Title: Reminders of the Past
Summary: As the Order reunites, Emmeline begins to think of friends lost and battles fought. Sirius understands, but he's always so snarky. Maybe she needs to help someone new understand what war does. No romance
Characters: Emmeline Vance, Nymphadora Tonks
Rating: K+
This was written for round one of the Fanficiton's Next Top Writer competition and beta'd by Someone aka me.
Emmeline Vance had never been to the Black estate before, although she'd gotten the impression from Sirius Black that it wasn't a pleasant place. Even now, knowing that the witch was dead, Emmeline flinched as she walked through the doors, half-expecting old Walburga to chase her out for being "half-blood filth." Instead she found Sirius brooding as he leaned against the stairway.
"Welcome to my humble abode," he said dryly. "I hope you find it comfortable and pleasant."
As Emmeline glanced about, she saw nothing comfortable or pleasant. Minerva McGonagall and Hestia Jones both stepped around her, and Hestia snorted. "Honestly Black, I don't see why you have to be so sarcastic. It doesn't suit a hardened ex-criminal."
Emmeline suppressed a gasp at Hestia's gall. Sirius may have been innocent, but he was still a very capable dueler and obviously not in a good mood.
Although Emmeline assumed he would explode in fury, Sirius burst out laughing and said, "Good of you to have kept your sense of humor, Jones. I can't imagine how dull this would be if there wasn't something familiar."
Hestia narrowed her eyes at the small dig about her weight gain, reminding Emmeline that she and Sirius had dated just after graduating from Hogwarts.
"You can catch up later," Minerva said, shooing them from the hall. "Right now we have a meeting to conduct."
She walked towards the dining room, and the other three followed without any complaint. As Emmeline looked about the room, she noticed many familiar faces as well as several new, including a girl with shockingly pink hair. At the end of the table, Albus Dumbledore stood up.
"I believe this is everyone," he said pleasantly. Emmeline was instantly reminded of the start of term feasts from her Hogwarts days, back before Voldemort had rearranged her life. "I would like to thank all of you for coming here today, although we cannot pretend this is a happy occasion. Voldemort is back." Several people flinched, including Emmeline.
"All of you are aware of what is at stake," he continued. "Joining the Order is no small endeavor, as all of you who fought the first war remember." Dumbledore lowered his head. "Let us have a quick moment of silence for those of us who were lost."
Emmeline lowered her head, remembering her lost friends - one person in particular. Even as she lifted her head and listened to the rest of the speech, she only heard with one ear. Her mind was still cluttered with memories of times spent with her friends years and years ago.
…
Sirius lay draped over a chair in the library when Emmeline found him a month later. "Molly is looking for you," she said as she sat across from him. "Why are you in the library anyway?"
He shrugged. "Isn't this the last place you thought to look for me?"
She nodded in concurrence. "I would think you'd want to be found. Molly's kids just got here, and she wants to put them to use cleaning the house. She was wondering where you wanted her to start."
"I don't particularly want the house cleaned."
Emmeline scoffed. "Have you seen the state of this house? It could use some cleaning up and clearing out."
Sirius looked away. "This house was never one of my favorite places, even as a child. Such an oppressive, unbearable house doesn't need cleaning. It's not worth it."
"Come now," she replied. "Nothing is hopeless. You're just associating old memories with it. A fresh coat of paint will make it good as new."
"Just associating old memories?" Sirius repeated. "As I recall, you used to share a flat. You moved out right after-"
"Fine," she interrupted. "I get what you're saying, but as long you have to be here, you might as well make it yours instead of your mother's."
Sirius smiled. "Now that sounds like the old Emmeline."
"What do you mean?"
"All these years later, you aren't the same optimistic girl who joined the Order. When she died, it changed you."
"Well, I'm sure you understand," Emmeline snapped. "I'm not the only one who lost my best friend in the war."
She saw the hurt in his eyes and regretted her harsh comment. Before she could speak again to apologize for lashing back, Sirius stood.
"I think I'll go find Molly," he said mildly, as though they hadn't been talking. "You may be right about that fresh coat of paint."
Emmeline watched him go, feeling worse and worse about her childish comment, but Sirius was gone before she'd plucked up the courage to speak again.
When she popped back in a week later, Emmeline was still feeling ashamed of herself for reacting so harshly at Sirius. After all, he hadn't meant to be mean or abrasive; she'd just taken his words too harshly. She needed to have a quick talk with Mad-Eye Moody before the official Order meeting, but surely there was a little time to apologize to Sirius. Unfortunately Emmeline spent at least twenty minutes wandering around, but she couldn't find him. Although she suspected he was in his room, he didn't answer when she knocked. Emmeline felt silly speaking to a door, so she returned to the corridor to find Moody.
"There you are, Vance," he said gruffly when she found him. "I don't suppose you've met Tonks." Moody motioned to his left where the pink-haired girl Emmeline had seen at the first meeting. When both women shook their heads, he continued, "Emmeline Vance, meet Nymphadora Tonks."
"Nice to meet you, Nymphadora," Emmeline said as she reached out to take the other woman's hand.
She returned the handshake but shuddered. "Don't call me Nymphadora," she requested. "I can't stand the name, so you can just call me Tonks. Everyone does."
"All right then, Tonks," Emmeline replied before turning back to Moody. "What did you need?"
Moody looked around before leaning towards Emmeline and Tonks. "We have reason to believe Voldemort is after a prophecy in the Department of Mysteries. Tonight we are going to put together a guard schedule so the Department always has one guard. While it's unlikely he's infiltrated us already, I recommended to Dumbledore that we have twice as many guards during our meetings, just in case."
"You would like us to take the first shift," Emmeline concluded.
"Precisely," Moody replied.
Tonks nodded her head. "Sounds like a plan."
Moody ambled away from them while Emmeline sighed. She hated going to the Ministry; it reminded her of the long, drawn-out court battles after the war ended. "Shall we Apparate to the entrance?" she asked.
Tonks shook her head. "There's no need for that. I'm an Auror, so we can just floo straight up to that level. We'll still have to take the lift, of course, but that way we can leave Ministry officials out of the mix."
Emmeline smiled. She liked this girl, who seemed to think a lot like she and her friends had during the war: trust as few higher-ups as you can.
When they got down to the Department of Mysteries, Tonks went left while Emmeline checked the right. This floor was a maze that only the wizards who worked there could navigate, but if they didn't find anyone, she and Tonks could just stay near the lift. Satisfied that no one was around, she returned to the front areas. Tonks appeared just a few minutes later.
Emmeline nodded in her direction and allowed herself to slump to the floor. In her youth, Emmeline had been on stake outs plenty of times sitting down like this. She could feel herself smiling just at the memories.
Movement in the corner of her eye caused Emmeline to look up, but it was just Tonks walking towards her. The younger witch sat down beside her and leaned her head against the wall. Tonks sighed in contentment at being able to sit, and her hair grew to her shoulders, turning a purpler hue.
"Are you a metamorphmagus?" Emmeline asked, blinking in surprise.
Tonks wrinkled her brow and reached up to grasp at her hair. She pulled it forward so she could see it and glanced apologetically at Emmeline. "Yes I am, but I didn't realize it had changed."
"I wish I could do something like that," Emmeline said. "It would make it so easy to just disappear."
The other woman jerked her head up. "What do you?"
She shrugged. "There have been a couple points in my life that I wanted to just... stop."
"You were in the Order the first time, weren't you?" Tonks asked quietly.
"You've done your homework," Emmeline concluded.
"Not exactly," she said. "I've seen pictures."
Emmeline nodded and closed her eyes. "Of course you have. I suppose you know about Marlene, then?" When Tonks didn't replied, Emmeline opened her eyes and realized that, no, Tonks hadn't known about Marlene. Now that she'd opened the door, she would have to explain.
Tonks looked back over at her. "Do you mean Marlene McKinnon? Didn't she die shortly before the war ended?"
Instead of speaking, Emmeline just nodded.
"I take it you were good friends."
Emmeline laughed. "The best," she said, "but we weren't always that way. It's funny. If it wasn't for You-Know-Who, we probably wouldn't have been."
"Weren't you friends at Hogwarts?" Tonks asked. "I mean, you looked like you were about the same age in the photos."
"We were, but at Hogwarts I was a Hufflepuff and she was a Gryffindor. We had entirely different social circles."
Tonks grinned and said, "I was a Hufflepuff too." She sobered. "So how did you and Marlene become friends?"
"Through the Order." Emmeline looked around wistfully. "We were on an assignment similar to this one: our mission was just guard duty. Marlene and I got to talking, like we are now, and we figured out how much we had in common. Eventually we started requesting assignments together because we were such a good team. A year out of school, we got a flat together. She liked to joke that when her sixteen year-old brother got out of school and joined the Order, she was going to hook us up. I'd reply by pointing out that she'd have to move out then."
Emmeline looked over at Tonks, remembering the girl was there. "She was the closest friend I ever had."
"What happened?" Tonks asked quietly.
She sighed. "Marlene was at home, celebrating her brother's seventeenth birthday. It seemed like a typical June night until Remus Lupin burst into our flat at two in the morning asking if I'd heard the news." Emmeline sighed, wishing she could pretend it had never happened. "It took months for me to accept it, and the war was over before I was out of my funk.
"I just couldn't believe that she could be so alive and happy one day, and the next..."
"You were heading for a huge collision," Tonks finished.
Emmeline nodded, choosing not to speak.
Tonks let the silence wash over them before she smiled. The older witch glanced over at her, curious as to what she could possibly be smiling at. "You're lucky, you know."
"How so?" Emmeline asked, feeling her temper rising.
"Not a lot of people have a friendship that precious," Tonks replied. "I know I haven't. You may have lost her, but I'll bet she's still with you."
Emmeline snorted despite herself. "You have no idea how many times I've heard that over the years."
Tonks chuckled. "I'm sure I can imagine. This whole touchy-feeling speaking thing has never been my strong point."
Neither woman realized just how good Tonks would get at it before each found death crashing towards them.