"Wotcher, Sirius!" Tonks greeted, peeling off her soaked Auror cloak as she went.

Tonks had had the brilliant idea to walk to Grimmauld Place from the newssagents in the sweltering heat, and by the time she had gotten there, she was a certifiable sweat machine. Fortunately for her, no one else was stupid enough to hang about in the drought, and so they didn't notice the girl in the red Auror cloak with long, purple hair walking to nowhere.

It was just Sirius when she came in, and he didn't seem all there, to be honest. He was staring into space, sitting in front of a cold cup of tea. Tonks motioned to it.

"You want a new one, mate?"

Sirius took a long moment to reply. "No. Thank you."

Tonks frowned.

"It was a pretty close game," she said, as she went about laying her cloak across the back of the chair and getting herself tea. By the time she was finished and seated across from him, Sirius still hadn't spoken up. "You heard about it on the Wireless, yeah? The Harpies beat the Cannons, but only because Derwent caught the Snitch. She's a decent flyer." Sirius still didn't say anything, or even look at her. "Do you reckon Ron had a heart attack, or what?"

He finally turned to her. "I heard Ginny cheering from my room. They probably had a wager."

Tonks grinned. "So you did hear about the game."

"Of course I listened to it." Sirius's eyes grew unfocused again. "What else am I to do in this house?"

Tonks's good mood vanished. Of course she would bring up the worst bloody thing in the world. If she had actually done something right for once, she might've thought the world were coming to an end.

She opened her mouth to say something, to apologize, but nothing came out. She was interrupted by Remus Lupin and Emmeline Vance entering the kitchen themselves, speaking as they did.

"I'm sorry, Remus, but I'm going to have to reschedule," Vance was saying. "Parkinson has asked me to take on another shift, and if I try to back out, it would look suspicious. You understand."

"Of course, Emmeline. Good afternoon, Sirius, Nymphadora."

Sirius didn't respond to the greeting, but Tonks sent him a nod. Remus gave her a sympathetic look, like he knew what she had to deal with.

As if he knew that they were talking about him with their eyes, Sirius excused himself and floated out of the room.

"Poor Sirius," Vance said once he was gone. "I know he wishes to help."

"He is helping," Remus insisted before sighing and rubbing at his temples. "But you're right. Sitting here is driving him mad."

"And you're sure the Dementors did no permanent damage?" Vance asked.

Tonks's mind was flooded with thoughts of her one and only trip to Azkaban. That feeling of utter inadequacy washed through her again, and she almost started crying. It didn't help that the thought of Sirius locked up for twelve years was a rather depressing one.

"How can I be sure of that?" Remus said. "All I know is that Sirius has always been temperamental. I'm sorry, Nymphadora, that you have to be subjected to the brunt edge of Sirius's moods. I promise you, though, that it's generally cyclical. He'll be better once Harry's here."

Tonks shrugged, trying to play like it didn't upset her, even though it did.

Remus continued. "Why are you here, by the way? Did you need to change your schedule?"

Tonks blushed at that. The truth was that she was spending more and more time at Grimmauld Place because it was fun. She got on with all of the kids, especially Ginny, and she enjoyed talking to Bill and Remus and Vance and Jones. Arthur Weasley adored her, and he talked to her three hours straight one night about Muggle clothes. Molly Weasley was sweet to her as well, though Tonks noticed that every time she went to grab something from the kitchen, Molly cut her off, as if she were afraid that Tonks was going to make a big mess. The most annoying part was that she was probably right.

Grimmauld Place was exciting and friendly, and Tonks knew how crazy that sounded; not only was the house terribly spooky, but the whole, you know, Dark Lord Rising Thing meant that Tonks should probably be taking things a bit more seriously. But she hadn't had a social life since Hogwarts; no one could really blame her for getting so attached to the time she spent here.

Before she could try to think of a reply that wasn't, "Well, I wanted to hang out," Remus cut her off.

"Would you be willing to take over Vance's shift? It's next week, 3 am to 7."

"Yeah, sure," Tonks said. She had to be at work at 8. So much for sleep.

"I can guard with you again."

"Yeah, yeah. That sounds good."

Tonks didn't like to admit it, but standing guard was scary and nerve-wracking. She was glad Remus sensed that she wouldn't want to do it alone.

"I'm sorry to leave you so short-handed," Vance said. "I really had no choice."

"It's fine, Emmeline. Don't worry about it."

"I really do worry about Sirius." Vance pulled her shawl closer to herself. "Maybe I could ... Well, maybe I could take him out for a walk."

Remus didn't look thrilled at that.

"I know it's dangerous – "

"Dumbledore specifically said that Sirius isn't to leave, and I don't think it's wise to go against his wishes. I hate seeing Sirius miserable, too, but Albus is right: it's far too dangerous for Sirius to be in the outside world."

Vance sighed, but nodded resolutely. She gave Tonks a smile. "I remember when Sirius was younger, during the first Order. Remus is right; he was always fruity and eccentric, though I don't recall him ever being so depressed. When they pulled me in for a interview after all that went down, I didn't know what to say. I found it impossible to reconcile the images of Sirius as I knew him and Sirius as a mass murderer."

"I think we were all having that problem," Remus said quietly.

"Interview?" Tonks asked.

"For the Ministry," Vance clarified.

Tonks frowned. "I wasn't aware there'd ever been a formal investigation."

"Oh, no, I don't believe there was. It was all formality, character study. I imagine once they saw that the pieces didn't fit they just threw Sirius in jail. It was a bad time for the Ministry." Her face darkened.

"It was a bad time for a lot of people."

For some reason, Tonks saw fit to pat Remus awkwardly on the hand. He gave her a watery smile.

"It's a good thing I wasn't an official witness or anything," Vance went on. "If I'd been subjected to Veritaserum, I would've told the whole lot about the Order."

"Moody was there," Remus said. "He had you covered."

"That's true."

Tonks sat in silence, letting the information soak in. She'd always thought of the Sirius Black case as cut and dry – He was witnessed killing people, what else was there to it? But now, of course, she knew the truth. She remembered when she had overheard Kingsley talking about how badly the investigation was botched up. He had been whispering to Dawlish, last year, while everyone else was excited about the Triwizard Tournament.

By the time her head was back in the conversation, Vance had moved on to something else.

"I like that Granger girl. She's got a good head on her shoulders."

"I've always thought so. Have you met her, Nymphadora?"

Tonks nodded. Hermione had seemed nice enough, although Tonks rather felt like she were being studied under the girl's thoughtful gaze. Finally, Hermione had asked, "Does it tingle when you morph, or is it more of an itch? I've read conflicting accounts."

Tonks was used to people being in awe of her, but she had never really felt like she was in zoo before. She had never really felt like she was some kind of animal.

Without thinking, her eyes scanned Remus's face, the thin, white scar running down his cheek. She turned away.

"She seems much older than she is."

"That's true," Remus said.

Hermione wasn't around as much, Tonks reflected. She didn't seem to want to get in the Order's way; she, in fact, spent most of her days in the Black library, going over all the books Sirius deemed safe for her to touch.

Vance must've been thinking the same thing because she chuckled. "You should've seen the girl's face when I told her about the Ravenclaw library."

After a few more minutes of conversation, Vance announced that she had to leave. Remus asked Tonks if she were going to stay for dinner, but Tonks didn't really feel like it anymore. She was back to chastising herself for being so dumb as to want to hang about Headquarters.

He walked her to the door, holding her cloak. "You came from work?" he asked.

Tonks hadn't come from work; she had just started taking her cloak with her when she left her house so maybe her parents would believe she was doing some overtime or something. It sounded stupid in her head, although at the time it seemed like a brilliant plan.

She took it from him. "You know, you really should stay for dinner more," he said. "Molly enjoys having mouths to feed, and the kids like the company."

Tonks sighed as she clipped the cloak into place. "You don't think it makes me pathetic, hanging around here all the time?"

"Nonsense," Remus said. "Besides, despite his mood, I know that Sirius wants you around. It's complicated for him – wanting family without wanting to remember that he has one. He likes you. He wouldn't talk to you at all if he didn't."

Tonks nodded. "All right, then. Maybe I'll be by tomorrow."

"I have Harry duty," Remus said, and Tonks didn't know why, but she found that disappointing. "I'll be sure to tell Sirius to be nice to you."

"Does he listen to what you say?"

"Almost never," Remus replied cheerfully. "But that's never stopped me from bossing him around before."