Remus Lupin stared thoughtfully into the depths of the fireplace. He was currently lounging in the kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. The atmosphere of the Black house had been somewhat relaxed lately; due to the fast-paced happenings following Lord Voldemort's return, the majority of the members of the Order of the Phoenix were extremely busy, so they scarcely dropped by. Remus, however, often found time to visit Sirius Black, who at that particular moment was feeding Buckbeak the hippogriff- or so Remus had thought-
"Oi! Moony!" Sirius bellowed so loudly he caused Remus to jump a foot in the air, slopping half his bottle of butterbeer down the front of his shabby robes.
"Sorry 'bout that mate," Sirius clambored down the stairs and took a seat across from Remus, "fancy a game of Exploding Snap?" he held up a pack of cards.
After drying his robes with a wave of his wand, Remus turned to Sirius with a pained expression.
"I'm terrible at that game," he said, "I don't suppose you'd like to play chess instead?"
"And get trounced? I don't think so, Moony," said Sirius, raising an eyebrow.
Remus let out a defeated sigh.
I don't expect he'll be this cheerful again in the near future he thought, I might as well humour him.
Indeed, Sirius seemed much happier than he had done since he arrived at Number Twelve a few months ago. Watching his gaunt friend merrily deal the cards, Remus could not hold in his curiosity.
"What's got you so happy?" he said.
"Oh. Well, Buckbeak saw a picture of Snivellus-" "Severus" "-Snivellus in the Prophet, and he tore it to shreds. It was great! He's inherited his old master's wisdom. Knows who's good, who's bad, and who's a greasy git," said Sirius, grinning madly. Remus gave a small chuckle and picked up his cards.
Several games (and singed eyebrows) later, Remus was feeling thoroughly dejected after being viciously pummelled by Sirius in every round. They finally packed the deck away and stood, heading upstairs.
However, before they reached the staircase, they heard a loud crash, followed by a long, ear-splitting scream from the hallway above them.
"Oh, Nymphadora's here."
They entered the upstairs hallway and were faced with a very familiar sight: the front door was ajar, the curtains on the portrait of Mrs. Black had flown open (she, of course, was the one wailing- something about left-footed blood-traitors), and Nymphadora Tonks was flat on the floor, having tripped over the rug- or, quite possibly, her own two feet.
Sirius went to pull the curtains over Mrs. Black, as he was the only one able to do it single-handedly, while Remus closed the front door and helped Tonks up off of the floor.
"Hello, Nymphadora," he said cheerfully.
"Wotcher, Remus," mumbled Tonks. She was quite annoyed at once again being discovered on the ground. It was, after all, rather embarrassing for an Auror (or any other person, for that matter), "and don't call me Nymphadora," she added, trying to muster up as much dignity as possible.
"Really, Tonks, I don't know what you did to offend your center of gravity, but you'd better apologize," said Sirius. Having silenced his mother, he swaggered past them towards the drawing room. Tonks shot him a look that clearly said 'shut-up-or-I'll-turn-you-into-a-fat-old-frog-with-digestive-problems!'.
She and Remus followed Sirius to the drawing room, so as to avoid any further hitches with the portrait of Mrs. Black.
"So, what brings you here," queried Remus.
"Yeah, we'd expected you to be busy all week at the Ministry," said Sirius.
"Well, Kingsley offered to cover my shift so I could take a break and bring…you…oh, bugger," Tonks slapped her forehead and added, "I'll be right back," before turning on the spot and disappearing with a loud CRACK!
A few seconds and another reverberating bang later, Tonks reappeared with a bag in her hand.
"Mmm. Chocolate," said Remus, sniffing the air with increased interest. As much of a burden as lycanthropy was, it did come with heightened senses, in Remus' case, especially for chocolate.
"Honeydukes' Finest," said Tonks, grinning at the look of excitement on the ex-professor's face. When it came to things involving cocoa, Remus Lupin was like a kid at Christmas.
"I brought it to cheer you up, since tomorrow's…er…" Tonks trailed off, but Sirius and Remus heard something that sounded suspiciously like "full-moon thingy".
"Very thoughtful, Tonksie," said Sirius through a mouthful of chocolate; despite Tonks' firm grasp on the bag, he had somehow managed to grab a bar and devour half of it without being noticed.
"Thank you, Nymphadora," Remus smiled warmly at Tonks, accepting the bag full of sweets. He retreated to the kitchen, but not before receiving an exasperated, "It's Tonks, Remus!"
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Setting his book on the table, Remus stood and stretched. After extinguishing the crackling fire in the grate, he headed for the staircase. He wasn't even halfway up the stairs when, for the second time that day, he heard a loud crash, accompanied by a piercing screech, no doubt courtesy of Mrs. Black.
"Oh, Nymphadora's leaving."