Thanks for all of the reviews! Before I get started, I just want to say that I'm sorry I messed up the whole Hermione thing. I figured that since it's not extremely important to the plotline, I'll just leave it for now, but if I get a chance later I will attempt to fix it. I just wanted to say thanks for putting up with all of my stupid errors. And I know that most of the dialogue is not accurate in this chapter, but I don't have the books with me right now, so please just go along with itJ Anyways, I'll stop rambling, and here's the chapter!

Disclaimer: Since this chapter is similar to the book a bit, I figured that I'd say that I don't own anything. If I did...well, that's another story.

Chapter 11

The members filed out of Grimmauld Place silently, anticipating what was ahead. They soon reached the dark, quiet square, where nine brooms were awaiting them on the doorstep.

"Okay, we're going to leave in pairs, just so if there is anyone watching, it'll be less noticeable," Moody whispered. "Emmeline and Hestia will be first, then Dedalus and Sturgis, Kingsley and Elphias, then Lupin and Tonks. I'll bring up the rear. Can everybody handle that?" Everyone nodded their heads. Tonks glanced at Remus, who looked rather calm. She, on the other hand, felt unbelievably queasy.

"Emmeline, Hestia, you know where to go?" They nodded, then picked up their brooms. "Okay, go ahead." The two witches grasped their broomsticks and mounted them, kicked off and were soon out of sight. Moody watched them go.

"We'll just wait a few minutes…we're ahead of schedule, we can afford to space ourselves out a bit." Minutes passed, broken only by the sound of nervous breathing and the occasional sigh. Finally, Remus, Tonks and Mad-Eye were the only ones left.

"Okay, Lupin, Tonks, you can go. I'll be about five minutes behind you. If one of you is killed, keep going. Don't stop for anything."

"No one's going to die," Remus said exasperatedly to Moody, though he was starting to look a bit uneasy.

"Just making sure you know what to do, Lupin," Mad-Eye growled. "Now go. Quickly."

Remus gave Tonks a tight-lipped smile that she tried her hardest to return, then mounted his broom. She got onto her own broom and together they took off. Tonks took the lead, positive that she knew where she was going. She looked behind her to see Remus not two feet away from her, obviously relying on her to lead the way. Her stomach did a strange flip again, but she ignored it and kept on flying. She had been flying for only a few minutes when suddenly she shot into a cloud.

"Damn!" she exclaimed as a chilly wet blanket of white enveloped her. She wasn't sure how she hadn't seen it, but she hadn't been really paying attention to where she was going, either, she just knew that she had to go straight. But now she had no idea where she was heading.

Deciding that it was best to escape the cloud first, she shot off in a random direction, praying that it was the right one. After only about a minute, she flew into clear air. Sighing with relief, she looked behind her, hoping that Remus hadn't made the same mistake that she had. Those hopes were shattered when she saw him come flying out of the cloud, shivering and rather damp.

"Sorry," Tonks said sheepishly as he came to a halt in midair next to her.

"It's not your fault, I wasn't really paying attention," he said. "But I'm afraid that I've lost my sense of direction. Do you know where we were headed?"

"Um…well…" Tonks said feebly. "That way?" She pointed a finger in a direction that she desperately hoped was the way to the Dursleys'.

"Oh," said Remus, looking crestfallen. "We'll just have to--"

"Hey, look!" Tonks said excitedly, cutting him off. "I see somebody! We must've caught up to someone." Urging her broom forward, she started flying towards the dark shape. Remus flew next to her. They had been flying for only about half a minute when Remus said something. Not able to hear him over the wind rushing in her ears, she motioned for him to stop.

"What did you say?" she asked.

"It looks like whoever it is, they're flying towards us," he said.

"But—I was sure that—oh, crap," she muttered. "It's probably Mad-Eye."

Remus bit his lip. "He'll kill us."

"Not if we leave before he can get to us."

"Tonks, he's going to be here in less than a minute."

"So what, you're just saying that we should stay and face the music?" Tonks asked, now starting to panic slightly.

"Er…well, I think that he'll be even more angry if we try to run away from him."

"You're probably right," she said grudgingly. "But maybe he won't be as angry as we think he'll be. I mean, we're not that late, or lost, are we?" She looked at Remus, whose face had suddenly gone blank. "Are we?" She realized that Remus, who was no longer listening to her, was staring at something just beyond her left shoulder. She turned slowly in mid-air, dreading what it was.

"What in Merlin's name are you two doing?" Moody growled. "You were supposed to arrive at the Muggles' house about…three minutes ago!"

"But we left early!" Tonks cried, exasperated by Moody's constant need of punctuality.

"Yes, but you wasted a considerable amount of time floating here, doing nothing! What, may I ask, were you two doing?"

"We…erm…we got lost in a cloud, Mad-Eye," Remus said.

"Well, that was stupid of you," Moody snapped. Tonks rolled her eyes. "I saw that, missy! It's not my fault that you two idiots got lost!"

"Calm down, Mad-Eye, you're just frustrated because we're on an important mission," Remus said soothingly.

"You're damn right, it's important!" Mad-Eye nearly shouted, then seemed to calm down. "Here's what we'll do. I know where we're going. You two just follow me, and don't go anywhere else. Do you think you can handle that?"

Remus and Tonks nodded feebly, then took off after Mad-Eye's retreating form. Tonks, who had been about to give him the finger, remembered his magical eye and settled for sticking her tongue out instead. She heard Remus laugh, and she grinned.

After only about two minutes, they saw Moody signal them to land. They dove down in a steep descent and landed in what appeared to be an impeccably kept backyard. The rest of the Order members were waiting, partially obscured by bushes.

"We were getting worried," Kingsley said quietly. "We were about to go back and look for you."

"We were only three bloody minutes late!" Tonks cried. "What is with you people and time?"

Moody immediately shushed her. "Shut up, girl! There could be people listening!" He glanced around them as if expecting a Death Eater to jump out of the rhododendron bush. "Now let's advance inside quietly. We're not positive that the Muggles are gone, but their…er…car, is it? Their car is gone. But we should be careful no matter what. Constant vigilance!" He glanced at Remus and Tonks as he said the last bit.

"It was a flipping cloud…" Tonks grumbled under her breath, but followed her colleagues into the house. They entered the back door into an uncannily clean kitchen. The only thing messy about the kitchen was that there were dirty (but only slightly) dishes left on the table. As Tonks made her way past the table, she felt her hip brush something and realized a second too late that one of the plates had been too close to the end of the table. She winced as the plate crashed to the floor loudly and smashed into tiny pieces. She felt a flush creep up her neck as many of the Order members stopped and turned around. Moody shot her a look that would've killed her if looks were capable of murder. "Sorry," she mouthed. Moody, still looking as if he wanted to wring her neck, slowly turned around and kept walking towards the front of the house. Tonks quickly bent down and repaired the dish with her wand, then set it gently and carefully back onto the table, well away from the edge. She looked up to see that almost everyone had moved on into the hallway, except for Remus.

"Coming?" he whispered. She nodded, and followed him into the hallway of the Muggle house. They reached the foot of the stairs.

"He heard you," Moody whispered harshly as they heard light footsteps upstairs.

"Well, he has to know we're here in order for us to take him away, right?" Tonks said exasperatedly. "And it looks as if the Muggles are gone."

"Shut up," Moody growled. "Lupin, get up here. If it is Harry, it'd be best if he saw a familiar face."

So Harry must've been one of his students too, Tonks mused as Remus pushed his way gently up to the front of the group congregated at the foot of the staircase. She immediately snapped to attention as the shadow of a person appeared on the landing above them, looking hesitant.

"It's all right, Harry. We've come to take you away," Remus said soothingly.

"P—professor Lupin?" the boy stuttered. "Is that you?"

Tonks suddenly realized that nobody could see anything in the darkness that was surrounding them. "Why are we all standing in the dark?" she said, raising her wand. "Lumos." Her wand tip suddenly flared with light, illuminating everyone in the entryway, and the teenager on the stairs.

Harry Potter looked exactly as she had imagined. She had seen pictures of James, and a few of a younger Harry, but he looked almost identical to the pictures. He had thick, messy black hair, striking green eyes, and the lightning scar on his forehead. He was on the tall side and was rather thin, as if he didn't eat too often.

"Oooh, he looks just like I thought he would! Wotcher, Harry!" Tonks exclaimed excitedly, giving him her trademark greeting.

She heard Kingsley speak in front of her. "Yeah, I see what you mean, Remus. He looks exactly like James."

"Except for the eyes. Lily's eyes," Elphias said softly. Harry stared back at all of them, seeming apprehensive, which was perfectly understandable, as a bunch of witches and wizards had suddenly appeared in his house.

"Are you quite sure it's him, Lupin?" she heard Moody growl. She rolled her eyes. It was just like Moody to bring up a security question before even saying hello. "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?" Tonks rolled her eyes again.

"Harry, what form does your Patronus take?" Remus asked hurriedly. Tonks had the feeling that he didn't want Moody forcing any truth potion upon the boy.

"A stag."

"That's him, Mad-Eye," Remus said, sounding relieved. Harry made his way down the stairs. Eager to get a closer look, Tonks pushed her way to the front until she was wedged between Remus and Mad-Eye. She noticed that Harry had stuck his wand into his back pocket. She winced. Moody would not like that. And she was right.

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

Tonks giggled, intrigued. "Who d'you know who's lost a buttock?" she asked. She heard Remus stifle a snort next to her.

"Never you mind," Moody snapped. "Just keep your wand out of your back pocket!" He started to make his way towards the kitchen, grumbling about elementary wand safety. Tonks rolled her eyes. "I saw that!" Moody said. Tonks fought the urge to roll them again.

She felt Remus shift next to her as he shook hands with Harry, and suddenly realized how close they were. Flushing, she stepped away and vacated Moody's abandoned spot. As the group made their way to the kitchen, she followed, wondering why she had felt so embarrassed. She had been standing just as close to Moody, hadn't she? She shuddered. She really didn't want to think about that.

They soon reached the immaculate kitchen, and Kingsley turned on the lights as the rest of them perched upon the counter top and in chairs. Harry took a seat. Remus started introducing everyone. "Harry, this is Hestia, Dedalus, Kingsley...this is Mad-Eye Moody...Elphias, Sturgis, Emmeline...and this is Nymphadora--"

Tonks cut him off before he could finish. "It's Tonks, Remus," she said, though for some reason she couldn't feel annoyed.

"Nymphadora Tonks, who prefers to be known as her surname only," Remus finished.

"So would you if your fool of a mother named you Nymphadora," Tonks muttered under her breath.

Harry looked nervously at all the wizards and witches gathered in his kitchen. "I'm…er…you're really lucky the Dursleys are out," Harry muttered.

"Lucky, ha! It was me that 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," Tonks said, feeling proud of her letter. Harry smirked, then turned to Remus.

"We're leaving, aren't we? Soon?" Tonks had the feeling that he was extremely eager to escape the house.

"Almost at once, we're just waiting for the all clear."

"Where are we going? The Burrow?"

"No, not the Burrow," Remus replied, glancing at his watch. "Too obvious. We set up headquarters someplace else, someplace that's nearly impossible to detect."

"What's the Burrow?" Tonks murmured.

"The Weasley's house," Remus answered, checking his watch again nervously.

Harry was looking around awkwardly, trying to avoid all of the stares.

"A surprising number of people volunteered to come and get you," Remus said, smiling.

"The more, the better," said Moody. "We're your guard, Potter."

"We're just waiting for the signal to tell us that it's okay to take off. We've got about ten or fifteen minutes."

Tonks, who was getting rather bored, glanced around the kitchen. "Very clean, aren't they, these Muggles?" she said. "My dad's a Muggle-born and he's a right old slob. I suppose it varies, like it does with wizards?"

"Er—yeah," Harry said, giving her a strange look. "Erm, look—what's going on? I haven't heard from anyone in ages, and what's Vold—"

"Shhhh!" Nearly the entire room shushed him right away. Dedalus Diggle squealed and dropped his violet hat.

"Shut up!" hissed Moody.

"What?" Harry said, looking unnerved.

"We're not discussing anything here, it's much too risky!" Moody said. "Damn it—" his magical eye, Tonks noticed, was pointed at the ceiling—"been sticking ever since that scum wore it…" He popped out his eye.

"Mad-Eye, you do know that's disgusting, don't you?" Tonks said cheerfully as many of the witches and wizards made small sounds of discomfort.

"Grab me a glass of water, would you, Harry?" Moody said, grasping his magical eye. Harry filled a glass full of water and handed it to Moody, who dropped the eye in, where it started to twirl around, observing everyone in the room.

"Cheers. I want three-hundred-and-sixty degrees visibility on the journey back."

"How're we getting—erm—wherever we're going?" Harry asked, glancing nervously at the disembodied eye floating in the water.

"Brooms. 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 unauthorized Portkey."

Harry nodded, looking a bit relieved. "Remus says that you're a very good flier," Kingsley said.

"He's excellent. Harry, you'd better go and get packed. We should be ready to go when the signal comes."

"I'll come with you," Tonks said brightly, standing up and nearly knocking over her chair. She was eager to help out.

She followed the teenager back through the hallway and up the staircase, observing the unnaturally clean house with an expression of distaste. "Funny place. It's a bit too clean, d'you know what I mean? It's unnatural." They entered a rather messy room, a room that reminded her of her own home. "Oh, much, much better."

She walked over to a mirror and inspected her reflection. "I don't think that purple works for me," she said. "Makes me look a bit peaky, don't you think?"

"Uh…" Harry looked up from his suitcase, obviously at a loss of what to say.

"Yeah. It does." Tonks screwed up her face and conjured an image of her favorite hair color, bright, bubble-gum pink. A second later, her spiky hair had changed from violet to pink. She looked over to see Harry staring at her.

"How—how did you do that?" he asked, astounded.

"I'm a Metamorphmagus. I can change my appearance at will. I was born this way. Rather nice, actually. Got top marks in Concealment and Disguise during Auror training without any study at all, it was great. Dead clumsy, though. I came this close to failing Stealth and Tracking. I expect you heard me break that plate downstairs? Anyways, Kingsley's an Auror, too. He's higher up than me, though. I only qualified about a year ago."

"You're an Auror?" Harry asked curiously, now tossing some robes into his trunk.

"Yep," she said proudly. She loved her job…minus the paperwork.

"Can…can you learn to be a Metamorphmagus?"

"Heh…bet you wouldn't mind hiding that scar sometimes, eh?" She glanced at the lightning bolt on his forehead and he unconsciously flattened his hair. "Sorry, you'll have to learn the hard way. Metamorphmagi are really rare. They're born. But we should be packing, Harry."

"Oh—right. Sorry." They resumed their packing, and within a few minutes, were finally done, with no help from Tonks' halfhearted house-hold like spells (she had never been much good with them). She had gotten distracted when she noticed his Firebolt, but had recovered from the envy soon enough. She levitated his trunk and owl cage downstairs.

They made their way back to the kitchen to find everyone almost ready to go. Moody had replaced his eye, much to everyone's relief, Remus was sealing a letter to the Muggles, and everyone else was having a look around the kitchen.

"Excellent. We've got about a minute, I believe, we should get out into the garden. Harry, I've left a letter to your relatives telling them not to worry—"

"They won't."

"That you're safe—"

"That'll just depress them."

"And that you'll see them next summer," Remus finished, smiling.

"Do I have to?"

Moody beckoned Harry over and quickly Disillusioned him. They then made their way out the back door and back into the garden. Moody hurriedly explained the plan and the flying formation, letting Harry know that if the guard was killed, the backup guard would be waiting to take over.

"No one's going to die," Kingsley said reassuringly at the look of apprehension on the boy's face.

"Mount your brooms, that's the first signal!" Remus announced suddenly, pointing into the sky, where a shower of red wand sparks were sparkling. Everyone mounted their brooms. Suddenly, green sparks exploded above them.

"That's the second signal, let's go!"

They kicked off into the night, and Tonks felt satisfied that she had nearly completed her first mission.

A/N Okay, personally, I'm not happy with this chapter at all, it's too much like the book (sorry) and rather boring. But I have writer's block and I am posting this in the hopes that by writing, I'll get rid of it. So please, review and let me know what you think, I'm sorry that it's not very good, but I will try to make the next one much better. Please review!