Author's Note April 3, 2005: When reading OotP for the fiftyeleventh time last night, I finally understood a mistake I had made that had been pointed out to me, so now I took the chance to correct it. But nothing important really.

Author's Note: I know the "guess where Tamara's going"-thing in the last chapter was way easy but it did what I had meant for it to do – gave me a couple of more reviews than usually.

Abby92 – You scored.

Gboyary – Yeah I had that bit about Katie Bell figured out, thanks for posting it anyway (don't worry about posting too much, it's okay D). About the twins, though, weren't they two years over Harry & Co.? Or have I got it all totally wrong all this time? 'Cause then, if I'm not being really stupid, they should have graduated. Thanks for all your reviews!

SeverusSnape'sLove – I updated now, do you consider that being soon?

Hpmaniac3241 – You scored too.

Tania25 – You were really close to scoring it but I never understand why you changed your mind? Btw, I never thought you sounded critical to the plot. I like opinions.

Pussinboots – Well thank you D

Misao, Demon Master – You made me speechless, again. Oh, and fyi, you scored it too.

Kittycatdudet – Yes I did, didn't I.

Frankie46 – Almost! Stay with Harry… where is Harry? And I agree, it's one of the safest places.

DOTE – Yah. Score for you.

DaughterOfTheElements – Thanks!

Panthergal6758 – The best? Really...?

The Clover – Omfg! You scare me! It's like if you could read my thoughts. Can you? Oh, btw, I'll try and email you but I usually forget to email people when I promise that so this time I DON'T PROMISE! Heheh. (You think Tamara and Sirius are alike? Hm. Never really thought about it.)


Chapter 29 – The Order of the Phoenix

(This chapter would be dedicated to Abby92, hpmaniac3241, Misao, Demon Master, DOTE and The Clover. (For they guessed correctly.)

So exactly one hour later, after having packed my two trunks, I stood outside the Leaky Cauldron and waited for Lupin to arrive. I wondered slightly where we were going, but I did trust his judgement so I was sure it was going to be okay. However, eventually he arrived, five minutes late.

"Ah, there you are. I'm sorry I'm late."

I shrugged. "It's okay. Where are going?"

"Here", he said and handed me a piece of parchment.

"What's this?"

"Read it."

I unfolded the parchment carefully. The narrow handwriting read, The Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

"What's this?" I asked again.

"That's where we're going", he said and regained the parchment, putting it into his own pocket. "Now, this would normally not be possible as there are protecting charms upon the fireplace nowadays but they have been neutralized for a short while, so we'd better hurry."

I frowned due to the lack of information, but we went back into the Leaky Cauldron to use their fireplace. I was getting really curious at this point but I didn't ask him anymore as I realized it would be nothing but a waste of time.

"I'll go first", he said, "and then you'll come right after, okay?"

"Hm", I said, "sure."

"Just use the address that was on the parchment. Not to loud, if you don't mind.

I nodded. He took some floo powder, threw it into the fireplace and stepped in. Then I did the same, pulling my trunks behind me – they barely fit into the fireplace but they did.

A couple of seconds later I stepped out of another fireplace, out into a room I had never before seen. There was people in the room too – familiar people. Except for Lupin, there were Moody, and a woman whom I recognized as the Mrs. Weasley, then one of the older Weasley brothers – Bill, I figured. Oh, and Dumbledore was also there.

"Well", Lupin said, "I take it you all are fairly familiar with each other, no presentation needed. And I assume that you" – he turned to Dumbledore – "have explained to everyone why…"

"Of course", Dumbledore said and smiled when he turned to me. "Welcome to Grimmauld Place 12, Headquarters for the Order of the Phoenix."

"Er… okay", I said slowly, "thanks."

Just then, another group of people came stumbling into the room. One adult, four younger people. Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny.

"Tamara!" Harry exclaimed when he saw me. I'm not sure, I could have just imagined it, but does it make sense if I said he sounded very… glad? However, his voice was completely neutral when he then added, "Hi."

I smiled shyly. "Hi", I said.

"Ohmigosh!" Ginny exclaimed in a high-pitched voice, ran over and pulled me into an embrace. "Hi!"

"Er", I said, slightly out of breath, "hi, Ginny."

She finally let go of me. "What are you doing here!"

"Well", I said slowly, "I'm not sure I'm the right person to answer that."

So everyone turned to Lupin, something that was natural as he was the one who had brought me there.

"Well", he said, "we decided that, due to this situation, the Headquarters would be the safest place for her to stay during the rest of the summer."

Everyone seemed happy about it, something that I found to be quite a relief. Also Hermione and Ron greeted me warmly, and then Dumbledore introduced me to the woman who had entered with them.

I still don't understand how I had not paid attention to her.

As mentioned, she was quite young – in her twenties, I assumed, and she had blue short hair in a very… spiky hairdo. I have to admit I had never seen anyone with such a hairdo in real life before. Especially not someone who didn't look weird in it.

"This, Tamara, is Nymphadora Tonks", he said. "Nymphadora, this is Tamara Malfoy."

If she found it weird that a Malfoy was brought here, she did not show it, but greeted me cheerfully just as the others.

"Hi, Tamara", she said, "nice to meet you. But please, call me Tonks. Everyone do." She glared at Dumbledore before adding, "Almost everyone."

"My apologies", Dumbledore said and then he told Ginny to show me up to her and Hermione's room, which I now also would be sharing.

"I also think it would be appropriate", he added, "if you told Tamara a bit about the Order." He then turned to Lupin and Tonks. "Remus, Nympha- Tonks, I mean, I would like to see you in the dining room." Then he turned back to me. "I'll see you soon again. Until then, I'm sure that these four" – he nodded towards Harry, Ron, Hermione and Ginny – "will make you feel at home."

"Of course", Hermione said, Ron nodded and Harry smiled.

"Come on, Tamara", Ginny said, "I'll show you up to our room."

And with that, we headed out of the room.

"The room is not very big", Ginny informed me on our way upstairs, "but it'll be okay. Yes, it'll be fun! Except for Hermione's snoring, of course."

"Hey!" Ron said from behind – he and Harry had offered to carry one of my trunks each – , sounding slightly offended at his girlfriend's behalf.

"Ron, it's okay, really", Hermione said and smiled. Then she turned to me and Ginny. "He's so cute, always prepared to stand up in front of me."

Ginny and I laughed. "As you can see", she continued, "Ron and Hermione are still our favourite lovebirds to pick on. Ah, here we are", she sand and opened a door. "We'll have someone conjure up a bed for you, of cour- oh, I see that's already done."

"Dumbledore thinks of everything", Hermione said and smiled.

Indeed, there were three beds in the room, which was quite small – just as Ginny had described it – but still big enough. Perhaps I was just spoiled by my big room in Malfoy Manor (if I still had got it. If father had arrived, he might just have set it all on fire or something).

Ginny opened another door, which appeared to be leading to a clothes closet.

"There's quite a lot of space left", she said. "Do you want us to help you unpack?"

"Yeah", I said, "thanks."

"Uh-oh", Ron said, "girl stuff. C'mon, Harry, let's go."

Harry chuckled and smiled at me once more before the boys left. I stared at the door for quite a while, before Ginny cleared her throat.

"What?" I said.

"Oh, nothing", she said and smirked. Oh, how I hated that knowingly Ginny-smirk. "Let's begin unpack, shall we?"

While we were unpacking my trunks, I took the chance to ask Ginny and Hermione about the Order of the Phoenix, as I had come to be quite curious by now.

"So", I said, "care to tell me what this place is? And this Order Dumbledore talking about?"

"The Order of the Phoenix", Hermione began, "is basically a group of people who fight against the Death Eaters and the Dark Side in general. It involves quite a lot of people, many who are not staying at the Headquarters. And now that the Ministry officially has admitted the return of the Dark Lord, we also have their support in many cases."

"Oh", I said. "So, it's sort of an underground-organisation that fights… Mr. V."

Ginny giggled. "Mr. V. Nice nickname."

"Mr. V", Hermione said and smiled. "Yes, I like that."

"It's just something I came up with… in the heat of the moment."

"I suggest we all call him Mr. V from now on", Ginny announced.

We all laughed around my Mr. V-joke for a while, until I became serious again.

"So", I said, "this is the Headquarters of this Order thing."

They nodded. "Actually", Ginny said, "it's the old Black house. When Sirius… died, Harry inherited it but as he isn't of age yet it stands under his second guardian, Remus. And he allowed the Order to keep it as the Headquarters. Oh by the way, speaking of Harry being underage. It's just five days left until his birthday. I was thinking like, we should come up with something extraordinary."

"Yeah", Hermione said, "he is after all turning seventeen."

I wondered if I should get him a present. Were we close enough to buy each other presents? He didn't get me anything for my birthday but I hardly suspected he didn't know when it was. And I didn't blame him, of course. But it would be weird if everyone gave him presents and I didn't. Perhaps Ginny and I could get him something together. I made a mental note of talking to Ginny about it later.

As for now, we had finished unpacking and Mrs. Weasley knocked on the door, telling us that it was dinner time. So I headed down with the others, surprised by how the nice smell made my stomach go wild as I hadn't noticed how hungry I was.

The dinner was lovely – Mrs Weasley is really a great chef. It was some kind of chicken in chilli sauce, with rice. Lovely. During the dinner we all chatted about lighter subjects, such as quidditch, brooms and Zonko's latest assortment. Over all, it was a warm and familiar spirit, something completely different from what it used to be like at Malfoy Manor.

Later in the evening, after dinner when I, Ginny and Hermione had returned to our room, the two girls wanted to know more about how I had met up with Lupin, and such. So I told them basically the whole story, from when mother had picked me and Draco up on King's Cross a number of weeks ago, to when I had seen The Daily Prophet and fled Malfoy Manor in a hurry, to when I had bumped into Lupin. I intentionally left Draco almost totally out of the story, as I knew how much they just… loathed each other. I didn't want to take anyone's side.

We kept on talking about different things until it was almost midnight, both serious and more unserious things, and when I eventually fell asleep I slept peacefully for the rest of the night.