped the arms of her chair.

Andromeda had found the room when she was nine, on the last day of Bellatrix's first Christmas vacation after starting at Hogwarts. Their parents had never bothered about the laws concerning underage magic, which left the young Andromeda as the target of every pinching, stinging, and burning spell that Bellatrix had learned in her few months at school, and that was a fair few. By the time Bellatrix's holiday was over, Andromeda's chest, back, and stomach had been a mosaic of welts and bruises. Her mother had only sniffed when she saw them and said that Andromeda would just have to toughen up.

"What is the Order planning?"

More twisting. What did he have? A lung? Her stomach? Liver? Heart? How much of this could it take before it burst? Sweat broke out on her brow.

A week into Bellatrix's summer vacation between her first and second years, Andromeda had gotten so good at hiding in that room in her head that torturing her lost its appeal and Bellatrix turned on the eight year old Narcissa instead. Narcissa's strategy under this onslaught was to try and ingratiate herself with her oldest sister. It only made things worse for her of course, their gang needed someone to prey upon, otherwise the weakest member was the only target. So Andromeda had forced herself to stay out of her room for Narcissa's sake, taking her sisters' magical and physical pinches and blows until they got bored and she could escape.

"Where is Harry Potter?"

Andromeda tried to shift in the chair to relieve some of the twisting inside her, but the Death Eater only pressed harder, forcing a tight cry out of her. Did he realize that she was unable to speak, even if she wanted to? If this wasn't the Cruciatus curse, she never wanted to find out what was. But she had to stay out of her room, because however much danger she was in, Ted's peril was worse.

"What is the Order planning!"

The Death Eater was losing patience, this would not last much longer, and Andromeda knew they wouldn't just give up and leave them to the rest of their night. Death or insanity waited only a few seconds away. Which would it be?

"I'm a lumberjack and I'm OK!"

Ted's voice.

"I sleep all night and I work all day!"

For a moment Andromeda thought her husband's singing, or maybe just the surprise of it, had strengthened her against the pain in her chest. Then she realized that the bewildered Death Eater had released the spell on his own.

"What the…" he muttered.

"I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lavat'ry!"

"What did you do to the mudblood, Yaxley?"

"He's a half-blood."

"On Wednesdays I go shopping and have buttered scones for tea!"

There was a pair of quiet pops from somewhere else in the house. Yaxley let out a short shout.

"I cut down trees, I skip and jump. I love to press wild flow'rs!"

Andromeda and her Death Eater exchanged looks, briefly united in their confusion about what was happening in the other room. The Death Eater cursed and pushed through the door.

"I put on women's clothing and hang around in bars!"

"And Stupefy! Blimey, Dad, the things you find out!"

Nymphadora's voice! Andromeda slipped into the room at the back of her mind.

"I cut down trees, I wear high heels suspenders and a bra!"

Someone new entered the kitchen and knelt down in front of Andromeda. No, she knew that scarred face and those kind but haunted eyes: Remus. He released the bonds around her wrists and ankles and gently took Andromeda by the shoulders.

"Are you all right?"

Andromeda needed more time in her room before she could answer.

"I wish I'd been a girlie just like my dear mama!"

"Tonks, your mum is in here. She doesn't look hurt, but she's practically catatonic."

"She might have cocooned," Nymphadora said from the next room. "Let my dad look after her. I need your help with these wards first."

Remus released her shoulders with a pat and left again.

Andromeda sat quietly in her chair, dully amazed at her change in fortune, listening as Nymphadora and Remus chanted spell after spell she had never even heard before, hoisting the wards back up by main strength. After a minute or an hour of this, Ted burst into the kitchen, holding a hand to his ribs, and Andromeda broke out of her room.

"Are you all right?" she cried, jumping up to hug him, ignoring their matching hurts.

"I will be, you?"

"I can't believe that happened."

"No one expects the Spanish Inquisition."

"What are you talking about?"