Often I'd get called away from the Burrow in order to help the Order with something or other. Dementor attacks, Death Eater sightings, muggle attacks and all sorts. The dementors were easy enough to handle, sending my patronus at them and altering the memories of the muggles who saw or felt their presence so that they would forget before returning. The messages would come every few days, asking me to respond to something and each time I'd leave in a heartbeat, sometimes when I was right in the middle of something.
Harry wanted to come and help, and each time I'd have to remind him that he was still underage and couldn't do magic outside of Hogwarts, so I'd leave him behind with a promise that soon enough, he and I would be fighting side by side again, but for now he had to have patience as there was still a great deal more he needed to learn. Although he wasn't happy about it, he accepted it. Sometimes I'd manage to corner a Death Eater or two, but they had learned since not to engage with me and would flee, though when I got close to Bellatrix Lestrange one evening, she'd sent a rather nasty curse in my direction.
I'd been with Uncle Remus at the time, answering a summons to a muggle attack and there at the centre of it all, having set a building on fire full of muggles inside it, was Bellatrix. Her companions promptly fled, but upon seeing me, her eyes lit up with a wildness which blazed like the flames behind her and she'd sent fiendfyre in the shape of a snake right at us. Water wouldn't douse it, so Remus and I flung ourselves out of the way as other aurors appeared to put out the house, witches and wizards racing into the building in order to rescue the muggles as Bellatrix cackled wildly. "I'll get you one day, little Black! You'll be purged by my own hand I swear it!"
"Or you by mine!" I yelled back, slashing my wand and a huge flaming phoenix appeared, however the flames were cool and majestic, flickering slowly as the phoenix cried out then attacked the snake made from fiendfyre, swallowing it up before disappearing with a burst high in the air having flown up into the atmosphere. I tried to capture Bellatrix, but she tossed curses over her shoulder before disapparating and I had to block the last curse before it hit Remus. "Uncle Rem! Are you alright?"
"I'm fine, thank you Mia." He breathed shakily, and the two of us promptly left before anyone could ask us questions. He didn't look well, pale and withdrawn, greying hair looking more prominent than the last time I'd seen him and I noticed that he was no longer taking care of his appearance. I checked in my head and knew for certain we weren't yet near the full moon, I'd memorised the dates for the year, but still, something seemed to be wrong. I'd apparated us back to Grimmauld Place in order to give our report, but first I made him sit down in a plush, comfortable chair by the fire so that he could rest.
"Uncle Rem, is everything alright?" I asked him slowly, looking at him carefully and he tried to smile, but the expression didn't even reach his eyes. Not one bit.
"I'm fine, Mia. Just tired."
"You seem more than tired, and don't try and brush me off, Uncle Rem. I've been noticing there's been a change in you recently." For the moment we were still alone so I reached down to take his hand, giving his fingers a light squeeze as I looked at him with my brow knitted together. "I'm worried about you." Considering for a moment, Remus eventually sighed and lifted my hand to his face, giving the back of my hand a gentle kiss of affection.
"There has been a…complicating development of a personal nature, I suppose you could say." He started to tell me but then shook his head, sagging against the armchair with exhaustion. "You shouldn't have to worry about me, Mia, not with so much else going on out there. Worry about yourself and your family."
"But you are my family, Uncle Rem." I argued with him, deciding to sit down on the footstool in front of the chair so that I was now lower in height, getting myself comfortable in order to talk. "You'll always be family. You're in the family portrait, you're like my dad's brother, you're my uncle. How could you say you're not family? We love you, Uncle Rem. I love you." Telling him so bluntly my own feelings and how I saw him, Remus started slightly and looked at me with an expression which seemed like he was questioning my sanity. "I think you need to learn to love yourself a little more, Uncle Rem. You're always so hard on yourself, and it makes you think that you're some unlovable person. Well, it's not true. Not true at all. You are completely lovable, and the fact that people do love you shouldn't come as a surprise."
Having given him my little lecture, I rose up and kissed his cheek lightly. "You rest yourself here for a bit and I'll go give the report. I'll come back with food, shall I? Some tea?" And with that, I walked lightly back out of the room in order to go find Moody who was in the downstairs study, his usual place now that the Order was fully underway in order to give him my report and prepare food for everyone there quickly before I had to return to the Burrow, wondering what on earth could be affecting Remus so badly. I'll do some quiet snooping, maybe Molly will have an idea. She's very perceptive on these things. I'll save it for tomorrow though since it's late, and by the time I'd gotten back, even Arthur was home. We exchanged our security questions before I was allowed in, where I was greeted with two firm hugs from the Weasley parents who had become like my own as well.
I told them everything that had happened, including Bellatrix's promise to kill me and my dad in order to 'prune the Black tree', as it were. They looked at each other with concern, but Bellatrix didn't worry me enough to warrant any sense of unease. She was wild and unstable, and that was going to be her downfall. One day I'd very much like to see the look on her face when I one up her, after all, I need to get her back for almost crushing my dad to death.
The evening was quiet and, all tired, we soon went to bed to waken in the morning feeling greatly refreshed. It was when everyone else had gone outside that I chose to talk to Molly, asking whether she knew why Remus was looking so down recently. "Oh, well I suppose there's no harm in telling you, you're family after all to the both of them and you're quite sensible." Molly said as I helped her with the dishes and clearing the table after breakfast. "You see, Remus is in a bit of a bad spell because of Tonks."
"Tonks?"
"Yes dear, Tonks. Remus visited her a lot whilst she was recovering in St Mungo's after the…incident at the Ministry, and they became quite close. Very close, in fact. She's developed romantic feelings for him." Okay, that hadn't been anything like I expected and it took me a few moments to process the news which Molly gave me, glancing at me every now and then until my face relaxed once more.
"Romantic feelings? Tonks fell in love with my Uncle Rem? Wow…that's…that's wonderful! But where's the problem? Does he not feel the same way? I don't understand, Tonks is great, I've always thought they've gotten along just fine." Now I was frowning, my shock having turned to excitement now changed to bewilderment, unable to see the issue in this scenario and why Remus would be looking so downcast.
"Quite the contrary, dear, I believe Remus actually does feel the same way about our Tonks, however he is continuing to refuse any advances she makes towards him. She's talked to me about it, the poor thing, she's really quite depressed about it all. It's even affecting her appearance too." Molly told me in a quick whisper so that she wouldn't be overheard but trying to share as much information with me as possible before we could be inevitably interrupted. "He insists that his being a werewolf is far too dangerous and that she would regret being with him because she would become an outcast as well."
"Not to us!" I protested hotly, my voice raising a little too loudly so I lowered it again. "That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard, and I spent more or less every waking moment with Fred and George for the last seven years of my life. Tonks wouldn't become an outcast just for being with Uncle Rem, and werewolves are starting to be better understood now, I mean, my paper has been given another look over and received a much better response this time, it's completely nonsensical to deny yourself love and happiness just because you're afraid of what other people think."
"Exactly as I have been saying, but I can't persuade Tonks to talk to Remus again. Perhaps you could try, dear, he loves you a great deal and knows how much you care about him, perhaps he'll listen to you. If all it takes is a little push, I think you'd be the person to do it well. Sirius would probably approach it all wrong…threaten to knock some sense to him or something…" Agreeing that I would bring it up the next time I had the opportunity, I continued washing the dishes with my wand waving like I was conducting, making the sponge slop back and forth as I hummed thoughtfully, thinking deeply. Tonks and Remus. Remus and Tonks. Nymphadora Lupin…Remus and Nymphadora Lupin…it fits rather nicely. I like it. That settles it. I'll approach it delicately at first and try to understand what was going on in Remus's head, and if I can't get him to see sense, I'll get dad on side and then we'll both knock some sense into him.