3 July 1995
Remus apparated precisely onto the top step of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place—an action he had near-perfected in the four days since he and Sirius had moved into the grimy, old townhouse. Pushing his hair out of his eyes with a tired sigh, Remus carefully nudged open the front door. It had been a long, exhausting day, and he was in no mood to bother with Walburga Black's volatile portrait.
Yawning, Remus made his way down the foyer staircase to the basement kitchen. He could hear the shower going upstairs, which meant Sirius was bathing. Sure enough, the kitchen was empty—but the tea service was already on the kitchen table. Remus raised his eyebrows, pleasantly surprised. Sirius, though a gracious host, usually couldn't be counted on to remember things like tea. Remus strongly suspected that his friend wouldn't remember to eat if Remus didn't cook three meals a day.
Remus poured himself a generous cup of tea, waving his wand over it to warm it. He had spent the majority of the past four days under a Disillusionment Charm in Surrey—hiding in bushes and behind trees—to keep an eye on Harry. Dumbledore hadn't told Remus why, exactly, he was meant to be watching Harry so closely, but the headmaster seemed to fear that Harry would act irrationally and land himself in trouble. Personally, Remus found this a little absurd. The Harry he remembered was certainly stubborn, extremely persistent once he set his mind on something—but irrational? No…
Then again, the Harry that Remus remembered was a thirteen-year-old boy—not a fifteen-year-old man who had endured another year of trauma, watched a classmate be murdered, and engaged in wand-to-wand combat with the darkest wizard of their time…
Remus took a long sip of tea, letting it warm his dry throat before swallowing it down heavily. He closed his eyes, stretching his neck from side to side. Then, he checked his watch. It was nearly four-thirty in the afternoon. In half-an-hour, the dingy basement kitchen of Number Twelve, Grimmauld Place would host the first formal meeting of the Order of the Phoenix in nearly fourteen years—
CRASH.
Remus nearly jumped out of his skin, as, with a clatter that seemed to echo through the whole house, something was knocked to the floor upstairs. The ruckus was followed by a strangled exclamation of shock—but this was quickly drowned out by another, shriller, horribly familiar voice that was screaming in anguish.
"HALF-BLOODS, MUTANT FREAKS, SMEARING YOUR FILTH ON THE HOUSE OF MY FATHERS! SLIME, SCUM, BE GONE!"
Remus was out of his seat, sprinting up the basement stairs before he knew what he was doing. Heart trapped in his throat, he swiveled into the sitting room, wand raised, to find a young woman—with shockingly bright pink hair—attempting to force the curtains over the shrilling portrait, her expression aghast. By the front door, the troll leg umbrella stand was still rolling on the hardwood floor.
"STAINS OF DISHONOR! SHAME OF MY FLESH! BEFOULING THE BLACK FAMILY NAME!"
Remus stood frozen, disarmed by the sight before him. For one wild second, he contemplated stunning the pink-haired intruder. But then, concluding that she couldn't possibly be that dangerous if she had been careless enough to knock over an umbrella stand, Remus instead stowed his wand and hurried over to help the woman tug the curtains over the portrait.
Finally, with a SLAM, the two of them were able to heave the curtains shut tight. Silence unfolded over the sitting room, as Remus and the woman fell back against different ends of the wall, panting.
"I—am—so—sorry," the pink-haired woman gasped at last, clutching her side. "I—I was just having a look around—I didn't know—why is the umbrella stand a bloody leg?"
And suddenly, impossibly, despite everything that had happened in the past five minutes, Remus burst out laughing. The pink-haired witch swept her fringe out of her eyes and grinned helplessly back at him, her dark eyes twinkling.
Suddenly— "Oi! Can't a bloke finish a bloody shower around here without being scared half to death?"
Remus looked up. Sirius had appeared on the first floor landing, his expression disgruntled. He was wearing only a pair of pajama trousers, and his hair and torso were still glistening with droplets of water—clearly, he had been interrupted mid-shower.
"Sirius," the pink-haired woman groaned. "I'm sorry—I wasn't looking where I was going—"
"Figured as much," Sirius rolled his eyes, shaking a bit of water out of his shoulder-length hair. "I see you got to meet your great auntie Burga—she's a charmer, isn't she?"
The young woman's expression melted into one of disgust. Remus gazed at Sirius in bewilderment, his mind reeling. Great auntie—?
"Well, I'm off to finish my shower before Dumbledore and the rest get here, thank you very much," Sirius grumbled. "Tonks, this is Remus. Remus, you remember when Andromeda had a daughter? Well, meet. Enjoy."
Remus blinked several times after Sirius's retreating form. Then, shaking himself, he turned to the woman—Tonks?—with a smile.
"Pleasure," he said warmly, extending his hand, and she shook it, grinning back at him.
"Reckon it would've been more of a pleasure if I didn't give you a heart attack for a greeting," Tonks said brightly. "I need some practice at the whole 'hello, nice to meet you' thing."
"You'll get some practice today when the whole Order's arrived," Remus said wryly, leading the way down the sitting room toward the kitchen stairs. He paused for a moment. "I assume that's—erm—why you're here?"
"Oh—yes!" Tonks smacked her forehead. "Merlin's pants, I think I've broken every basic law enforcement protocol in the last five minutes. Knocking over a large object? Check. Not introducing myself? Check. Not stating the purpose of my visit? Check. It's a miracle I was invited to join the Order at all, really. Mad-Eye's probably regretting it already."
"Mad-Eye…?" Remus stared at her, flummoxed.
"Mad-Eye Moody," she told him, sitting down at the kitchen table and reaching for a cup from the tea service. She knocked her elbow into the teapot, and it rattled dangerously for a moment. "He's my mentor at the Academy—or was, anyway. I passed my exams last year."
"You're an Auror?" Remus asked in amazement, sitting down as well.
"Class of ninety-four," Tonks grinned. "You probably won't be surprised to hear that I failed my Stealth and Tracking exam three times. I had that bloody course memorized by the end of it."
Remus chuckled, but his mind was still working on overdrive. He remembered, vividly, when Sirius's cousin Andromeda had gotten pregnant and run away from home. He remembered hearing about the child throughout his time at Hogwarts, seeing photographs of a chubby baby pinned to Sirius's dorm walls…
What he hadn't realized was that, in the last fourteen years, that chubby baby had grown into the young witch in front of him—a whole new generation of fresh Hogwarts graduates whose early adulthood would be spent on and shaped by the frontlines. Just like Remus's…
"I really am sorry about the whole umbrella stand incident," Tonks's voice brought Remus out of his thoughts. "I got here early, and Sirius said I could take a look around while I was waiting. I wouldn't've been surprised if you hexed me."
"It's no problem, really," Remus shook his head, smiling. He looked at her for a moment. "Er—is your name actually—Tonks?"
For the first time, Tonks's expression stiffened slightly. She cleared her throat, straightening her shoulders. "No," she said. "But you'd go by your surname, too, if your mother named you Nymphadora. It's been twenty-two years, and I still haven't forgiven her for that one."
Remus blinked as a sudden memory rushed back to him. Then, slowly, a smile spread across his face.
He had a strong suspicion that he'd been wrong earlier when he'd decided that this pink-haired woman wasn't dangerous.
Author's Note:
Tee hee :D
