Chapter 2. The Thing About Virtual Backgrounds
"Mad-Eye, please," Tonks said. "Can you enable the chat? I need to ask someone a private, specific question about their report."
They had been doing Zoom for weeks now, and Moody still hadn't budged on the private messaging.
"Fine," Moody grunted. "But if I see you're abusing it…"
"Don't worry, you won't!" Tonks said cheerfully, just as the chat opened up. "Thanks."
Remus had a feeling he knew who she was trying to chat. Sure enough, he saw Sirius turn to his keyboard a moment later, typing with a roguish grin on his face. Then, both Tonks and Sirius turned off their cameras.
"Hestia, why don't you give us your report on the Death Eaters next?" Moody asked.
"Well, none of the Death Eaters wear masks, and they keep spreading germs, so I just quit guard duty and came home," Hestia admitted.
Moody looked enraged. "What? You ditched guard duty?"
"They weren't wearing masks!"
Moody huffed. Just then, Tonks's and Sirius's cameras both came on, with both of them sitting there, their faces looking intent for once, which was interesting.
Remus turned to private chat and wrote to Sirius, What's going on?
Sirius didn't answer, though, so he ignored the two of them and tried to pay attention to Moody, who was lecturing Hestia on constant vigilance.
Just then there was a crack outside, and Remus turned to see whether someone had Apparated, or if someone had broken their head on the sidewalk. You could never know.
"Hey!" called Tonks, who was down at the bottom of his apartment building with Sirius. They were both wearing masks. "Can we come in?"
Remus quickly turned off his camera and walked over to the window. "How'd you guys get here? I literally see your faces on the screen!"
Sirius grinned. Or at least Remus thought he was grinning, but you couldn't be too sure because of the mask. "Let us in and we'll tell you."
He let them in, and in a moment, both of them were sitting on his sofa.
"Six feet," Sirius warned her.
"Right," Tonks said, scooting farther away from Sirius on the sofa. "Hi, Remus."
"Hi," he replied, perplexed. "You want to explain how you're here and there at the same time?"
"We're not really there," Sirius said, and Remus could tell he was grinning this time, even with the mask. "We put up virtual backgrounds."
"Virtual backgrounds?" Suddenly, Remus understood. "Oh, Merlin. You put pictures of yourself as your background so you could ditch the meeting?"
"Actually, videos," Tonks told him. "A still picture would be too obvious."
"Good point," Remus conceded. "Clever, both of you."
Sirius and Tonks exchanged grins. "Thanks."
"Lupin!" Moody shouted from his computer. "Turn on your camera!"
Remus rolled his eyes, walking over to the computer and unmuting. "I'm having bandwidth issues, sorry."
"Bandwidth issues, you say?" It was clear that Moody had no idea what bandwidth was. "Okay, then." He continued talking.
"Moony, go get a mask on," Sirius instructed him. Remus complied, pulling on one of the blue surgical masks that Emmeline had distributed to all of the Order. Sirius was wearing a Mickey Mouse mask, and Tonks had on a cloth mask that kept changing colors. Typical.
"So, do you guys want something to eat, or something?" Remus offered.
"Nah, I'm good," Sirius said. "I just want to be free from that boring Order meeting."
"Yeah," Tonks agreed. "I don't know why Moody thinks we all take him seriously."
"It's so obvious that nobody's interested," Sirius grumbled. "Everyone makes up their typical technology excuses. My microphone isn't working. My camera isn't working. I'm having bandwidth issues."
Tonks sniggered.
"Anyway, Remus, can I borrow your phone?" Sirius asked. "Mine's dead, and I promised I'd call Harry and talk to him."
"Yeah, sure," Remus replied, handing him his phone. Sirius grabbed it and went into another room to call Harry.
"So," Tonks said, "how've you been?"
"Fine," Remus answered, sitting down on the sofa where Sirius had just been. "Nice mask."
She blushed. "Thanks."
Neither said anything for a while, looking around at the room when Tonks said, "You know, a few weeks ago, I was going to ask you if you wanted to go out and get some coffee together. But, uh, I don't think that's an option anymore. You know, because of the pandemic. It really sucks. Nothing worse than this tiny virus to ruin all of your plans."
But only one phrase had resonated with him. "You were going to what?"
She stared at him. "Ask you out for coffee?"
"Oh," he said, his heart beating irregularly. What was he, a teenager with a crush? "Okay."
She was still looking at him strangely. "Yeah. Like I was saying, this dumb pandemic has shut down pretty much everything, so that's not an option. It's been a while since I've seen all my friends, and everything. I moved back in with my parents when the lockdown started, since I didn't like being all alone. And besides, they need some company too. What about you? How's life been under lockdown?"
"Uh, great," he said, still processing the fact that she had wanted to ask him out for coffee. That was a friendly gesture, right? It must have been.
She wrinkled her nose. "Great? Really? I wouldn't've thought you liked being under lockdown."
"No, not great," he amended quickly. "It's been okay. I miss going out and all that too, but I like being able to spend time with you and Sirius during Order meetings."
She laughed, her already pink hair turning even pinker.
A/N: Remember, COVID-19 is still rampant! Regardless of whether you're vaccinated, please wear a mask and avoid large gatherings! Protect yourself AND others!