Authors Note: I forgot to mention a little while ago that nothing belongs to me except for the plot and the ideas (which are copyrighted, by the way). JKR owns the characters. Two down, three to go… read and review!

Chapter 2 – Death

Her eyes snapped open. Three blurry heads stood above her. She blinked once; she blinked twice, trying to blink them away. Her eyes went in and out of focus as she adjusted to the harsh light coming from the windows. She rubbed her eyes and heard a soft voice somewhere above her.

"Tonks? T-tonks?" She turned to where it was coming from. Deep emerald met with dark grey. A young man with slightly tousled hair and round glasses stared at her thoughtfully. Harry.

"How'd you find me?" she grumbled sleepily. Obvious irritation painted her expression and her tone.

"Harry has the Marauders Map remember?" another voice answered. It was a small feminine voice that she knew belonged to Ginny. Another sleepy grunt and Tonks heavy eyelids closed themselves once again. She was almost asleep when a third voice popped into the picture.

"Tonks? Can you get up?" it was Hermione, she guessed quite accurately. "We need to get you to Dumbled– I mean, McGonagall's office. We can pick up some coffee at the Kitchen on the way."

Tonks squeezed her eyes shut and opened then them as wide as she could. She rubbed them sleepily as they helped her up.

She straightened her robes as they began to walk in the direction of McGonagall's office. "Hmm. Dumbledore. Gone. Times are going to change, huh?" she mused, asking no one in particular.

Hermione looked concerned for Tonks. "I'm sorry for your loss…" But Tonks merely nodded.

"I'm sorry about it too" she said minutes later when they reached the Head Mistress' office. Although, she didn't know which tragedy she was referring to.

"We'll have to leave you here, our orders were just to look for you and bring you here." she heard Ginny say quietly. Tonks nodded.

"We'll just go back to the Common Room. If you need us, you know where we'll be." Harry said with a sympathetic smile.

"The password's Phoenix Feathers." Ginny reminded her

"Take care." Hermione called as they left.

She entered the room silently and saw that behind the huge oak desk were no longer Dumbledore's personal belongings but was now replaced by McGonagall's.

Someone else was in the room with the new Head Mistress. He was tall and had graying hair (Go on, take a wild guess.).. His back was to her and yet she knew exactly who he was.

McGonagall acknowledged her presence and looked up from her conversation. They both did, much to her demise, for the person who turned his eyes to her was the very man she was trying to avoid.

"Good Evening, Nymphadora." they both said politely. He looked at her with an unreadable expression in his eyes. She pretended she didn't notice.

"I have to floo." she said, to the maroon carpeted floor.

"Yes, yes. I think that my floo powder has been all used up. I'll just go to the storage room and ask for more." she pursed her lips and raised a thin eyebrow. "I believe in both of you to contain yourselves despite your rather ugly past."

'I don't really think I can promise you that.' Tonks said quietly in her mind. But the older witch was already well outside the door.

She stood by the fireplace, still glaring at the floor, as if it was the one who caused her all she had to go through. She knew he was staring at her. 'He did this to me. Who gave him the right to even look at me anymore?' She gnashed her teeth in frustration; she could feel her eyes get watery. Why did she have to be so weak?

"Nymphadora ---" He began his voice all breathy.

"No." she said firmly, her voice cracking as she did. "Don't start with me."

"Nymphador---" he tried again, sounding tired.

"I said no." she said more forcefully. He sighed deeply and nodded his head.

A tense silence came before them. They could hear even the lightest drop of a pin echo throughout the room.

She sat down in the seat nearest to her and stared at him, glared is more like it. Her gaze was not intense, not harsh. Although, her eyebrows were slightly furrowed, her eyes a little narrow. Her head cocked to the side. She looked at him rather inquisitively, actually. She looked at him in an expectant sort of way, like she was daring him to say something.

"I'm sorry." he said as their eyes met.

She didn't say anything; her eyebrows huddled together even more. She didn't yawn or smile, or even seem to have heard what he had said.

She just looked at him. Her stare was blank. Her breathing was quiet amidst the raging war inside of her, despite her bottled up emotions. She just stared at him. A dead gaze was set towards him. Because ever since yesterday, she felt lifeless, dull. And that was exactly what she was. Dead