-Tonks-
The day had turned out not at all how Nymphadora Tonks had expected: It had started normal enough, with her oversleeping, stumbling out of bed, drowning a strong cup of coffee and hurrying to the ministry, barely making it to the office in time. Work was depressing as always; instead of being out there, looking for You-know-who and other Death Eaters, she was stuck on desk duty, sorting through reports on famous Azkaban escapee, madman and mass murderer Sirius Black. The fact that he was quite innocent, not mad at all (at least not more than was to be expected after being in Azakabn for years) and currently hiding in Grimmauld Place 12 or occasionally strolling through London as a huge black dog didn't help her mood one bit. She was getting increasingly frustrated with the ministry's refusal to accept that He who must not be named had returned and should be the main focus of all ministry efforts, instead of assigning her and other aurors a case she would never solve. The only thing that made this whole farce bearable was that she knew she was helping Sirius by secretly destroying any reports that might lead to him. Still, she wished she could do more. Which was why she was currently focusing all of her energy on her work with the Order. It gave her a sense of purpose, a purpose she'd always looked for and had hoped she would find with the Auror Corps of the minsitry. After work she immediately apparated to Grimmauld Place, hoping to catch some of Molly's excellent dinner before the meeting started. She hated to admit it, but working a demanding day job and being a member of the Order of the Phoenix by night was wearing her a little thin and most nights, some instant or fast food was her only option for dinner, if she had the time to eat at all. She didn't mind of course, not when it meant actually doing something instead of sitting at a desk doing paperwork.
When she entered the hall, she could already smell some of Molly's delicious cooking coming from the kitchen. The hallway was dark as usual as to not to wake the odious Mrs. Black and Tonks tried her best not to stumble and make a noise. 'Tried' being the keyword here, because of course, when she had almost made it to the kitchen door without making a noise, she tripped over her own two feet and with a loud 'bang' crashed into the door. "Mudbloods, Traitors, Filth in my hallowed halls!", the portrait of Sirius' lovely mother screeched and immediately the door to the kitchen flew open and Remus and Sirius hurried out to try and get Mrs. Black quiet again.
"Always managing to be the center of attention no matter what, are we, Nymphadora?", she heard the oily voice of her former potions professor and turned to see him giving her a mocking smile. She could feel her hair colour turn into a furious red and - because she couldn't come up with a quick retort - stuck out her tongue at him. "Very mature, Nymphadora!", he said, drawing out every syllable of the name she despised so much. She knew he did it to rile her up and she hated to admit that it was working. The way he said her name made her shudder and tingle all over her body. It gave her goosebumps and at the same elicited a heat in her face and other, unspeakable parts of her body; sometimes she imagined that voice saying her name in very different situtations, at night, when she couldn't find sleep... That had to be disgust and hate, hadn't it? She always hated it whenever someone called her by her first name and she couldn't possibly be aroused by hearing it now from his lips, could she? No, it was quite impossible! Determinded to ignore him, she pushed past him into the kitchen, where the Weasley children, Hermione and Harry already sat, shoveling mashed potatoes into their mouths.
"Wotcher, guys", she smiled at everyone, grabbed herself some food and plopped down next to one of the twins (she could never really tell them apart). "How are y'all doing?", she asked between bites. "Enjoying your summer so far?"
"Weeell, Tonksie, now that you're asking...", the twin next to her started and was promptly interrupted by the other twin: "What my brother George is so eloquently trying to yell you, o great Auror," - Tonks had a hard time suppressing her laugh at that much pathos -"is that you are standing in front of the next big entrepreneurs of the Wizarding world." She raised her eyebrow in question, looking curiously between Fred and George. "Well, out with it!", she exclaimed.
"We are currently developing a line of exclusive, amazing, never before seen products that will be essential for any prankster!", George continued. "And we've been told" - "by anonymous sources who whish not to be disclosed" - "that you were something of a prankster in your Hogwarts years..." "Charlie exaggerates", Tonks interjected but Fred and George both shushed her with a wink and a mock whispered "anonymous source, Tonksie!"
"Anyway", Fred picked off where his brother was interrupted, "because we cannot sell untested products, we are looking for testers and we thought who better than a renegade Auror who also happens to be a..." "immensely beautiful", George offered, "metamorphamagus." It took Tonks a few seconds to comprehend what she had just heard, but then she gave a regretful sigh and replied: "I'm sorry boys, but not in a million years!" The inner prankster in her rebelled, but the responsible adult she now was knew this was a) probably illegal and b) definitely a recipe for disaster.
"Pfff, coward", she heard Sirius say, who had since successfully quieted his mother's screams. Before she could come up with either a witty retort or a sensible response, Remus fortunately stepped in and announced that the meeting was about to start.
"Hey Tonks, wait", she heard Harry and Ginny call and turned around to find both teenagers eyeing each other sheepishly. "What's up?"
-Ginny-
Ginny couldn't believe it. Why on earth did Harry want to talk to Tonks now? She felt like fate was playing a nasty trick on her expenses. "What's up?", Tonks asked, turning towards them.
'Great, Ginny thought, just what I needed...' "Do you have some time after the meeting? I wanted to talk to you about something", she glared at Harry, hoping to make it absolutely sure that this had nothing to do with him, "in private!"
"Ahh, sure", Tonks look surprised and then looked behind her as if to check if the coast was clear. "Is this ok with Molly or is this something she doesn't need to know?" She gave Ginny a conspiratorial wink and told her to meet her in the libary after the meeting was over. Without looking back at Harry, Ginny hurried back to the kitchen to her siblings and Hermione, hoping no one would remark on this weird scene. But she really should have known better.
"What was that about?", Ron asked, giving his sister an enquiring glance over the sizable portion of mashed potatoes he was currently trying to put into his mouth. Hermione give him a disgusted look. "Nothing of your concern", Ginny shot back and gave her brothers warning glares, daring them to enquire further. Not even Fred and George seemed to want to draw Ginny's wrath upon them, so they both remained quiet, even though they coldn't help but throw some mocking glances at their sister. "Come on, Ginny", Hermione locked her arm under Ginny's, "let's leave the pigs to their fodder." She grinned at her younger friend and together they left the kitchen and went to their shared room.
"So, what was that about?", Hermione asked. "Obviously you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, but whatever is going on, I'm here for you!"
Ginny considered this for a while. 'Why did she want to talk to Tonks? Had the whole buisness with Ron really changed her friendship with Hermione so much that they couldn't even talk about things girls usually talk about?' Ginny decided that she wouldn't let it come to that, that she wouldn't let her stupid brother and whatever he and Hermione had going on come between their friendship. So she took a deep breath and said: "I was just...wondering...about...love and y'know?"
Hermione stared at her friend like she had just lost her mind. "Love? What do you mean? Where is this coming from?"
Ginny sighed. Now there was no turning back. "Promise you won't tell Harry or Ron..." "Why would I tell Ron?" Ginny gave her friend a sarcastic look. "Whatever's going on between you and Ron at the moment..." "Nothing is going on between Ron and me", Hermione interjected with far too much protest. Ginny raised her eyebrow and just stared at her. "Ok fine", Hermione confessed, "maybe there is something between us. I just don't know how to describe it yet. But I promise you whatever you tell me in secret will stay between us. You can trust me, Ginny!" She gave her friend an encouraging smile, urging her to go on.
"So you remeber how when I was younger, I had this huge crush on Harry?" Hermione nodded. "Well", Ginny continued, "I sorta maybe kinda still got it..." She could feel her cheeks turn crimson and put her face in her hands in shame.
"Hey", Hermione took Ginny's hands in hers and gave her friend a short, heartfelt hug. "Thank you so much for sharing this with me. I know this couldn't have been easy. But, I still don't really understand why you wanted to talk with Tonks."
Ginny sighed and shook her head. "I don't really know either. I thought maybe if I talked with her about...y'know love and stuff, I could figure out how it feels and how to get rid of this stupid crush... I guess that was pretty stupid of me, eh?" "Oh Ginny, that was not stupid! It was actually a very logical and scientific approach. However, I don't think Tonks really is the right person to talk about...y'know...love and stuff." "Why not? I figured she's a little older than us, but still young enough to remember what having a crush feels like. And she's certainly not such an emotional disaster as Sirius." Hermione laughed but her face quickly turned serious again.
"You know, I actaully feel like maybe Sirius and Professor Lupin know a great deal about love. Probably even more than Tonks..." "Yes, I noticed that, too!", Ginny said excitedly and grinned. "I actually thought about asking her about these two, because I figured if anyone knows something and would tell us, it'd be her!"
Ginny was glad to have her friend back. They continued talking about crushes, about possible relationships within the Order ("So Professor Lupin and Sirius are a given, who else?" "Well, I mean there are your parents..." "Ugh gross, Hermione!") and even a little bit about Ron and Hermione. Even tho Ginny did not want to even think about her brother possibly being romatically involved with anyone, she realized that this was important to her friend and that she wanted to talk about it and get some advice. They talked all evening and it felt like not even half an hour when they finally heard that the Order meeting had come to an end.
"I should go down and tell Tonks I won't need to talk to her afterall", Ginny said with a happy smile.
-Tonks-
Tonks didn't know when exactly she had stopped paying attention to what Dumbledore was saying (it was somewhere around "Voldemort's return" and "protect the schoolgrounds"), but she knew it could all only mean more work for her. Merlin, she needed a vacation! Preferably in some warm, exotic country with beaches and cocktails and sexy surfers. Instead she was stuck in rainy London, with death eaters and dementors roaming around every corner and the only sexy people were... She began to let her gaze roam around the room; there was Remus, who was really a very decent bloke, but he was hopelesly infatuated with Sirius; Sirius himself was of course still fairly attractive even after his time in Azkaban, but he was her cousin for Merlin's sake, so it wouldn't do to fantasize about him. Arthur was not her type and Molly would kill her; Kingsley was married as well and as interested in women as Remus so no hope there either. Mundungus, Alastor and Dumbledore were out for obvious reasons so there really wasn't anyone that remained... She realized she'd forgotten somebody and began to study the man sitting opposite from her. His intense, black eyes, his surprisingly full lips, always curled into a mocking smile, his long nose and his calloused hands, with long fingers, that tipped impatiently on the table. Tonks wondered what else those fingers could do. Before she culd stop herself, she had conjured a mental image of herself in this room, at this very table, and him kneeling before her, his face buried between her legs, his elegant fingers stroking her... A sharp intake of breath interruppted her saucy fantasy. To her horror, Snape was looking directly at her, his eyes wide, his mouth curled into a knowing smile.
"Naughty Nymphadora", he whispered so silently only she could hear. Tonks was mortified. She had forgotten he was a Legillimens; she had forgotten to put up her mental barriers, broadcasting her very sexual fantasy for anyone who bothered to look. This was a rookie mistake and she was completely embarrassed.
"Get out of my head", she hissed, before concentrating on her occlumeny skills. Apparently, she had not whispered as silently as she had hoped, because she received some confused looks from Arthur and Sirius who sat next to her. Severus would never let her live this down. And he had gotten a very wrong picture, because it wasn't like she fancied him! She just happened to liked the way his lips looked when he drawled her name with that very silky voice of his (which of course made her wonder how it would sound in the bedroom. That was just a totally normal thing to wonder, wasn't it?) and those deep, intense black eyes and those beautiful, skillful hands and... Merlin, I fancy Snape!
The remaining meeting of the Order went by in a blur and as soon as it ended, Tonks practically bolted out of the kitchen, fleeing the mocking gaze of Severus and the questioning looks she received from Arthur and her cousin.
-Harry-
Harry was nervous. As much as he'd told himself that he wanted to talk with Tonks about Ron and Hermione and how to handle this situation, the truth was he that he wanted to talk to her because he had a crush on her. He liked that she treated him like an equal, that she asked him about his opinions and made jokes with him and his friends. All the other adults tended to treat him like a child that didn't know what was good for him; it seemed that they had all decided that they knew better than him and that whatever he thought and wanted was of little consequence. So whenever Tonks asked him what he thought, whenever she gave him one of her lopsided smiles or rolled her eyes when Moody was giving one of his extensive lectures, Harry couldn't help but feel his heart skip a beat and be grateful for her.
"If it's alright with you, you can just meet me at the library after I've talked to Ginny", she'd told him. "I seem to be desirable company this evening", she'd laughed and it had taken Harry every last ounce of willpower not to blush crimson red at that. If only she knew!
The closer the end of the Order meeting was, the more nervous he became. He'd never talked to Tonks like this, just the two of them, and about crushes nonetheless, and he was terribly afraid that he'd say or do something embarrassing. He knew she would talk to Ginny first ("whatever that is about", he wondered), but he was still already sitting in the library, trying and failing to read a book, the title of which he'd already forgotten.
"Oh hey", Ginny's voice startled him and threw him out of his thoughts, "you waiting for Tonks?"
"Yeah", Harry said, with a nervous pitch in his voice. "But I know you wanted to talk to her first, so go ahead! I'll leave you to it..."
"Nah, I decided I don't need to talk to her after all", Ginny replied with a big smile. "If you're here already anyways, could you just tell her that?"
Harry nooded and Ginny left the library as fast as she'd come, leaving alone Harry with his thoughts once again. The clock on the wall showed that it was really past a time he should be awake at, and he was about to get up and go to bed when the door to the room where the meeting took place finally opened and revealed Tonks. She practically ran out of the room through the dark hallway and was almost out of the door when Harry caught up to her and whispered her name.
She whirled around, the fire in her eyes immediately went out when she realized it was Harry who'd called her.
"Harry, what are you still doing up?", she asked, throwing a slightly panicked glance over his shoulder where the remaining Order members where slowly emerging from the room.
He stared at her. He knew she was clumsy and sometimes had her head in the clouds but he really hadn't expected her to forget.
"I wanted to talk to you after the Order meeting, remember?", he said, unable to hide a slight accusation in his voice.
She threw her hands before her eyes and mumbled apologeticly: "Oh Merlin, I totally forgot!" she looked around and seemed to consider something. Harry didn't know if he only imagined it, but the way she stood on her tiptoes, trying to look past him through the hallway and into the meeting room, it seemed like she was looking for someone.
"Ginny said she doesn't have to talk to you anymore, so we don't have to wait for her", he offered.
"What?", Tonks gave him a confused look and then realization hit her. "Oh right, yeah. Well great, then we can just quickly go into the library and sit down to talk."
And with that she'd rushed back through the darkness towards the library, only to collide with a loud puff with Severus Snape, who had just left the meeting and seemed to be on his way home. Harry expected his hated teacher to give off some snarky remark and Tonks to counter it, but to his surprise, neither happened. Instead, he saw both adults blush and Tonks' hair, that had been a violent purple just moments before, turn the softest bubblegum pink. They stood there in the hallway, facing each other, frozen in time and Harry wondered when exactly it had been that everyone in this building had lost their minds, when finally Snape broke the connection and rushed out of the house, with billowing robes and a snarky "Potter" as a goodbye.
"What's gotten into Snape?" He looked at Tonks, waiting for an answer for what he'd just witnessed. The Potions' Master was not usually so lost for a good insult and Harry had never seen him blush before. He wondered what Tonks had done that had apparently made him so angry that he couldn't even find the right words anymore and just got red with fury. In all his years not even him and Neville had ever accomplished that.
Harry didn't know if Tonks had heard him because he must have imagined that he heard her whisper:
"Me. I've gotten into him."