Tonks fell about laughing as Sirius glanced down in disgust at his hand. Some grey, mushy substance was oozing between his fingers and dripping onto the floor with a wet splat.

"Oh good god, what is that!" he yelled, gripping his slimed hand with the other and holding it out in front of him as if it were infected.

Tonks had her head buried in her hands and was shaking with the force of her laughter.

"It's not funny!" Sirius yelled, watching as the grey ooze that had puddled on the floor underneath him began to spread. "I'm, I'm, DISEASED!"

"Sirius, Sirius . . ." Tonks gave up as a fresh fit of laughter gripped her.

Sirius ran to the side again and stuck his hand under the tap water, watching as the ooze was washed off into the still full sink. The fresh water appeared to be making no difference at all to the swamp that had grown up inside the bowl and he watched the surface very, very carefully, waiting for something to rise up and grab him.

"What do you think it is?" Tonks asked, coming to stand beside her cousin now that she had regained control of herself.

"Some sort of ooze, monster, thing! I don't know!" Sirius replied, now scrubbing at his hand with soap.

Tonks drew her wand and began poking experimentally through the washing up, searching. Sirius watched carefully and occasionally glanced at his hand with a worried expression.

"There might be . . . hang on a second, I think I've got it cornered," Tonks said, biting her lip in concentration as her wand darted back and forth in amongst the plates and dishes, following whatever it was that had slimed Sirius.

"Ahh ha! Stupefy!" she roared.

There was a sudden flash from under the grimy surface of the water, a number of plates cracked and the two of them huddled over the sink were splashed with the putrid water.

Coughing and spluttering, Tonks flicked her wand, muttering "Wingardium leviosa" and something rose up out of the mess and hung in the air in front of them.

"I am going to, KILL, Fred and George!" Sirius growled.

Suspended and slowly revolving in front of the two of them was a very fat, very slimy, very angry, sewage slug.

"A slug, a slug!" Sirius raged.

"Why would Fred and George have them?" Tonks asked, watching as the slug revolved slowly through the air, it's slimy mouth snapping away at nothing.

"Puking pastils," Sirius replied. "Sewage slug's slime is very good for, erm, making you throw up."

Tonks shook her head and flicked her wand, sending the slug flying into the bin where it landed with a clang before the lid shut on top of it.

"They mentioned that some had escaped," Sirius continued as he began searching through the water with his own wand for more slugs.

"So, those things are on the loose in the house?" Tonks said.

"Yep. Gotcha!"

Sirius triumphantly sent another of the fat slugs spinning across the room and into the bin with a satisfying splat.

He grimaced in concentration as he chased another one around under the water with his wand, searching in amongst the dirty dishes (and breaking a considerable number in the process).

"Come on, give me a hand!" he said and Tonks joined him on the hunt.

The two of them spent the best part of two hours searching through the kitchen for the slugs, and in the process the dishes that hadn't been shattered were cleaned. They kept a running tally of how many of the slugs had been caught and at the end of the hunt, stood over the bin that was full of ooze, staring down at the angry slugs.

"Twenty," Sirius said in disbelief. "They must have been breeding."

"Which means there are still more somewhere around, most likely," Tonks replied, wiping a dark stain from her forehead with her sleeve.

"I believe I caught more than you cousin," she added with a grin and Sirius shrugged.

"Alright, ten points to you then."

"Sorry?"

Sirius grinned and motioned to her to take a seat at the table, which she did. It was far too early, she decided, for such strenuous activity as chasing slugs around. Sirius joined her a few minutes later, two cold drinks in hand and a strange twinkle in his eyes.

"So, as I was going to say before we were so rudely interrupted," Sirius said with a grin. "What we need, is the Grimmauld place games! First points to you for catching more slugs!"

Tonks finished off her drink quickly and held up her hands to motion for him to slow down.

"Hang on a minute mister, we can't have a tournament with only two of us! We need more people, and proper tasks and -"

"-someone to keep score!" Sirius added, excitable as ever.

"Sure, someone to keep score and considering Remus probably won't play, and Molly definitely won't approve, it had better be Remus doing it."

"He'll moan," Sirius replied bluntly.

Tonks gave a shrug.

"Well you'll cheat, so I suppose I'll do it."

Sirius opened his mouth to protest, then decided that she was probably correct any way and changed tack.

"So, who else do we want?"

Tonks looked thoughtful for a moment, running through the names of the various younger Order members whom she thought more likely to agree with the idea.

"Well, what about Bill?" she asked.

"Sure. Fleur might not be too happy though," Sirius added and Tonks grinned.

"'Dung would play for sure," he continued.

"Alright, I can't think of anyone else for the moment, but we can always add others into the game later on."

Tonks summoned over a roll of parchment from the side, along with a quill and began drawing up a table, headed with the words, "Grimmauld place games score sheet," in large writing at the top.

"So, add ten points in your column already," Sirius said looking down at the sheet.

"Hmm, seems a little unfair, I mean the others didn't even have a chance, in fact we haven't spoken to them yet. We'll hold off on adding those points and say, oh, two points per slug caught from now on? Agreed?"

"Sounds fair," Sirius replied.

The two of them finished drawing up the tables and decided upon some preliminary rules for the games before lunch, agreeing to talk to Bill and Mundungus, (who would be around for an Order meeting later that day), before they started coming up with any tasks.

"It's got to be like a game of dares, in a way," Tonks said as they sat at the table eating sandwiches.

"Sure, so the tasks have to be hard, or gross," Sirius said with a slight grimace at the memory of the oozing, gooey . . . he made himself stop thinking as he looked down at his sandwich and fought the urge to be sick.

"But not too dangerous, considering we've still got Order work to do," Tonks added.

"Some of you have anyway," Sirius replied somewhat sullenly and Tonks forced the conversation back to the games before he could get moody.

"What about the others, do we tell them what's going on?" she asked.

Sirius got a sudden look in his eyes that Tonks found very suspicious, as well as a little unnerving.

"I think it would be more fun if we kept them in the dark," he said. "That way, we can use them in some of the challenges."

Tonks, feeling very nervous about this new idea, was about to interrupt him when she heard the front door open and Mrs Black's screeches start up, accompanied by some colourful swearing.

"Filthy, half-breed, muggle loving creatures! Werewolves in my house, furry demons, out, out, out, I say!"

"Remus is back," Sirius announced in a blank voice as the screams stopped suddenly.

The kitchen door opened and Remus Lupin, looking extremely irritable, strode in, arms full with shopping bags which were unceremoniously dumped onto the table before he flopped down in a chair, shooting a glance at Sirius.

"Cleaned the sink up yet?" he asked.

"Yes mother, I did," Sirius replied with a withering look at his friend.

"With my help!" Tonks protested and Remus gave her a slight smile as he glanced over at the sink.

"Well . . ." Remus paused and looked uncomfortable for a moment. "I'm impressed. Well done."

Tonks and Sirius glanced over at each other in surprise.

"Sorry, I know I've not been much fun, I . . . well you know, all this work, the new werewolf laws, it's a bit . . ." he trailed off and rubbed the back of his neck self consciously.

"No worries mate," Sirius said, standing up and slapping his friend on the back as he headed over to the now clean sink and deposited his plate in the water, scrubbing it as an after thought.

"What's that then? Shopping list?" Remus asked with interest as he caught sight of the parchment in front of Tonks on the table. She hastily rolled it up and pushed it into her bag which was hanging over the back of the chair.

"Yeah, shopping list. Really boring, just some stuff for, err, the meal tomorrow . . ."

"Oh?" Remus looked surprised, "Are you cooking?"

Sirius barked a laugh as he sat down.

"I hope not!"

Tonks considered protesting but figured she would end up backing herself into a corner and let it go.

"No, just doing Molly a favour, that's all," she said and sighed with relief as Remus nodded.

"I see. Well, if you'll both excuse me, I need some sleep before the others arrive for the meeting."

Remus left the kitchen in somewhat better than he had entered it and Tonks was beginning to feel a little guilty for not telling him what was going on.

"Sirius?"

"Hmm?"

Sirius looked up over the top of the magazine he was flipping idly through, a moving picture of the Chudley Cannons on the front.

"Do you think we should have perhaps said something to him?"

Sirius grinned evilly and shook his head.

"I think it's more fun this way," Sirius said. "Not going soft on me are you cousin?"

"Of course not!" Tonks protested, still feeling a little unsure. "I just think that -"

She was cut off however by a loud yell and a sudden bang from upstairs. The two of them leapt from their seats and ran through the door to the foot of the stairs. Sirius was halfway up them when they heard Remus' voice yelling.

"Slug, there's a bloody great slug in my bed!"
Tonks fell about laughing again, clutching at the banisters for support as Sirius turned around to grin at her.

"Is that two points for Remus then?" he asked innocently.

The order meeting that afternoon was a subdued affair despite so many members being present. Remus, who was convinced despite their protests to the contrary, that Sirius and Tonks had put the slug in his bed, had not spoken to either of them and kept yawning widely even when it was his turn to stand up and speak. Tonks was still feeling bad, but the look on Remus' face when he had emerged half dressed from his bedroom, slug suspended in the air in front of him, kept threatening to give her the giggles. Sirius seemed to think the incident was some kind of karmic payback for Remus' earlier ill spirits and continued to tell Tonks so throughout Snape's long and drawling speech on potion safety.

Once the meeting was over, Tonks and Sirius managed to corner Mundungus, (who jumped when Sirius called his name and stuffed something inside his jacket pocket,) and Bill who was forced to disentangle himself from Fleur, who were both quickly filled in on the plan.

"Yeah, err alright then, I'll do it," Mundungus said awkwardly as Sirius finished talking. Out of the corner of his eye he saw Remus leaving the room with a suspicious glance in their direction and fought the urge to wave at him.

"Yeah, count me in!" Bill replied eagerly and Tonks grinned.

"Great. Well, preliminary rules as it stands are thus; all the tasks have to take place inside number 12 Grimmauld place, due to Sirius' predicament. Next, nothing that involves serious bodily harm, we all have jobs to do."

There was a round of grateful nods to this statement.

"Tasks should be funny, not painful, preferably and try not to involve too much damage to other people or property," Mundungus shifted from foot to foot and Tonks figured this last rule was probably going to get broken very quickly.

"Who comes up with task then?" Bill asked, quickly covering his fang earring as his mother walked past and smiled at him.

Sirius grinned at him and replied, "Well, we figured we should all write tasks for each other, if they're specific to each person then that makes them more fun!"

Tonks still wasn't sure about this last point, in fact she wasn't sure about a good many of the things Sirius said but she didn't want to be called chicken in front of the others and went along with the idea, for now at least, She would just have to wait and see what the others came up with for her.

"Obviously you can decline harder tasks, but the harder tasks will get you more points, so refuse too many and you'll be out of the running." Sirius finished.

"So, what do we win then?" Mundungus asked.

Sirius shrugged. "Bragging rights? I dunno, we'll come up with something. But everyone think over tasks tonight and we'll have another chat tomorrow after the morning meeting. Dumbledore's going to be around though, so keep things quiet, alright? Not a word to the others." He finished with a wink and they dispersed quickly, yelling their goodbyes across the room.

Sirius accompanied Tonks up the stairs as they headed for their rooms, it had been a very long meeting and like Remus, they were both in needs of sleep.

"Watch out for slugs," Sirius said as Tonks entered her room. "And have a good think I want lots of lovely ideas for 'Dung to get back at him for those useless broomsticks he sold me!"

With that, the last of the Blacks disappeared into his room, the Snape centred dart board tucked under one arm and a grin on his face.