Chapter 2: Cocoon

"So we have two unconscious Death Eaters, a ransacked house, the Ministry's fallen, and my parents have been tortured," Tonks inventoried, pacing back and forth through the battered sitting room, having to pause and step over the crushed coffee table on every circuit. "Did I miss anything?"

"Harry got away," Remus said as he returned from replacing her parents' front door. He sank onto the arm of the sofa, but it creaked and sagged beneath him and he had to jump up and repair it before sitting carefully back down again.

"You're sure?"

"Positive, he Disapparated with Ron and Hermione almost before Shacklebolt's Patronus faded." He started replacing the stuffing into the cushion nearest him.

"I sure hope those three have a plan," Tonks said, rubbing her face. They had been at a party barely two hours ago, dancing. Now her best dress – also, her only dress – had spent time on the front lines and had the tears and soot stains to prove it. Remus's dress robes too. He kept picking at a rip in his sleeve without fully seeming to realize it.

That had been chaos on a scale she had never seen before. Voldemort timed his takeover well; three quarters of the Order in one place and as far off their guard as they had ever been, not to mention an almost equal number of civilians. At least most of those had the presence of mind to Disapparate when the fighting began. If nine different Weasleys hadn't been on hand to fight with the ferocity that only comes from defending one's home, the Burrow might be rubble right now.

"I've never seen your hair that color before," Remus said. He might have been remarking on the weather.

"What color is it?" Tonks asked, having lost track, and the mirror on the mantle had shattered along with the fireplace itself. She finally kicked the broken table out of her way.

"Red, blood red." He pointed his wand at the table and it reassembled itself but ended up back in her path again, she had to stop pacing. He had probably done that on purpose.

"Yeah, well, I'm angry," Tonks said, glaring at him with her hands on her hips. He just looked sad. "Do you think Shacklebolt's all right? Sending that Patronus must have cost him."

"He knows what he's doing."

"Stupefy!"

Remus flinched even though the spell went nowhere near him. Travers collapsed back to the floor under the dining room table.

"You could have warned me."

"He was waking up. I must've just grazed him before."

"I have his wand." Remus sounded like he wanted to be angry but just couldn't manage it. Tonks had to take a breath and remind herself that, unique among everyone else in this house, he had seen this all happen the first time, right up close. It had taken everything he had.

"Sorry," Tonks said, and meant it. She turned away, repaired the mirror, and made sure her hair was purple again. The fireplace would take some more consideration, though. Obviously they couldn't open it to the Floo Network again, so maybe it was better left alone, or better yet, removed entirely.

"Minerva!" Remus yelped at the same moment Tonks caught sight of a silver animal in the mirror. She whirled around just in time to see McGonagall's cat Patronus open its mouth and speak.

"Pardon me, Ted, Andromeda. This is Minerva McGonagall. Have you seen Tonks or Remus this evening?"

"We're not where we said we'd be if something like this happened," Remus realized immediately, lifting his wand to send a response. Where they said they'd be was in the middle of the worst fighting or their own house, of course.

"Ask her what she knows about how everyone else is doing," Tonks said, feeling her insides freeze over. Remus nodded, it was already done.

Tonks had forgotten that he had volunteered to keep track of the Order's Patronus messages if the Weasleys were unable, and after the attack on the Burrow they couldn't be sure that the Weasleys were not being watched. McGonagall was actually the backup for Remus.

The next Patronus appeared within moments.

"Remus! Thank goodness! Other than Kingsley, you two are last to check in. Hagrid was threatening to mount a rescue. Everyone made it out, I've told them to keep their heads down until we figure out what to do next."

And it faded away.

"I've got to check on Kingsley," Tonks decided, making for the door. Remus caught her arm as she passed. "Come if you like," she told him, trying to tug free, but he kept his seat and wouldn't let go.

"He was at the Ministry. Your cover's blown." He said this with difficulty. It was their marriage that revealed Tonks's loyalty to the Order to anyone who cared to think it through. Small price to pay, most days.

"Then I won't go as myself."

"They must be under a lockdown, there. Even if you could get inside, no disguise will hold up, not even one of yours. Kingsley can handle himself."

"So could Mad-Eye."

"All right, suppose he is in trouble," Remus said. "What would you do?"

"Help him break out of it," Tonks replied. "We're wasting time."

"Or walk right into a trap and land in the same trouble yourself. Now suppose he has everything under control."

"…I would probably reveal that he's loyal to the Order, too."

"We're going to need people in the Ministry who are on our side. Kingsley can take care of himself," Remus said. "Trust me."

Tonks stared him down for a few moments, then relented. "Fine. I'll give him until tomorrow to check in."

She could not be sure if this had occurred to him yet or not, but with Dumbledore and Mad-Eye gone, Remus was the second in command of the Order, behind Kingsley, although he had better think carefully before invoking that too often around her. Dumbledore had defined the line of succession before he died. Tonks was a surprisingly short distance further down that list, after McGonagall and Arthur, and desperately hoped it would not come to that.

"Okay." Remus loosened his grip but did not let go immediately, and when he did his hand was shaking. "I'll tell Minerva we should talk more in the morning." He was steadier when he flicked his wand to send the message, but afterward his hand dropped to his knee like all the energy had just drained out of him.

"Do you think Harry knows the Patronus trick?" Tonks asked.

"Even if he doesn't, I'll bet Hermione's figured it out. But they don't know that we're here."

"Harry's been here, remember? And they know where the Burrow is…but they must know better than to try and contact Arthur and Molly after what happened there. Hermione's been to Kingsley's house, but he's not there, and there's Ron's great Aunt, but you know her…" Tonks replied, pacing again. As an Auror she knew precisely how effectively a determined and talented witch or wizard could hide. "How are we supposed to help them if we can't even find them?"

"We can be ready when they ask," Remus said. "Until then, maybe it's better if we don't know where they are. Besides, I think we already have our hands full. Take those two, for instance." He nodded toward Travers and Yaxley, still unconscious under the dining room table.

Tonks had to agree, for the moment, at least. "What are we going to do with them? We can't exactly take them to the authorities. That doesn't leave many options."

"I don't know."

"Can't let them go, can't turn them over, can't keep them," Tonks said, really, honestly trying hard to think of something else. "We-" But she couldn't say it, could barely even think it. She worked in law enforcement, for Merlin's sake, and even if the waters were a little murky around the Auror department she knew one thing for certain: death came only as a last resort. It was not an end she could bestow on two unconscious men, no matter what they had done to her parents.

She looked back to find Remus was watching her steadily. He surely knew what was on her mind but needed her to say it.

"Relax, we can't do that either," Tonks sighed. "And stop it, you're not my teacher."

He crossed his arms but rearranged his features so it looked less like he was considering giving her detention.

"Modify their memories."

"Mum! You're back!" Tonks rushed over to inspect her mother more closely. She was standing arm in arm with Ted and shaking visibly, they both were, actually, but seemed not to need the physical support. Her eyes were hard. Tonks handed them both back their wands.

"If those two don't report back, someone will come and try to find out why, right?" Andromeda said.

Tonks nodded.

"We can't let that happen," Andromeda continued. "We should modify their memories and make them think the wards held and they spent a few hours looking for a way into the house but never found it."

Ted nodded his agreement. They both looked as though they would not mind getting a similar treatment themselves. Tonks thought Andromeda's idea had some merit, though any other reasonable solution that did not involve sending two Death Eaters back into the fight would have gotten her immediate vote.

"I don't think that would work," Remus said. Everyone turned to look at him, but he looked at the floor, found a lace doily under his foot and, after some consideration, cleaned it and smoothed it out on the nearest end table.

Tonks knew how much he wanted the approval of his new in-laws; disagreement could not come easy at this stage.

"The wards at the Burrow and here fell immediately when the Ministry collapsed," Remus continued. "That makes me think that the same thing must have happened to every Order safe house. If two Death Eaters report that this place was different, someone will either want to find out why or suspect a memory charm. Either way, they'd be back and better prepared."

"Do you have a different idea?" Tonks asked. Something he said had struck her for a different reason and she wanted to hurry this along so she could ask him about it.

"Let them think they were successful, that you told them everything you knew."

Tonks was immediately on board. "We could give them false information! Send the Death Eaters in the wrong direction and give the Order time to get back on its feet! What did they want to know?"

"Just two questions," Ted replied. "Where is Harry Potter and what is the Order planning?"

"That's unlucky. We don't know the answer to either one of those, we could tell them the right thing accidentally."

"The Order doesn't have a plan?" Andromeda exclaimed. Tonks could almost see the cocoon spinning behind her eyes. She had spoken far too quickly.

"Not much of one, at least," Remus said hurriedly. "Go to ground, look out for each other, find ways to fight back."

"So we tell them there's going to be a massive counteroffensive," Tonks decided. "And Harry's in the wind, no one besides he, Ron, and Hermione know where they are or what they're going to do, so we just tell the Death Eaters the place they're least likely to be. Like central London, they'd have to be fools to go there."

"No, someplace different," Remus countered immediately. "Say he's gathering support on the continent or something."

"Gathering support? Have you met Harry? And what's wrong with London?"

Remus ducked his head. "Fair point. But-" he dropped his voice, "you know what's in London."

For a moment Tonks didn't, but she realized what he meant quickly enough. "You think they're stupid enough to go there? Snape could have told everyone by now!"

"I think they're scared teenagers and they'll go to the first safe place they can think of."

"But it's not safe!"

"All right, all right, I can tell you two are trying very hard not to say something," Ted interjected. "Let's assume that both London and the continent are not options. Where else wouldn't Harry go?"

The answer came to Tonks immediately. "Snape's house! It's perfect, we say Harry's in a fit of rage and has sworn to off Snape immediately. Then a whole contingent of Death Eaters goes and busts down the door! Maybe a few of them will get killed before they figure it out."

"It's not the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," Remus replied, smirking at her, "but that's a high mark. You would not believe some of the excuses Fred and George gave for not doing their Defense homework."

Tonks stuck her tongue out at him.

"Hogwarts," Andromeda said. Everyone turned to look at her again. "Dumbledore's grave. He's gone to get some last inspiration from his old headmaster then take up a fortified position and wait for You-Know-Who to come to him. No students are there yet, right?"

Remus shook his head. There might be a few teachers, Tonks thought, but they could probably handle themselves.

"It's true, I don't think he would go there," Remus agreed after a moment. "Plus, Dumbledore once said that Tom Riddle thought he had some sort of connection to Hogwarts."

"Maybe it would worry our new evil overlord to think Harry had gone there," Tonks continued for him.

"Are we agreed, then?" Andromeda asked. No one dissented. "Good. Who is least rusty on memory charms?"

The four of them exchanged a few dubious looks. They were so unprepared for this.

Eventually, Tonks relented and said, "I'll do it," though she really was out of practice.

Memory charms were more the Magical Reversal Squad's domain, but she probably was the most capable in the present company. Her mother could have pressed their socks without taking them off their feet, but when it came to memory charms she was more likely to leave them thinking they were rubber ducks. On the other hand, Ted could probably expound on the theory of memory charms until the Death Eaters decided to wipe their own minds. Tonks decided to hold that option in reserve. She raised her wand.

"Wait," Andromeda interrupted immediately.

"What!" Tonks demanded, startled. Did she realize how much concentration memory charms took?

"Make them think they only found me here, not Ted. I don't think they bought the half-blood story."

That didn't bode well.

Tonks took care with the charm. Voldemort's skill with Legilimens was well known to the Order. Erasing an entire person from the scene was difficult enough, and she was certain that if she left any crack, any inconsistency, in their remaining memories Voldemort would see through it in an instant. That meant leaving as much of the truth as possible, the initial resistance, finally some reluctant answers, then more revelations when Andromeda discovered what cooperation brought her, and eventually Travers and Yaxley's agreement that they had gotten all they could. At the end, she woke the two Death Eaters, watched reluctantly as Remus returned the wands to their limp hands, and sent the dazed pair outside and back to their master. Everyone breathed a little easier when the door shut behind them.

That task finished, Tonks pulled Remus aside.

"When you said you thought all the Order safe houses had been compromised, do you think yours…ours was too?" The arrangement was still new enough to cause her some linguistic confusion.

Remus just nodded.

"Shouldn't we go see?" After turning away the Death Eaters that attacked the Burrow, she had been so concerned with checking on her parents that it hadn't occurred to her that their own house might have become vulnerable as well.

"No, please stay," Andromeda said immediately, looking from Tonks to Remus to Tonks again, her expression desperate. Apparently their conversation had not been as private as supposed, or she had simply guessed the topic.

"I'll go," Remus offered. "You stay with your parents for now."

"You can't go by yourself," Tonks said. "It's too dangerous. And you know I'm the better fighter."

"I'll stay out of sight and Disapparate at the first sign of trouble," Remus said. "Once we have a little information we can go back with a real plan. Your parents need you right now."

Tonks glanced over at her parents, who were still eavesdropping shamelessly and looking at her with hopeful eyes.

"Fine," Tonks said, clearly outnumbered. She stood on tiptoe to give Remus a quick kiss and added, "Be safe."

"Of course," Remus replied. "I'll be back soon."

Tonks turned away as the door closed behind him and said, "Shall I make tea?"

Her parents must have been in an even worse state than she realized. She had once literally set water on fire after making a similar offer.

The three Tonkses had barely settled around the table, mugs of steaming tea in front of them, when all the lights went out at once and the refrigerator stopped its familiar, forgotten hum. No light even drifted in from the streetlamps outside.

"Still with the electricity, Dad?" Tonks asked, lighting her wand.

"How can you trust a light that has to be reminded to stay on?" he replied, getting up to cast cooling charms on the refrigerator. "The number of times I've had my train of thought derailed…"

"Something tells me you're going to have to get used to it this time," Tonks said, pointing her wand at the lamp overhead and causing it to glow. The quality of the light was different, but it was still better than wandlight or candles.

"For our neighbor's sake, I hope you're wrong about that," Andromeda said. "What else needs electricity?"

Before Ted could reply there was a knock at the door. The trio jumped as one and Tonks nearly upset her cup. She had been trying to drink the still too hot tea in a misjudged attempt to hide her nerves.

Tonks drew her wand and strode to the door, lighting more bulbs along the way. "Who is it?"

"It's Remus."

Her heart unclenched a little, but she the rest of her held firm. How was he back so quickly? "What's the password?"

"The Dark Phoenix Saga. What's the password?"

Not so long ago, those passwords had seemed like a silly precaution. Not anymore.

"The Amazing Spiderman number 275: The Choice and the Challenge."

"That appears to be in order," Remus said, and Tonks could hear the strain in his voice. She pulled open the door.

"Get in here."

She had intended to hug him immediately but was impeded by the bundle he had made of his cloak. The look in his eyes told her that it was not good news, but just the sight of him back was enough for her. She pulled the bundle out of his arms, tossed it aside, and got down to business.

"The house is firewood," Remus said into her shoulder. "I grabbed a few things, but really there's nothing left."

"We'll figure something out," Tonks replied, squeezing him. "Are you all right?"

"Whoever did it had come and gone."

"That's not what I meant. That was your parents' house."

"I…" Remus trailed off. Tonks understood. He had a complicated relationship with the place; his childhood and adolescence in that house was filled with great and terrible memories. As an adult he had only stayed because he could not afford to live someplace else. They had intended to tip the scale back with more good memories there together, but now…

"Clean slate, okay?"

Remus nodded and squeezed her back.

"What happened to the lights?"

"They cut the power."

After a little while of this, someone cleared their throat and they broke apart to find Tonks's parents standing across the sitting room.

"Won't you join us for some tea, Remus," Andromeda invited. "I think all we have things to discuss."

Tonks and Remus followed them back to the dining area. They had already poured another mug.

"Thank you for your hospitality, Mrs. Tonks, Mr. Tonks," Remus said, barely sitting on the edge of his chair. "I'll…we'll…I'll be on my way…"

Andromeda waved him off. "First, please call me Andromeda and him Ted, as we've discussed before. Second, won't you stay with us?"

"Stay?" Remus asked, like the idea had never occurred to him. It had barely occurred to Tonks. Move back in with her parents?

"For as long as you like, as long as you need, as long as you can stand us." Andromeda gave a self-deprecating chuckle. "You both need a roof, and we'd feel much better with the two of you around."

Move back in with her parents indefinitely?

"But…" Remus started.

"At least for tonight," Andromeda cut in. "It's too late to figure out anything else."

"But I'm…"

"It's really easier if you don't argue, son," Ted said. "I thought you would have figured that out by now."

Tonks crumpled up a napkin and tossed it at him.

"I'm a…!"

"They know already," Tonks said. "You've told them enough times. We'll figure something out."

Remus hesitated, then relented. "All right."

It was obvious what he had been calculating. Ten days until the full moon. Plenty of time.

"I'm sure this will look better in the daylight, so if you'll all excuse me, I'm going to take a short cut." Andromeda replied, getting up. She took her and Ted's empty mugs into the kitchen. "Remus, Nymphadora can show you to where you'll be sleeping," she added when she passed back through the dining room. "Good night."

"I'll head up too," Ted said, following her to the stairs. "We'll bring you both some pajamas and clothes."

Tonks turned to Remus, sure that he would start protesting again now that it was one on one, but he surprised her.

"What do you think about staying here?" he asked. "They're your parents."

Honestly, Tonks had to give it some thought. She started to pull her feet up to the seat of the chair with her knees in front of her, paused when she remembered she was wearing a dress, and proceeded anyway.

"But what would we do?" she asked eventually. "Who knows how long we'll be stuck here? Do we play board games every night? Start having Taco Tuesdays?"

"I don't know," Remus admitted. "But the Death Eaters clearly think your parents are a target...they're not fighters, Tonks."

He was right. If it had taken just a little longer to turn away the Death Eaters that attacked the Burrow, or if Tonks and Remus had decided to check on their own house first, she might not have parents anymore. That felt like a punch in the chest.

"They're in danger because of me. If I wasn't in the Order they could just hide like we did during the last war."

"I'm not sure that's true, the last war never got this far. So we're staying?"

Tonks nodded. "At least for now." But she knew she wasn't fooling anyone. The four of them would stay together for the duration.

"I'll just double check the wards," Remus said, touching her knee as he stood.

After seeing to their still full mugs of tea, Tonks decided to take care of boarding up the fireplace. Remus must have been doing a very thorough job checking over the wards, because he was still at it by the time she was finished. Tonks let him work and turned instead to the abandoned bundle of objects they had left inside his cloak near the door. She pulled open a fold and found her own face beaming up at her. It was a picture from their wedding day. The frame was cracked and the glass broken but the picture itself looked unharmed. She tried to repair the frame but a large piece of glass was missing, she could not do much without it. Deeper inside, she found her favorite coat, and finally a stack of comic books. Those had made up the bulk of the bundle. She extracted the Spiderman comic "The Night Gwen Stacy Died" and flipped through its worn pages.

"At least they left those," Remus said, coming up behind her.

"Probably didn't know what they were," Tonks sniffed, shutting the book and getting to her feet. "I haven't seen my room here in a while and they use it for guests sometimes. This could be embarrassing, but come on up. I'm dead on my feet."

Remus followed her to her childhood bedroom where, as promised, two pairs of pajamas and a few sets of day clothes waited for them. Those took some stretching and shrinking to bring them to the correct proportions, and in Tonks' case, the removal of some frills and flowers. The features of the room came next: they had to expand the bed so it could accommodate two people, then increase the dimensions of the room to give themselves space to move. The location was close enough to her parents' room to be awkward, but nothing a silencing charm couldn't fix, she supposed. Remus remarked on her multitude of Weird Sisters posters, but left off and examined the bookshelf instead while she took them down.

They settled down under the covers with their hands clasped and foreheads touching, but every time Tonks closed her eyes she saw the split second where Molly threw herself between Ginny and Rookwood and Tonks threw a table between them and the curse he sent at them, or else the time when Remus only dodged one of Rodolphus's curses because he stumbled over a fallen Death Eater at the right second, or any one of a hundred other terrifyingly close calls.

"Are you awake?" she whispered.

"Yeah," Remus whispered back. "You?"

Tonks smiled in spite of herself.

"I don't know why, but I thought we'd have more time."

"Me too. It's hard to believe all that really happened."

He pressed his lips against her knuckles.

"What are we gonna do?" she asked.

He just shook his head and pulled her closer.