A/N: Hello again, everyone! Sorry for the late update, but I've been really busy these days. That and my mind doesn't really work chronologically, I wrote a few things from future chapters (been working on the last one and the epilogue) so, the waiting will be worthy, I promise you that!

Anyway, who said that I was able to stop posting on special dates, huh? ;) So, this one is for Teddy Remus Lupin! 'A great wizard in the making!' Literally … Happy birthday, Teddy! ^_^ He would be fourteen today.

I'll try to update again real soon (2nd of May is pretty close, isn't it?) and I hope you guys enjoy this chapter!

CHAPTER 3: Grimmauld Place

The feeling that the Order was now officially reunited and they were doing something useful to the Wizarding world took over Remus and Tonks, renewing their energies as much as the dreamless night they just had, or at least the one they thought they did.

The afternoon of the following day found Tonks lying lazily on her couch, the previous night had marked a new period in her life. She was trying to decide on what to do with her messy living-room; this new way of living would really require a higher level of organisation from her and what better place to start organising your life than your own home? If someone asked, she would say that she simply did not have the time to organise everything, even though she would need only a few flicks from her wand to get it all in place, but deep down, she knew that the mess in her small flat provided a sensation of home, reminding her of her own father.

A mischievous smile appeared in her lips as the solution to her problem came to her mind. A single flick of her wand and a few of her things moved into place.

'Perfect!'

Not everything was organised, just enough to see that it was still messy and for her to know where to search when she needed something.

The report on her desk was waiting to be read, but she decided to give herself a break, she would already have the whole night working and the next day off so, she could spare a few hours relaxing now. Turning to the stereo, she waved her wand and her favourite album of The Weird Sisters began to play.

Sirius owled Dumbledore on that same afternoon and the pair of them agreed to meet Remus at the entrance of the number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

Not many minutes had passed and the three of them were standing where the number twelve was supposed to be. Taking out his wand, Sirius took a deep breath and casted the few spells to reveal the house, just like he did so many times in the past. With his father being a control freak when it came to their house, Orion gave the house all kind of magical protection he could, which was exactly why Sirius knew it was so perfect for the Order's Headquarters. There was no safer house in the whole United Kingdom.

The neglect was obvious to anyone who looked at the house's exterior, dirty walls and grimy windows would give away the fact that the Black residence was not inhabited. Sirius could still remember very well the last day he had put a foot in there. A huge fight with his parents almost twenty years before; he looked like he was going to take off some tufts of his own hair, he opened the door as a good host should do. For many years now, The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black had only one resident, Kreacher, the house-elf. Practically insane nowadays, after so much time living on his own having no living soul to interact with, just the portrait of his previous mistress, Walburga Black.

'Homenum Revelio!' Dumbledore casted the spell as soon as the trio stepped inside the house. After a few seconds of silence, they relaxed; the house was empty.

Remus touched a piece of furniture nearby as they entered the house and raising his fingers full of dust, he asked 'How long since someone at least attempted to clean this place?'

'No idea,' Sirius answered, shrugging, somewhat moody for having to enter that place again and crossing his arms over his chest to avoid touching anything as if he would be contaminated. 'My lovely mother died about ten years ago and, as long as I know, no one else entered this place.' He continued to walk noticing the differences from when he last lived there. 'They came to me in Azkaban to tell me that I had inherited … this … place' he scrunched while saying the last two words, 'and our old house-elf. Must've gone away somewhere once he realised there was no one else here … Now that I think of it, he needs to serve our family until he's freed or dies …' Sirius shrugged and continued to walk. 'Yeah, don't know and don't really ca―' he was interrupted as they entered the next room, leaving the hall.

'YOU! HOW DARE YOU ENTER THIS HOUSE?'

Remus and Sirius frowned looking at each other before start running to where the sound was coming from. A painting was pointing at him while shouting her lungs out.

'BLOOD TRAITOR! AND HE BROUGHT ALONG THE HALFBREED!'

'Shut up, you bloody woman! SHUT UP!' Sirius stood there in front of his mother's portrait for a long moment in a battle of insults against the painting.

Lupin and Dumbledore were left watching the spectacle until Remus took out his wand and casted a Silencing Charm on it, but without luck, the woman simply got even angrier with it. However, the Headmaster noticed curtains around the frame and walked to the painting with the purpose of trying to stop the screaming.

The task proved to be more difficult than what he had imagined it to be and Remus ran to help him, Mrs Black kept yelling at them and the curtains seemed to not really want to be closed. It was not until Sirius joined them that they finally were able to close them and shut the portrait.

Silence echoed as they carefully walked towards the kitchen, they did not want to give the portrait a reason to wake up and start it all over again.

'I believe we have found a great place for our meetings,' Dumbledore stated happily as they entered and he saw the big table in the middle.

'Indeed,' Lupin agreed leaning against the door and crossing his arms over his chest.

Sirius nodded sadly, whilst walking around the room, this was the confirmation that he would have to live in a place he had hated for so many years. Remus noticed the sadness of his best mate and wished that things were different, that they could find another place for the Order meetings, but there was no hope to find a better place, not after seeing how good the number twelve, Grimmauld Place fit.

'We still need more magical protection casted here. The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix will always be one of the main targets to Voldemort and his followers. However, we ought to make sure that they don't already know we are here,' turning to Sirius, he continued 'If you could stay here for the night and if everything goes well, we can start with the more powerful ones in the morning.'

Sirius nodded one more time.

'Not a problem.'

'I'll keep you company,' Remus patted his shoulder. 'We'll take shifts.'

'Excellent!' The Headmaster clapped once and started to walk outside. Sirius exhaled heavily rubbing the back of his neck.

'Gonna go upstairs, check on my room. Wanna come?'

'Sure.' They had already climbed one flight of stairs when Remus asked 'Do you think it will be very different? What do you reckon your parents did with it after you left?'

'Nah,' Sirius laughed. 'Made sure that old hag wouldn't be able to touch it.'

They reached the last landing and Sirius smirked as he opened the door with his name on it. The room was almost just like he had left it. Clothes on the floor, which he left there in his hurry to leave the house and the most important: all his banners, posters and pictures were still on the walls.

'Now we're talking!' He smiled despite the fact that his teenager self hated to live in that place. Now, at least it was allowing him some sort of comfort from the hiding.

Remus slightly shook his head with a smile.

'Do you think she tried to take them out?'

'Oh, 'm sure she did!' said Sirius, looking around the room. 'Bet she tried to throw away every tiny little thing that reminded her of me.' He stepped forward to have a better look of one of the pictures, four Hogwarts' students having the time of their lives as they laughed at the camera. 'Permanent Sticking Charm,' he stated as he tried to take it off.

'No matter how much she tried, she would never take it out.'

Sirius clenched his teeth as he looked at the shortest of the boys, it was already far too painful to be there, if he allowed his hate for that man to take over, he would not be able to handle so, he looked away, glancing now at the Gryffindor banners and Remus did the same, both of them glad that he chose not to be like his pure-blood parents.

A quiet sound of footsteps brought them back to reality and they met each other's gaze, alarmed. Dumbledore had made sure that the house was empty as soon as they entered, didn't he? And the house was unplottable, nobody could find it. Right?

Their hearts were beating very fast as they left Sirius's room to the hallway. From where they were, they could see a small shadow climbing down the stairs. Sirius frowned, why there was something familiar about that figure?

He stopped abruptly when he reached the first steps, causing the other Marauder to collide with his back, but he barely moved. '… Kreacher?'

'Kreacher wonders who that might be, he is talking to Kreacher, but Kreacher doesn't know who he is,' said the House-elf in a deep bullfrog, facing his feet. 'Kreacher lives to serve the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black.'

Remus and Sirius exchanged a surprise look, neither of them would think that the house-elf would still be living in the house, not after it was abandoned so long ago.

'Kreacher wonders if he is worthy of talking to Kreacher, he talks as if he knew Kreacher, but Kreacher doesn't remember him.'

'Worthy of talking to you? Who do you thin― You still believe in that crap that my paren― I am worthy of talking to you! I'm Sirius, Kreacher! Sirius Black!'

'Sirius, calm down. He's probably jus―'

'Calm down? Calm down? Did you hear what he just said?'

'I did, I'm not deaf, but I think you shou―'

'Get out of here!' Sirius turned to Kreacher and ordered in a fit of rage. On top of everything, now he would need to deal with one more reminder of the awful life his parents led?

Remus could not help but to smile as he remembered the last time he saw a living member of the Black family had an explosion out of something that was rather small, although, neither of them would ever admit that the matter was small. Tonks's hair growing orange just because Sirius had murmured her name during the meeting and now, Sirius yelling at the house-elf because of the way he was brought up, the vision of blood purity that his parents had. Not to mention how Walburga's portrait had reacted when she saw Sirius in the house. There was something in the Black blood that would lead to extreme reactions, whoever married one of them would have a hard time, but then, whoever did out of love and not because of the purity of their blood would have a marvellous relationship, the extreme reactions were not only because of anger, Remus knew how much Sirius could love his friends and he had no doubt that if Sirius ever found someone to love would have been something wonderful.

The elf continued to go down stairs at Sirius command.

'It's Kreacher's old master, the boy who left the house. Kreacher wonders why he is back …'

'AND MAKE US SOME DINNER!'

Remus glared at Sirius, crossing his arms, but he ignored his friend. If he would have to put up with him, at least he could enjoy the good side of it.

Half an hour before the scheduled time, Tonks found herself ready and anxious to start her first mission as a member of the Order of the Phoenix. Arthur, she was reminded by Kingsley, was her friend Charlie's father. He would be her partner for the night and for what she could remember Charlie saying, he seemed like a cool parent, a bit crazy for Muggle things true, but at least he could be a laugh.

She Apparated at the Atrium and headed towards the lifts. There was no purpose in waiting alone at home, if she was going to spend her time anxious, at least she should do something good out of it and try to learn something useful about the shifts they were doing at the Hall of the Prophecy.

The Ministry was nearly empty at that Sunday night and she started to sing one of the many The Weird Sisters' songs she had heard earlier. Not a soul was at the lift she entered, which just made everything louder, the sound of the golden grilles closing, the lift jangling and rattling as it was descending and the result of that was Tonks becoming even more nervous than what she already was. Not even when the lift was in the second floor, she allowed herself to smile, it seemed she was far too tense for that. She was leaving the comfort zone that the Department of Law and Enforcement provided and entering an unknown territory, where the Dark Lord was a constant menace.

When the female voice announced 'Department of Mysteries,' she stepped outside the lift and walked to the plain black door in front of her. Opening it, she found herself in a large, circular room. Everything in there was black; ceiling, floor, walls, a few candles with blue flames were floating between a dozen of doors, equally black.

There was something odd about that situation, Dumbledore did not say anything about lots of rooms, how could she know where to go? Was she in the right place? She looked back at the lift behind her, but she was sure of what the voice said, this was the Department of Mysteries. Leaning against the open door, she stared at the other ones, searching for something that could let her know where she should go.

Her Auror training told her not to let go of the open door, it was the only thing she knew that was safe. Who knew what could happen once she closed that door and stood there by herself in that black room? Tonks draw her wand out and was about to try to open one of the doors with a spell, so she would not need to walk to it when one of the doors swung open. Kingsley walked in the circular room and looked at her with a grin.

'You arrived early.'

'Yeah … Didn't want to be late in my first mission and I didn't have anything interesting to do at home, so I decided to come and see if there was something I could learn about the shift or whatever.' She blushed, but remembered to quickly cover it with her abilities as she shrugged. 'Didn't expect to see you around, though,' she added. 'You were the one on guard yesterday too, right?'

Kingsley nodded.

'I volunteered for today too.' He smiled. 'Nothing interesting to do at home, you see.' He winked at her and let go of his door then asked 'Close the door.'

'But –'

'Go on, trust me.'

Tonks closed it and the room swirled around them; the blue candles making blurs in their visions, she kept her wand at hand until it stopped.

'The Hall of the Prophecy,' Kingsley called as if asking someone, Tonks arched an eyebrow at him and was about to mock him when a door opened and he walked over with a smile on his face.

'Wow!' Tonks exclaimed. 'That's practical.'

'It certainly is. Anyway, came out here to show you the way.' He held the door opened to her as she walked towards him. 'Your partner is already here, so you can go inside. Corridor Ninety-seven.'

'Thanks.' She smiled as she stepped inside, glancing at the tons of sphere prophecies in the room.

'Oh! And Tonks?'

'Yeah?'

'Remember: Constant Vigilance!' he said, causing her to roll her eyes at him, but joined him and both chuckled.

Twirling her wand, she started to walk inside the room once Kingsley had closed the door. It was dark, so Tonks decided to light up her wand. 'Lumos!' Illuminating the corridors numbers, she paid attention at everything, but the room was as silent as a graveyard, the only sound in it was her own footsteps.

After a while another sound of footsteps joined her own, but there was something metallic about this one, Tonks would recognise it anywhere in the world.

'Mad-Eye?' she asked, frowning. 'But I thought … Mr Weasley – Hey, wow!'

Moody was pointing his wand directly at her chest and she kept a firm grip around her own. What was he doing?

'What was the first thing you ever said to me?' he asked not lowering his wand.

'But what are – Why are yo―'

'Answer the question!'

Tonks smiled recalling her very first day of Auror training.

'I'm gonna drive you mad. Oh wait! I won't. You already are.' She allowed herself to laugh, seeing his face now and how similar it was to the one he looked at her at that time, the regret for choosing such question was clear in his eyes or was it because she knew him so well? 'That was a good one, you know it was.'

Moody ignored her altogether.

'I had to make sure it was you,' he explained, finally lowering the wand.

'Yeah, but … Metamorphmagus, Mad-Eye. Couldn't you just have asked me to change my hair colour or something?'

'We've been through this already! You're not the only one in the world.' He re-started to walk toward the corridor they were supposed to keep guard.

'Yeah, but –' she started, walking behind him.

'This is serious business, Nymphadora!'

'Don't call me that!' Her orange hair was giving away her anger and she clenched her teeth to try to calm herself, morphing her hair back to pink, she knew he was right. But well, how many times had she told him not to call her that?

'If you showed some respect to –'

'Are you saying I don't respect you? You're really high on my list of admirable people and you know that!'

'You could at leas―'

'OK, OK. Look …' she interrupted him, raising her hands as a sign of redemption and stopping to walk. 'I'm sorry, all right? Though, you know you shouldn't have done it too. What do you say if we both stop all of this and get to your "serious business"?'

Moody glared at her, searching for any sign that she was mocking of him, finding none, he re-started to walk.

'Fine!'

With hushed steps to catch up with him, Tonks lit the corridors near them before saying 'So this is why Shacklebolt said "Constant Vigilance"! Makes way more sense now … Yeah …' Tonks smiled despite the fact that she had not been able to catch such a clear cue. 'You never answered my question, though. What are you doing here? Mr Weasley was supposed to be my partner today and you were supposed to be recovering.'

'I … I thought that with you doing the shift …' Had he just admitted it? 'Madam Pomfrey allowed me to leave as long as I promised to eat properly and stopped by tomorrow for a few more exams,' he added quickly hoping that she had not noticed the first part.

But something like that would not just go unnoticed by her.

'Don't you think I can take care of myself?'

'S'not that! You've proved me loads of times that you can.'

'Good,' she interrupted him, crossing her arms over her chest and waiting for his real answer.

'Just thought you'd be better in your first mission with someone that knows you better. Someone needs to make sure you won't break all the prophecies.'

'Were you worried about me?' she grinned, taking Moody out of his comfort zone was one of her favourite things to do.

'Never said that!'

'You were! You so were! Are you growing soft, Moody?' she teased him with a grin, but he simply ignored her once more.

'This is the corridor we're supposed to keep guard.' He pointed to the number ninety-seven just above them. 'Every hour one of us will take a walk to the door and back, searching for everything, did you hear me? Everything.'

'Aye aye, captain,' Tonks chuckled, despite losing a whole night of sleep, she knew that with Moody as her partner, she would end up at least having some fun.