Yay! My exams are over (results coming next week +shudder+) and my rockworm has learned how to ride a firebolt! Plus, I'm going to see a soccer match today. Whoo!

Disclaimer: so, I nicked JKRowling's address from a dried cactus and went to that place to tickle the Harry Potter-rights out of JK. That woman is getting constantly annoyed because of all the crazy fangirls and boys who try to get their hands onto her rights. I told her that I was in for an agreement: I would never bother her again if she was willing to give me the Remus and Tonks AND Sirius rights. But she said no. Therefore I'm gonna SO bother her again next week! Heehee.

PS: I know the title sucks.

Don't Mess With Ministry Property

He didn't know how it'd happened.

Well, he did, but it had been going so very fast that he had not had the slightest chance to stop it.

It was like a pencil rolling off over the edge of a table. You saw it happen and knew in a second of time it would be falling and hitting the floor afterwards. But you had to sit there, watching, because the split-second in which you could have saved it from the fall had already passed.

Only this wasn't just a pencil breaking it's lead.

Remus Lupin teared his hair. He was screwed. They were screwed. They could be discovered. And then they could be sent to Azkaban. Or worse: they could destroy the future how they knew it.

And all because of a stupid challenge.

And who'd gotten him into this mess? Of course.

"Sirius!" a short girl beside him exclaimed.

Remus turned his head. His eyes locked with two dark brown ones, whom belonged to a young woman with pink hair, who was currently shooting him an apologetic look.

"Nymphadora…" Remus sighed heavily.

He glanced around the kitchen of number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. It was dark and cold, as always. But where a minute ago Sirius had been sitting grinning up at Tonks daringly, was now an empty seat.

Remus had just begun to think about any possible way out of this situation, when they started at hearing footsteps drawing nearer and nearer.

"Over here. Quick!" Remus hissed and pulled the startled girl with him.

He opened a door to his right and pushed Tonks forward, into a tiny broom cupboard. A spider woke up from its nap and out of surprise fell from its net and crawled away into the black corner of the square metre-room.

Remus squeezed in after Tonks, holding his breath and closing the door as quietly as he could given the circumstances that he was fearing to be discovered and nervous to be so close to Tonks they were practically embracing.

And they were.

Tonks looked up at him hesitantly. Her heart was beating out of pace and she felt her blood rushing up into her face. She knew he was annoyed with her. Sirius had dared her, but she was the one who could have been mature enough to let him win. But she'd chosen to be the childish person she is and proven Sirius wrong.

Tonks opened her mouth to apologize for the mess she had created, but Remus covered her lips softly with his right hand. Tonks heart seemed to stop.

Remus had felt the pressing urge to cover her lips with his own to silence her. But fear had raised his hand instead. He tensed as he felt her flush beneath his fingers, but then the kitchen door opened and at least two people entered.

The two recent cupboard inhabitants heard the people – a male and a female judging from their voices – talk about the present developments inside the ministry and how Hogwarts was going to perish if Albus Dumbledore was ever going to become Headmaster.

That was for the male part at least. When the woman answered with her cold, hard voice, Remus and Tonks exchanged a most horrified look. They knew the person to whom the voice belonged. They had heard her voice each and every day, for approximately the past half year of their lives. Her favorite pastime was screaming at the top of her lungs and insulting various random humans.

Mrs. Walburga Black.

Their only hope was that she would never have the idea of opening the door to the cupboard they were crouching in. Merlin knows, Remus and Tonks were assumably the two most unwelcome beings in this house. Remus' mind wandered on to what would happen if they were discovered then and there. He automatically pulled Tonks nearer. Protectively.

His heart was in his throat when the voice grew louder, he pictured the tall, dark-haired woman coming nearer and nearer towards the door.

But then they were saved by a child entering the kitchen. The kid was whining loudly and complaining about his older brother bullying him again. Remus guessed his age on about 5 years. Which meant Sirius was something like 6 or 7 years old. Which meant…

Remus heart skipped a beat. Tonks was shaking involuntarily, desperately trying not to cough. They were going to be discovered if she didn't get a hold onto herself in time. Remus panicked. He pulled her towards him and properly into his arms and began rubbing her back to calm her down. When she was breathing normally again, Tonks leaned up towards Remus' ear and all but aspirated, "House-dust-allergy", making a shiver run down his spine as she did so.

Then a thought struck him. He dropped his own head onto her shoulder and whispered, "Disapparate?" into her ear, delighted to feel her shiver in return, too.

But Tonks shook her head at his idea. "Too much noise," she whispered back, her voice sounding hushed.

They became aware of the absence of noise in the kitchen and held their breaths again. They stared into eacht others eyes, listening intently for every sign of noise, but as the minutes passed and nothing happened than a few other spiders roping down behind them, they began breathing again and dared relax a little bit.

Remus removed one of his hands from behind Tonks' back and pulled his wand from under his robes and casting a Muffliato charm.

"Let's get out of here. Now." Remus said slightly impatiently, tugging at a chain which was hanging around Tonks' neck.

"But you don't even know what year this is!" Tonks complained, "We don't know how many turns we need!"

Remus was eyeing a fragile golden tag with a miniature hourglass in the middle. He looked into Tonks' eyes. She was afraid. "This is 1965 or 66."

"You're not sure! What if we return to the wrong year? This could be dangerous!"

"Well, maybe you should have considered that possibility before you pulled the chain over me and turned that bloody thing!" Remus argued, slightly angry with her by now.

Tonks seemed taken aback by his outburst and after recovering from the news that Remus Lupin – the calm in person – was indeed panicking, she opened the cupboard door and stepped out into the kitchen, breathing in the musty, cold air.

Remus' heart skipped a beat, again, as Tonks slipped out of the room – or space more likely – but he relaxed when he noticed the empty kitchen. Though he kind of missed to fell her body pressed against his, her breath on his throat, her-

"Do you see anything that tells us exactly what year this is?" she broke through his pleasant daydreams. Remus shook his head partly annoyed with her, partly annoyed with himself.

Remus cast a frantic look around the room. If there only was a Daily Prophet laying around…

Tonks was opening the cupboards randomly now, seeing if there was any sign in them they could work with. Then Remus saw it. On a shelf right beside their broom-cupboard lay a pile of parchment.

Remus strode over and picked it up from the shelf. It was a half-written letter. The date told him it was written on the 7th of August in 1966. He waved Tonks to come over and have a look herself. The pink-haired witch stepped right beside Remus and – touching his arm to hold the letter in his hands steady – let her eyes fly over the few words.

"What do you think? Is it new?" Remus whispered into her ear, making a very pleasant shiver run down her spine.

Tonks took her time to eye the parchment. "It appears very new to me," she said and placed a finger on the last word written there. She softly stroked her finger over the word. And then she looked triumphantly up to Remus, who raised an eyebrow in return. Tonks motioned towards the ink on the parchment, now smudged where her finger had been.

Remus drew his eyebrows together in question. Then he looked at Tonks who smiled. "See? This is very new."

Remus returned the smile, impressed. He repositioned the parchment on the shelf and gazed at Tonks. "Good. Now we know how many turns we need." He stepped closer to Tonks and both shivered involuntarily at the sudden almost-contact.

Tonks hesitated. "I should not be messing around with that." She was fiddling with the delicate golden chain hanging from her neck, staring at the tag and the tiny hourglass. There was something sad and regretful in her eyes and Remus couldn't stand it.

"You're right. But I think now is the best time to 'mess around with it'." Remus tried to lighten her mood. He gave her a flirtatious wink.

"That's not what I meant. I mean, I should not even possess this." Her fingers stroked lightly over the hourglass. "It's not stolen, if you think that! I found it in an old box at my parents' house. I'm not even sure they know it's gone. I don't even know if they knew it was there in the first place. What I'm trying to say is that I should probably have taken it to the ministry. But I kept it."

Now Remus understood her concern. "I'm not going to tell anyone. But let's return to our time. Or someone will get suspicious."

Tonks looked up into Remus' eyes. She felt her face heating up and tried to hide the blush. "I'd rather not appear out of thin air in Grimmauld's kitchen. It might look awkward if we appear there without a sound…"

"Would you prefer to stumble out of the broom cupboard after me?" Remus said in a flirty tone, his eyes dancing with laughter.

Tonks' face reddened even more and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"We could try to sneak up into the room I occupy in our time," he then suggested. Tonks considered for a moment and then seemed to conclude.

"All in favour," she stated and drew her wand from her robes. Remus mirrored her action and after having disillusioned each other, they tiptoed towards the kitchen door.

Before opening said door, they stopped and listened closely. There was no noise heard upstairs. Tonks pushed the door open and it creaked horribly. She threw Remus a terrified look and he took her hand and pulled her hurriedly towards the entrance door.

No sooner had they reached the door and cowered down beneath the cloaks hanging from the rack, when footsteps descended the stairs. "Kreacher? Is that you?" asked the voice of a young boy. He sounded annoyed, and had probably been sent to investigate the creaking door.

Remus and Tonks exchanged a frightened look. They could have sworn the voice belonged to the six year old Sirius. He ran down to the kitchen and seemed to check who was there.

"We need to get them together in the kitchen," Remus suggested suddenly, "then we may be able to get upstairs into my room!"

Before Remus could do anything about ir, Tonks had risen and strode over to the kitchen door. She cast a spell on the door behind which Sirius had only just disappeared. When Tonks returned to their hiding place, Remus noticed his heartbeat slowing down. It must have picked up while she was at the door.

"What did you do?" Remus asked her.

"Colloportus. I locked the door." She grinned at him, which looked slightly ridiculous because she was still disillusioned.

"But-" Remus began and Tonks cut him off.

"Listen!"

Remus closed his mouth and listened. He heard faint shouting and then little Sirius began knocking hard on the door. Only seconds later the door sort of exploded in hundreds of pieces of old, black wood. What followed were quick footsteps from upstairs and three pairs of feet hurrying down towards the source of the noise.

"Now!" Tonks whispered into Remus' ear when the last pair of feet – belonging to Regulus, presumably – had retreated into the kitchen doorway. She moved out of their hiding place and hurried up the stairs, Remus at her heels.

They reached the first floor and nearly fell up the last flight of steps, making the floorboards creak terribly. At the top of the stairs Tonks hesitated, in her hurry not sure which way to go. Remus took her hand and pulled her to the left and into a guestroom.

They closed the door behind them and turned to face each other. Tonks fiddled with her chain and finally retrieved the tag, Remus stepped before her and pulled the chain over his head, too.

Then Tonks turned the time.

Everything around them got blurry and then it felt like riding on a rollercoaster, when the stomach is not able to keep pace with the rest of one's body. And then the room became clearer. It was almost the same as before, but now there were books everywhere and a few clothes strewn about.

"We're back," whispered Tonks. "Aren't we?"

Remus looked around the room. Everything was right where he had left it this morning. He nodded and before he knew what was happening, Tonks had flung her arms around his neck and embraced him thightly.

"Nymphadora?" he murmured, perplexed.

She took a step back and looked him in the eye. Then she grinned. And he kissed her.

It was a slow kiss. He was barely touching her lips with his. But then he increased the pressure. Tonks was taken off guard but after a second's surprise she melted against him. Her knees went weak but Remus' hand on her back wrapped tightly around her waist to steady her.

"Well, congratulations!", a man's voice snickered from the doorway.

Tonks and Remus sprang apart at the startling disturbance and flushed. Sure enough, Sirius 'the mass murderer' Black was standing on the threshold, leaning against the doorway with his arms crossed, a superior look on his face.

Well, since I dunno how to end this properly, I'll just leave it like that and claim it was on purpose.

I always appreciate constructive critisism. Whatever. XD