Chapter 2

The first few days of the cycle were always hard, and Lupin found himself, once again, unable to sleep. As he got up with effort and pulled on his dressing gown, he glanced at the bedside clock, which read five past five in the morning. The best he could do was probably go down to the kitchen and read the morning Daily Prophet, which seemed to be arriving earlier than usual lately, no doubt because of Fudge's determination to implant into people's minds his ridiculous opinions of Dumbledore and Harry being plonkers and Voldemort not returning.

"YOU FILTHY HALFBREED, GET OUT OF MY HOUSE! YOU POISONOUS WEREWOLF! YOU DISGRACE-

Lupin jumped as he was confronted with the picture of Mrs Black. She had started yelling when he had turned a corner and had came into her view. Her booming voice was bound to wake the whole househouse, but as he moved his hand to grab his wand from his robe, a sudden rush of air blew past him, and the curtains were abruptly closed, silencing Mrs Black.

Lupin turned around sharply, bewildered that anyone, apart from himself, should be awake so early in the morning.

"Wotcher Remus," said Tonks hoarsely, beaming at him. It appeared that she must have just woken too, for she was still in her pyjamas, her hair a light brown, probably due to not being fully awake.

"Hello Tonks," said Lupin, visibly stunned. "I'm sorry, did I-wake you?"

"Oh, not at all. No, I was just er, well, I, um, I heard some footsteps, wondered who it was, that's all. Have to have a good ear to be an auror see?" said Tonks, laughing lightly. Lupin merely smiled however. He wondered why she hadn't made herself known earlier.

After a moment's silence where the two stood awkwardly, Lupin finally asked, "Would you like to have breakfast?"

"Yeah, why not. I mean, after all that screeching I don't think I could go back to bed," said Tonks, before walking past Lupin with a smile, heading downstairs.

….

"You know, sometimes I wish that I could cook and help when I'm here, instead of dealing with doxies and boggarts all the time," mumbled Tonks as she attempted to make the frypan flip a pancake on it's own with her wand. Lupin reacted before she did, and managed to make the pancake bounce back into the frying pan before landing on the floor.

"But then again, I can see why Molly avoids giving me kitchen chores," finished Tonks with a sheepish grin as she took the plates of pancakes to the table.

"Well, she'll be happy when she comes down this morning to see that we'd already made breakfast. It's, at least, one thing less that she has to deal with," said Lupin sympathetically as he sat down, sighing in exhaustion, which had been caused by his inability to sleep during the night.

"You couldn't sleep last night, could you? That's why you're so tired," said Tonks hesitantly, as she glanced up at Lupin who was looking wearily at his plate of food. Suddenly, he didn't feel so hungry. For some reason, he felt very uncomfortable talking about his "furry problem", as James used to put it, with Tonks but he's wasn't sure why.

"No," said Lupin. "I couldn't."

Just as Tonks was about to pry, the Daily Prophet came swooping into the kitchen, landing in the middle of the table, right between Remus and herself. As they glanced at the headline, she let out a sigh of annoyance, while he started frowning, staring the newspaper with disbelief.

"I don't believe it," said Tonks.

Lupin scrutinised over the picture of Harry, and the Minister grinning with false elegance.

"Paranoia. I always knew that he was a small man with about zero courage. He wants to appease, pretend everything's fine. Just like that blessed muggle Prime Minister did before their second world war in the 40's. This is bad, this is really, really bad Remus," said Tonks, flipping open the newspaper. She scoffed. "I mean, look at this garbage! It's all just propaganda!"

"It's getting worse," said Lupin gravely, still gazing at the newspaper.

"It's impossible isn't it. How can the Order possibly convince people of Voldemort's return if Fudge is constantly shoving this crap down people's throats," said Tonks feebly, her voice ridden with disappointment. If Mad Eye ever saw her acting so soft he probably would have hit her over the head with his staff.

"Hey," said Remus warmly, looking up at her with a reassuring smile and sympathetic eyes, "We'll do it. I can promise you that."

Tonks blinked several times, unsure as to how to react to his ridiculously kind gesture.

"Well, er, I hope so," she replied sharply before tucking into her pancakes, even though she had lost all her appetite. How could he be so painfully nice to her? He hardly knew her.

BANG!

Both Remus and Tonks jilted at the sudden noise and vibration across the room as Sirius had opened the door with a big thump.

"Oh," he said with surprise as he waltzed in, before stopping before the table, taking in the view in front of him. "Wow, you made breakfast? Tonks, you actually cook?"

"As it so happens Sirius I do," said Tonks flatly before rolling her eyes at Lupin, to which he reacted by chuckling silently, his smile reaching his eyes. Tonks instinctively smiled back. Looking back up at Sirius, she saw that he was smirking but barely containing his laughter.

"You two look like a sweet old couple you do," said Sirius bluntly before sitting beside Tonks. Lupin gave no sign of a reaction, still reading the newspaper, but Tonks could not help blushing, her hair turning pinker, as she visibly stiffened in her seat.

"You don't mind do you?" asked Sirius towards Remus, but he merely gestured towards the pancakes before picking up his own cutlery.

"So, why are you down so early?" asked Tonks conservatively, trying to forget Sirius' previous comment.

"I couldn't sleep last night, couldn't get Harry of my mind," said Sirius abruptly but Tonks merely raised her eyebrows.

"Really," she said, unconvinced. "I think I just heard a few minutes ago the front door open and close."

"You heard that?" spluttered Sirius, looking at her incredulously but with a sense of marvel. "Damn it, you aurors are good."

"So, where were you last night?" prodded Tonks with concern, to which Sirius merely shrugged.

"Sirius…" said Tonks again before he let out an exasperated sigh.

"God you sound just like Molly. You mustn't tell her, can you promise me that?"

"Sirius, you know you can't go out, especially now that Fudge is pinning everything on you, now more than ever. Think about Harry and how much danger he got into trying to save you," said Tonks, to which Lupin glanced up with a look of surprise. He didn't know that Sirius had told her about that night.

"You know about that?" he asked, causing Tonks to look in his direction.

"Yes, yes I do," she said softly, staring at Remus' constrained expression. "Sirius has been telling me about you a lot since he got out of Azkaban."

"What exactly has he been saying?" asked Remus with nervousness, to which Tonks smirked at.

"Well, just about everything," said Sirius, wearing the same smirk. Lupin could immediately see their resemblance. They both had the same sense of mischievousness about them.

"Great," he said sarcastically, before taking away their empty plates by waving his wand towards the sink. Tonks watching him worriedly with her eyes, afraid that she had somehow hurt him. That particular night was one which Sirius had said Remus wished not to think about unnecessarily.

"So, how long are you thinking of sticking around here mate?" asked Sirius, sipping his tea. Tonks gave him a look. He was clearly trying to change the subject and avoid telling her where he had been. She let it pass however, just this once.

"I don't know, but I think for a while. Now that Voldemort's back, I suspect Mad Eye's plan is get the Order working again. And anyway, the least I can do is help around here," said Remus before yawning.

"I see. So, you'll be seeing more of Tonks then, won't you?" said Sirius with deliberate delicacy as he got up, taking his empty tea cup to the sink.

"Yes, I guess I will be," said Remus matter-of-factly, glancing at Tonks but not giving anything away as he got up himself. Sirius stared at Remus with surprise. He hadn't expected such an earnest reaction.

"And I'll be able to clear up any absolute garbage that you've been telling her about me," he said, smiling knowingly at Sirius before leaving the kitchen. Tonks still sat at the table, not saying a word while she heard Remus climb up the stairs.

"Wow. Well, he clearly likes you," said Sirius casually after the footsteps had stopped, sitting down opposite Tonks. After a moment's pause he said flirtatiously,

"Question is, do you like him?"

Tonks scowled before shooting up from her seat, knocking over the table slightly before leaving the kitchen as well, muttering about having to clear up the doxies hiding in the bedroom on the second floor.

"I'll take that as a yes then," whispered Sirius to himself, grinning from ear to ear as he helped himself to more pancakes.