July 5th, Friday

Times embarrassing myself in front of Remus: 1 (yay!); meals I burnt, cooked to jelly or made inedible in any other way: 4 ½ (the last portion of eggs was quite good, actually, if you like your eggs a bit more on thecrunchy sideand your ham with a raw edge to it).

Just spent a nice time in the kitchen with Molly. She promised me she would try to teach me how to cook. That was nice of her, seeing as she doesn't have that much time, anyway, and as she'll be constantly cleaning up after me. I learned how to make breakfast: I can already do coffee (though we had to pour the first two cans down the drain, since they were so strong you could have reawakened the dead with them), toast and ham and eggs. I'm immensely proud of me.

Molly just told me the children will be arriving here on Sunday, even Hermione, whose parents have to attend some dentist conference. Harry had to go to the Dursleys, of course. Went straight up to Remus to tell him. And wake him up, by the way, so I can show him what I learned. I brought some samples of my new ability up to his room, after I've tested them on any signs of bitterness or burntness.

There weren't any, which caused Remus to praise my new cooking talents until I stumbled over a chair, fell down and dragged half of his closet down with me. The rest of the morning, I just sat on a chair and tried not to move.

Also told Remus that the children were to arrive soon.

"Thank God, finally there's someone to talk to."

He looked at me indignantly.

"Because now there's not a single person in the house you could talk to? What about me?"

"I know I can talk to you, and Molly, and the rest of the Order. I just need to talk to someone female and my age – well, compared to Molly and Emmeline. There are just things you can't talk about with Molly. With the order, I always have to be mature and grown-up and act older than I am, because I'm so much younger than you all. With the girls, I almost feel as if I were still a teenager myself." He looked at me pensively.

"I think I see what you mean. But, Nymph, you really don't have to act older than you are. We know you're younger, but we respect you no matter what. It's good that you're younger. Refreshing, somehow. We would all go mad and grey with sorrow if we didn't have your laughter and your clumsiness around. Please stay as you are." I blushed, for several reasons. First there was the fact that he'd made me a compliment. Second, he was looking at me intensely, and all of a sudden, I noticed again how close we were sitting together, and third, he'd just called me Nymph, something I've never been called before. It's a nice compromise between Tonks and my full name. I think I'll stick with that in the future. Or maybe, I'll only let him say it. Makes me feel special.

I know what you're thinking. Someone's got a little crush there. So what!

A/N: I upped the rating, just in case. I'm not sure how far I want them to go yet.