September 2, 1995

The mission to get the kids safely to King's Cross and on the Hogwarts Express was stressful, yet overall successful. Although they had almost missed the train, the main goal of getting them on in one piece was accomplished. That night, long after the commotion of the first day of school had ended, Remus admitted that seeing her as an old woman was very funny.

Saturday morning dawns and the pair are awoken by a loud, rough knock and the sound of parchment being slid under the door. Confused, Nymphadora gets up to see what all the noise is about. Just in front of her bedroom door is a small piece of paper with Mad-Eye's handwriting scrawled on it.

You and Lupin are needed for emergency patrol in Chigwell. Immediately.

Just as she finishes reading the note, she hears a knock on a door down the hall and figures Mad-Eye was slipping a similar note under Remus's door, not knowing he wasn't there. She sighs, stumbling back over to the bed to wake Remus.

"Hey, bud," she says, shaking him tiredly. His eyes flutter open and land on her face. She hands him the note. "Duty calls."

"Wha-?" he groans, sitting up and reading it. "Alright then."

Without much resistance, he stands and begins dressing. Nymphadora, on the other hand, throws herself back on the bed. Remus playfully pokes her arm.

"Come on."

"Must be easy for you," she says, ignoring his pokes. "You don't work five days a week and expect a rest on the weekends."

"Yeah, well," he retorts, tightening his belt. "I've got the full moon in a week so I'm already starting to feel a little shitty and I'm up. Come on."

She immediately regrets complaining and begins dressing. As soon as Remus was ready, in order to keep up the façade that he was in his room the whole time, he heads for the door to sneak back.

"Wait!" Nymphadora whispers just as he touches the handle. "What if Mad-Eye is waiting out there for us?"

He takes his hand off and sighs. "I hate sneaking around."

"I know but we obviously don't have a choice. Can you apparate?"

"Apparate to my bedroom?" he asks, quirking an eyebrow.

"I mean, why not? Fred and George were apparating all over the place in here."

He considers this for a moment. "Worth a shot I guess." Suddenly, he pops out of sight. Nymphadora quickly finishes dressing and steps out into the hallway, where she's met with a pair of mismatched eyes looking disappointedly at her.

"Wotcher, Mad-Eye."

"Nymphadora," he replies, tipping his head in greeting. "Who were you talking to in there?"

"What are you talking about Mad-Eye? It was just me. I guess it could've been the TV perhaps," she muses, trying her best to be convincing. Suddenly, Remus's door swings open. He had changed shirts and was holding the note intended for him.

"Alright, Mad-Eye?" he asks, buttoning his cardigan.

"Remus." With that, he turns and begins heading down the stairs. Remus and Nymphadora exchange confused looks but follow. When they reach the ground floor, Mad-Eye leads them to the front door. "Your target was spotted at his residence 20 minutes ago."

"It would be nice to know who our target is," Nymphadora complains. While they had repeatedly come back to Chigwell to patrol, Mad-Eye never told them who they were tailing.

"Nott."

"Nott?"

"He was a Death Eater during the First War," Remus chimes in. "One of the earliest, and arguably, most loyal."

"Our intel suggests he has a residence in Chigwell," Mad-Eye explains. "We need to watch his movements. Harry claims to have seen him in the graveyard last summer, so he's still loyal to You-Know-Who."

"How can we trust what Harry says?" Remus argues, seemingly annoyed.

"I have no reason to doubt him," a voice says behind them. The pair quickly turn around and find Dumbledore and Sirius standing at the end of the hall. Remus embarrassedly looks down at his feet. "Now, this is an important mission. According to Sirius, here, it might be difficult for you two to work together, but we are counting on you."

At first, Nymphadora is confused at this comment, then realizes Sirius must have told him they had broken up.

"Apologies," Remus says. "I shouldn't have doubted you. Come on, Tonks."

She nods at Sirius and Dumbledore before following Remus out the front door. Once on the street, she follows him to the alley to apparate.

"That was awkward," she jokes.

"I did not expect him to tell Dumbledore, of all people," he replies. He holds his hand out and she takes it, ready to apparate. "Alright then?"

She nods. Suddenly, the pair are standing in their usual alley in Chigwell. Before stepping out onto the busy street, Nymphadora morphs into her old woman persona. Remus takes a sip of Polyjuice Potion out of a small vial from his pocket. Seconds later, an old, Muggle man stands opposite her. Disguises ready, they take to the streets.

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That night, after hours of chasing Nott all over London, Nymphadora finds herself in the kitchen at Grimmauld Place, sipping a glass of wine to unwind after such a stressful day. Remus, exhausted after running all day and so close to the full moon, retreated to his room early to get some rest. She thought she was alone, so was startled when she heard a voice behind her.

"I owe you an apology."

She jumps at the sound, turning around and seeing Sirius standing in the doorway.

"God, cous," she huffs. "You scared me."

"Guess I owe you two apologies now."

She chuckles as he takes a seat next to her. "What are you on about?"

"I shouldn't have told Dumbeldore your personal business. That wasn't right of me. I don't even know if Remus told you he told me all about it."

"He didn't," she decides to lie. "I was caught off guard when Dumbledore mentioned it."

"It was petty," he admits, slumping back in his seat. "I just wanted to have something useful to add to the conversation. Him and Mad-Eye were talking so quickly and importantly…I just wanted to be involved, I guess. Yesterday was the first time I left the house in months."

She nods, not in the right mind to quickly come up with answers that would make sense.

"I'm sorry about you two, by the way."

"It's alright," she replies, downing the last of her wine. "All good things must come to end, I suppose."

"Suppose we share an ex, then," Sirius muses, eyeing her curiously.

"I suppose we do," she replies, answering short in hopes that this tricky conversation would end. "It doesn't affect our work, though. I would appreciate if you didn't doubt me again."

"That's what I came to apologize for," he explains. "Truly, I am deeply sorry. That wasn't fair of me."

There's a long silence.

"I guess I'm also a little jealous."

"Jealous? Why?"

Sirius takes a long, deep breath in before answering. "I was hoping maybe, yanno, once things became a little stable in my life we could try to pick up where we left off."

She bites her lip, suddenly overcome with guilt.

"It was hard," he continues. "Not only did I lose James and Lily that day. I lost him. I thought about him every day when I was locked up. Just…dreaming of being reunited one day. And, when we finally were, he didn't react the same way. It was almost cold. I pushed my worries aside and told myself that it was just because I was a fugitive and it wouldn't be safe for us to see each other. Now that we're all in this house…still nothing has changed."

He glances up to see her reaction.

"I'm sorry I'm just kinda ranting to you," he says. "I haven't really had anyone to talk to about this. I knew as soon as he met you that it was over for us. But, hey, maybe not, eh?"

She nods, too uncomfortable to speak.

"Sorry, didn't mean to rub it in that you broke up."

"It's alright," she finally replies. "It was nothing serious."

He nods, patting her on the shoulder comfortingly and standing. "Alright then. If you ever want to talk about him, I'm all ears."

She lets out a small laugh. "I'll keep that in mind."

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