A/N: Hey, guys! It's been a while, hasn't it? Sorry, but I'm really trying my best, I'll see if I can put the next one sooner. xD Anyway, today's Teddy's birthday and I just love that little boy so much that I had to post something on his birthday, so happy birthday, Teddy! ^^ I actually have another one-shot that I wrote a while back that some of you may have read on my Tumblr, but I edited it and it's nearly done so I'll post it later today. :) Also, Amelysse, I sent the email again, hope it arrived all right. If not, you can email me at bubblegumpinkmoon at gmail . com .
One more time, thank you for all your amazing reviews! You guys are awesome readers, siriusly! S2 All my loving for you! ^_^ And please, do leave your thoughts down there, will you? ;)
CHAPTER 28: New Cake And Good Surprises
The sky upon them held a disheartening shade of grey, the one that did not show any kind of a shining sun nor held any chance that the night ahead of them would be a promising one. The snow that had just started to fall seemed to be the missing item for a discouraging scenario, especially when one was outside hoping to find the single missing name of the Black Family member that had been disowned over two centuries before whilst waiting, in an immobile patrol, for someone to come from the protection of their enemies' safe house and make the smallest mistake for them to approach and bust him, setting their dear friend free. A fond smile came to Remus's lips the instant he heard a tired sigh coming from the blue-haired witch sitting across from him. Lifting up his head from the book in his hand, he watched her looking down at the several books that lied messily on the spot on the ground where they had chosen to hide themselves and then took off her gloves in order to pass the pages more rapid since her gloves were unnecessary due to his well-cast Warming Charm.
"This is boring!" complained Tonks, throwing her gloves on her feet. "Feel like I've been all the way to the Middle Ages and nothing! Absolutely nothing! Did you have anything close to it? 'Cause if you haven't we should really take a break. I know we're running out of time, but…" She exhaled heavily bringing the book back to her lap and getting her wand before starting to turn the pages aimlessly.
Over the past two weeks, their plan to give Sirius a better Black Tapestry had not been going as they hoped to and thus they were forced to search for the missing names at every chance they got they being during their shifts guarding the prophecy at the Ministry or watching the Malfoy Manor in hope to catch Peter Pettigrew.
"We should also do something about the fabric, we need to decide if we're really going to put the stars up, but if we don't have time for it, I guess we'll be fine and we need to find a way to ― Hey, look!" Her eyes narrowed looking at the few words that the light emanating from the tip of her wand illuminated. "Found it! 'Alfie Black was the one she had chosen and by consequence was deprived of all the benefits that came with belonging to a powerful pureblood family since they did not allow their members to marry half-bloods as he did.' Well, that ends the names now we just…"
Remus was sure that Tonks kept talking for a while, but at that moment her voice shifted to somewhere in the back of his mind for a different sound got his main attention.
"Shhh!" he hissed as she continued to talk lowly without having heard the hushed voices he had.
"Why ― ? What?" she whispered in response to his completely furrowed brows and attentive eyes, but he simply pointed to his ear, indicating for her to focus upon listening.
Tonks stood as slowly as she could and tried to identify the source of the sound she had begun to hear.
"Nox!" he heard her murmur before copying her and seeing her turning around and searching for the place where was whoever chatted at that time of the night in front of the Malfoy Manor.
Without the light of their wands, their task became much easier and soon they had seen a couple of hooded figures beside a white peacock. Even though neither of them could tell precisely what the voices were saying, it was clear that neither of the men were in any hurry to go inside and continue their conversation where it was safe. One of the voices was completely new for both of them, but the other one seemed to be quite familiar, slow, soft, contained and somewhat contemptuous, one they had heard more times than they could say they wanted to, one that surely belonged not only amongst the Death Eaters, but also within the Order of the Phoenix. Severus Snape's.
Tonks stepped closer leaning forward on the tree they were using to hide most of themselves despite all the spells they had decided to add to also hid them from any unwanted surprise. However, in doing so, she forgot that the copy of Having Pure-blood x Being Pure-blood was still in her hand and the book slipped through her fingers causing a flump to emanate almost loudly around the Malfoys' grounds when it hit the grass not totally filled with snow yet. She immediately put her hands above her mouth and both of them held their breath, watching as the men slowly made their way towards them. Within seconds, the Death Eaters were nearly in front of them, but thanks to their protective spells, they remained sightless to them.
Remus and Tonks only allowed themselves to release their breaths and suck in another one when their cloaks could barely be descried after the whole minute of investigations around the area the Order members were. The instant they started to back away, however, the unknown Death Eater started to require more security around their Headquarters.
Tonks mentally cursed herself, Bloody book!, she thought summoning it back to her hands and starting to gather all the other ones they had left spread around the area. By the tone in their voices, she knew they would be lucky if within five minutes there were not a single soul patrolling and under no circumstances they could be found there. Remus needed only the single look she shot him to understand that they needed to leave as soon as possible, he held the bag and she started to throw the books inside unceremoniously. They got together all their other belongings, such as Tonks's gloves and Remus's hood that had been proven unnecessary due to his perfectly cast Warming Charm. She erased any prove that they had been there and could eventually led the Death Eaters to the Order, but most of them, Tonks knew, would be taken away by the snow that she had come so close to hating not fifteen minutes before and she welcomed it more than gladly before getting a hold of Remus's hand and disapparating both of them to the only place they knew the Death Eaters could not follow them, no matter what. The number twelve, Grimmauld Place.
"We're going to have to leave it be for a bit," announced Remus the minute they had entered the Headquarters and locked the door behind themselves. "They'll add patrols and whatnot just looking for spies."
Tonks exhaled heavily throwing her scarf upon the hanger and taking off her coat almost furiously, having some trouble to do so.
"A month, I'd say," he suggested warily seeing the mixture of anger and frustration upon her face. "Or perhaps..." he added in hope to ease her features and at the same time nearly desperate to help her take away her fist that had somehow got stuck within her coat's sleeve, "we could return within a week, see how they've taken it. Check if they really added the patrols or not..."
"Fine!" snapped Tonks having finally been able to release her hand and throwing the coat towards the hanger but missing it due to her fury, causing the item to fall on the floor. Truthfully however, she could not care less at where it had ended up and so she marched out of the hall, going down to the kitchen.
Remus sighed nervously at the sight of her so distressed. He could almost feel his heart pumping in agony against his rib cage. He took of his coat carefully, then the hood and finally his gloves, letting them all on the hanger before following her. A rather loud cracking sound was coming from the kitchen and he could tell precisely how she was feeling before even setting his eyes upon her. Remus climbed down the few steps and saw Tonks nearly throwing the kettle upon the cooker.
"Tonks?" he called. "Tonks, what are you doing?"
"A bloody tea!" she answered rather unhappily, "to try to calm myself, if I don't manage to also screw it up, that is."
"You didn't screw it up," he stated before so much as a heartbeat had passed since she had finished her sentence.
Tonks snorted, an ironic smile making its way to her lips and he stepped forward, fingertips touching lightly her elbow until she forced herself to stop staring angrily at the kettle and look at him.
"I mean it," Remus assured her. "A book slipped your fingers; it could've ― it was far more likely to happen with me than with you."
"Yeah, but I'm the clumsy one. It's always me who ―"
"Moreover, we wouldn't even be there if it wasn't for you," he pointed out. "It was your idea."
"Doesn't mean I can fuck it up!"
"BLOOD TRAITORS! BLOOD TRAITORS AND HALF-BREEDS DIRTYING EVERY CORNER OF MY PRECIOUS HOME!"
"Ugh!"
Tonks looked up to the ceiling before marching to the portrait with Remus behind her. With Mrs. Black's shouts echoing loudly in their ears, they struggled for a short while to shut the curtains, but managed nevertheless.
"You know," Remus began, "if anyone has the right to… do as you said ―"
"To fuck it up?"
"― it's you."
Exhaling heavily, she felt a corner of her lips turning slightly upwards whilst she crossed her arms, his eyes looking at her as though they would do just about anything to take away the smallest sign of martyrdom from hers and before she knew, her forehead had leant upon his chest.
"Sorry…"
Honestly, why he was so good to her? She simply could not understand, almost all the guys she had met were not at all like that and she wondered if even Sirius would have the ability to be sensible here and there.
"Don't worry about it," he told her. Slowly and tentatively, he moved his arm to pass it lightly around her shoulders. "It happens. All right?"
Tonks breathed in deeply, nodding against his chest.
"Now, what about that tea?"
She chuckled, lifting up her head from him.
"Yeah…"
In the kitchen, with a flick of his wand, the water within the kettle was boiling and she fetched a couple of mugs for them.
"See? Didn't break," he teased her.
Tonks rolled her eyes at him and Remus smiled, pouring the water in the mugs after adding some green tea in them.
"Pretty sure I can arrange that in a sec," she provoked.
"Ahn… No, thank you."
"'Kay then."
She shrugged walking out of the kitchen and starting to climb the stairs, Remus followed her all the way up to his room where they had been keeping the fabric for the tapestry that they had only started to work on as well as all the material on the disowned Blacks that they had been able to gather so far.
"So…" she started sitting on the floor and unravelling the fabric before sipping on her tea. "How are we going to…? Are you any talented on embroidering? 'Cause I'm crap."
"I'm… not bad," pointed out Remus, figuring it could not be much different from sewing and, thanks to his lack of gold, he was practically and expert on that. He gathered a few rolls of parchment before coming to sit across her, but he stood the next minute. "I think I've got a…" He opened the wardrobe's door and started to seek, "a yarn. Here!" He got the black ball of yarn he had used to mend one of his trousers a few days before and handing it to her. "It's not the best, but… do you reckon it's good enough?"
"I don't know, Remus, to be honest with you…" she informed him examining the item in her hand and sipping on her tea. "I know jack all 'bout dressmaking. What d'you think?"
"We don't wish it to be a perfect example of what a Pure-blood tapestry should be now, do we?"
"Nope."
Tonks shook her head.
"Well, then it's probably enough."
His robes had endured years on it either way.
"Besides, what was the worst that could happen? Sirius coming to tell us that the names are falling down?"
She laughed and he could not help but to do it as well.
"Might want to use a Permanent Sticking Charm for it in any case."
"Yeah, good one." She nodded, blowing on the surface of her tea before sipping on it. "Let's get to work then."
Remus stood up, carefully letting his mug on the bedside table and Tonks copied him.
"Let's start from the beginning," suggested Remus and moved to the other side of the room, where lied the top of the fabric.
Tonks started checking all rolls of parchment before handing him the one that held the information that she had found not an hour before.
"Here."
"Thanks."
Remus opened it and waved his wand to let it hanging before him, so he could check the information as he worked on the fabric. Crouching, he pointed the tip of his wand to it. Slowly, the name of Sirius's ancestral that they had discovered just a while before, started to appear. A few more flicks of his wand had the name Alfie Black was being written in an exquisite handwriting with the black yarn and clearly it would have been better if they had a better fabric or a better yarn on that matter, but they did not wish it to be perfect as the Pure-blood ones were in any case. Tonks started to search for the next names and ordered them by date, seeing which one Remus would need next. Soon, he had finished and she smiled at the sight of the first bit of their practical work done.
"Let me give it a try?" she pleaded making a face that jokingly begged for him to allow her to give it a go.
"Sure."
He nodded pulling the yarn closer to her and pointed to the spot where the next disowned Black should be. She had only got the first two letters from Emily Black's name, which was definitely not as good as Remus's, when two voices bickering at each other were heard in the room they were in.
"If you'd only let me cut the fringes…"
"Mum, it's fine."
"But shorter would be better!"
"You don't know that…"
They glanced at the opened door just to see Molly looking at Bill's hair very closely and certainly imagining how it would look some inches shorter.
"Fleur likes it that way ―"
"So you value her opinion over mine?" Molly frowned, placing her free hand on her chest, the other one holding a half-finished knitted jumper. "I'm your mother! I'd never say something to do any harm…"
"I know, Mum, but she's my girlfriend ―"
"So what? You're girlfriend and boyfriend now?"
Tonks chuckled. Molly did not seem to lack any of the qualities that a mother was supposed to have. Not only she disliked her son's girlfriend but she was able of many different knitting patterns… Merlin, she was nothing less than perfect to…
"Well, you know that happens when people date…"
"Couldn't you have let me know ―?"
"Molly!" called Tonks loudly after figuring they had watched the show for long enough.
"Oh, Tonks, dear. Hadn't seen you there…" She told her whilst her cheeks became somewhat redder. "Remus," she added looking a bit deeper into the room as Tonks stood up at once.
Bill smiled at her, nodding curtly.
"Listen," Tonks began, stepping closer to her and checking to see if Sirius had come down from feeding Buckbeak already, but a squeak from the room above let her know that her cousin remained locked up there with the Hippogriff. "We wanted to make Sirius something, but we're having a bit of a problem." She gestured for them to follow her into the room and pointed to the nearly empty tapestry.
She walked in, offering a smile to Remus as he stood up, inviting Molly to come closer, she shoved the jumper on Bill's arms before doing it somewhat warily, a wrinkle appearing between her eyebrows. She had never been particularly fond of Sirius and helping them doing it, would certainly mean doing a favour for Sirius out of the blue.
"You see, we saw a fabric that had these stars in it and we wanted to do the same, some really bright stars. Mind you, we'd settle for some shining spots! But we're not sure how to do it..." she finished somewhat bashfully.
Molly stepped closer to the fabric and knelled, getting a fistful of the fabric and examining it in her hands for a moment.
"Could you help us?" enquired Tonks. "I mean, we'd really just need a few spells to test."
"Have you tried anything on this yet?" she questioned, getting up and looking from Tonks to Remus.
"No," answered Tonks promptly whilst Bill came closer to all of them, "we haven't."
For a far too long couple of minutes, Bill, Remus and Tonks watched as Molly looked attentively at the dark fabric, a muscle tightening in her jaw, clearly waging a battle with herself inside before she exhaled heavily, defeated.
"All right!" She started to fold it and getting a couple of genuine smiles from both Remus and Tonks. "I'll do it. And these names as well," she added, taking a look at the one Remus had put there just a short hour before. "No offense, dear, but they look as though they're about to fall down."
Tonks chuckled after looking at her partner and seeing a flush starting to come to his cheeks.
"Thanks so much, Molly!" She wrapped her arms around the Weasley, grinning widely and hearing some chuckles coming from Bill behind both of them. She would never have thought that Molly would take so much from their tasks to help Sirius. Sirius from all people, the one they had seen bickering at the Weasley more times that they cared to count. It had been a while since either of them had had such a good surprise. "Though..." she frowned slightly, reaching for the fabric, but letting it go almost immediately and crouching to get the few rolls of parchment that had been hers and Remus's work from the last couple of weeks, "you'll need all the precise names to... embroider."
With her arms full with the parchments, she got the fabric from Molly arms and shoved it into Remus's.
"Stretch it," she asked him and without delay, he had the opened fabric before her. "'Kay..." Tonks started to fix with a Sticking Charm each of the names where they were supposed to be embroidered and in a matter of minutes, they were all glued, allowing Molly to not get confused and ended up mistaking one with another and forcing them to re-start their work from step one. "Done!"
"Cool!" grinned Bill.
Remus then carefully folded it before handing it to the elder Weasley.
"Thank you, Molly."
He nodded curtly and she smiled.
"It's all right," she assured him. "Thankfully I've started the jumpers early this year, otherwise I wouldn't be able to help you, but this shouldn't take long. In two or three days, I expect them all to be shinning here."
"Just don't let Sirius see, all right?" advised Tonks. "It's a surprise."
"Do not fret, dearie. I'll keep it at the Burrow," assured Molly with a small smile and a nod before leaving, levitating it all before her with a wave of her wand.
Bill glanced sideways at his mother leaving and stepped closer to them.
"Thanks!"
He grinned, shaking his head and letting his still long hair fly a bit, hinting them as to what he had been referring to.
"Sure," said Tonks with a wink. "At your services."
She bowed hearing a small chuckle from Remus beside her before seeing Bill leave, shaking his head somewhat at her dramatic act. Tonks smiled, thankful that Molly had agreed with helping them make Sirius's life a bit less dreary.
The remaining week was less busy than they had thought it would be, but that was strictly due to Molly's decision to help for they would also have to work on it besides the organisation of the surprise party. Although, the couple of shifts they had taken watching the prophecy all night long during that week had complicated a bit their schedule, but the excitement of so soon seeing Sirius's reaction to finally putting his eyes upon the tapestry was more than enough to keep them going despite it all. When all the Order had been invited, the banner was done and all that was left to be finished was the cake, Tonks did not lose the opportunity to suggest the one she liked the most.
"You know, we could have the Tonkses' cake, the one you had back at mum and dad's, remember?" she recommended, twisting a lock of her lilac hair in her fingers from the sofa she had being lying on.
Remus nodded, agreeing with her suggestion. He certainly recalled enjoying that one piece of it he had had back then.
"It's a, um, very good idea," he cleared his throat. "Would you know how to bake it?"
Tonks laughed, shaking her head.
"No," she answered him, sitting properly on the sofa, "but even if I knew, I'd manage to bake something that not even a rat would eat," she assured him. "If you were willing to give a try, though, I could fetch the recipe with mum and I could help you."
"Wouldn't Andromeda be bothered by me baking the Tonkses' cake?" asked Remus, brows furrowing somewhat aware that some traditions were probably meant to stay within the family they were born into.
"Nah," she shook her head. "I hear grandma wasn't happy when she started baking it so I doubt that she'd be bothered by you giving a try."
"In any case," he added, "when you get the recipe with her, let her know that if she is anyhow troubled by it, to please, let me know. I don't want her to feel obliged to let me do this just because it's her cousin."
Tonks could almost hear the click in her head the following second.
"We could invite her!"
"Who? Your mother?"
"Yeah! Of course!"
Remus smiled.
"I thought about it," he admitted. "Problem is she's not in the Order and therefore has no knowledge of the headquarters," he finished with a tone that certainly showed just how sorry he was for all of it.
"She wouldn't be able to get in…"
Remus stared complete immobile, not wanting to trouble a bit more by saying another word she would dislike. As if he could find a way to let Andromeda join her cousin's party, as if he could convince Dumbledore to tell her where the location of the Order's Headquarters, just so Sirius would have a moment of happiness in seeing her. Though, Remus knew that he was not going to just give out the address along with an invitation for a party. Lately, the headmaster had not shown too much concern as to Sirius' state of mind, simply locking him there and repeatedly telling him that he should not get out so he would not get himself killed.
"Meet you here in a bit, I'll go get the recipe," said Tonks, standing up.
He nodded already walking to the pantry in order to start separating the traditional ingredients that were used in making a cake. Remus was surprised when he found it all, suspecting that Molly most likely had something to do with it since he doubted that Kreacher would have done anything else above the essential for survival to keep the meals every day. He found himself smiling when about ten minutes after Tonks's departure, he heard the usual sound of Mrs. Black yelling and covering the Auror's curses to the bloody object that insisted upon catching her foot out of nowhere; if she did not know better, she would say that it had been hexed to bother her more than anyone else in the Headquarters. Before he could follow the shouts and go help her, she was in front of him whilst he put the ingredients on the table. Half of his mind wondering how fast she had been able to do it and the other bit of it answering him that the minutes he had spent staring blankly at the wall and smiling stupidly had been more than enough for her to shut Sirius's mother.
"Here," she announced, bringing the parchment up to his eyes. "Sorry, Mum wasn't home and Dad didn't know very well where it was. We had to go through a few different sentences till we managed to summon it. Apparently, Mum doesn't want anyone to find it ― Not easily at least."
"Sure," Remus half-smiled, running his index finger on it and checking all the ingredients. "We just need to buy... chocolate and strawberries. Everything else's here." He tilted his head to all the things he had put on the table.
Tonks's eyebrows rose in a pleasant surprise as she got the list back to herself and examining what was missing.
"Cool! I'll head to Diagon Alley then; won't take long to get those."
"But we should ― Wait! Don't come back here," he ordered. "Go straight to my house. We can't do this if we're expecting Sirius to pop here and discover about everything after smelling the chocolate. We'll keep it all there and tomorrow we can bring everything back to here in a jiffy."
A nod from Tonks and her attentive gaze indicated for him that she had agreed with him promptly.
"D'you need any help to move those?" She tilted her head to the products.
"No, it's all right."
"'Kay. See you in a bit!" Tonks waved already walking to the door and paying special attention to the umbrella stand as she passed by the corridor.
"Cheers," he said already getting the bottle of milk in his arms, unable to stop the small smile that came to his lips when he heard the door opening and closing that indicated that she had been able to not trip over the troll's leg.
Remus put all the ingredients in a conjured bag and walked to the door as well, hearing, before he shut the door closed, a somewhat happier squawk from Buckbeak and hoped that his companion was at least as happy as the hippogriff seemed to be.
Appearing before the Lupin Bungalow, he started to take off some protection spells and entered the house a couple of minutes later, waving his wand to open a few windows in order to let some fresh air in. He walked straight to the kitchen, leaving the things on the counter and getting the recipe in his trousers pockets before following the first step. Tonks did not even bother with knocking and came in. From the bowl he had been mixing butter and sugar, he looked to her and the smile she displayed made him glad to have contributed for it, even if it was with a tiny part such as baking a cake to make her dear cousin happy, even if it would only last for a short while. Perhaps he could try and do something to make it appear to her face once more.
"Couldn't find strawberries," she announced placing the chocolate bar on the counter next to him. "Got cherries instead." She shrugged showing him the fruits before putting them near the Sugarplum's best.
"Reckon it's similar enough," pointed out Remus. "Here, hold these," he added, handing her a bowl and a sieve before checking the recipe.
"'Kay…" Tonks looked from him to the thing in her hands slightly warily.
Remus got the flour, the salt and the cocoa powder and put it right in front of her.
"Sift it all together, will you?"
"Me?" she asked incredulously.
He looked around, as if searching for someone else in the room that he could have possibly referred to in a mocked affront.
"I don't see anyone else here, do you?" he questioned looking completely innocent.
Her eyebrows and she bit her bottom lip.
"Cheeky."
"Besides, I couldn't possibly dream of baking the Tonkses' cake without at least a member of said family. Your mother would have me murdered."
Tonks chuckled along with him.
"She wouldn't. Wingardium Leviosa!" Tonks assured him before levitating the sieve. "I'd be more worried about nan. From what I've heard she wasn't too happy with mum deciding on baking it the first time. Still makes sure to be the one who'll bake me one every single time I go with dad to her place, not that I've seen her much lately. Must've been a year or so since I've been there."
"Your grandmother?" He narrowed his eyes. "It's probably worse then."
Tonks rolled her eyes, putting a bit of each ingredient in the sieve whilst he began to stir a mix of sour cream and baking soda.
"S'not." She shook her head. "She's very nice. Bet it was just 'cause her little boy was getting married so she wasn't all too happy." She shrugged. "I don't know. I don't get it why parents act like that, though. Do they really want their children to be alone forever? I mean, they should be happy they found someone they love, right?"
Remus nodded.
"I guess. Reckon they just dislike the idea of being replaced."
"But that doesn't make any sense. They sho ― Oh, drat it!" Tonks exhaled heavily. In her eagerness she had put too much flour and it managed to end up all over her stomach and the counter as well. "And that is the reason as to why I asked you to bake the cake. I'm a walking disaster," she told him, wiping some of the mixture from her robes.
Remus half-smiled. He could not deny that her clumsiness here and there charmed him. He got the bowl and eyed the content for a short instant.
"I wouldn't say so," he assented. "It seems as though even when you make a mistake things go well." He tilted the bowl in his hand to the side in order to check the mixture and gave it to her. "See? It's perfect. You've got talent."
Tonks stopped half-way through cleaning herself and rolled her eyes again.
"I call that luck."
"Cook more often and you shall be luck more often then."
She gave him a threatening look, but he simply smiled. He still had five days to the next full moon and the weariness would have kicked in, but he felt no more than a light tiredness and that intrigued him somewhat. Though, under such gaze, that thought was pushed away to the back of his mind.
Tonks handed him the bowl with all the ingredients well sifted before peeking on the mixture he had been stirring and Remus put both of them in a bigger bowl, flicking his wand so the mixtures would become one.
"All right, get the chocolate," he gestured to the package she had bought with his head, "and don't forget the cherries."
"Remus, I ―"
"Hey, I've got my hands full," he interrupted her pointing out that with the right hand holding the wand and the left bowl, he could not do it.
Tonks smirked.
"Now, what would you do if I hadn't been here?"
"Well, I suppose I'd have to stop, put my wand down, pour the chocolate in and then mix it, but that would only slow us down, wouldn't it?" He offered her a small smirk and Tonks obliged. "You have the honour of adding the most important ingredients. Come here. Now go putting it ― No, don't!" Remus tried to pull the bowl away, but he was not fast enough. "― away from the wand's tip…" he finished with sigh.
"Shit!"
Figuring it would be the fastest way to make the ingredient blend, Tonks had done precisely as she was not supposed to and as a result, her stomach had not been the only place of her body that had chocolate on it or Remus's or the kitchen on that matter.
"You call this luck too?" mocked Tonks, letting some chocolate fall from her fingers and on the floor.
Remus shook his head, but too absorbed in the sight of Tonks covered in several small chocolate pieces to realise that she was not looking at him and did not notice that he had indeed answered her. Not quite sure as to why or he was moving towards her, Remus placed a hand on her cheek and she instantly met his eyes, as if somewhat enquiringly. His thumb, as though it had a mind of its own, went to lightly brush the corner of her lips, where a piece of chocolate had come to rest. The sweet was not upon her skin anymore, but Remus seemed unable to pull his hand away, not when her skin felt so incredibly good under his touch, not when his gaze seemed unable to look away from her velvet lips, not when the beats with both their hearts came to his increased hearing like the drums of The Weird Sisters' albums she loved so much egging him on and he knew it would feel so natural to bend down and ―
His breath caught in his throat as he was suddenly brought back from his torpor. Her eyes had softened, but the questioning remained there even if much more suave and he took his hand from her cheek the same minute, fighting the blush that was making its way to his cheeks.
"It's a, ah…" he raised his thumb to show her the reasoning behind his action, but refusing to meet her eyes, "piece of chocolate."
"Um…" murmured Tonks swallowing hard and suddenly very committed on cleaning her trousers.
"Don't fret, it's easier if I ― Scourgify!" he cast the spell with a large wave of his wand that encompassed every dirty bit of the room as well as themselves and every piece of chocolate disappeared.
"Thanks." She nodded smiling.
"Sure," said Remus getting a hold of the bowl and offering for her to pour the chocolate in. "If you please," he added determined to not let her know a single bit of what had gone through his mind in what he could only call as a moment of insanity a couple of minutes back.
Tonks sighed, but got the chocolate and the cherries and put them in either way with a slightly amused smile.
"Seriously, if I'm not your definition of walking disaster, then I have no idea what is."
Remus shook his head with a small smile as he waved his wand to blend the new ingredients into the mix.
"You just need to learn to dose your luck."
She snorted.
"And exactly how does one dose their luck? 'Cause the last time I checked luck wasn't something we could exactly control," she brought forth. "You knew this was going to happen. You tried to stop it."
"Well…" He put the uniform mixture inside the bundt pan before putting it to bake. "You just need some experience. You did it perfectly the second time ―"
"You weren't mixing yet," she retorted.
"But even if I was, you wouldn't have done it because that would've been a not exactly smart move and you are smart, very much so."
"Thanks," she said a bit surprised by his sudden compliment.
"And you won't learn if you don't practise." He waved his wand so the bowls would start washing themselves.
"'Kay…" She sighed defeated.
"So, now that we've put that behind us. May I offer you a cuppa?" asked Remus pulling a kettle from the cupboard and filling it with water.
"Sure."
"How do you take it?"
"Um, half of milk and six sugars," she answered. "And I won't say no to a cream either."
He flicked his wand rapidly to the kettle before looking at her and Tonks wondered if it was possible for an eyebrow to arch any higher than that.
"What?" she spoke indignantly. "Tastes nice."
"Not judging," he assured her smiling and turning to put the hot water in the mugs before preparing each one as they liked. "I'm out of cream, forgive me."
Tonks blew on the surface before swallowing and she was amazed to perceive that it was as good as if she had prepared it herself.
"Perfect," she told him taking a seat by the table as he walked towards her. "Pity we can't have Harry around, right?"
Remus nodded, pondering it for half a moment.
"Sirius would certainly be more happy if that was the case."
Half an hour passed as they awaited the cake to bake, preparing the ingredients for the glaze whilst arguing happily over all the possible reactions that Sirius would have after they showed him the tapestry. Sure he knew about the small party they had been organising, but for him, it was all they had been spending their time lately. Remus said that he would carry it with him, showing to every single person and explaining what each person had done to earn the title of disowned Black, but Tonks would argue saying that he would most likely hang it on a wall in the kitchen so that everyone could see it.
When the cake was finally ready, Remus took it from the pan so they could pour the final glaze over it. They could not deny that it certainly looked beautiful once some cherries were also put on top of it, their colour contrasting lovely with the dark brown of the chocolate, but Tonks frowned.
"There's only one problem."
"What?" asked Remus, frowning as well.
"This isn't the Tonkses' cake," she pointed out. "The cherries, the magic. Mum always does it the Muggle way, you know, 'cause of nan and I'm not at all opposed to it, but… We need a new name ― The Lupins' cake!" She grinned enthusiastically at him. "You guys don't have a cake already, do you?"
"Um, no…" Remus rubbed the back of his neck, looking at the cake as if trying to understand how all of a sudden his whole family had been entitled over a simple cake and unsure if he should let her know that 'you guys' meant him and well, himself, no one else.
"Awesome!" She grinned wider. "Makes much more sense, you know, you made most of it anyway."
"You came up with the new ingredient, though," he brought forth.
"Well, I didn't really have a choice, you see. I'd've got strawberries if I could."
"But you still choose them, you could've got raspberries, but you choose the cherries," he pointed out casting a Conservative Charm on the cake so it would last until the next day.
"Yeah, I s'pose I did…"
"So we probably should name it Nym ―"
Remus stopped himself when her wand left its holster and its tip touched his chin.
"Don't you dare finish that sentence."
Despite her voice sounding threatening indeed, Remus did not think he was in any actual danger, not when Tonks was at the other end of the weapon.
"I won't," he assured her only then allowing himself a smile. "My family just got a new cake."
"Good." She smirked lightly putting her wand back in the holster and only then she noticed the time. A quarter to three. The end of her lunchtime was long gone. Why did time with Remus always seem to fly? "Bloody Hell! I gotta go." She looked at him with apologetic eyes, biting her bottom lip.
"Oh, all right." He did not really expect for her to stay all day, did he? Of course she had to go.
Tonks walked a couple of steps to be beside him and stood on tiptoes to kiss his cheek.
"Thanks."
Remus watched her leave, not following her to the door due to the way his feet seemed to be glued onto the floor. He knew she only done it for she thought she would not have been able to do it by herself, but that was not true. She would have found a way to make it work. Even if it meant to buy a cake, but he could not deny that a homemade one had a much more special value and he had helped her. She was amazing for having the idea, he was good at cooking, she was not, he had helped her make the surprise better, that was it and absolutely nothing else.
The third of December finally arrived and Remus had a hard time trying to make Sirius cheerful whilst Tonks and Molly organised the last few things for the party. He was almost glad that said task had been cut short by his friend when he decided to sleep until almost noon and left him waiting at the library for any sign that his best friend had awoken. Remus wondered if it was all a cover for not having to see anyone since he had noticed that more and more often Sirius was found talking with Buckbeak or at some different room of the Grimmauld Place at the earliest hours of the morning distracting himself with the most random object from the house. It was not at all like Sirius to be like that, but being stuck inside a house without being able to do so much as put one foot out of the door was not either.
Both Marauders stumbled through the afternoon with Remus doing his best to recall his other birthdays, some of their best pranks whilst in Hogwarts or perhaps just taking his focus from the fact that not even all his birthdays in Azkaban were worse than that. Not having freedom was definitely unpleasant, but having it and being unable to enjoy it was certainly worse.
Remus was incredibly glad when a witch wearing the purple hair she knew her cousin was fond of finally knocked on the library's door where the two men were recalling their first week in third year when they had skipped the Arithmancy class to join Wormtail in Divination just to happily realise that they had made the right choice regarding their timetable.
"Hey, Sirius, would you come down here a sec?" asked Tonks. "Wanna show you something."
He stood up, gazing at her with curious eyes and Tonks led him to the drawing-room with Remus right behind them. She twisted the doorknob and let it swung open. Sirius came in, looking for any object that might jump to his eyes, but after a quick search, he did not find anything and looked back at his cousin.
"What?"
Tonks smiled amusedly and walked to the spot where the Black Tapestry was, only now it was hidden by a different one, a dark with small shinning tiny stars, one that had more burnt marks than names on it, but only made the names all the more important. Sirius stepped closer until he could see precisely what was written in it and Tonks could not have stopped the smile from coming to her lips when his jaw fell open after realising what they had done. A chuckle escaped his lips the instant he read the addition of 'Or not' that they had done to the family's lemma of 'Tojours Pur'.
"Happy birthday, mate."
Remus stepped closer to hug him tightly, trying to put in it all the things Sirius had done for him that he had never properly thanked him for and hoped that it could be at least of some comfort for him.
"Thanks, Moony."
Tonks jumped on his neck the instant Remus was out of the way.
"Happy birthday, Siri!"
"Thank you, Nymphie."
She let him go so she could be able to give him a look, but Sirius merely shrugged, smirking. He moved to take away the new tapestry and Remus and Tonks exchanged a slightly concerned look for a short moment.
"Sirius…?" she called somewhat worried, but he did not answer, simply got the tapestry from where it was and walked out of the drawing-room.
Still frowning, Remus and Tonks gazed into each other's eyes for another instant before following him. Had he not liked it? Perhaps it was not the best idea, perhaps it only reminded him that he did not have a lot of people he could trust. They followed him as Sirius climbed the stairs up to his room and stared gobsmacked at him when he levitated it, securing the tapestry on the ceiling with the same Permanent Sticking Charm he had put upon everything in his room that proved just how different he was from the rest of his family.
"Looks good, doesn't it?" questioned Sirius, analysing it.
Remus and Tonks allowed themselves a relieved sigh.
"It does," he agreed.
"Yeah…" she grinned before waving her wand towards the floor, but directly to the stereo in the kitchen and the loud sound of The Weird Sisters' guitars echoed through the house, waking Mrs. Black up, but loud enough that it, at the same time, blocked her shouts. "Come on," she tilted her head, "the Order's here and there isn't a meeting." She winked.
The three of them climbed down the stairs towards the kitchen and found the room replete with members already drinking and chatting happily. Sirius was soon embraced by lots of them, receiving several happy birthday wishes and a few gifts, including some china from Mundungus that already had the Black Family crest upon it. Even Molly shook his hand smiling as much as the witch disliked his attitude, she could not deny that he had good intentions behind it all.
For a few good hours it was almost as though there was no war outside, as though they were friends enjoying a birthday party instead of members of a secret society celebrating in the its headquarters for it was the only safe place for them. Almost as though, they could have picked a pub in the middle of London and drank as much as they wanted to without taking the risk of revealing any secret information that several of them had risked their lives to obtain and therefore risking their clandestine. Almost as though they could discuss their work day with any soul on the street without worrying if they knew about the existence of a hidden magical world and just how dangerous it was at that moment for anyone, be it Muggle or wizard, whichever side they had chosen to help, or even if they had not chosen a side at all.
It was so wonderfully easy to pretend that there was nothing else out there, that they were as safe as they were six months back when the Dark Lord had yet to return. And thus, when the cake was already cut and most of the chatting had been replaced by the sound of tableware hitting the porcelain of the plates, Tonks came to occupy the empty seat beside Remus's.
"If I had seen him moping, I'd have cast a Cheering Charm, I swear."
Remus chuckled.
"He was cheerful enough," he pointed out. "Probably will remain so until he can no longer keep his eyes open."
"Hope so," she grinned before sipping on her butterbeer.
"Must admit I didn't think he'd like the tapestry so much, but did you see how flabbergasted he was?"
She nodded enthusiastically, swallowing a bite of her piece of cake.
"Amazing! So glad it worked out just fine."
"That wonderful idea of yours."
She shook her head.
"Team's effort," she corrected him. "By the way, wonderful job of yours." She gestured towards the cake in front of her.
"Team's effort," he corrected her, trying not to smile.
"Only one conclusion to take then." She shrugged getting a hold of her butterbeer. "We make a marvellous team," grinned Tonks before hitting her bottle on his lightly. "To us."
And before mimicking her and sipping on his butterbeer as well, he repeated her say, smiling and nodding, "To us."
