DISCLAIMER: Don't own it blah blah blah J.K.Rowling blah blah blah don't sue me blah blah etc.
Mirror, Mirror
Chapter Two: Sleeping Dogs
As she made her way down the old servants staircase, the smell of stale party nibbles and spilt butterbeer hit her square in the face. She caught her bare toes in a bundle of streamer as she reached the bottom, landing on the floor inches from the wall. She groaned. She didn't feel like getting up. She just didn't have the energy to move today and she wondered why she did yesterday. It would have been an insult if she'd stayed in bed, if she'd wallowed in self-pity, mourning his untimely death. Though the party in his honour wasn't wholly honourable. It had been a complete farce, at least in Tonks' view. There had been a conjured disco, food, games, all the happy things they'd thought Sirius would enjoy. They had all enjoyed it too, or at least that's how they tried to make it appear. But Tonks was good at detecting fakes, after all, she was one big fake herself.
She looked up from where she sat and froze. What vague emotion she had, left her as she looked into the eyes of Sirius' portrait. She felt nothing but the numb emptiness she had felt that day in St. Mungo's, when Remus had told her of her cousin's departure.
There was something deeply familiar in those blank grey eyes of his. Tonks began to remember. Unlike those of his mother and other relatives, this Sirius did not speak, he didn't even move, save for the occasional faint smile for those who missed him. As she gazed at what seemed to be the closest thing to her cousin's ghost, a young hand planted itself on her shoulder.
Tonks half came out of her trance to trace its owner.
"You've been there for four hours Tonks, you alright?" The hand had apparently belonged to Harry, he looked as if he'd been crying, but seemed alot calmer than he'd been these past few weeks.
Tonks sighed as she gazed back at her cousin's picture. Then she did something she hadn't done genuinely in a long time. She smiled. See ye 'round, cuz, she thought. She placed a hand on Harry's shoulder, prised herself off of her numb behind, and followed him into the sitting room. He seemed to have grown taller since that night in the Department of Mysteries, he had almost caught her up.
Tonks sat down on the sofa next to Harry, Remus sat in the far chair. There was a book in his lap, but it was obvious he was deep in thought. Tonks sighed again. A part of her refused to mourn Sirius, simply because she feared many others would die in the war to come, probably herself included. Harry looked up as she exhaled.
"You must have lost people before, friends, with your ministry work," He began, half-heartedly debating his intended career choice in his head.
"Of course, it's what Aurors do Harry," She told him hopelessly, not even bothering to wonder where the conversation was going.
"Don't you ever wish you could bring them all back, if you could?"
Tonks sighed yet again. This seemed to sadden the pensive Remus. Tonks turned to look Harry in the eye before she spoke.
"Oh Harry," She said, gripping his arm, "You have to let sleeping dogs lie."
He nodded, then made his excuses and went upstairs to his room.
Tonks considered doing the same.
"You have wisdom beyond your years Nymphadora," Came a hushed voice from the other side of the room. She grimaced at the sound of her first name.
"But not the maturity it seems," Remus teased. Tonks chuckled and threw a cushion at her friend. He yelped in protest and picked it up to throw it back, but stopped dead before it left his hands. He had seen something in her eyes that wasn't there before today. He couldn't quite place it, and though it did remind him a little of Sirius he didn't think it was deliberate this time.
"You have your cousin's eyes," he told her, with a saddened smile. Tonks was starting to remember.