Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter, etc.
Rated T because of later chapters, and because
I'm very paranoid.
It was just like any other night this October of 1995. Patrols, no sleep, and an itching curiosity looming before them as they patrolled the Department of Mysteries. Remus Lupin was underneath an Invisibility cloak, which he borrowed from Mad-Eye, slowly creeping around the small entrance way.
"Please stop walking back and forth like that, it's making me even more nervous," a soft voice whispered. Remus turned towards a seemingly empty space, where he knew that Nymphadora Tonks was standing.
"Sorry," Remus whispered back and stopped walking. For a second he wondered how she knew he was pacing, before realizing his footsteps were probably making a small amount of sound. It remained like this for a long time. Silence, stillness, nothing.
Suddenly some footsteps could be heard, Remus and Tonks turned their heads towards the origin of the sound. A face showed itself at the corner. It was the unmistakable face of Lucius Malfoy, who was confirmed by Harry as a Death Eater, but was still allowed to manipulate the minister of magic. Tonks held her breathe as Remus' heart began to pound away as he watched the Death Eater come closer.
Lucius looked around suspiciously stopping right in front of where Tonks was standing. Remus had his wand at the ready, just in case. After a second some of the tension diffused when Lucius turned away from where Tonks was and headed towards the door to the Department of Mysteries.
Both Remus and Tonks had the same idea and slowly crept towards the door after Lucius. Lucius went through door after door, seeming to lead to weirder and weirder rooms, including one where Remus could hear voices coming from a veil, but he had to focus on Lucius, not knowing if Tonks was following as well.
A loud crash boomed around the room. Remus could see the light blonde, almost white, hair of Lucius Malfoy whip around, lighting his wand.
"Who's there?" Lucius yelled out before icily adding, "Come out, come out, where ever you are." Remus turned his head looking around the room, wondering where Tonks was hiding, though not doubting that she had tripped over something.
"Oh Lucius," a very familiar voice came, though not quite the same as Remus remembered. A woman stepped into the dim light. Her black hair, her crazy look in her eye. One word came to mind. Bellatrix. Remus crept ever so slightly forward, before realizing it wasn't Bellatrix, but she sure looked like it in the dim amount of light.
"Bellatrix? What are you doing here? I thought the Dark Lord was keeping you with him for, ah, special requests," Lucius said examining her, though not coming too close, as Bellatrix most likely frightened him. Remus could see the ever so slight sick in her face that Lucius didn't catch.
"The Dark Lord has decided that I take over on your mission," 'Bellatrix' replied harshly.
"What? But the Dark Lord promised me this mission, so I can prove my loyalties!" Lucius said in outrage.
"If you have a problem, take it up with the Dark Lord himself!" 'Bellatrix' responded as if he had just offended her. Remus kept his distance now, even if he knew it wasn't the real Bellatrix, but every second she seemed to become crazier and a much more believable Bellatrix. That's my Nymphadora, Remus thought to himself, suppressing a chuckle, feeling a bit terrible afterwards feeling she definitely wasn't his, and never would be.
"Fine, but don't think this is over," Lucius said frustrated, "I shall contact him now." He pulled up his sleeve, but 'Bellatrix' stopped him.
"He's a bit… tired out tonight, if you don't wish to anger the Dark Lord, I suggest you bring your complaints up tomorrow," 'Bellatrix' said with a wicked smile, "For now, go home, and let me take care of everything." Lucius' mouth twitched in anger, but released a glare and began heading for the door.
"Fine," Lucius said irritated slowly walking away. After a few minutes, Remus whispered a spell to reveal everyone in the vicinity, and it only revealed the fake Bellatrix.
"How did you…?" Remus asked quietly walking up to her causing her to jump, but upon realizing it was just Remus, she calmed herself.
"She's close to my natural form," Tonks shrugged reverting to her normal form, pink hair and all, "I just needed to get the personality down right. I was worried there for a second he'd see through me." Remus chuckled quietly.
"Yeah, I noticed when he mentioned Bellatrix's 'special requests' you looked completely disgusted for a second," Remus replied quietly lighting his wand and coming from underneath his invisibility cloak.
"You have no idea," Tonks replied with a disgusted smile.
"That was extremely risky," Remus scolded now extremely serious.
"What choice did I have? I accidently tripped over a suit of armor, and he wouldn't have dropped it if I didn't try something," Tonks replied defending herself holding her now lit wand near where Remus was.
"I dunno, you could've just run away or something," Remus suggested.
"I will not run, you know that, Mr. Werewolf," Tonks replied defensively.
"It happened, let's just drop it, Nymphadora," Remus answered offended by her Mr. Werewolf comment, and her first name caused her hair to turn bright red, "Let's just get out of here."
"Fine, Remus," Tonks said crossing her arms, before looking around then back at Remus, "Do you remember where we came from?" Remus looked around as well. How stupid could he be to forget their previous route?
"I think we came from over here," Remus said holding the cloak near him, walking over to a nearby door.
"I thought we came from farther that way," Tonks said pointing over farther to their left. Remus shook his head, trying to seem sure of himself, while he was doubting himself.
"No, I don't think so," Remus said stubbornly.
"If you're sure, we'll go your way," Tonks sighed thinking of how stubborn the man was. She quickly opened the door and walked into the next room, followed by Remus. The two looked around confused, as they hadn't seen this room before.
"I don't think-" Tonks began, but Remus cut her off by walking farther into the room.
"What's this?" Remus said walking closer to a large mirror a good five times his size wide and tall.
"Careful Remus," Tonks warned. How ironic I'm the one warning him about being careful, Tonks thought to herself, but Remus kept going closer to the mirror. Remus slowly looked in the mirror, spotting Tonks behind him, but something was odd, she was coming closer to him. He turned around and she was still by the door.
Tonks' reflection stood by him, kissing him of the cheek. Remus placed his hand where she had kissed but there was nothing there. Remus tried to focus on something other than this mirror, which he related back to the Mirror of Erised, but he couldn't seem to pull his eyes away from the mirror, like he was able to the one time he saw the Erised Mirror.
His appearance was altered as well. He looked younger, and he had no scars apparent. It was almost suddenly that he noticed two little kids running around him and Tonks next to him. Remus began reaching forwards towards the mirror.
"Remus!" Tonks yelled from behind him, running up next to him. In a split second she saw almost exactly the same image, but the moment only lasted for a short time, as Remus' fingers made contact with the glass of the mirror.
The image faded and the two of them snapped out of it stumbling backwards. Before the two of them could recover from stumbling back, a bright light filled the room knocking the both of them out.
Tonks awoke after a good dream, opening her eyes slowly. The first sight she saw was the wild face of Sirius Black. Not the best thing to awake to and she let out a small scream, surprised to see Sirius' face.
"Tonks! You're finally awake!" Sirius howled with his wild smile shining everywhere. Tonks raised her left arm up to her head and blinked a few times.
"What happened?" Tonks asked.
"That's what I would like to know," Sirius replied seriously, though still with the wild smile all over his face. It was then that Tonks tried to move her other arm to push herself up, but she noticed some resistance. She turned her head to see Remus next to her.
"What's going on?" Tonks said moving her right hand but Remus' arm followed her arm with only a couple of inches between them.
"We're stuck," Remus simply said turning his head towards her, "I woke up about an hour ago and figured it out."
"Ha! The old bloke didn't get to wake up to my beautiful face," Sirius said with a howl of laughter.
"I envy you Remus," Tonks joked.
"Oh now, I'm hurt," Sirius whimpered jokingly.
"Anyways, what are we going to do, since we're stuck?" Remus interjected, feeling odd just lying there awake and talking to them.
"Well Dumbledore says that Tonks shouldn't go into work right now, seeing as if they knew, they would know she was in the Department of Mysteries, and then Lucius might figure that Tonks was the one impersonating Bellatrix," Sirius explained, pulling the two of them up so they were at least sitting in the bed.
"How did you…?" Tonks began.
"I explained everything that happened already," Remus stated.
"Dumbledore's trying to find out how to separate you, as well as a way to let you go back to work. Kingsley's put word in that you got sick, and were very contagious. One of our St. Mungo's people have forged some papers to make it seem like one of the sick people is Tonks," Sirius explained excitedly.
"So does this mean we're going to be guests here in the Grimmauld Place, until we can figure out how to separate from each other?" Remus asked with a grin feeling that was a part of what made Sirius so happy at the moment.
"Exactly!" Sirius stated, causing Tonks to groan.
"Oh great I get to be stuck with Sirius," Tonks groaned with a hint of joking, she gave a small wink to Remus.
"Oh don't worry, I've lived years with him, you get used to his dirty jokes, non-creative pranks, and wolfish demeanor eventually," Remus replied with a laugh.
"My pranks are creative! Like the one where James and I colored the whole school and their inhabitants red and gold," Sirius insisted.
"That was James' idea, and if I remember correctly I was in on most of the engineering of that particular time," Remus said smirking.
"What about the time-" Sirius began, but was cut off.
"Enough you two, we'll have plenty of time to argue about whether Sirius' pranks are creative, but right now I'm starving!"
Thank you for reading! I plan to continue this story
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