"How's Charlie?" Tonks quietly as Bill, keeping a careful eye on Molly's position.
Just because they were in Elphias Doge's house did not mean that Molly stopped her bustling around and trying to feed everyone. She had actually brought over two plates of sandwiches that were stacked to an impressive height. Not that anyone was ever going to complain about having Molly Weasley's food. She had now commandeered the kitchen so she could make tea and coffee. Of course, she no longer needed to ask anyone what their preferences were. Thankfully, a good number of people were attending this meeting or else Tonks was sure that she would have been interrogated. Under the guise of gossip, of course.
"He's fine," Bill replied with that fond grin he always got on his face when he thought of his siblings. "Happy that he's in Romania and back with the dragons."
"Of course."
Charlie was always happy as long as there were dragons. And away from his mother. Romania had both.
"Ah, Tonks!" Fleur greeted with a beaming smile. "You are finally here!"
Looked like Molly hadn't managed to ensconce her in the kitchen. Tonks let Fleur kiss both her cheeks and gave her a brief hug.
"Thought I was going to be late," Tonks told her honestly.
Actually, she had planned it that way. She didn't want to talk to people.
"You know these people," Fleur said with a playful eyeroll. "Always wanting to gossip first and start meetings late."
"I saw you doing a good bit of that gossiping," Bill teased his fiancée with a sly nudge.
"I do not gossip, William," she sniffed. "I was merely sharing information."
"That you read in Witch's Weekly, I'll bet."
That got him an indignant squawk and a playful slap on the arm. Tonks chuckled at their antics and then felt a bit sad. She knew it made her sound like a spoilt brat but she'd love to have someone she could do that with. She had someone she could do that with. Which was worse. She knew what she was missing. Maybe it would be better if she went to a different part of the room...
Just when she had made up her mind to do just that, Fleur and Bill turned their attention back to her.
"Anyway," Fleur stopped the playful rough-housing with Bill to turn back to her. "You are not the latest."
"Who else is to come?" Tonks asked with a frown, looking around her. Everyone looked like they were here, except for Dumbledore, of course. Well, Snape wasn't here but that was normal these days. Basically, Voldemort's shadow when he wasn't at Hogwarts she heard.
"Professor Dumbledore. Again," she said disapprovingly.
"He's a busy man, love," Bill said with a sigh.
"It is still rude to be late to your own meeting," she sniffed.
Technically, she had a point but it was Dumbledore so no one ever said anything to him. Except maybe McGonagall. But Tonks was pretty sure that even Dumbledore was scared of her.
"Who else is missing?" Tonks asked.
Fleur suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Ah."
"Lupin," Bill said, giving her a wary look.
Which was better than the sympathetic and understanding looks she had been getting but she still didn't like it.
"Remus is here? I thought he was on a mission?"
No one had told her what he was doing. Or if he was doing anything.
Bill shrugged. "He's been back for a while apparently. Still doing stuff for Dumbledore, obviously but not with the werewolves. I don't think."
"Oh. How long has he-"
Bill made a cutting motion across his throat and she stopped. He was looking over her shoulder.
"Hi, Lupin," he greeted in a forced casual tone.
Tonks tried not to be too eager to look at him. She couldn't help it; she hadn't seen him in months. Somehow, he was thinner -not that he ever had any body fat to spare - and more tired looking. If that was possible. Had a full moon come and gone? The thought jolted her. She didn't know. She didn't know when the last full moon was. When had she stopped keeping track of that? That was a perfectly reasonable explanation for his current state (even though everything in her was screaming that one night didn't make you look like that). But he had, worryingly, been without his Wolfsbane Potion so that was to be expected. There were a few new scars across his cheeks, one still red and healing. It didn't look too healthy. A cursed cut? She wasn't sure what a healing werewolf scratch looked like. Surprisingly, in all her patrols from leaving the Academy, she had never seen one. She had seen a photograph of a fresh on in training. She had been one of the few not to throw up. Sure, her stomach had been rolling but she didn't empty it. A healing one didn't look as bad, still looked sore and nasty but not stomach-churning.
Remus nodded at them in acknowledgement as he had to walk past them to get anywhere in the room, a rather forced smile on his face.
"William, Miss Delacour, Tonks," he said politely before abruptly turning away and going to the opposite end of the room.
Tonks sighed loudly, feeling more than a bit awkward. And relieved. Forced conversation with Remus was something she did not want. Not with other people around or by herself either. But, inexplicably, she also felt...well...disappointed. Didn't Remus want to talk to her? Still be friends? She would be happy enough with that right now. She didn't feel like she had a lot of those so she'd quite happily take what she could get. Which was silly of her. Neither of them wanted to talk to each other. It was all to raw and awkward for them to do anything. But still...
"Apologies, everyone," Dumbledore said by way of greeting as he strode in.
Lots of "It's okay," and "no problem" came from everyone. This was Dumbledore after all. No one was going to grumble impatiently at him.
They all automatically sorted themselves around Doge's extremely large table. Remus ended up opposite her but she was pretty sure Molly had something to do with that. She tried not to look at him.
"Quite a lot to get through tonight," Dumbledore said cheerfully.
Of course, he would be excited about that. Tonks supposed it was a good thing, it hopefully meant that there was progress being made everywhere. Even if it wasn't, it would still be something to listen to. To take her mind of things. And to stop her looking straight ahead. It was rude not to look at the person who was talking, after all.
