Disclaimer: all HP-verse characters are not mine.
A/N: for the "Hedwig, We're Not In Kansas Anymore" challenge at HPFC. Story starts about midway through HBP and then transitions to WWII-era London. Title is from a quote by Winston Churchill: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
Spring cleaning, Tonks thought, was bad enough when it involved your own house or apartment and your own junk that needed to be gotten rid of. It was about twenty times worse when the house and objects in question belonged to people who weren't alive anymore. This was the sort of thing she'd get talked into doing, and if anyone else had tried, she would've ignored them. But no, for some completely bizarre reason, Molly Weasley had decided to once again inflict the almighty project of cleaning out headquarters on anyone who didn't have the sense to say no to her. This, at the moment, meant Tonks. She was none too happy about this, but there were worse ways to spend a spare afternoon. She couldn't think of what they were, but they existed. As far as she knew, no one else had been roped into this. As far as she knew, she was the only person currently in 12 Grimmauld Place. That, and that alone, was why she was actually doing it.
Tonks stood in one of the house's multitude of spare bedrooms, staring at the wardrobe. She wondered if there was anything living in it. Best not to open the damn thing until she'd cleaned out the rest of the room. So far she hadn't found much. The dresser was nearly empty, save for a few fashion mistakes that were never seeing the light of day again if she had anything to say about it, and the only notable thing in the nightstand's drawer was a ruby necklace with nearly-unreadable engraving around it. She held the necklace in her hands, running the cold silver chain through her fingers. It was a pretty piece, probably worth a lot of money. Between the house-elf and the kleptomaniac, Tonks wasn't sure how it was still in the house. Maybe it was cursed. That would be her luck. The necklace would be cursed and she'd end up dead and no one would find her body for a week. Her mind drifted deeper and deeper into a disaster scenario, deeper and deeper and…
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to disturb you." The voice was all too familiar. Tonks whirled around, still clutching the necklace, and saw the last person she wanted to deal with right now - Remus Lupin, in the flesh. Ordinarily she would've been thrilled to see him, but when the whole point of being somewhere was to get someone off your mind, seeing the person in question was just not okay.
"It's okay," she said. Her hair briefly turned red, normally a sign that she was annoyed, but it didn't last. "Since you're here, would you mind taking a look at this? I know I'm supposed to be able to deal with strange artifacts and the like, but there's something especially strange about this necklace. I can't place what it is."
She crossed the room and placed the necklace into his outstretched hands. "'To understand the present, one must first understand the past'," he read, squinting to see the engraving around the necklace. "Strange worlds to put on a piece of jewelry, though they are certainly true."
For just a moment, their eyes met. Then there was a flash of light, after which everything went black. The last thing she remembered was curling her fingers around his wrist, wanting to cling onto whatever was within reach…
Tonks's eyes fluttered open. She was curled up in a ball on what felt like grass. That was new and, to be honest, somewhat alarming. "Where the hell am I?" she asked. She didn't know if there was anyone around to hear her, but she didn't care. There had to be an explanation for this.
"I don't know." This time she was glad to hear his voice. Remus reached down and grabbed her hand, helping her up. He didn't let go once she was on her feet. In an unknown situation, he decided, it would be best for them to stick together. "Wherever we are, though, I doubt it's a good situation…"