AN: Yay! We finished day 1. O.O I know, it was extremely long, but a lot of stuff had to happen that first day. Hopefully things will move a little faster now. But first, a brief interlude!

Once again, thank you so much for all the great reviews and support! It's made a huge difference in keeping me on track.

Tonks sectioned of large portions of what remained of the Dursely's yard. In all her experience, both in training and in the field, she had never seen such odd aftermath.

It was contradictory. Such level of destruction, but no obvious signs of magic. Things were crushed and torn and burnt beyond recognition, but nothing had been conjured, nothing had been transformed, nothing had fundamentally changed in the way magic always affected the natural world. There was no concrete proof that magic had even been involved here at all, even if it was the only logical explanation.

There was no clue as to who was responsible for this.

Or where they were.

Or where Harry was.

She put up containment spells and notice-me-not spells. The Order member assigned to watch the house was no where to be found, and Tonks was afraid to assume the worst. Hopefully he had just left to get reinforcements. If not, it was likely he was laying dead somewhere, waiting for them to find his body… Tonks hurried to block out the muggle neighbors and hunted down the aunt, uncle and wale of a cousin and contained them as well. Clean up. All she could do now was clean up. She did everything she could, by the book and with the kind of deliberate perfection she was only capable of achieving under the most critical of field operations.

And when it still wasn't enough, she sat down on the curb of a muggle street next to a battered old man and held his hand.

There was nothing left to do but wait for the rest of the Order to arrive.

"There's no dark mark," she told him softly.

Remus just shook his head weakly.

Tonks bit her lip and tried again. "I know it looks terrible, but I can't find any evidence that anyone was actually hurt."

Remus shook his head again. "I saw that man's eyes. He is a killer. Something has happened."

It wasn't in Tonks's nature to give up hope that easily, but there was something about this entire situation that just didn't feel right. It was hard to hold on to possibilities with so many unknowns. She tried to work that thought through all the way. If her assumptions couldn't be relied on, then what? Such destruction, but no trace of dark magic or the dark mark… "You don't think it was Death Eaters."

Remus finally looked up at her, his golden brown eyes still slightly unfocused. "If it was anyone other than Harry."

Tonks shuddered. "If it wasn't a Death Eater or someone else associated with You-Know-Who, then that would mean that there's someone else out there after poor Harry. Who would want to k – harm a fifteen year old boy?"

"I don't know," Remus replied miserably. "The wards are supposed to protect Harry. That's why Dumbledore insisted on him remaining in this miserable place. No one who meant him harm should have been able to find this place, much less cast any offensive spells."

Tonks shook her head. "I couldn't find any spell residue. It just doesn't make any sense."

"It seems like nothing ever does anymore."

Tonks felt her hair droop and fall into a heavy dark gray curtain around her face. She stared at Remus's bent head, at the pre-mature dusting of silver in it that she had always thought was dashing in its own way. She stared at the graceful thin fingers her own were wrapped around, at the way scars criss-crossed over the back of them like fine spider webs. She stared at his sorrow and hated herself.

Harry had always been rather stand-offish boy, as long as she had known him, Oh, he was friendly enough – quick to smile and laugh and play along with any good joke. But he never talked about himself. Never sought others out. Never asked for help or advice or a friendly shoulder. Tonks had always liked him, but only in the way one could like a stranger or a new acquaintance – she liked the possibility in him.

She never much thought about what Harry was to Remus. She'd always known he liked Harry. He spoke highly of him whenever given the chance. But he spoke like a proud teacher, not as a friend, certainly not as a father.

But she'd seen bereaved parents whose grief had been no less real and consuming. It left her at a loss to understand just how much Remus had invested in Harry. Surely a near stranger who had little more than mutual grief in common with Remus could mean so much to a man as self-reliant and self-contained as Remus was.

But it did. This wasn't just the failure of an Order member to fulfill his appointed task. This was the breaking of a man. And it made Tonks hate herself in a way she never had before for not being able to fix this.

"We'll find him," she whispered hoarsely, tightening her own pale small clumsy hand around his. "Somehow. Dumbledore will have a plan. Or – or you and I'll figure it out. Somehow. Please, Remus, I – I promise. Don't give up."

Remus rubbed the rough pad of his thumb along the underside of her wrist and looked up slowly. He didn't smile exactly, but something about his face softened. "I'm not giving up, Tonks. I won't ever give up on Harry as long as there's a chance. I couldn't do that to his father. I can't do that to him." He glanced back down at their hands. He reached over and patted her hand with his other hand before pulling both away. "Thank you, Tonks, for your friendship. But I suspect an Auror like yourself will be needed elsewhere."

Tonks scowled and brushed her hair back with an angry jerking motion of her hand. "Where I'm needed is with you, looking for Harry. I'm not giving up on him either."

"It's not – "

"He was my cousin's godson," she argued. "He was lost on my watch. He's a student at Hogwarts and by extension a minor under the protection of the Ministry's Auror Department. He's a good kid. I'm not giving up either." She'd worked herself up into a right lather and suspected it was clearly visible. Good. She wanted him to know she was serious, that she wasn't just a bumbling idiot. She could help him. She could be just as tough as he was. He needed her.

Remus just sighed. Then he smiled ever so slightly. "Alright. We can do it together."

Tonks nodded sharply. Something warm and determined bubbled up within her and seemed to fill every pore and space. They could do this. They could do anything. They sat for one long fragile moment before she asked: "so now what?"

"I don't know, Remus replied bluntly. But then he pushed himself slowly up to his feet. "Let's try talking to Lily's sister first."

Tonks scowled again. "You won't get anything useful out of her. I tried."

Remus smiled slyly. "You have to knowhow to speak Dursley-ese. Petunia often knows more than she realizes. Come on. You can play bad Auror and I'll play good Auror. Maybe if we're lucky, we can find out something useful before anyone else can get here."

Tonks smiled and graciously let him help her up to her feet. Now here was the Remus she knew.