AN: Everything in bold is quotes from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Chapter Three, The Advance Guard

Three days later the Advance Guard was getting reading to leave Grimmauld Place.

"Tonks are you sure you sent that letter to the Dursleys?" demanded Mad-eye as he picked up his heavily scarred broom.

She rolled her eyes, "stop being so paranoid, Mad-eye! For the fifth and final time I have!" she exclaimed.

She heard Remus snicker behind her. She twirled around to face him, narrowly missing Hestia's feet, and hit Sturgis in the face with a length of purple hair.

"What are you laughing at?" she demanded

"Just your audacity," Remus told her quietly, "Not many people talk to Mad-eye like that."

"No one talks to Mad-eye like that," corrected Sirius,"You might want to shorten your hair, knowing Moody he'll say it's a hazard." Sirius advised her.

"Thanks, Sirius," she said, morphing her hair into spikes, "I don't want to annoy Mad-eye any more than necessary,"

"What about not annoying him at all?" said Remus, smirking at her as they all mounted their brooms.

"Now that would be no fun at all," she replied, kicking off

Half an hour later they had all arrived, touching down quietly on the Dursley's back garden. They all crept into the Dursley's spotless kitchen after as quick, "Alohomora," from Diggle.

She bumped into a table, causing a plate to fall and shatter on the floor.

"Tonks!" everyone whispered exasperatedly.

"Sorry! I wasn't looking," she mumbled, hastily repairing the plate with a flick of her wand.

"That was obvious," snapped Mad-Eye.

She thought she saw Remus glare at Mad-eye before telling everyone, "Let's go upstairs and get him."

They didn't have to go upstairs to get him because Harry was already at the top of the stairs. They all stared intently at him.

"Lower your wand, boy, before you take someone's eye out," Moody said to him in a low growling voice.

"Typical Mad-eye," she thought, "Always on about safety,"

"Professor Moody?" Harry said uncertainly.

"I don't know so much about 'Professor'," growled Mad-eye, "Never got around to much teaching, did I? Get down here, we want to see you properly."

She watched as Harry lowered his wand but did not relax his grip on it, nor did he move.

"Very paranoid," she reflected, "Could give Mad-eye a run for his money by the looks of it."

"It's all right, Harry. We've come to take you away." Hopefully we all won't scare him too much if he recognises Remus, he's nervous enough as it is. Then she realised they could barely see each other.

"Why are we all standing in the dark?" she said. "Lumos."

Everyone appeared to be very eager to see the Harry Potter. Dedalus and Elphias were craning their necks to get a better look at him. She stared at him for a moment. Remus was right; he did look like what she remembered of James Potter with bright green eyes.

"Oooh, he looks just like I thought he would," she said aloud, "Wotcher, Harry!"

"Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus," said Kingsley, "he looks exactly like James."

"Except the eyes," wheezed Elphias, "Lily's eye."

She expected that he would get that an awful lot. She looked at Mad-eye to ask him something but he was squinting suspiciously at Harry through his mismatched eyes.

"Oh, great," she thought, "Now Mad-eye's going to go all paranoid on us,"

And sure enough Mad-eye turned to Remus and growled, "Are you quite sure it's him, Lupin? It'd be a nice lookout if we bring back some Death Eater impersonating him. We ought to ask him something only the real Potter would know. Unless anyone brought any Veritaserum?"

Surely Death Eaters couldn't get past the wards? She couldn't be bothered listening to Remus and Mad-eye interrogating Harry so she tuned out until she heard Mad-eye shout. What happened to be secretive?

"Don't put your wand there, boy!" roared Moody. "What if it ignited? Better wizards have lost buttocks, you know!"

Actually she didn't know anyone who had lost a buttock, Mad-eye never told her when he scolded her.

"Who d'you know who's lost a buttock?" she asked Mad-Eye interestedly

"Never you mind, you just keep your wand out of your back pocket!" growled Mad-eye and he went off in some rant about wand safety again.

"And I saw that," he added irritably," as she rolled her eyes towards the ceiling.

Remus held out his hand and shook Harry's. She knew he'd been looking forward to see Harry almost as much as Sirius, though he didn't show it.

She thought Harry looked a little overwhelmed by the amount of people in front of him. Poor kid, and Molly hadn't even got a hold of him yet.

"I'm-you're really lucky the Dursley's are out . . ." Harry mumbled

"Lucky, ha!" she told him. "It was me who lured them out of the way. Sent a letter by Muggle post telling them they'd been short-listed for the All-England Best Kept Suburban Lawn Competition. They're heading off to the prize-giving right now . . . or they think they are." She was probably one of the few who could properly send a letter by Muggle post. Harry looked eager to leave as he asked Remus about where they were going. She saw that Remus was making introductions so she stopped looking around and looked at Harry just in time for her introduction. Great.

"And this is Nymphadora-"

"Don't call me Nymphadora, Remus," she said with a shudder, "It's Tonks."

"Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known by her surname only," finished Remus. He always had to do everything properly, didn't he?

"So would you if your fool of a mother had called you Nymphadora," she muttered

She was sure Harry was feeling awkward and since she knew what it felt like she decided not to stare at him but looked around the insanely clean house. Sheesh, even her mother wasn't this bad. She really wanted to make Harry feel at ease so when Remus finished introducing everyone she tried to start a conversation.

"Very clean, aren't they, these Muggles?" she said as continued looking around the kitchen with great interest. "My dad's Muggle-born and he's a right old slob. I suppose it varies, just as it does with wizards?"

She thought that she might have freaked him out a bit or maybe he was wary of her but he just replied, "Er - yeah," and turned to talk to Remus. She decided to go back to looking at the weird electrical products while they talked. Well, until she heard a nasty squelching sound much like a plunger being pulled from a sink. She knew what that was.

"Mad-Eye, you do know that's disgusting, don't you?" she said conversationally as Harry got a glass of water for him.

"How are we getting – wherever we're going?" Harry asked.

"Brooms," said Remus. "Only way. You're too young to apparate, they'll be watching the Floo Network and it's more than our life's worth to set up an unauthorised Portkey."

"Remus says you're a good flier," said Kingsley in his deep voice. Good for ol' King, always trying to put people at ease.

"He's excellent," said Remus, checking his watch. "Anyway, you'd better go and get packed, Harry, we want to be ready to go when the signal comes."

"I'll come and help you," she said brightly. Maybe she'll actually get a chance to get to know him without everyone staring at him like they were a pack of vultures.