Tonks was helping Remus tidy up the house. They were hosting the Order meeting tonight, it was their turn as one of the ones who, you know, actually had a house. A house. That was still a weird thing to Tonks. She'd never had the Order over before to where she lived, having been living in a flat since she left school. Come to think of it, the Order hadn't been hosted before in Remus' (now Remus' and hers) house. But they didn't really have much of a choice now, they had no place like Grimmauld so they shared that responsibility out. They had, by unspoken agreement, left the Weasleys out of the rotation recently because of everything that had happened.

But Remus had gone into full panicked host mode, which would have been amusing if he'd actually let her help more than he was currently. Or, interfere and distract, let's be honest here because she wasn't the tidiest person around...

But no, he said that she should rest up. Because she was pregnant. The fact that she had been throwing up not twenty minutes ago was beside the point.

What they were going to be doing during this Order meeting was beyond her but, for once, she just couldn't bring herself to care. Caring meant feeling something and, well, she hadn't been doing a lot of that over the last few days.

She had told Remus this, they had promised to be better at sharing things after all, worried that what happened last year to her was going to happen again. She did not want to go back to that version of herself. But he reassured her that it was a natural reaction to what her dad was doing. He promised to tell her if the depression-like symptoms stuck around for a worrying amount of time but for the meantime this was pretty normal.

"It's your brain protecting yourself from feeling certain things that might hurt you," he said knowingly, having been in that position himself before.

Which sucked but was also a blessing because Tonks really wasn't in the mood to cry or anything. Apparently, there was a lot of that coming her way because pregnancy hormones were a thing, apparently. And they made you cry. Fantastic. Just fantastic. Tonks didn't like crying.

"Ah ha, found it!" Remus said triumphantly.

He had been looking for enough mugs and cups and whatnot so everyone could have a drink. He was worried that he didn't have enough, having been a bachelor for the longest time and not exactly used to hosting in any shape or form. But thankfully, Remus was a bit of a mug hoarder so once they had dug them out from all the cupboards there had been enough. Nearly.

Of course, they had ended up with one short. Or, rather, two short now, Tonks supposed. Thanks to her breaking that one.

We still need one more," she reminded him.

Remus' face fell, which she couldn't even manage to be amused at, and then it cleared.

"No, we don't," he said happily, brandishing his wand. "We just have to repair that one!"

They had just gathered the pieces together, not even putting them in the bin for whatever reason which would make repairing it easier.

One Reparo later and they had enough mugs again.

Just in time too because there was the first cracks of Apparition coming from outside.

Soon the two of them were involved in greeting everyone and directing them where to put their cloaks and offering drinks. It was all a bit of a whirlwind. Which was nice because it meant that she didn't have to think about feelings or anything.

And then there was the Order meeting to be distracted by. Was there even that much to report except for updates on the Dursleys? (Which was both amusing and annoying - poor Doge.)

Apparently so because Arthur wanted to start the meeting for a change. Had there been another change in the Ministry that he'd picked up on?

"The Ministry came around to the Burrow." Arthur said quietly.

It was odd not to see any sort of enthusiasm on his face. It wasn't natural for Arthur Weasley's face to be pinched with worry like it was.

"Looking for Harry?" Kingsley guessed.

Arthur shook his head. "No. Well, yes, I suppose, but not directly."

They all stared at him.

"They came looking for Ron," Kingsley guessed.

Molly made a funny sort of gasping noise as Arthur nodded.

"They did," he confirmed. "Allegedly because he didn't turn up to Hogwarts with Ginny but really it's about him being with Harry."

"Did they buy it?" Remus asked.

He had done a bit of work on that ghoul of the Weasleys. He'd had fun with it too.

"They did," Molly said proudly, smiling weakly at her husband. "They wouldn't go near it."

It was like the whole Order sighed in relief at that. They didn't need anything else to happen to the Weasleys. They were already the ones at the highest risk of whatever this new regime would do as it is. If this kept them marginally safer then so be it.

Not that it helped that pinched look on Molly's face. But Tonks suspected that look was here to stay for the duration, unfortunately.

Speaking of Molly, Tonks was pretty sure that the woman was watching her and Tonks didn't know why. It was weird, every time she looked at Molly, she was staring at her. It was very weird.

She tried to ignore it as the meeting continued but it was hard. Had you ever tried to concentrate on something when you knew you were being watched?

Let's be honest, Order meetings didn't last very long anymore. They had even less freedom than before to do things and, well, they still had to figure out the risks. There was a whole lot of power against them now and they were still sort of feeling that out, trying to figure out the best way to go about doing things. Which took time. They could, however, plan out protection details for those in their safe houses and share protection charms and wards. Thank Merlin for Bill and Fleur and their expertise there. That was something they missed Mad-Eye for.

But that was really all they could do now and it didn't feel good. Nothing really felt good.

So, they were soon waving everyone off. It was weird to have everyone leave so promptly. M9olly and Arthur were theist to leave, both of them insisting on helping putting things away. Remus managed to persuade them to just stack things in the sink. Molly finished off by giving her a firmer hug than usual.

It was only when the Weasleys left and she and Remus were casting the washing spells for all the mugs and cups and glasses away (how did people even drink that much?) that she realised something. Of course, that came with her stopping suddenly which meant she dropped a mug, causing it to shatter into pieces.

"Sorry!"

"Don't move!"

Thank Merlin for magic and the ability to get all pieces of smashed crockery. Who knew how long they'd have been clearing things up otherwise?

"Are you okay?" Remus asked when it was safe to move about again.

"I think Molly knows I'm pregnant."

Now it was Remus' turn to stop suddenly. At least he didn't have anything breakable in his hands.