Author's note: Enjoy!

Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns the canon, world, and characters portrayed below and you can tell I'm not J.K. Rowling because #transrights

Warnings: NA

The World Caught Up

Kingsley pinned the badge to the Auror robes she'd been told to wear to the occasion. It was a bronze badge showing two crossed wands over a hat and a Latin inscription whose meaning she probably should have known by virtue of being an Auror—oops. A purple ribbon striped with gold hung from the bottom of the medal. Once he was sure it was secure he looked up to her and smiled conspiratorially.

"Congratulations, Auror Tonks," he said so quietly that the crowd assembled in the Ministry's atrium probably didn't hear.

"Thank you, Minister," she replied with a smirk—knowing that Kingsley was still getting used to the title he'd recently acquired in the election. She and Sirius had a ball using it.

He shook her hand and squeezed her fingers. They posed for the press and the crowd they stood before them applauded. She saw the flash of several Daily Prophet cameras going off and made an effort to smile and look ahead before turning to her mum, sitting in the first row with the baby bouncing on her lap, her eyes shimmering with tears. She'd been over the moon since the announcement had come that members of the Order of the Phoenix were being awarded Orders of Merlin by the Wizenmagot, whereas Tonks herself had been mostly stunned. It felt oxymoronic, given how every single thing she'd done as an Order member could technically be considered treasonous to the Auror Department—not that Tonks was complaining. She'd been ready to sacrifice her career and more from the moment Mad-Eye had brought her in, and it pained her that he wasn't here as well.

Kingsley let go of her hand and moved on to the next person in line, and Tonks turned and smiled. Remus looked like he was about to be sick, nervous as he was in big crowds and in the Ministry. She had convinced him to buy new robes for the occasion and he looked particularly handsome, dressed up in clothes that fit him well and whose colours hadn't faded. The worry lines on his face still stood out, as Kingsley pinned his medal and whispered his congratulations. Remus nodded anxiously and swallowed hard. And then, when Kingsley shook his hand, the crowd applauded and the cameras went off just as they had for her and every other person in the lineup. Remus' shoulders relaxed when they did and he seemed… well, genuinely surprised that there were no qualms, no interruptions, no protests or silences about a werewolf being awarded the Order of Merlin. He was the first one. Rita Skeeter, among others, had had things to say about it but nobody was speaking ill now.

She joined the crowd in applause and beamed as she watched him smile timidly for the cameras, testing the waters to see if any prejudice would burst through. None did. When Kingsley moved on down the line, she reached out and took his hand. He shuffled a little closer to him.

"I told you it would be fine," she whispered as Kingsley pinned a badge on Hestia Jones' chest.

"You know how impossible it is for me to be sure about these things," he said.

"I know," she said simply. "But I was sure that the world would catch up to me and see what kind of a man you really were."

Her heart melted some more when he smiled, tears welling up in his eyes.

WC: 574