Chapter 2: Beautiful Strange Girl

I'm open, you're closed

Where I follow, you'll go

The first meeting of the reunited Order of the Phoenix was held in the dusty kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place. A case of butterbeers had been distributed, and Dumbledore stood at the head of the table. The group was still waiting for a couple of important people to arrive.

Sirius leaned into Mundungus and snarled in his ear, "Where the bloody hell is Remus, Dung? He lives here, and he still manages to be late."

On his other side, Mad-Eye muttered, "And Tonks should have been here ten minutes ago. Never on time, that woman."

xxx

Remus Lupin missed the last step of the creaky staircase and flew straight into the young woman who was bent over by the door, attempting to put right the troll leg umbrella stand she had apparently knocked over. She fell to the ground as well, and he felt the wind go out of her when he landed on top of her.

Blushing furiously, Remus offered her his hand as he stood up, "Awfully sorry, I always miss that last step."

She brushed away his apology, but took hold of his hand. Warmth spread from his fingertips throughout his body as she stood. She ran her wand over her robes to get rid of the dust, then looked up at him. Her eyes were electric blue, and her jet black hair was short and spiky.

"Nymphadora Tonks."

"Remus Lupin. Pleasure to meet you, Nymphadora." He couldn't pull his own deep eyes away from her bright blue ones.

"Oh god. Please don't call me that," she laughed, and he noticed how musical and lilting her laugh was.

"What?" he still hadn't released her hand, mesmerized by her blue eyes.

"I go by Tonks. Hell of a lot easier than Nymphadora. Honestly, what kind of a mother goes out of her way to put her kid through that kind of torture?"

He chuckled. Something about this girl was familiar to him, but he couldn't for the life of him remember where he knew her from.

There was a silence for a few moments before Remus realized he had yet to let go of her hand, and dropped it like a hot poker. He turned to the door and said nervously, "So you're here for the meeting then?"

"Oh yeah. Maybe we should go in now."

xxx

He was trying to concentrate. Really, he was.

"Dammit." This would be a lot easier to do if the pretty young woman he had met outside didn't keep changing the color of her hair to distract him. Every face in the room was turned to Dumbledore, but the pair at the end of the table just didn't seem able to keep focused. As Snape recounted the list of currently active Death Eaters, Remus stole another glance at the girl across the table from him. Her eyes were focused on Snape, but Lupin thanked God that he wasn't looking back at her.

Tonks' skin was colored hot pink, and she had somehow developed an odd, rather pig-like snout. Attempting to keep his amusement contained, he kicked her gently just above her ankle. Her face reverted to normal, but she now had shimmering green eyes and shoulder length brown hair. Remus tore his eyes away and did his best not to look at the beautiful stranger again throughout the rest of the meeting.

xxx

Remus picked up an empty butterbeer bottle and threw it in the air. Sirius caught it and threw it in the trash without even looking.

"How do you do that?" Remus asked, frustrated.

"Pure bloody skill, Moony darling." Sirius grinned at him.

"One would think thirteen years in Azkaban would put him out of practice… but NOOO." Remus wiped the table down, muttering under his breath.

Sirius turned, and tossed the rag he'd been scrubbing the counter with into a corner.

"Couldn't keep your eyes off her, could you?" Sirius asked quietly.

"What?" Remus turned quickly to face his friend.

Sirius gave him a small smile, "Tonks. Don't you remember her from the first time you met her?"

"Bit hard to tear my eyes away when she's sporting such an elegant platypus bill." Remus retorted

Sirius snorted.

A minute later, Remus' thoughts caught up to him, "I've met her before?"

"I can't believe you don't remember – it was quite something, meeting my nine year old niece - or whatever she is. We were 23, I think. I definitely remember you and James being there."

"She's your niece?" Remus' tone was confused, but he saw things beginning to fall into place.

"Andromeda's daughter. Does that count? Her dad's that Muggle?"

"Merlin. That was so long ago. I think I remember." Remus laughed, "I never would have made the connection. But she's the only Metamorphagus I've ever met, and I knew she seemed familiar."

"Grown quite a bit, she has," Sirius sounded almost wistful, "She used to be the cutest thing; I can just see her now, running around half naked with bright purple skin. Damn proud of her though – she grew up the right way. Joining the order and taking a stand. Couldn't have expected any better. Should have known Andromeda'd make a great mum." He was mumbling and laughing to himself.

Remus sat back down in his chair and stared ahead. He could imagine her sitting there, changing her appearance at rapid speeds, just to get a laugh out of him.

He jerked his head, attempting to shake the image from his head. Too young, too beautiful. Too fresh, too whole. These were silly thoughts.

Sirius seemed to like the idea a lot, though, judging by his suggestive glaces and thump of approval at the end of meeting. But no, it's impossible.

"Brilliant, wasn't it? To do her eyes in tribute to Moody's. Loved it. Woman's bloody hilarious." Sirius was still rambling on.

Best to just rid himself of all thoughts of her. Yes, that's a good idea. Just chase her out of your mind.

He smiled as he walked out of the kitchen, remembering how when she was leaving, she had walked straight into the closed door, looked around in shock, and then promptly collapsed into giggles on the floor.

Oh, there I go again.

"Night Moony," Sirius' scratchy voice called after him.

"Night Padfoot." Remus made sure he actually caught the first step and repeated his mantra as he walked up.

Impossible. Too old. Too dangerous. Impossible. Too old. Too dangerous. Impossible.

xxx

Author's Note: This story isn't necessarily going to be in chronological order so I'm sorry if it gets confusing. I'm not very good at keeping my thoughts straight and I apologize in advance for any mix-ups. Thanks for reading! If you get a second, please leave a review. They really make my day.

XxXx 3 tina