"Sometimes, however, the visitors stayed to help. Tonks joined them for a memorable afternoon in which they found a murderous old ghoul lurking in an upstairs toilet,…"

During the days before Harry, Ron, Hermione, Ginny, Fred and George returned to school many of the Order of the Phoenix members stayed to help with the seemingly impossible task of cleaning the Black family house.

Tonks arrived one Saturday morning and began wondering around idly looking for something exciting to do. If she was going to find it anywhere it would be here. She was sitting at the table with her head on the wood listening to Molly hum around the kitchen when Ginny bounded into the room.

"Mum, we need some help upstairs, are you busy?" Her cheeks were red, as if she'd been running around upstairs.

"I'm sorry dear, but I've got heaps of laundry to do. Besides, I thought Sirius was more than capable of disinfesting his own house." Molly said raising her chin. Tonks could tell she was still unforgiving towards Sirius after he let Harry know so much about the Order's work.

"Wotcher Ginny," Tonks asked, raising her head."What's going on?"

Ginny jumped slightly and turned, she seemed to have been unaware that Tonks was in the room.
"Tonks! You can help us! There's an old ghoul lurking in the toilet upstairs. There's a few of us up there, but it's putting up quite a fight," Ginny said grinning. "Sirius and Professor Lupin are getting quite angry with it, it's really funny. Could you help?"

"Sure, I need something to occupy myself with," Tonks said, pulling herself out of her chair and following Ginny up the stairs.

As they proceeded down the corridor, Tonks could hear approaching howls of anger and splashing water, and the occasional scream. Ginny quickened her pace, as she burst through the dark bedroom door Tonks saw Hermione tending to Harry whose eyes were clenched in pain, his forearm slashed open and bleeding swiftly. Ron and Sirius came hurtling out of the small ensuite, Sirius' hair was plastered to his face and Ron was clutching his neck which had turned a very sore salmon pink colour.

"That bloody little-" Ron swore loudly at the top of his voice.

"What's going on?" Tonks asked grinning.

"Tonks! Ghoul . . . in the loo . . . trying to . . . rip out our necks . . . spells . . . not working. . ." Sirius had his hands on his knees and was panting heavily. He turned to Ron after he recovered his breath, "hey quick thinking with the shower curtain, mate."

"Cheers," said Ron smiling, his ears turning beetroot red.

"It's a ghoul," said Hermione as she finished fixing up Harry's arm, "it's physical properties are unlike a human or animals, it resembles a ghost more closely, so many spells are simply reflecting off or passing straight through it."

"And we can't try anything drastic otherwise we'll tear apart the house," said Sirius, wringing out the sleeves of his soaking jacket.

"Um, why don't you just leave it," said Tonks, bending down to pass her wand over Harry's injured arm, healing it in seconds.

"This is my house," Said Sirius as he swept his hair back from his face. "I need to get it into some kind of order if people are going to live here."

Tonks grinned, "Did Molly happen to have a go?"

Sirius gave a tiny nod, rolling his eyes at her. Then he turned and looked around at the rest of them with an expression of mingled alarm and amusement.

"Well I don't know about you lot but this is the most fun I've had in ages!"

"Is this the kind of fun you used to have with the Marauders?" Asked Ginny, running to his side armed with a large cushion from the settee.

Sirius winked at her, "that would be telling." He picked up a poker from the empty fire and tossed it across the room to Harry. "Who's up for round 3? … Wait!"

He turned to the room, where Tonks could hear a gurgling sound and furious breathing. "Remus is still in there," he said.

No sooner had he uttered those words when Lupin came stumbling out of the door, looking absolutely furious.
He tripped and fell backwards and luckily onto the sofa, which was ideally placed. His face was pink, he was breathing fast and his hair was swept back from his face.

"It's no use, I can't grab hold of him long enough, his arms keep squeezing out of my grasp and throttling me," Lupin said leaning back with his eyes closed.

"Proving a tad tricky, is it?" Tonks asked. Remus turned his head to look at her. It took a few seconds before his confused expression turned into a smile.

"Hello," he said.

She gave him a confused smile, "hello."

"I'm sorry Sirius, but nothing seems to be working. I think we're fighting a losing battle here."

"Maybe we should wait until the full moon and set you on him Moony," said Sirius grinning.

Lupin smiled vaguely as he leaned back and stretched his arms behind his head. Tonks looked at him for a moment, he looked so vacant and tired, and almost peaceful. His neck was exposed and all the muscles in his face had relaxed.

"Can I take a look at it, I don't think I've ever seen a ghoul before," said Tonks.

"Be my guest," said Sirius, giving her a warning glance.

"You probably haven't seen one before because they're normally found up the back end of nowhere," said Remus smiling.

"Oi! That's my house you're talking about. I don't know how you can still face them," Sirius gestured to Ron, Harry, Hermione and Ginny. "They've been let down by their old Hogwarts professor, a professor of Defence Against the Dark Arts no less."

Tonks half expected Remus to begin shouting at Sirius about how hard he'd been trying to get rid of the ghoul. But instead he threw his head back and laughed. "You are right Padfoot my old friend, I was a sorry excuse for a teacher."

"You were the best," Harry said from the corner.

Remus bowed his head in thanks, a smile on his face.

Tonks walked forwards into the doorway. She glanced at the porcelain toilet seat; it was in the centre of the room. The floor was covered with water, which had splashed onto the mirror, mixed with some of what looked like Harry's blood.

A small pair of mouldy green eyes were peaking over the top of the seat; they narrowed as she got closer. She felt someone behind her, and turned.

"I'm right behind you," came Lupin's voice.

"I'm sure you're all making this a bigger deal than it is, you've probably all just frightened it half to death, poor thing," she said.

"I admire your optimism, but I'm afraid you're going to be sorely mistaken," she could hear the smile in his voice.

As she approached the gaping hole of the toilet, she could begin to see the ghoul's, for want of a better word, body. It was grey in colour and it appeared to be made out of a substance which had the consistency of custard. It had no bones that she could see, but was held together by a membrane like skin which was bumpy and lumpy. In simple terms it resembled a bag of sick.

Tonks proceeded slowly towards it. She was almost standing with her shins touching the lid, when the ghoul pounced. It launched itself out the toilet, arms reaching out for her neck. With her auror reflexes, quick as lightening, she grabbed a tray of old bath room products and smacked it over the head. Tonks smiled with satisfaction at the metallic clang. Its head was moving as if in a dream, gently swaying like a snake being charmed. Tonks raised her eyebrows at Remus, whose eyebrows were already working their way up his forehead.

"Well that was quite something," she heard him mutter in an impressed tone.

She was about to turn around to face him with a large grin when suddenly she felt something sharply constricting her breathing, something pressing hard against her windpipe. She saw Remus' expression flick from amusement to horror.

"Remus," she gasped. She tried to grab hold of the ghoul's arms but as she did the skin simply dented as though the custard substance had moved from her touch like a bar of soap slipping in her grip.
She could hear the blood pounding in her ears, and her burning desire to breathe, to inhale a lungful of wonderful oxygen. She could feel her eye sight dimming and pins and needles beginning to spike at her feet.

"Help. . ." she coughed. She could hear the splashing of water, and she knew she wouldn't last much longer. She felt light, like a wisp of cloud, ready to blow over at the smallest breeze.

"Stay with me Tonks, stay with me," she heard a voice far away. Was it Remus, she couldn't tell, if only he spoke a bit louder?

Suddenly there was an almighty crash and she felt the pressure release immediately. She felt her legs collapse from under her as she took in a huge breath. But too quickly. Her tongue caught in her throat and she rolled over and began coughing heavily. She found her vision returning, but all she could see was the blurry lime marble floor and small streams of water.

"Tonks?"A small voice came from above her, she felt arms encasing her and gently pulling her upwards and out of the room.

"Yes?" She said stupidly, yawning hugely. She felt herself being placed lightly on the sofa by arms she couldn't see.

"Tonks! Tonks are you alright?" Now she could tell that this was Sirius' voice. Her eyes focused on his worried face, she reached up and patted his stubbled cheek, his eyes softened.

"Yes, I'll live," she closed her eyes and when she opened them again, her vision had improved yet again. The feeling had now returned to all her extremities, but she was feeling a little light-headed. "Just a lapse in concentration on my part, such a rooky mistake."

"We thought you were going to suffocate," she heard Ginny's voice, "he had his hands so tightly around your neck".

"What would Mad-Eye say if I was killed by a toilet loving ghoul," Tonks said weakly. Everyone laughed.

"She'll be fine," announced Sirius, tapping her on the nose. "Remus… What?"

All heads turned to Lupin who was standing in the corner, he took off his damp grey jumper and quickly rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt, looking suddenly business-like.

"Accio," he said and the plunger from the toilet flew out of the room into his outstretched hand. "I have had enough of this," he said, clearly about to do something rash.

"Moony, mate, a plungers not going to do it," said Sirius, looking a little worried.

"Is Professor Lupin alright?" Ginny whispered.

"I think you're about to find out what would have happened if you'd missed one of his detentions." Sirius whispered back.

Lupin didn't respond, he only took out his wand and muttered an incantation over the plunger.
Tonks heard Hermione's intake of breath. Ron was looked at her as if waiting for an explanation.
"He's but a burning curse on it," she whispered, "everything it touches will burn."

Tonks was impressed, but she felt slightly annoyed that she hadn't thought to do that herself.

She looked back at Remus, his forehead now glistening with sweat. He walked forward swiftly and with purpose into the ensuite. Tonks craned her neck, but she couldn't see in the door, from her position on the sofa. There was a lot of splashing and cries again.

And suddenly there was a terrible howling, and a cloud of steam sizzled out of the doorway. The howl reached such a high pitch that everyone had to cover their ears.

Then Remus appeared, with a satisfied look on his face. "Burnt a hole in his skin, he's emptying out into the loo, just give him a little flush Padfoot, and he'll be out of your hair."

Everyone cheered, and Sirius patted him on the back. Hermione, Harry, Ron and Ginny all went into the ensuite to catch a glimpse of the ghoul deflating.

"I'll go down and tell Molly we're in need of some sandwiches," Sirius gave them a smile and edged out of the room.
Remus unrolled his sleeves and pushed his hair out of his face. He looked very tired but happy, she thought. He sat down on the settee next to her.

"You scared me for a second then," he said "Almost in the top 10 most dramatic things that have happened in this house." He grinned

She looked up into his eyes, "I assure you it was unintentional. Did I almost get your jaw to drop to the floor?"

A gentle smile pulled at his features. "Almost, your hair changed colour though."

Tonks frowned to herself, her hair was changing by itself a lot more often than it ever used to. "What colour did it turn?"

"White. It turned white when your windpipe was constricted," he frowned back at her, "does that usually happen?"

"Do I usually have a constricted windpipe?" She asked almost giggling, she saw him withstand the urge to roll his eyes. "No, it is odd that it seems to be changing of its own accord this often, it's more than usual. I mean when I was a teenager it was changing weekly because of my extreme changes in mood, but my mum said the books told her it was to be expected."

"You had violent mood swings when you were a teenager?" He asked smiling, he hung his arm over the back of the settee.

"Like you wouldn't believe," she said smiling. "I could part a crowd in Hogwarts if they saw me coming down from the common room with black hair and a sordid expression."

"I bet that was a sight. How did the teachers deal with it?"

"Well Professor Sprout, my head of house, was always mega supportive about it, she's a lovely woman. But I swear McGonagall decided whether or not she was going to put me in detention by the way I looked when I came into her class."

Remus raised his eyebrows, "Sirius never said you were in Hufflepuff."

"Everyone is always surprised when they find out I was. I suppose with my relatives it was expected that I'd go straight into Slytherin. I guess I was like Sirius," she giggled, "he went a bit rogue going into Gryffindor. You're a Gryffindor I suppose?"

"Did you not just see the bravery I displayed in getting rid of the ghoul?" His eyes were twinkling.

"Oh of course, I can't believe I doubted you," she grinned back, and then added more seriously, "but thank you for helping me."

"I'm just glad you're alright," he said gently. She smiled.

"I hope Molly isn't being too hard on Sirius downstairs," Tonks winced at the image of Mrs Weasley finding out the kind of danger her children, Hermione and Harry had been in.

"I'm sure Sirius hasn't told her exactly what's happened. He has a habit of skimming over details in a story, and he's not one to land himself in it. Molly is probably under the impression that the creature decided to make its way back down the U-bend."

"He's been out of Azkaban for nearly 2 years, I can't believe it's taken me this long to get back into contact with him, get involved in all of this," she gestured to the walls around them.

"It's better that you're here now than not at all. Sirius really needs people who are willing to stay here with him for full days at a time, especially when Harry and the kids go back to school, or he'll sink back down again," Remus sighed, then he looked up at her through his eyelashes, "he's very happy you're here though. He wouldn't stop going on about it."

"He's a soppy git isn't he," she giggled.

"You took the words right out of my mouth."