A/N: I'm not sure what took so long with this chapter. Sorry for the wait!
Chapter 4
This Chapter Ends With Takeout Food
Secret-Keeper Dumbledore showed Tonks the headquarters and held the door open for her to enter the creepy house. Tonks had a slightly irrational fear of entering new houses, especially dark ones. Because of this, she was extra-careful navigating the hallway, and managed to get to the end of the hall without incident. Dumbledore stopped in the entryway to talk to a man that Tonks later learned was Elphias Doge, so she continued on towards the kitchen on her own.
A few things happened when Tonks opened the door to the warm (and considerably much cleaner) kitchen from the hall. First, she tripped over the stairs down into the room. Then, she felt a spell zoom over her head, and looked up to see her boss, Kingsley Shaklebolt, with his wand drawn and pointed at where she had been standing. Tonks did not fall all the way to the floor, but instead crashed into a man she had tried a couple times to arrest, Mundungus Fletcher. As she knocked Mundungus off balance, she heard Severus Snape sigh and say, "I didn't expect Dumbledore to take you here right away. Really, sometimes he's too trusting."
Tonks blocked out the petty thief she should probably be arresting, Snape's snarky comments, and her own jarred ankle to respond to the fact that someone, probably her boss, had just tried to hit her with some spell, and put up a shield charm.
"How did you get in here?" Kingsley yelled.
"Why are you attacking me?" Tonks yelled back.
"Now, everyone calm down!" said Sirius Black, who Tonks also had an impulse to arrest, no matter what Dumbledore said about him being innocent.
"What is going on? Who are you?" a red headed woman asked, turning away from the dinner she was preparing and drawing her own wand.
"Identify yourself," Kingsley demanded, taking a couple steps closer to Tonks.
"Auror Tonks, your employee?" she said, hoping that counted for identification.
"What was the last paper you handed to me at the office?" Kingsley asked.
"What?"
"Just answer!" Kingsley said, raising his wand another inch closer to her face.
"Well, I think it was… wasn't it my RSVP to your birthday party?"
Kingsley relaxed a bit, but still held his wand at the ready.
"How did you get in here?" he asked.
"Um, with Dumbledore?" she said, glancing back at the hallway where she had last seen the wizard.
' "I just approved her this morning, Kingsley," Snape said from his corner of the room.
"Oh. Okay. Welcome," Kingsley said, putting his wand away and reaching to shake Tonks' hand.
As Tonks shook her boss's hand, she turned to Snape to glare. Had he just said that he knew she was okay, this could have been avoided.
"Well, now that I've overreacted to seeing an Auror by assuming you were a spy for Cornelius Fudge and here to arrest us all, let me introduce you to everyone," Kingsley said.
"Well, I know Snape, Mundungus, and Sirius," Tonks said. She looked around the room. The only other people in the room were the red headed woman and a short man with a purple top hat who was seated at the table with Snape.
"Ah yes. Well, this is Dedalus Diggle," he said, gesturing towards the man, who tipped his hat in Tonks' direction. She smiled and gave a small wave.
"And this is Molly Weasley, Arthur Weasley's wife," Kingsley said. The Auror department had worked with the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts office on many occasions, so Tonks knew Arthur Weasley. She reached out and shook the woman's hand.
"This is Nymphadora Tonks," Kingsley said to those that did not know her. "She works with me, and she's a bright young Auror. So who recruited you?"
"I'm Tonks, don't call me Nymphadora. But Mad Eye did recruit me. I went to visit him at St. Mungo's and I said I wanted to join," Tonks said.
"Well, it's very nice to know we have one more on our side," Mrs. Weasley said.
"Do you need any help with dinner?" Tonks asked, seeing vegetables on a cutting board and a few pots on the stove.
"Oh, thank you. Do you mind taking care of the salad while I finish up here?" Mrs. Weasley asked, handing Tonks a knife.
"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Kingsley asked Snape quietly. Snape watched as the most dangerous of his former students took a knife into her hands and went to stand near a hot stove.
"No, but I'm betting it'll be amusing."
By the time Dumbledore reached the kitchen with the rest of the Order members that were showing up for the meeting that night, the damage was done. Of the seven people in the room, five were crying, three had severe burns, two were missing eyebrows, and all seven were bruised and bleeding.
At least, that was the story that Sirius told to Remus Lupin as they sat down to a takeout meal that Tonks had paid for to replace the dinner she had ruined.