Disclaimer: None of the recognisable characters (i.e, Tonks and Kingsley) belong to me.

A/N: Again, sorry for the wait. To apologise, this chapter is much longer than the others. Oh, and I'll be posting revised versions of the other chapters over the course of the next few days/weeks, but you don't have to read them. They've just been changed slightly, had some extra stuff added.

* * * * *

A few days later, I was still trying to work out if it had actually happened, or if my mind was thinking up elaborate dreams to play tricks on me. So, when Kingsley approached me at work, I was very relieved.

"Hi, Tonks," he said, his slow, deep voice sounding serious. As always.

"Hi!"

"Did you listen to the Quidditch on WWN last night?"

What? What sort of question was that? "No, I didn't." Unless, of course, he was speaking in a secret code that he'd forgotten I didn't know, and 'Did you listen to the Quidditch' actually meant 'we are having a secret meeting tonight at our secret headquarters, and you'd better be there.'

Kingsley stepped closer and perched on the edge of my desk. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Annie frantically trying to get my attention.

Kingsley spoke again, "I wanted to thank you for those notes you made, Tonks. They were most...informative." Okay, now he sounded sarcastic. I mean, yes, maybe I could have made better, more detailed notes without the added cartoons, but I hadn't. And that was, well, that, really.

Annie had given up subtlety, and was now standing on her chair to lean over her divider, desperately trying to make eye contact. How was it that I was the one who had almost failed Stealth and Tracking?

Unfortunately, her antics had drawn the attention of everyone else in our surrounding area, who were following Annie's example of watching us.

Kingsley looked around, shot me an irritated look (like it was my fault!) and said, "Could I speak to you at lunch?"

Oh my god. Was Kingsley Shacklebolt asking me out?

Except no. Think, Tonks. He obviously doesn't want to tell you about the secret meeting with an audience, so is pretending to ask you on a lunch date to tell you in private.

"Ok. Sure. See you at lunch then," I replied. He gave me a short nod and walked off.

Annie zoomed over. "Oh my god, Tonks! Did Kingsley just ask you out? Kingsley? Okay, tell me everything he said."

"Annie, calm down. It was nothing like that, so don't jump to conclusions and get your mind out of the gutter! He was asking me about the notes I made for him on the firearms report, for catching Sirius Black."

"Yeah, whatever. First it's reports, then it's a lunch date, and before you know it - "

Unfortunately, she found it difficult to continue speaking with me trying to slap her.

* * * * *

Lunchtime came, and Annie was still eyeing me from across the room. Pointedly meeting her eyes, I headed for the loos.

Pushing open the door marked with a little drawing of a female wizard, I ducked into the end cubicle and waited while the only other occupant finished up and washed her hands. It was only then I screwed up my nose, and concentrated.

It started as light tickling sensation, like a feather. The sensation, however, was made uncomfortably freaky by the way it felt like I was being tickled from inside.

Stretching my hands out in front of me, I focused harder on the image in my mind, seeing her, and seeing myself becoming. The skin on my hands grew black, my body slightly taller. On the back of my neck, I could feel my hair get heavier and longer, and knew it's normal brown was growing black, the normally loose curls getting tighter. I could feel my cheekbones spreading, lips puffing, nose elongating. I looked down at myself, and the temptation to scratch at the maddening itch grew almost painful as my breasts swelled, hips widened and waist narrowed. Oh, I loved being curvy.

I unlocked the door and sashayed out, sauntering past the girl who stared in confusion as this gorgeous woman, with just a hint of Kingsley Shacklebolt in her features...

* * * * *

I strolled back into the office, catching quite a few more admiring looks than I normally did as plain old Tonks. Part of what made this so brilliant. I couldn't see Kingsley anywhere, so leaned over to the nearest desk.

"Hey," I said, lowering my voice just in time. "Do you know where Kingsley is? I was supposed to meet him for lunch..."

"I think he'd be in the canteen. Excuse me, I don't know you name. Are you his...?" The guy was obviously an old-timer, here since god-knows-when, and clearly suspicious of any strange women wandering around the Ministry.

"Oh!" I smiled, holding out a hand for him to shake. "I'm sorry, I'm his sister. Melissa." I gave the first name that came into my head.

He still looked suspicious. "Where's your visitor pass?" Damn. Smart move, Tonks: choose the most suspicious Auror in the room, why don't you?

"Oh, I, um...I lost it."

"You lost it?" He stood up. "Look, I don't know - "

A hand grabbed my elbow, yanking me away. "Oh come on, Jim, give the girl some slack." Neil Murray, one of the biggest lechers in the Department, if not the whole Ministry, gave me a wink. I think he was aiming for flirtatious. Unfortunately, it fell short at creepy. "Don't worry, I'm sure she won't do any harm. Look at her!"

He gave me another smile. I think saying that was supposed to be complimentary, and I was suddenly remembering why I liked being me. If I was myself, I could out-duel him, any time he wanted! However, instead of doing what I wanted, I kept up the act, giving him a coy smile.

"If you could just take me to the canteen, I could meet Kingsley there."

"Sure thing. It's right this way." Completely ignoring the older Auror, he steered me off in the direction of the canteen.

Unfortunately, our little scene had attracted some attention, and over my shoulder I could see Annie giving 'Melissa' a very suspicious look, scanning my outfit. Damn, damn, damn. I hadn't even bothered to try and make my outfit look different - not that I could have done much.

Annie got to her feet, jogging after us. The minute we were out into the corridor, I stopped dead, almost pulling Neil-the-perve over.

"What?" He sounded annoyed and confused. Good. He deserved it. Annie opened her mouth to speak, but I got there first.

"I need to go to the bathroom! You - " I pointed at Annie, "Please take me to the bathroom."

Her eyes narrowed. "Look, I don't - "

I lunged at her, shoving her back to towards the bathroom door. She grabbed at me, getting a handful of hair. "Ow!" I yelled.

"Get off me!" She responded, going for her wand. I grabbed her arm, giving one last massive shove, and got her through the door to where we both fell on the bathroom floor, knocking over some poor woman I vaguely recognised from somewhere. Behind us, a toilet flushed, and another woman came out to stare at us, wand out.

"Annie," I hissed in her ear. "Remember what I told you about me? The M-M thing?"

"What?" She bucked, obviously trying to get me off her, or get at her wand, whichever. She also shot me a look suggesting she didn't think I was entirely sane.

"About how I like to act like different people?" The two other women were just standing there, not doing anything to help Annie, but eavesdropping shamelessly.

"What on earth are you on about?" Annie screeched, obviously not in the best of moods for working out who I was.

Someone knocked on the door. "Um, is everything ok in there?" Neil, obviously worried, but luckily not enough to break the great taboo preventing him from entering the Ladies loos.

Annie opened her mouth to scream, but I got my hand over it first. "Yes, everything's fine! It's just, um, female problems!" Outside, I heard footsteps backing away. Good. One less thing to worry about.

The woman who had her wand out gave me a very strange look, and started edging towards the door. "You!" She jumped when I spoke to her. "Look, please stay there, alright? Everything will be fine."

"Mmmm-mmoonnn." Annie gave her opinion on the matter. The woman did not look at all relaxed at this.

Ah well. Nothing for it. "Annie, it's me. Tonks."

She froze at that, eyeing me wild-eyed from over my hand. I slowly removed it.

"Tonks?" She whispered. "Oh my god. You're a met - " I shoved my hand back over her mouth.

"Don't tell everyone! Look, please, this is important, I need your help."

"With what?"

I paused, trying to think up a credible enough story to tell her. The voice of one of my instructors drifted through my head, "when lying, always tell as much truth as possible." Right. So. As much truth as possible.

"I'm meeting Kingsley."

"Oh my god! I knew it! I knew it! How long have you been seeing him? And how could you not tell me? Oh, I so knew you two had something going on."

"Yeah, well, you were right then. But, uh, he doesn't want people to know. So I'm pretending I'm his sister, ok? I'm meeting him for lunch, but I'm late because of this."

"Oh, well come on then! And Neil will be getting suspicious too, won't he, why didn't you just tell me in the first place? God, and you can't go to meet Kingsley looking like that, you look a mess, Tonks, you really do." I scrambled up off her, going over to one of the mirrors. She was right. A scratch on one cheek was just starting to sting, my black hair was all over the place and my clothes were messed and dishevelled.

I frantically ran fingers through my hair as Annie jumped up behind me, wincing and rubbing the back of her head.

"I am going to have such a bruise, Tonks."

"Well, what about this scratch? Your nails are too bloody long."

"Oh, like you can talk."

Outside, I heard a polite cough. "Melissa? I you want to talk to Kingsley, you might want to hurry. He normally only takes quite a short lunch break."

"Oh my god," I groaned, leaving the mess that was my appearance and running for the door. "Annie, thank you so much, you're wonderful, okay?"

"Yeah, ok, go! Don't want to miss your date..."

So it was with the sounds of Annie's giggles in my ears that I dashed back out to the corridor.

* * * * *

"Oh!" Neil exclaimed. "There you are. At last! I thought I was going to have to send in a search party."

Yeah, so not funny. I giggled anyway, keeping up the brainless airhead act. Neil looked me over, confused.

"Are you ok?"

"Oh yeah! I just...tripped, that's all! Clumsy me!"

"Ah. I see." He still looked confused, obviously wondering how I got gotten into the state I was in by falling. I relaxed when his face cleared, but then tensed as he smirked. "You can't be as clumsy as this girl in our department though. God knows how she became an Auror. She can't even walk without falling on her face!"

What?! I was not that bad! That complete jerk! How dare he slag me off to some brainless pretty girl he'd just met. The nerve of some people! He didn't even know who 'Melissa' was! Well, he thought I was Kingsley's sister, but did he know that? I think not!

I tried to calm down, and form an appropriately Melissa-ish response. "Well," I began, "I'm sure she's not that bad. And if she's not the most graceful person, she must be very good at other things. She's probably very good at duelling. Maybe even better than you!" I said it jokingly, but was very offended when he laughed.

"I really doubt that, my dear Melissa. As far as I can see, she has absolutely no redeeming qualities whatsoever. She's not even very pretty - quite plain, really. You wouldn't notice her if it weren't for all the things she knocks over. Nothing like you!"

At this, I was so angry I was rendered speechless, which was probably a good thing. My vows to either castrate him or just plain kill him were moderated into a firm decision to just slightly enhance my appearance tomorrow, just enough to make him realise how incredibly wrong he was.

This train of thought got us to the canteen doors, where he stopped and gestured for me to go in. "This canteen serves the whole floor," he said. "So it might be a little crowded. But I'm sure Kingsley will be in there."

"Thank you so much," I snapped, pushing past him, only pausing to see his startled reaction to my rudeness. Ha, take that, jerk. Melissa is one girl you won't get your hooks into.

Inside, I looked around the crowded room, smelling the scents from the food table. Today's options were fish and chips or spaghetti and meatballs. Normally, I'd be zooming straight for the pasta, but today I found Kingsley before practically running to get my plate. Slightly over-cooked spaghetti and six meatballs with tomato sauce. Yummy. Or, almost. But it was cheap, so was I complaining?

Kingsley, when I sat down in front of him, looked slightly surprised he'd attracted the attention of such a gorgeous girl with such a large plate of food.

"Hello?" He said. It sounded more like a question than a greeting. I leaned closer, so we wouldn't be overheard.

"Hi," I whispered. "It's me, Tonks."

His eyes widened as he looked me over. Did he know what I was? Had I told him? Or, had someone else told him? Otherwise, this could get very difficult.

"Wow. I mean, I knew you were a metamorphmagi, but..."

"How did you know?"

"Dumbledore told us all. Part of the reason he said you should come."

"Oh. Well, that's alright, then."

He shot me a look. "It's not exactly a secret, what with the way you keep changing in public."

"I know. I'm not supposed to. And I don't all that often!"

"Well, no. And you are fairly discreet, but...I once saw you changing your nails."

"I'm only allowed to do little stuff like that. The boss said it would be really confusing if I looked different everyday, so I'm not supposed to."

"Well, fine. But Tonks, listen. Meet us there at seven o'clock tonight, okay? Make sure you're on time."

"Chill, I will be."

He gave me a look that was deeply sceptical. "You're never on time in the mornings."

"That's not true, I am so. It's you that's always early!"

"Tonks - "

"Alright, alright, I'll be early too. Tonight. I'll be there. You can count on me."

He got up and moved away. Seconds later, Annie dropped down into his place.

I gave her a shocked look. "You weren't eavesdropping, were you?"

"No!" She replied. "I was sitting all the way over there!" She pointed. "I couldn't hear a thing. But come on, spill. Are you seeing him tonight? What are you going to wear?"

I sat up straight, spilling spaghetti and sauce down my top. Oh, damn. What was I going to wear?!

* * * * *

The old woman paused, eyeing her grand-children. "You three are being awful quiet," she said. "You're normally much noisier than this!"

The eldest hastened to explain. "We want to hear the story, Grandma!"

He younger brother chimed in. "Yeah! Tell us more about the Order of the Phoenix! Did you fight in any battles?"

The old lady laughed. "A few, but they happen much later on in my tale."

"So continue, please!" The children all begged.

The old lady cleared her throat, and continued....

* * * * *

Thanks to Dis, Suzaku, tonks_IS_cool (I agree!), Kate the Tigeress, _Leveen_Tonks_, JustBlue, baby_chaos and CountessMel for reviewing! You are all very much appreciated.

And tonks_IS_cool - to answer you question, yes, Tonks is going to meet Harry in this. This will (hopefully!) continue on through OotP, and maybe even beyond, depending on how things are going by then. So yes, Harry will be making a few appearances.