To home comings and new beginnings
The door opened a tiny crack and a short knotty wand was pushed through. "Who's there?" Alastor's voice was muffled from inside.
Tonks pushed one foot into the door, annoyed. "Mad-Eye, it's us. Let us in!"
A fiery bolt of lightning flashed at her. Instinctively, she ducked under it, causing Remus to be hit by the shot. Cursing, he held his head, which quickly formed a large bump.
"Damn it, Mad-Eye, what was that for? Calm down, your paranoia's getting out of hand!" Determined, Tonks squeezed through the far too narrow gap and rushed past the grumbling ex-Auror into the entrance hall.
"Paranoia, my arse. You weren't there when the ministry people surrounded the house," he shouted angrily as he followed her into the kitchen of Grimmauldplatz No. 12.
Tonks shook her head. "No, it wasn't me. But you weren't there either when I made sure they got the order to retreat."
Alastor looked at them suspiciously. "What are you saying?"
She could not answer because angry voices raised to her ear from the stairs. Sirius rushed in, closely followed by Remus, who seemed anything but happy about the reunion with his oldest friend. "Tonks, what are you doing? Have you decided to me in now?" Sirius shouted angrily.
Confused, Tonks shook her head. "I'm glad to see you too."
Remus grabbed Sirius by the shoulder and turned him around. "She didn't betray you, it wasn't her fault... actually."
"Oh, yeah? Then how come the man who chased me all over England for a year just happens to be standing out in the square? Your mentor?" Sirius added accusingly in Tonks' direction.
She looked at Remus angrily. "What do you mean by 'actually'? I didn't tell Kingsley where Sirius was. He found out on his own. You must have done something stupid to blow your cover, dear grand cousin."
Sirius' face darkened dangerously. "You think I've embarked upon a reckless adventure because I'm so keen to pay the dementors another visit?"
Tonks jumped when she heard that. She'd assumed Kingsley's remark about using dementors in the hunt for Sirius had been nothing but a tasteless exaggeration. She couldn't just tell Sirius that, of course. She had to make him understand that the man who had wanted to hunt him down until a few days ago was now seeking a peaceful conversation with him. But Sirius was right: at the moment there was simply no good reason for him to trust Tonks or to grant her request in any way. Her suspicion was confirmed when she noticed the dark rings under Sirius' hurriedly scurrying eyes. He had sunk down on a chair at the long kitchen table, as if he hadn't slept in days. "Damn, I was scared. Scared to death, Tonks. If you had seen what I've seen..."
Tonks' guilty conscience got a lot worse. Of course, she hadn't wanted him to go through this fear, which was one of the reasons why she had started lying to her mentor in the first place. And yet, due to her bad planning and scatterbrained nature, she had not succeeded in deceiving Kingsley and keeping him away from Grimmauldplace. She sat down at the table opposite Sirius and said appeasingly, "Kingsley is not here to arrest you. Believe me, if he'd come here with that intent, we wouldn't be sitting here now."
"How can you be sure? Who said this wasn't a trap?" growled Alastor.
Tonks took a deep breath. "Because, I'm at his mercy as much as you are. If he wants to put Sirius behind bars, he'll have to do the same to the rest of us and he won't do that." With a frightened look at Sirius, she added, "I told him your story. I told him the truth." She looked him in the eye. "He only wants to talk to you. I promise nothing will happen to you."
Everything inside him seemed to resist - and Tonks could understand that - but finally Sirius nodded. Alastor's reaction was a disapproving snort that Remus acknowledged with a reproachful look.
"Right," said Tonks, hoping not to make a terrible mistake this time. "I'll bring him in then."
"Do you think he believes him?" Tonks asked nervously.
"I can't say, Padfoot has his convincing moments and those in which he makes incoherent death threats to stifle even the very last belief in the good in him," Remus replied, his face twisting painfully.
He and Tonks were standing a bit apart from Sirius and Kingsley, who were sitting at the table talking. Remus leaned against the kitchen counter where Tonks was patching up his bump. Alastor stood like a bodyguard behind Sirius' chair and let his magic eye roll ominously, as if he wanted to look straight into Kingsley's head or at least intimidate him. But his behaviour seemed to make no impression on Kingsley. He had crossed his fingers and listened to Sirius with an attentive expression. Tonks prayed that in his anger at her and his distrust of Kingsley, her grand cousin would not say anything that he might regret later. The conversation dragged on and Tonks began to get hungry. Neither she nor Remus had had time to change since returning from Wales and she would give anything for a refreshing shower to pamper her battered body.
Remus seemed to have guessed her thoughts. "Why don't you go home? If Mad-Eye has any questions about our mission, I'll be here."
Tonks hesitated. "I don't know. I'm the one who got us into this mess. What if Sirius can't win Kingsley over?"
"Then you can't change that, no matter where you are. Go home. I'm sure your boyfriend is waiting for you."
Tonks looked up in surprise. "My boyfriend?"
Remus frowned. "I thought you and this Bill Weasley... You are close."
She shook her head. "No! I mean, yes, we are close, but not like that, and I don't want to be. Which is not to say he's not great. He is great. He's just... " As she realized that she was rambling she stopped. It was difficult for her to describe her relationship with Bill and she didn't understand why she was so keen on Remus understanding it either.
In response to her stammering he raised his eyebrows in amusement and Tonks was once again convinced that he had no interest in the details of her private life. She went over to Kingsley. She waited until there was a short pause in Sirius' flow of speech and then asked her mentor quietly if she could go. He hardly listened to her but seemed to be deeply lost in thought. With an impatient gesture he told her not to disturb what she took to be permission to leave. She waved to Alastor and gave Sirius an encouraging look.
At the kitchen door, Remus waited with her comet 260 and her rucksack. "I'll walk you up."
As they crept through the lobby, Tonks noticed her partner was walking more spritely than usual, with a broad grin on his lips.
"Has anything pleasant happened?" she asked in a suspicious tone of voice, unable to banish the hint of a smile from her own face.
Remus laughed restrainedly. "No, nothing. Nothing at all, really. I'm just... I'm in a good mood."
"Well, at least one of us is," Tonks replied, a bit irritated. Of course, she was glad to be back in London and also that the understanding between Sirius and Kingsley seemed to work out quite well. But at the same time, she felt a kind of melancholy for having abandoned her mission prematurely, which had shortened her time with Remus ... well, her time to get to know each other better and to work together effectively, nothing more. Because she thought him a nice person, nothing more. Apart from their occasional arguments, they were a pretty good team in Tonks' eyes. Of course, that was something that anyone would be sad to give up.
Remus, on the other hand, seemed anything but sad. With that wry smile on his lips, he seemed almost cheerful.
A bit biting Tonks said: "Well, you must be glad that all this is over now. The end of a mission is a relief to many."
He looked down at Tonks. There was a thirst for action and optimism in his eyes when he said, "But this is not the end. Tonks, it's just the beginning."
