Charlie was interrupted from his thoughts as the living room door burst open. The twins had been sitting in the kitchen, unable to cope with the silence in the living room. They could therefore whisper amongst themselves and intercept the partronuses of people as they arrived home. George's head had appeared at the now wide open door which held everyone's attention. "Remus" was all he said before his head disappeared from view again and returned to the kitchen, with Mrs Weasley and Charlie close on his heels.
Remus was just removing his jacket and coat when Mrs Weasley entered the kitchen. He looked up and shook us head at the question he saw in her eyes; "Ron? Harry? Hermione?" Mrs Weasley broke eye contact with a nod of her head to show she understood and set about making another cup of tea. Remus' eyes immediately went to Charlie's, this time it was his asking the question. "Tonks?" Charlie shook his head, and went and clasped Remus' shoulder. Remus understood this gesture to mean "She'll be fine…have hope". Remus let out a sigh, gritted his teeth and with all his self-determination sat down at the kitchen table and put his head in his hands. As much as he wanted to go back out and find her, as much as he hated sitting around doing nothing, he knew he had to.
Fred went and rescued the teapot from Mrs Weasley's shaking hands and sent her back through to the living room. Charlie waited with Remus until with a word of thanks he accepted his tea from Fred and both travelled through to the living room.
This time it was Remus who paced. His skin was pale and taut, his hair was now more grey than brown and his robes though newish (they were a birthday present from the trio) were now splattered with mud and were slightly torn where a Death Eater had stood on them. With the full moon now less than 24 hours away he looked ill, like he had a very large bout of the flu. The marauder glint in his brown eyes that he usually retained was temporarily extinguished and only the return of a certain clumsy pink haired witch would reignite it.
Charlie was now sitting in an armchair in the corner of the room, his gaze shifting from one person to the next. Watching the ways everybody was coping with their dread. His father, brothers, sister (he had known Tonks so long and been close to her since they were 11 that he classed her as his non-biological sister) and friends were still out there, all were connected to him; all were connected to each other.
Like a half finished jigsaw, only one piece connects to another perfectly. Mom to Dad, Bill to Fleur, Remus to Tonks. And only one half of each pair has made it back so far. His gaze transferred to each half in turn. Mrs Weasley looking on the verge of tears again; Fleur twisting her hair seemed to be muttering something very fast in French under her breath - a pray for her loves return? Remus pacing in front of the fireplace looking as if he was going to go tearing back out of the door any minute.
It was one fifteen, according to the working muggle clock that Mr Weasley insisted was to be kept on one of the kitchen shelves, when he returned home. Again it was George's head that delivered the news. His head and the rest of his attached body were soon sent flying as Mrs Weasley raced through the kitchen, throwing herself, with a fresh wave of tears, onto her husband. Remus was on tea duty this time after vanishing the remains of the majority of his own now ice cold cup, while Mrs Weasley tried to compose herself. Mr Weasley had no news on the rest of the Order or Harry's whereabouts, and refused to answer the twin's interrogations about what he'd seen, telling them they were better off never knowing the horrors some of the Order members had witnessed.