Sirius had one arm around Remus's shoulders, using the other to help guide him. "Here, just sit at this one. It's closest to the door."

"I'm not really sure I want everyone staring at me throughout the meeting." Remus let him be guided to a chair. Remus was frankly just hoping he didn't look like a complete idiot. He brushed his own hair and let Sirius pick out his clothes and keep his sweater and shirt buttons on straight. This morning, he also brushed his teeth with his finger because he kept dumping toothpaste into the sink. Yesterday, he couldn't even find his toothbrush.

"It's not like you can tell anyways." Sirius bit his tongue. "No one's going to stare at you. Oh, yeah, and remember the portrait's going to go off."

Just as predicted, the moment the door swung open, the portrait of Sirius's mother began screeching like a banshee. She began hurling hateful slurs and unnecessary insults. Then the thought dawned on Remus as Sirius ran off to handle the portrait.

"Remus, dear, it's Molly. Molly Weasley." A woman's voice announced. She sounded gentle and motherly. Her hand patted him on the shoulder. Remus was going to have to get used to people touching him a lot. The chair beside him made a nasty noise as it scraped across the floor. "How are you holding up?"

"Holding up." Remus shrugged.

"You did know that we're coming to stay for a bit, yes?"

"Yes, of course." He nodded. "If you don't mind me asking who 'we' is?"

"It's just Arthur and myself, and our twins, Fred and George today. We'll be bringing our other two, Ron and Ginny, and Ginny's friend Hermione soon."

"Yes, I remember them from when I taught."

"That's great to hear. Hang on, twins? Arthur? Would you please come say hello to Remus?"

"Hello, Remus!" Arthur said. Remus turned his head to follow his voice. "It's wonderful seeing you again."

"Hi, Professor." A teenage boy's voice greeted.

"We just wanted to say that we-" The other one started to say something.

Remus was startled. Molly had jumped out of her seat, marched across the dining room, seeming to have disappeared. He couldn't quite make out what she said, but she was definitely being reprimanding. "Molly-"

"Sorry dear," She had come back and returned to her seat.

"It's alright, really. Them making jokes isn't going to hurt me one bit."

"I was going to say that in speaking for the both of us, we're glad to see that you're still here fighting with us." One of the twins said.

"Are the two of you going to be attending meetings now?"

"Mum said no." The other twin said. Or was it the same one? Remus didn't know.

"I guess we're just free child labour." The other other one said.

"Oh, shush." Molly replied. "You two... go upstairs with your father and have Sirius show you on what to start working on. Remus, may I take a look at your face?"

"Oh, sure. Here, I can get the bandages off if you don't mind. I put them on because I didn't know if the kids were coming or not." Remus said, taking off the tape around the bandages. "By the way, how did you get past the death eaters?"

Molly sighed. "Sirius told you? I told him not to bother you with that."

"You couldn't hide it forever."

"Have you been using your dittany daily?"

"Twice daily." He replied. He blinked his eyes hard as she examined the lacerations. "Drys my eyes out like mad. That, or my eyes are just going to be like this now."

"I can see about getting you some eyedrops." Her hands were soft, but wrinkled with age. She gently touched around his eyes. "Have you noticed any changes? Are you gaining or losing any of your vision?

"No. Nothing's changed. It hurts less? I can still sense light, but it's all the same as it was."

"Let's keep watching it. I'm not surprised that nothing has changed. Nothing structural is different than it was, other than the skin's healing. I don't think what's... left will need to be removed. I think once the rest of the wounds heal and aren't infected, you can probably stop the dittany."

"So... that's it then." He let out a sigh. "How... what does it took like?"

"What do you mean, what does it look like?"

"How bad do I look?" Remus wondered.

Molly didn't say anything at first. "Remus, what kind of answer are you looking for?"

"I just want to know what I look like now. What do my eyes look like?"

She didn't want to say. "They look like eyes. There are five large claw marks and three small ones. The two on your chin and the on your forehead that are almost healed. There's a large cut almost straight down the middle of your left eye. There's one slightly towards your nose there that goes up your brow. You've lost about a quarter your eyebrow, too. Your right eye looks sort of split between two cuts and your eyelid is sewn up in three places. I'm honestly amazed you still have eyelids. I'm amazed you have eyes at all. The whites of your eyes is pink and the pink is red from healing."

"Do I look like myself?"

"Yes, of course you do." Molly added in quickly. Remus nodded uncomfortably and shut his eyes, squeezing them tightly. Something about this pained expression hurt badly, pulling at his healing skin.

The front door opened and a few seconds later, slammed shut. The portrait began screaming hatefulness again. "Molly- Molly, what's happening? What's wrong? What's going on?" Hurried footsteps came dashing down the stairs. Sirius was yelling something about the portrait shutting up and Remus braced, terrified. He wanted to reach for his wand, be he remembered he didn't have it on him. In fact, his wand had probably already created an allegiance to some other werewolf. He was utterly useless. There was a loud thud, a crash of something breaking, followed by a woman's voice, one seperate of the portrait, frightfully squealing.

"Everything's okay." Molly said softly. "Some of the Order members are here. The portrait started yelling, someone fell over, and Sirius came running down the stairs to stop the commotion. Do you want to come say hello?"

"Should I?"

Molly gracefully helped his not so graceful body up to his feet. Remus could tell they were walking towards the foyer together before he even had a choice

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to-" A woman's voice exclaimed.

"It's fine." Sirius sighed. "Told Remus I'd move the bloody vase soon enough. Didn't matter now, I suppose."

Remus felt the roomful of eyes on him. The exact number was sketchy and uncomfortable anyways. Feeling naked without his bandages on, he raised his hand to cover his eyes. It wasn't subtle.

"Good riddance, Lupin." A gruff voice that was too close to Remus than he prefered said. A firm hand slapped him on the back without warning. "Glad to see you're still alive at least."

Molly cleared her throat. "Remus, that's Alastor Moody to your left. Sirius is beside the staircase, Emmeline Vance and Kingsley Shacklebolt are closest to the door, and the woman right in front of you would be Nym-"

"Tonks. Tonks is fine." The woman replied. He heard footsteps stumble around, but the direction was unclear. "It's my last name."

"Oh." Remus nodded. "Nice... meeting you. I just heard that someone fell, is everyone okay? Did anything else happen?"

"Oh yeah, I do that a lot." The woman laughed lightly. "No we're all good. Poor vase, though. Ugly old thing never saw me coming..."

"Is this everyone then?" Sirius asked.

"Mundungus said he would be late, but Elphias said he couldn't make it." A woman's squeaky voice towards the back said.

"What about Bill and Charlie? Have we heard from them?"

"Charlie's staying where he is for work." Molly said. "Bill couldn't take off today, and Fleur couldn't come without him."

"And Dumbledore, Mcgonagall and Snape?" Sirius asked.

"Still waiting for them." Molly said. "Shouldn't be much longer now. I can fix tea if anyone's interested.

"That'd be lovely, actually." The woman named Tonks said in a cheerful voice. She sounded young, but not so incredibly young that she must have been a child. Remus thought asking while awkwardly standing in the middle of the room was inappropriate. "Here, watch the glass." She gently grabbed Remus by the shoulders and guided him away from what he assumed was the wreckage no one cared enough about to clean up. The others showed themselves to the kitchen behind Molly Weasley.

"Thanks." Remus sighed.

"Sorry, I'm not really touchy feeley either." The woman said, drawing back her hands. "I'm sure you don't like people telling you what to do and dragging you along all the time."

"Better than wandering around all foolishly." Remus scowled.

"I don't want to pry, but you must be Remus, yes? Sorry, they told be before I got here to watch out for you. You got hurt or something a couple weeks back, but I see why now." She said quietly.

He felt extremely disappointed. He hadn't even had the chance to introduce himself to her and she already knew who he was and what was wrong with him. "I- yes, that's me. You were told towatch out for me?"

"I mean, you know, just be wary that you were going through some stuff and..." She sighed. "I'm sorry. I'll quit pretending that I haven't heard the full story. The others... they're sort of worried about how you're going to adjust now, you know?"

"You don't have to dance around it with me." He was becoming increasingly frustrated. "That's the last thing I want. I practically had my eyes gouged out and I don't want people acting like they have to be careful around me. I just wish you and the others could have heard it from me, at least."

"You deserve your dignity." She replied. "I'm sorry if I sounded invasive. Maybe we should start over? I'm Tonks, by the way."

"Funny name, huh?" Remus tried to sound cheerful.

"Yeah, it's a surname." She chuckled.

"Well then, I'm Remus." He held out his hand, having no idea if he looked stupid or could accidentally slap her arm.

She gripped his hand and shook it, wrapping her other hand around the back of his. "It's wonderful meeting you, Remus. If you ever need anything, I'm moving in tomorrow."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I'm about done packing my bags. They haven't told me what room I've gotten yet. Fingers crossed I don't have to share with the hippogriff."

"He has a name, you know." A voice from behind said. "It's Buckbeak."

"Oh, Sirius..." Tonks let go of his hand and darted off towards the kitchen.

"Oof," The woman must have knocked into him. "Good seeing you again, too."

"You two know each other?" Remus asked, puzzled, turning towards them.

"Of course," Sirius said in a muffled groan. "Nymphadora here's my cousin..." There was a smack noise. Tonks had definitely hit him. "...well, first cousin, once removed. Andromeda's kid."

"Don't call me that."She sounded like a child trying to fight off a teasing parent.

"What's so bad about... Sorry, I didn't catch that?"

"Tonks. Tonks is fine." She sighed. "Alright, I'll see you all later then." Swiftly, she turned to tell Remus. And with that, Tonks walked off into the kitchen.

"What was it?" Remus asked.

"What?" Sirius asked.

"Her name."

"Oh, Nymphadora. I think her parents call her Dora. She hates it, clearly." Remus imagined him pouting and rubbing his arm.

Remus laughed to himself. "She seems... full of personality."

"Oh, she's full of something alright."