2: An Interesting Challenge

Instead Tonks found herself facing a middle-aged, rather thin man, wearing shabby Muggle clothing, and sporting a pale, almost peaky-looking face, and a shock of quite tousled, light-brown hair. While her work-induced urge to look behind all mysteries still tried to figure out why she´d instinctively pinned the stranger´s age at having reached its early mid-thirties in spite of the fact that his hair was streaked with grey and his face rahter lined the man stopped a few feet away from her and regarded her in apparent surprise.

Tonks attempted to stare him down with her sternest Auror-like glare, a skill she´d picked up from Professor McGonagall funnily enough since the respectable professor had used it rather frequently on her when she´d been a student but the stranger merely raised an eyebrow at her talents.

"Quite intimidating" he remarked, obviously referring to her would-be authoritarian stance "this´ll frigthen the living daylights out of Dumbledore, I´m sure, provided you make it till his office, of course."

To her utter shame Tonks had to admit that it took her several moments to come up with a witty enough response; time she spend staring at the man´s perfectly calm expression and pleasant smile, replaying his words in her mind until she was sure he´d really said what she thought she´d heard. Finally she shot back.

"Don´t they teach you at least the basic principles of showing respect to one´s superiors out there in the great, no-holds-barred Muggle world?"

Orignally Tonks had planned to accompany these fierce words with an even more fierce stare, her arms firmly crossed over her chest. But when she prepared to do so, she found herself looking up in the man´s not at all offended face, and all of a sudden she wanted to burst out laughing about her own ridiculously shakeable ego that couldn´t bear a single jibe by a stranger.

She thought she´d seen the man´s eyes nearly brim over with sudden sparks for a moment but obviously she´d been wrong for he bowed his head and answered in an almost prim voice, not quite meeting her eyes.

"I should like to apologize. Apparently I´m posing as an extraordinary poor inferior once again, wrongly associating superiority with obstrusive professionalism, boring colours of hair, and the ability of remembering the entire sortiment of Honeyduke´s sweets for purely professional purposes."

"That´s indeed a rather misleading concept of recognizing superiority" Tonks nodded, before stopping dead in her train of thought. She fell silent for the millionth fraction of a moment, then bursted out.

"Pardon me!? What the bloody hell are you alluding to?"

She had to really grant it to him. The great joker actually managed to lead her up Knockturn Alley just a few mortifying seconds longer by heaving a fairly convincing display of indignation on his face and frowning with rightful bewilderment, before letting slip a strangled splutter, closely followed by an amused huff.

"You" he admitted, finaly giving in. He no longer avoided looking her straight in the face, and his whole stance had shifted towards a more sophisticated but strangly self-concious bearing.

Plus his strikingly light-coloured eyes performed a most curious dance, fuelled by a seemingly great amount of personal amusement. To Tonks it appeared that the man was biting back a huge grin at her expense.

"I´m sorry" he unexpectedly added, sounding thorougly honest "it´s seems I´m having a bad day. - Usually I try not to behave as rudely, mocking the professionality of strangers, especially the one of obviously extraordinary talented witches who´ve managed to join the Auror programme at that young an age."

Tonks frowned at him, wondering what kind of wool he was now trying to pull over her eyes; this time however she couldn´t detect any sign of mischief in his expression.

"S´all right" she mumbled, for some obscure reason feeling fairly embarrassed and concurrently highly alarmed at her frightening reluctance to be annoyed with this pair of kind eyes peering at her out of an ill-looking face. A grown-up woman ought to react with distinguished indignation at having been wound up in such a way by a completely strange man, shouldn´t they?

However, Tonks found his stunt rather hilarious actually. Oh well, apparently she´d never quite find her way around this lady-like comportment stuff, a minefield her mother used to float above with dreamlike certainty. Bugger it, anyway.

"D´you like Acid Pops?" the stranger´s slightly hoarse voice suddenly broke into her resigned musings.

"What?" Tonks said, blinking in a confused way.

"I wondered if you liked Acid Pops?" he repeated pleasantly.

"Uh, I don´t think so?"

The man laughed softly.

"Seems Dumbledore doesn´t either" he remarked with a sidewards glance at the gargoyle still determinedly guarding the entrance to the headmaster´s office.

"Who would anyway?" Tonks chuckled, grasping on and happily joining in on the game "if I went for mind-expanding through cauterizing my tongue, I´d rather use my mum´s Muggle cleaning vinegar, that´s much cheaper to get off with.- So, what about you? D´you fancy Pepper Imps?"

He pulled a face at her and the gargoyle didn´t react too over-enthusiastically either.

"I couldn´t quite say so. In fact, I always wondered how they managed to sell those off under the label of ´sweets´." He paused to consider her thoughtfully.

"I bet you love Bertie Bott´s-"

"Every–Flavour Beans" he added with a shrewd look at the obstinate guard still blocking their way.

Tonks smacked her lips.

"Absolutely" she nodded, peering at the goal "but it seems Dumbledore prefers less adventurous experiences at the moment. Hmm- a bit of ego-boosting maybe. You´re a chocolate frogs fan?"

The man laughed merrily.

"Nice try" he congratulated "but no. Chocolate always and everywhere; I don´t really fancy hunting after my food though-"

For a split second Tonks thought she´d seen a most curious look cross his thin face but probably it had only been a cloud hiding the sun for a moment outside.

"-it´s rather Stone-agey, I think. The same goes for Peppermint Toads, by the way."

"Suit yourself. So now we´ve arrived at the soft stuff, haven´t we? Coconut Ice or Ice Mice perhaps?"

The gargoyle still didn´t agree. Tonks frowned at it, hoping for a source of inspiration that didn´t present itself.

Her companion meanwhile tweaked the bridge of his nose, apparently thinking hard.

"What was it they attempted to palm off on me lately? It struck me totally inedible, even when I didn´t know it was- Cockroach Clusters, of course."

Eventually the gargoyle leapt aside, obviously not caring for the disgusted glance the man cast it.

"Well, as long as you don´t have to actually eat the stuff in order to gain entrance…" he then commented, beckoning at the spiral stone staircase the sliding apart of the wall had revealed,

"after you, if you please."

Stepping on to the moving stairs Tonks grinningly quipped,

"It´d certainly keep all evil Death Eaters and boring Ministry superiors at bay."

His low chuckle inaugurated the circling upwards of Dumbledore´s enchanted staircase and only after they´d knocked at his office door and the headmaster´s voice had welcomed them inside, it struck Tonks as unusual that she neither knew her companion´s name nor his motives for paying Dumbledore a visit.

The Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry was seated behind his desk, smiling at his two visitors with his head resting upon his clasped hands and his eyes twinkling merrily. Tonks also spotted a rigid back that almost certainly had to belong to Professor McGonagall, as well as the tall frame of Kingsley Shacklebolt leaning against the window sill.

"Good afternoon, Remus," Dumbledore said, obviously addressing Tonk´s up until now nameless acquaintance who was quietly closing the door behind them "and you of course Miss Tonks. It is my honour to welcome you again inside this castle. May I thank you in advance for troubling to attend today´s meeting."

Tonks felt like being a schoolgirl again- the blushing included in the gift wrapping.

"Um, thank you too, Headmaster. It´s my pleasure…I actually don´t really know why I´m here though" she added, wincing at her own words. Was there anything more unprofessional sounding you could possibly say under such circumstances? Probably not.

Dumbledore naturally didn´t appear to have noticed anything, at least if you didn´t count his smile increasing the tiniest bit in visibility.

"I´m quite confident we might be able to remedy this," he answered pleasantly "if I may offer you all some sort of seating accomodation?"

With a little flick of his wand three aditional squashy chintz armchairs appeared out of nowhere. Tonks immeadiately made to shuffle towards them, relieved to have something to do with herself, and unavoidablely bumped into one of their armrests when the man called Remus moved it for her to sit upon. People didn´t usually do things like this for her though.

When Kingsley had joined them as well Dumbledore looked at the lot of them fondly before addressing himself to Tonks again.

"I take it you remember your former professor for Transfiguration" he remarked, his blue eyes twinkling cheerfully.

"You may call me Minerva now, Nymphadora" Professor Mc Gonagall conceded generously, nodding her approval of this preferential treatment.

"As long as you don´t call me Nymphadora," Tonks muttered very quietly, aloud she said "I´ll try my best."

Kingsley sniggered at her.

"I also take it you already got to know Remus Lupin?" Dumbledore continued in an enquiring tone. Smiling at the man mentioned Tonks explained,

"Yes, we met downstairs, in front of-" Stop, what had Dumbledore said his name was? Remus Lupin? Surely that didn´t mean he was …

Hastingly she glanced at Kingsley, expecting him to frown at her in exasperation but to her utter horror her superior´s face was unusually sober and totally unforthcoming. This left Tonks to frantically look for the flaw in her train of thought which hopefully would deliver her from one of the most mortifying situations of her young life; the sudden silence though soon felt so unbearable to her that she forced herself to say something, anything. Blushing hard she choked,

"Eh, I, eh…didn´t-" –find myself an Unforgiveable quickly enough.

"-think that werewolves were capable of spelling the word ´joke´, let alone recognizing its benefits in every-day small talk? - Hmm, sorry for having to disillusion you but I absolutely detest rare meat and usually hold the Honeyduke´s sweets sortiment in great honour."

As impossible as it was but the soft voice having spoken actually belonged to Remus himself and he´d sounded as pleasant as all the time earlier. Tonks stared at him blankly, entirely forgetting about everyone else present. Remus was smiling at her and it a was very strange smile. A little bit weary, quite ironic, and very self-concious perhaps.

Later on it struck Tonks as strange that she had not for a single second felt anything remotely related to fear, or disgust, or what people usually reported after having encountered a Dark Creature; but at the moment she could only feel incredulity on his behalf and utter mortification on hers.

Learning of this man being a werewolf sounded definetely very similar to her mum breaking the news to her that Aunt Bella had started to arrange for family heirlooms given out to destitute Muggle-borns; Tonks however decided that this was something that could be dealt with later. First of all she would have to account for her unacceptible behaviour on understanding about the man and her incapability to- preferably earlier- note his condition in tactfully silent acknowledgement.

Tonks allowed herself to close her eyes for a brief second, then took a deep breath, and said in a comparatively steady voice,

"I´m sorry, Remus. I really shouldn´t have stared at you as if you were a curiosity at the zoo or whatnot. I was just so- well, utterly astonished."

She could feel herself blush even more ferociously and bit her lip in annoyance with herself before chanching a glance at him.

What she got to see took her completely by surprise- if the surprise element wouldn´t ´ve been abolished before.

Apparently Remus had been watching her almost thoughtfully and on catching her peering at him he smiled an encouraging smile that was obviously intended to console her. The only question was what he thought she needed consolation for. For her own inefficiency? Tonks had to defer these thoughts at the moment though for Remus had started to talk, sounding suddenly very serious.

"I can´t think of anything you would have to apologize for, Tonks."

Tonks opened her mouth to protest but he wouldn´t let her. For some totally obscure reason he was grinning again; his tone one of light joking.

"Actually, going bright red is quite pleasant a way to react after hearing about my condition, I find. I´ve had girls running away from me, screaming murder, old ladies employing their handbags on me…"

This was clearly going over the top now. If this was the way he preferred to deal with the situation then she certainly was fed up with embarrassing herself in her stammering search for a suitable apology he didn´t seem likely to acknowledge any need for anyway. Jesting she could as well.

"I could develop things if you liked. Could even try to do all three things at the same time but this might turn out to become a bit of a co-ordination problem for me…"

Eventually she seemed to have hit the right approach. His grin broading with obvious relief Remus countered,

"Running away and hitting me at the same time? This would certainly be a new development in achievement."

Dumbledore quietly cleared his throat and Tonks could only just refrain from mumbling something like,

"About time."

"I´m sure it would be a very entertaining performance to enjoy but maybe we could postpone the procedure for awhile?"

As nobody held any objections to this suggestion the headmaster continued in total composure,

"After having established the personal issues we might now proceed to the more professional ones, I daresay. Let me explain why I asked you to attend this meeting, Miss Tonks."

In summary it turned out to be a highly illuminating and most exciting afternoon. Tonks got to hear the exclusively true story behind her infamous cousin Sirius Black´s life from the mouth of an eye-witness and she honestly couldn´t spot a single reason why she shouldn´t believe in this account, even if it lead to the inevitable conclusion that You-Know-Who really was back. If Albus Dumbledore said so then it was the truth and anyway Tonks presumed that this piece of information didn´t frighten her half as much as it obviously did the Ministry since she had only vague recollections of the time of You-Know-Who´s first reign. Things like not being allowed to play outside and lots of ragings and storms of cries from her mother.

And there was of course- so Tonks had to grudgingly admit- the fact that she didn´t manage to pay full attention to the on-going conversation. Her previous chat and- much more important- non-chat with Remus just didn´t flee her mind. She couldn´t possibly make out what exactly bothered her about her behaviour or his or anything and this was what buggered her most. Actually, she found his humorous way of dealing with his condition quite endearing and admirable as well so why did it feel that queer to her?

At last Tonks could only silently shrug to herself. Probably her pride was merely protesting at having been fooled in such a way. Thoughtfully she regarded the almost worn-through knees of Remus´trousers, noticing that his shoe laces didn´t match, and promised herself that she would eventually succeed in sussing this man out and if it was the only useful thing she could achieve for her spiritual welfare and this Order of the Phoenix.