Chapter 11: War Has Reached Us

When Sirius and I arrived at the Potters my parents had been waiting for us. It had been decided that we would spend a week at the Potters and then randomly choose whose house was next so we would be harder to find. We may end up in the same out for two weeks or spend all summer going between two out of three of our temporary homes. The point was that nobody, not even my parents knew where we would end up next. Sirius and I settled into The Potters nicely. We have been welcomed with open arms. Literally. Lily was the first one to Owl me, closely followed by Remus. Everyone was doing a great job at keeping in touch even if we were only three days into break. Both Emmeline and Lily were upset that any plans to meet would have to be last minute because we had no idea where we were going to be.

I was alone in the room that the Potter's set up for me. Lily, Emmeline, Alice and I all had plans to hang out this afternoon. We have been at the Potter Mansion for six days already. I had spent most my time with James and Sirius. Remus and had exchanged quite a few letters but we haven't seen each other since the start of break. Yesterday, it was decided that next week we would be staying at the Longbottom's. At first, I had been disappointed but Frank announced that he was having not only Sirius and I come to stay but he was having all of our friends over. His parents were taking us to Diagon Alley to celebrate Franks birthday. There was a knock on my door that brought me out of my thoughts. "Come in!" I called. The door opened and all three of my best girlfriends came into the room.

"Hey, Tonks!" She exclaimed hugging me. I closed that book that I hadn't really been reading and joined my friends on my bed.

"Are you nervous to spend time at Remus' this summer?" Emmeline asked, "I can't believe you get to live with him! You guys dated.

"Oh, come off it Emmeline. You get to spend the next week with Sirius at Franks." Lily said. Alice rolled her eyes at the both of them.

"You guys are all boy crazy." She said.

"Sorry, Alice, we don't have a Frank," Emmeline said. "Sirius gets too easily distracted by this girl and that girl. Do you know how hard it is to keep his attention."

"So, what are you gonna do sleep with him?" I joked. We all laughed except Emmeline who turned bright red. My mouth dropped open. "You're going to sleep with Sirius!" I yelled. Emmeline's eyes widened.

"Would you shut up! He lives here too!" Emmeline hissed.

"Have you lost your mind?" Lily asked. "You're fourteen."

"I know how old I am!" Emmeline growled.

"You can't just sleep with him so that he won't break up with you!" Alice exclaimed. "You've gone mad." There was a knock at my door making us all freeze. Leave it to Sirius and James to eavesdrop. I looked at the girls each of them had their eyes wide open. I stood up and went to the door. I opened it to see James, Sirius, and to my surprise Remus.

"Remus!" I sounded surprised. "What are you doing here?"

"James invited me, something about ruining girls day."

"Damn it, James."

As for last the week of summer had finally approached the excitement of returning to Hogwarts could be felt all throughout the Lupin household. Remus' parents had refused to leave us home alone because Remus had told them that we had dated. Remus and Sirius shared a room while I was on my own. Today Remus' parents were taking us to Diagon Alley to get our school supplies. It didn't take long for the five of us to get through the flu. Together we began to walk down Diagon Alley, Sirius standing between Remus and me.

"Sirius, are you going to join the Quidditch team with James and I this year?" I asked as we walked into the nearest store to buy our books.

"You are going to join the Quidditch team?" Remus asked. My answer was interrupted by an explosion from across the street. The glass in the store shattered causing all of us to throw ourselves to the floor trying to take cover. The first thing I heard when the ringing in my ears died down was the sound of people screaming. I slowly got to my feet staring at the building that was now engulfed in flames. Suddenly a hand was in mine dragging me outside of the store. Remus was pulling me towards the nearest exit of Hogsmeade. We were following his parents who were stumbling through the sea of panicked people. Sirius who was behind me grabbed my other hand ensuring that we didn't lose each other.

"What's happening?" I screamed as I lost view of Remus' parents. The three of us stopped moving. Our eyes searching the crowd for Mr. and Mrs. Lupin.

"It's another Death Eater attack!" Sirius exclaimed. I could see the worry on his face and I knew why. Chances were that our extended family was here. I was blasted out of my thoughts when building next to us exploded. Sirius, Remus and I, along with countless other people were thrown from our feet. Remus' hand slipped from mine but Sirius only tightened. We landed on the ground with a thud. Sirius quickly helped me to my feet. I whipped my head back and forth searching for Remus.

"Do you see Remus?" I yelled at Sirius over the screaming of people. Sirius shook his head as I continued to look through the crowd. A screaming woman on the ground pulled my attention away from the task at hand. I dragged Sirius towards her and the two of us knelt down next to her. There was a huge gash on her stomach that was bleeding heavily. "My name is Tonks and this is Sirius. I need you to hold still." I told the women. I put my hands on her wound and applied pressure trying to stop the bleeding. There were pops everywhere as the Auror's arrived. I still hadn't seen the Death Eaters but the Auror's arrival brought great relief to me. Medic's came to help the woman who was now unconscious. Sirius pulled me away from her and we both stood there hoping that this attack hadn't been for the two of us.

We had found our way back to the Lupins and were put under house arrest for the rest of the summer. We were not to have visitors but we still wrote to all of our friends. After talking to the Aurors about what we had seen many times I had refused to talk about it anymore and thankfully everyone understood. By the time school came around everything finally felt normal. The eight of us sat together on the train. Emmeline, Lily, and I all sat next to each other while the boys sat across from us with the exception of frank who was sitting on the floor with Alice. "You expect me to believe that in the four weeks you spent living with Remus this summer you two didn't get back together?" Emmeline asked.

"Clearly she and Remus are making better choices than you and Sirius. Want to share something?" Lily said causing Emmeline to blush.

"You two are being ridiculous. No, I didn't get back with Remus this summer. Yes, Emmeline tried to sleep with my cousin. Can we stop talking about it?" I cut in.

"Yes, Lily can we stop talking about it?" Emmeline echoed.

"Fine," Lily grumbled. "I need to go talk to someone anyway."

"Who?" I asked, although I already knew the answer. Lily had reconnected with Snape over the summer and the two of them were closer than ever. Like always I warned her about him and she rolled her eyes and called me paranoid.

"You don't want to know." She said getting up and leaving.

"Where is she going?" James asked.

"She went to see Snape," I answered. James practically growled. No one really trusted Snape but James was the worst he was convinced that he was a Death Eater. It wouldn't surprise me at all if Snape had begun following Voldemort but were only fourth years. Could you even become a Death Eater this young?

"I wish that women would just listen to me about him. Snape is going to get her hurt." James growled.

"Calm down," Remus interjected. "Lily will be just fine. We'll all be fine."

We had all settled into our dorms pretty quickly and much to my surprise the first few months of Hogwarts had remained relatively quiet in the castle. However, that couldn't be said for the outside world. The Death Eater attacks grew more frequent and the body count of innocent people began to rise quickly. With the small amount of Death Eater activity inside the castle, we had all been told by our parents that we were to stay in the castle for break. Remus and I had been working on our friendship and our friends learned quickly not to bring up the prospect of us getting back together. Lily spent a lot of her time with Severus and avoiding James. I had tried talking to her, pointing out that every time something horrible happened the past few years she had ended up in James' arms. Let's just say that conversation didn't go well. Another thing that didn't go well was Sirius' and Emmeline's relationship. Emmeline had ended her fling with Sirius when his eyes had wandered one too many times. James, seemed more hopelessly in love with Lily than he had in the past and her reconnection to Snape had gotten under his skin. He'd decided to up his pranks on the poor kid and I have to say, it was horrible to watch him and Sirius bully him but they wouldn't listen to reason. Unlike the majority of the fourth years, we had avoided taking trips into Hogsmeade because of what happened over the summer. The girls and I began a study group after break to prepare for our O.W.L.s.

It had seemed that the tides had turned. The danger was now outside the castle rather than inside and we all dreaded out departure. Unlike last summer, Sirius and I were informed we wouldn't be bounced around but permanently staying with the Potter's until the end of Seventh year. The world grew darker as the days went on and it looked as though the Wizarding was losing all hope.