Tonks bit at the corner of her finger nail, making into even more of a jagged stump than usual. This habit came with boredom and when she was trying to distract herself, and right now she was experiencing both.
The order was in mourning, Sirius was dead, and with him, their spirits.
She was also waiting on Remus, who was cleaning out some of Sirius' things, being one of the few who could hold it together long enough to do anything (as long as he was with someone else that is, if he were by himself with all of Sirius' belongings he likely would have been a mess too), and he was also ignoring her, somewhat because he was so shaken by the death of his friend, but mostly out of awkwardness- they still hadn't established anything between them despite her advances and his obvious interest (not that Tonks was being particularly flirtatious at the moment, she was too sad to even think about romance, her cousin was dead after all).
She sat cross legged on Sirius' bed, hunched and cold, the entire house had been cold since he died, at least, it seemed that way. Her hair was black, both in mourning and to show respect to the family- She hated her Black heritage, but Sirius had been a Black and he always found it funny when she made her own hair the family colour, saying that it made her look like his little brother before he went through his 'punk phase' and was stuck miserably as an 'emo kid'.
As Tonks played with a scraggly loose thread on the duvet beneath her, there was a thump from the wardrobe and Remus coughed severely,
"Are you okay?" she asked, watching as the shadow moved in the wardrobe,
"Yes" Remus replied, stumbling from the wooden box, dust covering his shoulders and hair and several stacked items in his arms, "Careful" he then warned, moving over to the bed.
Tonks scooted out of the way and he dropped the junk onto the bed, coating the entire spread with pale grey dust,
"What is all of this?" she said curiously, tugging a few items out of the pile,
"I'm not sure, it was haphazardly stacked right at the back on the top shelf" Remus answered sitting on the bed on the other side of the heap,
"Sounds like Sirius" the metamorphmagus said softly, watching as the man pulled a shallow wooden box out from the collection of items, "What's that?" she asked as he blew thick dust off of it,
"Sirius' memory box from the last year of school" he answered,
"Sirius had a 'memory box'?" her eyebrows rose,
"He fondly referred to it as his 'box of stuff'" Remus said as he fiddled with the side of the box-clearly it was some kind of puzzle box.
Tonks waited patiently and soon the box was open revealing a stack of polaroid images and a few small items,
"Here" the brunette said handing her the pictures,
She began to shuffle through them, reading the small titles that came with them, written in Sirius' scribbly handwriting.
First was an image of Sirius, Remus, James and Peter titled 'The Marauders', each of them were in uniform, although looking more than a little scruffy, and Sirius even had his tie wrapped around his head like a headband.
The next image was a larger group, apparently the Marauders and their extended friend group as it was headed with 'The kids'. It showed Sirius, Remus, James, Peter, Frank Longbottom, Alice Hall, Lily Evans, Marlene McKinnnon and several others Tonks couldn't say she could name.
The next image in the stack was not a polaroid, but four images from a photo booth cut out individually. They showed Sirius and Marlene. In the first they were smiling normally, but in the second they were both pulling goofy faces. The third image showed Sirius looking a little surprised as Marlene had her lips pressed chastely to his cheek, and the final showed the same sort of pose but in reverse. Marlene was clearly mid laugh, and Sirius had his arms wrapped around her, his lips against her cheek.
The images went back to polaroid's after that.
The next was taken in a transfiguration lesson apparently, as it had Sirius and James in the foreground pulling stupid faces as Professor McGonagall stood in the background with her back to them, writing on the black board- it was titled 'Messing with babe'.
'Lads at the Three Brooms' was the title of the next image, and as expected, it showed Sirius, Remus, James and Peter all sat around a table in The Three Broomsticks, several glasses of varying sizes on the surface between them. It was likely that the four of them were drunk, all of them but Remus probably.
'The pack' depicted the marauders in animagus form and with Remus as a werewolf. Peter as a rat sat a top Sirius' head, James stood proudly in the middle and Remus stood hunched off to the side, afraid to be so close even as a werewolf and with his friends as animals- Tonks wasn't sure how exactly the picture was taken.
The last image, lovingly called 'Mischief' showed all four marauders beaming brightly, their faces just visible inside of a gap in James' invisibility cloak. Sirius was at the centre, holding the camera so he could take the picture, Peter was ducked down under his left arm, James leant over his right shoulder, his hands around the other boy's neck and Remus was just to Sirius' right, smiling softly.
Tonks then looked up to see that Remus was sorting through the items from the box.
There was a crumpled packet of cigarettes that still contained a few sticks, a piece of card cut into a pentagon that depicted a little image of Sirius showing off his reasonably muscled arms, and some writing (a fake chocolate frog card), a little paper crane made out of a Drooble's bubble-gum wrapper, a few stubs from a cinema, a broken shot glass, a grey beanie hat with a large hole in and a small silver ring with a little arrow decorating one side of the loop.
"I didn't know Sirius was so sentimental" Tonks smiled brightly,
"It was his little 'secret'" Remus answered, a small smile finding its way onto his lips too,
The woman began to look over the rest of the stuff piled between them, wondering if she were likely to find anything else revealing about her cousin,
Her eyes fell on a very dusty looking wrapped package, and she reached into the heap to pull it out.
The rectangle was small and it fit in the palm of her hands, it was wrapped in what felt like mole skin and the wrapping was held on with a tightly knotted piece of string,
"Do you recognise this?" Tonks asked holding it out to Remus,
He looked at it, a little confused, "No" he shook his head, taking it from her.
He turned over the small item to find that a small card was tucked into the string. The brunette tugged the envelope out and turned it over, finding that it was sealed with wax,
"Maybe it's from Sirius, open it!" the metamorphmagus said at seeing the note, hoping beyond hope that Sirius had planned ahead and left them some kind of message in case he died unexpectedly,
Remus tugged at the back of the envelope and the wax came away from the paper, he then slid the small note out and unfolded it,
"It's addressed to Sirius" he said after reading the first line, "But it looks like he never opened it",
"Oh" Tonks frowned.
"Dear Sirius" Remus then began, reading the note loud, "I know we had our differences, and that you don't trust me, but I promise you, you don't know the whole story. You're in Azkaban for a crime you didn't commit, and by the time you get out, if you ever do, I have a feeling that I'll be dead. This small book is filled with the truth, I hope you read it and forgive me",
"Who's it from?" Tonks asked,
"R.A.B"
