Disclaimer: come on, like i could think up something as kick-ass as Harry Potter? HA!
A/N: sorry about this chapter. there is alot of stuff that you know already, but Tonks had to find out somehow and i can't simply skip it all... plus i hate the ones where she doesn't find out untill he's there staring her in the face!
Three days passed and Tonks heard no word from Kingsley or Dumbledore about the Order. She began wondering if it might have beeen a dream and that she had fallen asleep at her desk. No, she thought, if I had been dreaming, I would have realized it. With a sigh, she went back to doing her current report on a set of knickers that caused the muggle wearer to become rather... amorous. After a reading a few notes on the report, she descided that this was really a job for the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office.
The young woman stood and left her cubicle. When she got to the corridor,she turned left instead of heading to the lifts. She walked down the corridor and came to a door with a small brass plaque on the wall reading:
Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office
Head of Office: Arthur Weasley
Tonks stuck her head into an office the size of a broom closet. There were two desks and some file cabinets crammed haphazzardly into the small, cramped space. On one desk was a picture of nine red-headed people, all of which were smiling and waving at the tall, slightly balding man with read hair who sat behind the desk.
"Hello, Mr. Weasley." Tonks said, smiling as the startled man jumped slightly at her voice. He looked around nervously and smiled as he caught sight of her.
"Oh, dear, you startled me. And how many times do I have to remind you, call me Arthur. We're Colleagues now." He smiled up at the young woman as a scarlet blush tinged her cheeks.
"Now Mr. Weasley, you can't expect me to suddenly start calling my best friend's father by his first name do you? Do you know how wierd that would be? That would be as wierd as calling Proffessor McGonagall by her first name!" Tonks laughed at the idea of calling her, slightly scary, former teacher by her first name. Arthur Weasley joined in her laughter and then seemed to suddenly remember something.
With a look of realization on his face, he turned to Tonks. "Tonks, dear, would you close the door for a moment?" She looked puzzled but complied to his request and crossed the small space and shut the door. "Now, I have a message for you from Dumbledore. He informed me that you were joining the Order and that it would be a good idea of me to accompany you to the meeting." With this, he handed her a small note with Dumbledore's writing on the front. She quickly slit the seal and began to read the rather short message on the page.
Nymphadora, the meeting of the Order of The Phoenix is tonight at Number 12 Grimmauld Place. Arthur will Accompany you to the meeting at 7:00.
Tonks read this letter and looked questioningly up at Arthur and asked, "So, your in the Order? Who all else around here is in the Order?" Her mind was whirling with the information she had recieved mixed with the excitement of finally goint to her first meeting. She turned to see Arthur burning the piece of parchment she just read.
"Tonks, I'm afraid i have to get back to work, at 6:45 I would like for you to meet me here and when we get there, I'm sure everyone will be introduced." She had turned to leave and her hand was on the knob when he suddenly remembered. "Tonks," she turned back, "what did you originally come for anyway?"
Suddenly she remembered the file in her hands. "Oh, its just this case report that I think is more of your department that what us Aurors do. It involves a muggle set of undergarments that has strange effects on the wearer in the most inoppertune moments." She handed him the file and left, but not before hearing a rather loud snort of laughter and muttering something about "Amorous undergarments. Hope its nothing of Fred and George's doing." She continued back to her cubicle and spent the rest of the day trying to remember why Number 12 Grimmauld place sounded so familliar.
At 6:30, she suddenly realized where she had heard of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. With a shocked expression, she jumped up, gathered her stuff, and went rather swiftly to meet Arthur Weasley. She turned the corner for the second time that day and started to jog towards the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office. When she got there she burst through the door so quickly that poor, unexpecting Arthur Weasley started so bad that he upset his chair. Seconds later he had untangled himself and climbed out from under his desk.
"Tonks! You startled me. i wasn't expecting your for a few minutes-" but she cut him off.
"Mr. Weasley, I just realized why the address of the Headquarters seemed familliar." The man sitting before her paled slightly. " My mother told me of the house where her aunt, uncle and cousins lived. She talked about how they were Dark Wizards and that the house was in a muggle neighborhood, but was unplottable so the muggles couldn't see it.."
Arthur had met Andromeda and Ted Tonks on several occasions before, seeing as his son, Charlie, had been Tonks' best friend since they had met many years ago at Hogwarts. He suddenly had a thought. "Tonks, what was your mothers maiden name?"
Tonks was surprised, but calmly answered. "Black. Andromeda Black." The look that crossed Arthur Weasley's face confirmed her suspicions. With a sigh, Arthur turned to her and nodded.
"Yes. The Headquarters is the House of Black. And-" He glanced at Tonks, hoping she wouldn't over-react. "- The one who suggested for us to use it was- please Tonks, don't freak out- Sirius Black." As soon as he finished, he regretted not putting a silencing charm on the room.
"WHAT! THAT ROTTEN, FOUL, TRAITOROUS MURDERER WHO WAS ONCE MY FAVORITE COUSIN? YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS!" Here she paused for a breath and was about to continue but was cut off.
"Yes Tonks, but let me explain! Sirius didn't betrey anyone or murder anyone! He was wrongly accused of betraying his best friends, James and Lily Potter, and of murdering Peter Pettigrew. He didn't do it. Pettigrew betrayed the Potters and then Pettigrew escaped as a rat in his animagus form when Sirius caught up with him. Pettigrew framed Sirius and because of it, Sirius spent 12 years in Azkaban." He proceeded to tell her about how he escaped to Hogwarts over a year ago to stop Pettigrew from hurting Harry Potter, who was Sirius's Godson. "And he discovered that my son, Ron's, pet rat was indeed Pettigrew in hiding. To imagine i had that bastard in my house-sorry Tonks. He managed to get Ron, Harry Potter and their other friend Hermione into the Shrieking Shack he and Remus Lupin ( the poor fellow who taught at Hogwarts untill it got out that He was a Werewolf) were about to kill him when Harry descided that they should turn him in so that Sirius's name would be cleared." He then proceeded to tell her about how Pettigrew escaped and that Sirius had to go back into hiding.
When he had finished, Tonks' head was reeling with all the information she had just obtained. As she processed the information something hit her. "You speak fondly of Harry Potter. Do you know him well?"
"Ah, Molly has sort of adopted him as an eighth son. Poor dear couldn't stand for him to go back to his muggle relatives. She can't wait for him to come to us, of course, Sirius can't wait for him to come as well." He glanced at his watch and jumped "Oh dear! its ten 'till seven! We need to go. We won't really Side-Along apparate, you should just hold on to me and I'll sort of guide you along. Here we go dear."
With a POP they appeared in a dirty little square on an empty muggle street. As they thought about where they were, a house suddenly appeared between numbers 11 and 13. Tonks took it all in as they approached a large black door with a slightly foreboding knocker. Arthur reached up and gently knocked on the door. Seconds later the door was opened and staring out was none other than Sirius Black.
A/N: I know, not much of a cliffie. I hope you enjoyed the chapter. more will come soon as I have nothing better to do all summer than sit at my computer writing fanfics, or get out my notebook and work on my novel and personally, typing doesn't hurt nearly as much as holding a pen for hours at a time while fighting writers block. Review if you like it... or even if you don't, i like constructive criticism.