2. Moony

It was raining, I mean absolutely pouring down rain. I pulled the hood of my robes down further over my eyes as I ran up the steps of 12 Grimmauld Place and opened the door. Once inside I pulled my wand and dried myself off. It was still dark and gloomy inside but at least it was dry. The door opened behind me and Dumbledore walked in.

"Guess I'm not as late as I first thought," I said to him.

"Right on time, Nymphadora."

I followed him back to the kitchen and took the only open seat left, right between Remus and Professor Snape. Even after graduating from Hogwarts I still thought of him as professor; I don't know if it was out of fear as he gave me the creeps or if it was out of habit. Snape gave me the usual look down his nose as I took my seat. I looked to my left and Remus smiled warmly at me. I felt better.

"Sorry, I thought I was going to be late. Got held up at work."

Remus smiled again, "You were right on time."

Sometime during the meeting I had zoned out. I heard my name and looked over at Dumbledore.

"Thank you for returning to the meeting, Nymphadora. I have a mission for you and Remus. As this is your first mission for the Order I want you to have a partner. Remus, make sure to let Ms. Tonks contribute as she is quite capable."

"That won't be a problem, I look forward to working with Tonks."

I looked at Remus and gave him a look of thanks. It really had been a long day at work, man was I beat.

After the meeting ended I looked at Remus, "What exactly are we tasked with?"

He looked at me with a bit of concern, "Were you asleep with your eyes open?"

"Maybe?"

Amusement entered his voice, "Guess you have had a long week at work. We will be going to your aunt and uncles to play spy. Apparently there is to be a Death Eater meeting at Malfoy Manor and we get to hide in the bushes and see who shows up."

"That sounds thrilling. Hopefully it will be dry when we go because I don't think I can take another day of soaked socks." I looked down at my leaky boots. "I really need to get a new pair of boots."

That Saturday I found myself sitting in a bush with Remus in the rain. We were huddled together protected from the rain with silencing charms all around us.

"We better see some people or this is a waste of a perfectly good Saturday night. I could be sitting at home curled on my couch reading a good book but no, have to have a Death Eater meeting because we can't interfere with a Death Eater's nine to five."

Remus looked at me, "I feel the same but the information we got should be good. It came from a reputable source. It would be nice to not have a soggy bottom though. I can't believe I forgot to dry the ground for us, I do apologize for that."

We sat in silence while we waited to see if anyone was going to show up. I pulled a pair of binoculars out of the inside of my robes and looked at the windows to see if there was any movement inside the house. The windows were awash with light so silhouettes were easy to spot.

"Hopefully they don't use floo powder. Apparition is easier but this rain is horrid. Do you think any of them would be dumb enough to not have a hat or hood up in this rain so we could make out their faces?" I looked at Remus optimistically.

"I don't know. I would imagine there will be one or two." He dug into his pocket and removed a bar of chocolate. "Would you like a piece?"

"Yes, thank you. Weird question for you, I was talking with Sirius the other day and he called you Moony. Where did you get that nickname from exactly? He said that it wasn't from mooning people in school, which was my first thought."

He chuckled and looked at me seriously. "You were told that a member of the Order is a werewolf, correct?"

"That bit of information must have slipped Moody's mind. I was not aware of that, no. Is it a safe assumption that the aforementioned werewolf is you?"

"Yes, that would be me. The friendly neighborhood werewolf. Does that answer where I got the nickname from?" He looked worried, like he was afraid I would run out of the bush screaming bloody murder or something.

"It does, and don't worry I am not afraid of you. Until you give me a reason to be worried I would say there is a good chance we can be friends. Believe it or not I do have some experience in dealing with prejudice."

"Being a metamorphmagus not as exciting as it seems? I guess people are not too excited by the prospect of someone being able to look exactly like them. Too afraid that you would try to steal their identity."

"Something like that."

We watched the rain fall as we both processed this new information.

"Looks like someone finally decided to show up. Too bad we can't make out their face with the hood up," Remus said while pointing down towards the house.

Several more hooded figures appeared. We watched as they hurried to the front door of Malfoy Manor and were admitted inside. We waited another two hours before the same figures left the house and disapparated.

"Well this was a bust. No clue who they were so this report is going to be short. 'Too much rain, all individuals had hoods up, need compensation for a wet arse.' How does that sound, Remus?"

"Sounds good to me just leave out the wet arse part, not really sure that Dumbledore would approve that."

Back in the kitchen of Grimmauld Place we wrote our very short report over two steaming mugs of hot chocolate. It was after midnight.

I stood up, "Time to head home and get some sleep, I'm beat. Pleasure working with you, Moony, but let's not do this again. I hate the rain."

"Good night Nymphadora."

"Didn't I tell you I would hex you if you used that name again? Do you like punishment?"

"No, I just like your name. It is fun to get you worked up over it too. Have a good night."

"Night, Remus," I said as I walked down the hall towards the front door. I looked back and he was busy putting parchment away. He really wasn't bad to look at; he had a nice smile, kind eyes, and he was easy to talk to. I decided I wouldn't mind getting to know him better.