The Cryptic Delphian

By the Hippy Gypsy

Disclaimer: JK Rowling owns it all. I just screw around with it. Sorry it took longer for this chapter to get up and running. There was a lot of details I needed to work out for this chapter to flow. Anyways, hope you have fun with it!

Chapter 3: Residence in the House of Black

Tonks made it back to Number Twelve Grimmauld Place at about eight o'clock that evening, feeling physically and emotionally drained. She was also quite hungry, having not eaten all day, save for the glass of water back in Neville's office. She needed to eat, knowing lack of food in her stomach could not be good for her healing ailment. So before she pulled up and parked in front of Number Twelve, she stopped and bought dinner, consisting of enough pizza to feed her and all of her housemates.

Shutting the door behind her and crossing the threshold, she looked up to the wall, not to see the banshee like stare of old Mrs. Black, but instead three smaller portraits. The largest of the three was of Sirius Black, looking as young and handsome as he ever did at the peak of his life. Above the portrait hung a great gold plaque:

The Great and Ancient House of Black

Our Founder

The two smaller portraits below Sirius were of Harry Potter and his father, James. Their plaque read "Honorable Mention." Balancing the three pizzas, hoping against hope that she wouldn't drop them in a fit of clumsiness along with her backpack, she looked up to the portraits to see the one of Harry smile widely at her.

Tonks walked across the hallway and pushed the kitchen door open to find all of her housemates (Remus Lupin, Fred and George Weasley, and Hermione) and Kingsley sitting at the table, more than likely waiting for her return. "Wotcher!" she said, putting on her best smile for the moment. "I come bearing gifts!" She displayed the pizzas with a grand gesture.

Fred and George were the first to speak.

"Oi Tonks!"

"There you are!"

"We were starting to get worried."

"Just disappearing like that."

"How could you?"

"Hermione got scared."

"Remus began to pace."

Before either Remus or Hermione could get in a world between the twins, they looked up and snapped at them, "Hey!"

"Right!" the twins carried on.

"So sorry."

"Forgiveness please!"

"Let's get dinner." And with that they both were up, Fred taking the pizzas and running to the pantry to grab a load of butterbeers, and George taking her pack from her shoulder and jacket once she had unbuttoned it.

Her blouse that was still covered in blood was revealed, making Remus look shocked in a right state. "Good Lord! Look at you! How much blood did you lose?"

Tonks unbuckled her belt where she kept her pistols with the silver bullets. She quickly thought to herself am I going to need these now that I'm not chasing rogue werewolves for the Ministry? She tapped them with her wand, muttering, "Evaco," and sending them to her room right off, not giving it another thought for the night. She looked up at Remus and replied, "I'm alright. That's all from last night. My wounds nearly all healed now."

"What happened today?" Hermione asked with an eyebrow raised. "One minute, Fudge is escorting you out of the Ministry, and the next he come up to me informing me I'm being promoted to your vacant position."

"Kingsley told us you were sacked," Remus said. "Is this true?"

Tonks took a seat next to him at the table. "Have you known Kingsley to be a liar? Of course it's true." She sighed, looking around at all of them as Fred and George took their seats again. "Fudge sacked me."

"It was uncalled for," Kingsley spoke up for the first time since her arrival. "It's not right. Something's up I think."

"I wouldn't doubt it." Tonks took a deep sigh, and remembering how hungry she was, grabbed one of the butterbeers and popped the cap off. Seeing it as a signal for everyone to dig in, Hermione took one of the pizza boxes and began to pass around plates.

Tonks made every effort to steer the conversation away from the events of her day, and soon they all were conversing about the up-coming Chudley Cannons game. Ron Weasley had earned a position as the reserve keeper a year and a half before, and with the injury of two players the previous game, he was guaranteed time out in the field in the upcoming match. Hermione, Fred and George were going to be leaving Grimmauld Place for a week within the next few days to see him play. Through the meal, Remus and Hermione kept shooting concerned glances towards Tonks' way. She knew they wanted to ask her where she disappeared to all day, but they would save it for later when she was calmer and in private. They all just kept discussing quidditch.

"Oh Tonks," Kingsley suddenly spoke up. He pulled out a green envelope and tossed it across the table to her. "This came for you after you left. I opened it though to check it, just in case it contained some repercussions of last night. No dice though."

"What is it?" she asked pulling the message out of the previously opened envelope.

"Actually, all it is is an address. I didn't know the location. Maybe it'll make sense to you."

She took out the message, and sure enough, all that was written was an address, in neat, but loopy writing:

1313 Backwine Court, Kent

Her eyebrows knitted in confusion, and she flipped the message over to see if there was anymore writing, but there was none.

Remus looked up, catching her expression, and asked, "Is the residence familiar to you?"

"Yeah," she replied, quite unsure of what to make of the situation. She turned the address around, displaying it to everyone at the table.

"It's Snape Manor."

Hours later, full of food, showered, and dressed in her pair of snitch pajama bottoms and her Weird Sisters t-shirt, Tonks was sprawled on top of her bed, hugging her pillow to her side. The pain returned slightly from her wound, and the rest of the day caught up with her, making her feel incredibly over tired.

Remus and Hermione joined her, sorting through her books and pictures that she had cleaned out from her office. One of Remus' jazz records was playing in the corner and he softly hummed to the music while returning her reference books to their normal size and stacking them back on her bookshelf, although it was certainly taking him a while. Every other book he picked up, he flipped through, reading different passages. He was especially interested in Tonks' editions of A Beginners Guide to Werewolf Tracking and Potions for Dummies.

Hermione sat on the edge of the bed, sorting through the photos, smiling at some, frowning sadly at others. "So what are you going to do now?" she asked, passing Tonks a picture of Remus holding a birthday cake that was covered with such a multitude of candles, that it was almost considered a flaming torch. It had been his thirty-fifth birthday the year before. "For a job, I mean."

"Haven't a clue," Tonks answered truthfully.

She handed the photo to Remus, who gave a wry smile at his own visage staring back at him. He tossed it back onto the bed. "You could always become an independent Auror," he stated. "That's what Mad Eye did."

"Yeah," she replied looking up at him in a half serious, half shocked manner. "And the last time he did that, he got kidnapped and locked in a bloody trunk for nine months. No thanks. I'd rather not draw anymore attention to myself."

Hermione passed over another picture, and she found that it was of her and Charlie Weasley dancing in front of Hogwarts castle in graduation robes. "I didn't realize you and Charlie knew each other at school."

"Knew him? We dated our seventh year," Tonks said with a sly smile. "We might've stayed together, but he left for Romania, and I started my Auror training. Good dancer though."

"Ah, but not like our Remus," Hermione said, looking up with a smile, and without missing a beat, he had taking her hand and began to lead her around the room to the music.

Tonks smiled and laughed. "Remus, you should have been born in the twenties. They had an abundance of chocolate, champagne, and music. It would've been the perfect fitting for you."

"I know, go figure," he replied as Hermione sat back down with a smile and resumed picking through the photographs. "Care for a dance?" he asked Tonks holding out his hands and motioning grandly to the record player.

She repressed her giggles and instead replied with yet another smile. "Remus, I got shot yesterday, and considering the other factors of the past twenty four hours, I'm not particularly in a dancing mood for the moment."

"You owe me then."

"I always owe you."

He winked at her, and turned to look at Hermione, but she didn't notice. She was looking steadily down at another picture, a very somber look upon her face. She almost looked ill. "Hermione, what is it?" Remus asked with concern.

Hermione turned the picture she was holding around. It was of Harry and Sirius at Christmas time.

"That was Sirius' last Christmas here," Remus sighed, though he voice and face was very steady.

"That was his only Christmas here," Tonks corrected.

Hermione put the picture back down in her lap. "I still can't believe it's been five years," she sighed. She turned to look at her two companions. "Is it natural for me to still mourn him like this? I mean, I know it's been a while, but…" She shook her head slightly. "I miss him so much nowadays. Since Ron's gone off and joined the Cannons, this has seriously been the first time I've been on my own without them in the wizarding side of the world…it's rather unnerving."

Remus sat down on the bed between her and Tonks. "It's understandable. It was a huge event for any of us. I think it's a safe assumption that we're all still mourning."

"I went to visit his grave today," Tonks suddenly interjected. She hugged her pillow closer to her and looked down at the floor. She was uncomfortable discussing these problems, at least for the moment. Too much emotion had come over her in one day, and all she wanted to do was leave it alone.

Remus turned back to her and raised an eyebrow. "So that's where you've been all day?"

"Yeah, for the most part."

Hermione and Remus exchanged a quick look and she asked, "Where else did you go?"

Tonks gave the smallest of smiles and turned around. She pulled back her black hair and pulled down her shirt at the back of her neck, revealing a new tattoo. In between her shoulders were two dark footprints of a dog, underneath which was a script reading Padfoot.

Remus chuckled. "You finally got it done."

Tonks nodded. "I had the itch to get another one. Figured it'd be a nice memorial."

"But why a tattoo?" Hermione asked with her eyebrow raised. Clearly, she thought tattoos were a bit below Tonks' demeanor.

"Sirius had a ton of them," was her reply.

Remus nodded. "When he left Hogwarts and separated from his mother, Sirius went all out and did what he wanted. He let his hair grow out, got the tattoos, bought a motorcycle-"

"A motorcycle?"

"Yep. Actually, I wonder what happened to that old thing. Last I heard, Hagrid had it. I'll have to ask him about it. Anyways, he loved that thing. I remember this one time he…"

Leaning back against her pillows, Tonks let herself relax to Remus' voice as he told them a story of how Sirius had taken the flying bike to a Muggle bar and had bet five men that he could take the bike and jump twenty cars with it, without a scratch. Naturally, since they knew no better, they took the bet and ended up paying him a significant sum of money in the end. Tonks merely smiled and let herself be lolled to sleep, listening to the voices above her. The cool night air from her open window added to her relaxation, and not too long later, she was dreaming.

Becoming aware she had fallen asleep, Remus finished putting away the books and Hermione neatly stacked the leftover photos on her nightstand. A crease came in her eyebrow as she observed her wand lying next to her belt holding her two pistols. "Those have silver bullets don't they?" she whispered.

"Yes," Remus answered her. "A good amount of her time at the Ministry was spent tracking rogue werewolves. There's not a lot of spells that'll stop one who isn't controlled. A silver bullet in the heart is…well, a guaranteed safety."

"But doesn't it…make you nervous?"

Remus shook his head. "She's got a charm on those things so that she is the only one who can use them. I highly doubt she'd shoot at me, let alone any one of us." He smiled. "Don't let it worry you Hermione. Tonks knows what she's doing."

Hermione gave a small smile and turned down the lamp on her nightstand. Once she turned the record player off, she left the room.

Remus stayed behind for a moment and looked down at Tonks, his brow furrowed in the dim amount of light coming from the hallway. She could have died last night, he thought to himself. We could have lost her. He suppressed a shiver and instead, absentmindedly grabbed the quilt at the foot of her bed and covered her in it. Walking to the door, he whispered, "Sweet dreams," and shut it silently behind him.

Tonks slept peacefully the whole night and no thought of her summons to Snape Manor came into her head.

Nymphadora Tonks made no effort to exert herself the next day. Recalling how grim the previous twenty four hours had been, she decided to make the most of her newly acquired time off. At least for the time being.

The morning consisted of breakfast at a café down the street with Remus and Hermione. After which, Hermione and Tonks took the Explorer into downtown to take in a movie. The evening was spent with her housemates in the parlor of the House of Black playing cards. Fred and George had both lost a significant amount of knuts and sickles playing Texas Hold 'Em. "I don't get it anyways," Fred interjected. "Where is Texas, and why the bloody hell would I want to hold them up?"

At one a.m., Tonks was sitting on the roof of old Number Twelve, nursing a beer. The sky was clear that night, and a thin crescent moon hung in place, having no effect on Remus when he came up to join her.

When Sirius had passed away, he had left his old house in the care of Remus to give to Harry when he was old enough. But Harry had given his life in the final victory over Voldemort, so instead, seeing as they were the closest thing to family that Sirius had, Remus and Tonks took joint possession of the house. They had taken care of the place as best as they could, fixing it up in honor of the Order of the Phoenix, and their fallen loved ones. Different members of the old Order were always moving in and out of the place, but for the moment, Remus, Tonks, Hermione, and the twins called the place their home without a hint of sarcasm in their voice.

Remus climbed out of the window and onto the portion of roof that stuck out below it. "You alright?" he asked casually, sitting next to her.

"I'm okay," she answered with a affirmative nod of her head.

"So what are you going to do tomorrow? Have you even thought of answering Severus' summons, if that's what it even was?"

Tonks sighed and began to peel the label off her beer bottle. "I really haven't thought about Snape's letter at all. I'll probably just ignore it and suffer whatever consequences he decides to send at me for it." Remus chuckled and she went on. "No. I'll probably start my job hunt tomorrow I guess. Maybe I could find a place testing security wards. I could do that."

"Maybe."

She took a sip of beer and sighed. "Another part of me is tempted to leave you the deed to the house entirely and apply in the French Ministry of Magic."

Remus looked up in surprise. "What? No. You can't just up and leave us here."

"A girl's gotta work Remus," she replied shrugging her shoulders. "I hate sitting here feeling useless."

Remus nodded in agreement, when a thought suddenly struck him. "Yes, but…there's one big thing you're forgetting."

"What's that?"

"You can't speak French Tonks."

"A minor detail," she said with a wink of her eye. She went on truthfully, "I don't know Remus. I just feel kind of exhausted by the whole thing for the moment. I mean, that job was my life. I felt like I was making a difference. Now I'm back to square one, like after Hogwarts my seventh year. Unfortunately, there's no path planned out for me this time. I'm stuck at a split in the road with no map, and no compass."

"You have your heath though, right?" Remus asked softly, watching her intently.

"Yeah," she replied after a drink. "But I had always said I would give my life for the good of the common world. Two nights ago, I was shot, and I almost died, fulfilling my vow." She let out a long, low breath. "And I lost my job for it."

Remus didn't know how to reply, so he looked down at his hands, a guilty, yet thoughtful look upon his face. He opened his mouth for the smallest second, and shut it again, taking back what he was about to say. Unfortunately, Tonks had heard his breath and looked at him, catching the expression upon his tired face. After a few more moments of silence, Tonks asked softly, "What is it Remus?"

He took a deep breath and looked as if he were bracing himself for a swift and hard blow. "Fred and George weren't lying last night. I did begin to pace." His words were steady, but there was the sound of slight terror in his voice as he opened up to her. Every few words, he paused to take a breath. "When I heard you were unconscious in the hospital…bleeding…I did nothing but pace in the kitchen for hours on end." He shuddered at the thought. "I wanted to go to you, but given that the situation involved a werewolf shooting, and I being what I am…I stayed put here." He looked up at her, meeting her eyes and not taking the chance to look anyplace else. "I'm not saying I've lost more than most, because I haven't. But I have lost a lot in my life. Sirius, Harry…Lily and James…Dumbledore, and there's times where I even consider Peter a loss." Here, he took a great breath, not sure of what to make of his next statement. "But then I almost lost you too…and it scared me. I thought about not being able to dance around the kitchen with you to the jazz records, or wondering what style your hair would be every morning when you came down to breakfast before work…" He gave the slightest of chuckles. "Or even hear you trip over that damn umbrella stand in the entrance hall…I was down right terrified, Nymphadora." He made a gesture that seemed to include everyone in Grimmauld Place. "I don't want to lose them, and I most especially don't want to lose you." He once again assumed the position of looking at his hands in guilt. "I guess what I'm saying is I'm kind of glad you're not working the field of the Ministry anymore. Now I won't lose you."

Tonks couldn't believe her ears, but by no means was she angry with Remus. She had listened intently and knew that like always, there was an underlying meaning in his words. She had never known he had considered her this close to him. It almost seemed like forbidden territory to her, since he was always the straight forward one of the bunch, who stayed strong in the times of terror. Never had he showed this much anxiety and emotion to her. Not like this. Knowing that the subject was a delicate one, Tonks took a steady breath and looked at him, a slight light glowing in her eyes.

"Remus," she said quietly, her eyebrows furrowed. "Do you have feelings for me?"

Remus continued looking at his hands, not daring to give her an answer. Finally, after a long enough moment, he rose to his feet and whispered softly, "Goodnight Nymphadora." He walked back towards the window that served as the roof's entrance.

"Remus," Tonks called to him, thought and concern in her voice. "Remus, please come talk to me…Remus?"

But he didn't turn around or answer her.

Tonks took another sip of her drink and resumed staring at the sky, her eyes once again falling upon the crescent moon. In less than two weeks, it'll be full, she thought to herself. I wish I knew how he could stand it every month. Poor guy. I wish it could be easier for him. I do care, but do I…

Before she could finish her thought, she stopped herself, drained the rest of her beer, and climbed to the window, heading for bed.

Note from the Hippy Gypsy: The action begins next chapter, PROMISE! Anyways, something about this chapter still bugs me. Something still doesn't seem right. Oh well. Read and review! Hope you're enjoying it so far…

PS For those who do want to know, there is a bit of romance in this fic. But who will win the heart of the Nymph? Could it be Remus? Or possibly someone else? Bum bum BUM!!