The Advance Guard

John found his mother in the kitchen, looking slightly unnerved, surrounded by people she didn't know, but making them all a cup of tea anyway.

'Ah, there you are,' said a familiar, friendly voice.

'Professor Lupin,' John smiled.

Lupin looked more worn out and tired than he had ever done while still teaching at Hogwarts, but he smiled warmly at John and Sherlock.

'All right there, Watson?' another voice growled.

'I've been worse, thanks, Professor.'

'Dunno much about "Professor",' said Mad-Eye Moody. 'Didn't get 'round to much teaching, did I?'

John looked around at the others in the room, all pretending not to be watching him with interest.

'Right, introductions, I suppose,' said Lupin. 'John, Sherlock, this is Alastor Moody.'

John nodded. It was slightly odd being introduced to someone he had already met.

'He's in charge of your protection.'

John glanced at him, and images of him protecting other Seers flashed through him. 'Good,' he said. 'I heard from Crouch that you protected a lot of Seers.'

'Yeah, mostly from him,' Moody frowned.

Then Lupin gestured towards a woman. She looked the youngest of everyone in the room, but John had trouble looking at her. Her appearance shifted rapidly, flashing bright colours. He put a hand to his hand and breathed deeply, forcing her image to slow until her outline settled. She had short, spiky, turquoise hair, and was looking at him curiously. 'Don't call her Nymphadora,' he mumbled, before Lupin opened his mouth.

'Wow!' the woman said enthusiastically.

John shook his head, trying to get rid of the heavy feeling in his head. 'Sorry, what?' he said.

'Tonks. You can call me Tonks.'

'Nice to…' John trailed off and sat down at the table, light-headed.

'What's wrong?' Sherlock asked.

'All this magic,' he mumbled. 'It's making me feel funny.'

'You spent too much time away from it.'

'Or not enough,' John grumbled.

Mrs Watson placed a cup of tea down in front of him, and kissed the top of his head. 'It could be worse,' she said bracingly. 'If - if I understand it, it would have been worse if you'd gone straight back to Hogwarts, right?'

John smiled. 'Yeah, I suppose.'

Lupin sat down next to him. 'I see your power is stronger now,' he said.

John snorted. He'd barely come into his power at all the last time he'd seen Lupin. 'Unfortunately.' John took a sip of his tea, and another man came through the front door.

'Are we almost ready to go?' he asked, in a deep, slow voice. Something about him caught John's attention.

'Kingsley Shacklebolt,' he said, offering his hand.

John shook it, and suddenly saw him standing in front of a lot of people. He couldn't hear what was being said, but there were flashes from several cameras, then everything compressed into a Patronus in the shape of a lynx before fading. John drank some more of his tea, hands shaking.

'We're just waiting for the signal,' Lupin told Shacklebolt.

'Tea, Mr Shacklebolt?' Mrs Watson asked.

'I would love some,' he rumbled, looking at her intensely.

She smiled and tucked a lock of blonde hair behind her ear.

John gave her an incredulous look, but she just shrugged and blushed.

'How long do we have to wait?' Tonks asked. She went to pick up her mug, but knocked it on the floor. 'Oops!'

'Oh, don't worry, it's only a mug,' said Mrs Watson. She grabbed a dustpan, but Tonks stopped her.

'I'll fix it. Reparo.'

The pieces of the mug flew back together, and Tonks gingerly placed it on the kitchen counter.

Lupin checked his watch. 'An hour at the most, I'd say.'

'Why do we need to wait?' Sherlock asked, watching them all with interest.

'Some of the others are making sure the area is clear. We don't want to be attacked trying to leave,' said Lupin.

'Where are we going?'

'Somewhere safe,' Moody said gruffly. 'Get me a glass of water, would you?'

John pushed himself up and got it for him.

Moody pressed a hand to his face, and popped out his magical eye, dropping it in the glass of water. 'It keeps getting stuck. Ever since that scum wore it.'

'Mad-Eye, you do know that's disgusting, don't you?' Tonks said conversationally.

Moody ignored her, and put his eye back in, spinning it around experimentally.

John rested his head on the table, the lack of sleep catching up with him.

'You can rest when we get there,' Moody barked, making him jump.

'Sorry,' John mumbled.

'How are we getting there?' Sherlock asked.

'Side-Along Apparition,' said Moody. 'In and out, nice and quick.' His magical eye was pointing up through the ceiling. 'No one on the roof.'

Sherlock moved, so John could lean on his shoulder instead of the table. 'Are you an Auror?' he asked Tonks with interest.

'Yep. Qualified a year ago,' she said proudly.

'I imagine you did quite well during your Concealment and Disguise unit.'

Tonks grinned. 'How did you know?'

'I saw you change your nose just now.'

'What?' John said, confused.

'She's a Metamorphmagus, right?'

'Yeah.'

'She can change her appearance at will,' Sherlock elaborated.

Tonks demonstrated, by screwing up her face, as though she were straining very hard, and changed her hair from turquoise to a violent purple.

'Wow,' John mumbled. He sounded a lot less impressed than he actually was, but he was too tired to express it.

Kingsley finished his tea and passed the mug back to Mrs Watson. 'Wonderful tea, thank you,' he said to her, and she turned pink again.

'Me and Kingsley are staying here to look after your mum,' Tonks said in amusement, catching the wink Kingsley gave Mrs Watson. 'Until we can get all the protective spells in place.'

'If you're doing spells, can't I stay here?' John said hopefully.

'I'm afraid not,' said Lupin sympathetically. 'The spells are only so strong, and if you're not here, then there's no reason for them to try and break through.'

John slumped again. 'Fine.'

'Signals are going up,' said Moody. 'Get your stuff ready.' He stumped over to the front door, and waited for the others to join him.

John stood and hoisted his bag onto his back, sighing.

'Oh, wait there,' Mrs Watson said, hurrying up the stairs. They heard her rummaging around, then running back down the stairs. When she came back into the kitchen, she had a small red box, which she pressed into John's hands.

'What - no, Mum, I can't take this,' John said, pushing it back towards her.

'He would want you to have it.'

John welled up. 'Are you sure?' he asked, his voice constricted.

'Yeah, I am.'

John hugged her. 'Harriet will be upset when she finds out you gave it to me.'

'I suppose it'll be our secret, then,' she smiled, wiping her eyes. Then she turned to Sherlock. 'You'll look after him?'

'Mum-'

'Of course I will,' said Sherlock. He looked thoughtful for a moment, then unzipped John's bag and pulled out the photo of his family.

'Sherlock, what-?'

Sherlock carefully pulled off the back of the frame, and lifted out the letter inside, handing it to Mrs Watson.

Her eyes widened when she saw her name and recognised the writing. She gasped and put a hand to her chest. 'Oh, thank you,' she said, tears dripping down her face.

'My pleasure.'

She hugged him, much to his surprise, then gave John one last hug. 'Keep yourself safe,' she said.

'You too. Love you, Mum.' He squeezed her tightly, then reluctantly let her go.

Sherlock held his hand down the corridor, and waited by the front door with Moody and Lupin.

'Last signal, let's go,' he said, shoving the front door open.

John looked back to wave at his mother, then stepped outside.

'You'll see her again soon,' Sherlock murmured.

John grimaced, and sucked in a breath, a sinking feeling in his stomach. 'No, I don't think I will.' He scrubbed his face, and Lupin took his arm.

'Hold on tight, John,' he said. 'Have you done this before?'

'Yeah, once, with Mycroft.'

'An expert already, then,' Lupin said encouragingly. He grabbed John's trunk, and made sure John's grip was tight enough, then twisted in the air.

John clutched Lupin's arm as everything went dark, and the air pressed in on him from all sides, making it impossible to breathe. Then it stopped and he took a gulp of the cool night air, letting go of Lupin.

'Eurgh, I hate doing that,' John complained, holding onto Sherlock. 'You're still in your pajamas.'

Sherlock's lip twitched. 'Well spotted.'

John rolled his eyes. 'Where are we?'

They had Apparated onto a patch of uneven grass, in the middle of a small square. It was dark, but for Lupin's illuminated wand.

'Already took the lights out,' Moody said to himself, rummaging around in his cloak.

'Somewhere in London, I think,' Sherlock murmured.

'Not here,' Lupin whispered.

John squinted at the houses around. From what he could see, they didn't look very welcoming. The paint on most of the doors was peeling, and there was litter strewn over the pavements

'Here,' Moody muttered, thrusting a piece of parchment into John's hand.

He held it out, so both he and Sherlock could read it.

'Read it quickly and memorise.'

The narrow handwriting was familiar, and it said:

The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix can be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London.

Welcome back everyone! Thanks to ConstantineHolmes, Morgan Teri Befan and megasauruss for the reviews!

So these first few chapters are going to be a bit short, there's some small things I want to cover in them, but otherwise there's no need to go over so much from the book, I hope that's okay. As soon as we get back to Hogwarts, we'll start seeing some longer chapters.

Anyway, I'm still in isolation, so I'll probably see you all again soon!